this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. trouble in the pipeline — president trump warns germany over dependence on russian gas, and threatens sanctions over the nordstream 2 project to bring more of it to europe. plus, uncandid camera — how deepfake videos can make anyone appear to say anything, and what the tech giants are doing about it. and on the markets: asian shares dragged lower by those protests in hong kong, the hang seng down 1.5% after a 1.7% fall on wednesday. oil still close to its

lowest in five months. we start in the us, where just days after pulling back from the brink of a trade war against mexico, president trump has a new target in his sights. he has criticized germany for overdependence on russia for energy and threatened sanctions against european firms involved in a massive project to bring more russian gas to europe. michelle fleury in new york explains. donald trump has upped his criticism of germany over a gas pipe line that would double the amount of gas that can be transported directly from russia to germany. the american president said on wednesday he is

still considering using sanctions to block the nord stream to pipeline. still considering using sanctions to block the nord stream to pipelinelj think block the nord stream to pipeline.” think it is an enormous mistake to germany, but again germany is running its affairs and they will do just fine. but i was critical, i had been critical of it. a tremendous amount of energy will be supplied by that pipeline. trump has claimed since last year that germany is captive to russian energy exports. he is not the first us president to oppose the pipeline, that critics say would bypass other energy sources. he draws say would bypass other energy sources. he draws on say would bypass other energy sources. he draws on support from congress, where some members have also proposed sanctions to try to block the project. the pipeline is over a thousand kilometres long and would run beneath the baltic sea linking eastern russia and northern germany. the us are not the only ones who take issue with it, for yea rs ones who take issue with it, for years other eu member states have been concerned about the reliance on

russian gas. earlier this year, the disagreements between different members threatened to disarray let altogether. german businesses have heavily invested in the nordstream project, and angela merkel argues that it project, and angela merkel argues thatitis project, and angela merkel argues that it is an economic project, ensuring that it would not make germany reliant on russia for energy. an interesting story. lets go live to hong kong, where we can see people still in the streets, rubber bullets and teargas were used yesterday to try to disperse crowds, the financial district is closed. government offices are closed, and

as you can see it has been taking its toll on the hang seng, the main index trading. business is important, critical to hong kong. index trading. business is important, criticalto hong kong. it is seen on the international stage asa is seen on the international stage as a place where business is central, financial markets are central, financial markets are central, and it would seem for many yea rs central, and it would seem for many years as the way into mainland china. let's go to asia now, and there have been further falls on the hang seng index as street protests in hong kong continue. rico hizon is following the story. took us through the impact this is having. currently it is having a major impact on the hang seng index, as you mentioned. shares are extendingyesterday‘s sharp falls, as the central business district was closed. the hang seng is down by another 0.8% at this time, so that isa another 0.8% at this time, so that is a total of about 2.4— 2.5% over the past two trading days. on

wednesday, hundreds of thousands of people swarmed the streets, opposing a proposed new law that included mainland china. several companies gave employees the day off as tensions escalated. hong kong is one of the major financial hubs, tensions escalated. hong kong is one of the majorfinancial hubs, and home to many global companies, which have relied on it as a safe place from which to do business in china. no major company at this point has spoken out publicly because they don't want to anger beijing. at some stock market analysts have already floated the idea of leaving hong kong. they are also concerned that china is undermining the city's legal system and they don't know if anyone, including foreign executives, will be exempted from extradition if the bill becomes law. thank you, rico. now let's brief you on some other business stories. retail tycoon sir philip green has agreed a deal with creditors to save his empire from collapse.

his group, arcadia, which includes the miss selfridge and top shop chains, has been losing out to fast fashion rivals such as zara and h&m, as well as online competition from the likes of asos. it will now close 48 of its 566 stores and cut around a thousand jobs. many uk businesses are not even close to being ready for a no deal brexit, figures seen by the bbc‘s newsnight programme suggest. it found that as of may 26, fewer than 10% of firms had applied for a government scheme aimed at easing imports in the event of the uk leaving the customs union and single market abruptly. ford is recalling 1.2 million explorer suvs in the us over suspension issues that could affect steering. the recall affects cars made in its chicago plant between 2010 and 2017. ford said one customer had reported hitting a kerb when part of the the rear suspension fractured, but was not aware of any injuries caused by the problem.

let's talk about fake news now — and specifically fake videos. the us congress's house intelligence commitee is holding a hearing later on the rise of so—called deepfakes online. these are videos generated by artificial intelligence doctoring real images of people to show them saying or doing things that never happened. the us director of national intelligence is warning that they could increasingly be used in campaigns to falsely influence public opinion. they are one of the reasons facebook has hired more than 30,000 people to vet the content that appears on its sites. ceo mark zuckerberg was himself the target of a deepfake uploaded on instagram this month by two artists who literally put words into his mouth.

imagine this for a second. one man, with total control of billions of people's stolen data, their lives and their futures. i people's stolen data, their lives and theirfutures. i owe it all to spectre. it showed me that whoever controls the data controls the future. that is a brilliant illustration of what we're talking about, creepy really. tarek nseir is founder of the digital advertising agency. hejoins me now. they are going discuss this in congress to today, and the technology is still not as sophisticated as it will be in the near future. it is a real worry, isn't it? it is a realworry. i think this will pour notjust fuel on the fire, but it could be explosive. we rely on videos to create authenticity now, so the impact of these fakes could be quite

significant. could a deep fake video of president trump, or kimjong—un, saying anything really. it could be fed to us here at the bbc and we have to ascertain if it is real or not. part of what makes it frightening is it takes around a0 minutes to make one of the moment, so it can affect a story as it is breaking. what can the authorities do about this? say, for example, what might congress come up with? they are trying to outlaw the use of the technology outright at the moment. the issue with that is in some ways, getting this technology into the hands of everyone might help educate everybody about its potential impact. what others are doing which is quite interesting, first of all there are some technologies emerging to help these deep fakes from getting out, where people can pour over them to spot

where they have been faked. others are talking about using the block chain, having a digital watermark from source to where it arrives in the viewer's eyes. that is a long way away. in norway they are teaching people from a young age helping them to separate fake information from real. you have to attack it from every angle, don't you? government authorities doing their bit, the likes of facebook and others doing their bit, and all of us others doing their bit, and all of us being educated as well. but the concern is, where you do know what is real and what isn't real in the future. my thought was, somebody could create a video of me saying something, and it would be a disaster. it really could be. news outlets have a responsibility. we have to find ways of using this technology and making sure you know you are putting out authentic

information when you are, and i think it will rebuild trust in traditional news outlets because i think this will be destructive to social media and belief in social media content. let's have a look at what some people have been saying, because we ask for your opinions. one viewer has asked, what about freedom of expression, we shouldn't speculate. it is owned by people who are concerned about it, facebook is an interface, not a content provider. that is the big debate, isn't it? that was the argument of facebook until mark zuckerberg became a victim of it himself! the media has to play a fundamental role in this as well. politicians and those of high influence need to have people using those technologies looking out for these videos. at that point i think facebook has a responsibility to pull down the content as quickly as it can. 30,000

people is a drop in the ocean in contrast with the resources required to make an impact. this is a fascinating subject, and something i have tweeted more detail about this morning, so that is your business briefing. stay with us, more to come. nearly three quarters of nhs services in england failed to treat new cancer patients quickly enough during the last financial year, according to research by the bbc. cancer charities have expressed their concern at the figures but nhs england say it's due to increasing demand on services. lauren moss reports.

when a whena gp when a gp makes an urgent referral for cancer treatment, nhs guidelines say 85% of patients should begin treatment within 62 days, but figures show that almost 32,500 patients across england weren't seen within that timeframe in the past year. bbc analysis of waiting times shows that maidstone and tunbridge wells in kent was the worst performing, treating just 61% of patients within the two month period. it is followed by wolverhampton, western area health, south bend and... kingston topped the list, seeing 96% of patients within the time. frimley health and bolton also performed well. cancer isa bolton also performed well. cancer is a diagnosis that when people receive it it turns the world upside down. it is a really difficult experience for people to go through,

and the longer people have to wait to get that diagnosis and treatment, the more it will impact them, their health and well—being, just going through that experience. and nhs england spokesperson said... the nhs long—term plan outlines how itaims to the nhs long—term plan outlines how it aims to treat more people more quickly, but at the moment say it is a system in crisis. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: hong kong shuts down some government offices in the financial district for the rest of the week after a day of clashes over a controversial extradition bill. donald trump declares he would accept damaging information from a foreign government about political rivals in the next election campaign.

here in the uk, it's the first round of voting in the conservative leadership race. at least one of the ten candidates will drop out today. let's unpack that a little further and see how the u.k.'s discussing who is likely to get through and who was not. the daily telegraph is leaning on boris johnson was not. the daily telegraph is leaning on borisjohnson who launched his campaign to become the leader of the conservative party and therefore the new prime minister. so they unpack what he has promised. next to the financial times — which also focuses on the conservative leadership race, with a warning to the candidates that britain is unprepared for a no—deal brexit. that's look at the south china morning