this is business live from bbc news with ben thompson and ben bland. saudi arabia's investment conference gets under way, overshadowed by claims the country was behind the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. live from london, that's our top story on tuesday 23rd october. at least a0 company bosses and trade ministers from around the world have pulled out but hundreds are still attending the three—day summit in riyadh. also in the programme: deal or no deal for italy. investors await news from the eu over whether it will accept rome's proposed budget. italy says it's sticking to its plans to spend heavily, despite tough new eu rules. and it's a choppy day for global markets, with the same old worries. the china—us trade war, oil, and us elections all weighing on the numbers.

and we'll be getting the inside track on freight and meeting the founder of what he describes as the "expedia of the shipping industry". it's a new shipping software platform called freightos. today — mine‘s a double cheeseburger, a lamb roganjhosh and a crispy fried chicken... and it's not even 9am. yes, takeways are taking over the high street. the number of them has risen by more than a third in the uk over the past decade. so we want to know — are you ordering in more? are app delivery services to blame? let us know — just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. saudi arabia was supposed to be celebrating its vision for the future and its potential for investment today.

but the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi has changed all that. a major investment conference is now under way but there's greater focus on who isn't there, than who is. visitors to the event were supposed to be hearing about saudi's public investment fund — which currently has assets of about $230 billion — and its plans to transform the kingdom's economy and invest around the world. the us is regarded as a key trading partner and strategic ally — and so far washington has done little that could dent a trade relationship worth more than $35 billion last year. treasury secretary steven mnuchin even met crown prince mohammed bin salman in riyadh on monday. but mr mnuchin will no longer be speaking at the investment conference. the chief executives of uber, hsbc and blackrock are among the many to have pulled out of it amid concerns over mr khashoggi's death. meanwhile foreign investors pulled

about $1.1 billion out of saudi arabian shares last week. that's more than any other week since the stock market was opened to them in 2015. many governments are coming under pressure to reassess their trade ties with saudi arabia — including the uk which is the kingdom's second biggest supplier of weapons. we're joined now by david wearing, a middle east expert. but let's cross to that conference live fast, the pakistani prime minister imran khan attending, he is one of the world leaders who is still attending the conference. but let's get the thoughts of david, david, this is the second of these investments conferences, the first last year was huge, this were not as big as that but still hundreds

attending. it is not insignificant. it's not. the politics of it are quite significant, there is a trade off going on here, a cost benefit analysis. the benefits are obvious, saudis with huge sovereign wealth and plans to invest and diversify opportunities but the risks are becoming more obvious. one risk is reputational damage if you are associated with the crown prince who is responsible, who seems to be responsible for the death of jamal khashoggi and another risk... the saudis still deny the authorities had any knowledge of what went on, describing it as a road —— rourke —— rogue operation. as far as the other risk is concerned, is the kingdom being run competently? a lot of people are questioning that, that

might be reflected in the fact that fdi has fallen away, it may have some connection with the sell—off of shares on the stock market, foreign held shares, people do not necessarily believe the kingdom is being run by confident people and don't believe the crown prince knows what he is doing. i want to pick up on the reputational point you mentioned, it seems some firms have found a happy medium in how to deal with this conference, on the one hand, not sending the big—name bosses, and saying look, we are taking a stand, we are not happy with the situation as it stands, but not missing out on the business opportunities by sending perhaps less senior, less high—profile people just to have a presence. exactly, they are calibrating their response quite deliberately and it seems to be a message which says we are seems to be a message which says we a re interested seems to be a message which says we are interested in these opportunities but at the same time you need to get a group on this. the

impact of not sending the top ceos, it's quite major on the prestige of the kingdom and the crown prince, it makes them look toxic which they effectively are to western business leaders and politicians. that's quite a brutal message, it is saying we are still interested in the opportunities but you have to get your house in order. the message coming from germany today saying no more arms deals and tell the situation is resolved, the case of jamal khashoggi is resolved satisfactorily, and laying down the gau ntlet satisfactorily, and laying down the ga u ntlet to satisfactorily, and laying down the gauntlet to other european and western powers to do similar. yeah, of course the difference is germany does not project military power into the gulf, the british and the americans do. the real power is not economic, the value of british arms sales to saudi as a proportion of

its total arms sales worldwide is pretty small but the geopolitical and geostrategic value of projecting strategic power into the region is enormous and those sales are part of that, i suspect is why we will not have a similar announcement from the likes ofjeremy hunt or the trump administration. thank you for your thoughts. thank you for all your messages coming in on twitter and not we will talk about some of those little later. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the chemical giant monsanto has lost its appeal to a court ruling which concluded its weed killers were responsible for a man's cancer. dewaynejohnson won $289 million in damages in august but the court in san francisco reduced that to $39 million. monsanto's parent company bayer says it will continue its appeal. a high profile uber exective has resigned amid

allegations of sexual misconduct. cameron poetzscher has overseen major deals including the sale of uber‘s south—east asian business to grab and funding from softbank. his departure is a blow as the company reportedly gears itself up towards a stock market debut next year. the italian government could become the first to have its budget rejected by the european commission today. giuseppe conte's administration has refused to budge from its spending plans which breach eurozone rules. great story on the website today, we are probably all but guilty of this, describing economic gatherings we call them for example davos in the desert, or the young people's event in the hague we called the davos for young people and the world economic forum is not happy saying stop using the brand, they reject the idea of

using that naming for events not linked to their activities. a rap on the knuckles. on monday china's stock markets saw their biggest one day gain in two years but they're struggling to hold on to them despite the central bank taking steps to increase the amount of loans available to private companies. and it's a similar picture across asia. sharanjit leyl is on market watch in our asia business hub in singapore. you pretty much said it too, i see of red today for asian markets, a lot to do with what you have been talking about, the geopolitical risks, american tensions with saudi arabia, russia, the italian budget stand—off with the eu is all unnerving investors in asia and the roller—coaster ride particularly for chinese stock investors continues,

the low gauge slumping effectively ending the rises we've seen over the last two days. chinese stocks hitting the highest since 2015just yesterday, but reversing much of the games to make it the world's most volatile stock market at the moment. this despite chinese authorities issuing all of those coordinated state m e nts issuing all of those coordinated statements of support for the country's markets, and billing tax cut plans seeing investors are still really concerned and the slowdown, the slowest growth rate since the depths of the 2008—9 financial crisis. things down about 2%, tokyo down by 2.7. it is a sea of red as many markets have closed or are about to. thank you for keeping us across that. the nikkei in tokyo losing around

2.7% off the back of those ongoing worries over saudi arabia, the trade spat between china and the us and also those congressional elections in the us. earnings season kicking off too — with little by way of real upbeat news to excite investors. in europe, that budget stand—off between italy and the european commission kept investors cautious. there were some soothing woods from italian prime minister giuseppe conte about wanting to work with the commission to work out a compromise. but at the same time it says it's not willing to bend too much so we are not sure what the compromise could be. the commission are set to reject the plan. more on that in a moment, but first samira hussain has the details of what's ahead on wall street today. the iconic american motorcycle

company harley—davidson will be reporting earnings, earlier this year it decided to move production of bikes going to the european union from the us to its overseas facilities. calls to boycott harley—davidson then followed and they were backed by the american president donald trump. investors will be looking for a financial fallout from that. the golden arches will also be reporting earnings and while investors might be interested in seeing if low price value meals and other initiatives have been successful in drawing in more customers the focus will be on china where the anti—us sentiment following the trade war could dampen sales and overall results in return. joining us to talk about the markets today is jane sydenham, investment director at rathbones investment management. let's talk about saudi arabia. yes,

they have been trying to move away from being seen as just an oil state and moving towards diverse in its economy through investment and so on, it needs to reassure the world it's not just going on, it needs to reassure the world it's notjust going to put pressure on markets by restricting oil supply and pushing the oil price up. there are also worries about whether or not this issue will force them toward better relations with russia and how that plays out as far as westerman investors are concerned. touched on italy already, nobody is willing to blink at the italian budget, italy want to borrow more to spend more and the european commission says they don't like that and will reject it because they have new powers to do that. it would be quite significant if they said read/write and come back to us. yes, tensions arising, bond yields

rising, stock coming under pressure and it looks as though the european union will push back. italy is under a lot of pressure, it's been growing very slowly for a long period of time, its banking system is under pressure, they own a lot of debt internally. it's really difficult on both sides, it's going to cost some axed i think as far as far as the market are concerned. —— call some axed. the us sentiment is not all that strong, bit of a mixed sentiment? it's important to settle market nerves to push that there are good results in america, the fastest—growing economy in the world. if it does not maintain that leadership there is a bit of a tentative confidence. thank you very much for the moment, do come back and we will go through some of the papers with you. we will talk about your takeaway of choice maybe? still to come we hearfrom a man whose aim is to bring the benefits of passenger travel

to the freight shipping industry. he's the founder of the software platform freightos, used by among other, marks and spencer and sysco food. you're with business live from bbc news. a little closer to home. the company behind premier inn and costa coffee says sales were up and it opened even more hotel rooms in the six months to the end of october. but — you might remember, whitbread announced a plan to off—load costa to the drinks giant, coca cola forjust over five billon dollars. jasper lawler, head of research at london capital groupjoins us now. jasper, your take on the numbers? good morning. ithink jasper, your take on the numbers? good morning. i think the overall ta keaway good morning. i think the overall takeaway is that whitbread had given us takeaway is that whitbread had given usa takeaway is that whitbread had given us a profit warning, saying that two factors a re us a profit warning, saying that two factors are a weakening consumer

environment in the uk and the looming brexit problems. both sort of contributing to a slightly weaker forecast going forward and so they are saying that they are going to cut costs in order to combat that but i think it's a concerned obviously, given the timing of selling off the cost around, costa was a more profitable business, this is obviously a transition period. at the moment probably the reaction, the moment probably the reaction, the share price down at the moment, investors a little concerned at how the transition will play out. we are looking at the share price on screen as we discuss this, one thing that has come out of that, off—loading costa coffee, the premier inn brand as well that pops up in most cities, they said they will make these even smaller rooms, dirt cheap, the idea that you can get a comfy bed and somewhere to sleep for much less could be a strategy to bring profitability up. yes, i mean i

think it sounds perfectly reasonable, you offer consumers choice. obviously, time will tell whether they take that choice or not but another industries it's been proven, airlines for example, it looks like whitbread want to be the easyjet of the hotel industry. it's been proven with airlines people are willing to travel further appealed to slightly more distant places for the holidays to make it cheaper, they are willing to have a smaller room, get your head down at night, you don't have to make so much use of the room but make more use of the holiday. there are going to be some people who choose bad and at the overall environment is slowing, adding a bit more diversity through the size of your rooms and the country you offer it in, germany being a place they are looking to expand, areas that maybe they can have the hotel business without the coffee business. interesting, jasper, good to talk to you. thank you very much. thank you. your're watching business live —

our top story ——— saudi arabia's investment conference is under way, overshadowed by claims the country was behind the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. now, global trade has been in the headlines lately — with the world's two largest economies squaring up for a tit—for—tat battle over tariffs. but what about the logistics of international trade? well, 90% of the world's trade by volume is shipped by sea. there are around 17 million containers in the world, either in transit and at docks. and the world's biggest cargo ship can carry up to 10,000 standard containers, each of them with up to 68 cubic meters of space. today we're get the inside track on the industry from one entrepreneur who's tried to shake it up. having worked in manufacturing, zvi schreiber became frustrated by the complications of shipping. i met him to hear how he and his company freightos have tried to solve them. the idea is to bring the same

benefits that we've had for 20 years already in passenger travel and bring the same benefits for international shipping. bring the same benefits for internationalshipping. if you bring the same benefits for international shipping. if you want to fly from shanghai to london you go online, find a rate but if you wa nt to go online, find a rate but if you want to ship a container before the company it was a slow and manual process , we company it was a slow and manual process, we are a website a bit like expedia or booking, you compare prices and you book online. how did you identify their was a need within the industry for a service like us? i'm not from the shipping industry or the logistics industry at all, i have a background in software, i created software companies but i managed an lx products company in 2010, 11 and i was involved in shipping on a daily basis to the south china, the us, i was a customerfor south china, the us, i was a customer for the industry of international shipping. customer for the industry of internationalshipping. i customer for the industry of international shipping. i was kind of shocked by how manual that is, i thought shipping a container would be like booking a flight, you go

online, see a price, book but in actual fact online, see a price, book but in actualfact i online, see a price, book but in actual fact i waited 3—4 days for a price quote on a major lane like china to the us. when it was shipped the was no track and trace online, i did not know where the container was and when it finally arrived i received a bill which did not match the price quote. the entire industry was 20th century, none of the transparency and automation that we have come to expect another industries. for a small operators i conceivably be an advantage to come toa conceivably be an advantage to come to a price comparison site like yours but surely if it's a big company doing a lot of shipping isn't it cheaper for them to deal directly with the shipping company and negotiate a better rate rather than go through you? yes, that's correct, we are talking about a very large industry, hundreds of billions of dollars, what happens is you are quite right, the big companies for predictable, regularship quite right, the big companies for predictable, regular ship is able to an annual contract with shipping lines. about half the industry bradley is tied up in annual

contracts, the other half which is still hundreds of billions, is spot, because it's a smaller import or exporter, they can't predict everything. if you are tesco or walmart may be can predict 80—90% of your ship is that you still have 10-20% not your ship is that you still have 10—20% not planned in advance and you need an instant price quote for that. take the smaller importers and exporters and you add the spot rates we re exporters and you add the spot rates were the big companies that is a huge industry to go after. is it just ocean shipping or do you do airfreight as well stop we do ocean and air, a lot more good school by ocean because it's cheaper but when you look at the spend, areas, smaller amount of goods, the amount of spend a substantial, $18 billion a year, we do both. one of the big advantages for an importer is that we get them both rates side by side,

they can make a choice whether they wa nt to they can make a choice whether they want to spend extra by a or save money and wait the extra time for ocean. i was cut off mid sentence. in my prime. cut off by myself, i'm not quite sure what that says. jane has rejoined us to talk about some of the stories in the papers. an interesting one, the number of ta keaway interesting one, the number of takeaway is on the high street of why 34% over the past 5—6 years. astonishing number. it is amazing, so much easier now to order a takeaway, so much choice, technology makes it really easy, delivery time is pretty good as they are competing aggressively against each other and they have the right technology to be efficient. there's been a change in what you would define as fast takeaway. in its purest sense we imagine checking places and burger joints but now there's quite a lot of choice, places you can order from because of the apps that mean you

get it delivered. pretty much everything used to be chicken and chips, fish and chips, one of the favourites in our house is sushi, there is so much choice, you can go to the healthy end of the spectrum if you want to. if you want to. let's talk about another change in technology, dvd player a cadbury day, a story in the guardian, john lewis, one of the department stores in the uk would not restock when it sells out of its dvd players. the end ofan sells out of its dvd players. the end of an era, isn't it? it is, isn't it, we threw out our old cassette is the other day, time has moved on even since then, no one wa nts moved on even since then, no one wants trouser presses any more, dvd players, it's all about recyclable cups. gives us quite a good insight, the study, customer trends survey, john lewis, what we are buying and not buying, gives us an insight into the way things are changing. real shifts in society, absolutely.”

the way things are changing. real shifts in society, absolutely. i am intrigued by that headline, alarm clocks are out, don't people deep to wa ke clocks are out, don't people deep to wake up? i set my phone but i'm a lwa ys wake up? i set my phone but i'm always paranoid if the software crashes i will sleep through so i said a little travel battery alarm clock. there was talk of being over surgeons in the battery alarm clock, your phone is everything, your temptation to look at the last and bursting, having that in a separate room and a good old—fashioned alarm clock would be good. maybe it's too niche. we were asking your thoughts, jumping back to the takeaway story, asking for your tweets on whether you take out more, further that's down to the delivery, the apps that ring at right to your front room. james says yes, ordering in war, the delivery services to blame especially during the night. chris, lots of people don't know how to cook or work so many hours because of low wages they don't have time to cook. erica demonstrating a fair bit

of restrained, we have fish and chips roughly six times a year, that's about it. you've got good self—control, erika, that is my ta keaway of self—control, erika, that is my takeaway of choice. marty says i moved back to a village, no takeaway on apps near me, you are safe from them. up ordering services as jane suggests naked to easy to order, i went through a period when viewers says, nick, of ordering twice a week. and also, jane, it's how it changes our habits so easily, it's become second nature. yes, we order much more frequently because it's so easy and quick. great business opportunity. isn't it. definitely. definitely. lovely to see you, enjoy whatever you are having to night stop good to see you. have a good day. goodbye. hello. not a great deal of change in

the weather conditions over the next couple of days but by the end of the week that's when it gets really quite interesting. stick with me, for the moment this area of high pressure dominating things, the fact it's brushing northern parts. this north—westerly feed across the uk, going to continue to bring in cloud and outbreaks of rain for the north west of scotland, cloudy skies for northern ireland, north wales, the midlands as well. the rain in north—east england clearing to give way to brighter skies, a breezy day compared to yesterday. for northern parts costs as high as 50—55 miles an hour, temperature wise, looking and 13—16d, the warmest spot perhaps towards the east of scotland, some sunshine, temperatures reaching 17 degrees. overnight we continue with this north—west wind ringing in

cloud across northern and western areas, streaming through the midlands into the south—east of england. toward southern and western areas, temperatures getting into single figures, under cloud, the temperatures staying in double figures. the forecast for weapon state similar to today, lighter winds tomorrow, again, a fair amount of cloud towards northern and western areas. for most, dry, writes buzz with sunshine, particularly north east england, the midlands and wales, eastern scotland having some sunshine. into thursday, on the face of it, not a great deal of change, this high pressure is still with us, the weather front to the north intensifying slightly during thursday. some outbreaks of rain across the north, turning quite heavy. elsewhere, this mixture of varying amounts of cloud with some sunny spells, the cloudy as did conditions in the north and west,

temperatures sliding on thursday, 12-13d. temperatures sliding on thursday, 12—13d. by the end of the week are turning much colder, cold front sinking south, look at the wind direction, all the way from the north pole. a cold plunge by the end of the week. much colder, strong northerly winds, some snow, likely to be mainly over the higher ground of northern parts of the uk, elsewhere some sunshine but much colder. goodbye. hello it's tuesday, it's nine o'clock, i'm joanna gosling, welcome to the programme. three million common surgeries and cancer treatments could become life—threatening because antibiotics are becoming less effective. that's the warning from health officials today, who say people who take antibiotics when they don't need them could be putting themselves and their families at risk. we'll speak to a gp, a cancer patient and public health england about what can be done. also, the turkish president will

address parliament in the next few minutes to outline new evidence he claims to have about the murder of jamal khashoggi in the saudi embassy in istanbul, we will bring you the details as we get them.