Rishi Sunak has been accused of trying to smooth the way for Greensill Capital to gain special access to emergency Covid loans after the release of text messages showing the chancellor told David Cameron he had “pushed the team” to see if it could happen. The Treasury also revealed that the former prime minister “informally” phoned two other ministers from the department, and sources said he sent “multiple” texts to Sunak’s personal phone. The Treasury refused to release those texts, saying they were sent “with an expectation of confidence”. – Guardian
Facebook has not notified the more-than 530m users whose details were exposed on a hacker forum in 2019 and has no plans to do so, according to company representatives. Business Insider reported last week that phone numbers and other details from Facebook user profiles were available in a public database. The social media company acknowledged in a blogpost on Tuesday that “malicious actors” had obtained the data prior to September 2019 by “scraping” profiles using a vulnerability in the platform’s tool for syncing contacts. Facebook has said it plugged the hole after identifying the problem at the time. – Guardian
AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot has come under fire from investors for failing to defend its coronavirus vaccine amid questions about its safety. Investors said that the Frenchman, who has been in Australia visiting his wife and children since Christmas, had not adequately communicated the benefits of AstraZeneca’s vaccine following fears it could be linked to rare brain clots. – Telegraph
Governments across the world would raise an extra $300 billion in revenue every year if US plans for a global minimum corporate tax rate of 21 per cent are adopted, experts have calculated. President Biden lifted hopes of a breakthrough in talks to end multinational tax avoidance this week by proposing to make US tech giants pay more tax in host countries in return for an agreement on a minimum global corporation tax rate. – The Times
Revolut has told its employees that they can spend up to two months a year working from abroad. The fast-growing British banking app, which has more than 2,000 staff, said the policy would allow its international workforce to spend more time with their families. – The Times
