this is business live from bbc news with ben thompson and ben bland. the private road ahead. tesla boss elon musk says he's thinking about taking the electric car maker off the stock exchange. live from london, that's our top story on wednesday 8th august. mr musk announced the plan on twitter rather than an official disclosure but says investors have already backed the move. we'll look at what it could mean. also in the programme: china's exports show little sign of damage from the trade war with the us as the world's biggest economy gives a start date for its latest tariffs. this is what european markets looking like, we will explain all you need to know. and we'll hear from the brazillian banking boss whose new lender is trying to tackle sky high

interest rates by taking on the big boys. also today, amazon wants to adjust people's voices on phone calls, so that you'd hear the other person in your own accent. the technology could use audio gathered from millions of alexa digital assistants. but would you want to hear everyone sounding more like you? let us know, just use #bbcbizlive. an interesting story, do you want to hear everyone in your own voice or accent? could the electric car maker tesla be on the journey to being a private company? founder and chief executive elon musk says it's something he's now considering. the company has had a turbulent ride in its eight years as a public company traded on new york's nasdaq stock exchange. mr musk says the deal would pay $420 a share and take the company back

into private hands. he says he already has the financial backing. tesla shares closed nearly 11% up, valuing the company around $82 billion, and mr musk‘s offer represents a 10% premium on that. but why would he want to? well, just last week tesla posted a record loss of $717 million for the three months to the end ofjune. taking the company private would mean tesla can avoid the prying eyes and demands of investors. mr musk says that will help the firm focus on long—term goals, and that might help it ride out the turbulence over deliveries. one of its biggest problems has been getting enough of its model 3 vehicles made each week. there's still a long waiting list, and it's key to tesla's profitability. oliver smith is a senior reporter with forbes. so, oliver, interesting statement

from elon musk — but one that raises perhaps more questions than answers? absolutely, the biggest question is about the funding itself. he said it was secured but we don't know where it is coming from. he has a net worth of about $22 billion, but he will have to raise a significant amount of capital to put this deal over the line. and the way that he made the announcement, ben mentioned it there, on twitter, rather than official regulatory filing — will not cause any problems?” official regulatory filing — will not cause any problems? i don't think it will cause problems in terms of the medium he used, tesla appointed his twitter account as one of the places that investors should be keeping their eyes on. the question will be whether this deal, this plan he has brought forward, is real. if he has actually got funding

behind it. because if it turns out that this wasn't a sick plan in progress, then that could raise problems with investors. —— a secure plan. tesla is yet to make a profit since listing publicly, it has now got this injection of money, as the ftis got this injection of money, as the ft is reporting, from the saudi sovereign wealth fund — how important is that for tesla? it is important, because sovereign wealth funds could be key to his plan, if he needs to raise money to take it private. he will be looking to sovereign wealth funds, to companies like softbank, who have the kind of capital he will need to take it private, so it is a vote of confidence in the company from an investor that has a vast amount of capital. elon musk has made very clear his dislike of having to a nswer clear his dislike of having to answer irritating questions from investors as a result of the company

being publicly listed. if it goes private, that will be a thing of the past. so he hopes, although private investors can be just as in past. so he hopes, although private investors can bejust as in —— just as demanding, as canjournalist! he seems to think it will solve many of tesla's problems, but he does imply that it would remain private for ever. the plan would be to go private, weather the storm, get the company focused, then maybe bring it back to public markets. and in terms of his timing for this, i mean, there is one theory that he made this announcement because of the ft report about the saudi investment, that we mentioned a moment ago. there is, but also the fact that it is one of the most shorted stocks on the market, and this has put a lot of short sellers in a very difficult position, so potentially putting a squeeze on them. elon musk has been vocal about his dislike for the way that the stock market treats his company, and short sellers are just the latest example of that. oliver,

good to get your thoughts, thank you very much, oliver smith from forbes. the social—media firm behind snapchat has reported a $353 million loss for the the three months to the end ofjune, even though it brought in more money that had been expected. it came as snap drew in more advertisers but struggled to keep up with other social—media sites, despite a major redesign. the number of users fell slightly to 188 million. cathay pacific has narrowed its losses in the first half of the year to $33 million, with the airline saying it expects a better six months ahead. it's a big improvement on the same period last year, when the hong kong flag carrier posted its worst loss in more than 20 years. airbnb has ditched a competition offering the chance to spend a night on the great wall of china. an ad promised a once—in—a—lifetime opportunity for the winner, but the plan sparked concerns that it could contribute to the historic structure being damaged. and according to chinese media, airbnb never received approval from local authorities to run the event. a problem, isn't it? you book

somewhere and then you find it is outdoors, not so good! some would say that is what they occasionally do at airbnb, but nonetheless authorities not happy with that plan, so that is off, if you are hoping to spend a night on the great wall of china, bad luck! is the trade war between the us and china having any impact? the latest trade figures seem to suggest not. imports also rose much faster driven by solid demand in what is the world's second biggest economy. katie silver is in our asia business hub in singapore. katie, you have been looking through the figures, what jumps katie, you have been looking through the figures, whatjumps out at katie, you have been looking through the figures, what jumps out at you particularly? well, first of all, the exports being up about i2%, so

this is beating forecasts, and as you say, they appear to be weathering the storm of the us—china trade war. even exports to the us we re trade war. even exports to the us were up about i3%, so there didn't seem to be any falloff there. and as you say, imports urged to 27%, double the previous month. this is partly due to a weaker yuan, but there was also strong consumer sentiment in china. the place where we saw the impact was in trade surplus, that dipped about $1 billion from its record highs of the previous month. but analysts say it is early days and the impact may still be felt. this is because the trade war is in full swing, and even just today we had the announcement of when the next instalment of $16 billion of tariffs will be put in, and that will be august 23, just over two weeks, and it will be about 279 different products, including primarily semiconductors and chemicals and things such as that, ben. katie, thank you very much,

that really filtering through to the numbers, let me show you what is happening, the nikkei edging lower, bracing for the start of us—japan trade talks tomorrow. now remember, that will partly offset the gains of the company results that came in better than expected, but trade courts always bound to cause bitter nervousness, all the rhetoric from the white house about trade between europe and the us. us stocks are pretty sharply, tesla up about 11% after elon musk said he wanted to ta ke after elon musk said he wanted to take it private. other large us technology firms also on the up included amazon, google and microsoft. in europe, its quiet for economic news, but the geopolitical issues will keep investors on their toes. particularly keeping an eye on that trade war with the united states, china, and indeed other issues going with japan when those talks get

under way tomorrow. that really weighing on the minds of investors, ben. joining us is shaun port, chief investment officer at online wealth manager nutmeg. you have been keeping an eye on turkey, all that is going on there. yes, absolutely, the woes continue, currency down 28% this year, and what is significant is now is investors are starting to worry that turkey will need a bailout, so the price of insuring against turkey defaulting on its debt at the highest level since 2009, so investors very worried, particularly about turkish ability to repay bonds. at this stage, that is purely speculation it is, but we haven't had anything out from the central bank or the ministry of finance in the previous week, despite the currency and price of bonds falling further, the central bank has not intervened in the currency market by raising interest rates. so so far, under this new regime, since the election, we haven't seen the government trying to defend its own currency, which is significant. an

interesting move by samsung over in south korea, possibly creating hundreds of thousands ofjobs. south korea, possibly creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. yes, very significant, it is sitting on a big cash pile and has announced a three—year investment plan, investing in al, 5g, wireless, chip production, very significant for the south korean economy, so it will directly create about 40,000 jobs, indirectly about 700,000, so quite a big fillip for the country. august is traditionally a quiet time, but this trade war is something that will keep running, and as far as business is concerned, it can have a direct impact on the bottom line, so investors ca re direct impact on the bottom line, so investors care about it. we tend to talk geopolitics, but this could have a direct impact on results. yes, particularly on business confidence, should you expand into asian markets? it really does have an influence on business confidence,

but in market terms the strength of us innings is what is dominating news. does that outweigh it? it is. we are in the early days at this point. we don't really know the endgame for the us policy, they are just trying to renegotiate all tariffs, come to what they would see asa tariffs, come to what they would see as a there playing field? or is it designed to bring back production? the us seniors dominating sentiment in the markets, and we have seen that in us markets overnight. particularly sentiment in chinese market seems to be quite muted because of that trade row, and we saw that the ipo came in at the lower end of the range. in contrast to the us markets, the chinese market is very pro, down 18% this year, and in part it has fallen by

6%, they are very risk averse, sentiment is broke, and that is why the ipo, big ipo, has not popped in the ipo, big ipo, has not popped in the way we would expect. sean, thank you very much for that take on the markets. now, we all need a bank account but depending on where you live it may be more difficult to open one. in brazil, five big banks control 90% of the sector, but technology is changing that, and new companies are disrupting the market. nubank is one of them — it's a digital bank and credit card provider that offers the services of a traditional bank but without all the fees. the bbc‘s south america business correspondent daniel gallas caught up with the co—founder david velez in sao paulo and started by asking him why he decided to change from investing in companies to creating one of his own. a lot of the time, for a very long time, i was working here in brazil, and every time i looked at a company to invest, at the back of my mind i was thinking, is that an interesting business? why is that entrepreneur having more fun than i am as an investor? after looking at a lot of

different industries, i became very interested with banking. brazilian banking is very specific, brazil is one of the most concentrated banking markets in the world, and as a result you have some of the highest interest rates in the world and some of the most unsatisfied customers in the world. and so that combination of a very large market, very high margins, with millions of consumers that were unhappy with their banking relationships made me realise that it could be an interesting opportunity in 2012. what is it like being a banking consumer in brazil? i tried to go and open a bank account one afternoon, and the process involved me going into a branch, leaving my cellphone and keys and my laptop into a locker, i had to go through bullet—proof door with two guards, armed guards looking at me like a criminal. at that time, i actually got trapped, i waited 20 minutes

for somebody to give me a lot of paperwork to open a bank account. and to summarise, it took me about five or six months back and forth, calling the call centre, bringing documentation, to actually open a bank account that, by the way, charged me over $200 per year on fees undercharged me over 400% interest on the credit card that ijust got from the bank. why our interest rates so high in brazil? ultimately, the lack of competition is the number—one answer. you have five banks that own over 90% of the lending, savings, mortgages, asset management — it is an incredibly concentrated market that hasn't seen real competition in a very long time. and so what we think is new entrants such as ours are now going to be able to change the incumbents, offering better products and be much more efficient. there is a long list of foreign banks that are failed in brazil,

like hsbc or citibank. how do you succeed where others failed? i think in the banking 1.0 world, where customers made their decision on where to open a bank account based on who had the closest bank branch, banking branches were a huge asset that the banks created and nurtured. and so in that world a foreign bank had a really hard time building scale and distribution to compete with a lot of the local ones. in this new world, where you don't need branches, all that huge asset of branches becomes like a liability, and so that is what is different about us — we're not competing with the incumbents based on branches, we are competing with the incumbents on efficiency and customer service and lower pricing. you were a very modest company, and now you are $1 billion business, how did it grows so fast? we started, as a lot of start—ups start, in a house, here in sao paulo. we liked the house because we paid very little in rent,

the co—founder edward came from the us, so he was on the second floor, then we hired another engineer that lived on the second floor. and we got to have 20 people working in the kitchen and in the patio and in bathrooms, taking phone calls, so it was really frugal, a great environment. and we launched our product, and we got surprise to the upside, we got way much more demand than we ever imagined. there are other digital banks in europe and the united states that started around the same time you quys started around the same time you guys did, yet you are a much bigger company — why is that? we think brazil and, frankly, just general emerging markets is a much more interesting geography for digital challenges, digital banks than developed economies. we think developed markets are actually very competitive, margins tend to be very tight, cost of funding makes a lot of difference. the incumbents are very significant advantages. in emerging markets, be it brazil or southeast asia, mexico, even china, you have very concentrated banking markets, banks that have very traditional

cultures that have had a very hard time innovating and transforming into digital, and there are very large margins. as a start—up, you can launch into a market with lower prices, and already have good margins to operate. the co—founder there of nubank with that insight into how the business is transforming banking in that part of the world. food giants kfc and kellogg's have been told to remove adverts which promoted junk food to children by the uk's advertising watchdog. the advertising standards authority says they both broke strict rules on advertising high fat, sugar or salt products to children. chi chi izundu can tell us more. morning to you, interesting one, this, the rules are pretty clear, and they have said the companies broke those rules. indeed, and it is

pretty simple — they are not allowed to directly or indirectly advertised foods that are considered junk, so high in fat, salt or sugar, do anyone under the age of 16, or an audience that is made up largely of children. unfortunately, kfc and kellogg's did that. kfc put an advert on a phone backs near a primary school, they say that was human error, they removed the advert on the day that the advertising standards authority made them aware. kellogg's, though, is a bit more complicated, because what they did was advertised a brand known as cocoa pops granola on a children's television cartoon, a, and the problem is that granola is not considered a high fat, salt or sugar brand, but the association with coco the monkey, used to promote coco

pops original, is considered to be a junk food, so that indirect association meant that they were advertising directly to under 16—year—olds. advertising directly to under 16-year-olds. really interesting story, chi chi, thank you for explaining that, fraught with pitfalls, but nonetheless the advertising standards authority pretty clear that those two firms broke the rules. it's a relatively new invention. the idea of a social media influencer — someone using the likes of twitter, facebook and instagram to promote products and services. and it can be big business. for one user, her account that began as fun pictures of her dog turned in to a full—time business. the dog, called tuna, went viral, and as our video journalist cody godwin found out, won a few celebrity fans along the way too. this dog has 1.9 million followers on instagram, which has turned tuna melts my heart into a full—time business for his humans. people were

just saying automatically how funny he was, how we brought them so much i°y he was, how we brought them so much joy and laughter, and i really like the idea of being a catalyst to change some on's day, so ijust kept on with it. i never had an intention to garner this following or make this a business. human and animal influencers make their cash the same way, by selling merchandise, branded products, and making appearances, but perhaps pets are a more reliable way for brands to build a following. they'll safe, a influencer influencer would not get at a party and say something politically offensive. — — and say something politically offensive. —— they are safe, a pet influencer. tuna's friend chloe was a pet influencer but passed away in 2017. all of a sudden, people started following her, wait, what is happening? it continue to grow and grow. because of her success and her

owner's background in law, she started an agency dedicated solely to animal influencers in 2015. you took a boat though of your dog? no big deal, but there is so much to it, the ideas, editing the content, writing the copy, posting it, engaging, growing that brand. influencers like tuna have to adopt to the changes and updates a platform might instagram make. our following has not necessarily topped out, at1.9 million, following has not necessarily topped out, at 1.9 million, we are doing all the same things, and we're like, 0k, from a business perspective, what does that mean? but for us, it is great, because instagram has not shut down altogether, and they haven't put on a lot of limitations, so we can haven't put on a lot of limitations, so we can still kind of do what we wa nt so we can still kind of do what we want with it. courtney and her husband are expecting a baby, and

while they do anticipate it will change their business likely, they are not sure what the boss will think about no longer being the centre of attention. quite sweet, isn't it? iam in quite sweet, isn't it? i am in two minds about that! we're talking about some of the other stories in the media around the world, a story we discussed at the start, news that amazon will use new technology to allow you to make calls, but you will hear the voice of the other person in your own accent, so rather than calling them and maybe not being able to clearly understand them, the technology will put their accent in your accent. we we re put their accent in your accent. we were asking you whether it is a little bit weird, and a lot of you liked the idea as a novelty, brian says i would love to hear my voice with a british accent. jack says, it would work with my speech problems. luke says, i wouldn't like the idea of everyone sounding the same on the phone. the way the technology would work is

that the voice accents would be derived from recordings from alexa devices, obviously with people's consent, but for some of you that has raised privacy concerns. liege got in touch to say, if you have a alexa device in your home, that is what you are signing up for. yes, look at the terms and conditions. have you got one of these alexa devices? i managed to build one of my own, surprisingly simple, the code kid is open source, easy to build, these machines need lots of data to learn. if you have built your own, you are not worried about the privacy concerns, because you know what you are doing with it? it is still using the google kit. that is how they learn, if you want them to learn, you have to give them a bit of access, that is how they will improve. with all big tech fence, we give them data, they use it and sell

it in different ways. think about banks training their assistance to understand different dialects, it will help with the way that financial services will automate the traditional help desk and customer service. another story that has caught our eye, 6 million shoppers expected to hit india's first ikea store. they are launching in india's fourth largest city, expanding to 25 stores, because the indian middle class is expected to overtake the us to become the second—largest in the world, so a big long—term play market. really nice to see you, thank you for explaining all that. that is from us today, we will be back at the same time tomorrow. actually, i am not. i will be here! see you then, plenty more on the web page during the day. hello there. temperatures getting

above 30 celsius this summer have been fairly common, and yesterday once again temperatures got up to 33 celsius in gravesend in kent, but today we have got a change, some fresh air conditions which have been in northern and western areas yesterday spreading to all parts. notice the darker reds moving away into the near continent, so for today temperatures at night, 10 celsius, lower than yesterday across many parts of eastern england. there will be some sunshine through eastern areas, a bit of clouds developing into the afternoon, cloud and showers affecting western parts of england and wales, scotland and northern ireland during this afternoon. some of the showers drifting into the midlands as well. temperatures, 17—21d, but as i mentioned, lower than yesterday in

the south—east, feeling much fresher for all of us. this evening and tonight, some showers jetting further eastwards towards eastern areas, otherwise clear spells, turning chilly, in fact, for scotland, northern ireland, in rural areas, temperatures getting down into fairly low single figures. for thursday, temperatures go —— east anglia and the south—east it will feel quite cool, actually, temperatures 17—19 degrees, below average for the time of year. but that rain will clear through the night, pushing up towards scandinavia. for friday, a westerly flow will bring in showers across scotland, northern areas of england, some of them heavy and thundery. later in the day, more persistent rain spreading into south wales and south—west england, sunny spells in between all of that, temperatures again, 17—22, feeling on the cool

side. as for the weekend, an area of low pressure will move its way, look at the isobars, getting closer together, windier conditions in northern parts throughout the weekend, outbreaks of rain. mainly across scotland and northern ireland, but for saturday and sunday. further south, some showers, but looking largely dry with sunny spells, feeling a little bit warmer on sunday in the south—east, i is up to. —— highs up to 26 celsius. bye— bye. hello, it's wednesday, it's nine o'clock. i'm joanna gosling, welcome to the programme. cracking down on junk food companies — kellogg's and kfc have been forced to remove adverts after one was placed near a school and the other aired during a cartoon. coco pops cronulla, it is so

chocolatey! new rules on advertising junk food to under—16s came into effect last year, but are they clear enough, and what impact will they have? we will be finding out. pressure is building on boris johnson over comments he made likening women who wear face veils to letter boxes and bank robbers, with a tory peer now saying he should be kicked out of the party. we will be discussing the row, and what should happen next,