| Two of the UK stock market’s biggest pharmaceutical companies have made millions of pounds in “secret” payments to healthcare professionals and organisations, an investigation by The Times has found. At least €22.3m (£19.6m) was made in anonymous payments across Europe, including €17.9m by Astrazeneca, the Cambridge-based company, and €4.4m by Shire, the rare diseases and neuroscience specialist, the research showed. The figures cover payments such as consultancy fees and “related expenses” and travel and accommodation for events organised or sponsored by the companies. China has followed through on a threat to retaliate against American tariffs with border taxes of its own. America's agriculture sector is in Beijing's crosshairs as the world's second biggest economy hit back at tariffs imposed on its sales of steel and aluminium into the US among tariffs imposed on 128 categories of imports. - Telegraph Activity in China's manufacturing sector expanded at its weakest pace for four months in March, according to a closely watched survey released just as Beijing unveiled retaliatory duties on US food imports. The Caixin/Markit purchasing managers' index, which is considered one of the best indicators of how China's manufacturing sector is performing, fell to 51.0 in March from 51.6 in February. - The Times The passport manufacturer De La Rue is set to announce it will challenge the government over its decision to manufacture new blue British passports in France. The company will formally launch an appeal against the decision to award the £490m contract to the French-Dutch firm Gemalto on the grounds that it believes it had the best offer on quality and security, though not on price. - The Guardian Investors in Conviviality are considering the possibility of legal action against the drinks company's board amid claims that they were misled over the health of the business's finances. The rapid fall from grace of a company that in November had a stock market value of almost £750 million has provoked questions about when the board first had concerns over its trading and financial position. - The Times One of the country's oldest and largest landlords will invest an extra £1 billion in improving its estate in the West End in an attempt to address the issues London faces from a rising population. Grosvenor Group, which manages £6.5 billion of property assets worldwide for the Duke of Westminster, who at 27 is the world's richest man under 30, said that its investment will create more green spaces, better designed streets that curb traffic noise and pollution, and better office and retail space. - The Times Emmanuel Macron has suggested that Facebook and Google are "too big to be governed" and compared their dominance to that of the oil barons in the early 20th century, saying they may have to be dismantled. The French president's comments are among the most forceful from a Western leader on the subject of the two companies' growing influence, which is coming under increased scrutiny from regulators. - Telegraph President Trump renewed his attack on Amazon yesterday, saying that the company was not on a level playing field with "fully tax paying retailers". The president also repeated an unsubstantiated claim that the US postal service loses money by doing business with the ecommerce giant. - The Times Social media will overtake television to become the UK's biggest advertising format in two years, according to forecasts, despite the shadow hanging over the industry from the Facebook privacy controversy. Figures from eMarketer predict that more than a fifth of all advertising spend in the UK will be on social networks in 2020. - Telegraph Japanese drug maker Takeda is facing questions over its ability to finance a debt-fuelled deal for FTSE 100 rival Shire without placing further strain on its stretched finances. Ratings agency Moody's has warned that Takeda will need to pile on more debt to its already weakened balance sheet if it wants to buy the drug maker. - Telegraph Barclays' £1bn transformation is complete as the bank became the first in the UK to switch on its "ring-fence" – splitting up its investment bank from its retail bank. It used the extra bank holidays over the Easter weekend to make the move, meaning it could switch off its online banking service overnight and have extra time to fix any unexpected problems before the start of the business week. - Telegraph The wet weather over the Easter bank holiday weekend added to the high-street gloom as shoppers either headed to indoor malls or stayed at home. The number of shoppers on the UK's high streets fell by 9.6 per cent on Good Friday compared with the same time the previous year, with Saturday footfall down 6.9 per cent, Sunday's 1.9 per cent higher but Easter Monday rain led to visitor numbers being down 6.4 percent. - - The Times Buying robots to take over repetitive jobs and offshoring basic tasks to foreign workers is not bad for employment in the UK - instead, it creates more and better paid jobs. Overall productivity receives a boost as relatively unproductive jobs are automated or performed more cheaply overseas, freeing up resources domestically for higher productivity work. - Telegraph Apple plans to stop using Intel chips in Mac computers in favour of its own ones, Bloomberg reported, pushing shares in the chipmaker down 6.1 per cent.Apple uses chips and processors from a number of companies, including Qualcomm, Broadcom, Arm and Intel. Intel, which gets about 5 per cent of its revenue from the company, has been supplying chips to Apple since 2005. - The Times The Chinese owners of Imagination Technologies have drafted in a microchip industry veteran from a Beijing-backed technology conglomerate, after buying the British company last year. Leo Li will be confirmed as the Hertfordshire-based company's chief executive on Tuesday, it is understood. He replaces Andrew Heath, the former Rolls-Royce executive who took charge in 2016. - Telegraph | 
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