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Episode details

World Service,12 Jul 2019,53 mins

UK raises security level for British flagged ships in the Gulf

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It comes after a BP tanker had assistance from a Royal Navy warship in the region. We get analysis from Dr. Salvatore Mercogliano who's a merchant mariner and Professor of military history at Campbell University in North Carolina. France introduces a 3% tax on digital companies' profits. We hear what prompted the move, and how the US - home to the tech giants Amazon, Google and Facebook - has reacted. Also in the programme, the last ever VW Beetle rolls off the production line at the factory in Puebla in Mexico - after 80 years in production. We speak to historian and Beetle enthusiast Professor Bernard Rega of Leiden University in the Netherlands about the car's enduring appeal and success. Nigel Cassidy is joined throughout the programme by Alison Van Diggelen of Fresh Dialogues, from Silicon Valley in San Francisco, and Jodi Schneider, senior international editor at Bloomberg in Hong Kong. (Picture: Members of the British Royal Navy. Credit: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

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