BBCNEWS — Business Today
20260806 153000 UTC
262 transcript segments
Original Broadcaster Captioning (Enhanced)
Data courtesy of The GDELT Project (https://www.gdeltproject.org/), from the Internet Archive TV News Archive.
Machine transcription. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a verbatim quotation record.

[00:00:56] and Democrats and for the American American people. For the latest,
[00:00:59] latest, follow us on the President's.
[00:01:00] President's. Path here on BBC News.
[00:01:08] News. MUSIC
[00:01:13] MUSIC
[00:01:20] Now on BBC News. The latest
[00:01:22] business news from across the globe.
[00:01:25] globe. Business Today. Straight talking
[00:01:36] talking Iran says it's made a deal
[00:01:37] deal with Oman over shipping in the
[00:01:40] the Gulf, but its neighbours and
[00:01:42] and the US may not like the terms.
[00:01:44] terms. It's payback time. The Trump
[00:01:47] Trump administration refunds $100 $100 billion in illegal tariffs,
[00:01:50] tariffs, but now it faces a new legal legal battle over its latest import
[00:01:54] import taxes. A top lawyer tells
[00:01:57] tells us they are also unfair and
[00:02:01] and fighting fire with tech. We speak speak to a company that's using AI
[00:02:04] AI to detect and track wildfires
[00:02:07] wildfires in Greece. Hello. Welcome
[00:02:10] Welcome along. This is Business Today Today I'm Ben Thompson and we're
[00:02:14] we're going to start with events events in the Middle East. And that
[00:02:16] that conflict in Iran. There are are hopes of an agreement now to
[00:02:20] to end the deadlock over the Strait Strait of Hormuz, which has choked
[00:02:23] choked off vital supplies of oil,
[00:02:25] oil, gas and chemicals. Iran says says it's reached a deal with Oman
[00:02:29] Oman on shipping through the strait, strait, and a joint announcement
[00:02:32] announcement is still being finalised. finalised. Well, it follows promises
[00:02:36] promises from President Trump and and other senior US officials that
[00:02:39] that a deal is imminent. For now, now, though, oil traders are taking
[00:02:43] taking a rather wait and see approach. approach. The international benchmark
[00:02:46] benchmark Brent crude has been trading trading around $81 a barrel since
[00:02:49] since reports of an agreement first
[00:02:52] first emerged earlier this week. week. Major questions, though, remain
[00:02:56] remain regional sources have been been telling the Reuters news agency agency that the agreement would give
[00:02:59] give Iran control of ships entering
[00:03:02] entering the Gulf, a situation the
[00:03:03] the US is probably unlikely to accept.
[00:03:06] accept. But what about other countries countries in the region? Here's Doctor
[00:03:09] Doctor Yousef Alshammari he's the
[00:03:11] the President of the London College
[00:03:14] College of Energy Economics. I can't can't bring you that clip right now.
[00:03:16] now. But let's talk first to Joshua Joshua Minchin. He's a senior reporter
[00:03:19] reporter at Lloyd's List. He's one one that is one of the world's oldest
[00:03:22] oldest maritime journals. Good to to have you with us as well. And And I mean, we were going to hear
[00:03:26] hear in that clip about the importance importance of perhaps this deal,
[00:03:29] deal, but a suggestion that it is
[00:03:31] is only that a suggestion right now
[00:03:33] now if it was to go ahead, what significance
[00:03:36] significance would it make? Would Would it reopen the waterway in any
[00:03:39] any meaningful way? And indeed, would
[00:03:41] would the US even accept it? Oh,
[00:03:44] Oh, hi Ben, thank you so much for for having me. As you said there
[00:03:47] there there's so many ifs and so so much detail that shipping still
[00:03:50] still needs to see and it does need need to see quite a lot of detail
[00:03:53] detail and some pretty concrete guarantees guarantees that diplomacy has taken
[00:03:56] taken place because we've been here here before, right? We've had routes
[00:04:00] routes promised. We've had several several announcements and vessels
[00:04:02] vessels have taken the plunge and
[00:04:04] and some have been attacked. There's There's a lot of detail. The United
[00:04:08] United Nations Convention on the the law of the sea is quite clear. clear. You can't charge fees for
[00:04:12] for international straits, which which the Straits of Hormuz is. And
[00:04:15] And then there's other complications complications too, if fees are charged charged and you as a ship owner want
[00:04:18] want to pay those fees, who are they
[00:04:21] they payable to? Is there a sanctions sanctions risk for the person that
[00:04:25] that you're paying? Is your insurer insurer happy that you're paying paying that person? Even if we've we've got an announcement today and
[00:04:28] and the detail was crystal clear, clear, there's still a lot to work
[00:04:31] work out. Before I can give you a a definitive answer about whether
[00:04:34] whether this solves many of our problems. Yes. And you've sort of of touched on my next question, which
[00:04:38] which would be how long if and it's it's a big if this deal went through,
[00:04:41] through, things could get back to to normal. Another boring answer,
[00:04:44] answer, Ben. It's really hard to
[00:04:46] to say. We're talking, you know, know, weeks, not days. The latest
[00:04:50] latest Lloyd's list intelligence intelligence data is that there's
[00:04:54] there's nearly 150 vessels stuck stuck in the Middle East Gulf. At At least half of those have been
[00:04:57] been there since this kicked off. off. So months and months, let's let's not forget there's lots of
[00:05:01] of seafarers on board those vessels vessels too, operating under extreme
[00:05:05] extreme stress and often very, very very frightening circumstances. If
[00:05:07] If we look back to the MoU signed
[00:05:10] signed in mid June, traffic trickled trickled after that announcement announcement and didn't really start
[00:05:14] start to flow until 3 or 4 days after after that announcement between Iran
[00:05:17] Iran and the US. There will be some some owners who have a higher risk
[00:05:20] risk appetite and go first. There'll There'll also be a lot of owners owners that are happy to sit back
[00:05:24] back and let somebody else have a a try before they do. Yeah. And as as you touched on there, there's
[00:05:28] there's so many parts of this that that we don't actually know whether whether they're enforceable or indeed
[00:05:31] indeed actionable. And the question question many will have though is
[00:05:35] is if this does go ahead, what precedent
[00:05:37] precedent that may set for other other international waterways. That's
[00:05:41] That's the million dollar question, question, right? I mean, we've spoken
[00:05:44] spoken about this a lot here at Lloyd's Lloyd's List, and we've kind of come
[00:05:47] come to the conclusion that what what happens at Hormuz doesn't stay
[00:05:50] stay in Hormuz. There's lots of other other choke points that are just
[00:05:53] just as important around the world. world. And if you cross that Rubicon
[00:05:56] Rubicon of charging fees, it's very very hard to see how you go back
[00:06:00] back from that. There's lots of other other critical waterways that nations
[00:06:03] nations around them perhaps might might start thinking of for years years to come quite differently about
[00:06:07] about how willing they are to let let international traffic freely
[00:06:10] freely navigate. I was at a meeting meeting of the UN's International
[00:06:13] International Maritime Organisation Organisation Council recently. There There were lots of countries that
[00:06:16] that with waters in these choke points, points, you know, think Malaysia Malaysia and Singapore or Morocco
[00:06:20] Morocco and Spain, for example. They They were very keen to voice just
[00:06:23] just how well they were working with with their counterparts to keep trade
[00:06:26] trade flowing and very keen to stress stress the importance of freedom freedom of navigation. Know that
[00:06:30] that might not hold in the future future if Oman and Iran are willing
[00:06:34] willing and succeeding. Charging Charging fees for vessels, where where does it end? That's a difficult
[00:06:38] difficult question to answer. Freedom Freedom of navigation is an incredibly
[00:06:40] incredibly important principle for for international trade. It's been
[00:06:44] been eroded for several months now, now, and the effect of that shouldn't shouldn't be underestimated. Joshua,
[00:06:47] Joshua, really good to get your thoughts. thoughts. Thank you for walking us
[00:06:50] us through all of that and some of of the pitfalls and some of the challenges challenges that lie ahead. Joshua
[00:06:54] Joshua mentioned there at Lloyd's Lloyd's List. Thank you. Thanks,
[00:06:57] Thanks, Ben. Now in the US, markets
[00:07:00] markets are keeping a close eye on on SpaceX today as the first wave
[00:07:04] wave of pre IPO investors will be be permitted to sell shares under
[00:07:07] under so-called lock up agreements. agreements. Around 900 million shares
[00:07:11] shares are eligible to be sold from from today. So the big question have
[00:07:14] have they been put up for sale? Apparently
[00:07:17] Apparently not. SpaceX shares currently
[00:07:19] currently trading about 6% higher
[00:07:21] higher and those shares had fallen fallen about 13.6% on Wednesday.
[00:07:25] Wednesday. Let's get the very latest latest with our North America business business correspondent Samira Hussain,
[00:07:29] Hussain, who's in New York. Samira, Samira, good to see you. I know you've you've been following this really
[00:07:32] really closely and give us a sense sense of what's happening today.
[00:07:35] today. And as I touched on there, there, it doesn't seem like a lot
[00:07:38] lot of investors are keen to dump
[00:07:40] dump that stock. No, I think, you
[00:07:43] you know, if you are an early investor,
[00:07:45] investor, depending on where you
[00:07:48] you are in terms of your belief in
[00:07:50] in SpaceX, I think some real believers believers in the company are going
[00:07:53] going to hang on. As you know, I
[00:07:56] I spoke with one early one former
[00:08:00] former employee who has some 200,000 200,000 shares. He did say that he
[00:08:04] he is going to sell a first bit of
[00:08:06] of his that are eligible to be sold
[00:08:08] sold for now for him though, you you know, he doesn't want to play
[00:08:11] play the long game necessarily because because in his words, you know, I'm
[00:08:15] I'm a little bit older and I have have other projects in play. And
[00:08:18] And you're right though, if you look look at the share price, you know,
[00:08:22] know, there hasn't been that much much movement on it. It's sort of
[00:08:25] of up, you know, by just over a percent percent and a half right now. And
[00:08:29] And as you rightly pointed out, we we saw a big drop in Tesla's share
[00:08:33] share price on Wednesday, and that
[00:08:35] that came after their earnings report. report. Just a lot of investors nervous
[00:08:38] nervous about the again, the same same story of the eye-watering sums
[00:08:42] sums of capital expenditures that's that's going into building out AI.
[00:08:46] AI. Yeah, sorry to interrupt. So So you know, that's the point, isn't
[00:08:49] isn't it? What some of those investors investors will be keeping a close close eye on is not necessarily what
[00:08:53] what has happened already or what what that trading statement can,
[00:08:56] can, you know, contained. It's more more about the future. And one of
[00:08:59] of the things they may be focusing focusing on now is that big investment. investment. Just walk us through
[00:09:03] through that. Right? So Tesla and
[00:09:07] and SpaceX are going to be investing
[00:09:11] investing $1.6 billion into Terra
[00:09:12] Terra Fab. This is another Elon Musk
[00:09:16] Musk project and this is one to really
[00:09:18] really build up the AI infrastructure, infrastructure, namely these chips.
[00:09:22] chips. If you look at the amount
[00:09:25] amount of materials that both of
[00:09:27] of these Tesla and SpaceX need in
[00:09:30] in terms of, you know, AI infrastructure, infrastructure, I mean, that's way
[00:09:33] way more than what is available on on the market. And so, you know,
[00:09:36] know, as ever, Elon Musk has decided decided that he's going to build
[00:09:40] build that himself to be able to
[00:09:43] to further supply his own company. company. So I mean, that's a big
[00:09:47] big facility that's being built up up right now in Texas. So good to
[00:09:50] to talk to you. Thank you. Samira
[00:09:52] Samira Hussain that live in New York? York? Well, we're going to stay with
[00:09:56] with the US because the Trump administration
[00:09:58] administration has refunded $100 $100 billion of its so-called Liberation
[00:10:02] Liberation Day tariffs to businesses businesses after they were ruled
[00:10:05] ruled to have been illegal. It's It's around 60% of the tariff revenue
[00:10:09] revenue collected by the government government under the policy, according
[00:10:11] according to recent court filings filings from US customs. While at
[00:10:14] at the same time 25 Democrat led
[00:10:16] led states are suing the Trump administration administration over a new wave of
[00:10:20] of tariffs on imports from dozens dozens of countries that they allege
[00:10:23] allege are failing to tackle forced forced labour. The states say the
[00:10:26] the new tariffs are, quote, arbitrary, arbitrary, capricious and contrary
[00:10:30] contrary to law. We've been speaking speaking to Professor Barry Appleton,
[00:10:32] Appleton, who testified to the government
[00:10:34] government over the issue about the
[00:10:36] the legality of those tariffs. Well,
[00:10:39] Well, it's kind of complicated. Look, Look, nobody is in favour of the
[00:10:42] the use of forced labour in imports, imports, right. We're everybody all
[00:10:46] all the countries have laws that that deal with it. The difference
[00:10:49] difference is their laws are different different from the way the US does
[00:10:52] does it. The US has put in a reverse
[00:10:55] reverse onus. They've said everything everything is deemed to be use of
[00:10:59] of forced labour. Unless you can
[00:11:01] can prove it to the alternative. alternative. And so many countries
[00:11:05] countries like the UK, Australia, Australia, Canada have forced labour
[00:11:08] labour laws. But they say you have
[00:11:11] have to only prosecute those who who have an allegation of use of
[00:11:14] of forced labour. And the Americans Americans have imposed a tax on that.
[00:11:18] that. So it's not that there's a a proof of any link to forced labour,
[00:11:21] labour, it's simply that there's there's a difference in the way that
[00:11:24] that everybody's enforcing it. And And that seems pretty unfair. We're
[00:11:28] We're going to return to AI now because because it's proving to be a rather
[00:11:31] rather useful tool. And also tackling tackling the summer's record wildfires
[00:11:35] wildfires in Europe, coupled with with satellite imagery, artificial
[00:11:38] artificial intelligence models are are helping emergency services to
[00:11:41] to detect fires earlier and also
[00:11:44] also forecast how they may spread. spread. We've been speaking to Doctor
[00:11:47] Doctor Axel Roenneke, who's from from OroraTech, that helped develop
[00:11:50] develop Greece's first national wildfire wildfire detection system. He's been
[00:11:53] been telling us how it works. From
[00:11:57] From space. We can continuously monitor
[00:12:01] monitor fires with satellites that
[00:12:03] that measure infrared, so we measure
[00:12:07] measure heat rather than visible visible smoke or flames, and we scan
[00:12:10] scan the Earth's surface surface
[00:12:13] surface looking for heat signatures
[00:12:15] signatures frequently and globally. globally. So with that information
[00:12:19] information combined with weather,
[00:12:21] weather, vegetation and terrain data,
[00:12:24] data, our AI turns millions of data
[00:12:27] data points into a simple alert and
[00:12:29] and actionable insight like how the
[00:12:31] the fire evolves, where it goes and
[00:12:34] and how important it is. Wildfires
[00:12:38] Wildfires need to be detected earlier earlier if you want to if you want
[00:12:41] want to act on a manageable size
[00:12:43] size of the fire once fires get beyond
[00:12:46] beyond a certain size, there is no
[00:12:49] no control. So the earlier you can
[00:12:51] can detect a fire and even predict
[00:12:53] predict where fires are likely to to happen, you can put forces on
[00:12:57] on the ground, be prepared and react react when the fire is still manageable.
[00:13:00] manageable. And this is where we we need to get to go. Some other
[00:13:04] other stories we're following for for you this hour. And Easyjet has
[00:13:07] has agreed to be taken over in a
[00:13:09] a £5.7 billion deal by the US firm firm Apollo. The deal was announced
[00:13:13] announced after rival suitor Castlelake Castlelake said it was dropping out
[00:13:16] out of the bid battle for the no no frills airline. Easyjet is one
[00:13:19] one of Europe's largest, still employs
[00:13:22] employs more than 19,000 people and
[00:13:24] and flies around 1200 routes to 35
[00:13:27] 35 European countries. It was founded
[00:13:29] founded in 1995 by Sir Stelios Haji-ioannou Haji-ioannou to offer cheap airfares
[00:13:32] airfares to Europe from the UK. Here
[00:13:35] Here the government has said that
[00:13:37] that it will not intervene in the the $110 billion acquisition of Warner
[00:13:41] Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Paramount Skydance after receiving
[00:13:45] receiving legally binding commitments commitments from the US company,
[00:13:48] company, Britain has said it's minded minded to step in over the deal over
[00:13:51] over competition concerns, but Warner Warner posted its latest results
[00:13:54] results showing earnings falling falling short of expectations despite
[00:13:57] despite a jump in revenues from its its streaming division and Facebook's
[00:14:01] Facebook's owner Meta has become become the latest tech firm to say
[00:14:04] say one of its AI models was able able to connect to the internet and
[00:14:07] and hack into another firm's systems systems during tests. The incident,
[00:14:10] incident, which Meta says occurred occurred during a test by an independent independent company, is the fourth
[00:14:14] fourth of its kind that's been disclosed
[00:14:17] disclosed by AI companies. That's That's your Business Today. See you
[00:14:22] you soon.
[00:15:36] editor in chief of The Economist Economist will tell us about her her experience. It's all on The Media
[00:15:40] Media Show on BBC News. Here at BBC.
[00:15:49] BBC. Verify we use forensic investigative investigative techniques and tools
[00:15:51] tools to fact check stories, verify
[00:15:54] verify information and counter disinformation disinformation using data analysis analysis and the latest technology.
[00:15:58] technology. Our journalists examine examine the evidence