Business

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French finance minister Bruno Le Maire has stated that following rising tensions between France and United States over France's introduction of a new 'digital tax' regime affecting mostly the large US tech firms, he has been engaged in a lengthy discussion with US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to find a reasonable compromise within exactly two weeks, ahead of the World Economic Forum meet in Switzerland's Davos ski resort.

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US president Donald Trump's administration issued a warning to the French government regarding its plan to implement a new tax regime for large US tech firms, making them liable to pay taxes in the countries they operate in rather than the country they were incorporated. French economic minister Bruno Le Maire has warned that any retaliatory sanctions from the US will be repaid in kind.

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Boeing has said that it has found some previously unknown concerns regarding their 737 MAX jets. The planes have been grounded for some time now due to software issues that led to two fatal crashes in 2018. The new problems have to do with the wiring of the planes but it is unknown how serious this new issue is.

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German car manufacturer Daimler, which owns the popular Mercedes-Benz brand, has launched a recall program for over 744,000 vehicles sold in the US, from the C, CLK, CLS and E-class families, between the time periods 2001-11, due to the discovery that the vehicles' sunroofs are not built according to specification and are in danger of detaching and causing injury to passengers.

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Retail giant Amazon's Germany branch executive has stated that the company is eyeing a possible expansion into Germany, which is Amazon's second biggest market after the United States. Amazon, which is one of the world's most valuable public companies, already operates Whole Foods stores and Amazon Go food stores in the US and UK. No timeline has been provided for the planned expansion.

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Federal prosecutors are currently investigating a number of people who used to be Wells Fargo executives and may be close to arresting them. The executives were all connected to the Wells Fargo fake accounts scandal and will likely face criminal charges. The bank is also in talks with the US Justice Department to resolve this issue.

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A statement released by the Trump administration reports that the government will be restricting the overseas sales of sensitive technologies by next week, due to rising security and safety concerns about China's access to advanced AI software exported by US companies. The legislation will require companies to seek a license before selling technology or software that could affect national security.

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Amazon has threatened to fire a group of employees for speaking out on environmental issues. According to a source they were told they were in violation of the company policies. Amazon told BBC that these were not new rules. The group has called to limit its work with fossil fuel companies and cut off ties with politicians and lobbyists denying climate change to achieve zero emissions by 2030.

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German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to cheating emissions tests for its new line of diesel cars, following which the cars lost their certification to be on German roads and legal action was taken against VW. The company recently announced that it was in talks to settle the dispute with German consumer organizations. The company's license in the US has remained unaffected since the scandal.

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In a surprising move, popular gaming company Razer has revealed that it is teaming up with several other firms, including mobile internet firm LinkSure Global and car-selling platform Carro, to apply for an online bank license in Singapore, supported by its financial technology department Razer Fintech, to introduce an online banking platform consistent with its brand image as a popular choice with millennials and the youth.

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In a year that has seen the world's largest aircraft manufacturer Boeing face federal investigations and suspended licenses, Airbus has taken the number one plane manufacturer's spot for the first time since 2011, deploying additional resources mere hours before the end of the year to meet a record target of 863 planes manufactured, compared to Boein'gs 806 in 2018.

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Pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer Inc and GlaxoSmithKline PLC are about to raise the prices of around 200 drugs in the US. The average increase seems to be around 5% as most companies have pledged to keep the increases below 10% due to a large amount of pressure from politicians.

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Chinese telecom and smartphone-manufacturing giant Huawei faced a blacklist in the US this year due to rising concerns over its connections with the Chinese government. The sanctions have forced Huawei to revise down its growth projections for the year to 18 percent, due to decreasing sales and difficulty in sourcing parts from the US.

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According to a tweet by Elon Musk, Boring Co's commercial tunnel in Las Vegas will "hopefully" be operational in the year 2020. A draft environmental assessment was issued in April by the U.S. Transportation Department, for a Washington DC- Baltimore tunnel, as a first step in a governmental review of this project. The company has managed to raised $117 million with funding from 20 unnamed investors.

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Around 24 different states in the US are set to raise their minimum wage by 2020. Lawmakers have had to measure the benefit of this increase against the job loss that this law will inevitably cause so many have chosen a more conservative increase. The minimum wage has not been raised for some time, despite an increase in the cost of living.

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Outgoing Swiss president and finance minister Ueli Maurer has rejected Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency as a failure, saying the project in its current form will not be supported by central banks. Facebook is seeking the Swiss government's approval for its cryptocurrency project with the Geneva-based Libra Association, which seeks to remedy the volatility of traditional cryptocurrency by tying it to real world assets such as bank deposits and government debt.

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Executive officer, Hideyuki Sakamoto, has been selected as a candidate by Nissan Motor Co. for their board of directors after the surprise resignation of vice-chief officer Jun Seki earlier this week. The carmaker's shares fell to an eight-year low on Wednesday, following the sudden departure of Seki and the newly appointed three-person leadership team. It has not been stated, however, whether Seki's responsibilities will be taken on by Sakamoto.

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The German automaker Volkswagen, will have produced one million electric vehicles by the end of the year 2023. They claim that this is two years ahead of their anticipated schedule which means that by the year 2025, they are expected to have produced 1.5 million electric autos.

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According to some new documents that have been sent to US regulators, Boeing displayed gross negligence regarding the safety concerns raised by employees about the 737 MAX jets. They ignored these safety concerns in order to avoid disrupting the company's production schedule. Boeing has said that it has made some changes since then and that safety is a much larger concern now.

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Travis Kalanick, the co-founder of popular ride-sharing app Uber, has resigned from the company's board of directors in order to focus on other projects. He has sold all his stake in the company and will now be constructing 'ghost kitchens' for food delivery services. While he was the CEO of Uber, he received many complaints regarding his leadership and was eventually pushed out.

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Boeing has made David Calhoun their CEO and he will officially take up the position in January. He will have the seemingly impossible task of steering the company through their current 737 MAX crisis. Calhoun is regarded as a 'turnaround specialist' in the industry and may be the perfect person for the job.

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WeWork, Adam Neumann's co- working and living startup, had its initial public offering pulled from the market by Japanese owners Softbank Group Corp amidst controversy regarding the company's management. Softbank has now failed to secure an additional 3 billion USD needed to keep WeWork afloat as part of a 9 billion USD bailout, with all three of its banks hitting internal limits on loans.

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The British government has authorized the 5 billion USD purchase of Cobham, one of the country's iconic defense manufacturers, which played a leading part in supplying equipment to the country during the Second World War. The authorization came after the buyer, a private US investing group named Advent International, assured the British government that British executives would be given seats on the company's board.

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US food and agriculture regulators have recalled nearly 16,000 pounds of beef patties as they may be contaminated by small green soft plastic. The patties have already been distributed to schools and businesses, all of whom have been asked not to serve the patties. Regulators have also said that the health risk of the contamination is low.

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The French government has placed a 150 million Euro fine on Google for placing unpredictable restrictions on their ad services. The government said that since Google controls most of the internet search market, everyone needs to have equal access to their ad services. This fine came after a four-year-long investigation into the company.

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