the treasury department has expressed very serious concerns that liberal could be misused by money launderers and terrorist financiers. cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have been exploited to support williams of dollars of illicit this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. activity like cybercrime, tax crypto crime wave. theft and fraud losses from digital currencies are soaring, evasion, extortion, ransomware, as the market continues to boom. illicit drugs, human trafficking —— plus, your own village from only $55,000. billions of dollars. how one entrepreneur is attracting investment to spain's abandoned countryside. it's a long list. and on the markets — new record highs for wall street after better than expected figures on the us economy. but that optimism is fading in asia after president trump signed simon taylor, who advises legislation supporting the hong kong protestors, potentially threatening banks on going digital. cryptocurrencies, unfortunately, us—china trade talks. have a very horrible reputation with policymakers and regulators. they are very easy to trace. when something is very easy to trace you can very easily see the criminality thatis

can very easily see the criminality that is happening and become very scared of it. that is not to say that there are not scams, there absolutely are. one queen is the most high—profile scan. absolutely are. one queen is the we start with the world of digital most high-profile scan. the or cryptocurrencies. since bitcoin arrived decade ago fantastic podcast looked into that the market has exploded. there are now more than 1,500 different digital currencies in use. —— one coin. it looks into how supporters say they are the future of finance. regular people can be scammed. that but they are coming under growing is not the fault of the technology. scrutiny by governments around i think this is why central bankers the world and increasingly becoming the focus of crime. and others are now looking at the losses from digital currency crime technology and saying, well, and fraud soared to almost $4.5 billion in the first actually we could use this solve nine months of the year, problems. and the technology is according to a new report. called block chain stop it means all that's up 150% on the whole of last year. of that is done on a kind of cyber the european central bank is looking into launching its own digital currency to provide an alternative ledger, as it were, which means it to existing systems — can't be played with or mucked about and to stop europe falling behind the us and china with, it cannot be manipulated. in the global payments market. it's been spurred in part by facebook‘s plan to launch a digital currency, libra, exactly. imagine, instead of leaving for its almost 2.5 billion users. the money at my bank, we all had a the idea has rung alarm bells with governments and central bankers, as a potential threat to global financial stability. copy of this legislation. if i then and that has seen high profile backers including visa and mastercard walk away. e—mail it to you edited, it is like the world's biggest cryptocurrency, bitcoin, has been incredibly volatile. it surged earlier this year, but has since lost more than half its value over google docs. if a editor you can see the past four months. it and if a editor you can see. they

on wednesday it slumped a further create a transparency which is 10% after china's central bank really powerful. it is transparency launched a fresh crackdown we are told is powerful, and yet on cryptocurrencies, warning of the risks surrounding them. it echoed a warning criminal gangs, et cetera, are using by the us treasury secretary 00:02:09,883 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 earlier this year. bitcoin and other digital currencies asa bitcoin and other digital currencies as a means to do what they want to do, ina as a means to do what they want to do, in a way that will not be used when using regular currencies. sometimes things can be too easy to use. and if it is too easy to use may know one is protecting it. the roller banks has always been to be the police of money. if something goes wrong in the world of banking today banks are expected to prevent a transaction, to prevent fraud. in the world of cryptocurrency there are similar regulations in many jurisdictions, the fca has regulations around money laundering for cryptocurrency wallets, for example, but they are not enforced consistently around the globe. with the launch of liberal, if it ever happens, facebook‘s version, we have european central bank with its version, there has to be regulation

of this going forward and that is what central banks are discussing right now —— libra stability financial action taskforce is a network of central banks and policy makers around the world who are trying to make consistent regulations to prevent financial crime and the illicit use of cryptocurrencies around the world. crime and the illicit use of cryptocurrencies around the worldlj suspect we will see that and the fca, the financial conduct authority in the uk tends to do something similar. thank you very much indeed. they agree with simon. the podcast on bbc sounds about the crypto queen, the missing crypto queen who started one coin, it is a fascinating ponca —— podcast if you're interested. let's turn to our top news story on the briefing today — the decision by president trump to sign legislation, already passed by congress, supporting the protestors in hong kong. could itjeopardize already tense trade negotiations between the us and china? rico hizon is following the story. this rico hizon. good to see you.

markets are wobbling again. absolutely. it is valid, sally, because what happened overnight in washington, dc could really hurt the ongoing trade negotiation process with china. raising has not made any reference so far to the talks, but it has accused the united states, sally, of sinister intentions. president trump signed to bills as he tries to reach a phase one trade arrangement with beijing. earlier this week he was bragging that a deal was indeed imminent. to give you background about this new legislation which was approved by the us congress last week. it requires the state department to certify that hong kong retains enough autonomy to justify favourable us trading terms that have helped them maintain their position as a global financial hub. the law also threatens sanctions for human rights violations. at this point, donald trump is hoping to secure a major trade deal with china

this year, but the talks have faulted multiple times. he is now trying to secure a mini trade agreement which would agree —— include farm products with beijing. they could crackdown on intellect —— intellectual property theft. this could change the colour of talks between the two economic superpowers. we will have to wait and see. we will have to wait and see. 0nce and see. we will have to wait and see. once again we are saying that. we shall wait and see you soon. let's brief you on some of the business stories. former netflix customers who cancelled their subscription months earlier have had their accounts reactivated and stolen by hackers. bbc radio 4's you & yours programme has learned that criminals can log in to dormant accounts and reactivate them without knowing users' bank details, because the company keeps former customers' data on file for ten months. netflix says the safety of its members' accounts is top priority. tata steel says it expects to cut 1,000 jobs across the uk as part of restructuring plans announced last week.

two thirds of the job losses will be management and office—based roles. a further 1,600 positions are set to go in the netherlands with 350 more elsewhere in the world. do you dream of a rural holiday home abroad? well, why stop there when you can have a whole village? in rural galicia, on spain's north—west coast, you can snap one up for as little as $55,000. the region has thousands of abandoned villages — and one woman has started a business to try and bring people — and investment — back.

there has been general articles, a little bit, about galicia, so northern spain, there have been interest. we are all discussing clubbing together and buying a village in north—west spain. just an idea. they will see you soon.

environmental campaigners are calling for charges on what the supermarkets call "bags for life" to be raised to 70 pence. it comes as research shows use of the plastic bags has risen again this year to 1.4 billion — that's a total of 5a for every household in the uk. andy moore reports. it's been hailed as a huge success, the law requiring supermarkets to judge for every single use plastic bag, but are we just swapping one bad habit for another? so the supermarkets want us to switch from these disposable bays, prizefighter pincourt, to the so—called bags for life, price 10p here. but environmentalists say that the price differences is just too small. they would like to see the judge for back

full i've raised to at least 70 p. sainsbury ‘s recently doubled their charge for more durable bags from 10p to 20p and got quite a lot of stick from some of their customers for that. back alive is a good thing if it is being used for life as the name suggests, but our figures show that these are just when used for a week, if that, by a lot of customers. the low price means there is not the incentive for people to reuse. and there's also issues with biodegradable plastics. they don't a lwa ys biodegradable plastics. they don't always break down in a natural environment, so they can cause just as much time as conventional plastic. environmental groups say bags for life are usually bigger and contain more plastic stop in spite of the reason why overall plastic use in supermarkets is actually growing. at the supermarkets say they are aware of the problem and are doing their best to tackle it. little, for example, is stopping selling bags for life in its welsh stores and will do so in the rest of the uk if the experiment works. andy moore, bbc news.

for more on that story, 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. plus they'll be reflecting on the life of the celebrated broadcaster and writer, clive james. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: china says it will take "firm counter measures" after president donald trump signed legislation backing protesters in hong kong. the social media platform tiktok, which is chinese—owned, has apologised to an american teenager who was banned after she made videos criticising china's treatment of muslims. what are the stories making headlines in the media around the world ? the times reports on a new yougov poll that shows boris johnson is on course to secure a 68—seat majority at next month's election. guardian the guardian leads on the release of uncensored documents which, according tojeremy corbyn, prove that the nhs

is on the table in trade talks with the us, despite denials from the conservatives. the new president of the european central bank, christine lagarde, is pushing for climate change to be part of a strategic review of the bank's purpose, the ft reports. the paper says ms lagarde believes global warming should be a "mission critical" priority. president trump has signed democracy legislation backing protesters in hong kong despite angry objections from china is on the front page of the new york times. we have of course mentioned this story. variety are reporting that star wars actorjohn boyega has admitted that he was the one that left a top secret script under his bed which then ended up for sale on ebay. and the independent devotes half of its front page to the broadcaster and critic clive james, who died yeaterday at the age of 80. with me is inga beale,

from london first, a not—for—profit group made up of business leaders from across the city. and of course in the uk you would expect a lot of politics on the front pages. the times, looking at the u gulf bowl, which has been done for the