The European Union has launched a fresh crackdown over taxes paid by tech giants Amazon and Apple. Amazon has been ordered to repay €250m (£221m; $293m) in back taxes after the European Commission said it had been given an unfair tax deal in Luxembourg. The Commission also plans to take Ireland to court over its […]
Twitter trials 280-character tweet limit
Social media site Twitter is trialling longer character tweets limits to help users “easily express themselves”. Twitter currently limits tweets to 140 characters, but has doubled that to 280 characters for a small group of users. The current character limit was “a major cause of frustration” for some users, the firm said in a blog post. […]
Dyson to make electric cars from 2020
Dyson, the engineering company best known for its vacuum cleaners and fans, plans to spend £2bn developing a “radical” electric car. The battery-powered vehicle is due to be launched in 2020. Dyson says 400 staff have been working on the secret project for the past two years at its headquarters in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. However, the […]
UK annual growth rate for second quarter revised down
The UK’s economy grew at its slowest annual pace since 2013 in the three months to June, according to revised official figures. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 1.5% from a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, down from an earlier estimate of 1.7%. However, the quarterly growth rate remained unchanged at […]
Equifax raises the impact of US data breach
Equifax has revealed 2.5 million more Americans than previously thought may have had information compromised in a huge cyber security data breach at the firm. The credit report giant said on Monday about 145.5 million of its US customers might have been affected, up from a previous estimate of 143 million. The update came a day […]
Saudi Arabian women targeted with car adverts
Some of the world’s biggest car makers have started advertising their vehicles directly to women in Saudi Arabia. The swift move follows the official announcement on 27 September by King Salman that the country’s ban on women drivers will end in June next year. The decision has immediately created a potential new market of several million, […]
Trump outlines major tax cut plans
US President Donald Trump has called for major tax cut as part of a longstanding Republican effort to overhaul the US tax system. A framework released by Republicans calls for lowering the tax rate for corporations from 35% to 20%, among other changes. The president said the revamp will make the US more competitive and […]
Monarch’s rise and fall charts British holiday trends
Monarch, which has just gone into bankruptcy, was part of a travel group whose origins reach back 90 years, long before the days of mass air travel. Through the heady 1970s and 80s, when foreign package holidays were the height of fashion, to the new era of relentless competition from budget airlines, Monarch still plied […]
US revives trade dispute over Canadian wine
The US has moved to revive a trade dispute with Canada over what it says are unfair limits on the sale of imported wine. The World Trade Organization circulated the new complaint – which focuses on wine sales in the province of British Columbia – on Monday. It adds to a growing list of trade fights between […]
Nasdaq and S&P 500 hit fresh highs
Wall Street rounded out the last trading day of September on a positive note, with both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 index hitting fresh highs. By the close the S&P 500 had risen 9.3 points to 2,519.36 while the Nasdaq index climbed 42.51 points to 6,495.96. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 23.89 points, or 0.1%, at 22,405.09 US […]