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Billionaire HBO creator Charles Dolan dies aged 98

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Billionaire Charles Dolan, a trailblazer in bringing cable television to a large part of the US who created what became HBO, has died at age 98.
He was also the head of a family with an “empire” of media and sports properties that includes Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks and Rangers teams, and AMC Networks. BBC America is a part of AMC.
Dolan’s death was announced in the family’s Long Island newspaper, Newsday, on Sunday.
A native of Ohio, Dolan started out distributing sport and industrial films before moving to New York and realising that, because tall buildings interrupted broadcast signals in the air, Manhattan needed cable.
At the time, he was selling special programming to hotels through his Teleguide service, while cable television was taking off in rural areas.
In 1964 Dolan made a deal with New York to wire some Manhattan buildings with cable and a few years later, hoping to attract viewers, he made a deal to show the Knicks and Rangers play-offs on cable, according to Variety.
He then went on to create Home Box Office for movies, and then sold both his cable service and HBO to build up Cablevision, which ended up providing television and internet to households across the north-eastern United States.
In 2015, the Dolan family sold Cablevision to European company Altice for nearly $18bn (£14.3bn).
By then Dolan’s son James was running what the New York Times called the family’s empire.
And the Dolans had become “the family that New Yorkers often loved to hate”, according to the New York Times, over frustration over the Knicks’ performance and fights with networks over their programming that had threatened to keep customers from watching the Academy Awards and the World Series.
Dolan was worth $5.4bn (£4.3bn) at the time of his death, according to Forbes.

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UnitedHealthcare names new boss after former CEO killed

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UnitedHealthcare has named a new boss almost two months after its then-chief executive Brian Thompson was shot and killed in New York.
Company veteran Tim Noel will take charge of the largest health insurer in the US, which has more than 50 million customers, at a critical moment.
Mr Thompson’s killing on 4 December in central Manhattan ignited a wide debate about how the US healthcare system operates.
Many Americans, who pay more for healthcare than people in any other country, have expressed anger over what they see as unfair treatment by insurance firms.
Mr Noel “brings unparalleled experience to this role with a proven track record and strong commitment to improving how health care works for consumers, physicians, employers, governments and our other partners,” UnitedHealthcare’s parent company UnitedHealth Group said.
A manhunt ensued for days as police worked to identify who was responsible in the December killing, which happened outside a Manhattan hotel where the CEO was staying.
After five days, Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested in a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania after a worker called police.
Mr Mangione has pleaded not guilty to charges in the killing. He is facing 11 state criminal counts, including murder as an act of terrorism.
As well as the state-level charges, he is also accused of federal – national-level – stalking and murder offences that could lead to a death penalty sentence.
Prosecutors allege that Mr Mangione shot Mr Thompson before going on the run.

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Clampdown on fake Google reviews announced

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Google has agreed to make “significant changes to its processes” to help tackle fake reviews of UK businesses, the regulator has announced.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says the firm – which accounts for 90% of search in the UK – will attach warnings to companies found to have artificially boosted their star rating.
The worst offenders will have their review function deactivated, meaning they cannot receive any new reviews.
Individuals who repeatedly post fake or misleading reviews will be banned from posting – regardless of where they are in the world.
Consumer group Which? called the changes “a step in the right direction” but said they would need to be backed up with strong enforcement action, potentially including “heavy fines” if Google failed to stick to them.
Sarah Cardell, the Chief Executive of the CMA, said: “The changes we’ve secured from Google ensure robust processes are in place, so people can have confidence in reviews and make the best possible choices.”
The measures only relate to reviews for businesses when searching on Google or on Google maps.
They will not apply to reviews of products.
A spokesperson from Google told the BBC: “Our longstanding investments to combat fraudulent content help us block millions of fake reviews yearly – often before they ever get published.
“Our work with regulators around the world, including the CMA, is part of our ongoing efforts to fight fake content and bad actors.”

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Bank of Japan raises rates to highest in 17 years

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Japan’s central bank has increased the cost of borrowing to its highest level in 17 years after consumer price rises accelerated in December.
The move by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to raise its short-term policy rate to “around 0.5 per cent” comes just hours after the latest economic data showed prices rose last month at the fastest pace in 16 months.
The BOJ’s last interest rate hike in July, along with a weak jobs report from the US, caught investors around the world by surprise, which triggered a stock market selloff.
The bank’s governor, Kazuo Ueda, signalled this latest rate hike in advance in a bid to avoid another market shock.
According to official figures released on Friday, core consumer prices in Japan increased by 3% in December from a year earlier.
The decision marks the BOJ’s first rate hike since July and came just days after Donald Trump returned to the White House.
During the election campaign Trump threatened to impose tariffs on all imports into the US, which could have an impact on exporting countries like Japan.
By raising rates now the bank will have more scope to cut rates in the future if it needs to boost the economy.
The move highlights the central bank’s plans to steadily increase rates to around 1% – a level seen as neither boosting or slowing the economy.
The BOJ signalled that interest rates will continue to rise from ultra-low levels.

Neil Newman, the head of strategy at Astris Advisory Japan said: “rates will continue to rise as wages increase, inflation remains above 2% and there is some growth in the economy.”
“We look for another 25-basis point hike in six months,” said Stefan Angrick, a Japan economist at Moody’s Analytics.
Last year, the BOJ raised the cost of borrowing for the first time since 2007 after rates

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