BUSINESS

NGOs filed a criminal complaint against French oil giant TotalEnergies and its top shareholders in Paris on Tuesday, seeking a trial for involuntary manslaughter and other consequences of climate change "chaos".

Markets in Asia and Europe suffered a downturn Tuesday after racking up a series of gains as profit-takers stepped in, while traders were also spooked by a surge in commodity prices.

Movie star Scarlett Johansson said Monday she was "shocked" by an OpenAI synthetic voice that sounds like her, which was released after she declined to work with the ChatGPT-maker on such a project.

Irish no-frills carrier Ryanair on Monday said group net profit jumped a third to 1.92 billion euros in its financial year as higher demand and fares offset ballooning fuel costs.

For a decade, French former childcare worker Sophie Rollet carried out her own, lonely investigation to make US auto equipment group Goodyear accountable for the death of her husband, Jean-Paul, in a collision linked to the company's tyres.

OpenAI will have access to Reddit data for training its artificial intelligence models and will put its technology to work on the popular discussion platform, the companies said Thursday.

Easyjet said Thursday that chief executive Johan Lundgren would step down at the start of 2025 after seven years piloting the no-frills airline, notably through Covid turbulence.

German industrial giant Siemens said Thursday it will sell its electrical motors business Innomotics to private US equity firm KPS Capital Partners for 3.5 billion euros ($3.8 billion).

French automaker Renault said Wednesday it will pursue developing autonomous minibuses for public transit but would stick to driving assistance features for personal cars for the time being.

Asian markets wobbled Wednesday ahead of key US inflation data later in the day, with traders struggling to pick up the baton after a record performance on Wall Street.

Ride-hailing giant Uber said Tuesday it has reached a deal with Delivery Hero SE to buy its Foodpanda delivery business in Taiwan for US$950 million.

Sony on Tuesday warned of falling profits this year as PlayStation 5 unit sales decline, after reporting a dip in annual earnings while also staying mum on a reported bid for Paramount.

Some 5,200 workers at the Mercedes auto manufacturing plant and battery complex near Tuscaloosa, Alabama will decide whether to join the United Auto Workers in a federally-administered election that runs from Monday through Friday.

The family-owned hedge fund run by Hwang had taken huge bets on a few stocks with money borrowed from banks, and when several of those bets turned sour, the fund was unable to meet "margin calls" to cover the losses.

The announcement came as Macron kicked off a day of meetings with foreign business leaders at the Chateau de Versailles, called "Choose France".

Brussels also said it would investigate whether social media platform X, owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, can be exempted from the rules.

Japanese auto giant Honda on Friday logged a record annual profit thanks to improving global vehicle sales, but issued a cautious outlook for the current fiscal year.

Taiwanese chip giant TSMC said on Friday that April revenue jumped nearly 60 percent on-year, riding a huge wave of demand for the advanced semiconductors used in AI hardware.

Nissan said Thursday it nearly doubled its full-year net profit in 2023-24, weathering challenges in the Chinese market, but forecast a dip of around 10 percent for the current financial year.

Two of China's wealthiest cities said Thursday they would lift all restrictions on buying homes, joining a growing list of urban areas rolling back curbs as they look to prop up the faltering property market.

Spain's second-largest bank BBVA announced Thursday a hostile takeover bid for smaller rival Banco Sabadell but the government vowed to block the move, which would create a European giant in the sector.

Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca on Wednesday said it was withdrawing Covid vaccine Vaxzevria, one of the first produced in the deadly pandemic, citing "commercial reasons" following a slump in demand.

Disney reported higher revenues Tuesday on a strong performance by its theme parks division and an improving streaming business, but a write-down in the company's India business resulted in a small loss.

Italian luxury carmaker Ferrari on Tuesday posted a double digit rise in both profits and sales for the first quarter of 2024, and confirmed its full-year guidance.

Nintendo said Tuesday it will make an announcement about a highly anticipated new console by the end of March 2025 as sales decline of the hugely popular Switch, which is now in its eighth year.

Oil giant Saudi Aramco said Tuesday its first-quarter net profit dipped 14.5 percent on year to $27.27 billion as the Gulf kingdom kept production cuts in place.

Swiss banking giant UBS on Tuesday said first quarter net profit rose 71 percent to nearly $1.8 billion, far exceeding expectations, after two quarters in the red due to the mammoth takeover of Credit Suisse.

Struggling French tech group Atos, an Olympics partner and key French defence contractor, said Monday it would make a decision on financial restructuring offers by May 31.

Apple on Thursday said its quarterly profit ebbed but topped market forecasts as it announced an unprecedented $110 billion share buyback.