Top EU court orders Apple to pay €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland • FRANCE 24 English

and Yuka Roy joins me in the studio Yuka hello hi Alison now European Regulators scored major victories today in their legal battle against big Tech Europe's top court today delivered two separate rulings both in favor of the European commission the first was against Apple the European court of justice dismissed a final appeal by the iPhone maker against the 2016 order from the eu's competition Watchdog that it paid 13 billion in back taxes to Ireland the long running dispute centered on a sweetheart deal dubling offered Apple which let the company pay almost no tax on its profits the ecj also upheld a 2.4 billion Euro fine the commission imposed on Google in 2017 for abusing his market dominance to favor its own shopping comparison service over those of its Rivals shooting down the online Giants argument that it had made changes to comply with the EU the blocks competition Chief hey F both rulings today is a big win for European citizens and for tax Justice it's a win for the commission it's also a win for the Level Playing Field of the internal market and it's encouraging it's encouraging for us to do more the commission will continue its work on harmful tax competition and aggressive tax planning both in terms of legislative proposals but also enforcement and you guys stay in Europe a standoff between Volkswagen and unions is intensifying with the German car maker scrapping a long-standing job protection scheme well last week Allison Volkswagen uh told workers that plant closures and layos were no longer off the table as it struggled with weak sales on Tuesday the company made good on its threat saying it would end a range of Labor agreements including a guarantee of jobs until 2029 at six German plants a deal that's been in place since 1994 the car maker would also cancel deals on temporary workers wages for specialist employees and mandatory hiring of apprentices who've completed their training the latest announcement raises the prospect of redundancies starting next year Volkswagen's share price dropped more than 3% today it's Fallen nearly 7% over the past 5 days another German carmaker BMW lost 11% in the stock market after it recalled 1 and a half half million cars and trimmed this year's profit margin Auto shares weighed on the overall stock markets Frankford but also Paris and London finished the day in the red reversing Monday's gains Wall Street has been wavering all day with the Dow now dipping three1 of a percentage point the SNP and the NASDAQ managing to stay up in positive territory Rising moderately with the NASDAQ up 7/10 of a percentage point and next Juka ahead of the first and probably only presidential debate set between kamla Harris and Donald Trump later on tonight you're going to give us another look at the candidates proposals on a top concern for American voters the economy yeah there are similarities and differences both candidates promised to tackle the cost of living RS increase affordable housing take on big farmer to bring down prescription medicine costs and oppose the sale of us steel to a foreign FM but while Donald Trump promises to help everyone through tax cuts Harris focuses more on helping lower income households by raising taxes on the wealthy and big corporations and offering tax breaks on child care and for small business owners some of the key proposals from the vice president include a 25,000 down payment support for firsttime home buyers up to $6,000 in tax break for families with babies and to fund The increased SP spending uh camela Harris wants to raise the corporate tax rate from the current 21% to 28% also vows to crack down on price gouging by Food suppliers the Republican candidate meanwhile is vowing to extend his 2017 tax cuts that are set to expire next year these include a lower top income tax rate and the doubling of the standard tax reduction for everyone he wants to bring down the corporate tax rate even further to 15% and on trade he wants to impose blanket tariffs on All Imports uh ranging from 10 to 20% and 60% on Chinese Goods Allison and what impact youa will all of these various policies have on the US economy yeah that's been a big question among economists a recent survey a recent report by the Warton School of the University of Pennsylvania stacked up those promises and estimated that the Harris campaign's social spending proposals would cost $2.3 trillion but would be partially offset by increased corporate tax revenue but would still add $1.2 trillion to the US budget deficit over the next DEC decade on the Trum campaigns promise program that estimate is a lot higher at $5.8 trillion but the report came out before the Republican nominee promised to save trillions of dollars in government spending with the help perhaps of Elon Musk either way there are concerns that those promises of big spending will worsen the US's budgetary situation in 2023 government debt amounted to over $ 33 trillion or 123% of GDP while budget deficit stood at 1 .7 trillion or 6.3% of GDP andison and finally UK SpaceX launched a historic Mission today that's taking space tourism to a whole new level well the Polaris Dawn mission is an all civilian space mission with four people on board and will attempt the first ever privately funded space walk after several delays spacex's Falcon 9 rocket launched the crew Dragon spacecraft designed to carry its crew to the highest orbital altitude humans have ever reached in half a century if successful the pl Space Walk in a high radiation area of space will Mark a significant Mar stand for the booming space tourism industry Eliza Herber has the story it's set to be one small step for man and a potentially giant leap for Space X the Polaris Dawn Mission blasted into space on Tuesday with a crew of private astronauts hoping to undertake the first ever commercial space walk minutes into the flight everything continues to look good funded by billionaire entrepreneur Jared isaacman in collaboration with Space X the mission aims to test the limits of what space tourism can look like by attempting to take civilians further into space than ever before reaching a peak altitude of 1,400 km this would make it the furthest distance humans have traveled from Earth since NASA's Apollo moon mission over 50 years ago we're coming up 70 km once there isaacman plans to fully exit The Craft using a series of rails separation confirmed in the space tourism Market SpaceX is the largest commercial company valued at us $180 billion after the launch on Tuesday it said SpaceX was founded to make life multiplanetary the company's profits often come from launching starlink satellites into space and from transporting supplies to the International Space Station similarly Jeff bezos's blue origin makes funds through contracts with NASA and from selling rocket engines making them significant players in boosting the US public sector's space exploration capabilities since 2020 69 private astronauts have gone to space while only the Uber Rich can afford such Journeys today the sector anticipates costs will go down in 2023 the space tourism Market was worth $750 million us that number is projected to rise to over $5 billion in the next decade and that's all from us from the business desk all right Yuka thank you so much for that business update that's Yuka Roy there from our business desk