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tv   BBC Business Live  BBC News  August 9, 2019 8:30am-9:01am BST

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this is business live from bbc news with victoria fritz and ben bland. tackling hate on the web — big tech companies are summoned to an urgent meeting at the white house as concerns grow about the spread of hate online. live from london, that's our top story on friday 9th august. president trump demanded the meeting in the wake of two mass shootings in the us which left 31 people dead. he wants the tech firms to do more to identify potential perpetrators. also in the programme... malaysia files charges against directors at goldman sachs
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subsidiaries in the massive corru ptions scandal surrounding the state fund. it isa it is a bit ofa it is a bit of a negative picture gci’oss it is a bit of a negative picture across europe on the markets at the start of friday, all the benchmarks edging into the red. it's been a busy week in business news — with everything from ba's system meltdown to the slugfest between uber and lyft making the headlines. our correspondent theo leggett will he here to help make sense of it all. also, deutsche bank is cutting some perks for workers outside germany, like rolling over unused annual leave. today we'd like to know, what workplace perks are most important to you, and which would you most hate to lose? let us know — just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live.
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let us know about those workplace perks. welcome to the programme. we start with big tech, which 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 live streamed on facebook. 51 people died in the attack. the global internet forum to counter terrorism, set up by firms like facebook and twitter, has 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
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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". jim edwards, founding editor of business insider, joins us now. i wonder about this idea about finding them before they strike. if the world's counter—terrorism forces are not using ways to pre—empt attacks by looking at some activities online with the help of social media companies, and off—line as well, what on earth are they doing? i mean, they are doing that, they are trying to track terrorists before they strike, and that involves the usual counterintelligence stuff. the problem is, if you look at a platform like youtube, people are uploading millions of videos an
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hour, and billions per week. it's not possible, or it's extremely difficult, to develop an algorithm which will detect a video before it goes up which will detect a video before it goes up or as soon is which will detect a video before it goes up or as soon is it goes up and flag it for being some kind of hateful terrorist content. an example i would point to is the video that the christchurch new zealand killer made. that video began with a man talking to a camera and then getting out of his car and walking into a building. there is no way you could code that flagged it to say, it looks like this guy is about to kill a lot of people. let's talk about that christchurch attack. i know a few months ago the trump administration refused to sign what became known as the christchurch call, a push by the new zealand and french governments for a coordinated, cross— national approach when it comes to tackling the use of social media in extremist attacks. so, the issue wasn't worthy of attention for attention for the trump administration then, but it was after texas? yeah, so, the trump
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administration regards the technology industry right now is one of its that silicon valley, google, facebook, it thinks those guys are full of liberals who hate trump, so they are pretty happy right now to be staging a conference which makes them look like the bad guys are. donald trump has attacked a social media in the past as you say for saying that they censor more conservative views, but it is a bit rich, for him to call this administration in, and call for this summitand then administration in, and call for this summit and then not attend it himself? right, trump, by the way, has produced no evidence whatsoever that social media is in some way biased against conservatives. and you're right, the fact that he is not going to show up himself, the trump administration is all about trump, if he is not there, it shows you how important he feels it is. he also maintains that his rhetoric plays no part in spawning violence
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or souring the tone of debate online, do you agree? no. ithink trump is an inflammatory presence, whenever he has talked about black americans, he is frequently used words like infested. trump is a racist, earlier this week, words like infested. trump is a racist, earlierthis week, he tweeted about a democratic congressman and misspelled this guy in‘s name three times. the politician is hispanic. trump has made it quite clear that he doesn't really care about people who aren't white, and he has been inflammatory about that, trump is part of the problem here. and not part of the solution? i'm not sure trump is really looking for a solution, to be honest of. we will have to leave it there, thank you very much. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. tesla is facing a lawsuit from an owner of one of its electric cars, which claims the company limited
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the battery range of older vehicles. david rasmussen alleges the firm is using a software update to avoid a costly recall to fix defective batteries. the lawsuit was filed on wednesday in northern california federal court. apple is offering cyber security researchers up to $1 million to find flaws in iphones. it's by far the largest reward offered by a company to defend against hackers. the tech giant previously offered rewards only to invited researchers who tried to find flaws in its phones and cloud backups. 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. malaysian prosecuters have filed criminal charges against seven current and former directors of goldman sachs and some
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if its subsidiaries over the corruption investigation at the state fund imdb. maura fogarty is in singapore. maura fogarty, just tell us what more details we have had from this case so far? you know, ben, forever there are very first—time now back on charges reaching the very top actual answer management at goldman sachs. i7 actual answer management at goldman sachs. 17 current and former employees of goldman sachs have been charged, allegedly the prosecutors in malaysia are saying that they allegedly knew that the funds that they were raising were going to be misappropriated and it relates back to the $6.5 billion in a bond sales that goldman sachs helped the malaysian government to sell back in 2012-13. the malaysian government to sell back in 2012—13. the most important name which has been announced today is a vice—chairman of goldman sachs, who oversaw the international operations
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of the investment backs and it is significant that the charges will be not just against the bank but against individuals at the bank who will be facing criminal charges, and the criminal repercussions of them if they are indeed found guilty. let's have a look at the markets. tokyo stocks closed higher on friday following rises on wall street, as data showed that japan — the world's third—biggest economy — was growing faster than analysts had expected. on wall street on thursday, the s&p 500 surged i.9%, its largest one—day gain in about two months, while the dow and the nasdaq also advanced well more than i%. oil prices inched higher as expectations of more opec production cuts provided some support, although concerns over the long—running us—china trade dispute kept a lid on gains.
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in europe the picture is rather more negative. prospect of an early election in italy is affecting the banks there. that is causing a shadow to fall across all the eurozone banks generally. and shares of ride hailing giant uber have been falling sharply in extended wall street trade 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, alissa altman from publicists 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? its latest set of results failed to assuage sceptical investors and they gave the stock
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the cold shoulder. it doesn't help that its rival lyft suggested it could achieve profitability sooner than expected. traditionally, uber and lift have spent heavily in promotions traditionally, uber and lyft have spent heavily in promotions to attract riders and market share. both companies have said price pressure is easing, but uber‘s cost 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. joining us is russ mould, investment director at aj bell. good morning to you, how are you? very well, how are you? not too bad. let's talk about uber, pretty dismal
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performance. this is a company which floated on the market back in may to great fa nfa re floated on the market back in may to great fanfare and then... their shares have gone from $45 from when they started to around $40 now, still giving a market valuation of about 73 billion us dollars, but after ten yea rs about 73 billion us dollars, but after ten years it is still not making a profit and is in giving indication that it will ever do so, and you could argue that frankly thatis and you could argue that frankly that is pretty generous, all things considered. when we look at performance and gdp, japan doing pretty well, better than people expected? yeah, the annualised rate is abouti.8%, expected? yeah, the annualised rate is about i.8%, better than economists were expecting. prime minister shinzo abe will be smiling, that will give him a little bit of room to increase vat, which he is planning to do, to try to get the japanese budget deficit down as best he can. but the problem is that these numbers are backward looking, so the stock market is not that
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excited, they are very prone to revision and we have also got the trade dispute with korea about semiconductor materials, and the dispute with china, so there is worry that the future numbers may not be quite as good. worry that the future numbers may not be quite as goodlj worry that the future numbers may not be quite as good. i wish i owned some gold. i'm afraid i have no gold whatsoever. gold is up and extraordinary amount and also, gold stocks, up 38%, what is going on? the gold index, 15 big goldmines, is up the gold index, 15 big goldmines, is up 15% year—on—year. everybody is banging on about how exciting this stock is. over the same period, the 500 index has been up 3%. why is this? lots of people are talking about it, which is a good start. but also central banks are starting to get very worried about gdp growth. philippines, joining india, thailand and new zealand. the central banks are worrying that we are sliding towards a slowdown, a recession, and
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if interest rates go negative, as they already are in europe, then holding gold, there is no cost of doing so, if anything you're being charged less for holding gold than you are for putting your money in the bank. the other reason is safety in times of concern, a classic excuse for holding something which otherwise just sits there and does nothing. next time you come in i wa nt to nothing. next time you come in i want to see all these medallions all over you. that is it, that is the sum total! they always say gold is not an exciting investment but if you had gold, you would be pretty excited. i would be pretty excited! still to come... ba had a systems meltdown. ryanair pilots said they're going on strike. and you think you've had a hectic week! we'll be talking about these and the other big business stories that've dominated the headlines this week. you're with business
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live from bbc news. later today we'll get the latest growth figures for the uk and one thing we'll be looking it is the strength of our export market. how aml how am i going to do this link...? so, ben thompson's in cheshire looking at the success of one of our biggest exports this morning — cheese. yeah, welcome to cheshire, another day, another fetching outfit, yeah, welcome to cheshire, another day, anotherfetching outfit, but we are here because we are talking about the latest economic growth figures which are due out this morning and they are expected to show that the economy slowed in the second quarter of the year. but exports have been a real bright spot for the uk economy, growing last year, and it means that stuff like this, cheese, made here in cheshire, is now sold to 42 different countries around the world. those international trade deals which heard a lot about as we talk about the brexit negotiations, will be
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more important than ever. joining me is leslie from the institute for export. we've heard a lot about the trade deals but when we see business like this, we realise how important those deals are when we sell overseas? yeah, obviously when we're selling internationally, we have these tariffs imposed on the goods, things like agricultural products could be as much as 40% of the value of the product being sold. so it is important we understand how that is going to work and we only have continuity agreements at the moment, we don't have trade deals in place. when we look at a business like this, we realise how reliant they are not only on imports of stuff from overseas, be it milk or parts or machinery, and exports, selling the finished product, and that could really be affected by any sort of ta riffs really be affected by any sort of tariffs or problems at the border? absolutely. i think 16% of exports are dairy products, and of that 16%, 98% goes to the european union. so, we need to get this sorted out, we
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need to understand what's happening, the continuity agreements, we've got 12 of them, representing 11% of the trade with the world, it's not enough. a lot of work still to do. for now, thank you very much. so there you have it, a lot of work for businesses to contend with to work out what our trading relationship might be with the rest of the european union and indeed the rest of the world, a lot of firms now looking further afield to china and parts of asia, growing, big markets for business. but nonetheless, from here in cheshire, and a very pungent cheese factory, it back to you. here in cheshire, and a very pungent cheese factory, it back to youlj bet cheese factory, it back to you.” bet that selfie doesn't make the instagram! you're watching business live. our top story... big tech companies are attending a meeting at the white house to discuss ways of tackling the spread of violent online extremism. it comes in the wake of two shootings in the us
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which left 31 people dead. president trump says he wants the tech firms to find ways of identifying potential shooters. a quick look at how the markets are faring. all of the markets across europe down in the negative territory this morning, some worries about the political situation in italy, some turbulence there casting a shadow over italian banks which has a ripple effect across the eurozone as well. it's been another hectic week in the world of business, with ryanair and ba both hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons and the ride hailing sector coming under the spotlight with results from uber and lyft. there's also been the small matter of interest rate cuts from central banks around the world. all of this has kept our correspondent theo leggett pretty busy — hejoins us now. let's start with the ride—hailing as you're a bit of a petrol head and i know you keep up—to—date with all of
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these things. uber and their quarterly financial results this week and i guess the thing for investors is the story here because it has been so aggressive or both of them for so long, and for investors, that's fine so long as they keep getting passengers, the losses don't matter, is that still working? these companies are kind of trying to do what amazon did in its early stages no do you create the market, you make sure you're dominant in that market before you start trying to make money out of it. the problem for uber and lyft to a certain extent is, what market? we call them ride—hailing companies and they started out that wake, a taxi service that you could call on your phone and they were less restrictive in terms of the rules and regulations they chose to follow so they could offer cheap services. but nowadays they're very different. you have lyft investing in electric scooters, uber is foraying into food delivery and self driving cars. and freight as well? exactly, so where
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is the core business, which market are they actually trying to dominate? at the moment they're trying to spread themselves out and although the revenues are going up, so are the costs, and in the case of uber, quite dramatically. and what will be of concern is how much patience investors have because it is still early days from when they we re is still early days from when they were floated publicly, but there comes a point where those who are putting money into a company will wa nt to putting money into a company will want to see a return on that investment? yes. the question is, when does that point come? if you look at tesla muscles people seem quite happy to put money into that company even though it hasn't shown an ability to be sustainably profitable because they believe that at some point it will be sustainably profitable and therefore they will be able to make money. it's the same with uber and lyft, it's a gamble. people put money into the technology sector to a large extent as a gamble because they think if they are in there early, at some point they will make a great deal of money. let's talk about what's been going on for travellers, in the middle of august
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in the uk and across europe trying to get to where they want to go to, a couple of weeks of sunshine, and having a bit of a nightmare. absolutely, one thing which is certain in life is that in midsummer in europe, you will get travel disruption. it always happens, for two reasons. first of all, the airlines and airports are operating at maximum capacity, trying to get as many people off on their holidays as many people off on their holidays as they possibly can, which means that the slightest problem has big repercussions, as we saw this week with british airways' it failure. a meltdown in their check—in system caused all sorts of delays and more than 100 flights to be cancelled. that is one of the problems. the other issue is, of course, the people who work for these airlines, who will have grievances, know that they have leveraged in the summer. if they threaten strikes, it has much more impact during a peak period than it would, say, in the
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middle of october. so this is the time of year when people get a bit militant and britain strikes. that's what we've seen with ryanair, pilots voting to hold a strike, which may happen, late august and early september. while we've got you, we can't let you go without talking about the interest rate cuts, central banks around the world, and people seeing it as a sign of nervousness among central bankers around the local growth prospects? yes, we had a cut in the united states, we had the european central bank suggesting that in september there might be more monetary easing in europe as well. and this week we had india and new zealand cutting interest rates, the reserve bank of australia keeping them static. the picture is that people are worried. we know what's happening on the trade front, we had more skirmishes between china and the united states this week, with the us declaring china a currency manipulator. there are also problems with different markets around the world so the whole environment is looking a
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little bit unstable. we were talking about why people are attracted to gold at the moment, it is the same kind of thing. thank you very much, theo, have a lovely weekend. in a moment we'll take a look through the business pages but first here's a quick reminder of how to get in touch with us. london, singapore, shanghai, new york. our correspondents have your business world covered — on air, online and on the bbc‘s news app. check out bbc.com/business for insight and analysis. the bbc‘s business live page has the latest breaking business news. we want your views, too — get in touch via the business live page, tweet us @bbcbusiness or find us on facebook @bbcmoney. join the bbc‘s business conversation. let's see what other stories are being talked about on social media. russ mould from aj belljoins us again.
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we're going to start with the reports that deutsche bank plan to cut benefits for some of its staff, but not the staff in germany? yeah, i think this is the controversial thing, the cuts apply to the 50,000 people who don't work in germany, and they don't apply to the 41,000, who. deutsche bank is in serious trouble, its share price tells you that. it is trading near all—time lows. 18,000 jobs are to be lost, according to a recent announcement. now they are talking about, you can't carry your holiday forward, there is no long service bonus, so they're looking there is no long service bonus, so they‘ re looking absolutely everywhere they can, it shows how tough it is in investment banking right now. i know there won't me that many tears shed by people who are not in the industry, but you have got berkeley is not paying bonuses as well, and it is affecting the sector at the moment. we have been asking for your tweets on this, which are perk would you miss most? this one says... i would hate to
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lose my computer allowance, season ticket loan. this one says... he gets annoyed, he would get annoyed, if the mortgage subsidy would be taken away. this one says, annual leave is perhaps the most important perk. time for a holiday. i agree! what would you miss? childcare vouchers, because you can pay for your childcare from your pre—tax income and it saves you a lot of money in the longer term, that is a big one for me, what about you? working with you, probably.” big one for me, what about you? working with you, probably. i think holidays would be pretty fundamental, to be fair, everybody needs a break every once in a while. i suppose the issue is the distinction made between the staff based in germany and elsewhere in the world? that is what is going to create tension within the company and it won't be great for staff morale at a time when jobs are being cut, it doesn't look very good, it has been handled in quite a clumsy manner. thank you very much, lovely
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to see you again, have a lovely weekend. and thank you for watching. more business news next week and on the webpage all day. good morning, some atrocious conditions this morning as heavy rain moves northward across the uk, all because of this area of low pressure. look at the satellite imagery and this hook of cloud, that is the centre of low pressure and it is the centre of low pressure and it is going to move northward and eastward. this is the kind of pressure chart you would expect to see in autumn and winter, not in august, so unusually strong winds. behind it there will be some sunny spells but also heavy and thundery showers going into the afternoon. but that is only half the story because as i mentioned, strong winds across scotland, those easterly winds gusting up to 45mph. look at the bright colours, really heavy
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rain in central and northern scotland. thunderstorms in northern ireland, north—west england, wales, the midlands and into the south—west, torrential rain at times. and look at the wind gusts. touching 55mph down into the south—west of england. that is likely to cause some disruption. but with some sunshine across eastern parts, temperatures getting up to 25-26, parts, temperatures getting up to 25—26, really feeling quite warm and muqqy 25—26, really feeling quite warm and muggy for many of us through today. tonight, the area of low pressure will continue to move northwards and eastwards but it means that into saturday, the white lines are still quite close together, we're going to see some strong winds again for england and wales. and there will be further showers, mostly towards northern and western parts of the uk. again, some torrential rain and thunderstorms, but some sunny spells. it is the winds turns for england and wales, between 45—55mph gusts, which will cause all sorts of
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disruption. and it will feel a bit fresher tomorrow, temperatures 20-22dc. fresher tomorrow, temperatures 20—22dc. by sunday, the area of low pressure will continue to move northwards, and you can see the white lines becoming a bit further apart. we have still got a weather front which is still bringing us some showers on sunday, some of them could be having across northern england and wales, the midlands, through southern parts of england into the afternoon. some sunshine either side of that. feeling quite chilly for scotland and northern ireland. so, quite a lot of severe weather over the next 24—36 hours. stay tuned to your forecast.
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you're watching bbc news at nine with me julian worricker. the headlines: jeremy corbyn calls on britain's top civil servant to block the prime minister from forcing through a no—deal brexit during a snap general election campaign. meanwhile, the chancellor pledges to ‘fast—track‘ government spending plans to prepare for leaving the eu. deaths from asthma hit a ten—year high in england and wales — campaigners blame pollution and lack of awareness. they don't act themselves, don't take it terribly seriously. so i think that's an issue. met office weather warnings for most of the uk today, with thunderstorms likely to bring more flash flooding and travel disruption. the cost of cremations — bereaved families face huge variations around the uk, according to new bbc research.

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