Image source, Getty Images

Sticking with miners, Glencore said earlier that a 55-year-old contract worker had died at a coal mine in Australia, Reuters reported.

Glencore, which is the world's biggest thermal coal exporter, said it had suspended production at the Newlands mine in the Bowen Basin in Queensland. 

"We are co-operating with the relevant Queensland authorities and have commenced an investigation into the fatal event," a Glencore spokeswoman said.

The FTSE 100 has finished 0.3% lower at 6,820.79, dragged down by mining shares. Miners' losses have worsened throughout the day on the back of falls in metal prices. 

Chilean copper miner Antofagasta and Mexican silver miner Fresnillo suffered the heaviest falls, down more than 5% each. Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Glencore dropped more than 4%.

It outweighed gains for banking shares, as HSBC and Barclays each rose by about 2%.

Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 of mid-cap UK firms fell 0.5% to 17,847.24.   

US Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat, has this punchy comment about the EU ordering Apple to pay €13bn in back-taxes to Ireland... 

The UK Treasury is also keeping its powder dry on the Apple tax ruling. 

"The UK is open for business and we welcome any company wishing to invest in Britain, but we have always been clear that companies that do business here must pay UK taxes," a spokesperson said. 

Image source, AFP

Back to the Apple tax ruling, and one analyst has suggested the UK could stand to gain once it leaves the EU. 

The European Commission is "increasingly becoming a supra-national tax judge", said Neil Wilson, a markets analyst at ETX Capital.

"Britain could benefit. If Ireland cannot offer sweetheart deals within the EU, the City of London can perhaps offer something more appealing outside the bloc."

However, Downing Street wouldn't be drawn on whether the commission decision was good news for the UK post-Brexit. 

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: "In terms of offering a low-tax environment, the UK already does that.

"Our corporation tax is one of the lowest in the world. We are committed to making the trading condition for companies in Britain as positive for them as it can be as long as it's positive for the country as a whole." 

Image source, Reuters

In less than a week Britain's biggest homegrown tech company, ARM Holdings, will almost certainly pass into Japanese ownership after shareholders overwhelmingly backed the deal today.

The only step left is a court hearing on Thursday - which is seen as largely a formality - and then on Monday (5 September) the £24bn takeover by Softbank will come into effect. 

A day later, ARM's shares are due to be delisted from the FTSE 100. 

The deal for the Cambridge company - which designs microchips for most smartphones, including Apple's and Samsung's - has gone through at breakneck speed.

Softbank, one of the world's biggest tech companies, announced the deal less than two months ago on 18 July; at the time saying it wasn't due to the Brexit vote, which sent the pound down sharply and made ARM cheaper. 

Softbank has also promised to embark on a major recruitment drive, doubling ARM's 1,600-strong UK workforce while keeping its headquarters in Cambridge. 

Investors in UK tech giant ARM Holdings have approved a £24bn takeover by Japanese conglomerate Softbank.

Shareholders backed the deal by 95% to 5% earlier today, the Cambridge-based company said, external.

The vote was the last major obstacle before ARM - often referred to as the jewel in the crown of the UK tech industry - becomes part of the Japanese group.

It paves the way for the takeover of the iPhone chip designer to be completed on Monday.

Image source, Getty Images

In other news, Barclays has sold its loss-making Italian business, external as part of its drive to sell off non-core assets. 

The retail banking operation - which comprises 85 branches employing 564 staff - is to be sold to Mediobanca at a pre-tax loss of £258m.

The move is part of the company's strategy of focusing on its UK and US banking operations. The bank has already sold its Barclaycard credit card operations in Spain and Portugal as well as a stake in Barclays Africa. 

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

The European Commission's use of state aid competition rules in its Apple ruling is being criticised by a leading member of Ireland's ruling Fine Gael party.   Mairead McGuinness, vice-president of the European Parliament, said the move was unprecedented and concerning because taxation was a matter for EU states to decide. 

Image source, AP

The FTSE 100 is still treading water. It's at 6,833 - just 4 points lower than where it started the day.

Mining firms are rubbing out gains elsewhere on the blue chip index. The top five biggest FTSE 100 fallers are all miners, with Antofogasta and Rio Tinto the worst hit.

They're "under the cosh" because the prices of gold, silver, copper and iron have fallen on the back of a stronger dollar, according to traders at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Image source, Getty Images

Shares in Apple dropped about 1% at the start of trading on Wall Street before recovering slightly. Apple's currently down 0.6% to $106.20 a share, valuing the tech giant at $571bn.

US stock indexes, meanwhile, are pretty much unchanged. 

The Dow Jones is flat at 18,504 points, the S&P 500 is unmoved at 2,178, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is holding steady at 5,238.

Business correspondent Joe Lynam (who happens to come from Dublin) tweets his surprise at the Irish government's decision to appeal the Apple tax ruling...

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Image source, PA

The EU is not finished with tax investigations into big multinationals, Prem Sikka, a professor of tax and accounting at Essex University, tells the BBC. 

The European Commission has previously sanctioned Starbucks and Fiat, and is looking at the moment at Amazon, external and McDonald's, external, he says. The EU is investigating the online retailer and the fast food chain's tax treatment by Luxembourg.

"At one level this should be quite welcomed by the members of the EU because they all want level playing fields," Prof Sikka tells the World at One.

"But looking at it another way it blows a large hole in the economic strategy chosen by some governments because they are effectively denying tax revenue to their neighbours."

Image source, AP

A bit more on the US government's response to the Apple tax ruling. The Treasury Department said it's "disappointed" that the European Commission is "acting unilaterally".  

"As we have said, we believe that retroactive tax assessments by the commission are unfair, contrary to well-established legal principles, and call into question the tax rules of individual member states," a Treasury spokesperson said.  

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner who led the Apple case, has told the BBC that Europe is a "wonderful place to do business".

She told Martha Kearney on the World at One that "it was only fair" there should be a "level playing field", where all companies pay their tax.   

Apple argues the claim from the EU for €13bn in back-taxes will have "a profound and harmful effect on investment and job creation in Europe".  

Dublin-based corporate tax expert Peter Vale has been speaking to the AP news agency about the EU's demand that Ireland claim €13bn in unpaid taxes from Apple. 

In fact, says the Grant Thornton partner, the final cost to Apple will probably be about €19bn because the EU includes interest for unpaid tax going back more than a decade. 

He says that the EU will require the Irish tax collection agency to issue a demand soon for payment, and any money handed over by Apple would be placed in a hands-off escrow account pending years of litigation before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. 

"While the tax to be collected is hugely significant, this is unlikely to be made available for public expenditure purposes pending the appeal result,' he says. 

Chris Johnston
Business reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Sales at Abercrombie & Fitch have fallen for the 14th consecutive quarter as shoppers failed to return to its stores. 

The retailer, which also owns the Hollister and Abercrombie Kids brands, said like-for-like sales fell 4% for the three months to 30 July to $783m (£597m).

Net loss for the quarter widened to $13.1m, up from $810,000 in the same period last year.

Expect a bloodbath when the NYSE opens later - shares are down more than 11% in pre-market trading to $20.34. The stock was worth more than $76 five years ago.