this is the business briefing. i'm samantha simmonds. the co—found of microsoft paul allen has died age 65. tributes have been pouring in from across the tech world. bill gates saying his life—long friend was a pioneer. making the case for money manipulation — the us treasury publishes a report today on currency practices. will it name and shame the chinese? and asian markets are making up some ground in early trade, but fears continue over the state of the global economy. microsoft co—founder paul allen has died aged 65 after complications arising from cancer. mr allen made his fortune at the software giant and went on to own several top—flight sports teams as well as becoming a leading phila nthtropist. according to forbes,

he was the 21st wealthiest person in the world. dave lee reports from san francisco. paul allen and bill gates were childhood friends and they created a company that bought personal computers to the masses. it was mr allen who convinced mr gates to drop out of harvard to devote his time to microsoft, a decision that led to both men becoming among the richest in the world. as mr allen prepared to leave the company due to ill—health, they had fierce disagreements but they were on a similar page when it came to spending their vast sums of money. like mr gates, mr allen was an enormous philanthropist, giving more than $2 billion to endeavours in science, technology, education and the arts. he had a passion to naval history, investing efforts to dive deep for sunken battleships. that's it, we got it. we try to do these both as really

exciting examples of underwater archaeology and as tributes to the brave men that went down on these ships. that said, he was no stranger to lavish spending on himself. he owned a yacht reportedly worth more than $250 million. he was also a huge sports fan, owning three major american teams. but his sisterjodie said he always made time for family and friends. mr allen never married and did not have any children, but with this work, he leaves a huge legacy. apple boss said. microsoft's current chief executive. in his old friend bill gates said... china has often been accused of manipulating its currency, but a report out on that exact subject by the us treasury could mean the accusation is in writing.

the document will analyse the foreign exchange policies of america's 12 biggest trading partners. president trump has been leading the charge, saying china and others are devaluing their currencies to gain a competitive advantage. a cheaper currency means their goods are less expensive for us consumers. since the begining of the year, the chinese yuan has weakened about 10% against the us dollar. the us treasury secretary, steven mnuchin, says the issue of currency needs to be part of future trade talks. and of course there's a growing trade war between washington and beijing. but in the strictest technical definition, is china a money manipulator? the country's central bank's policy on the currency market has been to bolster, not weaken the yuan. jeremy stretch is head of currency strategy at cibc world markets and joins me now. welcome to you, good morning. what are you expecting from this report?

well, china has been on what's called a monitoring list for a number of years and that's very much where they are likely to stay. clearly president trump wants to put additional pressure on the chinese, but the evidence doesn't back up the idea that they have been artificially weakening the currency andindeed artificially weakening the currency and indeed evidence would suggest they have been trying to sustain it to prevent it from falling further. so pressure on the chinese, yes, but i don't think the us will go all in and label them a currency manipulator when the report is published. and what would happen if they did that? well, there are no specific sanctions if they did, but it would further ratchet up pressure in terms of the trade relationship between the us and china and of course what we have seen over the course what we have seen over the course of the last few days when we've seen market volatility, stock markets around the world have been under pressure, partly as a consequence of investors becoming a little nervous about these trade tensions really blowing out into something much more dynamic. and if the report effectively doesn't back

up the report effectively doesn't back up president trump's assertion i guess he will have to back down on claims of what china is doing. one a lwa ys claims of what china is doing. one always is hesitant to save he will back down on anything in that context but they will likely be on a monitoring list. it still gives him an opportunity to say, well, ultimately the chinese are still seen to be gaining a competitive advantage vis a vis the us because of the scale of the imbalance in trade but you have to remember as a percentage of the chinese economy it is remarkably small. there are other countries which fit the criteria of potential currency manipulator is rather better than the chinese but of course it does not fit the narrative of the president. how does all of this speculation affect a business like yours and also ordinary consumers like me? business like yours and also ordinary consumers like me7m business like yours and also ordinary consumers like me? it is very much the case that the byproduct of this is how investors react in terms of these sort of accusations and whether it does influence financial markets and

equity markets in general, that's really where we see that and that's where it reflects the average person, because of course we all have in certain respects pension funds which are linked in many cases to the equity markets, the stock markets. so when there are episodes of political risk and uncertainty, and that comes back into equity markets being under pressure, then we are all somewhat affected directly or indirectly by our pension pots and investment portfolios. thank you for putting that into context for us. those on—going trade tensions are having an impact on prices in china. the latest inflation figures for september are out, and we can go to our asia business hub where sharanjit leyl is following the story. bring us up—to—date. yes, there has been some impact from the trade tensions on chinese inflation, of course we have been reporting on the us trade war with china for several months now. but it is now starting to filter into chinese numbers that are coming out, the data, today we saw the producer

prices, profitability, it is calling for a third month, which is pointing to potentially ebbing domestic demand as chinese lock in the intensifying trade war with the us. we saw consumer inflation as well, it has picked up slightly in septemberfrom it has picked up slightly in september from the previous it has picked up slightly in septemberfrom the previous month, which has led to higherfood prices, pork prices for instance, these for the moment in china seem contained and it is authority is the flexibility to ease monetary policy to try to shore up slowing growth and it has in fact prompted the central bank to try to an ounce —— to announce another cut to the reserve requirement ratio which took effect this week, which allows banks to lend more to attempt to stimulate the economy, the fourth such a move this year which really begins to show that the trade row with washington appears to be hitting chinese industries. ok, sharanjit, for now, thank you very much. now, on screen behind me, it might

not make you go "??yum it now, on screen behind me, it might not make you go "? ?yum it doesn't look tasty to me, but it could be essential to solving the global hunger crisis. the theme is to achieve zero hunger by 2030 ——" yum". with 820 million people suffering from malnutrition it is not a small task, so cricket and insects could be the key. my name is nam,i insects could be the key. my name is nam, iam insects could be the key. my name is nam, i am 39, and father of crickets, we produce the most affordable protein, crickets, to see the future. —— feed the future. when irun into the future. —— feed the future. when i run into people, saying that the population in the world will reach 9.5 billion people in 2050 and agriculture production is to expand by 70%. maybe if they were covered in chocolate i might be tempted. that's it for the business briefing this hour.

but before we go, here are the markets: asia has made up some ground after it to asia has made up some ground after ittoa asia has made up some ground after it to a sweet last week. the nikkei is up —— after eight —— after a tumultuous week. up next: newsbriefing. offences motivated by prejudices against men could become hate crimes along with misogyny and ageism under a home office review of the law in england and wales. figures released today are expected to show a spike in hate crime and ministers have called for a rethink to try to ensure that all groups considered vulnerable to attack and abuse are protected in court. our home affairs correspondent danny shaw reports. talking about hate crime, these kids at globe primary school in east

london are meeting government minister lady williams to tell her what they have learnt from a course on equality and diversity. the home 0ffice on equality and diversity. the home office is funding more projects like this as part of a new hate crime action plan. we learnt about stereotypes and we learnt not to judge people byjust what they look like orjust judge people byjust what they look like or just what we know about them. we should get in are there more and then judge them by their personality, not by their appearance. you don'tjudge a book by its cover, it is a good saying. you don'tjudge people by their parents. you have to be nice to people and respect them and not judge them by the way they look or what their religion has done in the past because everyone is different and you have to respect them. but the law on hate crime could be about to change. as well as getting schools to tackle the problem the home office has announced a legal review. it will look at extending the definition of hate crimes to

include offences motivated by a hatred of women and men. people have come to us and it is right that we ask them to look at it and maybe that we don't take it forward. it would be very interesting to hear what the royal commission says. the law commission review will also consider if offences targeting older people and those from alternative cultures such as goths should be defined as hate crimes, though more lessons about tolerance won't be needed here. danny shaw, bbc news, tower hamlets. coming up at 6am on breakfast: dan walker and louise minchin will have all the day's news, business and sport. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: turkish police have completed their first search of the saudi consulate in istanbul, where they believe the journalist jamal hashoggi was murdered two weeks ago. prime minister theresa may calls for calm ahead of crucial brexit negotiations despite differences over the future of the irish border. the royal couple meghan and harry confirm they'll be parents in the spring. australians welcomed the happy news with a few special gifts. now it's time to look at the stories

that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with city am. they lead with finance chiefs deserting the saudi business summit as political tensions surrounding missing journalist jamal khashoggi rumble on. and on the front page of the guardian, the prime minister is in a race to rescue the brexit deal, says the paper, as theresa may admits talks with the eu have stalled over the irish border issue. the financial times continues with the woes of sears. the us department store is urging its creditors not to throw them in dustbin of history after filing for bankruptcy yesterday. the japan times leads with the announcement from president abe that there will be a sales tax hike from next 0ctober. he says the increase is necessary to combat increasing social security costs. and, finally, the daily telegraph report that ageism could soon be recognised as a hate crime on the same level as racist and religious offences under a review of the law. with me is iain anderson, founder of the international

communications agency, cicero group. welcome back. let's start with city am and this so—called, well, it is a somewhat in the desert, davos in the desert, it has been dubbed. several business leaders are now saying they will not go because of the disappearance of jamal khashoggi. there has been a whole host of people overnight to have basically said they are not going to turn up, jp morgan are not going to go, blackstone are not going to go, aol, goober, a whole number of names. —— uber. they are saying that until saudi arabia clarifies what might have happened in turkey, and that is very much a developing story as we speak, a sense that the saudi government has moved in the past four or five hours to say, something might have happened in our embassy, and we are going to maybe talk about

that over the coming day or so. then they are not going to go to this conference. it is a big low for the reforming it zeal of the young crown prince mohammad bin salman, who has been trying to attract investment into saudi arabia. at the moment