this is the business briefing. i'm victoria fritz. cleaning up the internet. the white house calls a summit with big tech firms to counter online extremism. and uber disappoints. shares are down sharply after reporting its latest results. and on the markets, trade in asia nudging up cautiously — following a tumultuous week. and wall street posts its biggest gain in tow months. —— two months.

big tech is under the spotlight today, with leading firms summoned to the white house for a meeting on curbing violent online extremism. it comes just days after two mass shootings in the us, which left 31 people dead. the suspect in the texas shooting posted material on the controversial 8chan online message board before the attack. pressure was already mounting on tech firms after the christchurch shootings in new zealand, which were livestreamed on facebook. 51 people perished in the attack. the global internet forum to counter terrorism, set up by firms like facebook and twitter, have already pledged to do more to identify and remove extremist content and says it's rolled out a "cross—platform counter—violent extremist toolkit". the forum has also promised to do more to block offensive content as violent events actually unfold.

but that may not be enough for white house officials. donald trump says he wants the tech firms to develop tools "that can detect mass shooters before they strike". mike weston, managing director uk for agillic, an omnichannel marketing company, joins me now. we're not winning this war are we? no. and i'm not sure we have a can, if i'm honest. it is a free for all forum ——we ever can. by definition it is impossible to control. the moment you have members of the public able have their voices heard by the masses, it is impossible to squash anything out. does that mean we should not try? no, of course we should try. the christchurch call that jacinto ardern launched after the christchurch shootings, which the christchurch shootings, which the americans said we like, but

we're not going to participate, it will be interesting to see whether they change their tune in the light of al passlow in particular —— tasende are doing. what is the most effective way of tackling it? there is an interesting balance. the fbi have been talking to facebook and the like about whether or not there isa the like about whether or not there is a way of predicting that someone is a way of predicting that someone is going to go on a mass murder rampage based on social media postings. that is quite interesting. it sounds a bit like debbie minority report. it is difficult because how do you determine whether somebody is sounding off or about to do something quite distressing? that is an incredibly difficult line to trade. it is counterbalanced with the white house and the us approach to freedom of speech. the two things are in complete conflict with each other. yes, you can say that lots of people sound off on messaging boards oi’ people sound off on messaging boards or on facebook, social media platforms, but not everyone then goes and buys a bunch of guns. no,

absolutely. so there is a connection and you can trace some of those things. i would pointed a little higher and look at some of the rhetoric coming out of the white house, in particular, which is encouraging radicalisation to a far greater extent... i want to pick up on that. isn't there an irony here that it on that. isn't there an irony here thatitis on that. isn't there an irony here that it is the white house itself that it is the white house itself thatis that it is the white house itself that is at times stoking extremism and online, on twitter? online and in mainstream media as well. i see this a little bit as a way of distracting from taking responsibility on the part of the white house for that and on the gun control laws. i'm not saying you don't need to do something, you do, it's difficult but it is by no means the only piece of response that we should be looking for from, particularly, the us government to think about how you deal with these incidents. do you think it is a deliberate smoke show by the white house to put out statements like this? yes. you believe so. in your

view? in my view, yes. that is not to say we should do nothing online, of course we should, a lot of workers going into that. it is a handy fall guy for where the blame, perhaps, really lies. mike weston, thank you very much. shares of ride hailing giant uber have been falling sharply in extended wall street trade, that's after it reported weak results. the firm's loss widened to over $5 billion in the three months tojune. that's the biggest loss in the young company's history. the bbc‘s michelle fleury has more from new york. responding to uber‘s second—quarter results, alyssa altmann from publicis sapient wrote: "uber has turned into the magical money burning machine." the damning words go to the heart of the company's challenge — can uberfind a way to be profitable? it's linked a set of results failed to assuage sceptical investors and they gave the stock the cold shoulder. it doesn't help that its rival, lyft, suggested it could achieve profitability sooner than expected.

now traditionally, uber and lyft have spent heavily on promotions to attract riders and win market share. both companies have said price pressure is easing. but uber‘s costs still rose ia7% to $8.65 billion in the quarter, as it spent more on research and development. uber‘s ceo dara khosrowshahi is betting that future growth will come not just from ride services, but from other businesses like food delivery. for wall street, these numbers show this is still a company stuck in traffic. see what she did there. michelle fleury there in new york. china's central bank lowered its official yuan midpoint for the seventh day in a row — it's now at the weakest level in 11 years. does this signal a new front in the country's trade war with the united states? let's go to our asia business hub, where shara njit leyl is following the story.

sharanjit, just explain how this works, why this works, and why a lowering of a midpoint could signal real aggression from china. well, yes, victoria, you said it is a new front. it is to some extent. it is not having the impact first fell to the decade low on monday, that's when you recall us markets suffered the worst day of the year. markets today are in fact staying fairly steady, because traders were expecting the yuan to be set at an even expecting the yuan to be set at an eve n wea ker expecting the yuan to be set at an even weaker level. they are saying that the chinese central bank has actually shown signs of trying to stabilise the yuan in the last few sessions. it at that daily rate as a 296 sessions. it at that daily rate as a 2% range against the us dollar and, of course, as you mentioned, this is the lowest it has been in some 11 yea rs. the lowest it has been in some 11 years. one analyst i spoke to said this is indeed a new front. he agrees this is a big move in the china us trade war. china is not

backing down and he says it does not ca re if backing down and he says it does not care if it is labelled a currency manipulative. a weak currency will break down the price of chinese exports, it will give a boost when they repatriate their products. it will incense resident donald trump. china may well need this at a time when the economy is showing some signs of trouble because we had some data out today that showed factory gate prices fell zero by 3% injuly, the first fall in nearly four years. demand weakening —— 0.3%. it was partly driven by a huge rise in food, fruit, and poor prices, driven up food, fruit, and poor prices, driven up by food, fruit, and poor prices, driven up by the african swine fever. and thatisit up by the african swine fever. and that is it from me. thank you, change it. —— sharanjit. now let's brief you on some other business stories. japan, the world's third largest economy, released its latest growth figures this morning. it expanded 0.4% from the previous quarter which is stronger than expected.

that's thanks to brisk domestic demand. but economists expect trade tensions and cooling global demand to weigh on exports in the future. in hong kong, cathay pacific has come under attack from chinese state media after some of its staff took part in a strike on monday. the state—owned english—language global times warned cathay that it would "pay a painful price" for "its actions". daunted by the sheer scale of the problems you face running your firm? help is at hand — in the shape of advice from entrepreneur ronald ndoro, founder of several private members' clubs. wrapping up our week of guidance for young ceos on the challenges of starting out in business.

i've been on a conscious journey to be a little bit more diverse with the spaces they create. whenever you make anything, you are always anxious about whether what you're creating is going to be good enough and whether people will sign up for it, whether people will buy it. an artist recording a music album or a painter or a filmmaker will all have similar feelings. the way i taught myself to overcome these is — you know, when i was younger i remember teaching a friend of mine how to drive. i kept saying to her, if you think about the fact that there's billions of people in the world that can drive, and you're just one of those people, you know, you're better than the average person. if you turn around and you apply yourself to this task, you also can drive a car. so, this applies to almost any task in life. if you think there is millions of other people who can do this, then you can understand that you can achieve anything you set your mind to doing.

up up next ‘s news briefing. we will have warnings from jeremy corbyn, the leader of the opposition the uk. they will see you soon. the met office has issued yellow weather warnings for most of the uk today, with a band of heavy rain and thunderstorms likely to bring flash flooding and travel disruption. with winds forecast to reach 60 miles per hour, a number of festivals have been called off or scaled back, as keith doyle reports. it might be the height of summer, but what the met office is calling unseasonal weather is set to hit nearly all of the uk. west lothian

and scotland already got a taste of it, with heavy rain causing localised flooding that halted almost all traffic in places. separate weather warnings for winds, then for rain, will cover most of then for rain, will cover most of the uk over the weekend. high winds will hit the south—west and south wales later today. heavy rain, along with strong winds, our forecast for almost everywhere on saturday. that forecast because the cancellation of the board masters festival in newquay. bilyk is and organises for the summer storm was too big a risk for the 50,000 people due to attend —— police. most of them were expected to be gabbing. a hot air balloon festival was also hit. and this is the site of the housing dense music festival in norfolk. despite the nice weather in these pictures, heavy rain and high winds forecast for saturday let organisers to cancel it. drivers have been warned to expect difficult conditions and have been advised to

consider delaying journeys. train services between edinburgh and dunblane have already been disrupted by flooding, but travellers are being warned that heavy rain over the next few days could cause problems on the railways elsewhere. during this most unseasonal weather. keith doyle, bbc news. for that story and more, breakfast is coming up at six o'clock with charlie stayt and naga munchetty. they'll have all the day's news, business, and sport. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: italy appears to be moving closer to a general election after the deputy prime minister called for a snap poll. matteo salvini told a league party rally in pescara that policy differences with its coalition partners from the five star movement can't be patched up. us immigration officials have released around half of the 700 people detained in a huge raid in the state of mississippi.

human rights campaigners are urging the state to now set them all free. stories of children being separated from their parents had sparked condemnation. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the guardian and labour leaderjeremy corbyn who has called on britain's most senior civil servant to intervene to stop pm borisjohnson forcing a no—deal brexit. meanwhile, the irish times carries a warning from the united nations that the world cannot avoid the worst impacts of climate change without radically changing how it produces food. in the south china morning post, china's rare earth producers, which control the lion's share of the world's output of the elements, have said they are ready to use their dominance of the industry as a weapon in the country's trade

war with the united states. the times business section looks at uber, the world's largest taxi—hailing company who hasjust posted a significant loss of $5.24 billion in its second set of results since a disappointing stock market debut in may. and finally, it's probably the most recognised album cover in history. beatles fans in their thousands have made their way to abbey road where many of them in costume recreated the iconic picture ofjohn, paul, george, and ringo walking over the zebra crossing beside the famous abbey road studios. so let's begin. with me isjeremy thomson—cook, who's chief economist and head of currency strategy at international payments company worldfirst. you have your own company these days, congratulations. that start with this story in the guardian. the lead story for us politically as well. jeremy corbyn, the