The Trump administration is threatening to slap import taxes on $2.4bn worth of French goods, including cheese, champagne, make-up and handbags. The planned tariffs come in response to a new French digital services tax that would affect companies including Google, Amazon and Facebook.

France, along with several other European countries, wants to limit the tech giants’ ability to avoid taxes. But trade officials in Washington say US firms are being unfairly targeted. French minister Bruno Le Maire called the US threat to impose tariffs in response to the tax “unacceptable” and suggested France would be prepared to retaliate.

France has long been concerned that US technology giants are avoiding taxes in the European Union. France says taxes should be based on where the digital activity – browsing the page – takes place, not where firms have their headquarters.

It is not the only country to raise concerns and a group of nations are drawing up new multilateral rules via the OECD. But France does not want to wait for that to bear fruit, so this summer drew up its own tax.

It is imposing a 3% tax on any digital company with revenue of more than €750m ($850m; £670m), of which at least €25m is generated in France. The tax will be back-dated to early 2019, and is expected to raise about €400m this year.

About 30 companies are expected to pay it, mostly US firms such as Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. Amazon has already responded by raising fees for French businesses by 3%.(BBC)…[+]

Tesla boss Elon Musk is due to take the stand in a Los Angeles court and face the British diving specialist he accused of being a paedophile. Vern Unsworth was among the team credited with co-ordinating the July 2018 rescue of 12 boys trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand.

Mr Musk, in a now-deleted tweet, described Mr Unsworth as a “pedo guy”. The entrepreneur gave no evidence to support the comment. He is being sued for defamation. Lawyers representing Mr Unsworth have described Mr Musk’s tweets as “vile and false”. The British diver is seeking punitive and compensatory damages.

The outburst last year appeared to be in response to comments made by Mr Unsworth in an interview on CNN, in which he criticised Mr Musk’s decision to send a purpose-built mini-submarine to the Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai Province to help with rescue efforts.

Mr Unsworth described it as a “PR stunt”, later adding that Mr Musk could “stick his submarine where it hurts”.(BBC)…[+]

After spending 26 years behind bars for the murder of a man whom they strangled and stabbed to the neck, brothers Daniel and Kornel Vaux were yesterday released on parole after Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan signed licences for their release which was recommended by the Parole Board. Also granted his freedom and leaving prison yesterday—after 27 years, was former school teacher Lallman Mulai who had chopped and beaten a man with whom he had an argument over cows grazing on his (Mulai’s) land.

Lallman, now 59 years old, had been convicted along with his brother Bharatraj Mulai for the 1992 killing of Doodnauth Seeram at Mahaica, East Coast Demerara. However, Bharatraj died in prison two years ago. Like the Vaux brothers, the Mulai siblings were sentenced to death following their convictions. In January of 2013, however, they all had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.(Stabroeknews)…[+]