this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. press pause! the british prime minister halts his brexit bill after mps vote down his timetable. libra hearing — we talk to the cryptocurrency‘s head of policy as facebook‘s mark zuckerberg is set to face us lawmakers. and on financial markets in asia it's a flat day today as investors keep an eye on the politics. also, it's a huge week for earnings — so far in most cases the numbers have surprised to the upside.

it was a tale of two votes in britain's parliament. first, mps voted for borisjohnson‘s deal to take britain out of the eu — that's the first time the house of commons has agreed to a brexit deal. but then mps slammed on the brakes, and rejected the government's three day timetable for debating the bill. mps want more time to consider britain's divorce from the eu. now, the prime minister says he'll pause the bill — here he is, right after that second vote. i will speak to eu member states about their intentions until they have reached a decision. until we have reached a decision, i must say, we will pause this legislation.

let me be clear. let me be clear. our policy remains that we should not delay, that we should leave the eu on october 31, and that is what i will say to the eu, and i will report back to the house. and one way or another, we will leave the eu with this deal, to which this house has just given its ascent! so that is the prime minister after he lost that second vote. adam jackson, director of public affairs, policy and insight at grant thornton joins me now. adam just said to me, "tell them i'm in charge of brexit." i don't think anyone wants to be in charge of brexit, but i advise businesses and the public sector. what are you telling businesses? as of last night, with the vote, essentially

two things: so, don't yet necessarily stand down your no—deal brexit and is instilled the eu agrees this extension. —— preparations. and the deal is paused, it's art, so they need to be ona kind paused, it's art, so they need to be on a kind of contingency planning. but the risk of a no—deal has come down significantly with donald tusk saying he will recommend to eu leaders to propose an extension. therefore, i think the most likely outcome on the one britain is starting to think about is another extension, that means avoiding no deal, but it means continued uncertainty. and this is a tricky thing, isn't it? we had that situation at the end of march this year where businesses who needed to, we re year where businesses who needed to, were stockpiling in a major way ahead of that march 29 deadline. now we are in the same situation october

31, and we could be in the same situation at the end of january. for businesses where they have inventory, they've got the season, january's a funny month. it's difficult to manage this, isn't it? yeah, i... thinking backa month or two ago, if there is an extension of aggressiveness that creates kind of another delaying —— over christmas. but it's awkward over the christmas period in terms of stock. businesses have been investing cash in retail and manufacturing since march to build up stocks, reduce them a little bit, build up stocks even more, another delay means we're going see more businesses stressed forecast. so one of my kind of managers of business is, one of the first things is just look at how can

you take down cost and best manage cash? they aren't fancy brexit solutions, they are business basics, but they need to do that. do you think we should see this former dividend that the chancellor hamman used to talk about. when there is a deal in place? businesses have been forced to keep cash, as you say, stockpiling, it's all very short—term, they haven't been able to invest long—term. but once the deal is in place, there could be this so—called deal dividend? deal is in place, there could be this so—called deal dividend ?m deal is in place, there could be this so-called deal dividend? if a deal is agreed, we should see the pound increase. we know there are mergers and business activities that we are seeing put off that might come through. so yes, in the short—term. the other thing to bear in mind is this deal is the divorce agreement, it is the future relationship. and the debate on that is paused for an hour. exactly. so

we have a shorter space of time for the uk to then negotiate the real me of brexit, the bit that will really affect business —— real meat. so there is still uncertainty. the implementation, the transition, the divorce agreement of this was designed to enable businesses to prepare for what comes next. it's going to be used to negotiate what comes next, which means we're going to be this conversation in a year's time. adam, i will see you soon. thank you for coming in so early this morning. and if you want more detail, it's all on our website. loads of analysis there. remember we told you yesterday about softbank‘s plans to take a larger stake in wework? well, the deal has now been confirmed, and it's a big one! let's go to our asia business hub where rico hizon is following the story. rico, tell us more. the takeover drama is now finally over, sally, because the japanese conglomerate has committed more than 30 billion

us dollars in equity to a company thatis us dollars in equity to a company that is now valued atjust 8 billion us dollars. and the softbank deal, sally, represents a stunning reversal of fortu ne sally, represents a stunning reversal of fortune for the office—based sharing start—up and also marked a dramatic fall from grace or adam newman, co—founder. and softbank will need to turn around wework‘s opening losses and find a way to make wework writable yet again. there is talk of thousands of layoffs and shutting down some wework spaces. last month the group abandoned its public offering when investors questioned its large losses, the sustainability of the business model, and the way it was being run by adam newman. and with all this said and done, softbank said it will own 80% of wework and its chief operating officer will succeed newman, and hopes to get it back on course. sally. we will keep a close eye.

thank you, rico, good to see you. facebook founder and chief executive, mark zuckerberg will testify before us lawmakers as the social media company faces growing scrutiny over their planned cryptocurrency, libra. last week, a quarter of the initial supporters pulled out. regulators say libra could pose a risk to global financial stability and there are questions about the safety of a currency run by a social media company that has put people's privacy at risk in the past. so why is facebook still pursuing this? samira hussain put that question to dante disparte, the head of policy for libra. why do we even need a digital currency? if you think about what a digital currency can enable, if you andi digital currency can enable, if you and i wanted to transact something, the cost of going to intermediaries to do that, that is a fiction that serves almost like a drug on the global economy. how confident are you that you will be able to get this to regulators? financial

innovation of this cow that we are describing and of the kind we are describing and of the kind we are describing is not in contest with financial oversight regulation. the frameworks around the world can and ought to support low friction, high security payment systems. this book has already shown it can be pretty callous with people because my privacy. why can we trust libra? just has to be earned, and one of the reasons we have announced so early is to ensure there is a regular tree framework that supports this entire project. we've seen companies like mastercard, visa and paypal walk away from this project altogether. how confident are you that you will be able to get it off the ground ? that you will be able to get it off the ground? no-one was naive of the fa ct the ground? no-one was naive of the fact that this would be difficult, that this would require institution building. it would require an eye on the future. we are trying to build a generational playmate network and system that would support the innovation we are simply not seeing on the planet at the scale we need to see it. will libra still launched

in 2020? we are committed to launching but only in a matter and time that we have satisfied revelatory concerns and achieved a compliance framework this project. —— regulatory. compliance framework this project. -- regulatory. interesting to see. now let's brief you on some other business stories: boeing has replaced the top executive of its commercial division, kevin mcallister. it marks the first high—level departure since two fatal crashes of its 737 max. the world's largest plane maker faces a growing crisis over the eight—month safety ban of its previously best—selling jet prompted by crashes in indonesia and ethiopia that killed 346 people. nike has said that its long—time chief executive officer, mark parker, will step down next year. he'll be replaced by board member and former ebay ceo john donahoe. he'll be tasked with strengthening the sportswear maker's online strategy. online retailer amazon has opened a vast warehouse the size of 20 football pitches in a southern suburb of paris.

the warehouse is amazon's largest in france and mainly staffed by robots. but humans are not entirely out of the picture, more than 600 permanentjobs have been created already and the company says it plans to increase that to 1,000 jobs in three years. that is your business briefing. and —— henry willjoin me in a moment for the news briefing. a generation of children with special educational needs

and disabilities are being "let down day after day." that's according to a new report by a group of mps who say that despite reforms parents face "a titanic struggle" to get access to the right support for their child. frankie mccamley reports: ifi if i hadn't found here, then i wouldn't have known where to start. whether it is just a cup of tea, a chance to meet others in a similar situation or an offer of legal advice, this group of parents all have children with special educational needs. to get together every week. how are you coping?” don't, most days. i get up and get dressed in the hope that one of them might say i'm going to go to school today, mum. in the hope it might happens, but it doesn't. we've been discharged from speech therapist services three times, and his 50 now and he still selectively mute.” have a 13 ride with autism, couldn't get any social care for him, we had one assessment for him after three years of asking. it's torture and people's attitudes towards children

with disability is a real shame. following an enquiry, the committee says the system is not working because that is no good to throw more money at the system or using a lustre passed to solve individual problems as they arise. the government needs to give much more stronger guidance to councils to see this as a major area of social injustice in our country. it is shameful, and it is wrong. councils that run the services they they have reached a tipping point with finding not keeping up with the man. the government says it is investing more and once the system to work for every child. but that his parents, like thousands across the country, they just want their children to have the best possible chance in life and get the support they were promised. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: britain's prime minister has halted

the passage of his brexit bill through parliament, while eu leaders decide whether to grant the uk a further delay. america's top diplomat in ukraine gives damaging testimony about donald trump's dealings with the country's president. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the arab news who report turkish president recep tayyip erdogan has said a deal has been reached with russia for kurdish fighters to withdraw from a turkish—ruled "safe zone" in north—east syria. once kurdish forces have left, ankara and moscow will then run joint patrols around the area. the guardian says borisjohnson's plan to fast—track his brexit deal through parliament in time for the 31 october deadline has been blocked by mps. the prime minister said he would now speak to eu leaders and urge them not to agree to a prolonged

brexit extension. the times leads with a latest breakthrough in the fight against alzheimer's disease. doctors have welcomed the development of a new drug which apparently is able to slow the condition if it is caught in its earliest stages calling it a "turning point" in the battle against the debilitating condition. bbc sport carries the sad news belgian paralympian marieke vervoort has ended her own life through euthanasia in belgium at the age of a0. marieke vervoort, who won gold and silver at the london 2012 paralympics, and two further medals at rio 2016, had an incurable degenerative muscle disease. and finally up, up and away. the daily mail has this picture of a drone—like flying taxi that is being tested in singapore. named the ‘volocopter‘, the self—flying aircraft is expected to be put into use in as little as two years' time.