leigh milner has more. this is the business briefing, i'm sally bundock. the price of oil heads higher as theresa may is set to hold an emergency meeting over the seizure of a british—flagged ship. and how a curtain and some algae can convert as much carbon dioxide into oxygen as a tree, while taking up much less space. and on financial markets, investors remain cautious at the start of a new week. it will be a busy one for corporate earnings. and of course, the pound sterling will be supersensitive.

oil prices are rising again after tensions in the gulf have escalated. iran seized a british tanker in the straits of hormuz on friday, and libya's largest oilfield declared force majeure after interference by an unidentified group shut down production. 21% of all the world's traded oil passes through the straits of hormuz. it is a critical energy chokepoint. this morning, theresa may will chair the uk government's emergency committee cobra to discuss the next steps and security of shipping in the persian gulf. irans oil exports fell to less than 300,000 barrels a day last month, according to reuters. that is a big drop from the 2.5 million barrels per day in april last year, which is just before president trump started reimposing sanctions as he pulled out of the nuclear deal. it removed about 2% of global

supplies from the market. the benchmark brent crude has struggled to hold on the gains it made earlier this year, despite the 0pec producers group extending its production cuts. it peaked around $75 a barrel at the end of april, when president trump ended us waivers that allowed some countries to continue importing iranian oil. nitesh shah, director of research at wisdomtree, joins me now. good morning, good to see you. how concerned are you about what is happening at the moment?” concerned are you about what is happening at the moment? i am very concerned. i don't think that the ability to get to a diplomatic solution is that easy on this thing, and therefore the risk of some sort of military intervention is rising. and that is very worrying, because

the ability of oil to move through that region is going to be hampered, and if that is the case, the price of oil could go up quite sharply. jeremy hunt, the uk's foreign secretary, is saying he wants to see some sort of diplomatic solution to this. we might find out later today what the uk government's response is. but as you say the situation is escalating significant. it was the us, really, that was very much against iran in terms of new sanctions, pulling out of the new deal, et cetera, et cetera, now the uk is right in the fray, isn't it? that's right, it has somewhat come about by accident, but now that the accord seems to be fraying and that iran isn't abiding by what it signed up iran isn't abiding by what it signed up to do in terms of keeping the levels of uranium enrichment lower, it is very hard to see how this can end ina it is very hard to see how this can end in a very diplomatic, safe way. i think the pressure on iran is

going to increase, and i think iran in retaliation is going to continue to disrupt the movement of oil around the region. what do you think the price of oil will do, then? we have mentioned the fact that brent crude was around $75 a barrel in april this year. it is around $63. $63 a barrel at the moment. what will happen next? i think getting to $75 a barrel could be quite easy given the escalation problems in the region. as you have mentioned, in addition the opec group have extended their cuts for another nine months, so markets are quite tight in that respect anyway. but, should there be any sort of military action, or should any more tankers be hampered from moving around that region, bearing in mind 30% of all seaborne oil moves through that area, it could see oil prices moving sharply higher, even if it is only

temporary. in the meantime, america is doing rather well, isn't it, with its exporter of oil as an energy supplier? yes, the us has over the last few years been expanding its oil supply, and back in 2014 it started to allow oil exports. it has gone from an almost zero oil export market to a 3 million barrels a day export market, and that could continue to rise as regulations come into play at the end of this year, calling for a lower sulphur content of oil that goes into ships. in the us will be favoured from that. thank you for coming in, and we shall keep a close eye on how to day progresses, what the uk response might be, of course, and the impact that has on the region. south korea's exports fell sharply during the first 20 days of this month, poorsemiconductor shipments one of the reasons. let's go to our asia business hub, where rico hizon is following the story. nice to see you, rico. the reason

we're looking this closely is because south korea and japan have beenin because south korea and japan have been in their own sort of trade war. this is having a big impact on companies like samsung. particularly in the technology space, sally. semiconductors make up for about one fifth of south korea's total exports and it suffered a 40% drop in total shipments. it is a major concern and the south korea situation is not helped by this ongoing technology dispute with japan. when tokyo earlier this month restricted exports of material is critical to the country's hi—tech industries, citing national security concerns. japan and south korea are large exporters of chips and smartphone displays, and escalating trade fight between the two sides could be bad news for the global technology industry. and economists are saying this conflict is disturbing and unhelpful for this conflict is disturbing and unhelpfulfor economic this conflict is disturbing and unhelpful for economic sentiment, and to begin with we already have so

much around the trade war between the united states and the rest of the united states and the rest of the world, and this tokyo seoul rift exacerbates this. prices could rise if production is kept as a result of trade restrictions and a higher cost could be passed on to consumers. so the call of economists and many a nalysts the call of economists and many analysts is get this situation resolved. we will keep a close eye. now let's brief you on some other business stories: japan's prime minister, shinzo abe, has claimed victory in the country's upper house election. but exit polls suggest his coalition has fallen short of the two—thirds so—called supermajority needed to push ahead with revising japan's pacifist constitution. china says it will impose anti—dumping duties on some stainless steel products imported from the european union, japan, south korea and indonesia. anti—dumping tariffs of 18.1% to 103.1% will be applied to some steel products effective 23july, china's ministry of commerce said in a statement.

an alternative to urban trees known as bio—curtains is being developed by a team of architects and scientists in london. the curtains harness the power of algae to absorb carbon dioxide from the air. dougal shaw reports on a novel approach to helping the planet. here in east london, a team of architects and scientists are busy developing technology they think could change the look of cities everywhere and help save the planet. it involves these, bio—curtains. they can be fitted to the outside of any building. they are filled with algae, taken from their natural home, they are treated in a lab. why

do this? well, algae are very naturally efficient at turning carbon dioxide into oxygen. when the sun shines on the curtains, polluted city air is drawn in from the bottom of the curtain, the single cell algae absorb the carbon, and oxygen is released at the top. inventors say it is an effective way to cut down greenhouse gas emissions in cities. this is effectively an extremely efficient way to introduce photosynthesis within the built environment. in terms of air cleaning power, he reckons one of these curtains is equivalent to a mature tree. so far, the bio—curtains have been installed at the customs and revenue house in dublin, and most recently the house of nobility palace in helsinki. in theory any building could be fitted with these bio—curtains, but realistically is that going to happen? it is the law, the uk is aiming to become carbon neutral by 2050. london has got a plan. we have

to reduce the amount of carbon that we admit, but also actively absorb. there are some drawbacks to these bio—curtains compared to trees. as the algae grow, they have to be harvested on a regular basis, which requires maintenance. this is one reason the curtains work out more expensive than trees, though they ta ke expensive than trees, though they take up less space. however, inventors a re take up less space. however, inventors are convinced that this is a smart solution that harnesses a material that already exists all around us. we need lots of smart solutions, don't we? we like those. but before we go, here are the markets: the dow closing by 0.25%, and are very similarfeeling in the dow closing by 0.25%, and are very similar feeling in asia. the dow closing by 0.25%, and are very similarfeeling in asia. some attention will be paid later today and throughout this week to the many companies reporting their earnings. amazonas among them, alphabet, which of course is google. unilever, caterpillar, coca—cola, boeing, lots of big names which will be interesting to look out for. and of

course, the pound sterling, market is very sensitive to this week to the announcement about the new leader of the conservative party. a senior whirlpool executive has apologised to customers affected by the saga of dangerous tumble dryers sold for 11 years in the uk. vice presidentjeff noel said the firm is now offering free replacements or partial refunds, after an earlier programme of repairs wasjudged as insufficient. here is our personal finance correspondent simon gompertz. a design fault in the dryers has caused 750 fires so far. lint from clothing can fall on the heating element and catch alight. whirlpool has been sending engineers to make a

repair, but the recall demanded by ministers means it will have to go much further. for the faulty dryers, branded hotpoint, creda, indesit, it will have two offer a free replacement or an upgrade and discount offering no more than £99 ora discount offering no more than £99 or a refund of up to £150 depending on the age of the dryer. the fact is we have inconvenienced people, this probably been some confusion in terms of the messaging. the fact is, in any of those cases, we do apologise to our customers, to those who may have been confused, and it is an opportunity to say we are sorry, but it is also an opportunity to say we want to do more. we are not stopping where we have been over the last four years. the recall comes a full four years since the problem with the dryers was identified, and even now, contacting those with the remaining appliances could be a challenge. they could be 500,000 out there still being used.

coming up at 6:00am on breakfast: dan walker and louise minchin will have all the day's news, business and sport including the news that all bailiffs will be forced to wear body—mounted video cameras under new rules designed to stop aggressive behaviour. all details and the latest stories at six a.m.. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: one person is critically ill, dozens are injured after gangs of men dressed in white t—shirts attacked pro—democracy activists in hong kong. theresa may is to chair an emergency meeting of her ministers on how to respond to the seizure of a british ship by iran. and new photographs of prince george have been released. they were taken by his mother, the duchess of cambridge, to mark his six birthday today.

if you look at the papers in the uk, he is all over them, prince george looking absolutely gorgeous. we begin with the metro. it leads with the chancellor, philip hammond, announcing yesterday that he will quit before he is sacked to prevent him being dismissed by borisjohnson if, as expected, he becomes prime minister. next to the i paper. it describes the import priorities for the government in the event of a no—deal brexit, placing fresh food third on the list. let's have a look at the japan times. a good result injapan for shinzo abe, the incumbent prime minister, and his ruling liberal democratic party, which appears to have won a majority in the upper house. the new york times now. the ongoing us heatwave continues to stifle the east coast, leaving over 50,000 people without power in new york state, as repairs to the overheating

system were being made. next to the bbc website. india will for the second time attempt to launch a mission to the moon, following technical issues which stopped the mission last week. and finally to the the times' world section. it is a brave new world, with singapore planning a rollout of cleaning robots to help out around the house, to be controlled through an app, at a monthly price of £800. robots replacing humans. there you go. with me is market commentator david buik. we were talking earlier this week about the importance for the uk, or papers are leading with that but the metro has got hammered exit, this is him announcing on bbc yesterday morning on the andrew marr programme that he is going to go before his

sack.