this is the business briefing. i'm samantha simmons, live outside the houses of parliament in westminster. pounded again — sterling drops on the news parliament is to be suspended, but regains some ground. plus, no—deal‘s not an option. uk businesses step up warnings about the dangers of a hard brexit. and on the markets, a rebound in oil prices giving some support to us shares. but fears of a looming recession really dominating proceedings, with the rate of return on bonds arond the world close to record lows.

we start with brexit, and the business world has been reacting to the uk government's decision to suspend parliament in the run up to britain's departure from the eu. it's being seen by many as a move to stop mps blocking a no—deal brexit which a majority of them are against. the pound reacted immediately to the news, losing around 1% against the us dollar before recovering some of that ground. traders say it may make a no—deal brexit a little more likely, but these jitters are nothing new — as our economics correspondent andrew walker explains. ever since the referendum there has been a pattern in the financial

markets and it was repeated after boris johnson's plan markets and it was repeated after borisjohnson‘s plan was announced. a brexit related development seen as likely to impede trade between the uk and the eu is also seeing as bad for economic growth. the prime minister's proposal perhaps makes a no deal proposal more likely because parliament would have less time to block it. but in turn could mean british exporters would face worse access to what is their largest market overseas, and that is seen in the financial markets as being bad for economic growth. as has happened on many previous occasions in similar circumstances, stirling fell. on the london stock market, many of the largest companies, however, had lots of their earnings in foreign currency, so a weaker pound actually boost their value. the 100 share index rose. the next largest 250 companies, however, are much more exposed to the british economy, and their share prices fell

on the whole. subsequently, stirling recovered some of its losses under the 100 share index did give up some of its gains. let's get some reaction from asia now. sharanjit leyl is in singapore. bring us up to date? there has actually been very little reaction to brexit here in asia on the markets, as there was on wall street, where the markets actually rose following the day's proceedings in the uk. while the uncertainty and unpredictability of brexit does cast a cloud, asian markets have been sinking for other reasons, with investors growing increasingly pessimistic about the outlook for us—china trade talks. the pound remains under pressure here and the remaining trade, of course that comes remaining trade, of course that co m es after remaining trade, of course that comes after prime minister boris johnson forced that extended suspension of parliament. even though it might not be reflected, in the markets today, global investors with interests in the uk are nervous, and they continue to watch the proceedings there. a banker i

spoke to elia said the important thing for investors to take note of when it comes to brexit is some semblance of brexit being achieved, some decision being made, so that businesses can just get on with it. it hurts most that the longer it drags on, the greater the uncertainties, whether it is the political front, the economic front. the more likely businesses willjust be postponing decisions or deciding that perhaps it is better to be outside of the uk itself. i think thatis outside of the uk itself. i think that is where businesses and that from or suffer from the uncertainty, as brexit is over. back to you. business groups here in the uk have been quick to condemn the move to suspend parliament. in a statement, the british chamber of commerce says:

while the bosses' lobby group, the confederation of british industry, says: the uk government, though, says it's working closely with businesses and unions across the country to help ensure they are prepared for the uk leaving the eu on october 31, whatever the circumstances. and it points out more than £100 million earmarked to support firms in the event of no deal. let's get some more reaction. christoph schon is head of research for europe middle east and africa at axioma, which advises investors on risk. extremely volatile in the past few months, if not years. that is all to do with brexit. what do you make of the fact that it fell sharply but

then ended the day pretty much where it started? ever since boris johnson came to office, it was clear that markets were expecting a no deal brexit, and if you remember, on the day the result was announced, the pound hardly changed at all. so i think the base case for markets is a no deal brexit. that doesn't mean the pound is not going to go down further. also, what we have seen yesterday was that familiar pattern of the pound going down and share prices going up, so you mentioned earlier, the pound goes down by 1%, share prices go up by about 0.8%, so thatis share prices go up by about 0.8%, so that is a very familiar pattern that we have seen since the referendum. to what extent submarkets now factored in these shock waves which keep on coming? i mean, they should have factored in by now. as i said, the expectation has been for a no deal brexit, and i think the surprise would probably be more if we have a deal, for some reason, and

then actually the pound might go up again. the confederation of british industry, lots of business lobby groups are furious, they feel politicians are playing chess with the lives of millions of people in business in this country. interesting to look at the difference between how the ftse100 in the ftse two —— 250 reacted. the ftse100 deals more internationally, so ftse100 deals more internationally, so underselling goes down it is actually good for them. the 250 is more affected by this. yeah, so, what we have actually seen is that the ftse100 tends what we have actually seen is that the ftse 100 tends to react a bit more strongly. that is what we have seenin more strongly. that is what we have seen in the most stress test that we did, andi seen in the most stress test that we did, and i think it has to do with that international exposure that you mentioned, because in the ftse100 there is more companies that operate internationally and doubtless more exposed exchange rate fluctuations than companies in the ftse 250, for example. you have modelled both a no

deal brexit and a deal brexit. nobody knows what is going on, but it is looking, analysts say, increasingly likely that no deal will be an option. halliday looking, though scenarios, when you model them? so, i mean, the only thing we are them? so, i mean, the only thing we a re really certain them? so, i mean, the only thing we are really certain about is that in are really certain about is that in 3110 are really certain about is that in a no deal brexit, the pound will go down further. if we had a deal, the pound will go up. the stock market isa pound will go up. the stock market is a bit harder to model and these kinds of scenarios, so if they no deal brexit were to happen, i cannot imagine that that pattern that we have seen over the last two years, when the pound went down, the ftse went up, but that is going to continue. i don't think it will be likely that share prices are going to go up if we really have a no deal brexit. it is a bit more difficult tojudge what will brexit. it is a bit more difficult to judge what will happen in that scenario of where the pound, whether we have a deal and the pound goes up, because then the bank of england will have to raise interest rates, and that is going to complicate things even further. very

interesting to get your analysis and thoughts. thanks for joining interesting to get your analysis and thoughts. thanks forjoining us. apple has apologised following revelations that it paid third—party workers to listen to voice recordings of people using its siri digital assistant. the practice, known as "grading," has been used by several tech firms as a way of improving the quality of speech recognition. however, apple, google and microsoft all halted such work recently, following a public outcry over privacy. samira hussain in new york has more. if you are not familiar with siri, it is an application found on all apple iphones and even ipads. you pushit apple iphones and even ipads. you push it in, you cannot get any question. it can also give you ideas about what it is you are looking for, it can do google searches, it can do things for you. it is one of oui’ can do things for you. it is one of our automated ai systems. the problem is, we saw contractors that we re problem is, we saw contractors that were listening into these

conversations and apple was not clear in terms of, to its customers, that this was actually happening. so 110w that this was actually happening. so now apple has come out and said, look, we absolutely made a mistake and we are not going to be letting contractors listen to that. the real issue here is, look, there are certainly privacy concerns, but also, apple has always prided itself on being a company that really takes privacy very seriously. now let's brief you on some other business stories. argentina is seeking to restructure its debt with the imf. it's asking for longer to pay debts under its $57 billion bailout deal with the fund. the government is trying to avoid default and stabilise the national currency, which has been plummeting since president mauricio macri, seen as business friendly, lost in a primary presidential election the samsung group will learn the fate of its leaderjay y lee later, as south korea's supreme court rules on whether to uphold

his bribery conviction. mr lee, who is the grandson and heir of the group's founder, was sentenced in 2017 to five years imprisonment for bribing a friend of former president park geun—hye, but was released after a year following an appeal. us treasury secretary steven mnuchin says the us does not intend to intervene in currency markets to weaken the dollar, at least for the moment. mnuchin told bloomberg news that the situationcould change in the future. president trump has frequently complained that the dollar is too strong against the currencies of major trading partners, including europe and china, putting us exports at adisadvantage. that's it for the business briefing. coming up next we have been news briefing. we will take you through the front pages. one story is of course dominating, and one word, outrage. stay with us. that's coming

up. researchers have discovered a nearly a—million—year—old skull of an early ape—like human ancestor in ethiopia. an analysis of the new specimen challenges ideas about how the first humans evolved from ape—like ancestors. the skull is from a species called australopithecus anamensis. it's thought to have co—existed for more than 100,000 years with a hominin that's long been described as the first to have walked on earth. pallab ghosh reports. in africa, in the distant past, advanced apelike creatures evolved into the first humans. for decades, scientists believed this specimen,

nicknamed lucy, was the apelike a ncestor to nicknamed lucy, was the apelike ancestor to the first true humans. but a ancestor to the first true humans. buta dig ancestor to the first true humans. but a dig in this region of ethiopia found this object, which challenged that view. when cleaned up, it turned out to be a near complete skull of an ancestor of lucy, called anamensis. using computerised scans, researchers built up this face of what anamensis actually looked like. very little was known about anamensis until now. these are replicas of bone fragments from anamensis. we have jaw bones, arm bones, and the leg bone. until now this was all we had. not enough to know very much about it. but the discovery of a nearly complete skull has transformed our understanding, not just of this has transformed our understanding, notjust of this species, but how the first humans evolved from these advanced apelike creatures. an analysis published in thejournal

nature suggests lucy's kind is a branch of anamensis, rather than a direct descendant. this suggests other species of advanced ape living at the time may also have branched, and so there are many more contenders to lay claim to being the a ncestors contenders to lay claim to being the ancestors of the very first humans to have walked the earth. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. well, it's no surprise that almost all the uk papers feature borisjohnsons's suspension of parliament on their front pages. we begin with the guardian, which says there is "outrage" at the 5—week pause during a critical period, adding that mps are readying a "historic parliamentary clash" to prevent a no—deal brexit. the financial times describes the reaction as "constitutional uproar", adding that mrjohnson was daring his opponents to vote down his government.

the paper's editorial says the home of british democracy is being denied a say in the most consequential decision for more than a0 years. the headline in the times is "johnson goes for broke" alongside a picture of the prime minister clenching his fist. the paper says mrjohnson surprised his opponents but "pushed britain to the brink of a constitutional crisis". the scottish daily mail has this picture of scottish conservative leader ruth davidson, who is expected to quit today, delivering a "major blow" to borisjohnson. and finally the free paper, the metro, has this very serious picture of the queen who, it says, has been dragged into brexit row. it also says his opponents brand him a "tin—pot dictator." so let's begin. with me is cornelia meyer, ceo of mrl corporation, a business consultancy. let's start with the front page of the guardian. cross—party rebel alliance, it sounds like something from star wars, agreed