AFP Apple chief Tim Cook on Thursday slammed a European Commission ruling demanding the US tech behemoth pay Ireland €13 billion in back-taxes as “political crap”, urging the Irish government to launch an appeal. “It’s total political crap,” Cook told the Irish Independent newspaper, of European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s assertion that the company had paid a tax rate ...

  London / AFP Britain’s manufacturing activity hit a 10-month high in August, rebounding strongly from a slump triggered by the country’s vote in favour of exiting the European Union, data showed Thursday. A slump in the pound caused by longer-term Brexit fears lifted export orders last month, according to the closely watched IHS Markit UK Manufacturing purchasing managers’ index. ...

  Brussels / AFP The European Union on Thursday cleared a mobile phone tie-up between Hong Kong’s Hutchison and Russia’s VimpelCom in Italy after they agreed to sell some of the business to boost competition. Hutchison, owned by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, and VimpelCom agreed last year to merge their 3 Italia and Wind networks but the European Commission ...

  Washington / AFP The International Monetary Fund said that it could remove its unprecedented 2013 censure of Argentina in November after the country improved its reporting of key economic statistics. The IMF Executive Board said that Buenos Aires had made “extraordinary efforts and important progress” in improving the accuracy of growth and inflation data that they are required to ...

  Miami / AFP Some 8,000 heads of state, policymakers and environmentalists convene in Hawaii this week for the world’s largest gathering aimed at forging a path forward on the planet’s toughest conservation problems. US President Barack Obama is expected to be among the world leaders in Honolulu as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) opens its ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer John Cryan urged more consolidation among European banks struggling to shore up profitability, after his own firm held talks with its biggest German rival earlier in August about a possible deal. “We need more mergers, at a national level but also across national borders,” Cryan said at a conference hosted by Handelsblatt ...

  Bloomberg The British investment-banking industry is underpinned by entrenched elitism that blocks people from lower-income backgrounds winning jobs on the basis of ability, according to a report by a government advisory body. Recruiters seeking polished candidates who speak and dress a certain way often discriminate against applicants on the basis of details including shoe color and where they went ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG extended gains in Frankfurt trading on a report Germany’s largest bank considered the sale of all or part of its asset management business as it explores strategic options to revive profit. While small parts of the asset management division could be sold, executives at the bank are keen to hold on to most of the ...

  Bloomberg Bank of China Ltd., the nation’s fourth-largest lender, reported a 3.4 percent increase in second-quarter profit even after setting aside extra provisions to boost its bad-loan buffer. Net income rose to 46.4 billion yuan ($6.9 billion) in the three months ended June 30, from 44.9 billion yuan a year earlier, according to figures derived from first-half numbers released ...

  Bloomberg Investment bankers at Europe’s biggest securities firms are watching their bonuses melt. A rout in financial stocks this year has wiped more than $2.5 billion from the value of deferred shares that were paid as bonuses in the past few years at Barclays Plc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG and UBS Group AG, data compiled by ...