hello. this is business live from bbc news with victoria fritz and maryam moshiri. crude oil prices continue to rise on fears for global oil supplies — as tensions escalate in the strait of hormuz. live from london, that's our top story on friday ilithjune. as tensions escalate... the us takes aim at iran — it says it has evidence that tehran was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers in the strait of hormuz. while china says it will promote

ties with iran — no matter how the situation develops. plus, will uncertainty about the influence of china in hong kong have a long—term impact on investment in the territory? speaking of investment, here is how the markets are faring. equities were mixed, while crude oil continues to edge higher after an action—packed thursday. and we'll look back on the past week in business — donald trump has dominated the headlines yet again. from his frustration over the lack of a trade deal with japan — to his exasperation over germany's gas deal with russia. we'll be talking about all that and more with our economics editor, andrew walker. also — a ban on harmful gender stereotypes in adverts comes into force in the uk today, so we want to know, do you think these kinds of ads reinforce outdated ideas about gender or not? let us know — just use #bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live.

we start with the price of oil. it has continued to rise after spiking more than 4% on thursday — after explosions damaged two tankers off the coast of iran. us secretary of state mike pompeo has called them "the latest in a series of attacks" by iran — attacks which iran has categorically denied. washington has also blamed tehran for attacks on four tankers last month in the same area — again — accusations iran denies. meanwhile president xijinping has said china will promote ties with iran no matter how the situation changes. what are we talking about? the strait of hormuz links middle eastern oil producers to markets in europe, asia and north america. at its narrowest point the gap — just 21 miles. there are only two

shipping lanes here — each just two miles wide. yet more than 17 million barrels of oil per day pass through it. that's something like 40% of all global oil shipments by tanker — and nearly a fifth of the worlds oil supply. it's also been the main export route for iranian oil — worth $66 billion in 2017. until this man got involved. president trump tightened sanctions on the country. president rouhani has hinted that oil shipments through the strait could be disrupted — if the united states tries to strangle iran's economy. amrita sen is chief energy analyst at energy aspects. thank you forjoining us. how serious do you think this escalation is? what are oil analysts think? do they fear what is happening now?m is quite a significant political escalation, yes. there were tankers attacked a month ago around

fujairah, but the damage done yesterday was significantly more and the bigger issue was last night when mike pompeo came out and accused iran directly and holds iran responsible. he mentioned back channel talks via the japanese premier had been rejected by iran, so premier had been rejected by iran, so this is clearly an escalation thatis so this is clearly an escalation that is serious. the price of oil has risen off the back of this. however, in recent times the trajectory of oil has been downwards, hasn't it? absolutely, and even yesterday, i would say, given the scale of what is going on in the strait of hormuz, the escalation and what it potentially could mean, prices only rose marginally, it was up about $1.50. in the past, if something like this had happened that you would have seen a $5 or a $7 move. the reason is that there are lots of demand fears, people are really scared we are entering a recession, particularly driven by the us— china

trade will, european macroeconomic data has been poor, you have the brexit issues and all the other problems in europe as well, that has been the main driver of oil prices 110w. been the main driver of oil prices now. of course, it might start to pivot with this geopolitical tension but the focus of the market still is on demand. and of course the focus is on 0pec+ and their meeting next month when we will find out if they will cut production or start increasing it. that's one of the things people are looking forward to balance the market. 0h, absolutely. again, if you look at work 0pec is, 01’ again, if you look at work 0pec is, or what it would have done a month ago, the reality is they would have had to increase a bit given how sharply iranian exports have fallen, they are pretty much at zero but now with the demand fears, they are probably just with the demand fears, they are probablyjust going to roll over the existing deal which is 1.2 million barrels a day cut. now that we are looking at a recession, they may looking at a recession, they may look at another cut, but the

rollover is the more likely scenario, but people are definitely asking that question. good to talk to you as always, amrita sen. thank you very much. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. china is raising duties on certain alloy—steel equipment imported from the us and the european union. beijing says the move is designed to stop unfairly priced steel tubes and pipes being dumped in their country. tariffs as high as 148% will come into force for some products. bayer says its investing more than $5.5 billion to develop new pesticides — after buying monsanto the maker of the weedkiller round—up. round—up has been the subject of class action law suits from plaintiffs saying it causes cancer. monsanto denied the allegations. let's go to switzerland. a nationwide women's strike takes place in switzerland on friday with demonstrations across the country. marches were held 28 years ago for pay equality but campaigners say little has changed. 0rganisers say they

expect a huge turnout. after a week of mass—protests in hong kong over a proposed new extradition law, what's likely to be the impact on the city as a global financial hub? that's a question we are going to put to christine hah, who is in singapore for us. what are the initial moves, do you think? well, you know, hong kong has been the business gateway into china, while also being treated as an independent entity from the mainland, so if that independence is threatened, then so will many aspects of its international status, so, for example, is a trading hub, the us could decide to include hong kongin the us could decide to include hong kong in its trade tariffs and entity ban list against china. this is not an idle threat because us congressional leaders have already said they will review hong kong's status if the bill is passed. 0ne said they will review hong kong's status if the bill is passed. one of the basic requirements for any globalfinancial and

the basic requirements for any global financial and trading hub, the basic requirements for any globalfinancial and trading hub, of course, is an independentjudiciary. hong kong'sjudiciary has had a stellar reputation thus far but if the bill is passed then that reputation will definitely be questioned as well. and of course, if hong kong's appeal as a global financial hub and trading centre dims in the future then property prices will fall, and of course, real estate is such a big part of its economy so far. we have already seen its economy so far. we have already seen the government holed off a big land tender this weekend we have seen a land tender this weekend we have seen a developer title golden financial draw up plans for developing a huge chunk of land and we are seeing falls in those companies on the stock market. there have been lots of tricky conditions but this bill seems to be very different in its challenges indeed. thanks very much, christine. investors particularly in asia pondering the economic impact of recent protests. as christine said there. quite an interesting story.

shares in bank of east asia suffered their biggest one day fall in more than a decade in hong kong trading on friday, after the lender blamed a profit warning on weaker conditions in china's commercial property market. 0ver over in the european session. 0ne breaking news story. kia shares down today, there are comments that they might get build of their house—building units, so lots of people concerned about that. energy stocks have been benefiting from the boost in oil but sentiment is down, european indices are faltering a little bit. but it's worth noting that the world's top stock return this year has come from greece. no, seriously. perhaps we will talk about that later on. but first... michelle fleury has the details of what's ahead on wall street today. the question for investors this friday. can you teach an old dog new tricks? nearly two decades after pets.com went public and later went bust, another hyped pet supply retailer is coming to market. shares in chewy will

begin trading on the new york stock exchange. with more americans doing their pet shopping online, the opportunity in pet products, well, is pretty clear. but like many of the tech companies that have come to market recently, chewy is yet to make a profit. 0n the us economic front, the commerce department is likely to report retail sales rose 0.6% in may. that follows a 0.2% drop in the previous month. and the university of michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment index forjune is likely to show a reading of 98%. now, anything above 50 is considered expansionary. this is significant given recent concerns about the health of the us economy, and it's an important index for retailers, economists and investors because its rise and fall has historically helped predict economic expansions and contractions. joining us isjeremy stretch from cibc world markets. hejoins us to he joins us to talk through global markets. it's been a busy week but let's concentrate on a couple of

points, gold prices, always wear investors‘ money goes when they are worried about the geopolitical situation and there is quite a lot to worry about again this week. well, there is but it‘s notjust about the geopolitical situation, also the risk of the us raising interest rates so the yield goes down, gold doesn‘t have a yield in itself but if you have other asset prices under pressure and geopolitical risks then investors generally flood back to the gold market. we have seen the gold pricing going up through 1350 and if we rally up through the 11100 mark, some people suggest it could roar up to 1700, but that would take a very negative geopolitical situation to precipitate that. facebook has been making the front pages today. in the ft. making the front pages today. in the ft, in the wall streetjournal, they are launching a cryptocurrency next week, libra, it has got some big backers, visa, mastercard, paypal, hoover. will it work? well, considering the people behind it, you would assume there is going to

bea you would assume there is going to be a very strong following tailwind —— uber. in terms of this new digital currency, what is going to be linked to? there are references it could be linked to a currency, one would assume a dollar or a basket of currencies, so the value will fluctuate. the other issue that will fluctuate. the other issue that will be fascinating will be how will central bank to react to this? they try and operate monetary policy by looking at the flow of funds relating to interest rates but if you are starting to get more and more flows via cryptocurrencies, then the control of the central banks in terms of the global and financial architecture becomes rather lessened. it is going to be fascinating to see how this plays out. interesting to see how it changes the landscape. jeremy, come backin changes the landscape. jeremy, come back ina changes the landscape. jeremy, come back in a few minutes‘ time to talk through the papers with us. of course. still to come — donald trump has dominated the headlines yet again this week. from his frustration over the lack of a trade deal with japan — to his exasperation over germany‘s gas deal with russia. we‘ll be talking about all that, and more, with our economics editor, andrew walker. you‘re with business live from bbc news.

the consumer group which? says passengers are being overcharged by rya nair for using currency conversion. passengers booking flights within europe are shown fares in euros, but then the airline converts the fares to sterling. what that means in some instances is that some customers are paying more for the same flights. gareth shaw is head of money at which? to explain this to the viewers, give us some examples to explain this to the viewers, give us some examples with figures of what has happened. so, for example, you are buying a one—way flight back from spain, you will be buying that flight from spain, you will be buying that flight in euros back to the uk. when you enter in your card details, ryanair will convert the price of that flight back to pounds and pence and it makes it incredibly difficult for you to pay in the local currency. you have to click on a more information button, you have to

then deselect the option to pay in your home currency, and then after that it flashes up a warning and says you might pay significantly more by paying in the local currency. through our research we found that‘s not actually the case. we looked at the cost of a flight going back from spain that would have cost around £525 with ryanair. but if you‘d have paid in the local currency, you would have ended up paying around £495, so you would have been overcharged by £30 by using its currency conversion system, which is incredibly difficult to opt out of. gareth, how do you opt out of it? how do you get around this and not pay more for your flights? well, ryanair is one of the few airlines that does this, that opts you into the currency conversion, and then the journey that a user on its website has to go on is incredibly complex to opt out of it. the other airline we found

doing this aer lingus, makes it easy to pay in the local currency. the vast majority of airlines don‘t do this to you at all. you have got to be very wary. converting the money back into sterling when you are paying in euros is generally not a good deal. it is always better to pay in the local currency. but we are worried that ryanair is not being transparent, is not following the rules, and we have reported this to the caa because this is the third time we have seen them doing this. gareth sure, thank you very much indeed. more on that story and plenty more on our website. do go to the business live page where there is plenty more news. bbc.com/ business. you‘re watching business live. our top story — crude oil prices continue to rise on fears

for global oil supplies — as tensions escalate in the strait of hormuz. a quick look at how the markets are faring. european markets all looking down. it‘s been a week of rising geopolitical tensions. with trade high on the agenda the us has been pressuring japan to speed up progress towards a bilateral trade deal. and let‘s not forget trump is threatening sanctions on germany over its russian gas pipeline, opening a new front in the trade war with the kremlin. those and other stories have been keeping our economics correspondent andrew walker busy and hejoins us now. the us ambassador has been talking to the japan times today and talked about trump‘s frustration here. what does he want and when does he want it? now! now! august would do, that‘s been the data suggested. he wa nts a that‘s been the data suggested. he wants a bilateral trade agreement to remove a lot of barriers to trade between the two countries. america

has a particular interest in the japanese car and agriculture markets. with cars, japan actually doesn‘t impose any tariffs at all on imports. the concern that the american industry has is what they call nontariff barriers, so there are things like product standards, purchasing arrangements between different japanese businesses that are sometimes described as cartel kind of behaviour. some european car—makers have managed to get into the market all right but the americans have found it extremely difficult and so they would like to see them progress there. on industrial overall, japan has lower average tariffs than the united states. some others are very high, particularly in the case of rice, prohibitively in fact. that‘s somewhere where donald trump and the american agricultural lobby would like to see some real progress in getting access to what is potentially a very large and lucrative market. let‘s talk about

gas, in particular gas being piped into germany. the nord stream pipe. this is about the us threatening germany with sanctions if they keep bringing in gas from russia, right? this is nord stream two, there is already a nord stream pipeline shipping gas underneath the baltic sea from russia to germany. phase two is under construction and president trump has indeed suggested as his energy secretary did a couple of months ago, the possibility of sanctions against firms essentially involved in building it. the concern there is it is bypassing ukraine and poland, poland in particular has been talking to president trump about this, expressing concerns. and the worry is that it might make it easierfor russia to the worry is that it might make it easier for russia to use gas supply asa easier for russia to use gas supply as a weapon against ukraine and poland if it doesn‘t have to worry about the side effect of it interrupting its very important sales to germany. and i think that‘s

the fundamental reason why president trump is keen to see germany taking a different position. but construction is already under way. has germany said anything in response? there is no sign they intend to comply with this request. let‘s talk about the euro zone. finance ministers have been meeting, haven‘t they, to discuss deep integration to try and avoid some of the problem is that we have seen in the problem is that we have seen in the past. apparently, greece isn‘t top of their agenda for once. there isa top of their agenda for once. there is a great journalist top of their agenda for once. there is a greatjournalist who tweeted, the sweetest words known to man, a bit ofan the sweetest words known to man, a bit of an exaggeration because greece wasn‘t on the agenda at all. a very low threshold for sweetness! laughter but what they have been looking at, and they have reached some sort of agreement on something that, if you will forgive the technical language, a budgetary instrument for convergence and competitiveness. getting pulses racing around the world! you get my friday going, andrew! one of the problems they had

in the eurozone crisis was that he didn‘t have the automatic system for shifting money around from areas not affected by the economic crisis to those that were affected and the like the united states has to some degree through the very large federal budget. this indicates some sort of progress towards addressing that kind of issue. but it does look on the face of it, like the scale of money involved is going to be really quite small. but, you know, some people are seeing it as at least a kind of building block from which something more substantial could be activated if there is another crisis. this is something that‘s going to the eurozone summit in a couple of weeks‘ time. there is a lwa ys couple of weeks‘ time. there is always this problem with this kind of thing that german taxpayers in particular have this concern, as they would see it, of being left on they would see it, of being left on the hook for the irresponsibility of governments in other parts of the eurozone. ok, andrew walker, as always, lovely to have you on the

programme. have a lovely weekend. and you. thank you. a ban on adverts featuring "harmful gender stereotypes" has come into force today. the uk‘s advertising watchdog introduced the ban because it found some portrayals could "limit people‘s potential". lizo mzimba has more. 0ven pride, so easy a man can do it. it‘s phrases like this, stereotypes like this — girls doing ballet while boys do maths — and offensive preconceptions, women unable to handle diy tasks, that could well find themselves in trouble. women, don't expect any help on a thursday. print and online are covered too, so ads like this, "think like a man if you want to be a boss," or this, "are you beach body ready?" will be under the spotlight. the asa wants to prevent stereotypes that pressurise women and men interacting in a particular way. thanks, beautiful. you're welcome. how can such a pretty wife

make such bad coffee? i heard that! things have slowly changed since the early days of advertising. i hardly ever buy fairy liquid. but this is the first time that proper guidelines have come into force to tackle the harm potentially caused by gender stereotypes. lizo mzimba, bbc news. idid like i did like those fairy liquid adverts. they are quite nice. yeah, yeah... let‘s talk about you at home because you have been tweeting us and we have been asking you if you think it is a good thing. 0ne text says i‘m sick of the story, in most rolesjobs 0ne text says i‘m sick of the story, in most roles jobs are shared and most people male and female don‘t consider this an issue. i don‘t know ifi consider this an issue. i don‘t know if i agree with that. gareth doesn‘t agree with that. he says these ads

definitely preconditioned children to gender norms that not only restrict their potential and prevent children from being who they are and achieving what they want to do, but ultimately restrict our workforce by narrowing the pool of talent available. that‘s a good point. graham says, most ads portray blokes as bumbling, lazy buffoons so i do my best to enforce that stereotype. 0uch! diana saying i caught this mental hygiene. it is harmful as one‘s conscious brain is not activated to process the information so activated to process the information so it can contaminate one‘s values. i had terrible problems with university lecturers ogling page three. i can‘t tell you how hostile my educational setting became. let‘s bring injeremy at this point. what do you think? do thing adverts that portray gender stereotypes in the way we have seen in the are harmful? i‘m not sure i would say there were harmful but i‘m saying they should be taken out of the spectrum. i think it‘s fascinating the story that you have been highlighting on the bbc website has a picture which

is straight out of the 1950s and in a sense that‘s exactly where the situation should be. we have hopefully moved away from these gender stereotypes. looking at younger people these days, they are encouraged to look at a broad range of responsibilities and opportunities, and i think this process , opportunities, and i think this process, this removal of gender stereotypes is part of that overall spectrum. we did get a comment in from the comedian. he said, how far do you go with it? just a paraphrase... how far do you go with this, because some of these ads are donein this, because some of these ads are done injest. they are done this, because some of these ads are done in jest. they are done to undermine gender stereotypes, and actually, can we not have a laugh at how backwards some people or some attitudes can be? that is true, there is the tongue of —— in cheek technique and strain beyond advertising to what we can talk about in regular culture and what is funny and what is humorous. in a sense, i think we have to keep things in context. we should always remember that everybody should have

an opportunity to do whatever it is appropriate for them in life and not reinforcing stereotypes in advertising, which i think it‘s part of that process. shall we talk briefly about cars and stopping people from driving? this story is in the scotsman. and it‘s in the times as well. i will keep talking... former transport boss says, give workers £400 to ditch their cars. this basically is about trying to stop drivers using their to work and basically a transport expert is saying give people £400 a year as a bonus to stop them from commuting to work. do you think that‘s going to work? it may help some but first and foremost the issue as you need to have good alternative transport options. so, that is the most obvious issue in terms of trying to persuade people not to use their cars. 0bviously, living in london, and we are in london today, we know there isa are in london today, we know there is a very good transport network. but if you go to other cities outside the capital that transport network becomes much less obvious andi network becomes much less obvious

and i think that‘s a difficulty. jeremy stretch, so good to have you on. thank you very much. thanks, jeremy. that‘s it from business live today. there will be more business news throughout the day. hgppy happy friday. goodbye. hi there, good morning. many of us across england and wales have started off this morning with more rain. it‘s all because this area of low pressure hasn‘t moved very far over the last few days and these weather fronts just rotating around it. so as we go through the next few days that area of low pressure is going to remain so it‘s going to stay quite unsettled. but the better news really is the rain today is going to clear and we‘re going to see a mixture of sunny spells and showers. not completely dry but drier. so this morning, that rain, which will clear away by this afternoon, we will see a few heavy showers drifting their way north and eastward, but as you can see there will also be a good deal of sunshine. so, plenty of sunny spells

across scotland this afternoon. a few showers which could be heavy and eastern areas, a few showers which could be heavy in eastern areas, maximum temperature is getting up to about 14—16dc. a dry afternoon for northern ireland with a few showers, and certainly for much of england and wales it‘s drier. but notice green blobs. but notice the green blobs. still some heavy, perhaps some thundery showers drifting their way north and eastward. but temperatures getting up into the mid to the high teens, perhaps 20 celsius in the south—east. through tonight we will continue to see a bit of rain moving its way into the west. so northern ireland, western scotland, wales and the south—west. further east it‘s going to remain dry. 0vernight temperatures fairly similar to what we‘ve had over the last few days. so, during saturday, as i said again, it‘s not going to be completely dry, we have this band of rain moving eastward, it will break up into some showers by the afternoon across eastern areas. but as it does clear away, there will be some sunshine developing towards the west and where you‘ve got that sunshine coming through, it‘s going to start feeling quite warm. those temperatures getting up into the high teens for many. into sunday, that area of low pressure is just drifting away to the west but it still influences

conditions across the uk, so again, you can see we still have more weather fronts starting to move their way in and that means, again, just a few more showers, more persistent rain, perhaps weaving its way into scotland and into northern parts. sunny spells and showers elsewhere during sunday. but again, when the sun comes out you‘ll feel that, so temperatures getting to 17—20 degrees in england and wales — up to about 15—17 degrees further north. and into next week, again, it‘s going to be drier. there still will be a few showers around but those temperatures are really starting to rise. we could see highs up to about 25, 26 degrees, for example, in the london area by mid week next week. bye— bye.

this you‘re watching bbc news at 9am with me, annita mcveigh. the headlines: two years on from the grenfell tower fire survivors and relatives of the 72 dead come together today to remember the tragedy. it is very hard to believe it has happened. even though you know and you have seen death certificates and everything else you find it very hard to accept. the latest figures show that hundreds of high—rise buildings still have cladding similar to the type used on grenfell tower. one of the conservative leadership candidates — matt hancock — is considering quitting the contest, as borisjohnson‘s rivals put pressure on him to take part