this is the business briefing. i'm maryam moshiri. trump unleashes his long—threatened trade war on china, as sweeping import taxes come into force. beijing retaliates immediately. plus, they're as long as a shakespeare play — and you need a degree to understand them. so are social media sites playing fair with their terms and conditions? we get the views of some younger users. and on the markets, shares are mixed across asia after a difficult week, for now. fears about the trade war appear to be priced into stock markets. we start in the us, where in the last half hour the trump administration has imposed sweeping import taxes on chinese—made goods,

in what could be the first shots fired in a destructive trade war between the world's two largest economies. the us has imposed a 25% import tax on more than 800 products worth $34 billion, everything from aircraft tyres to industrial robots to electric cars. in return, beijing has retaliated with a similar tariff on a list of us goods, including soybeans, beef and whiskey. and this could be just the beginning. washington and beijing have already prepared further lists of each others' goods to be taxed in coming weeks, taking the total to $50 billion on each side. and president trump has ordered officials to consider a further $200 billion in chinese imports for additional tariffs, a measure beijing has pledged to match. economists have warned of serious consequences for global growth if the crisis is allowed to escalate. in the last half hour, a group of the biggest us companies have urged the president to reconsider his approach.

let's cross straight to our asia business correspondent karishma vaswani. she's at one of the world's biggest seaports in singapore. karishma, what is the view where you are? what will the regional implications of this be? well, very much, as you said, people are extremely concerned about the escalation of future tariffs after the ones the united states put on that $34 billion worth of chinese exports, which came into effect today. to give you a sense of where we are, i am in front of singapore's seaport, one of the busiest in the world. every yea r, seaport, one of the busiest in the world. every year, something like 100,000 ships pass through here, carrying containers of cargo all

over the world. in the last few hours i have been out here, i've seen something like ten or 15 ships. i think that really underlines the problem in all of this, the concern for so many businesses in this part of the world. asia's economies have really depended on these free trade policies. that is how we have seen growth here become some of the most dynamic growth in the entire world, and the fear is that if these trade ta riffs and the fear is that if these trade tariffs continue and ucb tit—for—tat escalation between ageing and washington, that could have a direct impact, a cascading effect, on the fortu nes impact, a cascading effect, on the fortunes of many countries in this pa rt fortunes of many countries in this part of the world. —— you see tit—for—tat escalation between beijing and washington. karishma, thank you. that's the view from asia. the effects of the trade tensions are also being felt in the us. no—one stands to lose more in this escalating trade battle than america's soybean farmers, who send nearly two thirds of their exports to china.

as kim gittleson reports from minnesota. a nearly endless expanse of green beans, with row after row of soy beans. it is easy to see why this pa rt beans. it is easy to see why this part of minnesota is known as the prairie 0cean. and for nearly five decades eachjuly, prairie 0cean. and for nearly five decades each july, bob prairie 0cean. and for nearly five decades eachjuly, bob worth has worked on his time here. —— worth. this is not the first trade war or trade fight, with tariffs and embargoes, it is nothing new for me. while he thinks is far more be ok, at least this year, he worries for the next generation.” at least this year, he worries for the next generation. i can weather the next generation. i can weather the storm. what bothers me is the younger farmers the storm. what bothers me is the youngerfarmers who the storm. what bothers me is the younger farmers who are just getting started, they are going to suffer. i mean, this could lower the prices more, this is really going to hurt them. they might not be able to survive. that is because farmers ascend the majority of their soy

beans are broad, mostly to china. —— send the majority. an easy way to understand just how important the chinese market is to the us soy bean industry is to take a closer look at this farm. every third row here is sent abroad to china. but now, as the threat of tariffs has turned into a reality, orders from china have mostly dried up. us soy bean prices have plunged by more than 15% since the tariffs were announced in may, and that has wiped over $150 million in expected revenue, just from minnesota's soy bean crop. but even with the prospect of economic pain looming, at a celebration of america's independence day, many here said they still supported president trump's push for more trade independence. some of the other countries aren't too happy with it, but america first. something has to be done, because we

have been unfairly treated for years and years and years. if other nations are doing it, i don't know how we avoid doing it. for now, pharmacy aren't ready to abandon a businessman president who promised to help them. —— farmers here. even if they are caught in the crosswinds ofan if they are caught in the crosswinds of an escalating trade war. now, let's brief you on some other business stories. samsung electronics says profits grew 5.2% to $13.2 billion in the three months tojune, the weakest quarterly growth in more than a year, and less than analysts were expecting. the south korean tech giant is struggling with a weak smartphone sales amid an increasingly saturated and competitive market, and a lack of new features to interest buyers. boeing has agreed a deal with brazilian plane maker embraer, giving it control of the smaller firm's commercial jet business. the joint venture will give boeing a significant stake in the market for smaller passenger planes. arch—rival airbus recently took control of the regionaljet business

of canada's bombardier. a controversial overhaul of the eu's copyright law has been rejected by the european parliament. the proposed rules would have put more responsibility on websites to stop copyright infringements, and forced platforms to pay for linking to news. many high—profile music stars had backed the change, arguing that websites had exploited their content. but opponents said the rules would stifle internet freedom and creativity. following the facebook privacy scandal, many users of social media sites want more information about how their data is used. but bbc analysis of the terms and conditions and privacy policies of 15 popular tech apps and sites found that some are almost as long as a shakespeare play, and all require university graduate—level education to be properly understood. that's despite the fact that many, such as youtube, twitter, snapchat and facebook,

can be used by children as young as 13. joe miller reports. i really like the rainbow one. 5pm ona i really like the rainbow one. 5pm on a school day, and maxwell and nola are relaxing at their friend ella's home with the help of the —— youtube and instagram. all three children are 13 and are legally allowed tojoin children are 13 and are legally allowed to join these sites, but unsurprisingly, none have actually read the terms. you agree to waive and hereby do waive any legal or equitable rights or remedies you may have against youtube. .. user services, whether or not you are logged into facebook. services, whether or not you are logged into facebooklj services, whether or not you are logged into facebook. i didn't know that. that's creepy. everything is so that. that's creepy. everything is so long, such a wall of tax. it is almost sneaky of them, to put it like that, so that kids would look

at it and just skip past it, i guess. the bbc has analysed the privacy policies of 15 popular websites and apps, including facebook and youtube, and found that most of them take half an hour to read and all of them require a university level education to be properly understood, and that's despite an eu wide law that mandates companies use clear and plain language in their policies, especially when directed at children. facebook, google and others say they are constantly improving their terms and making them clearer, and that easy to read summaries are available. but one mp says the key legal documents are simply too complicated. you have to give informed consent for your data to be used. it is not enough to print a load of double the group which you know nobody will ever read and say, we've got the right to do it because it says so in here. —— load of gobbledegook. privacy

campaigners say the law as it stands is not good enough. we want independent regulators to hold these companies to account, make sure they are safe online and make sure that there are strong privacy settings to children under 18. it is there are strong privacy settings to children under18. it is an idea that appeals to max and his friends. they say they will not wait three any lengthy policies, however well they are written, but hoped that the adults who draft them are on their side. —— wade through any. and now, what's trending in the business news this morning. 0n quartz, scott pruitt‘s replacement andrew wheeler could be even more dangerous for the epa. it says the number two at the environmental protection agency is a former coal lobbyist who has suggested scrapping laws limiting greenhouse emissions. on business insider, "the worst crash in our lifetime is coming." dire warnings from the veteran investor that the us is overdue another financial crisis. 0n forbes, whyjeff bezos covets cristiano ronaldo. the amazon boss is buying up sports rights to attract people to amazon prime, after buying 20 english premiership matches he is now looking at spain's la liga. and don't forget, let is know what you are spotting online. use the hashtag #bbcthebriefing.

that's it for the business briefing this hour, but before we go, here are the markets. a man from new zealand has become the first to kayak solo from australia to his home country. it took scott donaldson two months to make the 3,000 kilometre journey across the tasman sea, paddling 16 hours a day, sleeping inside the kayak, and wearing a seatbelt in case it capsized. 0n the way he had to deal with both sharks and six metre waves. here he is speaking to the bbc after returning to dry land. there was one particular shark that was very interested in my rudder and we had a discussion for about half an hour, 40 minutes, he came in, went away very agitated, probably a bit lonely like me. nothing fragile out there

lasts very long at all. the solo attachments got pounded. there is tons of water that smashed over that boat in the rough weather. you've got the whole range out there. you saw some amazing stuff and it was anywhere from a millpond, that didn't happen very often, to over six metres, i didn't measure it and some of the solar panels gave way. about four solar panels that got hammered off, basically. just wanted to take those down from affecting the rest of the solar but the integrity of the boat, it's carbon fibre, it's top grade, top—quality and really, and a coffin, it's about that size so it's just a case of practice, you get to spend one night in there and cope and then two nights and so on so there was a lot of mental skills going on to learn how to cope with all of that. there was an amazing crowd, a few thousand there,

the beach was full which was pretty nice because it was a pretty cold miserable night so it great was to see everybody and a little bit of sensory overload for a while. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: in what could be a defining day for brexit, theresa may and her cabinet are set for crucial talks to try to determine britain's future relations with europe. the controversial head of the us environmental protection agency has quit after just five months. scott pruitt‘s facing at least a dozen investigations into his conduct. seven members of a doomsday cult, which carried out a deadly nerve gas attack on the tokyo subway in 1995, have been executed. among them, shoko asahara, the leader of the aum shinrikyo

group. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the telegraph, who say prime minister theresa may could face a cabinet revolt after it emerged her brexit plan will tie the uk to eu rules for the foreseeable future and put any american trade deal in jeopardy. the guardian carries a warning from bank of england chairman mark carney to president trump, that further escalation of us trade disputes around the world would damage the us the most. this comes as the us and china prepare to fire the opening salvos of a trade war today. meanwhile, france's market watchdog the autorite des marches financiers says the world faces the risk of a "brutal correction" in global stock markets. the organisation warned the world has never been so indebted and the debt has never been so risky. the new york times looks ahead to us

secretary of state mike pompeo's latest visit to north korea, where there are fresh doubts about whether pyongyang will follow through on the commitments at the singapore summit. reports from us intelligence say the regime is working to conceal the extent of its nuclear weapons program. and, finally, football won't be coming home to english churches anytime soon. the church of england has warned world cup fans not to check their mobiles during wedding services or they risk being told to leave.