and elsewhere, the new signing theo walcott made a difference. in spain, sevilla let slip a one goal lead in their copa del reya semi—final first leg away at leganes. remember, leganes knocked out real madrid in the last round. favourites, sevilla took the lead in the first half, through luis muriel, but the visitors battled back. the equaliser coming from greek defender dimitrios siovas. the second leg is next wednesday. grid girls will no longer be used by formula 1 from the start of the 2018 championship season. grid girls are models used to conduct certain promotional tasks, usually wearing clothing that bears the name of a sponsor. their duties include holding umbrellas or driver name—boards on the grid and lining the corridor through which the drivers walk on their way to the podium. russian president vladimir putin has insisted his country always stood for clean sport. putin told his athletes to forget about doping scandals when they compete at the pyeongchang winter olympics next month. the international olympic committee has banned r

thank you, theo leggett. you're watching business live. our top story — apple has reported record sales figures for the latest quarter. the company sold slightly fewer iphones compared to the same time last year, yet apple was still able to post a 12% increase in revenue. earlier we spoke about apple and amazon, but earlier in the week facebook also reported its latest set of financial results. and elsewhere in the world of tech, it's been an eventful week for cryptocurrency investors. 0ne one of which joins us one of whichjoins us in one of which joins us in the studio! here's our technology correspondent, rory cellan—jones. idid buy i did buy a tiny amount about 18 months ago when i did a story about bitcoin, forgot about it, then found out it was worth more than $1500, and sold a chunk of it, i have to say, and i have been watching it obviously very closely over recent weeks. the big story right now this weeks. the big story right now this week is a growing realisation that the sheer extent of fraud around this whole cryptocurrency

elsewhere, league leaders manchester city made light work of west brom and new signing theo walcott scored twice, as everton beat leicester 2—1. have you ever wondered what tennis players actually do in training? well along with weight training and speed drills, there's always room for some fun. that's what svetlana kuznetsova has been focusing on. this is the two—time grand slam champion getting the better of her hitting partner in a video she posted on instagram. it's nice to see they get to enjoy themselves on the road to achieving peak performance. remember you can stay updated with all the latest news on the website bbc.com/sport. but that is your sport briefing for thursday. i'll be back with the business briefing in just a few moments. we will be talking about facebook and also india's budget day, coming up. tell me what you think about our talking point today, there's been a reaction to formula 0ne's decision to axe the glamorous grid girls. is that moving with the times or is it political correctness gone mad? quite interesting to get some of your reactions. steve in the uk, i

our business correspondent theo leggettjoins us. tell me more about what william hill did wrong? gambling companies and have procedures in place to prevent criminals from using the industry for money—laundering purposes and to protect vulnerable people who might have a gambling problem. the accusation against william hill is senior accusation against william hill is senior managers accusation against william hill is senior managers did not do enough to address these problems and did not employ enough people to implement the processes they had in place. the gambling commission has come up with a list of ten cases in which stolen money or the proceeds from crime was used to gamble. in one case, for example, one individual deposited more than half £1 million over 18 months in his william hill account. when this was checked up on he claimed to be earning £365,000 a year, he was on a salary of £30,000 and with stealing from his employer. lots of the other cases are broadly similar. even when red flags were raised, it was in an ineffective manner, which is why william hill has bee

agreed a deal worth more than $25 billion for the 61% of sky it doesn't already own. 0ur correspondent theo leggett is in the business newsroom. this is interesting. i notice sky shares up 18% this morning. this is interesting. i notice sky shares up 1896 this morning. and the reason for that may well be that now 21st—ce ntu ry reason for that may well be that now 21st—century fox might have to improve its own offer in order to pull off the deal it really wants. this announcement has really throwing the cat among the pigeons. basically, pitting three of the world's biggest media giants against each other. on the one hand, you have 2ist each other. on the one hand, you have 21st to three fox which wants to buy their share of sky it does not already own. that would be part ofa not already own. that would be part of a package sold onto the walt disney company which wants to buy 21st—ce ntu ry disney company which wants to buy 21st—century fox‘s film and tv assets and on the other hand, comcast, which has come in with a surprise, all—cash offer, which it saysis surprise, all—cash

our business correspondent, theo leggett has been looking at the details. reminders about the taylor review. —— remind us. reminders about the taylor review. -- remind us. it was set up to look at how business practices have changed over the last few years and how the government should respond to that in terms of employment law and the enforcement of employment law. it noted there are trends to companies like uber and deliver real, people who employ people by thejob. real, people who employ people by the job. there is an increasing reliance on agency workers and people and zero—hours contracts, people and zero—hours contracts, people who are not guaranteed hours of work but do have a contract with an employer. mr taylor's conclusion was this does allow flexibility in the workplace, useful for employees and employers, but things were weighted too much in favour of the employers. he set out a number of recommendations to make life better for the employees, most of which the government has now taken up. what are they proposing here? it is pretty widesp

our business correspondent theo leggett is with me. fiola, you‘d better explain what the changes are and why there has been all of this change on facebook. when you log onto facebook what you see is chosen for you by facebook‘s computers based on what the company thinks you will find most interesting. the change is designed to encourage more interactions with your friends and family, so, for example, a photo of their cats, or a selfie, or whatever, and so you will see more of that kind of stuff and less material published by news organisations and so on, so less news and fewer videos. the idea, facebook says, is to encourage more meaningful social interaction because that‘s what it says makes people happier, and encourage less of the sort of sensational polarising news stuff we all see on oui’ polarising news stuff we all see on our feeds every day. so, people spending less time on it as a result and get profits are still up, how does that work? facebook has 1.4 billion users and they spend on average a0 minutes a day on the si

theo leggett, bbc news. a document leaked says that the eu wa nts to a document leaked says that the eu wants to restrict the uk after brexit. norman smith is in the westminster studio price. agreement between senior ministers, that is one of the difficult things to sort out at the moment, isn't it? it's going to be difficult, certainly in the next few days. the signs are this could take weeks. we have tended to show our hand in the negotiations pretty late in the day. the focus of ministers at the moment remains on getting this transition deal which we have to get signed, sealed and delivered by the end of march. above all, because of the divide between different cabinet ministers over to brexit we want, between those like the chancellor, philip hammond, who want is to stay close to the eu, to minimise any disruption to british business, and those like borisjohnson who thinks we had to cut free to give ourselves the ability to strike free trade deals because they say the great golden opportunity of breaks i

relegation scrap between west brom and southampton, manchester united host huddersfield, while at tea, theo walcott returns to the emirates as everton visit arsenal. arsenal boss arsene wenger is keen to forget his side's recent results. january was a very difficult month for us, you know? as much it was disappointing on the pitch side, i felt on the transfer side it worked well for us. that's what we have to show now on the pitch in the coming months because we have no room for any months because we have no room for a ny d efeats months because we have no room for any defeats any more basically. so is very important we respond very quickly. —— so it's very important. in the scottish premiership today, rangers versus hibs catches the eye in a third versus fourth, while table toppers celtic kick things off at lunchtime, when they visit kilmarnock. in the championship, bolton wanderers are out of the relegation zone after a 1—0 win over promotion chasing bristol city. former newcastle forward sammy ameobi scored this cracker late on. city remain in fifth. wigan made a strong start to th

theo leggett explains the complexities of the issue. cities across europe have to abide by european limits on emissions, like nitrogen oxide, which can cause respiratory problems. we have a court looking at whether or not, in order to achieve that goal, and people driving diesel cars into city centres should be considered. if they were to decide that it should be an effective way of reaching the quality targets, cities across germany would feel pretty much obliged to introduce them, otherwise they could face legal challenges from environmental groups. they would pretty much have to do it. that, then, would have a knock—on effect for millions of drivers, who bought diesel cars in good faith. we are even told by the german government and other governments, a few years ago, that diesel cars were environmentally friendly. so, the ramifications are profound. it could affect millions of consumers, affect the industry, affect the policies of local government. it is a complicated matter. straight after the end of this first half of outside so

let's hear from our business correspondent, theo legget. up up to upto5 up to 5 million people are bought to earn a living in the so—called gig economy. companies like uber, deliveroo and yodel often work on a drop by drop basis through online platforms. other businesses such as retail and fast food outlets like to use people employed through agencies. or on zero—hours contracts. it lets them have staff when they need them, and cut costs when they need them, and cut costs when they need them, and cut costs when they don't. in his review, matthew taylor said that flexibility in the workplace was important. but it often put too much power into the hands of employers. he said change was needed to make sure people didn'tjust was needed to make sure people didn't just have was needed to make sure people didn'tjust have worked, but what he called good work. the government has accepted most of his recommendations. for example, it says it will make sure that workers who are entitled to sick pay and holiday pay actually receive it. it's promised

our business correspondent, theo leggett has been looking at the details. up up to upto5 up to 5 million people are thought to earn a living in the so—called "me. companies like google and yodel offer money on a job byjob basis and other companies like fast food outlets like to use people employed by agencies or run 0—hours contracts. it lets them have staff when they need them or cut costs when they need them or cut costs when they need them or cut costs when they don't. in his review, matthew taylor said flexibility in the workplace was important but it often put too much power into the hands of employers. he said change was needed to make sure people didn'tjust was needed to make sure people didn't just tap work was needed to make sure people didn'tjust tap work but was needed to make sure people didn't just tap work but what was needed to make sure people didn'tjust tap work but what he called good work. the government has accepted most of his recommendations. for example, it says it will make sure that workers who are entitled to holiday and sick p

our business correspondent theo leggett has been explaining why facebook made these changes to their site. the change is designed to encourage more interactions with your friends and family. so, for example, a photo of their cats or a selfie or whatever, so you‘ll see more of that kind of stuff and less material published by news organisations and so on. so less news, fewer videos, and the idea, facebook says, is to encourage more meaningful social interaction, because that‘s what it says makes people happy, and encourage less of the sort of sensational polarising news stuff we all see in our feeds every day. the duke and duchess of cambridge are in norway as part of a four day tour of scandanavia. william and kate are visiting the norwegian royal family, and meeting local entrepreneurs. 0ur royal correspondent nicholas witchell is in oslo. the cambridge is scandinavian trip continues. travelling from stockholm to 0slo. they were greeted at 0slo airport by the crown prince and princess. they have come on now to the royal palace, here in the centre of oslo, where they have met kin