this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. strike action at heathrow airport is called off, as talks continue over staff pay. going going gone — a surprise announcement from hsbc — its chief executive is stepping down afterjust a year and a half in the topjob. and on the markets in asia,

we start the week with a sell—off let's begin with the news that the huge strike planned by heathrow airport workers for today has been called off. further talks between airport officials and the unite union — which is representing the workers — will continue throughout the day, to prevent industrial action now planned for tuesday. the airport — which is britain's busiest — was facing some 2,500 workers striking over a pay dispute. this comes after unite said its members had rejected the offer of an extra £3.75 per day offered by the airport. as a result, the airport cancelled 177 flights — roughly one in seven departures. however one of the affected airlines, british airways, now says it will now reinstate flights from heathrow on monday. other airlines including air canada, aer lingus and etihad airways say they will also be operational from the airport today. our senior reporter ramzan

karmali joins us now. you have been looking at the detailed. can you tell us more about what is happening today? the strike is not happening today but talks are still ongoing between executives and the union. unless those talks are successful they were talking about security staff, firefighters and engineers walking out on strike tomorrow. but not all the disruption we expect today has gone away. most flights will carry on but some were cancelled or moved. virgin atlantic will go with their backup plan, their flights will will go with their backup plan, theirflights will go will go with their backup plan, their flights will go in and out of gatwick. as we said, we know british airways, etihad, air canada and aer lingus will continue as normal. what we do not know is those allies that cancelled their flights and whether they will be reinstated to this is

luftha nsa, they will be reinstated to this is lufthansa, qatar, air portugal and a few others. the advice is to check before you travel because you just don't know what the situation is. hearing from some passengers leave yesterday they were getting very little at information from airlines about whether they would be going on monday or not there was confusion. what rights do passengers have in this situation? contact your airline to see if you can get compensation for disruption. but what the civil aviation authority say is what they would call an extraordinary circumstances because it is the airport cancelling flights, not the airlines. under those circumstances you are not actually going to get compensation but that does depend on the commercial agreements tween airlines and the airport. they may get compensation that they can pass on. but this comes at the worst possible time, right in the height of summer holidays and even more bad news, there is a separate strike that could take place for british

airways pilots, and that is due on august 23 and 24. great time for travellers, especially at this time of year. thank you very much indeed. check with your airline before you set off today and as mentioned, it is not yet clear about compensation so is not yet clear about compensation so make sure you check out the details and we will update our website as well with detail today as and when we know it. let's talk about another strike, this time in hong kong, where the financial hub is facing is first general strike in more than 50 years. they are protesting against the controversial new extradition bill. organisers say industries from finance to technology will be affected. mariko oi nowjoins us from hong kong. financial markets are open. the hang seng is trading, although down 2% today. as far as hong kong is concerned and the authorities, they are trying to keep it is mrs usual.

that is correct. we were talking about how carrie lam spoke for the first time in weeks and we also heard from the financial secretary of the city whose message was clear, this is bad for the economy. he spoke about how the growth last quarter in the three months between april and june was already 0.6%. he emphasised that that would go into negative in the third quarter if this keeps going. he spoke about how investments have fallen sharply and as you mentioned, the stock market todayis as you mentioned, the stock market today is already down by nearly 3% and it lost 7% in the last month. so if you compare that with the rest of the world, the fall is quite significant, even though the world market has been under some pressure from ongoing us china trade wars. the hong kong government has been telling people to not participate but as you can see behind me, that message does not stop young protesters wearing black, that has become a uniform for this protest,

and they gather as they prepare to rally later this afternoon. thank you very much. we will speak to you again soon as the day progresses. hsbc has announced its chief excutive — john flint — will be leaving the bank, as it aims for a new direction to address a "challenging global environment". the surprise announcement came on the same day as the bank revealed its results for the first half of the year, which showed 15.8% rise in profits to $12.4 billion. karishma vaswani now joins us from singapore. sojohn flint so john flint is sojohn flint is leaving. they are giving out their reasons why. it is interesting. he has not been long in that position. he has not. only 18 months. hsbc has not given us a specific reason for this. it is

quite a surprise, this decision, but they did say in a statement accompanying the results that this has been an increasingly complex and challenging global environment which they think they are currently operating right now. and they say that that is the reason why a change is needed, to meet these challenges faced by the bank and to capture the significant opportunities before it. that is what the statement says. if we look atjohn flint‘s tenure at the bank, he spent 30 years at hsbc and in his role as ceo he was very much about focusing on china. remember, even though this is your‘s largest and, much of the money it makes is out here in asia—pacific. a big part of the growth strategy was to do more business in china. there are some suggestions that those plans, his plans, may well have faced some resistance from the chinese government and this has to do with the chinese telecom firm

huawei, it reportedly saw internal e—mails from hsbc that the us department ofjustice e—mails from hsbc that the us department of justice managed e—mails from hsbc that the us department ofjustice managed to get and that is what led to the subsequent extradition request, by the us department, of the chief financial officer of huawei. some suggestion there that that may be the reason why he was asked to leave, or certainly departed ways from hsbc, but it is not clear and thatis from hsbc, but it is not clear and that is not what the bank is saying. let's watch this space than. after a year of tit—for—tat tariffs, it looks like the united states and the european union may be moving closer to an agreement on trade. late on friday, the president of the united states, donald trump, announced an agreement to boost beef exports to the eu. according to the white house, beef exports could almost triple over the next few years to $420m from the current $150m. however he once again raised the prospect

of additional tariffs on european carmakers, something which brussels has been keen to avoid. he hinted they could be used as a bargaining chip, and added ”'auto tariffs are never off the table". joining me now is thomas gift, who's the lecturer of political science at the university college of london. iam sure i am sure you are extremely busy trying to read between the lines here as to what the white house means when it says tariffs are never off the table. as they see themselves, it is a bargaining chip. that is right. is certainly a positive development to the eu has agreed to accept 45,000 metric tons of beef, most of which will come from the united states. that is a positive resolution. that is coupled with these comments from president trump that other tariffs are not off the table. you would assume that if europe gives ground within the agricultural and beef, quite important to the us economy,

important to the us economy, important to the us economy, important to those who perhaps may vote in 2020 for a new president, that that would be a way of saying to the united states, can we have in return, you know, a deal on cars? that is fair to assume. this is good news for cattle ranchers and farmers in the united states and europe will certainly expect something in exchange. i think donald trump does wa nt to exchange. i think donald trump does want to make headway here in europe, particularly because he is waging an ongoing trade war with china that has had negative implications on us markets as well as asian markets. to the extent that they are able to find a resolution on this issue, it is good news. it is interesting right now, mariko mentioned that the hong kong market is down as is the japanese and elsewhere across asia today. right now asian stocks are falling because investors are fretting over the latest news from the us in regards to its relationship with china. a lot of mixed messages. that is true. 0n friday we saw the nasdaq dropped by

1.3% and we saw the dowjones dropped by 0.4%. all of these are signs of economic pessimism in the united states. the odds are that this will hit american consumers quite hard. 0ne analysis by the peterson institute suggested that if these tariffs do eventually rise to 2596 these tariffs do eventually rise to 25% as threatened, this could cost households on average about 12,000, 1200 dollars annually. it is a big issue. thank you very much indeed for joining issue. thank you very much indeed forjoining us to talk about this, the latest entree. that is your business briefing. let's briefly show you the asian numbers. as mentioned, the key issue for markets trading is a brand—new trading week begins is concerned about the relationship between the us and china and the very latest messages coming through various tweens on saturday from the president saying that actually things are going really well but this was after he

ratcheted up his rhetoric late friday saying that, actually, levies on china could go to a much higher number. reading between the lines, investors at the moment are quite negative. officials in the derbyshire town of whaley bridge say at least two more days of pumping is needed to get water in a damaged reservoir to a safe level. hundreds of people have spent a fourth night away from their homes because of fears the dam could burst. from whaley bridge, danny savage reports. the water level in the reservoir has dropped significantly since this emergency was declared. but there is still a long way to go before the authorities will give the all clear for people to return to their homes.

we absolutely are aiming to get people back in their homes as soon as possible. but i am not prepared for them to do that until i get absolute assurance that it is safe for them to do so. hundreds of giant bags of ballast have been dropped onto the damaged part of the dam. last night, an raf chinookjob —— returned it to drop more. we are having problems with people ignoring road closure signs... 0ver having problems with people ignoring road closure signs... over the weekend, police strictly imposed an exclusion zone in and around whaley bridge to keep people away from homes which would be destroyed if the dam burst. brian and sue have live near the reservoir for years. they want plenty of reassurance that it is safe. it is not an inconvenience at all because this is oui’ inconvenience at all because this is our lifeline over there. for our existence. 0ur existence here. it needs to be rectified, it needs to

be put right and for a long time afterwards as well we need to feel secure. this operation is going well. but that does not mean people will be allowed back into their homes yet. there will be more on that story at six o'clock here on bbc one during breakfast. you can join sally and dan for the day ‘s news, business and sport at six o'clock here on bbc one. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: in hong kong, day destruction is under way. in hong kong, day destruction is underway. pro—democracy in hong kong, day destruction is under way. pro—democracy protesters have urged people to join them in a general strike. have urged people to join them in a generalstrike. president have urged people to join them in a general strike. president trump is under pressure to address the rise in white nationalism after two mass

shootings just hours apart. he is expected to give a further announcement later today on his response to those shootings. lets have a look at that story in terms of what is being said about what happened in el paso and in 0hio. we start with the washington post, which looks at the crisis that has come to the fore again. the apprehended gunman in the el paso attack will be treated as a terrorism suspect. he apparently posted a white nationalist manifesto online. in hong kong, many papers looking at this, saying there is no letup in the protests. the headline on le figaro is that the government ‘s sta nce figaro is that the government ‘s stance is hardening.

prime minister boris johnson