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Has India agreed to stop buying Russian oil?
President Trump says yes.
India say talks are still ongoing.
So what's really going on?
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Hannah Mullane.
Also, the world's biggest packaged food and drinks company, Nestle, has announced big job cuts.
And is Microsoft's new handheld Xbox Games console really worth the money?
Hello.
And we start with word from President Donald Trump who says Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has agreed to stop buying Russian oil.
No, we were not happy with him buying oil from Russia, because that lets Russia continue on with this ridiculous war, where they've lost a million and a half people, by the way.
Russia's lost a million and a half people, soldiers mostly.
So I was not happy that India was buying oil.
And he assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia.
Oil is one of Russia's biggest exports and India one of its biggest customers.
And Washington wants to increase economic pressure on the Kremlin to end the war in Ukraine.
The Indian government isn't completely in agreement with what the American president said, stating that talks were ongoing.
I asked energy analyst Narendra Tanager what he thinks is really going on.
Well, even I'm surprised, because there is no government policy direction to Indian refiners, whether or not to import oil from Russia or, for that matter, any other countries.
These are independent decisions, commercial decisions taken by the Indian refiners.
But I've seen that state in the press.
And, as you know, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India has not commented on it because we don't have any such information, confirmed information available whether or not such a conversation had taken place between the Indian Prime Minister and the American President.
But as far as Indian refiners are concerned, they have made it very clear repeatedly that that as long as Russia is able to give good discounts and a good price for crude that they import, they will continue to import.
There is no government policy, to the best of our knowledge so far, or any change in the government policy.
And as I said earlier, there is no government policy on this issue.
These are commercial decisions taken on commercial consideration by India's refiners, who import oil from 40 different countries, including Russia.
And how easy would it be for India to stop buying oil from Russia and instead buy it from somewhere else?
How easy is that to do?
Well, it depends on economics.
You know, when you look at our requirement, we are an oil economy.
And 89% of oil that we consume is imported.
And we consume roughly 5.5 million barrels of oil every day.
That makes us the third largest consumer of oil on the planet.
And since our dependence in import is so high and we pay in dollars in most cases, as you know, everything is extremely sensitive to Indian economy.
Every dollar matters.
If, for instance, Russia offers us oil which is two or three or four dollars cheaper than what America offers or Saudi Arabia offers, you know we are talking of billions of dollars.
And for Indian economy, which is so heavily dependent on import, every single dollar counts.
So President Trump needs to understand it.
For him, it's politics.
For us, it's pure economics.
That's the difference. energy analyst Narendra Tanajit there.
Now let's cross to the UK next, where a major legal claim has been launched against the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson.
It involves around 3000 people who allege they've developed cancer after using asbestos-contaminated talc products.
The company is accused of negligence and deceit.
Johnson & Johnson denies the allegations.
Chloe Hayward is our health reporter.
So this is a major legal action that's been brought by KP Law here in the UK and involves 3000 people who claim that Johnson & Johnson knowingly sold baby powder contaminated with asbestos that then gave them life changing and life ending illnesses, including ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.
So talc is a naturally occurring mineral.
It's mined in close proximity to asbestos deposits.
Now the claim alleges that asbestos minerals contaminated the talc at source.
But even though executives were aware of this risk as early as the 1960s, they did not warn consumers, they put nothing on the packaging and they pushed for less sensitive testing standards.
Hence the allegation of negligence.
The deceit allegation that centres around executives deciding to continue to market the baby powder as pure and gentle, with a focus on that mother-baby bond.
And what kind of evidence is being used to support these claims?
Well, the claim relies heavily on internal documents, some of which have been seen by the BBC.
One memo from 1973 allegedly states that Johnson & Johnson's baby powder contains trace amounts of tremolite and actinolite that might be classified as asbestos fibre.
Now, Johnson & Johnson say this letter was discussing how regulation might change and is being totally misrepresented.
Another document discussed a potential patent to remove asbestos fibres from talc.
It ends with the line we may wish to keep the whole thing confidential rather than let the whole world know.
Now, Johnson & Johnson strongly deny these allegations.
They say with this one, it was a discussion that needed to be kept confidential, because any new patent could be very valuable.
And what's the wider impact of this case?
And how does it compare to what's happened in the US?
So this UK case does absolutely mirror extensive litigation that's been going on in the United States, where Johnson & Johnson have faced thousands of lawsuits over similar claims.
In some cases, juries have awarded billions of dollars of damages to the plaintiffs.
Although we must note that J&J have successfully appealed many of these awards.
So in the UK, Johnson & Johnson have actually moved their consumer health division to a new company called Kenvu.
And it's Kenvu that sent us this statement.
We sympathise deeply with people living with cancer, they said.
We understand that they and their families want answers and that's why these facts are so important.
He went on to say that the safety of baby powder was backed by years of testing by independent and leading laboratories, universities and health authorities in the UK and around the world.
And it said JJ's baby powder was compliant with any required regulatory standards, did not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.
The BBC's Chloe Hayward reporting.
Now Nestle, the world's largest packaged food and drinks company, announced some big job cuts on Thursday.
Emma Wall is head of platform investments at Hargreaves Downsdown.
Emma, what exactly have they announced?
Yeah, this is a bold move from a CEO who's literally only weeks in the job.
He replaced the former CEO who was ousted after a relationship with a subordinate.
16000 jobs to go at Nestle in a bid to sort of improve the share price but also improve the revenues of the company.
They have been spending too much in short.
And so there's a real bold strategy here.
And talking of share price, how has that responded today?
It's done really, really well.
So, it's currently up around 7.9%, but it's been up as much as 8.5% in intraday trading.
So, the market is really buying.
This is what Nestle needs in order to continue to have positive sales trajectory.
And briefly, the French Prime Minister, Sébastien Le Corneau, survived a no-confidence vote.
How have markets responded? positively as well.
The French stock market is the CAC 40, and it's reached highs not seen since March earlier this year, and bond markets have liked the news too.
But a word of caution, because there is still quite a lot of hurdles for this Prime Minister to jump.
Not least, the budget needs to be approved.
Indeed there is.
Thank you.
Emma.
Now to Italy, where the iconic fashion brand Armani has appointed a new CEO.
Giorgio Armani died last month at the age of 91, and now Giuseppe Masocci will take over.
He thanked the family members for placing their trust in him.
And now to Xbox, which is launching a long-awaited handheld games console today.
But will it live up to expectation?
Here's BBC tech reporter Tom Gherkin.
He managed to get his hands on the console before the launch.
It feels really comfortable.
It's quite large.
It certainly looks like it's going to be heavier than it is.
It's surprisingly comfortable to hold is what I would say.
It's got grips like a controller.
Visually, it's like they cut an Xbox controller in half and put a whacking great computer in the middle with a lovely screen, which means yes, it's quite powerful and it can play a lot of games.
But to do that and not be too heavy means it's quite pricey.
Yeah, I was going to talk to you about the price, because it's more expensive than an Xbox console itself.
Is that right?
That's right.
I mean, it's actually more expensive than a PlayStation 5 or a Nintendo Switch.
You know, it is the priciest thing on the market.
And I think that's because they're trying to make it really versatile.
It's got Windows 11 on it.
So theoretically, it can play basically any PC game. the BBC's Tom Gherkin there.
You can watch him putting that new console through its paces on our website.
I'm Hannah Mullane with World Business Express.
Thank you for listening.
