acknowledged that crown prince mohammed bin salman could very well have had knowledge of plans to murder thejournalist and saudi government critic, jamal khashoggi. mr trump said he was putting american economic and security interests first. his lawyer has now submitted written answers to questions from the special counsel investigating whether the trump campaign team colluded with russia to help win the 2016 election. rudy giuliani claimed mr trump had provided unprecedented cooperation to robert mueller and it was now time to end the inquiry. a federaljudge in texas has temporarily blocked mr trump's attempt to deny asylum to people who enter the country illegally. hundreds of migrants from central america have nowjoined the large caravan gathered on the us—mexico border. now on bbc news, samira hussain talks to stacey cunningham, the president of the new york stock exchange, the first woman to occupy that post, as part of our 100 women season. stacey cunningham crashed through wall street's glass ceiling

this year to become the first woman to head up the new york stock exchange in its 226—year history. she began her career right here on the trading floor, and at that time, she was just one of a few dozen women. cunningham takes over the exchange at a pivotal moment. computers now do much of the work in trading stocks around the globe, but some things aren't that different. there are still very few female traders on the floor. i spoke with her about thriving in a male dominated industry, and taking over the helm of a powerful international institution in this metoo era. why do you think so much attention is being paid to you being the first

female president of the new york stock exchange? i think there's demand globally for people to recognise the fact that they can do whateverjob they want to do. so when they see something that isn't quite as typical, they're excited about it, and that's exciting for me because it means that what i'm doing is actually helping other people, so it's pretty rewarding. do you think it's warranted? i don't think it's warranted that a woman, you know, i don't think there should be any surprise that a woman is in a senior job, but i think it's warranted to share the message to others that you can do whatever you want, if you set your mind to focusing on solving a problem orforwarding a business, that you should continue to work on doing that and you'll be successful. what was like for you to receive that much attention because you're a woman in such a prominent role? it surprised me to receive so much attention, i didn't expect it to be so much of the story, but i very quickly realised why

it was, and it became very clear and evident to me that other people needed to know that they — the sky was the limit for them, and so seeing somebody continuing to progress through their career, i think is really important. i understand the importance of that visibility, and so, you know, while i didn't expect it out front, it makes perfect sense to me when i think about it, and it wasn't something that i needed to see in my career, i didn't need to know that it was muriel siebert that was ahead of me when i started on the trading floor, but if i can help other people, ten i want to make sure i'm doing that. do you see yourself as a role model for others? i think it's important for men, women, boys, girls, to know that they can go out and change the world in whatever way makes sense of them. they should choose the career path that makes sense for them, they should follow it, and if you're following your dreams, then you're going to be successful and you're going to enjoy what you're doing. and if somebody sees me as someone who's following my dreams and enjoying what i do each day, and that makes me role model,

then that's great. but if you look at the finance world, it does have a very strong reputation of having that bro kind of culture. what was it like for you in this environment? i had a great time on the trading floor, and so, even though i was outnumbered as a woman and there were far more men on the trading floor, there were some benefits to that, and i had a much higher profile as a woman on the trading floor because there were so few of us, and i also found that many of the men on the trading floor took a more protective stance, you know, they wanted to help you succeed. and so, there were some who were excited that i wanted to be in the world, it wasn't normal for a woman to want to be in their world at the time, or it certainly wasn't the norm, you know, and so — i've been very fortunate

throughout my career, whether it was the trading floor later, to have a lot of sponsors, very often men, usually men, that help progressed my career. and i think that's an important aspect of current career growth, is find the people that you can help support them and then in turn, they help you succeed also. when you started on the floor, there were also female journalists who also started on the floor at the same time, paving the way for someone like me to report from the floor. but they have talked about some of the difficulties that they faced with some of the traders when they saw them enter that floor. you didn't have that same experience? i probably tuned out a lot of what i thought was noise. so, i wouldn't say that the trading floor or any other work environment is perfect, but i tended to focus on the things that i thought were interesting and helpful, and i probably tuned out a lot of what was, i felt unnecessary. so i can't say that i didn't have — hear any of those things, but i didn't spend a lot of time thinking about them. and it didn't deter you? no, it didn't. in fact, like i said, i was really well connected.

i felt part of the community on the trading floor, i learned a lot from working on a trading floor. there are skills that you develop down there, communivcating very directly and very quickly is something that's so critical and so important, and you can leverage throughout your career. as a senior executive, you're quickly making decisions and quickly delivering messages that are really important and have to happen in a timely fashion, and those are things that i learned on the trading floor. so, you know, ifocused on the positives. do you think you were treated differently because your father was a trader? no. i, i... my father helped me get my internship on the trading floor and i was very lucky to have a door open for me, but i knew i had to earn the right to stay in the room, and that was my focus, was making sure that people knew i belonged there and i deserved to be there, and it wasn't hard for me to do because i was focusing on, ifocused on getting thejob done.

what would you say to young women now that are thinking about a career in finance? what advice would you give them? i think that finance provides a lot of opportunities, there are so many different style careers. women should go out, women or anybody, you know, any individual should find a way to identify the aspects of the business that are most interesting to them, and i would say when you do, you don't have to fit into those that are — the style of what exists today. so when you start in a new career or a new industry, especially if you are a minority in that area, don't try and be like everybody else. the fact that you're different is valuable and they'll recognise that, that diversity is really important to their business. if you're just trying to be the way everybody else is, you're actually limiting the value you can provide. certainly things have changed, but there's still a discrepancy between the number of women and the number of men that are in finance, particularly in seniorship roles. i mean, do you see that changing? when i look around at the nyc management team or more broadly

at the intercontinental exchange management team, there are a lot of senior women in very senior roles, you know, senior executives. so i don't see it quite as, you know, i do think there's a trend to have more senior women in leader roles, and i think that we're moving in the right direction. we're not moving quite as quickly as a global, global landscape — in the global landscape, but i think we are heading in the right direction. still, the number of public company ceos that are women is very, you know, it's dreadfully low and it's frankly falling which is the wrong direction to see. so i think we need society to change a little bit and help support what the expectations are of senior — of what a senior executive looks like. why are there fewer women ceos? there's never really been a ceo of an investment bank either that's a woman. we welcome public companies

here to the new york stock exchange all the time, and if i look back, most of them are men. there are two women ceos that came in to celebrate bringing their companies public and ringing that bell, but as we're standing on the bell podium, while there have been very few women, there are more women in senior executive roles of those companies. so we see that women are rising through the ranks, and i think that's a sign of good things to come. do you think the finance industry is overdue its own metoo moment? when i look back at some of the trends we saw in finance a couple of decades ago, there was, i think, a bit of a cleansing there, and certainly there was a message that people needed to be treated with respect in the office, and there were stories of women where they had not been treated appropriately. and so, i think finance may have been ahead of the game to some extent in this movement, but the message we need to take away and that we should all be taking from any of the events that have unfolded over the past 12 months or so is that every individual deserves to be treated with respect, and if you are coming into work each day, that's a base level right that you have,

and as leaders of organisations, we need to make sure that that's what's going on. for you personally, do you think you would be in this prominent role, president of the new york stock exchange, if you would have decided to perhaps have children earlier in life? what i can tell you is that a man probably wouldn't get that question, and that's important, because society needs to change their expectations around what women should be doing and what men should be doing, and if we're focused on how people are operating as executives and let them manage their personal lives in their own way, i think you will see women progress more through society, progress more through business and achieve higher goals. society often has a different expectation for women than they do for men, and that's something that's a challenge that women do have the fight. do you think that's a woman and woman expectation as well?

i do. i absolutely think that many women put pressure on women to make decisions that they think are right for them, and the lesson that i would hope to see everybody learn is that as an individual, you need to make the decisions that are right for you, and it doesn't mean that anybody else‘s decisions were wrong. but that's hard. it is hard, but that — we are lucky to be in a position where we have the right to do what we want with our own lives and to choose what is the path we want to take. sometimes it's not even a conscious choice, you know, i think we just need to make sure that we're not putting an unnecessary burden on one part of the community, you know, and looking at how gender or race or background should prevent somebody it from making life choices. i mean, we control our own destiny, and there are very few things in life you get to control but ho you act, how you operate and your reputation, you have that, you know. and so, making your own choices,

i think is something that everyone should be rewarded for. do you think you could have been more aggressive earlier in your career then? i think i could have been more aggressive early in my career, i think i could have accepted opportunities sooner in my career, and i was fortunate that i had people sponsoring me and pushing me into new opportunities that i may not have otherwise raised my hand for. it didn't mean that i wasn'tqualified for them, itjust meant that i didn't think i was necessarily the obvious choice. and once i got into a role and started to execute, it becomes very natural and you realise yeah, you might need to learn a few things, but that doesn't mean you can't learn them and then do them. i do want to ask, the nasdaq has pledged parity, so they are going to interview a woman for each senior vice presidential role at the nasdaq. will the nyse also make that pledge? when i look at how i construct my team, it is critical to have a really diverse

of opinions in our room. and so i'm already looking our table, we have a lot of women in senior roles, sitting and different seats and providing that perspective. so i think it's critical to make sure that you're interviewing candidates that span backgrounds and adversity. i don't think it's just about women, i think it's really important to have a really diverse group of people sitting around the table providing their unique perspectives in different ways, and even among people who fit certain categories the same way, so two women, often have very different backgrounds, and that holds true in so many ways. so when i am very focused on making sure that we have a team that makes us as strong as we possibly can be, that means they've gotta be diverse. so this room is named after muriel siebert, who was obviously the first female member of the new york stock exchange. it took her 175 years to have ourfirst female member, so that room is named after muriel but it's dedicated to women in finance. what's it like for you sort of to walk through these halls now?

i started my career as a summer intern in this room, in the boardroom we're about to walk into. i remember having a gathering to explain what was happening on the trading floor and it was a little bit of a teach in session for summer interns, but to see how the building and our business has evolved over the past 25 years is really fascinating. and you look at the space, we actuallyjust underwent a major restoration and renovation of the space because it's part of what we give back to our listed companies. so they can come in here and they can use this space, this morning the room was used for an ipo. but as we build that community and bring them together with network, it's really powerful, and that's different from what it was for me when i first started down here, and so it's fun to see that evolution. what's your favourite spot in this building? well, clearly the trading floor. i mean, that — there's no place like it anywhere in the world and you come in, you can feel the energy and it never gets old. we see ceos come back to celebrate milestones and their enthusiasm being on the floor is like it was on the first time. tell me about this room.

this is dedicated for our listed companies to hold events and on this wall here, we highlight a cross—section of leaders and they are from a number of different public companies and we rotate them and highlight some of their successes. this is dedicated for our listed companies to hold events and on this wall here, we highlight a cross—section of leaders and they are from a number of different public companies and we rotate them and highlight some of their successes. you see a number of ceos and they are in their own right leaders and visionaries and we like to highlight them and we rotate because we have 2,400 public companies here and there are certainly a lot of leaders among that group. a lot of what happens here and people don't remember this, you have certainly brought this out, there is a lot of tradition here. when you are 226 years old, you have a lot of traditions. we are very focused and proud of our history. we are very proud of our past

and the history and significance that this institution represents, but we are focused on our future. so we marry those two. how do we bring together some traditions for the past two centuries, but how do we help companies be empowered and enabled to succeed in the future? the document behind me, founding of the new york stock exchange. back in 1792, 2a brokers formalised their training and sign an agreement under a buttonwood tree. you might ask what it is, it was an american sycamore tree, and the wood was used to make buttons. that was known as the buttonwood agreement and is the founding of the new york stock exchange. this kind of history, was the stuff you are interested in even when you started as a trader? absolutely not. when i was in the trading floor i had no visibility, i didn't know the history in this building, i could feel the energy but i didn't realise how far back it dated and that is something i have gotten to learn throughout the years and even more so when i worked

for the exchange itself. so how old is the building? we have been in this building since 1903. it was architected by george b post and created specifically for the new york stock exchange and is full of historical elements and can see the beautiful stained—glass ceiling, i'm very lucky to work in a building like this. it is great to be in a building that just has so much history and now you are presiding over that history, you are someone who is shepherding that history. i hope to make sure that i can give this building and this business the credit it's due. does it still excite to do this walk to go onto the floor? every day, never gets old. when you walk into the trading floor you can fell the energy that exists down here and that has not changed. a lot of how we execute trading changed and you can see as you walk around, you hear less shouting and you hear more beeping as traders are entering their

orders electronically. they go up and have that human interaction and that dialogue around what is occurring and what the interest is in a stock, but then they will send their orders in an automated fashion. how many more people were on the floor when you were here? there were thousands of people of the trading floor and like any industry, technology has allowed them to scale and really get much more accomplished with fewer people. there is lot of history in this building, including the walls over here. yes, what you are seeing here on the wall is each time the celebrity opening and closing bell ceremonial wall of the members that, to the bell podium to ring that bell get to tag our wall on the way out. what they represent is entrepreneurs, dreamers, companies leaving their mark on the world, and we like to see their mark on our walls.

this is really incredible. what happens to this want it gets full? as they fill, they continue to run up the stairwells throughout a building and you will see as people come back and they recall when they signed the wall last time and there are a lot of interesting names. there are prime ministers and 0lympians and ceos of all different types companies and different industries. it really reflects the ecosystem that we have here. muriel siebert was the first woman of the stock exchange and it took a long time for her to get that role. 175 years for new york city to finally have a female member. she fought hard to get it. that was lost on the early in my career. i wasn't inspired by muriel‘s story until most recently. when i look at how i have progressed through my career and when i look at how my career has unfolded, a lot of it is owed to muriel. when i look at myjob now and how i might be able to impact women who follow me, i am inspired by the path she took. i recognise that steps and decisions i make can help women later in life,

or anyone, and that is inspiring. i want to change gears of it and talk about the actual business of the new york stock exchange. so much of what is done on the floor has been automated and when you look at the floor now compared to ten years ago, there is certainly a lot less people there. is the floor still necessary? yes, the automation and the technology that we have been able to introduce to the trading floor makes the floor even more powerful and effective than it ever was before. 0ur traders on the floor, both the designated market—makers that are assigned to each company listed on the new york stock exchange and the floor broker community are able to provide their customers with access to information on how stocks are trading and they apply their skills where needed and technology allows them to do that effectively and efficiently.

the result is that the stocks listed on the new york stock exchange trade with less volatility, they move around less and that is a good thing for investors. it is a real net positive for customers listed with the nyse, as well as their shareholders. what you say to critics who say that the floor has just become a marketing tool, nothing but a glorified television studio. what i would explain to somebody suggests that, is i would say that the floor provides value to every company that is listed on the new york stock exchange in the form of reducing trading disruptions throughout their stock and giving a better result to investors and it is also a powerful marketing tool. when you look at the fact that there are 35 different media outlets on the trading floor, that is a really powerful message. the companies listed on the new york stock exchange, when they have a message that they want out to be delivered, they can amplify that with our platform and that is part of the value we can provide to them.

the floor is definitely a marketing tool, it is just not only a marketing tool. how much do companies actually communicate with the floor? tremendously. you will see if you look at any of the ipo's that are covered in great detail on tv, you can see the communication between brokers and their customers and the market—makers and the bank, as they are trying to find that right price. a great example of that earlier this year was when spotify chose to become a public company. if you watch the footage on the trading floor that day, those were all members of the nyc training floor community contributing to that price discovery process, finding stable and a smooth way to open a companies trading on public markets for the first time. we excel at that and the trading floor is a big part of that story. you still get so excited. i love it! i love the floor. it's hard to hold that back. it's exciting for me when i started that trading on the public floor, what it represents notjust me personally, but to new york, the united states and the world.

we are global institution. so to be able to be part of a team that gets to reinvent us yet again, as to how we want to be well—positioned for our customers for the future, is really exciting. it comes through when i talk about it. where do you see the stock exchange going forward? our core mission remains the same. we are here and have been through the past two centuries to help companies raise capital to make the world a better place and help investors to take part in that. that will be the same. how we do that evolves and continues to evolve. the start off with traditional companies, we are seeing that to give it to products like exchange traded products or atf‘s. those are things, they provide access to investors, to asset classes and would have been a dream before. we are democratising. when we will at trends in cryptocurrency or where the markets may be headed, those that are the things that we focus on, how can we continue to deliver to our customers ways for them to raise money for investors to take

part in that. what keeps you up at night? it's it another cyber attack? it's it another flash crash? there are always concerns about market concerns driven by a cyber attack or a global crisis or a flash crash. those are things that are, there is always a risk of those things occurring. what my focus is, is making sure that we are ready for anything that comes our way. we don't get to always have — there is no memo coming out that says tomorrow this is what will happen in markets. 0ur markets need to be ready at all times. 0urjob is to make sure that our teams and technology systems can handle trading in the market, under any market conditions, at a moment's notice. that is where i spend my energy. stacey cunningham, thank you so much for your time. thank you. hello, good morning.

as expected, tuesday was a really cold day, and it's been cold enoughjust recently to bring some sleet and snow to lower levels, even into the south—east of england. but on wednesday, the coldest air and the strongest winds will push northwards across scotland and northern ireland. so we should see some improvements further south. but we've got a cloudy start on wednesday morning. the wetter weather for northern ireland moving away from northern england, up into scotland. again, some sleet and some snow, particularly over the hills. but then we should see things brightening up, a few showers coming in as well. more detail in the afternoon. you can see the showers in the west country perhaps affecting east wales and the west midlands. for eastern england this time, some welcome sunshine, much drier weather as well. and that sunshine may develop through the afternoon later

on into southern parts of scotland. northern ireland still stays quite wet, frequent showers around here, quite wet for central and northern parts of scotland, some more sleet and snow, mainly over the hills. quite windy across scotland, gusts of 40mph around some of those eastern coasts, so if anything, it's going to feel colder than it did on tuesday for scotland and northern ireland, especially with the strong winds and rain, but it shouldn't feel quite as cold as it did on tuesday for england and wales, especially if you've got some sunshine and the winds are not as strong as well. but the wet weather will tend to clear away for most areas during wednesday evening, and that means clearer skies, that means tumbling temperatures, before we see cloud coming in off the north sea, bringing with it some drizzle, arresting the temperature fall, but further west with clearer skies, frost likely and maybe some icy patches. some early sunshine perhaps across northern ireland, into wales and western scotland. maybe some sunshine developing at times across southern counties of england, but elsewhere, cloudy, a little bit damp with some wetter weather pushing back into eastern scotland, seven degrees if you're lucky here.

eight or nine, i think, will be fairly typical elsewhere. another chilly sort of day. the threat of rain coming into the far south—west with this area of low pressure. higher pressure to the north of the uk, hence this east to south—easterly breeze, not particularly strong on friday. a nothing sort of day on friday. not much sunshine, a fair bit of crowd, most places will be dry, showers more likely in the south—west, and wetter weather again coming into eastern parts of scotland. those temperatures getting up to eight, nine, possibly even the heady heights of 10 degrees, so the temperatures are going the right way. the air is getting a bit less cold as it comes in from the south, but still not particularly warm if you're stuck under the cloud and some pockets of rain. this is the briefing. i'm samantha simmonds. our top story: steps towards peace talks in yemen.

the un mediator is due to meet leaders of the houthi rebels shortly. american interests first — president trump says he'll stand by saudi arabia despite the killing of the journalist, jamal khashoggi. mr trump's lawyer says he's given "unprecedented" co—operation to the inquiry into whether the trump election team colluded with russia. another deadline in the impasse over italy's budget. this time, the european union has to respond to italy's refusal to budge over its debt. but is the italian government really just trying to gain more votes at home and call a new election? and also, in the business briefing, the chairman of trump's economic advisory council tells us that china has misbehaved sincejoining the world trade organisation