05/09/2014 World Business Report


05/09/2014

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"Grossly negligent" ` BP is found largely to blame for the worst oil

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spill in US history in a judgement that could mean $18 billion in

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fines. Tightening the screws. Europe prepares to deepen sanctions against

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Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis.

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Welcome to World Business Report. I'm Alice Baxter. In a moment, the

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curse of the flat battery and what the gadget industry is doing about

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it. We start with BP. It lost billions of dollars in stock market

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value on Thursday after a US judge found it "grossly negligent" and

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"reckless" in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill four years ago. The explosion

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on the Deepwater Horizon rig in April, 2010, killed 11 workers and

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pumped oil into the sea for three months, causing the worst

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environmental disaster in US history. BP has already had to pay

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some $42 billion in charges and compensation. Thursday's ruling

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means it's liable for up to $18 billion in new fines. The BBC's

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Michelle Fleury explains. The district Judge rules BP was

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reckless in the run`up to the catastrophe which saw millions of

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barrels of oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico in what is called the

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worst marine disaster in US history. He says that because of that it was

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the gross negligence and wilful misconduct that led to the scale and

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size of this damage, which not only cost the lives of some of those

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working there but also cost billions of dollars in losses in terms of

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tourism and also to the fishing industry in the area. BP says it

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plans to appeal this decision. Everyone has been looking to see

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what size penalties would BP have to pay in terms of the clean water act

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and the ruling today goes a long way towards playing into that. How it

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works is that under the act, if a company like BP was found grossly

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negligent, as it has been today, then the fine it would have to pay

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would be substantially higher and the penalty is worked out based on

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the amount, the barrels of oil, but also the degree of negligence. It

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could pay per barrel of oil spilt into the Gulf of Mexico $4300 per

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barrel. That puts the fine potentially into the $18 billion

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region. A lot at stake, given it has so far only set aside 3.5 million

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dollars to cover the potential penalties.

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As the Ukrainian government and Russian separatists prepare for

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peace talks later this Friday, the European Union is set to unveil new

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sanctions against Russia over its role in the conflict. On Thursday,

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British Prime Minister David Cameron told the BBC the sanctions are

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working. But how much more can Europe do, given its reliance on

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Russian oil and gas? Let's take a look. Russia's biggest state owned

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banks already face restricted access to EU capital markets, effectively

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cutting them off from Western funding. 30% of assets held by

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Russian banks have already been constrained, according to a US

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estimate. It's thought the EU could widen those restrictions to smaller

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banks and other types of company, like energy and defence. It may also

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ban sales of so called dual use technology to Russia, technology

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that could have a military use. It's also been discussing isolating

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Russia in other ways, like sport. A boycott of the 2018 World Cup in

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Russia is thought to be under discussion, though won't be on the

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agenda today. Joining me is Otilia Dhand, an Eastern Europe analyst at

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Teneo Intelligence. What sort of further sanctions could we see

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unveiled today? We are likely to see a tightening of the already existing

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regime of sanctions in the EU. Level three sanctions? Yes. We call them

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level three light. They target individual sectors but leave bits

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and pieces out. Right now we have a sort of level three sanctions on

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four different areas. That's the financial sector, the energy sector,

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technology and military equipment. So probably the most important

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changes will happen in the financials are regulation. That

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would be a tightening of a ban on access to capital markets, the

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tightening of the window from 90 days down to 30 days. Very likely

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the inclusion of syndicate loans, which really matters to Russian

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companies. They use them for borrowing international markets. And

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also perhaps looking at various banks that don't necessarily have

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50% state capital participation, but do matter in the context of Russian

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economy. In terms of the energy sector, we will probably see a

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tightening of a ban on various services and technological

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solutions, especially to offshore and Arctic drilling. In terms of

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jewel use technology, `` dual use technology, this probably won't

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change. But perhaps the list of users that are impacted by the ban

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right be expanded. Finally, the arms sector is likely going to include

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the deals that are current because right now only the future deals are

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impacted. But the current deals could be included, as the French

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indicated they. One of the largest deal that has been happening. ``

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they will no longer go ahead with. Whatever the EU is willing to do, it

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won't change Russia's policy in Ukraine. The stuff that would change

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the policy in Ukraine is probably beyond the red line that the EU

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would be willing to implement. The current changes considered are going

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to be an expression of solidarity of the EU but not something that would

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stop Russia. Very fascinating. Thank you for coming in and talking to us.

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To the world of technology now. As devices get ever smaller and more

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powerful, there's one drawback. Batteries aren't getting any better.

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Their life seems to get shorter and shorter between recharges and it's

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driving consumers mad. The BBC's Dave Lee reports now from the IFA

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technology show in Berlin on what the industry is doing about it.

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This conference in Berlin is the best chance for the biggest

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technology names to roll out their hopes ahead of the holiday season.

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As ever, the new technology is all about doing more with less. More

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features, smaller gadgets come up which poses something of a problem.

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The biggest problem, something I hear universally for phone users, is

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what is the point of these brilliant innovations and features if they

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drain your device so quickly that you can't use it? Batteries are the

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biggest headache right now. The technology is moving at `` moving at

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glacial pace and everyone is engineering around it. An entire

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industry has grown around the fact we are so desperate to keep our

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devices charged. I generally have a bagful of micro` USB chargers and a

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time of charges in a different bag. When I travel overseas, I have a bag

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of adapters. You can't talk to anyone, you can't take pictures. If

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you have 1% you get nervous. The most important one is if you get the

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charger and try to get it before you go below 1%. Realising the

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frustration, technology makers are trying to convince tech fans that

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they have some solutions. First of all, we put in batteries in the

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phones. As we announced in our recent models, we have quite a large

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battery that allows users to put the phone through its paces. We put in a

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memory onto the display module, so you can catch the images you see and

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it won't need to refresh over and over again. It's radically reduces

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the power needed. They want more power efficient screens, the

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components. It is quite striking. Some people are making progress. The

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other thing is battery modes, so you can save stuff when you are in an

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emergency. Dim the screen, turn certain functions. `` certain

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functions of. `` off. The feature everyone really wants is for the

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device to stay on. The euro had its biggest daily fall

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in three years on Thursday after the European Central Bank slashed

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interest rates again and began a trillion euro asset buying

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programme. The new stimulus measures for Europe's stagnant economy took

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markets by surprise, sending the region's stock markets surging.

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Let's have a quick look to see how stocks are getting on in Asia. Many

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of them have fallen across the region. Investors are staying on the

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sidelines because the key report from the US will be out later today.

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Let's focus on another story. Experts in tobacco addiction claim

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thousands of lives could be saved every year if smokers switched to

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electronic cigarettes. They say government policy should not be

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influenced by what they described as alarmist misinterpretations of

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evidence. Last month, the World Health Organization recommended

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banning the use of e`cigarettes indoors. Here's Jane

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