and the crisis is entering its eighth week. police fired tear gas and rubber bullets during clashes around government buildings. the beijing authorities are expected to give their first official response to the unrest in a few hours. the jailed russian opposition leader, alexei navalny, may have been exposed to a chemical administered by someone else, according to his personal doctor. mr navalny was taken to hospital on sunday, reportedly suffering from an allergic reaction. and this story is trending on bbc.com: egan bernal has become the first colombian to win the tour de france. the 22—year—old is also the youngest winner in more than 100 years. large numbers of his fellow colombians watched as bernal was crowned champion. that's all. stay with bbc world news. and the top story in the uk: the business group, the cbi,

says neither the uk nor the eu is prepared for a no deal brexit. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. not so great. expectations... us—china trade talks to resume but is there really any hope of a deal insight? brazil's transgender influences changing the way brands talk about the daily struggles and i°ys talk about the daily struggles and joys of people who change their sex. hello and welcome to this monday edition of asia business report, i'm sharon tate lail. let's start with the trade war, because top representatives for the us and china are all scheduled to resume face—to—face negotiations in shanghai tomorrow.

but as we report, president donald trump has been using his favourite form of communication, twitter, to downplay expectations of an end to the conflict any time soon. donald trump has raised the stakes, as his trade and finance chiefs robert lighthizer and steve mnuchin prepare for talks with chinese cou nterpa rts prepare for talks with chinese counterparts on tuesday. it will be the first proper meeting since donald trump reached a truce with chinese president xi zhang ping at the 620 injapan, and only one month before —— using ping. but donald trump is flexing his muscle again, on friday firing a twitter threat —— ze zhang ping. he's unhappy the world's which developing nations can get a better trading deal than american firms at the wto, and he warned he would ignore apple's plea to be exempt on

tariffs. companies have urged mr trump to end the trade row that's postconsumer prices up and damaged as this confidence. farmers hit by tit for tat tariffs from china were last week offered a $16 billion aid package. mr trump has set a more hostile tone for talks as investors and companies around the world are braced for the trade war that began more than a year ago to rumble on. earlier i asked an expert from tribeca investment what she sees coming out of this week's meeting. it's expected to be pretty high level and it's important for the high level to a positive tone. markets are not expecting any form of resolution, but we do expect a positive approach from both sides. you're saying a positive approach but it doesn't help obviously that president donald trump has already

been tweeting, saying china is kicking the can down the road when it comes to these trade talks and they're waiting until after the us presidential elections. is there any truth to that? i think it's obviously very one—sided when you listen to what trump is saying, but it seems like the trade negotiation has been so protracted. i believe it's pressure coming from both sides and. 0bviously they both want a better deal. —— both sides. there's not much to lose for donald trump to pushit much to lose for donald trump to push it further out given the election is quite close. indeed. we know this trade war has hit sentiment, and obviously there's concerns about slowing global growth asa concerns about slowing global growth as a result as well, so how will all of this influence the federal reserve decision on interest rates this week? definitely markets are expecting a 100% chance of a cut of 0.25%, and it's very important for them to

achieve that but some market a nalysts a re achieve that but some market analysts are expecting not .5%, which we think is very unlikely, so that's a risk that someone will be disappointed. as we heard in that report earlier, obviously companies are worried about this trade war and they're worried it's impacting sales. we expect earnings numbers from the likes of apple, sony, huawei. so how will it impact them? absolutely, the impact is quite large. so far we are only seeing us corporate earnings... the growth has been downgraded to contraction, and so far the earnings season has been somewhat mixed we think the commentary will be quite weak given the trade conflict. jun bei liu speaking to me earlier. in hong kong, tens of thousands of protesters have again taken to the city streets and the latest demonstration has seen the return of violent clashes with police. there is growing signs companies are starting to move money out of the financial hub to other locations in the region. earlier i asked an

expert from the american chamber of commerce in hong kong about business sentiment in the city. not surprisingly pessimism is starting to seep in, especially in terms of short—term risk. the longer these protests go on, the more worried people will become and what businesses are saying now is they would like to see tangible and immediate action by the government. that's seen as very important. are they looking to move their operations from hong kong to elsewhere? for instance, we've heard singapore might be a big any fishery and possibly even shanghai. the direct answer to that is no but people are looking at their options —— beneficiary. if the government can step in and make sure businesses realise they can continue to thrive under one country can continue to thrive under one cou ntry two can continue to thrive under one country two systems then they would like to stay in hong kong. hong kong isa like to stay in hong kong. hong kong is a great place to do business.

it's really an example of free trade and an open market economy, so that's seen as incredibly important. however, if we don't see some kind of action to quell the protests then this could really lead to people thinking about other spots and. people do think about singapore immediately but there's other countries in asia that are competitive coming up, and that could be a big worry. tara, how much does hong kong need to stay this vibrant financial centre you've described? could they possibly risk it all by intervening? —— how much does china need hong kong to stay. the system, one country, two systems, is unique and often difficult to maintain, it holds the way things are going now. that means really understanding the areas china can be involved but in which two systems remains intact. as far as business goes, that's what's more

important. it's down to the hong kong government at this point to come up with some communication and some immediate action to make businesses feel more secure and co mforta ble businesses feel more secure and comfortable here. what our members would really like to see, what they're telling us, is basically a withdrawal of the extradition bill, a formal withdrawal, and some sort of international, credible enquiry. ta ra of international, credible enquiry. tara josph, the president of the american chamber of commerce. this week away looking at the world of influences. we start in brazil, where transgender people are changing the way brands advertise with youtube channels that talk about the daily struggles and choice of people who change their sex. that comes as one study suggests brazil has the highest rate of transgender people being killed. as the country is going through a wave of conservatism, especially with the election of far right leaderjair bolsonaro.

6etting getting a strong message across there. let's look at the markets now because in asia, the nikkei is flat at the moment. there's a lot of caution with investors ahead of the interest rate decisions this week, starting with the bank of japan, which begins meeting tomorrow. we've got the federal reserve and those corporate earnings we've been talking about as well as a result of that, investors taking a sideline view a little bit. that's it for the programme. thanks for watching. this is bbc news, the top stories this hour: a weekend of clashes between pro—democracy activists in hong kong and the police has ended. the central government is expected to make a statement on the protests in a few hours. the jailed russian opposition leader, alexei navalny, has been taken to hospital. his doctor says he may have been

exposed to an unknown chemical. a group of uk mps has predicted that cannabis will be legalised in the country in the next five to ten years. they've recently returned from a fact—finding trip to canada, where the drug has been made legal. jim connolly reports. these buds will probably get about four times larger by the time this plant is ready to harvest. currently, canada is the only 67 country to allow recreational use of cannabis. even a few years ago, this would have seemed unimaginable — three british mps from across the political spectrum, looking at how the legalisation process has been implemented. we're following the liberal democrat sir norman lamb, the conservativejonathan djanogly and labour's david lammy. you could go to prison for a very long time in britain if you had anything like this. the trip has been organised by a london—based campaign group volteface. it wants the uk to legalise weed. it's sponsored by a big

north american cannabis company called mpx international, which runs this facility. scott boyes is the boss, and i put it to him that he was trying to use his money to influence british politicians. we've been happy to be a host to them to give them some exposure to the business and give them an understanding of what's happening here in north america. if that helps make the right decisions in the united kingdom, its money well spent for us. canada's prime minister, justin trudeau, came to power promising to legalise cannabis. it's been available here for medical use since 2001, but as of last october, recreational users could use it too without fear of breaking the law, meaning places like this have been springing up all over the country. investors know there could be billions to be made from the industry, but the uk mps admit there's a lot to get their heads around. have you ever seen this volume of cannabis yourself? i never saw any volume of cannabis! so this is your first experience of it? so two or three of those balls are worth $60. so that's quite a valuable amount.

sir norman was central to the lib dems' policy of backing legalisation. which do you tend to use? i've done this one. back at westminster, one of the uk mps has had a significant change of view. i want the market legalised and regulated, taken away from criminal gangs, young people not criminalised because of use, properly educated. but i actually want to see the strength of the stuff reduced, labelled and properly organised in our country. now on bbc news, sport today. hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: he's the youngest winner of the tour de france in over a century. take a bow egan bernal. water weekend for ko

jin—young as she wins the evian championship for her second major of the year. although that is still egan bernal enjoying some hugs and what is an incredible time for the young colombian. verstappen victorious as the weather wreaks havoc at the german grand prix. hello and thanks for joining us on sport today. there's a new superstar in cycling, remember the name — egan bernal. the 22—year—old colombian has become the youngest rider in 110 years to win the tour de france when he crossed the finish line on stage 21 in paris on sunday. simon brotherton was watching the action. paris was bathed in a golden globe ofa paris was bathed in a golden globe of a beautiful summer's evening of sunset as this most engrossing of toys reached its conclusion in the champs—elysees. caleb ewan made it a hat—trick in the chaotic sprint in the final stage. but thousands of

colombians lined