this is the business briefing. i'm ben bland. no actual you a decision based on, quote: ‘politics not security'. chinese telecoms giant huawei launches a second legal challenge against the us ban — saying there's no evidence it's a national security threat. plus — when $1.7 trillion is not enough. aramco heads for the biggest stock market listing in history but the saudi government had far higher hopes. and on the markets, asian shares edge higher on hopes the us and china could be on track to sign a preliminary trade deal.

we start in china — where as you've been hearing — telecoms giant huawei has launched a new legal challenge against the us. it's appealing a decision last month to stop us mobile phone companies from using government grants to buy its equipment. it follows a similar legal challenge in may against a ban on us government agencies from buying its kit. let's get more on this story from our correspondent in shanghai, robin brant. what does huawei hope the practical effect of this will be? what do they hope to achieve with this challenge? they want to overturn a ban and we will have to wait and see what the us court of appeals thinks about that. but what it is also trying to do is demonstrate that it has the

resources and the desire to push back and there is also a public relations exercise ongoing here, one in which huawei is spending a vast amount of money as it continues, frankly, in its fight with the us government. this is a fairly technical moved today, the second attempt in a year by huawei to use the us courts to overturn a ruling. this is about the fcc, the federal communications commission, the agency that oversees the sector that huawei is a big player in, the fcc decided that mobile phone providers in rural parts of the us would not be allowed to use government fund known as the universal service fund to purchase huawei kit. they want that decision overturned. they say it is based on politics not on substance and it continues to say that there is no evidence offered by the us government, president trump ‘s administration, to support the claim that huawei is a threat to

national security. and, briefly, how important are those contracts to huawei? the us market is huge and we have seen huawei suffer in terms of its revenue for this year. as it has had to deal with those bands put in place by the us government on either selling stuff to it or purchasing from it. but the chinese market, 1.4 billion people, remains important particularly for huawei at the moment as it grows its dominance here. let's go to saudi arabia now where the state oil giant aramco is due to announce final details of its share sale to the public. it's expected to price its shares at around 32 riyals or $8.50 each — ahead of their stock market debut in around a week's time. that would make it the biggest ever initial public offering — or ipo — in history. it would give the company a stock

market value of over $1.7 trillion, far above the likes of apple and microsoft — which are currently the most valuable companies — worth a mere $1.1 trillion. and the share sale will raise in excess of $25 billion — just beating the record set by chinese e—commerce giant alibaba when it joined the new york stock exchange in 2014. but despite the huge numbers involved, the ipo has not lived up to the high expectations of the saudi government. here's why.

as you have been hearing, in france the biggest nationwide strike in yea rs has the biggest nationwide strike in years has begun. most of the high speed rail network and the paris metro have been brought to a standstill — hundreds of flights have been

cancelled — and the majority of schools around the country are closed — as transport workers and teachers protest against planned pension reforms. let's get more on this story from tomasz michalski who's associate professor of econonomics at hec paris. good to have you with us this morning. in terms of what is going on, people are talking about it as a challenge to president macron‘s presidency. why is that? firstly, the proposed reform that is still very vague at this stage was a major campaign pledge of emmanuel macron and he has —— is the face of this reform. and he needs to keep on reforming because otherwise the 40% of the french on the centre—right who support him may find somebody else. so he is preparing, like a

pre— campaign move, also. you can count the forces of the opposition before the election campaign of 2022. based on what you have said, is there any obvious middle ground, a way of resolving this, while still reforming pensions but placating what the striking workers want? reforming pensions but placating what the striking workers wannm isa what the striking workers wannm is a very good question. there is no will, as of yet. we only know the contours of the reform full of so we know that the different regimes, the different pension systems, there are 42 of them and some even so special that they are given to opera workers, since king louis xiv, that they will all be merged into one and modernised. this is supposed to become also a system where you will gather points and the age at which you will be able to get the full

pension is going to be increased to 64 and now you have to work 43 years to get the full pension. so even in the contours you see there are many moving parts and then the devil will like, really, in the details of. for example, what is the exchange system between currency and the points? and if there is no obvious resolution to this dispute, how damaging is a nationwide strike on this scale to the french economy? that is a good question and we will see today and probably we will know more tomorrow because today we are going to see merely a standstill of the economy. the public transportation system in large cities are striking and the national railways. it is estimated

that the economy is going to lose 200- 400 that the economy is going to lose 200— 400 million euros every day if the mobilisation is strong. we are going to see if this will continue because there is going to be a very important battle of opinion between the strikers and the government. so the strikers and the government. so the french are really, i would say, here on this matter quite lost because the opinion polls say three quarters of them support reform but then two—thirds are also sympathising with the strikes because they are afraid of what the reform is going to imply to them. thank you very much indeed. now let's brief you on some other business stories. 0il ministers from the organisation of petroleum exporting countries — 0pec — and allies including russia are meeting in the austrian capital vienna.

they are expected to extend a deal to limit oil production, aimed at propping up prices, which expires in march 2020. oil prices are predicted to come under more pressure next year with record production by the us and weak global demand. hsbc is to bring in a single overdraft rate of 39.9% for uk customers from march 2020, as much as quadrupling the rate it charges some customers — who currently pay between 9.9% and 19.9%. it comes in response to tough new borrowing rules from regulators designed to protect consumers — and follows a similar move from nationwide building society in july. investors in one of the uk's biggest commercial property funds have been temporarily prevented from taking out their money. investment firm m&g says withdrawals from its property portfolio fund have been suspended after a surge in investor requests to cash out. the firm blames "brexit—related political uncertainty"

and difficulties in the retail sector for the situation. up next — newsbriefing. we'll take you through the stories making headlines in the global news media today. a bbc investigation has found that thousands of mental health patients in england are being left with long waits for nhs talking therapies following their initial assessment. the service provides treatment to adults with conditions like post—traumatic stress disorder and depression. the delays have been described by health campaigners as ‘hidden‘ waiting lists. dominic hughes has more.

for paul, a career in the army and then the police came to an end six yea rs then the police came to an end six years ago. he developed post—traumatic stress disorder after a violent incident at work. then he has relied on to talking therapies and other mental health services provided by the nhs. but sometimes, the wait for treatment to begin has been long and dangerous. when you are actively that unwell all you wa nt are actively that unwell all you want is help and support with what you are going through, the symptoms i was experiencing. a delay of several weeks or a month or six weeks is literally a lifetime for people and they are acutely unwell. each part of the uk has its own talking therapy service and waiting times not directly comparable. the service in england is known as proving access to psychological therapies and have more than a million referrals last year, nine from ten were seen within the target time of six weeks. but 50% of all

patients who needed further treatment, over half a million people, waited longer than 28 days for their second appointment when the actual therapy generally starts. 0ne the actual therapy generally starts. one in six patients, nearly 95,000 people, waited over 90 days for their second appointment. treatment has eventually help paul overcome his anxiety and start to get out and about. the shortage of therapists means that in hedges england provides financial support to cover the cost of training extra staff. a spokesman said the service was still exceeding expectations and helping hundreds of thousands of people like paul to overcome their problems. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: a nationwide strike in france over pension reforms is under way — ninety% of high— speed rail services have been cancelled and hundreds of flights grounded. it'll also affect many schools and other services. impeachment proceedings against president trump enter a new phase, with us legal experts arguing over

whether there are grounds to remove him from office. chinese tech giant huawei has announced plans to hit back against us sanctions and relocate operations from the us to canada. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with le figaro, the french newspaper of course leading with planned strikes over pension reforms, expected to be the biggest in decades. a test of strength it says, as hundreds of thousands of people plan to protest. vox headlines how saudi aramco's initial public offering could be ushering in a new era of saudi money in tech. the state oil giant, due to announce final details of it's share sale to the public, could be the biggest ipo in history enabling the saudi's to transform the country's oil economy

into something more ‘diversified, durable and modern. new york times headlines the latest news from huawei, the chinese telecoms giant has launched a legal challenge against a decision by us regulators to classify it as a national security threat. the german paper, the frankfurter allgemeine carries the headline ‘the killer who came from moscow'. two russian diplomats have been expelled becasue moscow failed to help an investigation into the murder in berlin of a former chechen rebel commander. and if you had no idea what a peleton was, you might now! the exercise bike company's christmas advert has been widely mocked on social media as being "sexist", "out of touch", and even dystopian, american tabloid usa today writes ‘it‘s clear this woman doesn't need a peleton, she needs a good therapist and a divorce lawyer.‘ quite the analysis, we will take you through why they conclude that in