you're watching bbc news at nine with me news at nine with me annita mcveigh. the headlines: breaking the brexit impasse. the uk is urged to come up with fresh this is business live from bbc news, proposals within the next 48 hours with victoria fritz and sally bundock. huawei launches a fightback as talks continue in brussels. against western claims its equipment meanwhilejeremy corbyn says he's could be used for spying by china. holding talks with cross—party mps live from london, that's our top pushing for a softer brexit, in order to find a deal that could get through parliament. another knife death in london comes story on thursday 7 march. amid warnings over the links between school exclusions and stabbings. officers investigating the grenfell towerfire in london say criminal charges will not be brought for at least two years. the world's biggest telecoms equipment maker is suing the us government for banning federal agencies from using its products. also on the programme, we care about your privacy — that's the message from mark zuckerberg who says facebook will now be focused around privacy. and we'll be getting the inside track on what oils the wheels

of the uk property market. we'll talk to the chief executive of reapit, whose software is used by estate agents in the uk and elsewhere. today we want to know, do you have a huawei phone? would you buy one? or would you be concerned about it having a back door? let us know — just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. china's huawei — the global pioneer in 56 telecoms equipment — is suing the united states for blocking american federal agencies from using its products. huawei says washington is acting as judge, jury and executioner. the lawsuit challenges a section of a us defence bill,

which prohibits federal agencies from using telecom equipment made by huawei and another chinese tech firm zte. it comes as western nations grow increasingly concerned about a spying risk related to the widespread adoption of huawei's technology in next—generation sg networks. two of america's "five eyes" intelligence—sharing allies — australia and new zealand — have also restricted huawei's access to their markets citing security concerns. the others — canada and the uk — are considering similar moves. huawei's announcement comes as its chief financial officer meng wa nzhou faces extradition to the us following her arrest in canada. the usjustice department has charged huawei and ms meng with trying to evade us sanctions against iran. joining us now is karishma vaswani in singapore. how significant is this suit and what s the strategy behind it? i think it is #1234i6 can't. it is

an attempt bihar way to come out on the offensive. it is part of the strategy the company has taken for several weekers remember when the founder told me from his campus that the us measures would not be able to crush the company, so you are starting to see that kind of narrative coming out from huawei, what they are trying to do through this legal process in the discovery process , this legal process in the discovery process, they want the united states to provide some credible evidence of spying, that so much of the suspicion and allegations the us has levelled at them is based on, as pa rt levelled at them is based on, as part of the discovery process huawei will have to let the united states look at whatever it want, i have been told by legal experts. that includes things like the networks and any potential communication between huawei and the chinese communist party, because that is one of the other allegations that the us

has, against huawei, it is a tool of the chinese government. now, you know, the irony of this is that huawei's using american law, to democratically file a challenge against the us government, saying that these laws are unconstitutional, something that frankly they wouldn't be able to do backin frankly they wouldn't be able to do back in china, but very much part of the offensive style that we have been seeing from the company, have a listen to what the rotating chairman has to say when he spoke at the press c0 nfe re nce has to say when he spoke at the press conference earlier today. congress acts unconstitutionally as judge, jury and executioner. other countries are resisting the us government's campaign against huawei. huawei are prepared to take these legal actions as a proper and last resort. what do we think about us reaction,

given the fact that the cfo, the daughter of the founder of huawei is facing extradition to the us at the moment? i think the us reaction will be consistent with what we are been seeing from the us with regards to huawei, you remember, it filed charges against the company back in january, and against meng wanzhou. it says huawei as the epitome or simple of everything it thinks is wrong with the way china does business, the charges include things like trade theft which the us says has been something huawei has done sexically over the year, stealing american technology and the allegation that is why it has become as successful as it has round the world. the other allegation or charge i should say against meng wanzhou has charge i should say against meng wa nzhou has been charge i should say against meng wanzhou has been the breaking of american sanctions on iran, the violation of american sanctions on iran. all of this to paint the picture of huawei as a company that

cannot be trusted, and that is the message the united states has been taking to its allies, secretary of state pompeo saying if partners use huawei in its 5g networks it would be hard for the us to share intelligence thank you. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the times is reporting that a third of british billionaires have moved to tax havens, in what it describes as an "exodus" over the past decade. it also says political parties have accepted money from people living off—shore. the article claims that "many have been given honours or hold titles." a deal confirmed between the uk government and the wind energy industry will ensure that 30% of electricity comes from offshore wind by 2030. the move will help the uk towards an aim of securing almost all its power from low—carbon sources by 2030. it is the latest in a series of agreements with sectors

the uk has been urged to table fresh proposals to the european union within the next few days to break the brexit impasse. eu officials said they would work nonstop over the weekend if "acceptable" ideas were received by friday to prevent a hard border on the island of ireland. let us look at the market, equities we re let us look at the market, equities were on the back foot in asia—pacific region. disappointing us economic data adding some pessimism to the whole picture, and those fears over global growth, if we swing on to the european markets and see what is going on. they have been over an hour's worth of trade. just a couple of stories for you. you. germany has reported a decline

in earnings last year. and melrose industries, swung into the red last year they said because of charges in cost following an £8 billion, a $10 billion hostile take over at gkn. they said the results were better than expected otherwise. the ftse down just 29 points at the moment now to facebook, which is to become a privacy—focused network — a new direction for the tech giant announced by its founder mark zuckerberg. in a 3,000 word blog post, mr zuckerberg said that conversations between small groups of people would be the firm s priority in the future, and that those conversations would be encrypted. that means facebook itself would be unable to see them. zoe kleinman has the details.

it's a surprising move for the social network that once had ambitions to connect the world. mark zuckerberg says he now recognises that people want to talk among themselves and be confident their communications will not only remain private, but also not come back to haunt them later on. he set out a future in which facebook may not routinely keep individual data for long, unless users request it, and he also said he wanted all messaging to be encrypted. that won't be popular with authorities, who think social media data should be accessible to security services and law enforcement. end to end encryption means only the senders and receivers of a message will be able to see it. it's also a bold move for a tech giant which has made billions out of data mining, although not having access to data or keepingit for long could put facebook one step ahead of future regulation. facebook owns instagram and whatsapp and has already said it plans to integrate the messaging between those platforms, so you will be able to whatsapp

someone even if you're only connected on facebook. zoe kleinman, bbc news. joining us is jane foley, senior currency strategist at rabobank. nice to see you. so victoria, talking about some of the issues moving the markets today, i have mentioned it's the european central bank day today what is on your mind? the market is expecting perhaps a bit more, so that means a central bank that might want to give a bit morley quidty to the market. if we look at the stock markets this year they are down but they have been up, this is because while global growth is slowing the markets assume that central banks will be more generous withlyjedty position. central banks will be more generous withly jedty position. but central banks will be more generous withlyjedty position. but we need to look at the underlying reason, it has been a big disappointment that yes mar growth hasn't recovered. trade tensions for germany, that is a huge issue, that has been

something that has been a big constraint. german economy, will it recover? some say it will because the labour market is strong, the unions have been demanding lots of pay rises but it is a bit of a disappointment that we do have such low growth in europe. and notjust there and there are concerns there could be slowing growth in other places as well. the us consumer seems to be slowing down, and that sort of adding to some issue, i saw today that the wall streetjournal, the dowjones today that the wall streetjournal, the dow jones transportation today that the wall streetjournal, the dowjones transportation average has just notched down its longest losing streak since 2009. so there are concerns really gathering pace. there are, we have to remember last year we had there are, we have to remember last yearwe had in there are, we have to remember last year we had in the us fiscal giveaways by donald trump, so a boost to spending that way, but now, my economists and colleagues anticipate we could see a mild technical recession in the us in 2020, so in the second half of next year, so there are some big concerns

about global growth. we have to remember china. they have been hit by the us chinese trade war more than the us, the us is more of a closed economy, that is slowing as well, so we have the world's two largest economies slowing, europe is slowing so global growth very much on the back foot. thank you for now. jane. friday we will have the us jobs report out which will give us a bit more of a sense of how that economy, the world's still to come. a glimpse at the nuts and bolts behind the uk property market. we'll talk to the chief executive of reapit, whose software is used by thousands of estate agents in britain and elsewhere. you're with business live from bbc news. sales at bakery greggs surpassed £1 billion in 2018, up 7.2% on the year before. and those results don't include sales of the popular vegan sausage

roll which was launched injanuary. we spoke to ther company's chief executive roger whiteside about the results. well, of course, like all these things it's not an overnight success, greggs has been around for 80 years. the first 75 years of our history was focussed on the take home bakery market. these last five years we've been transforming the business, spending hundreds of millions of pounds, turning greggs into the modern business it is today. so we hit £1 billion sales as you say last year, and this year we'll pass through our 2,000 store mark, so it's a great success story. so during the last five years we have been busy opening shops, we're opening 100 new shops a year on average, and all those new shops are in places that in the past we would never have opened a bread shop, so all of those places you've described, transport hub, office parks,

retail parks, industrial parks, all those are areas where people are out, away from home, and they need access to good quality, freshly prepared food at great prices, and that's what we're giving them. but high streets are very important to us. still 63% of our shops are still in high streets, some of our best shops are still in high streets. a lot people work in high streets, a lot of people go about their business in high streets, so they'll stay part of our mix for a long while yet, but all the new openings are really away from high streets nowadays. we are been reduced salt, fat and sugar is the target, we sell sweet ba ke ry sugar is the target, we sell sweet bakery item, we have managed to reduce sugar by 17% so we are well oi'i reduce sugar by 17% so we are well on target, and we are working alongside public health england to encourage people to make healthier food choice, we are in traditional ba ke ry food choice, we are in traditional bakery products and they are delicious but they should be eaten in moderation. if you are going to eat one you should eat one from greggs because they are the best quality and price, you shouldn't be

eating them all the time because thatis eating them all the time because that is not good for your diet. you get everything on this programme. top tips from roger white side. he told us we should eat in moderation. not too many bun, sausage rolls, that kind of stuff. get ina sausage rolls, that kind of stuff. get in a vegan you're watching business live — our top story. china's huawei — the global pioneer in 5g telecoms equipment — is suing the united states for blocking american federal agencies from using its products. huawei says washington is acting as "judge, jury and executioner". more on that on the website. you've probably never heard of it before, but it's the software which powers the interactions you have with companies —

from your phone company to your local real estate agent. and it's big business. it's called customer relationship management software, and each year companies spend almost $40 billion on it. according to the research firm gartner, it's the fastest growing software market, expanding at 16% a year. reapit is the the most popular crm software used by real estate agents in the uk and australia, with more than 40,000 users. gary barker, chief executive of reapit, is with us now. in the uk your company provides the softwa re in the uk your company provides the software for most of the estate agents across the country, which is pretty neat for you, i assume?m agents across the country, which is pretty neat for you, i assume? it is fantastic for us. i was looking at statistics the other way that said one infour statistics the other way that said one in four transactions goes through our software which is a big position for us and gives us a good insight into the market. but it means you can charge a what you like

does it? it is is a competitive environment unlike the portals which they have the market place, it is behind the scene, there is 18,000 estate agencies so we still have a bit of the market to go. one in four because it appears to be slowing down, we have heard from one place warning about brexit and the performance it is having on sale, you are exposed to what goes on on the market? yes, we, the way we look at the market is there is a number of people that will have to move. if you look at transactions in the last three orfour you look at transactions in the last three or four years there has been 1.1 million for the last few years and that is down to life circumstances, births for, deaths and people moving job, so the market will continue to move. the risks will continue to move. the risks will always be there may be some of the smaller agents that struggle. do you think you should perhaps provide crm software for other industries

not just housing and crm software for other industries notjust housing and so you are not exposed to the housing market which is susceptible to swings in the economy. we have looked at other sectors but the property sector is complex, we have buyers, sellers landlords and tenants and common off the shelf platforms don't cater for that. what we have looked to do is look at other global markets and see how we can offer and provide additional services. it is very complex and data heavy, what to you do to protect your company and all of the people who are using your platform from hacking? data security is at the top of the agenda, we partner with industry leading providers to ensure that our data is com pletely providers to ensure that our data is completely secure, we run regular penetrate testings, with ethical hackers to make sure we are protected. it is important, data security and privacy is paramount. something you are well aware of is trends within the housing sector in

the uk, you were saying to me earlier, the big shift to rental in the uk, especially among the young, and that doesn't surprise us because it is tough to get on the housing market, that is within of the big problems. it is a real change, we we re problems. it is a real change, we were talking about the young bayer, it was 55% of the market, had properties, that is reduced to 38%, we look at it in two different ways are we looking at generation rent and is is there a perspective that house buying is unaffordable or is a lot of them looking from a different perspective where they stay in jobs for 18—24 months so they want the ability to rent, he will need to look at the rental sector to see how that will be affected by with some of the laws and changes we will see coming through. you have been through different cycles you have been with this company for a long time, you were there at the start of

the.com boom, are you concerned with the.com boom, are you concerned with the trends, like global growth, things like slow down and transaction volumes in the uk for housing, that is not good for a business like yours? i think for us, because we went global that gave us the ability to, if you look at different market, the uk and the australian market is a good one to look at. i was over there recently and they begun to slow down the number of property sales that take place but that has been increased by rentals so they are about three yea rs rentals so they are about three years behind the uk in that property cycle, ultimately, people have to have a place to live and whether they are buying or renting, our softwa re they are buying or renting, our software caters for there so there will be a number of plotser, we will collect rent, pay landlords or sell property, we are uniquely positioned to look at this property sector. thank you gary for coming in. interesting conversation, but now,

let us move on the another interesting conversation. i am going to read why do so many incompetent men get promoted at work? a new book suggests that "traits like overconfidence and self—absorption" are often wrongly seen as leadership qualities, and are the reason so many ill—suited men get top jobs. instead, the book's author, tomas chamorro—premuzic, argues women are better leaders. just take a look. my view is that most diversity inclusion interventions miss the point, because it focuson gender, rather than talent, and they often convey this impression that women need help to become leaders, because they're naturally not as talented, or they don't have as much potential as men do, when in fact most of the men who are leaders are not very good, and we are fooled by people who have actually fooled themselves already, into thinking they are better than they actually are. the key traits of an incompetent man are hubris or overconfidence, so thinking that they're better

than they actually are, to the point of being arrogant or even narcissistic. a lack of technical expertise and being very excitable, to the point of almost seeming unpredictable and bipolar. but in general we have higher standards when we evalued female candidates for leadership jobs than male candidates. to improve the quality of our leaders and increase the number of female leaders, we need to do three things. the first is focus on the right traits, things like humility, integrity and self awareness. secondly, we need to distrust our instincts — rely not on interviews but on data driven tools, like psychometric assessments, and thirdly, elevate our standards, not make it easier for women to become leaders when they shouldn't, but make it harderfor men to leaders when they shouldn't. interesting opinion there, it is an opinion. we

this is in the run—up to international women's day tomorrow this is the rose report out today, it has been commissioned and funded by the treasury, you can see alison rose there, he is a senior executive at rbs. she was asked to look into the reasons why women who are starting company, entrepreneurs are finding it hard to get the underif they need. well, and her findings say that women start businesses with only half as much capital as men. men. what are reasons behind that in perhaps ba because they are juggling childcare but part of this might be the unconscious bias, i think that is what the topic in the previous article was about too. do we see men as leader because we have been brought up to assume they are for

likely to be leaders than women? is this unconscious bias and should we be looking at this? why, if a woman walks into a bank, looking to start a new business is she likely to walk out with half the capital a male counterpart is? this report is interesting because they do want to put pressure on banks to have more flexible types of packages for women who want to borrow money to start a new business and try and address to banks is that bias that should be wrong? are you justified in giving women less money or not? i have read reports that does suggest there is an unconscious bias within us all and banks and lenders to suggest that women are likely to be given or less trusted as likely to be able to runa less trusted as likely to be able to run a successful business. what is the solution? what is beings of itted, it is training or more than that? i think it is probably more than that but i think unconscious bias is a good start. i i know it

has been rolled nout the company i work for, and i think many people have set up and thought i wasn't biased but maybe i am this is about women being biased as well, it is to do with the way we have been brought up. also as well, it is commonly viewed that women are more risk averse, so they might not go to the bank proposing they want as much as the male counterpart, so they don't come away with as much. that rolls backin come away with as much. that rolls back in to the same article as before, there are various different research papers that suggest women will apply for a yob when they are 95% confident, when they are only about 50. good to you with us. a few tweets before we say goodbye on huawei, we have had one viewer who said this, i think most of us are jealous azhar way is doing so well, thatis jealous azhar way is doing so well, that is the view of the us. just one view that's it from business live today.

there will be more business news throughout the day on the bbc live web page and on world business report. we'll see you again tomorrow. good morning. yesterday the temperature got to 15 degrees celsius in the midlands, but it is going to feel colder than that during today. a distinct change in wind direction, low pressure, still formally in charge, the cloud is rotating round that, bringing some rain up in the north this morning but as the winds rotate it starts to bring in the colder airfrom but as the winds rotate it starts to bring in the colder air from the north so the blues quite widely across the uk through today. quite windy today, some fairly strong gust, it will feel colder, particularly for england and wales, where temperatures drop down by a good few degrees but rain this morning in scotland, northern ireland, edging through northern england, a bit of hill snow, that rain will edge down towards the south—east, there will be brighter skies towards the far south,

especially through this morning and later on there will be be sunny spells in scotland, still some showers which will contain snow over the higher ground and gusty winds, particularly round western area, up to 50, 55mph, equally strong winds for northern ireland and through much of england and wales indeed, gusts of 40—50mph, expected and you see that rain moving through central area, the far south staying drier and brighter. as we go through this evening a lot of that rain will tend to clear away and with 11 the clear spells turn chilly. a widespread frost, temperatures here down to minus four, minus five, further south not quite as cold, but still a potential for ground frost first thing on friday morning. plenty of sunshine though, for many of us on friday morning, that is not going to last because the cloud will increase from the west, with that rain moving through northern ireland, into scotland, some more snow to come over the scottish mountain, rain

into north—west england, wales and the south—west, late afternoon, sunshine in northern ireland, and maximum temperatures about 8—11. and then into the weekend, well, the weather will come in from the atlantic, you can see the isobars horizontal coming in from the atlantic, it will turn breezy for a time over the weekend and generally speaking staying pretty unsettled. still will feel chilly, there will be rain, also some hill snow, equally there will be a few sunny spells in between the weather systems as they move in but overall i think safe to say it is changeable. bye.