:00:19. > :00:23."Grossly negligent" ` BP is found largely to blame for the worst oil
:00:24. > :00:31.spill in US history in a judgement that could mean $18 billion in
:00:32. > :00:34.fines. Tightening the screws. Europe prepares to deepen sanctions against
:00:35. > :00:39.Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis.
:00:40. > :00:47.Welcome to World Business Report. I'm Alice Baxter. In a moment, the
:00:48. > :00:54.curse of the flat battery and what the gadget industry is doing about
:00:55. > :00:57.it. We start with BP. It lost billions of dollars in stock market
:00:58. > :01:00.value on Thursday after a US judge found it "grossly negligent" and
:01:01. > :01:06."reckless" in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill four years ago. The explosion
:01:07. > :01:09.on the Deepwater Horizon rig in April, 2010, killed 11 workers and
:01:10. > :01:11.pumped oil into the sea for three months, causing the worst
:01:12. > :01:20.environmental disaster in US history. BP has already had to pay
:01:21. > :01:27.some $42 billion in charges and compensation. Thursday's ruling
:01:28. > :01:37.means it's liable for up to $18 billion in new fines. The BBC's
:01:38. > :01:40.Michelle Fleury explains. The district Judge rules BP was
:01:41. > :01:43.reckless in the run`up to the catastrophe which saw millions of
:01:44. > :01:48.barrels of oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico in what is called the
:01:49. > :01:53.worst marine disaster in US history. He says that because of that it was
:01:54. > :01:57.the gross negligence and wilful misconduct that led to the scale and
:01:58. > :02:01.size of this damage, which not only cost the lives of some of those
:02:02. > :02:05.working there but also cost billions of dollars in losses in terms of
:02:06. > :02:12.tourism and also to the fishing industry in the area. BP says it
:02:13. > :02:15.plans to appeal this decision. Everyone has been looking to see
:02:16. > :02:21.what size penalties would BP have to pay in terms of the clean water act
:02:22. > :02:27.and the ruling today goes a long way towards playing into that. How it
:02:28. > :02:31.works is that under the act, if a company like BP was found grossly
:02:32. > :02:35.negligent, as it has been today, then the fine it would have to pay
:02:36. > :02:38.would be substantially higher and the penalty is worked out based on
:02:39. > :02:43.the amount, the barrels of oil, but also the degree of negligence. It
:02:44. > :02:51.could pay per barrel of oil spilt into the Gulf of Mexico $4300 per
:02:52. > :02:55.barrel. That puts the fine potentially into the $18 billion
:02:56. > :02:59.region. A lot at stake, given it has so far only set aside 3.5 million
:03:00. > :03:02.dollars to cover the potential penalties.
:03:03. > :03:05.As the Ukrainian government and Russian separatists prepare for
:03:06. > :03:08.peace talks later this Friday, the European Union is set to unveil new
:03:09. > :03:12.sanctions against Russia over its role in the conflict. On Thursday,
:03:13. > :03:18.British Prime Minister David Cameron told the BBC the sanctions are
:03:19. > :03:22.working. But how much more can Europe do, given its reliance on
:03:23. > :03:25.Russian oil and gas? Let's take a look. Russia's biggest state owned
:03:26. > :03:27.banks already face restricted access to EU capital markets, effectively
:03:28. > :03:34.cutting them off from Western funding. 30% of assets held by
:03:35. > :03:40.Russian banks have already been constrained, according to a US
:03:41. > :03:43.estimate. It's thought the EU could widen those restrictions to smaller
:03:44. > :03:48.banks and other types of company, like energy and defence. It may also
:03:49. > :03:55.ban sales of so called dual use technology to Russia, technology
:03:56. > :04:06.that could have a military use. It's also been discussing isolating
:04:07. > :04:09.Russia in other ways, like sport. A boycott of the 2018 World Cup in
:04:10. > :04:13.Russia is thought to be under discussion, though won't be on the
:04:14. > :04:18.agenda today. Joining me is Otilia Dhand, an Eastern Europe analyst at
:04:19. > :04:22.Teneo Intelligence. What sort of further sanctions could we see
:04:23. > :04:28.unveiled today? We are likely to see a tightening of the already existing
:04:29. > :04:37.regime of sanctions in the EU. Level three sanctions? Yes. We call them
:04:38. > :04:40.level three light. They target individual sectors but leave bits
:04:41. > :04:45.and pieces out. Right now we have a sort of level three sanctions on
:04:46. > :04:53.four different areas. That's the financial sector, the energy sector,
:04:54. > :04:56.technology and military equipment. So probably the most important
:04:57. > :05:02.changes will happen in the financials are regulation. That
:05:03. > :05:06.would be a tightening of a ban on access to capital markets, the
:05:07. > :05:11.tightening of the window from 90 days down to 30 days. Very likely
:05:12. > :05:17.the inclusion of syndicate loans, which really matters to Russian
:05:18. > :05:20.companies. They use them for borrowing international markets. And
:05:21. > :05:26.also perhaps looking at various banks that don't necessarily have
:05:27. > :05:29.50% state capital participation, but do matter in the context of Russian
:05:30. > :05:38.economy. In terms of the energy sector, we will probably see a
:05:39. > :05:41.tightening of a ban on various services and technological
:05:42. > :05:51.solutions, especially to offshore and Arctic drilling. In terms of
:05:52. > :05:57.jewel use technology, `` dual use technology, this probably won't
:05:58. > :06:02.change. But perhaps the list of users that are impacted by the ban
:06:03. > :06:09.right be expanded. Finally, the arms sector is likely going to include
:06:10. > :06:13.the deals that are current because right now only the future deals are
:06:14. > :06:24.impacted. But the current deals could be included, as the French
:06:25. > :06:36.indicated they. One of the largest deal that has been happening. ``
:06:37. > :06:40.they will no longer go ahead with. Whatever the EU is willing to do, it
:06:41. > :06:50.won't change Russia's policy in Ukraine. The stuff that would change
:06:51. > :06:54.the policy in Ukraine is probably beyond the red line that the EU
:06:55. > :07:00.would be willing to implement. The current changes considered are going
:07:01. > :07:07.to be an expression of solidarity of the EU but not something that would
:07:08. > :07:11.stop Russia. Very fascinating. Thank you for coming in and talking to us.
:07:12. > :07:14.To the world of technology now. As devices get ever smaller and more
:07:15. > :07:19.powerful, there's one drawback. Batteries aren't getting any better.
:07:20. > :07:23.Their life seems to get shorter and shorter between recharges and it's
:07:24. > :07:26.driving consumers mad. The BBC's Dave Lee reports now from the IFA
:07:27. > :07:32.technology show in Berlin on what the industry is doing about it.
:07:33. > :07:35.This conference in Berlin is the best chance for the biggest
:07:36. > :07:39.technology names to roll out their hopes ahead of the holiday season.
:07:40. > :07:44.As ever, the new technology is all about doing more with less. More
:07:45. > :07:50.features, smaller gadgets come up which poses something of a problem.
:07:51. > :07:54.The biggest problem, something I hear universally for phone users, is
:07:55. > :07:57.what is the point of these brilliant innovations and features if they
:07:58. > :08:01.drain your device so quickly that you can't use it? Batteries are the
:08:02. > :08:07.biggest headache right now. The technology is moving at `` moving at
:08:08. > :08:10.glacial pace and everyone is engineering around it. An entire
:08:11. > :08:15.industry has grown around the fact we are so desperate to keep our
:08:16. > :08:20.devices charged. I generally have a bagful of micro` USB chargers and a
:08:21. > :08:24.time of charges in a different bag. When I travel overseas, I have a bag
:08:25. > :08:31.of adapters. You can't talk to anyone, you can't take pictures. If
:08:32. > :08:36.you have 1% you get nervous. The most important one is if you get the
:08:37. > :08:42.charger and try to get it before you go below 1%. Realising the
:08:43. > :08:45.frustration, technology makers are trying to convince tech fans that
:08:46. > :08:50.they have some solutions. First of all, we put in batteries in the
:08:51. > :08:57.phones. As we announced in our recent models, we have quite a large
:08:58. > :09:01.battery that allows users to put the phone through its paces. We put in a
:09:02. > :09:08.memory onto the display module, so you can catch the images you see and
:09:09. > :09:13.it won't need to refresh over and over again. It's radically reduces
:09:14. > :09:19.the power needed. They want more power efficient screens, the
:09:20. > :09:23.components. It is quite striking. Some people are making progress. The
:09:24. > :09:26.other thing is battery modes, so you can save stuff when you are in an
:09:27. > :09:38.emergency. Dim the screen, turn certain functions. `` certain
:09:39. > :09:44.functions of. `` off. The feature everyone really wants is for the
:09:45. > :09:47.device to stay on. The euro had its biggest daily fall
:09:48. > :09:50.in three years on Thursday after the European Central Bank slashed
:09:51. > :09:53.interest rates again and began a trillion euro asset buying
:09:54. > :09:55.programme. The new stimulus measures for Europe's stagnant economy took
:09:56. > :10:06.markets by surprise, sending the region's stock markets surging.
:10:07. > :10:10.Let's have a quick look to see how stocks are getting on in Asia. Many
:10:11. > :10:16.of them have fallen across the region. Investors are staying on the
:10:17. > :10:34.sidelines because the key report from the US will be out later today.
:10:35. > :10:39.Let's focus on another story. Experts in tobacco addiction claim
:10:40. > :10:42.thousands of lives could be saved every year if smokers switched to
:10:43. > :10:45.electronic cigarettes. They say government policy should not be
:10:46. > :10:50.influenced by what they described as alarmist misinterpretations of
:10:51. > :10:53.evidence. Last month, the World Health Organization recommended
:10:54. > :10:55.banning the use of e`cigarettes indoors. Here's Jane