british tech entrepreneur mike lynch has been confirmed missing after a super yacht sinks off the coast of sicily. a record offer — canadian buyers are circling the japanese retail giant 7—eleven. and australia's minimum wage creeps up — but is it affordable for small businesses? welcome to business today. i'm tadhg enright. it has been confirmed that the british tech entrepreneur mike lynch is missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of sicily during bad weather in the early hours of monday morning. one man has died and six others — including lynch — are missing. he's one of the uk's best—known tech entrepreneurs, the former chief

executive of autonomy, which he sold to hewlett packard in 2011 for $11 billion, a deal which has dominated his life ever since. only this year, lynch was cleared by a court in san francisco of fraud charges brought by hp who alleged there had been accounting improprieties. our business editor simonjackjoins me now. what more can you tell us about mike lynch and what's happened to him? i have been a businessjournalist over 20 years and there has never been a time when mike lynch was not considered a giant of the uk technology scene, it was a phd student at cambridge, and has founded a number of companies and then found the company which made his name and which was a crown jewel of uk technology companies, autonomy, it grew very quickly and they were trying to extract meaning from large packets of data, the

cursor to the ai companies we see today, and it was swamped on by hewlett—packard in 2011, buying it for over $11 billion, but that crown slipped when the company accused mike lynch of inflating the revenues, and a number of inquiries started, the serious fraud office in the uk started an inquiry but that was abandoned after they said there was abandoned after they said there was not sufficient evidence. hewlett—packa rd was not sufficient evidence. hewlett—packard eventually was not sufficient evidence. hewlett—packa rd eventually got a court ruling that he could be extradited to the us 2021 but he was finally extradited two years later, handcuffed on a plane, where he was under house arrest and armed guard before starting his trial in march this year and then a stunning verdict because it is not usual for people extradited to be found not guilty, but he was free to walk out

of the court as a free man injune this year and he has spoken to the bbc and said he went from one universe to another and now he wants to get back to work he likes doing best which is innovating. we have not had anything confirmed yet but clearly a stunning piece of news for a man who thought that he was entering a new episode of his life. simonjack. we do indeed await further updates regarding mike lynch but thank you for that. to the us now where the democratic national convention starts today in chicago and kamala harris will formally accept the party's nomination to run for the white house. she set out her economic policies at the end of last week and the investment world has been watching closely as the current vice president outpaces her republican rival in opinion polls. michelle fleuryjoins me now.

harris set out her economic policies last week. are there any other business or economic headlines expected from the event? republicans see the economy as something they can seize upon, that they can win on and if you look at polling, one of the washington post, princely republican candidate donald trump in front of kamala harris when it comes to handling the economy —— it comes to handling the economy —— it puts the republican candidate. so you can expect to hear more on the economy this week as the democratic national convention tries to rally the troops around and try to drum up plenty of support behind their candidate. it is going to be a question of what they say and how they approach the subject and inflation is the thing that has hurt

many ordinary americans and that is theissue many ordinary americans and that is the issue they have felt the biden administration did not do enough with so it is what can each party say to try and show that they have a handle on this.— handle on this. speaking of inflation, — handle on this. speaking of inflation, the _ handle on this. speaking of inflation, the other - handle on this. speaking of inflation, the other big - handle on this. speaking of. inflation, the other big market moving event of the week is going to be coming up towards the end of the week, the chief of the us federal reservejerome week, the chief of the us federal reserve jerome powell week, the chief of the us federal reservejerome powell will be speaking at the central bank, a symposium, and it is assumed by the markets that there will be a rate cut in september although it is never done until it is done, but what else will investors be listening out for in his words? you are riaht, listening out for in his words? 7m. are right, everyone is listening out for in his words? 7m, are right, everyone is waiting for september and expecting a rate cut but we have just come off a couple of weeks where we have seen intense market volatility, there was the huge sell—off and then last week the mmp huge sell—off and then last week the ramp back up on the markets, and right now the dowjones is up nearly

200 points. ithink right now the dowjones is up nearly 200 points. i think there is going to be at least from wall street and investors, they are going to want to hear whatjerome powell says about hear what jerome powell says about the hear whatjerome powell says about the path forward, what does the future look like and what kind of size of rate hike and what scale and what timeframe, that is the details they will be looking closely for to understand when rates are going to start climbing down from their 22 year high. all of this was put in place to tame inflation about me federal reserve does have a dual mandate, to worry about prices and also about full employment so much whatjerome powell says on that which will show the shift in focus of where they are at at the moment. thanks forjoining us. to japan now where the parent company of 7—eleven convenience stores has said it's received a takeover offer from a canadian rival. act operates brands such as circle k

in markets across the world. 0ur asia business reporter mariko 0i spoke to the boss of seven & i holdings before the offer was announced and explained what made 7—eleven so attractive. japan's seven & i holdings operates the country's biggest chain of convenience stores, 7—eleven, which boasts a global empire of 85,000 stores across 20 countries and territories. that's about twice the number of stores than mcdonald's or starbucks, which makes it an attractive target for canada's alimentation couche—tard, also known as act, which operates brands such as circle k. in comparison, they have about 17,000 stores in 31 countries and territories. now, the canadian firm does have a much biggerfootprint in europe because despite 7—eleven�*s huge footprint here in asia, there are only about 300 of them in europe. and that's something the boss of seven & i holdings told me

that he wanted to address by expanding rapidly, including returning to the uk. of course, that was before he received this buyout offer, which sent the company's shares rising by more than 20% on monday, giving it a market value of $38 billion. if this deal was to go ahead, it would be one of the biggest foreign acquisitions of a japanese firm. but seven & i told me that nothing has been decided yet, and the firm has just formed a special committee to review the proposal so we'll see what they decide. a landmark study has been carried out into the economic impact of long covid on the australian economy. the study has been published in the peer reviewed medicaljournal of australia. it found that about 9.6 billion australian dollars — that's around $6 billion us — was lost in economic productivity due to long covid in 2022. a million people in the country — that's around one in 26 of the population — who got covid at the height of the pandemic have been dealing

with ongoing problems at work or have reduced their working hours. meanwhile, the world health organization estimates that between 10—20% of people around the world have suffered from long covid after they recover from the initial covid infection. i spoke to one of the authors behind the study. there is a big wide spectrum, so there are people who can't work and people who are underemployed in the sense that they cannot do the full hours and then there are people who have lost their sense of smell, who can still work a full week. so, it is a big range and the numbers we looked at and the numbers we generated were aus$10 billion loss in 2022. it's really about those people who are so severely affected that they are unable to work. the numbers are pretty similar in terms of estimates that came out a couple of weeks ago for the united states, the united kingdom, france, spain, mainly about 0.5% of gdp, that's about the losses estimated in terms of long covid. those are the sorts of numbers that we are getting here in australia, at least our estimates for 2022. it is worth keeping in mind the difference now

in 2024 vis—a—vis 2020, in 2020, australia and some countries put up the barriers and the lockdowns and that led to very low levels of fatalities but as the world opened, and australia opened as well, a lot of people have got covid and a lot of people in australia have got covid, subsequent to their vaccinations. staying in australia where the lowest—paid workers are seeing a bit of relief. after a minimum wage increase of 3.75% came into effect injuly, after months of discussion. from sydney, phil mercer reports. good afternoon. may i please have a hot meal? hazel is a part—time sales representative in sydney, but still needs help from charities for a hot meal. ijust have to struggle day by day. the earnings i would receive just covers the rent, but not with the food, electricity and transport costs. it's really hard.

australia's minimum wage for workers aged over 21 is about $16 an hour. in the last five years, increases have been overtaken by inflation. it's terrible to see the people come in here who might have a full—time job, but are falling further behind each day. the working poor is too kind a term. businesses really have too much of an upper hand, mate, and they've had it in australia for the past ten years. but some industries argue that annual increases to the minimum wage are not sustainable and are pushing some businesses, especially in hospitality, to the brink of collapse. we as an industry, value the workforce. at the same time, we need to be mindful that small businesses can't always continue to pay a certain amount of increase every year, over and over and over again. it sends many of them to the wall. when utilities are up, when cost of goods are up, it's just too much pressure for restaurants and cafes.

increases to the minimum wage affect about a fifth of australia's workforce. that's more than 2.5 million people. the amount is set by the fair work commission, which is the national industrial relations tribunal. it considers a range of factors inflation, unemployment and the general health of the economy. however, workplace experts believe that increasing pay need not be a burden for companies. instead, it should be an opportunity. those wage increases spur innovation in organisations to compensate for a wage increase. they focus more on, well, how are we going to be more productive to offset those wage increases? trade unions insist that a 3.75% increase to the minimum wage is not enough, while business groups say it's too much. recent tax cuts have helped australia's lowest paid workers, but many insist that their struggles will continue. phil mercer, bbc news, sydney.

stay with us here on bbc news.

health experts in the democratic republic of congo say a reluctance to seek hospital treatment is undermining efforts to tackle the outbreak of mpox. a doctor in one province, where there have been more than 4,000 cases and 30 to a0 new infections every day, said a lack of drugs was also a problem. last week the world health organization declared the mpox outbreak — that has been spreading rapidly across parts of central africa — a public health emergency of international concern. health ministers from across southern african are due to meet on tuesday to come up with a coordinated response to the disease. here's our africa correspondent, simijolaoso.