this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. ground to a halt — production of boeings 737 max planes — a move that deepens the crisis at the plane maker. can the us challenge china's dominance in rare earth production? we visit a site in the texas desert. and on the markets, stocks are edging higher across asia with hong kong up around 1.5% but the boris bounce that lifted the pound has been burst by news the uk

prime minister will change the law to guarantee the brexit transition phase isn't extended. american plane maker boeing says it will temporarily stop making its 737 max planes. the aircraft has been grounded since march after two deadly crashes killed 346 people. it comes as us regulators say they won't approve the aircraft's return to service before 2020. pulling its most profitable plane from the skies has already cost boeing more than $9 billion and that figure continues to rise as almost 400 new planes remain in storage. shares in the company fell over 4% as the company's board met all day on monday. let's go live to seattle now and talk to peter lemme, aviation expert and a former boeing engineer.

peter, just put in perspective for us peter, just put in perspective for us how big a blow this is for boeing? this is a huge blow. it hasn't happened for a generation. inaudible. involving two tragedies, almost 13 months of agony. and for boeing and for the us economy, that in perspective as well, boeing is one of the biggest construction groups in the us, isn't it, in terms of supply chain, employment, et cetera. there are over 600 suppliers that are involved... boeing has expressed there are 12,000 employees involved in the 737 manufacturing... all right, peter, apologies to you. it would seem our link to you is not

solid enough. peter lemme there, aviation expert and former boeing engineer. we will try and get more detail later in the day here on the bbc, but unfortunately we could not speak to peter with good quality there. the us is almost completely dependent on china for rare earths — everyone is. china produces nearly all of our rare earth metals, which are essential to most defence and consumer technology. 0ne us firm hopes to change that, mining a hill in west texas that contains a lot of rare earths. it comes out of the drill hole in this shape. you've gone through a lot of iterations of, you know, getting

yourself out of the dirt and starting over. we finally got one that looks like it's a real winner, finally. it's great. over £900 of rare—earth minerals are in every f-35 rare—earth minerals are in every f—35 fighterjet. rare—earth minerals are in every f—35 fighter jet. we rare—earth minerals are in every f—35 fighterjet. we cannot be dependent on foreign sources of supply, dependent on foreign sources of supply, which means we have to develop the ability to mine for these minerals cost effectively —— 900 pounds.

now, let's bring you more detail on oui’ now, let's bring you more detail on our top business story, the news that boeing has ground to a halt the production of the 737 max fleet following more concerns about the safety of the aircraft. sadly we could not talk to peter lemme, our seattle aviation expert, we do not have a good enough line. here is our respondent in new york with more details. essentially is that they aren't able to get the regulations approved by global regulators, the faa in time to get the plane back in the air without creating an even larger backlog than they already have. the ceo, dennis mahlberg had tried to say they were hoping by the end of the —— beginning at 2020 they could start shipping out more of their boeing 737 temp three mark —— 737 maxs, but that is taking longer

than they expected. this is a business decision until they can ensure those deliveries are out. everyone is now saying what will this mean to all of those parts suppliers. boeing says they are going to lay off any workers in their factories at the moment. they say they're going to safeguard against that. 0bviously for many of those supplies you make parts for the 737 max, the question is will boeing have two then stop buying their parts until they resume production? will they continue their orders until they figure it out themselves? it's unclear how boeing will handle that but already we've seen several companies taking a hit on their stock prices because of this. it's very, very early but i mean, many people are anticipating this will have ripple effect across the global economy. putting in perspective that story from boeing. it will take almost a century to close the gender gap across politics, economics, health and education —

that's the finding of the world economic forum's annual global gender gap report of 144 nations. but, don't despair, apparently it's an improvement on 2018. 99.5 years, that's the time it will take to close the gender gap across the broad from politics, such as number of ministerial roles, to economics, health and education. and nordic countries lead the way again. the top five are iceland — retaining its slot as the world's most gender—equal country, followed by norway, finland, sweden and in fifth place nicaragua. here's a surprise, rwanda in ninth place beating germany. that gives you a snapshot. i'm joined by anju solanki, founder of mea consulting group, which advises ftse250 companies and beyond on their gender diversity strategy. good morning and thank you for coming in. thank you. just explain the measurement of the gender gap, how does that work? the clever

gender gap is comprised of four focus areas. that's political empowerment, education, health and economic participation. and where we have really seen that narrowing, or the slight narrowing has come from the slight narrowing has come from the political empowerment framework. we saw from last week because my general election in the uk alone we had a record number of female mps enter parliament at 220, that is only a third of parliament, but we are seeing that shift. it is interesting actually, because we before we had the news of sally marion, the female prime minister for inland at 34 years old. so a lot of work coming in there, but economically there is still a problem. when we look at participation and empowerment there

are still barriers for women in the labour market. we were celebrating in the uk things like a record number of women on boards, but when you break down the data, women are being appointed into roles such as non—executive director positions, not the executive roles such as ceo and cfo. looking at the ftse 100, and cfo. looking at the ftse100, there are only six female ceos. and a lot of that, even though we are in 2019 is even by gender stereotypes by our bias is, and again, when we look at where the growth is in our economy is in the tax actor. women are not being represented. we have 4000 fintech start—ups in the uk alone, and we're not seeing women be appointed into those roles of data for artificial intelligence. ways that. i've been a journalist for more yea rs i years i would like to admit, and this story has been out there and say started in my career. why have we not seen a significant change when it comes to women in business?

there are so many barriers for women in business. let's take a look at the spectrum. returning mothers back to work, their childcare costs are prominently high, and many women are having to make the decision of if it is financially viable for them to go back to work. there is a lack of action for them and a lack of opportunities to really start exhilarating across the path to leadership. access to funding is a huge issue. last year globally there we re huge issue. last year globally there were 130 billion pounds in venture capitalfunding were 130 billion pounds in venture capital funding that went into business and only 2.2% went to female founded businesses. so we're really seeing the barriers there when it comes to the workplace and there is a lot need to do. anju, thank you for your time on the business briefing. that is the latest business stories we have. we have plenty more for you on the briefing.

0liver will be back in a moment for the news briefing, but first this story. inspectors have to decide is the london fire brigade saying it is not particularly well run and commanders have not had proper training. her majesties inspectorate fire and rescue service is said the brigade had been slow to implement the changes needed after the g re nfell tower the changes needed after the grenfell tower blaze in which 72 people died. 0ur grenfell tower blaze in which 72 people died. our home affairs committee respondents arm symons reports does make some symons. it's a tough, physical job, reports does make some symons. it's a tough, physicaljob, even when there are no flames and firefighters arejust there are no flames and firefighters are just demonstrating typical procedures. today's report makes no criticism of those on the line, that it is the london fire brigade is not well run. it's slow to learn lessons and has a long way to go in approving its efficiency. there is

one particular concern, not enough training. especially for incident commanders. and training which is not pass orfail, commanders. and training which is not pass or fail, so what happens if officers don't perform well? well, nothing. nothing! therejust officers don't perform well? well, nothing. nothing! there just back on the system. what you think of that? it's one of the most worrying causes of concern. that's why we have graded the training london fire brigade delivers as inadequate. it has to be sorted out. which is significant, because it is more than a year since the then london fire commissioner, danny cotton, told the rental tower public enquiry... commissioner, danny cotton, told the rental tower public enquiry. . ij wouldn't rental tower public enquiry. . i wouldn't expect us to be developing training or response to something that simply shouldn't happen. winning a fire on the scale of granville. she has resigned, partly because today's report. the new commissioner says he is committed to making improvements. —— meaning a fire on the size of gran fell ——

grenfell. make sure you stay with us for more news on breakfast. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: psychologists working with refugees and migrants on the greek island of lesbos have told the bbc they are seeing an increasing number of children self—harming and attempting suicide. there's been a spike in refugees arriving on the aegean islands in recent months, the vast majority fleeing countries of conflict. britain's prime minister is planning a new law to prevent any extension of the brexit transition process beyond the end of 2020. the withdrawal agreement will include a clause making further delays illegal. there's some concern this revives the possibility of the uk leaving the eu without any trade deal.

boeing's temporarily suspending production of its 737 max airliner from january. it was grounded in march after two fatal crashes in indonesia and ethiopia that killed all on board — 346 people. the company says it won't lay—off workers but the stoppage is likely to affect suppliers and the wider us economy. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with news from the daily telegraph's business pages. according to bank of england governor, mark carney, the uk is heading for a smooth brexit. mr carney made his comments as british stocks reportedly enjoyed their best day in three years. but the independent reports that prime minister boris johnson is going to publish legislation this week that would stop him from extending brexit negotiations with the eu beyond december 2020. the paper quotes opposition politicians saying the move risks sending the uk straight

off the no—deal cliff. the new york times questions the cost of adventure, asking how the eruption of the volcano on white island will affect tourism in new zealand going forward. the industry represents nearly 6% of the country's economic output, and employs more than 14% of the workforce. the financial times has the story of the class action against tech giants apple, google, microsoft, dell and tesla being brought on behalf of families of children killed or injured while mining cobalt in the decmocratic republic of congo. the metal is critical for smartphones and electric vehicles, and the ft says human rights groups claim the companies are aiding and abetting supply chains that force children to work in dangerous conditions. and finally, the times reports that petrol and diesel cars will be completely barred from one road in the city of london. drivers of pure combustion engine cars will face fines