this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. tightening the reins. investment powerhouse softbank looks set impose new restrictions on startups after its gamble on wework turned sour. a word in your ear. how audio could be the next big thing for kids in the digital age. and on the markets:

we start with japanese conglomerate softbank — which is well known around the world as a savvy investment giant. but its reputation for making winning bets on start ups has taken a knock with the near collapse of the the shared working company wework. softbank was forced to provide an embarassing bailout — and is expected to announce stricter measures on founders when it reveals its latest financial results shortly. vivienne nunis reports from new york on softbank‘s latest challenge. from hot property to a humiliating bailout. office sharing firm wework faced a cash crunch until softbank came to the rescue. now they will be looking at how much damage wework has caused to the bottom line and what it plans to do next. there are things that they might want to try to shrink the company a bit, grow a

little more slowly, and focus more on the profitability. you have gone from a $47 billion valuation to something else of $8 million valuation. things have happened very quickly, i think that softbank needs to show that they can do something very quickly as well. softbank helped fuel wework‘s expansion with an endless pot of cash, after initially backing former boss, softbank brought him out, leaving him a staggering $1.5 billion richer while wework prepares to slash thousands of jobs copy while wework prepares to slash thousands ofjobs copy wework is the biggest commercial landlord here in new york and london, but while the company took on more and more properties are burnt through cash and now softbank is going to have to find a way of dealing with $10 billion worth of leases. and noisy, often crowded co— working space isn't for everyone. form wework customer gene runs a copywriting

business. there are pros and cons, ultimately i do think we prefer our owi'i ultimately i do think we prefer our own space because ultimately i do think we prefer our owi'i space because we are ultimately i do think we prefer our own space because we are here to work and not to socialise necessarily. softbank shareholders will be hoping the fiasco at wework isa will be hoping the fiasco at wework is a one off in the company's sprawling investment portfolio. now let's brief you on some other business stories. a boeing whistleblower is claiming that the company's 787 dreamliner could be left without life—saving oxygen if the cabin were to suffer a sudden decompression. john barnett, a former quality control engineer at the company, says he organised tests which suggested that up to a quarter of the oxygen systems used on the aircraft could be faulty. boeing denies his accusations and insists that all its aircraft are built with the highest levels of safety and quality. the collapse of a dam that killed at least 250 people in brazil injanuary could have been prevented if its owner, vale, had reported defects to authorities, according to regulators.

a sea of waste from the dam engulfed a canteen, offices and farms in brazil's worst industrial accident. it led to fears about the safety of other dams in brazil. an uber self—driving test vehicle that hit and killed an arizona woman in 2018 had software flaws, according to a report by the national transportation safety board. the report also found that the company's autonomous test vehicles were involved in 37 crashes over the previous 18 months. the board will meet later this month for a formal determination of the cause of death. president macron of france is in beijing today, meeting his chinese counterpart xijinping. what's in it for both sides? let's cross to rico hizon in our asia business hub in singapore. what is on the mind of macron, do

you think? trade, trade, trade! that is high on his agenda. he has brought within a large delegation of french business representing 30 companies who want to increase imports of their goods into the mainland. this, sally, is all in an effort to get beijing to agree on the terms of an eu—china trade agreement. france currently has a trade deficit with china, that is almost 33 billion us dollars, in fa ct almost 33 billion us dollars, in fact that is the largest deficit france has with any of its trading partners followed by germany. as for china, they buy french dairy products and pork as the country grapples with this one fever outbreak causing a rapid rise in pork prices. the european union and its members are trying to secure an agreement with china before tariffs are slept on airbus planes, wine, and cheese. we shall watch this

space. we thank you very much indeed. how much time are your kids spending glued to their screens? we're all being encouraged to limit their exposure to video games and social media. and that could benefit one sector in particular — kids audio. across all ages, audiobooks are the fastest growing publishing format with 13% growth in 2018. now big us public service broadcasters like npr and wnyc are joining podcast networks such as gimlet and panoply in the battle to provide audio especially aimed at children. spotify is also getting in on the act. it's just started testing spotify kids in ireland. the aim is to expand beyond music into audiobooks and eventually podcasts. all of this is being underpinned by the strong growth in on—demand audio as a whole. in the us, nearly a quarter of all people listened to a podcast

in the last month. one study estimates that $479 million was spent on advertising on podcasts in the us this year. that's a rise of 53%. we can see the potential. james erskine is from the content marketing agency the big shot. there is potential here, but it is a big challenge to get children to give up the screen and tune and?” think this is a good news story in three different ways. the a good news for us as parents, migrating kids from screens to an audio product is good for them. its good news looking at the business world, and that this makes so much business sense stopping there has been a netflix kids part for a while, there is youtube's kids, it makes so much sense was quantified to create the

app with some great content. they have got disney and nickelodeon making content for the kids app, and it is also good news on behalf of my dayjob, if you like, representing brands and advertisers to find safe spaces for brands to reach children in an innovative, organic, and great weight is actually good news all around. you say that is good news, but listening to that as a parent, i don't want brands getting hold of my kids any which way. what is attached to these things that they are listening to or watching, what is it going to lure them into? as long as it is done in a responsible way. i actually think lots of the reason for this concern is in light of tighter regulation, the junk food than in the uk, all of which are really positive steps, but also, and are you were talking earlier about the ecosystem stopper youtube is not necessarily a safe space on the main

app. you can wander off down the rabbit holes and the content you shouldn't, whereas all of these are talking about refined and owned spaces where you can have more control. for brands, they can do one of two things. they can get involved in audio spaces that already exist, in the uk there are great places like fun kids radio, there is a children's podcast network like fun kids radio, there is a child ren‘s podcast network launched in the uk, or you can create your own. in the us, a toothpaste brand has created a podcast that is exactly the right amount of time to brush their teeth to. and presumably we will see influences get on board. and they must already be creating their own podcasts that young people wa nt to their own podcasts that young people want to listen to want to tune into. completely, my little boy used to go to sleep to match of the day magazines podcast because he is football crazy stopping there is the right podcast for children out there, and after you have read to them of an evening, i think an audiobook or a podcast is a really

nice safe space to excite them. it's about how the space is moving, and to look at children in isolation could be a trap that we fall into because all media consumption is looking like audio the csw people who didn't know what a podcast was three years ago versus what a podcast is, and again, brands are following where audiences are stopping the amount of brands that we are seeing that are very audio focused, and as long as people know why they are looking to get into that space, it makes a lot of sense. gents, i'd really appreciate your time today. many of you have been in touch already, #bbcthebriefing is the place to see the debate. will be able to move kids from screens onto audio. let's look at financial markets really quickly.

that is how the share markets are at the moment. you are up—to—date and the moment. you are up—to—date and the business news. stephanie will rejoin me in a moment for a news briefing, but first of all hundreds of mental health patients and england are being inappropriately treated date of their local area, despite a government pledged to end the practice. that's according to a new report from the royal college of psychiatrists, but the nhs says patients are placed away from home due to ‘a complex range of factors'. dominic hughes has more.

for those who need it, a place in a mental health unit can be a lifesaver, but the number of available beds has been falling as services move out of hospitals and into the community. and now, there are concerns that cuts in bed numbers and england have gone too far, meaning some patient who still need hospital treatment end up many miles from home. it has gone too far. we have cut the beds very hard, we don't have enough beds now even for people who really need to be in hospital. community services haven't kept up, so as the beds have been cut, the community services haven't been expanded enough to treat people at home. the royal college of psychiatrists says that at the end ofjuly, nearly 750 adult mental health patients were being treated away from home. this is despite a government pledged to enter the policy by 2021, and independent report for the rcp says more than 1000 mental health beds are now needed as a short—term measure.

psychiatrists generally support moving adult mental health treatment away from hospitals, but they argue community services are struggling to cope with existing demand, and that the additional beds are needed while long promised increased investment in mental health services takes root. more on that story and the other top stories of the day at brea kfast. dan walker and louise minchin will have all the day's news, business and sport. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: thousands of scientists have urged people, policy makers and industry to make deep and lasting changes to curb catastrophic climate change. the democrats have gained ground in us state elections — the sitting republican governor in kentucky is on the verge of defeat.

now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the independent and the release of a letter signed by eleven thousand scientists in 153 countries who have declared a climate emergency and warned that "untold human suffering" is unavoidable without huge shifts in the way we live. the new york times reports gordon d sondland, the united states ambassador to the european union, and how he has in four new pages of sworn testimony, confirmed his involvement in laying out a quid pro quo to ukraine that he had previously not acknowledged. the metro says attempts byjacob rees—mogg to draw a line under his remarks that the victims of the grenfell fire lacked "common sense" have drawn a furious reaction from survivors as well as uk rapper stormzy who demanded

the conservative mp to quit. in the mail, according the queen's official dresser it has been revealed that the monarch has gone fur—free. in a new memoir angela kelly says her majesty will only wear fur—free new items for engagements due to changing attitudes in the country. any outfits designed for the queen now will use fake fur instead. and finally the front of the mirror hails a new medical breakthrough after uk scientists create a dna test at birth which can predict the risk of serious health conditions. the new test could save the lives of 3,000 children a year and will allow early treatment of life—threatening ailments like cystic fibrosis. with me is stephanie hare who is an independent analyst. let's get stuck in. the independent dedicates its entire front page, it's a very strong image, untold