this is the business briefing. i'm victoria fritz. sky under the hammer — the multi—billion dollar battle for the broadcast giant could soon be decided in britain's biggest ever auction. plus... one potato. six minutes and seven seconds. alexa, bake me a potato? amazon launches a range of new smart devices, including a microwave, in a bid to dominate the home of the future. and on the markets... the dow and s&p hit new record highs as trade war fears recede. and investors focus on strong corporate profits. we start here in london, where the takeover battle

for broadcasting giant sky could soon be decided, in the biggest auction the uk has ever seen. financial regulators have stepped in to end a protracted bidding war. they say unless a deal is agreed by 1600 gmt, an auction will begin, with the winner announced on monday morning. sky's fate has been up in the air since december 2016, when rupert murdoch's 21st century fox launched a takeover bid. it already owns a 39% share of sky, and made an offer for the other 61%. the bid got bogged down in an investigation by regulators, into whether mr murdoch controls too much of the uk media. then us cable tv giant comcast gatecrashed the deal with a higher offer and a bidding war began. as of yesterday, fox was offering $32.5 billion for skym as of yesterday, fox was offering

$32.5 billion for sky, and comcast $34 billion. to make things even more complicated, fox agreed injune to sell most of its business to walt disney, rejecting a rival bid from comcast. disney is now backing fox's attempt to buy sky. traditional media giants are trying to strike these mega—deals to compete with the rise of tv streaming services from netflix and amazon. which is why sky is a prize worth fighting for, as europe's largest pay—tv provider with almost 23 million subscribers. and why, at $34 billion and counting, it could end up being the most expensive thing ever auctione in the uk. let's get more on this story. david madden is from cmc markets. he joins us from the city of london. 23 million people, that is who they

are fighting for, the subscribers in europe? they are indeed. sky mobile and the internet as well. this is ultimately about building up content. the on line streaming world is becoming a major industry and will be one of the industries of the future, likely. walt disney is reportedly buying a large chunk of fox's assets, and it will bring their stakes up to 50% in it. disney have a backlog of content of their own and planning to remove from netflix. they could get sky into the fold as well. they have a back catalogue of content. do we tend to

aggregate, migrate to a certain platform because it has better content or is it quite disperse, is that they are vibrant market for these? in the grand scheme of things, if you look at how other industries operate, one or two players are dominate the sector and the more fragmented it is, the more fickle customers want because they did not want several accounts. however things play out, i think the more fragmented it is, the more difficult for certain players to get a holding of this sector. in most industries, it is common for a couple of players to beef up their content and go from there. couple of players to beef up their content and go from therem couple of players to beef up their content and go from there. it begs the question of there for, is this

too little, too late? netflix at amazon already have the services. --. ido not amazon already have the services. --. i do not think it is too late. disney have an enormous back catalogue. they will pull it from netflix. the disney brand is extremely well—known and popular and i think with the history it has behind it, it will always draw in viewers. thank you very much. let's go to asia now and the trade war between the world's two biggest economies, china and the us. the world trade organisation will try to get between the two of them. rico hizon is following the story in singapore face—off. anotherface—off! face—off. another face—off! laughter we are not talking about the recent

complaint china has made about the us about this ongoing tariff wall. december 2013, beijing disagreed with the way washington assessed whether certain chinese exports had been dumped at unfairly low prices on to us markets. china has suffered more than $7 billion in duties annually and is seeking permission from the wto to impose the same sanctions as allowed under the rules. the global trading body is reviewing the complaint and the decision is coming very soon. the world trade organisation has pledged to mediate between the us and china as trade conflicts escalate. it is dedicated to force washington and beijing into a dialogue, a dispute that could lead to a full—scale global trading while. it could hurt

global trading while. it could hurt global economic growth. thank you very much. lovely to see it in singapore. it is victoria here. my apologies. nice to see you. have a lovely weekend. let's talk about amazon now and alexa. she is the biggest selling home voice assistant on the market. but, rivals — in particular google — have been gaining ground in the smart home sector. that's the idea that your entire house should be connected to the internet and controllable by voice or app. now amazon has unveiled a series of new devices at its seattle headquarters to try and stay ahead. our north america technology reporter dave lee was there to see what they have been cooking up. one potato.

starting potato. six minutes, 34 seconds. laughter. it is really for one big reason, which is a large number of devices, not only in your kitchen, but throughout your house, are not yet connected to the great thing of the internet. why would i want to, in the case of a microwave? what is the point of having that on the internet? i asked myself that when we first thought about the product, but after having used a couple of months, you would be surprised at how complicated they are. what happens is you end upjust using your microwave for very simple cases because the hard ones are hard. why would i buy what you have made and notjust speak

to google assistant and siri? for a couple of different reasons. firstly, when you think about assistance that are on phones, any of those you have mentioned and others, they are optimised for the phone. a lot of times their answers have to show you something. they do not actually just do it in voice. and we don't want drivers to be distracted by looking at their phones, which is bad, and this way, we present everything via audio. is there a risk for amazon trying to put their eggs —— alexa in so many places,

that people willjust say, you know, back off? they are aware of possiblyjust putting too much out there. what works you might not work for me. they do not taste the same in a microwave anyway. a revolving door at tesla. a raft of news and announcements at amazon. bloomberg said the fed is likely to push aside recession

worries as projections for the us economy is coming up next week. police what you are spotting online. —— please tell us what you are spotting on line. plenty more in news briefing injust a moment. see you soon. the metropolitan police have admitted for the first time that an undercover officer had a sexual relationship with an environmental activist with the knowledge of his bosses. legal documents seen by the bbc show that mark kennedy's cover officers and line manager knew about his relationship with kate wilson and allowed it to continue.

our home affairs correspondent june kelly reports. he posed as mark stone, an environmental activist and a single man. in reality he was mark kennedy, an undercover police officer, married with children. one of a number of officers who have relationships with women campaigners that they were spying on. 15 years ago, mark kennedy began a two—year relationship with kate wilson. as a result, she is currently involved with legal action against the metropolitan police. in her case, police have admitted for the first time that mark kennedy abbas cover officer and line manager knew about the relationship and allowed it to continue. kate wilson is currently abroad. via skype she spoke about how this new information from police

contradicts what they told when they paid her compensation. they gave me an apology in a civil claim where they said these relationships should never happen, it would not authorise and it was a failure of management. that is not case, management were absolutely complicit. in a statement scotla nd absolutely complicit. in a statement scotland yard said as a result of ongoing legal action it would be inappropriate to comment at this stage, adding a game that those relationships were wrong and should not have happened. the question now being asked is whether police bosses knew about all of my kennedy's undercover relationships and of those of other police spies. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: hundreds of people are missing in northern tanzania after a ferry capsized on lake victoria. more than 40 are confirmed dead. a british cabinet minister says

there are no changes on the table at the moment, after prime minister theresa may's brexit plan was rejected by eu leaders. the rap producer marion ‘suge' knight has pleaded guilty to manslaughterfor running down two men in his pickup truck. now it is time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the independent front—page headline — eu leaders turn their backs on may. it follows a summit in salzburg where leaders rejected the british pm's brexit plan. tanzanian news site the citizen is covering the tragic capsize of a ferry on lake victoria. more than 40 passengers have died and hundreds more are missing. french newspaper le figaro looks at a court ordering far—right leader marine le pen to undergo psychiatric

tests, as part of an inquiry into her sharing of images of islamic state group atrocities on twitter. the financial times looks at an effort to encourage more women into business. just a third of the those classed as entrepeneurs in the uk are female. the scottish times has the titanic battle looming over more than 5,500 artefacts from the famous wreck, which will go up for auction next month. and finally, in the daily mail, don't go to venice expecting