this is the business briefing, i'm sally bundock. president trump celebrates the 70th anniversary of nato in the uk, amidst us fears that china's dominant 56 technology poses a security threat. and fresh attempts to stop france's plan to tax america's tech giants — a us threat to target billions of dollars of fancy french goods. and talk of new us tariffs on french goods and steel from brazil and argentina into the us has sent share markets lower with declines on wall street on monday following through to asia today.

president trump is in the uk meeting allies at a nato summit in london this week. the labour leader, jeremy corbyn, has welcomed the us president with a letter, demanding that he will not push medicine prices up through a post—brexit trade deal. dominating trump's agenda, though, are threats posed by china, including its dominance of 56 telecoms networks. america has warned its allies against using equipment made by china's huawei, saying the kit could be used by beijing for spying. these concerns stem from a chinese law that requires domestic companies to co—operate with the government on security matters. critics saying that this law could compel huawei to be a vehicle for spying.

the company denies the allegations made by washington. meanwhile, germany's chancellor angela merkel has also sounded a warning, saying europe — a key part of nato — needs to have a unified policy on the rollout of the next—generation sg networks to address espionage concerns. mike weston is director at advisory start—up smtw. good to see you, mike. hello. so we've mentioned there are many leaders of the nato alliance who are in london right now, we got the uk prime minister, angela merkel, president trump of course. they all have their own thoughts and agenda when it comes to this issue on 56, don't they? they certainly do, and there has been not much of a united front in europe about this. emmanuel macron says it is a matter of european security and we should be

trusting european firms, strangely that isn't the view across the whole of the european union. when we go from here, this is the question. many countries like the uk, we already work with huawei when it comes to the roll—out of our 56, they already have a presence in some cities. yes stop and is due for some other countries in europe and other parts of the world. huawei is ahead of the game. they really are leading the charge from a technology point of view as far as 56 is concerned. but they are the only show in town, there are two major european organisations, nokia and ericsson, who would want to pitch for those contracts. there is a security concern around it, the sg contracts. there is a security concern around it, the 56 is going to be so fast, so powerful that it could replace broadband, for example and could become the default way that data gets shared across the internet, in which case getting that right is really, really important.

many would argue against china a lot of control in the future if huawei was to provide lots of infrastructure for 56 in different countries around the world, and that is the real concern, isn't it? yeah exactly. whoever is putting those m, exactly. whoever is putting those in, there is going to be the opportunity for governments to access data. but when it comes to what nokia, ericsson are providing in their attack, how does it compare? highway is certainly a and really are dominating the next generation of telecoms technology —— huawei, there is no question about that. nokia and ericsson are not that. nokia and ericsson are not that far behind, they could create a compelling answer, and i think the investment war is continuing to be there, they are playing a little bit of catch up but they are not that far behind. when it comes to the diplomacy and politics within the big players in the world, the us saying to the uk, look, if you guys work with huawei we are going to share intelligence with you going forward. there is that threat going

forward. there is that threat going forward. there is that threat going forward. there is that threat. it is interesting. the legislation in china is very similar to legislation in the united states american companies are required to provide information back to the nsa by us law, which put through by donald trump when he was breaking the budget deadlock a little over a year ago. so the sort of rules do exist, the question is how much do you expect the government to trust the privacy of its citizens? that is the fundamental question. unfortunately we do not have enough time for it. thank you, mike weston, for coming in to the business briefing. the us is preparing tariffs on $2.1; billion worth of french exports as retaliation against the country's new digital services tax. the top us trade official said the new tax, which france approved injuly, unfairly targets american tech giants and us action would deter other countries from taking similar steps. from san francisco, here's dave le. since the biggest tech companies in

the western world are mostly created in silicon valley, wasn't and feels that these digital tasks unfairly targets american success stories. it is now proposing that if france goes ahead and imposes a 3% levy on the reve nu es of ahead and imposes a 3% levy on the revenues of companies like amazon, google, apple and facebook, it would slap huge tariffs on bench exports ids, handbags and champagne. france has that it will drop its tax plan if the rest of the european union can collectively come up with an alternative, one which taxes sales as well as profits. but those effo rts as well as profits. but those efforts are being blocked by the likes of ireland, a company with a low corporate tax rate, and as a result is home to the european headquarters of those american tech giants stop so what we're seeing is another trade row brewing under president trump. but one that has troubled previous administrations, too. the us has long felt that europe is coming down too hard on american firms because europe doesn't have an apple or google of

its own. dave le, bbc news, san francisco. and this is really causing consternation for financial markets around the world. markets in asia are reacting to fresh concerns about trade and relations between the us and china. and those tariffs on steel coming from brazil and argentina coming into the us. us congress is due to vote on a law which aims to highlight china's treatment of its uighur muslim population. soa so a lot is on the mind of investors today. rico hizon is following the story. he isa he is a business hub, i hope! yes, i am! so, no surprise at all we are seeing losses were share markets today? investors are very worried indeed, sally, because both if both houses of the us congress passed this, this could further strain on

trade negotiations between the us and china. legislation signed by president trump last week, backing protesters in hong kong, that did not make trade negotiations with china any easier stop and signing this additional bill on uighurs could further hurt talks which have reached a crucial stretch. but president trump believes that despite these hurdles, the mainland still wa nts despite these hurdles, the mainland still wants a deal with the americans. washington and beijing are yet to sign a phase one trade agreement, which had raised hopes of agreement, which had raised hopes of a deescalation in their long trade war, but this could really hurt ongoing trade negotiations. thanks, rico, we will keep a close eye on that one. now let's brief you on some other business stories: brazil's president jair bolsonaro said he would seek talks with president trump after the us threatened to slap tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from brazil and argentina. mr trump claimed those countries have presided over a massive devaluation of their currencies, making their goods cheaper and hurting us farmers.

the us has threatened the european union with new tariff hikes related to the airbus subsidy dispute at the wto. us trade representative robert lighthizer raised the possibility of higher levies after securing washington's latest legal victory in the long—running dispute. a wto panel on monday said that brussels had failed to comply with its rulings. as the cop25 climate conference gets under way in madrid, some of the planet's biggest polluters are in focus. the boss of australian airline qantas alanjoyce spoke to the bbc‘s mariko oi, claiming the carrier was pulling out all the stops to combat the damage its business wreaks on the environment. from 2020 we will be carbon neutral in all of ourgrowth, including project sunrise, it will be completely offsetting its carbon emissions.

we have already doubled — we have the largest carbon offset programme in the world. 10% of our customers at qantas.com offset their carbon emissions. we have said we will match that dollar for dollar from three weeks ago, and by 2050 we will be net—zero carbon emissions, by investing in sustainable aviation fuels and offsetting. reports say you are about to cut jobs just before christmas. is that true? like in everything we do, we are hiring in areas and we cut back in areas. we are hiring hundreds of pilots, cabin crew and ground staff, and there are some areas which are back—office areas where technology is replacing jobs. that is the boss of qantas, alan joyce, and that is your business briefing.

thousands of people in the falkirk area in central scotland have spent a second night in very cold temperatures without heating after a major gas network failure. heaters and portable cookers have been distributed to vulnerable residents and schools and nurseries in the area have been closed. scotland correspondent lorna gordon has been talking to some of those affected. at the start of winter, thousands with no gas, no heating, no hot water. have you got anything to cook on? the temperature has risen slightly here, but it is still very cold, and all day, there has been a constant flow of people here picking up heaters for their homes. has it been a cold night? yeah, just a tad. we've all been cooped up in the one bed, trying to stay warm. we had candles lighting up the house, and trying to heat the place withjust the candle flames. there you go — yeah. angeline perry has four children.

the youngest is nine months old. their gas supply was turned off yesterday, and they are using portable heaters to warm one room. so we're just using the kettle just now, to boil all our water, and we don't have any gas on the hob either. how are you coping? i'm just trying to think how i'm going to go through the week, and just thinking about night—time. during the day, we're 0k. we can huddle into one room. butjust trying to plan ahead for the week. but tonight, the good news — with the original fault fixed, engineers are now going door—to—door, starting with the most vulnerable— they‘ re beginning to reconnect customers. we're really sorry this has happened. it's our equipment that has failed. but we are getting people back on. we're restoring now, and in the next couple of days, we should have the majority back on. and that is our objective — get the supplies restored. so warmth is on the way, though it could be a couple of days before everyone's gas central heating here comes back on. lorna gordon, bbc news, falkirk.

this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: prince andrew faces calls to testify as a witness by five women who accuse convicted sex offender jeffrey epstein of abusing them. mass evacuations as typhoon kammuri makes landfall in the philippines. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with bbc 0nline and the nato summit to mark its 70th anniversary. the british prime minister, borisjohnson, is expected to emphasise the importance of nato staying united and adapting to face evolving threats. the new york times suggests that prince charles has moved to control any damage

done to the royal family by prince andrew's relationship with the disgraced american financier, jeffrey epstein. the queen, it says, is fading into history. the times reports that the financial conduct authority found record levels of debt when it investigated the credit schemes of some of britain's biggest stores. some charge up to 30% interest, and a third of shoppers taking on such deals fail to repay on time, leaving them with fees and interest charges. also, the times' business pages reveal that people who invested in collapsed peer—to—peer lender lendy have been told they will get back a lot less than they believe they are owed. a significant proportion of the £150 million they are owed has been earmarked to pay off insolvency practitioners and creditors. and the business standard in mumbai looks at the expansion of uber in india, but not entirely in the car market. the chief of uber in the country says people outside of the cities

will be catered for with two and three—wheeler bikes or buses. is that the uber rickshaw, maybe? so let's begin. with me is simoney kyriakou, editor of financial adviser. bbc online looking at this nato anniversary, summit, however you wa nt to anniversary, summit, however you want to describe it, and boris johnson calling for unity as the alliance turns 70. seems like it will be the worst earth day party on record. we always hear of dysfunctional families being brought together begrudgingly and someone's 70th or 80th birthday, and this seems to be what we are having here with these noto members being brought together, many of whom have had individualfallings brought together, many of whom have had individual fallings out or a war of words with each other. we had macron last month saying that nato was brain dead and erdogan saying macron was brain dead for saying so. germany saying this is the equivalent of having champagne corks p°ppin9

equivalent of having champagne corks popping in moscow when these sorts of comments