this is the business briefing. i'm victoria fritz. communications breakdown. the huawei affair rattles global markets, on fears the us china trade war could be entering a dangerous new phase. plus, over a barrel. crude slumps almost 3%, as opec and its allies struggle to reach a deal on cutting oil production. and let's show you those marketd. pretty much stabilizing after thursday's steep losses. asian shares trading higher after us markets staged a late recovery. ending downjust 0.23% ending down just 0.23% for the dow jones. hello. we start in vancouver, where in a few hours's time, a court will hear a bail application from meng wa nzhou,

the chief financial officer of china's top technology firm, huawei, and the daughter of its founder and president. as you have been hearing, ms meng was arrested on saturday at the request of us authorities, who want her extradited over alleged violation of sanctions against iran. the move has sparked outrage in china and rattled global markets, with investors fearing it signals a dangerous new phase in the trade war between the two economic superpowers. on thursday, key european markets were down more than 3%. the ftse 100 had its worst day since the vote to leave the eu in june 2016. in a moment, we'll be getting the view from china, but first, here's michelle fleury in new york. key west off meng wanzhou has immediately raised tensions between the china and the us at a time it seems that the relationship between the two countries was improving, after that seeming ceasefire was announced between the two countries earlier this week. it is unclear how

much the country's politicians know about the events. john bolton said he was given advance notice that the white house later said that neither john bolton, and nor president trump had plans to arrest ms meng or seek extradition. justin trudeau said he was made aware that mcgirt there would be detained and said there was no political motivation. let's get some reaction now from china. steve mcdonell is in beijing. pretty incandescent, the chinese, about the. yes, absolutely, and the line we are getting from the chinese government is that it has received no official explanation for either canada or the united states as to why this senior huawei executive is being held. they are saying that if you arrest someone being held. they are saying that if you arrest someone without a proper explanation, this represents a human rights abuse, in fact, and huawei has put out it done statement to investors and partners, saying it

has received hardly any information on the arrest. and so there is a fair bit of sort of wondering as to why this has taken place, after all, it seems that she was picked up at around about the same time that president xijinping around about the same time that president xi jinping and around about the same time that president xijinping and donald trump sitting down have that meeting, we saw more than a0 each other and talking about this 90 day cooling off period, the trade war escalation is going to be paul wright back, and if you wanted tensions to sort of ease off a bit, would you go and grab a china's senior executive in this way and ask them to be extradited? it could do nothing that escalate, in fact. —— to be pulled back. do we know why more about why she has been arrested, why she has been detained, and what is going to happen now? we have been waiting for the past couple of hours to see what is going

to happen in court, because at the moment it is all a matter of speculation. she is being held in court because of alleged violations in not united nations but us violations on iran, does that mean it is huawei technology that has allegedly been sold to iran, possibly with some us technology inside? 0r possibly with some us technology inside? or is it more of a financial thing? is it some sort of investment thatis thing? is it some sort of investment that is being pushed to huawei into a run? all these questions remain, he said that at the moment the chinese government has said look, either way, we will support any sanctions which go through the un security council but what we oppose are these unilateral us sanctions on someone are these unilateral us sanctions on someone who is not a us citizen, and thatis someone who is not a us citizen, and that is something that the chinese government is most complaining about in all of this, but without the detail, it is hard for them to be specific query in terms of their complaint. yeah, we are going to leave it there. we will get more

details on that after the bail hearing. let's talk about oil now, because the price of crude has slumped around 3% after oil exporters. the group 0pec failed to agree a deal to cut production at their meeting in vienna. there will be further talks later today involving non—opec countries, including russia. brent crude — the main benchmark for oil prices — has been down by almost a third since hitting $86 a barrel two months ago. the world's biggest producers — russia, the usa and saudi arabia — they're all churning out a record number of barrels per day. but with a slowing global economy and a trade war to worry about, there's just not enough demand for it all. saudi wants to see production cut by around a million barrels a day, but it needs to get non—opec member like russia to play its part. 0ur correspondent in vienna,

bethany bell, explains. all prices have fallen since october considerably. saudi arabia very concerned to see oil prices falling to those levels. now, what they want to those levels. now, what they want to do is bring those prices up a bit, what that will mean is a cut to supply. they will need to agree not just that members of 0pec but crucially with russia itself. the members of 0pec earlier today suggested to members of russian media that there is only so much they can cut, it is harder for russia to cut output during cold winter will stop —— russia earlier today. spencer welch is a director at ihs markit, where he covers the oil industry. so he knows all about oil. we were a bit surprised that there was no deal yesterday, do you think there is

going to be a deal today?” yesterday, do you think there is going to be a deal today? i think it is likely. the saudi trade minister was interviewed yesterday in the senate is not guaranteed. keating is russia, the russian whirl minister attended the meeting today. russia is the sort of awkward piece in the jigsaw puzzle, that no matter which way you try to move around, it does not fit stop —— 0il minister. what is the incentive for them to agree with saudi arabia and how much they are going to produce? is very important to russia and the russian economy, so important to russia and the russian economy, so they've kind ofjoined up economy, so they've kind ofjoined up with 0pec and to some of the opec economies in 2016. i think it is a very influential group of economic countries, so think russia sees in having a little bit more control over some of the income. how

important is this to some of the middle east as well? some of the countries can take that, their budgets, the government budget allow it, and there are other countries that really struggle. yes, absolutely, so most of them would obviously prefer the higher price. saudi arabia, as the introduction said, is very, very influential. they would like the price higher than the $16 it is at the moment, they would like somewhere between $70 and $80, and many that to meet the development plans for their country, the that is it incentive, why they are thinking about cutting production to push the price back up. where do you think oil prices are headed than? the easy answer is that it all depends on what happens today. the market is expecting somewhere a little over1 million barrels a day, that is 1% of the world's demand for oil. so if they do manage to agree that, then probably there might be a small positive increase. if they do not, i

would expect there would be a little bit more disappointment from the market and a falling price. all of this is really predicated on the idea that 0pec is incredibly powerful as a group. howell, have you seen powerful as a group. howell, have you seen that power eroded in any way? you seen that power eroded in any 7 i you seen that power eroded in any way? i mean, are they as powerful as they once were? i would say no. so when 0pec was formed back in the 19705, when 0pec was formed back in the 1970s, they effectively set the price of oil. more recently, from 2010 onwards, there has been a sudden surge of production from the united states and the sudden surge of production, 0pec is less significant. at that does not mean they are not significant, it means they are not significant, it means they are not significant, it means they are just a little bit less than they are just a little bit less than they were. 0k, we will leave it there. thank you. thank you. now let's brief you on some other business stories. —— let's just take a look at the markets that we can. lots of investors are dumping the riskier

asset as a result of fears that there is an increase, or listen more dangerous phase in us china trade walk, very much symbolise perhaps by the arrest of the huawei chief executive. as our correspondence said, the crown princess of huawei. we'll get a few more details and that that the market is recovering is somewhat, pause for breath. we will get more in the business briefing, i will see you van. —— then. an investigation by the bbc has found that academics of ethnic

minority backgrounds are being paid on average up to a quarter less than white colleagues at the uk's top universities. the russell group, which represent 2a academic institutions, says it's unable to comment on individual universities's recruitment practices. rianna croxford has this report. is some of the best universities britain has to offer the world, but not if you are an ethnic nullity academic. the study found academics from black and minority backgrounds found around £18,000 less on average. the gap is smallerfor chinese academics, but then it gets even smallerfor ethnic chinese academics, but then it gets even smaller for ethnic women. chinese academics, but then it gets even smaller for ethnic womenm you are for example a woman of ethnic colour, you also experience agenda penalty, surveyor even disadvantage than women. many felt ignored, that they were overqualified and underpaid. 0ne

lecturer told me she felt like a second—class citizen, another use the term cheap labour. this woman has been working at leeds university for three years. she believes her experience was not taken into account. i know people who have come from nonacademic backgrounds and they have come and brought better paying and higher grade jobs, they have come and brought better paying and higher gradejobs, which makes me sometimes question today makes me sometimes question today make the right choice to come to this country? because it is like you asi this country? because it is like you as i live. in response, these universities say they paid ethnic minority and white staff at comparable levels. the government is currently consulting on reporting, this may go some way to breaking down barriers and restoring value to people's lives. for this story and more, breakfast will be at 6am with charlie stayt and naga munchetty. this is the briefing from bbc news.

the latest headlines: the chinese telecoms giant huawei has called the arrest of its chief financial officer in canada at the request of the us "unreasonable". meng wanzhou, whose father founded huawei, faces a bail hearing in vancouver later on friday. the eiffel tower and some other paris sites are to close on saturday because of fears of violence involving the yellow vest movement. the demonstrations began as protests at fuel tax rises, but have broadened amid anger about rising living costs. the charity msf says it has been forced to end migrant rescue operations in the mediterranean. msf blamed the decision on what it called a sustained campaign of slander and obstruction by italy and other european governments. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with tabloid the sun here in the uk with the headline ‘postpone the vote or get your coat‘ — the ultimatum given to theresa may

by ministers over next week's planned vote on her brexit deal. on to the financial times now. its main story looks at that huawei arrest, the shock it caused to the markets and how its worsened the row between the us and china. the register among many covering a big tech and telecoms fail. millions of customers of network 02 in the uk and others as far and wide asjapan had their services hit thanks to a problem with tech provider ericsson. let's look at the magazine business matters. it says a ban on betting ads on british tv during sports matches has hit gambling firms shares. and finally, let's look at the telegraph here in the uk. it's reporting on luxembourg becoming the first country to offer free public transport and asks could other big

cities like london follow suit? with me is kulveer ranger who is vice—president strategy & communication at atos. let's start with politics, something nice and crunchy with your serial. this story in the sun, cabinet ministers are demanding action to rescue this meaningful vote before it has ever happened and it appears that there were four options that they put to the