Business

The UK government has rejected Deputy Chair Lord Berkeley's assertions that the HS2 railway project costs are spiraling out of control. Berkeley claims the project could exceed £108bn, far beyond the official £88bn budget, but government officials maintain the criticisms are unfounded.

Customers of UK banks Clydesdale and Yorkshire are experiencing significant disruption as salaries and payments fail to process correctly. Many account holders, including parents like Libby Horbury, report missing wages and unresponsive customer service, creating financial uncertainty after the Christmas period.

Emirati messaging app Totok is back on Google Play Store after being previously removed due to spying accusations. The app, which offers free calls and texts across multiple countries, was temporarily delisted by Apple and Google following a New York Times report questioning its data practices.

Amazon Employees for Climate Justice claim some workers were warned by legal and HR teams about public comments criticizing the company's environmental stance. Activists are demanding zero emissions, limits on fossil fuel partnerships, and an end to supporting anti-environmental politicians.

Ant Financial, the world's highest-valued FinTech company, has applied for a digital wholesale banking license in Singapore. This move follows similar bids by Grab and Razer, as Singapore offers five virtual licenses to promote banking innovation and digital financial services.

Volkswagen is negotiating a settlement with German consumer groups over the 2015 emissions cheating scandal. Around 446,000 German diesel car owners have joined a class action lawsuit, alleging the company installed devices to manipulate emission test results in vehicles from Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, and Skoda.

Microsoft successfully won a lawsuit against the North Korean hacking group Thallium, taking control of 50 deceptive websites. The group used sophisticated phishing techniques, creating fake domains like "hotrnall.com" and "office356-us.org" to gather personal information and trick users into accessing malicious sites.

Smart home technology company Wyze Labs admits to a significant data leak affecting 2.4 million customers. Cybersecurity firm Twelve Security reported that user names, email addresses, and camera feed permissions were publicly exposed online, potentially compromising user privacy.

Tesla Inc. has secured a 9 billion yuan ($1.29 billion) term loan facility from Chinese lenders to finance its Shanghai Gigafactory. The electric car manufacturer also agreed to an additional 2.25 billion yuan unsecured revolving loan facility for its first international manufacturing site outside the United States.

CNN investigated dangerous counterfeit kids' products on Amazon, revealing a 4-in-1 baby car seat that fails safety standards. The fake Doona-branded product, priced significantly lower than the authentic item, was found to break apart in crash tests, posing serious risks to children's safety.