this is the business briefing, i'm sally bundock. tesla shares go in reverse after another alleged misleading tweet from the controversial elon musk. and a trade truce between the us and china moves a step closer after donald trump claims an agreement is very, very close. and on the markets: what will they focus on today? as you can see, declines in asia right now. of course, we have the concern about trade and president kim in vietnam. a lot on the mind of global investors.

we start with the news elon musk is in trouble again for another alleged misleading tweet. the us securities and exchange commission has asked a judge to find the tesla chief executive in contempt of court for tweeting potentially market—moving information without approval from tesla's top lawyer. the tweet in question was published on twitter seven days ago, when musk said that tesla would produce 500,000 cars this year. however, only four hours later, musk corrected himself and tweeted that he had meant to say tesla would hit a weekly production rate equal to an annualised 500,000 by the end of 2019. and news of the sec request didn't impress investors. tesla shares fell 5% in after—hours trading. however, in a interview with cbs last december, it is clear musk doesn't have

much time for the sec. have you had any of your tweets censored? since the settlement? no. none. does someone have to read them before they go out? no. so your tweets are before they go out? no. so your tweets a re not before they go out? no. so your tweets are not supervised? the only tweets are not supervised? the only tweets that would have to be reviewed would be if a tweet had a probability of causing a movement in the stock. and that's it. yes, i mean, otherwise it is the first amendment. freedom of speech is fundamental. but how do they know it is going to move the market if they are not reading all of them before you send them ? are not reading all of them before you send them? i guess we might make some mistakes. who knows? are you serious? nobody is perfect. look at

you. i want to be clear, i do not respect the sec. i do not respect them. but you are abiding by the settlement, aren't you? because i respect the justice system. well, despite musk not caring what the sec thinks, our north american technology reporter dave lee believes he may have pushed the sec too far this time. so we remember that deal last year when elon musk posted a joke about potentially taking tesla private, taking it off the stock market. he said it was a joke, but it moved the markets. it made tesla stock go up, and because of that he was punished by the sec, the securities and exchange commission, because they said that was against their roles for a public company. as part of that punishment he had to pay $20 million, he had to step down as chairman of tesla, and the third thing he had to do was from then on get prior approval everytime he wanted to tweet something about the company that could have an effect on their stock price.

and now the sec says that on 19 february, just after 7:00pm in the evening new york time, he tweeted that tesla will make about 500,000 cars in 2019. the company has admitted, the sec say, that mr musk did not get approval before he sent that tweet. and now, that is why the sec thinks he has broken his court order, this agreement to no longer share that kind of information without getting approval from the financial bosses at tesla. so, once again, elon musk has found himself tweeting his way into a lot of trouble. david lee it will keep across that story for us. —— david lee will keep across that story for us. it looks like the long—running trade war between washington and beijing may be coming to an end. us president donald trump said the two countries are very, very close to signing a trade

agreement, and are going to have a signing summit soon. let's go to our asia business hub, where rico hizon is following the story. promises, promises. i mean, he is going to be arriving in vietnam later today. he has a busy agenda, hasn't he, president trump? very busy agenda indeed, but still no date when there is very, very close agreement will be signed and delivered between the united states and china, sally. but this tweet of president trump is not exciting asian market investors, because shares today are falling after scaling a five—month high as investors wait to see if washington and beijing can finally clinched a trade deal, sooner rather than later. well, today's losses come as jp morgan analysts are urging investors to curb some of their enthusiasm over the trade negotiations, saying the extension to the deadline was a foregone conclusion. at this point, though,

sally, the announcement was the clearest sign yet both countries are closing in on a deal to end a months long trade war that has basically slowed global growth and disrupted markets. but investors say a sticking point between both sides is enforcing this deal. washington wa nts a enforcing this deal. washington wants a strong mechanism to ensure the chinese reform commitments are followed through to completion, while beijing insists on what it calls a fair while beijing insists on what it callsafairand while beijing insists on what it calls a fair and objective deal, so investors are still waiting and watching how this will all play out over the next week or so. thank you, for now. standard chartered has announced profits ofjust over $2.5 billion for 2018, which is 5.5% higher than a year earlier. the bank has a huge presence in emerging markets such as asia, africa and the middle east, and previously warned that continuing investigations by us and uk regulators could have a substantial financial impact. last week, standard chartered announced it was putting aside $900 million to cover separate

investigations, mostly into breaches of us sanctions and foreign exchange trading issues. the amount also covers a $132 million fine from the uk's financial conduct authority related to a lack of sufficient financial crime controls. the $900 million provision will also cover standard chartered's recent $40 million fine from the new york department of financial services, after some of the bank's traders were found to have used chatrooms to rig and manipulate foreign exchange trading activities. bill blain, who is a strategist at shard capital, joins me now. lovely to see you, bill. thank you, sally. so standard chartered, it would seem, a long list of fines and bad behaviour. that doesn't put standard chartered in a class of its

own, many banks have suffered a series of fines but this is especially true of banks that have been involved in some of the more risky markets. hsbc was under the cosh for many years from us regulators. not quite as bad at standard chartered, the real questions at standard chartered were very different, though. going forward , very different, though. going forward, what are we looking at for standard chartered ? forward, what are we looking at for standard chartered? it is very exposed to emerging markets, what could be seen as quite a difficult time, hard to predict what is going on in the next few years. certainly, with the whole global economy looking lightly to slide into recession either later this year or sometime next year, any bank involved in emerging markets is bound to face pressures. but this is also a bank that has seen, it self, under a lot of pressure from its stock price, a steady down kick. to start making money they are now looking at the vesting some of their core holdings, selling the indonesian bank which they own 43%

off, and rationalising in the areas they are not doing so well. that is all so they can pay investors back by doing a stock buyback, which seems to be the natural response of anyone under the cosh for their stock rise. but of course, doing a stock rise. but of course, doing a stock buyback is a pretty unimaginative thing. they are trying to compete for the high net worth market in asia and that is a competitive market space, at the same time as competing for retail, where the rewards are very low. i am afraid the outlook isn't terribly great. what about the leadership, those who are running standard chartered at the moment? have people got much faith in the leadership?” don't think there is a major question about the leadership, but there is a major question about where the bank will end up. it is a relatively well—known bank in terms of its domination, alongside hsbc, of its domination, alongside hsbc, of emerging markets. not so much as hsbc, just focused on asia. but it

is in hsbc, just focused on asia. but it isina hsbc, just focused on asia. but it is in a very competitive space, and i think the question has to be how long can a modest size uk bank remain relevant in that space? thank you so much for coming in to talk us through the results from standard chartered. let's quickly show you financial markets. we are seeing a slight tail off, let's not forget that in shanghai, the markets are seeing their best day on monday since 2015, and that was all off the back of the news that president trump announced that he would delay the increase on ta riffs he would delay the increase on tariffs on chinese goods heading into the us. that was expected to come into affect on first march, and that delay brought much cheer to markets in asia, especiallyjapan and china. you can see today, maybe and china. you can see today, maybe a little bit of profit—taking going on there, and obviously a lot of questions still about the trade negotiations going on between china and the us. that is your business

briefing. families in england need better support in the early years to give children the best start in life, according to a group of mps. the health and social care committee said the first 1,000 days are critical, but not enough is done. it warns cuts to children's centres, health visiting and services to support parents have left families vulnerable. here is our health reporterjohn 0wen. sam aspens and now runs a successful business in bristol, and had a difficult start in life, characterised by abuse and neglect from her earliest years. the result has been an adult hood in which she has been an adult hood in which she has struggled against a range of serious mental health problems. my

childhood was very fractured, and had a lot of violence in it, and on top of that, there was a lot of emotional abuse, and also my father spent time in prison, my mother eventually abandoned me, never to be seen again. what happened to me in my childhood culminated in robert lee four or five years ago now me having a full on breakdown, and it started with a bout of really bad depression, to the point where i felt properly suicidal for the first time. mps on the health select committee said that children who face these kinds of adverse experiences in childhood are at far greater risk of poor physical and mental health outcomes later in life. as a result they are calling for a new cross life. as a result they are calling for a new ci’oss government life. as a result they are calling for a new cross government strategy aimed at reducing such experiences, as well as improving school readiness in reducing rates of infa nt readiness in reducing rates of infant mortality. the community would like an early years revolution, for government to set some overriding goals and targets,

and every local area to have a local authority, the nhs, the voluntary and community is all working together to focus on these crucial early years. a department of health spokesperson told us that children's health is a key priority for the government, and that they want every child to have the best start in life. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: the australian cardinal george pell is found guilty of child abuse, the most senior catholic cleric to be convicted. north korea's leader, kimjong—un, arrives in vietnam for his second summit with president trump. the brexit pressure mounts on theresa may. brussels calls for a delay. the opposition suggests a second vote. now, it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the financial times.

it's among many newspapers leading with the labour party backing a second referendum on brexit. let's move on to the techcrunch website. it reports on the ongoing concerns over using chinese technology to run sg networks across the globe. now, the eu says it may make a decision once and for all over whether its member countries can use huawei's tech. the wired website now. microsoft's ceos defended a deal to provide the us military with augmented reality technology in the face of protests by thousands of their employees. a story from the independent. it explains how big berlin landlords could have their properties taken off them and put into nationalised schemes to solve the city's housing crisis. and the sun newspaper has a story on the sunshine.

we've had record temperatures for a february day, or "fab—ruary" as the paper calls it, on its front page. inside, it shows picnics and even a woman on the beach. is this just is thisjust weird is this just weird and worrying in terms of what is happening to our climate? with me is rebecca harding, ceo and founder of coriolis tech. so, let's begin with the financial times. labour reshapes brexit debate by backing a second referendum. will we be going to the polls again soon?” think the moment anything is possible. i think there is still a huge amount of uncertainty around what will happen with brexit. this isa what will happen with brexit. this is a move actually potentially to stem the tide of dissatisfaction with labour party policy. there is something bigger going on in the labour party. the labor party isn't

without internal conflict as we