UK oil firm Cairn Energy has gained the right to seize Indian state assets in France worth more than €20m (£17m) as part of a long-running tax row. A French tribunal ordered a freeze on about 20 properties in central Paris as Cairn increases pressure on the Indian government over disputed tax claims. Cairn said […]
The Gates Foundation has outlined back-up plans in case its co-chairs cannot work together in the wake of their divorce. The deal gives Bill and Melinda Gates a two-year trial, after which Ms Gates could resign from the organisation. Under the agreement, Ms Gates would also receive “personal resources” from her ex-husband for her own […]
Indian police have filed two more cases against Twitter amid growing tensions between the social media platform and the federal government. This is in addition to two other complaints against the company. Police in Delhi filed the case after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights complained that Twitter was promoting child pornography. Twitter […]
By Dearbail Jordan Business reporter, BBC News Amazon and Google are under investigation over concerns fake five star reviews on their websites could be misleading shoppers. The Competition and Markets Authority is also worried that “law-abiding businesses” who sell over Amazon and Google may be losing out to firms using false recommendations. Amazon and Google […]
China’s best-known entrepreneur Jack Ma is “lying low” and avoiding the spotlight, according to an Alibaba executive. Joe Tsai, who co-founded the Chinese e-commerce giant with Mr Ma, told CNBC he speaks to him every day. “He’s actually doing very, very well. He’s taken up painting as a hobby, it’s actually pretty good,” said Mr […]
Billionaire MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has donated another $2.7bn (£1.9bn) to a range of charities. Ms Scott said in a blog post that she wanted to give the money to those “that have been historically underfunded and overlooked”. She wrote that she had chosen 286 organisations working on racial inequality, the arts and […]
Coronavirus pandemic What happens when you combine the world’s biggest boyband with one of the world’s most popular burger chains? Complete and utter chaos, it seems. Or at least that was the experience of a number of Indonesian branches of McDonald’s, which found themselves so swamped with demand for the newly launched BTS Meal they […]
Details claiming to reveal how little income tax US billionaires pay have been leaked to an news website. ProPublica says it has seen the tax returns of some of the world’s richest people, including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett. The website alleges Amazon’s Mr Bezos paid no tax in 2007 and 2011, while […]
China has accused several Western clothing brands of selling goods that could be harmful to children. A warning notice on the country’s customs administration website listed 81 items imported by companies including Nike, H&M and Zara. In March, China targeted foreign clothes retailers as an international backlash grows over claims of abuses in the cotton-growing […]
Iran has announced a four-month ban on the energy-consuming mining of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin after cities suffered unplanned blackouts. President Hassan Rouhani told a cabinet meeting the main cause of the blackouts was a drought that had affected hydro-electric power generation. But he said cryptocurrency mining, 85% of which is unlicensed, was draining more […]
