The us decision is largely symbolic and comes after a sharp fall in the value of the chinese yuan against the dollar and prompts yet another fall on stock markets. Also in the programme profits rise at Intercontinental Hotels but the boss of brands including holiday and crowne plaza tells us hes not losing too much including holiday inn and crowne plaza tells us hes not losing too much sleep over the us china trade war. After heavy losses on monday across europe you can see a mixed picture today with the ftse 100 proving to be today with the ftse100 proving to be the laggard. And what if you have so much money you dont know how to spend it . We meet the man behind the personal Concierge Service that books those once in a lifetime holidays, posh dinners and expensive days out. But it costs nearly 3000 dollars a year, just to join. And if you could have someone at your beck and call to book your once in a lifetime trip where would it be . Where would you go . Let us know, just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. Hello and welcome to business live. Welcome to the programme. It is so nice to dream of that perfect holiday. Send them in and we will talk about that a bit later. Send them in and we will talk about that a bit later. We start with yet another major escalation in the us china trade war. The United States has done something that President Trump has been threatening for years, its officialy labelled china a currency manipulator. The largely symbolic moves comes after the Chinese Government let its currency fall below the critical level of seven to a us dollar. The Us Government said treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin will now discuss ways to eliminate the unfair competitive advantage created by chinas latest actions with the International Monetary fund. That fall in the chinese currency was widely seen as retaliation for President Trump announcing new tariffs on 300bn of chinese goods. That was the latest round of tariffs in a trade war started because of what mr trump says are unfair trade practices from china. Karishma vaswani is our Asia Business correspondent and is following all this from singapore. Talk us through the significance of this. What does it mean when President Trump accuses china of being a currency manipulator . By putting china on this of designated currency manipulators, it does not have that much significance in any technical sense because a lot of the things that you would do once one of these countries is on that list have already been done. For instance, the us now has the right to start negotiations with china. They have been in trade talks for a year, they can start putting ta riffs for a year, they can start putting tariffs on china. They have been doing that for the last year as well. The next thing the us can do is Start Talking to the International Monetary fund about some of the mechanisms through which all of this might take place. Donald trump circumvented the imf with his trade war against china. In terms of technicalities this move is not that significant, but the symbolism is very significant. It marks a real escalation between the two sides in the trade war and we have seen evidence of that with asian investors are selling off many of the major shares today and they have pared back some of those losses from earlier on, but anxious moments in asia. President trump is worried about whether it gives china an unfair advantage in those trade negotiations and also in international trade. I wonder whether it makes a difference at the end of the day. China has been selling so much around the world, is this President Trump being annoyed about the dominance of china . M this President Trump being annoyed about the dominance of china . It may well be back if you look at how the negotiations have gone over the last 18 months, and when we saw back in junejust how 18 months, and when we saw back in june just how it looked like the two size might come to some sort of agreement, what we are seeing now is they are further apart than they have ever been before. If you look at the signals coming out of the central bank of china today, where this all began on monday when they sent a signal to the market that they were willing to get their currency get past that seven unit to the dollar point, today we have seen a signal that is being read by many a nalysts a signal that is being read by many analysts saying, we dont want it to get that weak against the us dollar. It is not always advantageous for china to have a weak currency against the us dollar. It makes imports more expensive and it makes servicing debts quite difficult as well. It is a difficult situation that china has to navigate at this point, looking strong to its domestic market, but making sure it does not hurt its own economy in the process. It is a double edged sword. We talk about this being a us china issue, but quite clearly there are so many china issue, but quite clearly there are so many other economies that get swept up in this, arent there . Absolutely. What we have seen as a result of this depreciation is other currencies in this part of the world have had some sort of an effect. The most obvious is the japanese yen, which is seen as a safe haven for asian investors. We have seen it strengthen which is bad news for japans economy which is export driven, which is why we have seen losses on the stock market there in japan today. Always good to see you, oui japan today. Always good to see you, our Asia Business correspondence in singapore. Lets take a look at some of the other stories making the news. Banking giantjp morgan says it could soon be the Majority Shareholder in its chinese joint venture, becoming the first foreign firm to take control of a china based business under new rules. Its reported jp morgan bought a 2 stake, taking its total share to 51 . But it comes amid escalating tensions between the us and china over trade, tariffs and, as weve been discussing, accusations of currency manipulation. 0nline fashion giant boohoo has made an offer to buy the Online Business of uk brands karen millen and coast. Boohoo says buying the website operations of the two brands would represent highly complementary additions. Any move to buy karen millen would see parts of coast another womens wear brand that it acquired out of Administration Last autumn would also be included in the deal. Facebooks been accused of failing to shut down groups selling fake amazon reviews. Despite a request by regulators to remove the pages back injuly, the Consumer Group which . Claims its found many that are still active. Facebook says its taken down almost all of the reported groups. And strike action planned at Heathrow Airport on tuesday has been called off after the Airport Group and the union unite reached a deal over pay. Dozens of flights were cancelled yesterday because of the uncertainty around industrial action. Have you stayed at a kimpton, holiday inn or Crowne Plaza Hotel in the last few months . I know ben has. If you have you probably contributed to the rising profits of one of the worlds Biggest Hotel groups, Intercontinental Hotel groups. I spend my life in them sometimes. 0perating profits reached 457m in the first half of this year, thats1li more than the same time a year ago. Its been helped by a Cost Cutting Programme and the company adding more hotels to its portfolio. It now has more than 855,000 rooms across more the 5,700 hotels. I asked ihgs chief executive keith barr if he was worried that the Global Economic slowdown could be a problem. We had a solid start to the year. We had a Record Number of Hotel Signings and openings in the first half of 5. 7 . That drove revenues up 396 half of 5. 7 . That drove revenues up 3 and underlying profits up 5 when you factor in timings and costs and the uk portfolio we required. It gave a dividend of 10 . A solid start to the year, but what is exciting is the growth story in terms of the number of new hotels we are opening up around the world. The holiday inn brand family is getting stronger and we are launching new brands and adding hotels and we are acquiring new brands, so that brand portfolio of existing brands and new brands is accelerating our growth around the world and will drive future revenue and profit growth. That is the hope for the future. But if we see this trade war between the us and china escalate and it the us consumer, they will not pay extra money to stay in a hotel. They might go for the cheaper option or opt for air b b. We range from launching hotels in the mid scale segment at a very reasonable price point all the way to the top end of luxury, so our brand portfolio lets us capture a number of different customer needs. But the trade dispute between china and the us is something every global chief executive is concerned about and we want to see it resolved. We are and we want to see it resolved. We a re fortu nate and we want to see it resolved. We are fortunate in that we are a domestic business and we are not as dependent upon intraregional travel, as much as we are about growing gdp in both countries. Lets talk about the removal of 200 million miniature isa the removal of 200 million miniature is a year, these mini bottles of toiletries. To a great degree that has been received quite well because people want to think that organisations like yours, which are huge, which create a lot of noise, are doing something about that. We started a year ago with the announcement we were taking out Plastic Straws and we recognise there was a lot that we needed to do. As a father of two young daughters they are challenging me about how to make a difference. We thought we could take out these small Bath Amenities and by 2021 we will be taking them out of all our hotels and we will not have 2 million small bottles being used every year. But there is more we can do in looking at the supply chain and Single Use Plastics and as we design new hotels how do we make them more sustainable Going Forward . That is keith barr, the boss of ahg. They are down 1 on the ftse100. This is how things went in asia, a much better and to the day. At one point then nikki was down 3 , off the back of that currency manipulation moment. Following on from that the peoples bank of china basically set the rating so that their currency was stronger versus their currency was stronger versus the us dollar and that shows china is not into this idea of weakening the currency as much as others are accusing them of. Lets look at europe quickly. I ahg shares down. Earnings news from rolls royce engineering, their losses narrowed. Boo hoo making the bid for karen millen, there are a lot of corporate stories. You can look at the business live pages. What is ahead for wall street . All eyes will be on us Financial Markets on tuesday after a bruising trading day on monday. The earnings reports from Companies May offer some traders respite from the trade tensions between the us and china. 0n the topic of Company Earnings the home of mickey mouse, cinderella will be reporting on tuesday. It was the success of the final avengers film that will likely push revenue for walt disney for the quarter. That said, investors may also see a drop in profit, a result of the costs the company is absorbing to create its new digital services. But thatis create its new digital services. But that is what investors will be most interested in hearing about. The companys interested in hearing about. The compa nys progress on interested in hearing about. The companys progress on its new streaming service, disney plans, which is expected to launch sometime in november. Jane sydenham, investment director, Rathbones Investment Management is here. Nice to see you. Quite a lot of volatility in markets around the world. Give us a sense of where we are in this. The markets have been rattled with this 60 series of falls, particularly in the United States. Worries about the trade war. But if china is suggesting they are not manipulating the currency, this narrow band that the currency trades within, sending signals backed up within, sending signals backed up with evidence that they are not manipulating the currency, markets may calm down a bit. There was a sense this trade dispute is spiralling out of control. Lets mention the b word if i dare. The brexit discussion, it would look like Stephen Barclay who went to brussels yesterday, the brexit secretary, all the papers suggest that brussels has come up with the idea that we are not going to progress at all and brussels is prepared for a no deal on the 31st of october. The signals seem to be at this point that there is no concession coming out of europe and markets are moving or increasing their expectations of a no deal. It seems to be rising from 30 expectation to more like 50 . That is to some extent explains sterlings weakness yesterday. For now thank you. Jane will be back, including with a great story in the papers we have been discussing. We will talk about why so few adults in the uk are seemingly paying income tax. Still to come. We will be talking about those personal Concierge Services. It also includes going into space. Stay with us. Stay with us. Iwg i wg says profits are up in the First Six Months of the year. And that with the global, political and economic uncertainty. It still expects a positive momentum to continue. Lets talk to mark dixon, the chief executive. Great to see you. These numbers look healthy in a challenging environment for you. These are uncertain times, but they are also leading to more demand from our customers who are also seeing this uncertainty. They want to be more flexible, they want to lower costs a nd more flexible, they want to lower costs and we are seeing very strong increases in demand. You are seeing that despite the fact that big competitors and other very flexible, nimble providers of office space are eating into your market share. They are not eating into our market share. We are the Market Leader and we are much bigger. New competitors are adding to knowledge of our industry and are driving demand to Companies Like ours. We have the Biggest Network and the best coverage. We are a beneficiary from this heightened awareness, let say. So it is quite a good time for us. You alluded to the idea that uncertainty is good because it Means Companies are not paying long leases on offices and that sort of thing. But with that comes fickleness. They can move out as quickly as they can move on, cant they . We are a business that is a mixture of all different terms. You can rent an office from us for an hour or a day, but we have contracts that are five yea rs but we have contracts that are five years or longer. It is a mixed book business. The more flexibility you want, the more you pay. Thank you so much. Mark dixon, founder and chief executive of awg. He was one of our guests some time ago on the inside track slot where he told me at the age of 16 he was selling sandwiches ona age of 16 he was selling sandwiches on a push back in london. That is how he started out. Much more on our business live page. Full coverage on the bbc website the trade war. Nowadays we have a mobile app for everything one that can make you a dinner reservation, find you a taxi or even arrange your dry cleaning. Apps are popular that last year alone, the markets revenues amounted to over 365 billion. Its expected to rise to more than 935 billion by 2023. Well, one app thats taking advantage of this growing market with a twist is velocity black. Founded in 2014 by two ex financiers, the Concierge Service puts together dream itineraries for the super rich even if they seem completely impossible. The firms co founder, zia yusufjoins us now. Iam i am fascinated by the idea very rich people are paying 3000 a year to look at an app. How does it work and how do you make money from it . Thank you for having me. Yes, they get to look at the app and they get to do get to look at the app and they get todoa get to look at the app and they get to do a lot more than that. The platform is completely digital and we think it is unique. You can message in and you are guaranteed to be speaking to somebody in a minute 24 7. Be speaking to somebody in a minute 21w. You can get into a great restau ra nt, 21w. You can get into a great restaurant, organise a birthday. That is the first thing you get. Secondly, we have negotiated on behalf of our members and that is not a place in the world that that does not want to have these people in their establishments. There are tens of thousands of hotels around the world, you can enjoy the private terminal at an international airport. Most members make it work from the benefits on the platform. But what it comes down to is no matter how much money anybody might have, you can only spend it in a certain time. You can spend more time with your loved ones. Cashrich, time with your loved ones. Cashrich, time poor describes your client and they are quite diverse in terms of they are quite diverse in terms of the client base, but how do you get their attention . You have not been around that long and everyone is out there wanting the cashrich, time poor client that is willing to spend for any type of service . That is spot on and we are proud to have built the trust and the attention of these customers. I was inspired personally, as was my co founder, that there was a project that was com pletely that there was a project that was completely differentiated and head above any other product. We kind of created a new category and we are focused on putting the customer first. 0ver focused on putting the customer first. Over half of our Customer Growth today has come from direct referrals from customers. We are looking at these pictures and it paints a very lovely lifestyle of nice things to do. Others have tried and failed to do this Concierge Service. If you are paying 3000 to sign up, and the stuff does not come cheap, the expectation is up here and you have to deliver or you will have annoyed customers. How do you make sure reality matches expectation . That is a very good question and it is the most difficult part of what we do. Customer expectation is higher than it has ever been. We absolutely try to achieve it. First of all, any supplier, experience or destination to make it onto our platform has been vetted and vetted by a human. Secondly, we stand behind everything we are selling. It is so easy if there is an issue to return the product to amazon. So we own that experience. If you arrive at a hotel and the room is not ready, sometimes these things do not go as planned, you can message into the app, my room is not ready. Mountains will be moved to ensure that the room is ready at the hotel makes it up to you. That is what customers appreciate. Sometimes in life things do not go to plan, but we know when it isa do not go to plan, but we know when it is a personal relationship and a brand and when something goes wrong thatis brand and when something goes wrong that is when the relationship is tested. We a re that is when the relationship is tested. We are proud of the attitude we have. We want to be able to make sure we are providing the best service to our customers. It is really good to see you. In a moment well take a look through the business pages but first heres a quick reminder of how to get in touch with us. London, singapore, shanghai, new york. 0ur correspondence have your business well covered on air, online and on the bbcs news app. Check out the website for the insight and analysis. The bbcs business live page has the latest breaking business news. We want your news as well, get in touch and tweet us at bbc business orfind well, get in touch and tweet us at bbc business or find us on facebook. Join the bbcs business conversation. And you have been in touch about your ideal holiday and Lesley Barrie in the uk says it is simple, son, good food, a massive swimming pool, i dont need much. Kerry in new york says, sun, swimming pool, a trip to england to see where my ancestors come from, thatis see where my ancestors come from, that is it. Rob henshaw says an island in the tropics and somebody to peel me a grape. I dont know if you will get that one. Maybe try velocity black jane, what is your ideal holiday . Where would you go for once in a lifetime . ideal holiday . Where would you go for onceinalifetime . I quite like the idea of somebody peeling a great for me, but may be a breach will do. What about space . I dont want to go to the moon, it takes too long, but iam quite to the moon, it takes too long, but i am quite keen to go to space. I am sure that can be arranged. Doigo sure that can be arranged. Do i go with branson or do i go with mask . 0h mask . Oh so not me then. Lets talk about the stories in the papers and in the telegraph the suggestion that fewer people are paying income tax. Explain this. Since 2010 the income tax band has nearly doubled from 6450 to £12,500 and that has taken huge numbers of people out of paying tax altogether. 43 of the population now do not pay any tax at all compared to 38 in 2010. At the top end, the top 1 , 27 are paying, sorry the top 1 is paying 27 of the burden. More people at the top end are paying considerably more of tax and the lower earners are not paying any tax at all. It is fascinating how the sums work out. Thank you for coming in and explaining that. Thank you for your company, we will see you again tomorrow. The weather will remain pretty u nsettled the weather will remain pretty unsettled for much of the week. Thursday looks like the driest and quietest day weather wise, but for today sunny spells and heavy showers, which will be thundery at times. This area of low pressure is moving eastwards across Northern Ireland and scotland and it is providing the energy for those showers. With that low pressure close by light winds mean the showers will be slow moving. Showers are moving from west to east in england and wales with sunny spells in between. There is a brisk south westerly wind and they move through fairly quickly. Lighter wins for scotland and Northern Ireland. Maximum temperatures 19 23. This evening and overnight thunderstorms ramble on across scotland and northern parts of england and north wales and later in the night showers in southern areas. 0therwise wales and later in the night showers in southern areas. Otherwise there will be clear skies into wednesday morning. Throughout wednesday it will be fairly similar again, much of northern parts of the uk and more showers for scotland and Northern Ireland. Some showers could be heavy and thundery at times. The odd shower running along southern coastal counties. 0therwise shower running along southern coastal counties. Otherwise it will be dry with some sunshine. Temperatures again in the high teens to the low 20s. 0n temperatures again in the high teens to the low 20s. On thursday we will see that low pressure moving away and then we have a ridge of High Pressure moving its way in and that will keep things settle on thursday. Thursday looking like the driest and quietest day. Lighter wins for england and wales. Maybe the odd shower cropping up, but for most of us shower cropping up, but for most of us it is dry with sunshine and temperatures 18 24. By the end of the week we will see a deep area of low pressure moving its way and tracking its way into the uk as we go through friday. Not only strong winds, but heavy rain moving its way northwards going into the weekend. That area of low pressure will stick around for quite a while. Heavy rain in the forecast by the end of the week and that could cause problems. Unusually strong winds for this time of the year. Youre watching bbc news at nine with me, rebecca jones. The headlines eu Officials Say they currently have no reason to hold any further brexit talks, insisting the uks demand that the irish backstop be scrapped is unacceptable. A British Airways flight fills with smoke ten minutes before landing. 0ne passenger compares it to a horror film. People were saying, get down, get down, we were trying to breathe in only the cleaner air towards the floor of the cabin. A teenager is charged with attempted murder after a six year old boy was allegedly thrown from the top of the tate. Hell appear in court later today firefighters warn that crews will need to spend at least two more days pumping water from a reservoir to stop its dam bursting and flooding a town. As the dust settles on a crushing ashes defeat, englands captain insists his side does have the confidence to turn the series around. Tackling the counterfeit alcohol trade, how an artificial tongue could help taste subtle differences between whiskies
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