this is business live from bbc news with victoria fritz and maryam moshiri. the protracted battle for control of the broadcaster sky is poised to come to a dramatic conclusion. live from london, that's our top story on friday 21st september. rivals comcast and 21st century fox are squaring up for the start of a three—round auction, the biggest such competitive sale the uk has ever seen. also in the programme... as the trade war between the us and china rages on, beijing goes to the world trade organisation in geneva in a separate dispute over anti—dumping. this is what is going on with the markets. the european open as followed asian equities higher with

themselves gained their lead from wall street. and could the us—china trade war really last decades as jack ma suggests? with that and what's being described as the "biggest scandal" in europe — the multi—billion dollar money—laundering case at danske bank — it's been a dramatic week for global business. we'll take stock with our economics correspondent andrew walker. today we want to know, should hand luggage on a flight be free? ryanair is planning to charge for it. —— charge for heavier items. the italians are up in arms. let us know — just use the hashtag bbcbizlive hello and welcome to business live. 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, 5pm in real money,

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 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.

why is it happening in the first place? 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 auctioned in the uk. are you confused? zach fuller, who's a media analyst at midia research joins us now. explain to me where we stand first of because it has been a long and winding road to get here and we're now at auction so how it work?m winding road to get here and we're now at auction so how it work? it is going to be over three rounds. the first round allows fox to counter comcast who is currently the largest bidder at £26 billion. if they go

over that, comcast can come back and make a counter offer but if, by the third round, if they are still in deadlock by 5pm today, on saturday they can effectively go toe to toe through the investment banks and work out who will get sky. we have seen comcast willing to outbid fox at other junctures so seen comcast willing to outbid fox at otherjunctures so does mean the smart money is on them?” at otherjunctures so does mean the smart money is on them? i think so. you have to consider that their business is primarily, they are in internet services and have theme parks, but mainly their business is in the us pay—tv market, which is currently undergoing this massive disruption through services such as netflix and amazon. comcast needs to look to new markets and for sky, a similar example to use is what was done with penguin random house. if you of your stake in a business, even though you know it might not be

the future of media, you can take those safe revenues and reinvest the capital into riskier digital ventures which ultimately will be the future of your business. given how much has happened so far, some a nalysts a re how much has happened so far, some analysts are suggesting sky is overpriced. could it be the curse of the winner. that is an interesting point. with this rare auction process , point. with this rare auction process, i believe it is only the fifth time it has happened since it was brought in in 2002 and the last one was in 2008 so there has been a long break of seeing it. as was referenced, with an auction them while you want to do right by your shareholders and get a fair price, the competitive element forces you into potentially overpaying. so what next? what is your prediction?” don't know if i am in the business of predictions! this is the future of predictions! this is the future of media and we don't know what the

future will hold but what they can see with sky is a high margin business from sunset business may be in the pay—tv market but ultimately a huge base and high margins and ultimately a good investment to reinvest the capital in the future. great to have your input, thank you very much. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the chinese military has been hit by us sanctions let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. over its purchases of russian militaryjets and missiles. the us says the purchases are a breach of washington's sanctions on moscow for its actions in the ukraine and alleged interference in us politics. beijing currently has no sanctions in place against russia. the troubled us bank wells fargo is planning a steep reduction of staff which could affect more than 26,000 people. the firm said it expects headcount to decline by 5% to 10% over the next three years, through a combination of cuts and regular attrition. the move is part of an effort to make the bank more efficient, as the sector moves online. but moving online can

have its problems too, as natwest has found out. the bank's customers are currently unable to access their bank accounts through the company's online and app platforms. the problem occured early this morning, however natwest said its telephone banking and atms are working as normal. 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 be examining the dispute. sarah toms joins us from our asia business hub in singapore. and this doesn't relate to the current angst between the nations but an old grudge? that's right. to be clear, this is

not the recent complaint china has made against the us over trade tariffs, this is an old case dating back to december 2013. you might remember this was when washington was claiming that some chinese exports had been dumped onto the us market at unfairly low prices and the us said it was undercutting american products. in reality —— retaliation, the us imposed duties on several chinese industries, metals, electronics, but it was the way that washington actually calculated these duties that beijing is disagreeing with. china said it cost them more than $7 billion annually and now it wants the wto to impose the same amount back in sanctions against the us. the wto is reviewing the case at the moment and hopefully a decision will be coming $0011. hopefully a decision will be coming soon. thank you very much, sarah. a quick look at the markets.

equities swung higher in asia on friday with japanese stocks hitting their highest since may, spurred by a record close on wall street overnight. confidence injapan's manufacturing sector has dropped to its lowest in almost two years despite strong underlying growth in the sector. that has pushed up the value of the yen and the nikkei is rising. tech stocks were leading the charge in the us. in europe, the markets have just opened. a few corporate results moving the market. profits at the insurance market lloyd's of london have halved in the first half of the year. the results show the scale of the challenge facing incoming chief executivejohn neal. and kim gittleson has the details of what's ahead on wall street today. on friday the key question will be whether or not wall street's record—breaking momentum can be sustained. both the s&p 500 and the dowjones industrial average closed at record highs on thursday at investor enthusiasm about the health of the us economy remained undimmed. that might seem surprising given

the escalation in trade tensions between the us and its biggest trading partner, china, this week. but the key question for investors, as ever, is the outlook for american business. and, with unemployment at a record low, wages are rising and american consumer spending set to pick up as a result of both the back—to—school and holiday seasons, well, that's about as close to a clean bill of health as corporate america can get. joining us now is tom stevenson, who's the investment director at fidelity international. what a week for political news. brexit of course on the agenda. huge pressure on theresa may. how are the markets reacting and what do the people in the city think? what factors a re

people in the city think? what factors are they watching? the thing is that the markets have had plenty of time to get used to the idea of a lot of uncertainty and i think everybody expected that, in this final push up to october, november, that things would get more tense and there would be conflicting headlines and ups and downs. i think the market is relatively relaxed about that. and also it looks at other things, what is going on with the uk economy, there were some retail sales figures that were a bit better than expected. in a more global sense, we have heard what is happening in markets around the world. the us is absolutely on fire at the moment which is driving markets higher and the us is the most important stock market in the world of course. and one further point about the uk, it is a very international market with lots of exporters and overseas earners so what is going on in the rest of the world is probably more important than the domestic economy. one could perhaps say other people might think

brexit is a storm in a teacup but it matters hugely for the uk and the ftse. it does matter hugely for the uk domestic economy but it is important to realise that investing in the uk stock market is not the same thing as investing in the uk domestic economy. because they are so different, one is internationally focused? that's right. many of the ftse 100 focused? that's right. many of the ftse100 companies earn the lion's share of their profits overseas so there is a difference between investing in domestically focused companies, which will probably struggle in the next six months, and in the larger companies in the ftse 100. thank you we will be talking about the papers in a minute and particular your hand luggage habits! that is a weird tease! you will find out what i'm talking about! still to come... at the end of a cataclysmic week, with the rules—based global trade system under threat and news of what's being described as europe's "biggest scandal",

we'll take stock with our economics correspondent andrew walker. you're with business live from bbc news. whatever side of the debate they're on, the one word we've heard over and over again from businesses this week is uncertainty. the manufacturing organisation, the eef have surveyed their members and found one in four manufacturers has put the brakes on their investment plans becauase of brexit. stephen phipson is the chief executive of the manufacturers' organisation the eef and he joins us from our central london studio. tell us exactly what the main worry is because business investment is what makes the world go round in terms of business. it is indeed and it tends to be the larger companies that are worried about the future and where the deal will end up. as we know, the manufacturing sector in

this country, particularly at the larger end, is highly integrated with their european counterparts, the supply chains go across borders, and so do understand in terms of investment what that future structure will look like is critical to them. many are putting things on hold until the deal is clear. there seems to be a real sense of urgency in your report. do you feel you're being listened to? we are but we need a deal quickly. the quicker we can get clarity around it, the better. intervals of this week, we will see ups and downs in the negotiation and we're used to that in business but we need to get to it quickly and it is just as for the europeans, despite what i said yesterday, as it is for us. we are highly integrated in both directions at the larger end so to make sure we come together with a free—trade area and frictionless borders is critical to both the bus also the only credible plan out there to achieve it at the moment is the chequers plans —— both of us. the uk parliament has to get bind it and

the eu has to compromise and i hope thatis the eu has to compromise and i hope that is where we will be in the next few weeks but the quicker the better to get the clarity is a investment can to get the clarity is a investment ca n flow to get the clarity is a investment can flow again. thank you very much. i want to directed to the business live page on the bbc website. if you go there now you will get information on this moving story with ulster bank. account holders have been reporting problems with services since around 5:30am this morning. it seems there was a similar problem in april as well. let us know what you think. a lot of very angry customers. your're watching business live — our top story... the protracted battle for control of the broadcaster sky

will come to a dramatic conclusion this weekend. rivals comcast and 21st century fox are squaring up for the start of a three—round auction, the uk's biggest—ever such competitive sale. a quick look at how the markets are faring. european markets are open, very much taking their lead from asia. we had a five—month high in the japanese stock index overnight, and in turn that took its lead from the us markets. there were record highs, led largely by the technology stocks. it's been another busy week in business — the us—china trade war continues, putting even more pressure on markets. meanwhile, canadian officials have been in washington this week to discuss the nafta trade deal. and there has been a huge money laundering scandal at danske bank. with us now is our economics

correspondent, andrew walker. 0ur economics guru, i like to say. frankly, that's what you are! your finger in all the economic pies. you know what's going on. if you're coming to the story fresh and haven't seen what has happened, talk us haven't seen what has happened, talk us through the twists and turns in the us and china trade war, because it affects us all. the big picture is that the united states considers china's ambitions for cornering large parts over the next couple of decades are fundamentally inconsistent with global trade rules and the use of subsidies and industrial policy. but there is a specific issue that president trump has focused on, what he calls the theft of the technology of american companies doing business in china, and he has taken some quite assertive action in relation to

that. initially with tariffs on, if you like, penalising tariffs on $50 billion worth of chinese exports to the us. the chinese retaliated and earlier this week president trump decided to stick further tariffs on another $200 billion worth. that's another $200 billion worth. that's an enormous amount of trade totalling half of what china sells totalling half of what china sells to the united states, roughly. within hours of president trump announcing that decision, the chinese came back with further retaliation and there is every chance president trump will up the sta kes o nce chance president trump will up the stakes once again and there is the possibility that he will end up putting tariffs on all chinese exports to the united states. they don't call them trade wars for nothing! let's talk about nafta and the big trade deal. canada yet to sign up. mexico's seems perhaps a bit happier with the whole idea. is a bad deal better than no deal, in

your view? the mexicans have agreed some reforms to this trade agreement, which dates back to the 19905. agreement, which dates back to the 1990s. the canadians have found it much more difficult to nail down something with the united states. certainly the canadian position has been that they really do need a deal thatis been that they really do need a deal that is good for canada. they have been resisting the idea ofjust signing up to anything. the minister christopher egeland has been in washington again try to negotiate an agreement. —— chrystia freeland. it appears that the americans want to have some sort of ability to limit the quantity of canadian car imports going into the united states. at a level a bove going into the united states. at a level above what they actually exported last year. so it doesn't necessarily mean canada will hit those kinds of barriers, but it's not something they will be very happy with. when you think of

money—laundering scandal is you don't often think about denmark. but with danske bank, it's a massive story. you are absolutely right about denmark, it comes out very well in transparency international surveys of how corrupt people believe there is public sectors to be. but this is the private sector, and it has to be said that it isn't in denmark where the problem itself was happening. it was in the bank's branches in estonia. they had only bought that operation in 2007. there isa bought that operation in 2007. there is a lot of evidence saying a lot of money has been laundered from people associated with well—known money—laundering operations based in russia and other parts of the former soviet union. having been investigated by a group of independent lawyers, they came to the conclusion that there might have been collusion on the part of people operating in estonia with some of these money—laundering operations. it has to be said that they are not making those accusations about

management in denmark. however, the chief executive decided to fall on his sword. andrew, with that image is, thank you. amazon s alexa, for now at least, is the biggest selling home voice assistant on the market. but, rivals ? in particular google ? have been gaining ground in the smart home sector — the idea that almost your entire house should be connected to the internet and controllable by voice or app. at an event at its seattle headquarters, amazon has shared its newest devices that it hopes will keep it on top. let's take a look at what they've cooked up, literally. 0ne potato. starting potato. six minutes, 34 seconds. it's 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 this great thing of the internet. ten seconds starting now.

microwaves that control everything, voice control. do you have alexa or anything like that? no, i don't want someone anything like that? no, i don't want someone listening to my conversations and racking up my information. there is room for only one woman in my house. and it's me! we asked you to tell us what you

think about this story from ryanair where they will charge some people for luggage over ten kilograms. the italians are not happy. they want space for their prada handbags. we have some really interesting tweets. simon says, he surprised ryanair are not charging for the seat cushions. if you don't hire one you might end up if you don't hire one you might end up sitting on a wooden plank. access to the stairs. which is a privilege to the stairs. which is a privilege to stop perhaps you should use a ladder. chris says come your seat cove rs a ladder. chris says come your seat covers a set price and set weight limit. all up. it should equal 100 kilograms minus your body weight. it's especially helpful when travelling with children. it might be unfairon travelling with children. it might be unfair on those with children or heavier or pregnant. i'm not sure about that. another view, i miss the old days when you paid for a ticket that included everything, checked in luggage, hand luggage and a meal. 0ne price all in. now i end up cutting and clicking to see what i can and can't take and how much it may or may not cost. it wasn't like that in our day! but i'm slightly

older than you. tom stevensonjoins us again to discuss. what's your hand luggage story? do you believe hand luggage is a privilege or a right? it certainly extremely annoying when you get on a low—cost flight and if you are not the first person on the plane, because everyone now carries cases with the wheels, they are frankly too big for the available space, so if you're not first on come you can't get your bag in. i don't think anyone should be particularly surprised by this. this is the low—cost airline model. they charged a thing for the flights but make their money from charging for other stuff, for the meals, for being able to get on first, whatever it is. let's not be surprised when they charge for bags as well. the italians think it's an anti—trust issue. do they have a case? welcomer it is an anti—trust issue in as much... ina it is an anti—trust issue in as much... in a different sense of the

word trust. it's a trust in the airlines. the service from low—cost airlines. the service from low—cost airlines is so shoddy these days that it's an unpleasant experience becomes really trust them. some other tweets to run by you. some people have been supporting ryanair. richard says he thinks companies should charge whatever they want and if customers are not willing to pay they will soon go elsewhere and they have to adjust. yes, or they will just check their bags in do something different. that's how the market works. we have benefited from low—cost air travel, so maybe it will go upa low—cost air travel, so maybe it will go up a bit. tom, thank you so much. excellent to have you on. that's it from business live today. there will be more business news throughout the day on the bbc live webpage and on world business report. we'll see you again tomorrow. hgppy happy weekend! we have seen some disruptive weather

courtesy of storm bronagh with some heavy rainfall and gusty winds. a few spots saw a month's worth of rain. the strongest recorded gust was around 78 mph across the needles. today is still fairly blustery with a mix of sunny spells and showers. as storm bronagh works its way to the north—east, taking with it this morning's rain, you can see we still have tightly packed isobars, so we are looking at another breezy day. there will be scattered showers, largely in the north and west, some heavy and possibly thundery but they could carry across to the east on at gusty wind. gusts of around 45—50 mph across england and wales. in between, sunny spells and sunshine, temperatures cooler than they were in the south, looking at the mid to high teens. cool in northern ireland and scotland struggling into the low teens. 0ne and scotland struggling into the low teens. one to showers this evening

but they should ease as we go through tonight, confined to the north and west. a bit more in the way of cloud pushing into the south—west, and that is courtesy of the next area of rain that will work its way in. a chilly night and you can see temperatures largely in single figures. as we go into saturday, after a bright start there will be more in the way of cloud and outbreaks of rain, the rain working in from the south—west. the best of the dry and bright weather found further north. a chilly start, fine weather first thing but the cloud increases with rain spreading into the south—west. uncertainty as to how far north and east it will spread, but looks like it would be heaviest in south—west england. cloud in northern ireland and northern ingrid, the best of the brightness in scotland with some showers possible. temperatures not one, highs in the mid teens. saturday night and into sunday, the rain largely clearing but as the area of low pressure brings a

headache, some uncertainty as to the exact positioning and how deep the low will be and how strong the wind will be. sunday, looks like the potential for heavy rainfall again and some disruptive wind, particularly across england and wales, where it could reach into southern scotland as well. some uncertainty in the detail so stay tuned to the forecast through the weekend and we will keep you up—to—date. hello, it's 9 o'clock, i'm victoria derbyshire, a senior cabinet minister is warning that britain's heading for a no—deal brexit unless the eu changes its mind on the irish border issue. what the european union is asking in and around northern ireland is simply impossible for any uk government to accept. and actually, if they stick with that position there will be no deal, because no uk government, certainly not this one, the labour party has said the same, could possibly accept any kind of border in the irish sea. it comes after the president of the european council, donald tusk, said theresa may's proposed trade plan "won't work". we'll talk to a range of politicians and ask what might happen next. this programme has been told that

thousands of patients given contaminated blood in the 1970s and 80s after childbirth or an operation may not realise they're living with a life—threatening illness.