this is the business briefing. i'm ben bland. huawei strikes back. the chinese telecoms giant files a lawsuit against the us government, asking a us court to declare that president trump's defence bill is "unconstitutional". groundbreaking technology — we look at the new tools that could revolutionise the construction industry. and on the markets: asian shares stumble as investors fret over the outlook for world growth.

the chinese telecoms firm huawei is asking the us courts to speed up judgement in its legal battle with the government over president trump's decision to ban the company from doing business with it. huawei is requesting what's known as a ‘summary judgement‘. two weeks ago the trump administration added huawei to a trade blacklist, banning the chinese telecoms giant from acquiring technology from us firms without government approval. then google announced it is going to cut off huawei phones from future android updates on its devices. the move will block huawei from using apps such as maps and gmail on its phones. it's since been reported that huawei is about to unveil its own operating system. well, let's get more on this story. robin brantjoins me now from huawei's headquarters in shenzhen. so robin, what exactly did they say?

we heard from their chief legal officer. what they talked about is not a new legal effort against the us government, but an effort by huawei to essentially speed things up. it has launched this case in the texas courts because it believes the action the trump administration has taken against huawei to freeze it out of doing any business with the us government is unconstitutional. it believes it has been targeted specifically and illegally by president trump's government and so it wants the courts to speed up the process. it wants what's called a summary process. it wants what's called a summaryjudgement process. it wants what's called a summary judgement on a process. it wants what's called a summaryjudgement on a hearing and has been pushing for that. why is it doing that? it's fighting for its global appeal effort, it wants to get momentum back on its side. but secondly as well, the restrictions, i refer to that as the us government

to cu re i refer to that as the us government to cure men, those are really beginning to bite. they are going to cause huawei huge problems in the short term, but huawei clearly wants to do what it can to try and in that. —— and that. to do what it can to try and in that. -- and that. thank you very much. with me in the studio is rob kniaz. he's a founding partner at hoxton venturesjoins me now. they have plans to ratchet up some still impressive sales figures despite all this. this underlies just how important the us market is to them. it is very important, one of the largest markets in the world and this is a major roadblock for them. they are taking out all their legal options. it's really all you can do when you are having the us government against you. the other

aspect of this is the way the us government has put rashes on its international allies do not use huawei and that just international allies do not use huawei and thatjust kind of adds to that sense, i suppose, that while av that sense, i suppose, that while a's arguing that this is a government against one private company. it essentially is. it's the us government versus china through a proxy battle. the us government is doing everything they can from stopping their allies amusing by way parts as well and i'm sure there's a lot going on behind—the—scenes saying look, we aren't going to share intelligence with you if we can't trust your telco network. do you think they. ? it's hard to say. —— do you think they will? you think they. ? it's hard to say. -- do you think they will? the longer this goes on, the worse for the company. it will be interesting to see if this escalates on a larger geopolitical, national level, while

the chinese government seems to be focused on the tariff side. how important were the moves by google do not supply its software to google to be used on those phones and the uk telecoms operator ee not using huawei technologies and handsets when it rolls out 56? these things all add up. to lose access to android puts them behind and makes them less competitive. they can't use world—class operating systems. what you mentioned a moment ago about whether the chinese government gets involved in support of huawei in this — in this legal battle, the thing that makes it more bitter and more complicated is the background, the landscape, the fact that there is this ongoing trade war between the us and china over many aspects, including intellectual property and it just sort of set is including intellectual property and itjust sort of set is a rather

bitter tone as it were —— sets, in which case this will be decided. it's an ominous situation with two superpowers going tit—for—tat with each other. the chinese retaliations if they do so, they have to think about the international and domestic implications. if they go out for apple, they have a lot of apple's supply chain in their country so they would hurt their own country and jobs if they took that avenue, it's difficult for both countries. china's signalled that it could use its dominance in rare earth minerals in the ongoing trade con the i was just talking about between beijing and washington —— conflict. let's go to our asia business hub where rico hizon is following the story. ican i can see you, rico. rare-earth metals, to give you a bit of

background, they are a group of 17 metals with a series of applications. they are used in magnets, screens, they are the one raw material where china dominates global supply. although rare earth imports area global supply. although rare earth imports are a relatively small part of the $420 billion goods deficit with china, they are worth —— rico worth far outstrips their value because they are critical for iphones, electric vehicles and advanced position weapons. a decade ago these minerals were brought to the international security committee asa the international security committee as a strategic threat. but the americans only import about 4000 tons of rare—earth minerals, with about 175 million us dollars, so we will have to wait and see if this

will have to wait and see if this will eventually impact the ongoing trade conflict between the americans and the chinese. thank you very much. now let's brief you on some other business stories: the us treasury has decided not to name any of its major trading partners as currency manipulators. however, it did find that nine countries, including china, required close attention as washington uses tariffs and negotiations to address trade deficits. president donald trump has repeatedly accused beijing of manipulating its currency. us chipmaker qualcomm has asked a federaljudge not to enforce her decision that it illegally squeezed out rivals in the smartphone chips market. tha company says it plans to file an appeal that could take more than a year to wind through the courts. before you construct a building, you have to dig up the ground — but where? satellite—guided survey drones and diggers can make the messy business of moving earth more precise. and that's making the construction

business more efficient, and helping to compensate for a shortage of skilled workers.

the drone is there to enable us to understand every day how the terrain‘s changed, how much material's been moved. the availability of the data helps us work with the customer to manage the job site more efficiently. that's it for the business briefing this hour, but before we go, here are the markets. asian shares stumbled on wednesday as investors fretted over the outlook for world growth.

i'll be back with the news review and just a moment. see you shortly. almost a dozen councils in england have been warned they're at risk of running out of cash reserves. councils face cuts to their government funding and rising demand for services such as social care, while mps warn children's services are at "breaking point". alison halt reports. we're going to go way now. all right. rachel blackford and her mother barbara are at the sharp end of financial pressures local authorities are facing. barbara has severe dementia and the day centre they relied upon was closed as it

tried to balance its books. they look for alternatives, but for rachel, this was vital support that worked. i am desperate. and i'm not the only one! you know, lifelines being cut, ijust being they don't listen to our pleas for help. how is the future going to evolve? over the ten months we followed somerset cou nty ten months we followed somerset county council, it had to make £13 million of cuts or go bust. it made painful decisions for directive aduu painful decisions for directive adult care services who had to make adult care services who had to make a show of savings despite the need for care. this year has been the ha rd est for care. this year has been the hardest in my professional career because i see hardest in my professional career because i see evermore hardest in my professional career because i see evermore people who we are not providing the level and type of support that they want and need. and while we have improved the number of our services, i'm confident that's been at the cost of

services people have valued that are no longer available. how long will i stay here? in many places like somerset, the pressures are biting 110w. somerset, the pressures are biting now. allison holds, bbc news —— alison halt, bbc news. coming up at six o'clock on breakfast, naga and charlie will have all the day's news, business and sport. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: european leaders meet to thrash out who gets the top eu jobs, but there's already a diplomatic disagreement. the two big powers, germany and france have disagreements about who should be the residence of the european commission. recent elections have left the eu more fragmented. massive tornados hit america's midwest in one of the worst—ever storm seasons. the capital of the us state of

missouri, jefferson, no fertility is —— fatalities. baku prepares for a major european football final where the nation's politcs are proving more problematic than the match. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the mirror, who says the uk opposition leader jeremy corbyn is poised to support a second referendum on brexit after his labour party suffered a huge loss at the european elections. meanwhile, the independent reports that contenders to replace theresa may as uk prime minister have been dealt a double blow to their hopes of persuading voters that they can deliver a better brexit.

the european commission president, jean—claude juncker has flatly rejected any renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement that was struck with ms may last november. in the times business section, pharmacy giant boots could close more than 200 shops over the next two years in a fresh setback for the troubled uk retail sector. the company, which is owned by us pharmacy giant walgreens, said it was "reviewing its store portfolio amid falling sales and profits." on front of the ft, malaysia will return 3,000 tons of plastic waste to countries including the us, canada and saudi arabia, amid a broadening clampdown on imports of improperly labelled rubbish across south east asia. and finally after being awarded the largest divorce payment in history, mackenzie bezos, who recently became the world's fourth richest woman after her separation from jeff bezos, the founder and chief executive of amazon,