this is business live from bbc news with alice baxter and maryam moshiri. the former boss of volkswagen, martin winterkorn, faces criminal charges following his alleged involvement in the diesel emissions scandal. live from london, that's our top story on friday 4th may. martin winterkorn has been accused of conspiracy and fraud, but will the former boss of volkswagen avoid prison as he's pursued by us authorities? also in the programme, soybeans and olive branches. the us treasury secretary steve mnuchin is holding talks in china, but can the world's two biggest economies avoid an all out trade war? asian markets fell on friday, tracking another

retreat on wall street. growth in the eurozone slows, plus the world's most influential central bank signals that a rate rise is imminent. we'll get a round—up of the biggest stories of the week with our economics guru andrew walker. and, as twitter warns users to change their password after an internal security breach, we want to know what your tricks are for making up new passwords and remembering them! let us know. hello, and welcome to business live. we start in germany, where car giant volkswagen has been battling to rebuild its reputation after dieselgate, the revelations in 2015 that it had been cheating emissions tests for years. the devices, which allowed vehicles

to perform better in test conditions than they did on the road, were installed on almost 600,000 vehicles sold in the us between 2009 and 2015. vw has already set aside $30 billion for fines and recalls. 0ur correspondent theo leggett is with me. took us through what these charges in tail. this is an indictment therefore these are unsubstantiated allegations that haven't been tested

in court. having said that, they are extraordinary. they suggest the deception that volkswagen went right to the top of the company to martin winterkorn himself. there are two things in the indictment that are significant. 0ne things in the indictment that are significant. one is that he was sent a memo in 2014,18 months significant. one is that he was sent a memo in 2014, 18 months before the scandal came to light, setting out there was a problem and the american authorities might look at it and that at some point folks what might be forced to buy back half a million ca i’s be forced to buy back half a million cars which it ended up doing. also, two months before the scandal came to light, martin winterkorn sat through a powerpoint presentation setting out exactly what was going on and what the american authorities might do about it and what the strategy was. and that he authorised the continuing cover—up. that is extraordinary. these are just allegations for now but if they were proven to be true how much damage

will this do? there wasn't a huge amount of damage done to vw from the whole scandal itself. martin winterkorn is unlikely to face trial in the united states because as we understand it he's in germany and germany doesn't extradite its own citizens to the usa for constitutional reasons. as well as he stays in germany he is probably safe. but he is also facing legal problems within germany itself, so german prosecutors may take account of this and that could be a problem for him. in terms of damage to the company, to be honest we haven't seen a lot. volkswagen notched up a record level of sales last year. its management and strategy have changed but in terms of consumers staying away, that hasn't happened. martin winterkorn is unlikely to face charges because of the extradition situation. but it's still an astonishing fall from grace, isn't it? it is. this is what we know so

far. we know that volkswagen has admitted systematically deceiving consumers and covering things up. if there is any way in which these allegations can be substantiated, that takes it even further. thank you. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. twitter has warned its 330 million users to change their passwords after a glitch exposed some in plain text on its internal network. the social network said an internal investigation had found no indication passwords were stolen or misused by insiders. british airways owner iag has posted a big jump in operating profiits for the first quarter of 2018 thanks in part to strong demand over easter. underlying earnings were $335 million, up from $192 million last year. revenue climbed 2.1% to $6 billion. banking giant hsbc says pre—tax profit dipped 4% to $4.76 billion in the first three months

of the year, adding that it would buy back $2 billion worth of stock. it also said revenue rose 6% to $13.7 billion in the period. let's go to china now, where president trump's top economics team, led by us treasury secretary steven mnuchin, are holding trade talks. they are trying to diffuse tensions between the world's two biggest economies that have raised fears of a damaging trade war and rattled global markets. last year china sold £375 billion more goods to the us than it bought. it's that vast trade surplus that president trump says is unacceptable. let's cross over to robin brant in shanghai. you've been following this meeting, what's the latest? there was dinner

last night. day two goes on today and that team led by steve mnuchin pro is due to head back to the united states by this evening. we aren't hearing anything about the progress 01’ aren't hearing anything about the progress or otherwise aside from a brief comment from the treasury secretary this morning. he will stall stepped in beijing saying they are having good conversations. in the last hour the wall street journal is reporting that it has seen journal is reporting that it has seen part of the document put together by the us team and presented to beijing ahead of the talks, and it is fairly detailed. it lays out some fairly aggressive positions with fairly ambitious demands. top of the mist according to the wall streetjournal is that the us wants to see that trade imbalance decreased, dealt with immediately. that's long been president trump's position. it wants to see it reduced by $200 billion by 2020 and is asking for a halt to subsidies for advanced technology in china. that gets to the heart of one of the biggest complaints which is

the us belief that china is subsidising, to an extent against the rules america says, its programme called made in china 2025 which is how it's trying to develop high—tech industries. there's also a request from the americans that the chinese don't target us farmers and agricultural products. they put forward proposals to bring in ta riffs forward proposals to bring in tariffs on soya beans and saw gun exports from the us which has been seen as exports from the us which has been seen as politically motivated —— sorghum pro. the americans saying they will impose additional tariffs of the chinese failed to comply and agreed upon commitments. we already have $150 billion worth of tariffs being bandied around. this document seems to make it clear that they will go even further if they can't be to settlement. that's what we're getting from the american side according to the wall street

journal. thank you. asian markets fell on friday, tracking another retreat on wall street as attention turns to release of some key us jobs data later today — analysts will be watching wage growth figures closely for signs of rising inflation — and the other big event affecting markets are those high—level china—us trade talks in beijing. while the corporate earnings season has been considered a success, some are worried that the healthy results haven't fired equities as much as expected, with warnings of a mild correction down the line. and this, along with the fading likelihood of any near—term tightening by the european central bank and bank of england, have boosted the dollar over the past week to multi—month highs against the euro and pound, as well as most other currencies. the greenback eased slightly friday on profit—taking but expectations are forfurther gains. european shares have bounced back today following losses in the previous session as earnings continue to roll in. and joe miller has the details about what's ahead on wall street today.

"4" is the magic number for investors on friday, is forecast to show that during april us companies created 188,000 newjobs. america's job market has looked tight for a long time now, and it's only getting tighter. all of which is likely to give further support to the federal reserve's inclination to raise interest rates soon. to the programme. i know you keep an eagle eye on the markets every week, it's your bread and butter. what stocks have you been watching this week in particular? what should investors at home be looking out for? i what should investors at home be

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stall of the ftse 100. posted some good numbers, again, a stall of the ftse100. high oil price, a bit of concern about the cash flow but overall it's been a fairly good week the earnings. absolutely. let's talk ggsslussls. [as {ills sssns ass ,, ,. ,, , , ,, , , , %2|m we}! 5 the - had we}! 5 the world | had economies. had economies. the we. - if axe my. err il "i511 we had the story five days ago that the argentine central bank was looking to defend the peso. pro it's continuing to defend the peso. pro it's a staggering amount. the effect to on sthink §think we § think we know from u ndetest'rmatedti’thfnkwe—knowfronr personal experience if you try and defend your currency by raising interest rates it doesn't end well. in 1992 we raised interest rates

above 10% and the effect that have an housing market and the economy. i think they are fighting a losing battle. you will come back in a few minutes and talk through the papers with us. still to come. with our economics guru andrew walker.