this is the business briefing. i'm ben bland. driving in a new direction: tesla ceo elon musk surprises shareholders by saying he's thinking of taking the electric carmaker to private ownership. shares in snap soar in after hours trade after better—than—expected quarterly revenue, even though daily users fell for the first time in the company's reporting history. asian shares rose on wednesday thanks to firmer wall street earnings while expectations for increased chinese stimulus helped take the edge off wider concerns about the worsening sino—us trade dispute. shares of tesla surged nearly 11% in new york tuesday after elon musk, the company's

notoriously erratic chief executive, said he had secured funding to take the company private. in an unusual move, mr musk first made the announcement on twitter rather than via an official regulatory disclosure. he said he had secured funding that would see financiers pay $420 per share of tesla — a 16% premium. shares of the company were then halted on the nasdaq exchange. kim gittleson explains what's behind mr musk‘s desire to take the carmaker out of public investors‘ hands. tesla has long been one of the most of that against companies are wall street. that has been a source of frustration for elon musk, who says the so—called short sellers have distracted tesla from its production targets. that is why he says he

wa nts to ta ke targets. that is why he says he wants to take the electric car maker private. but his suggested purchase price, which puts the business north of $80 billion, has raised eyebrows, especially because tesla has not yet raised a profit. but elon musk says he has got the funding, and if it is approved, he would transform tesla into something like elon musk. elon musk said in a blog post announcing his intention is that he didn't think that tesla would be for ever in public markets. he said once it hit a period of sustained steady growth he would consider returning to the bulls and bears are wall street. —— would be forever other public markets. the social media firm snap beat analyst revenue forecasts as it drew in more international and small business advertisers but posted a wider—than—expected

quarterly loss. a major redesign isjust one reason it's been struggling to keep up with other social media platforms like facebook, instagram and twitter which has recently seen something of a turnaround. snap has told us that it made a loss of $353 million in the three months to the end ofjune. that was more than expected. another important number is how many daily active users it's main product, snap, attracted. it fell to 188 million during a controversial major resdesign. it's the first time ever snap has seen a decline in numbers. but advertisers aren't convinced their messages will get through to users so the share price has sunk and remained below the $17 it attracted when the company first floated on the new york stock exchange last march. james erskine, director of social circle, joins me now. interesting, isn't it, that they've

managed to increase their revenues ata time managed to increase their revenues at a time when the number of daily users has fallen. it is indicative ofa users has fallen. it is indicative of a business that is starting to sort out its commerce, it is commercial objectives, and it's offering. in this, they have a programmatic end product that has predated this quarter. but all businesses, not just big predated this quarter. but all businesses, notjust big agencies and advertisers, reached its user base. it is refining out. it does need some new products within that, but it is starting to sort itself out. —— it is refining that. but it is starting to sort itself out. -- it is refining that. the investment from the saudi prince, how important is that? it could be marking something. when somebody puts $250 million of shares, you can see spikes, and they could be the trend, but i do not think that is. i

think it is almost a separate issue to the final financial quarterly results. the user base is down. the other thing that you can never take snap or snapchat are told is that yes it is in competition with other social media, but it looks a lot like instagram. instagram takes its inspiration from what was originally ajames inspiration from what was originally a james erskine product. inspiration from what was originally ajames erskine product. there is a real battle that. it is quite telling, really, isn't it, because almost the textbook on how to succeed with social media platforms must have a whole chapter on being careful with redesigned. they've redesigned and lost users. careful with redesigned. they've redesigned and lost userslj careful with redesigned. they've redesigned and lost users. i think thatis redesigned and lost users. i think that is one of the positives for snapchat. there are two things going for it. one is that i can't work it, which makes it more exclusive for the younger audience, and the second

thing is the ecosystem around snapchat. so what is there api, looking to developers, but the other thing is that snapchat as being guilty of not looking after creative communities. it looks after publishers, but not so much after influences, who could create organic content there. it is onlyjust started courting in a big way. that would be the next step to it being more successful. james erskine, thank you for giving us your opinion on that. china's export growth unexpectedly accelerated in july despite fresh us tariffs. imports also rose much faster driven by still solid domestic demand. let's go to our asia business hub where shara njit leyl is following the story. sharanjit leyl, shara njit leyl, looking sharanjit leyl, looking at the

numbers, what has jumped at it you? what is extraordinary is that this is really the first time chinese trade numbers will reflect the impact of the tariffs imposed at the start ofjuly. editors had minimal oi’ start ofjuly. editors had minimal or no impact. chinese exports grew unexpectedly in july. or no impact. chinese exports grew unexpectedly injuly. they or no impact. chinese exports grew unexpectedly in july. they were or no impact. chinese exports grew unexpectedly injuly. they were up 496 unexpectedly injuly. they were up 4% on the year earlier, beating the forecast. —— and it had. the chinese currency is weaker, having marked its worth per month period on record. that will have taken the pain out of the paris on the expo was the united states. with the currencies always pushed and sports, but there was a slight impact of the ta riffs but there was a slight impact of the tariffs that might have been felt on the japanese surplus with the united states. —— was push exports. tony lamb billion in june. states. —— was push exports. tony

lamb billion injune. —— 29 billion. they have now slapped cows on $60 million of chinese goods, which they say they will start collecting on august 23. thank you for that, sharanjit leyl. all this week, we're looking at the entrepreneurs and businesses that have been transformed by instagram. today we'll see what started out as a fun instagram with pictures of a dog turned in to a full—time business. the chihuahua—dachshund mix called tuna went viral after instagram featured him on their page — and then was mentioned by actress reese witherspoon in an interview she did with vogue. 0ur video journalist cody godwin has more. this dog has 1.9 million followers on instagram, which is turned tunameltsmyheart on instagram, which is turned tu nameltsmyhea rt into a on instagram, which is turned tunameltsmyheart into a full—time business. people are saying how he bought them so much joy and laughter andi

bought them so much joy and laughter and i really like the idea of being and i really like the idea of being a catalyst to change somebody‘s day, so a catalyst to change somebody‘s day, soi a catalyst to change somebody‘s day, so i kept on with it. i never had an intention to garner the following or make this into a business. human and animal influences make their cash in the same way. perhaps pets are more reliable for brands to build a following. a pet info will not be politically offensive or inappropriate to a market. tuna's friend, chloe, was one of the first influences on instagram, until she passed away in 2017. by virtue is the cutest thing, so i got an instagram to show her with my friends and family, and all of a sudden, straight as a following. and it grew and grew. because of the's success , it grew and grew. because of the's success, and her owner's background in law, she started an agency solely

devoted to animal influences. do is so devoted to animal influences. do is so much to it, from shooting two props, content, editing it, coming up props, content, editing it, coming up with copy, and then posting it and engaging it, and then growing that brand. influences, like tuna, need to stay up—to—date with changes that applications like instagram make. we have been at 1.9 million for a while but we are doing all the same things, and from a business perspective, what does that mean? but for us it is just great because instagram has not shut down altogether, and they have not put on altogether, and they have not put on a lots of limitations, so we can do what we want. tuna's owners are expecting a baby, and while they expecting a baby, and while they expect the business to change slightly, they wonder what the boss

will think about no longer being the centre of attention. up next, newsbriefing. stay with us. there are thousands of defibrillators across the uk — but very few people know where their nearest one is and even fewer know how to use them. figures show they're used in only 3% of out of hospital cardiac arrests, significantly reducing survival chances. it's thought by creating a map of all the defibrillators in the uk, many lives could be saved. ben ando reports. public defibrillators are in thousands of locations, easy—to—use, and save lives. apply the patch to the chest, as shown in the picture.

apply to bearskin. they will tell you exactly what to do so that even without medical training, anybody can make the difference between life and death. there are tens of thousands of them in stations, public buildings, officers, and department stores — so why does the uk have far worst cardiac survival rates than scandinavia or the united states, with similar coverage? if you are out and about and your heart suddenly starts, the british heart foundation says your chances of living barely one in ten. that is because a lot of us don't know you, but also, while there are plenty of defibrillators around, in an emergency, had you find one? the locations are usually held by a bus crews, but the british heart foundation says that knowledge can be patchy. and even 999 operators do not know where the nearest is. and that means that potentially life—saving public if regulator is used in only 3% of cases. so working

with nhs england, scotland, and microsoft, it is launching a scheme map locations, create a database, and make sure they are regularly checked and repaired. it is thought this could improve survival rates and save lives. ben ando, bbc news. coming up at 6am on breakfast dan walker and naga munchetty will have all the day's news, business and sport. if this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: the former british foreign secretary boris johnson is facing mounting pressure to apologise for saying the burka worn by some muslim women looks ridiculous. rugged terrain, powerful winds and poor visibility are challenging firefighters battling massive blazes in california. argentina's senate is due to vote later on whether or not to legalise abortion in the first 1a weeks of pregnancy. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media

across the world. we begin with the new york times and the largest wildfire in california's history. named the mendocino complex, the northern california fire has already consumed nearly 300,000 acres of land, and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes. the gulf news looks at iran and us president donald trump's warning to america's trading partners that anyone who does business with the country will not be doing business with the us. the telegraph leads with former uk foreign secretary borisjohnson who has rejected calls to apologise for comments he made in an article about muslim women wearing burkas, insisting he was "speaking up for liberal values". the ft says elon musk announced on twitter he might take tesla private, shortly after the financial times reported saudi arabia's sovereign wealth fund had taken a $2bn stake in the electric carmaker. the news sent tesla's shares up as much as 8.5%.

and finally, are you frustrated by difficult to understand accents or dialects whilst on the phone? well, the times reports that online retail giant amazon is developing technology to detect the speech origins of two people in a phone call and adjust their voices so that each hears the other in his or her own accent. your tweets have been coming in on that and i will share some later. with me is dr stephanie hare, who's an independent political analyst. the new york times, this