this is the business briefing, i'm sally bundock. 2.8 billion forgiving friends. facebook gets bigger, and richer, than ever, shrugging off concerns over privacy, misinformation and harmful content. plus: the fed cuts rates again, but signals that might be it for now. and on the markets, asian shares edging up on that fed rate cut, after the s&p 500 closed at a new record high. the dollar falling

against major currencies. we start with facebook. the social media giant is facing more controversy than ever over privacy, data security and the spread of misinformation and harmful content. but that is not putting advertisers off. it continues to make vast amounts of money. facebook made revenues of more than $17.5 billion betweenjuly and september, up 28% on the same period last year. $6 billion dollars of that was profit. the company says more than 2.8 billion people use at least one of its services, facebook, instagram, whatsapp, or messenger, every month. well over 2 billion use one every day. but its costs are going up. it pledged to spend more

than $3.7 billion on safety and security in 2019. it already employs 30,000 people working in this area. last quarter, facebook announced a $5 billion settlement with the federal trade commission over lapses in data security and privacy practices. and this week, instagram promised to remove images showing methods of self—harm or suicide after a british teenager killed herself after viewing such content on the platform. ceo mark zuckerberg defended facebook at a speech at georgetown university earlier this month, saying he had to balance these issues with freedom of expression. i believe that we have two responsibilities. to remove content when it can cause real danger, as

effectively as we can. and to fight to uphold as wide a definition of freedom of expression as possible, and to not allow the definition of what is considered dangerous to expand beyond what is absolutely necessary. and that's what i'm committed to. suzanne rab is a barrister at serle court chambers, here in london, specialising in company regulation. lovely to see you. so looking at facebook‘s reach, its size, it would seem it is not being held back, despite all these concerns we are hearing from regulators, from senators in the united states and elsewhere around the world. well, we've certainly seen that user numbers are on the rise, revenues and profits similarly, and we as consumers are not voting with our feet, and that is absolutely right, notwithstanding these concerns that have been raised by regulators and policies around the world. now, mark

zuckerberg at pains to say there at georgetown university, but also recently being grilled in the us senate by lawyers, that we care about security, we care about our users' privacy, and what is being set on facebook in terms of misinformation, et cetera, harmful information. we are hiring thousands, we are spending an awful lot of money on this. is that enough? will they be regulated eventually? it is fair to say that advances have been made. they have been acknowledged by authorities such as the european commission. but concerns have been raised that it is not enough, not enough to have these heightened checks checking out accou nts heightened checks checking out accounts which may not be legitimate, and there are calls that they should do more. so do you think they should do more. so do you think they will in the end be policed by an independent authority, facebook and other tech giants, for that

matter? it is already happening. there is legislation in france and germany, of course the uk, for there to be separate regulation and a strict statutory duty of care that will be imposed on facebook and similar organisations. what about its size in terms of its dominance within the advertising market itself? facebook, google and others are seen itself? facebook, google and others are seen as enormous. do you itself? facebook, google and others are seen as enormous. do you think there might be a call to break up these companies eventually? well, typically when a company grows through organic growth, the regulators tend to take a relatively light touch approach to that. it is only when they are abusing market power that concerns are raised. but ultimately when you have a company that reaches one in three human beings on the globe, when they are so beings on the globe, when they are so connected with everything that we do as commercial animals, as social animals, as political animals, you can see where concerns have been

raised. all right, we will talk about this again in the future. thanks for coming in so early. let's stay in the us, because the central bank, the federal reserve, has cut the cost of borrowing again by 0.25%. it is the third cut in four months, and comes amid growing concern about the impact of the us—china trade war and a wider global economic slowdown. but, as vivienne nunis reports from washington, those hoping for further cuts from the fed could be disappointed. federal reserve chair jerome powell indicated that the new official interest rate of between i.5% and 1.75% was an appropriate rate, suggesting he is downplaying expectations of any future rate cuts. he said, if economic indicators remain the same, resilient household spending supported by strong jobs growth and an inflation rate near the 2% target, then the bank expects moderate growth. he was also upbeat about development in global trade. as with brexit, it's still quite

uncertain what will be the result of the election, and what the ultimate result will be. but i would say that the tail risk of a non—negotiated no—deal brexit seems to have decreased, just as i would say that the situation in our trade negotiations with china seems to have taken a step closer to resolution. trade developments aside, the bank will be monitoring risk factors including lower business investment, weaker exports and declining manufacturing output. federal reserve chairjerome powell did say the us economy faces significant long—term challenges, such as income inequality, but he said that is for lawmakers to deal with and not the federal reserve. let's stay with those concerns about the global economy, because official figures from china show manufacturing declined again this month, for the sixth month in a row. mariko 0i is looking at this for us. mariko, these figures were worse than expected.

not good news. indeed, sally. anything below 50 is bad news, and the october anything below 50 is bad news, and the 0ctoberfigure anything below 50 is bad news, and the october figure came anything below 50 is bad news, and the 0ctoberfigure came in anything below 50 is bad news, and the october figure came in at 49.3, which is a lot worse than what economists had been expecting. and you can probably guess the reason for the weakness. the trade war between the us and china that vivian was just talking about as well. new export orders for example, for china, fell for the 17th month in a row, and we already know that the economic growth is at its weakest in three decades, at 6% —— vivienne. they are still hoping that the us and china could sign an initial trade agreement next month, but we learned that chile has decided to pull out of hosting the apec forum because of protests and that is where presidents trump and xi had been hoping to meet. we still don't

know where those two leaders will meet to discuss the trade war. now let's brief you on some other business stories: the boards of french car giant peugeot and italian—us rival fiat chrysler have agreed to work on a $50 billion merger, according to reports. an announcement could come as early as today. fiat chrysler failed to secure a merger with renault earlier this year. the auto industry is being forced to consolidate by the growing cost of new, cleaner technology. apple says profits fell 3% in the past quarter, to $13.7 billion. it has been hit by a steep fall in revenue from iphones, which still make up half its sales. apple is trying to refocus on wearable technology, such as airpod earphones and watches, as well as services like apple pay and the forthcoming streaming service apple tv+. starbucks says global sales were up 7% in the past quarter, boosted by digital ordering and delivery in china as well as new stores in the us, and demand for new cold drinks, including iced tea and coffee. it has been trying to revitalise

its businesss in the face of competition from independent coffee shops and startup rivals. and now, what is trending in the business news this morning? on business insider, twitter‘s decision to ban all political ads is a pr win, but it will have almost no effect on the compa ny‘s advertising business. 0n quartz, there are signs of life for apple beyond the iphone. and bloomberg reports that johnny depp settles with former lawyer for eight figures. he had accused the firm of illegally collecting more than $30 million in fees without a written contract. and don't forget, let us know what you are spotting online. use the hashtag #bbcthebriefing. that's it for the business

briefing this hour. david will rejoin me shortly for a look at what the media is discussing today. a huge new underground burial site has been officially opened injerusalem.

the cemetery took several years to build and was dug inside a mountain. it will eventually house the remains of more than 20,000 people, as the bbc‘s tim allman reports. injerusalem, space can be an issue, for both the living and the dead. this is said to be the first of its kind, a modern solution to a timeless problem. a giant underground complex providing a final resting place for the people of this city. translation: nowadays, there are no burial caves anymore. making this cemetery is really innovative. we don't want to waste living territory above ground. this is constructed for eternity. this will never change and it will remain a burial place. a burial place and an engineering marvel. they excavated tons of rock, creating more than a mile of tunnels 50m underground. above, an existing cemetery, but one that had become increasingly full. this is seen as a sustainable and ultimately sensitive solution. translation: all that you see now was built in a bit less than three years. there was a mountain here before. you're standing inside a rock. we think this is an environmental solution, but it also incorporates tradition, and therefore fits many places in israel. the first 8,000 graves are expected to be available for burial in the coming months.

the rest of the site will be occupied in the next two years. as graveyards go, this is something new and something impressive — eternal rest beneath the feet of the city. tim allman, bbc news. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: social networking giant twitter announces a global ban on all political advertising, beginning next month. the us military publishes the first images of the raid in which the leader of the islamic state group was killed. now it's time for look at a few stories making the headlines in the other media. we begin in the uk, with the times' lead story that dozens of moderate conservative party mps will step down at the election expected in less than two months. many are blaming the toxic atmosphere of british politics at the moment.

another big change in the house of commons happens sooner. the speaker, john bercow, is retiring today. he's become very unpopular with brexit supporters but almost a cult figure around the world for his style of managing raucous debates. raucous debate is something that twitter knows all about, but the company has decided to ban political advertising. online magazine slate says it's all about the rivalry between twitter and facebook. the financial times is leading with the us central bank's efforts to stimulate the economy with a quarter point rate cut. it also notes that the new head of the european central bank, christine lagarde, is calling on the german and dutch governments to use their budget surpluses to get the european economy moving. asian economies are also faltering, and the japan times is wondering why the trump administration has downgraded its participation at several big meetings in the next few weeks, including the east asia summit. it comes as the chilean government is forced to cancel

the asia—pacific economic summit and the un climate summit because of unrest on the country's streets. so let's begin with british politics. with me in the studio is david buik, market commentator at the betting company core spreads. good to see you. you have taken my breath away with those headlines stop the gosh! i know, so much going on. today was the day we were going to leave, 31st of october. it was never going to happen and if you've been stupid like i have for the last five or six weeks, to watch the bbc politics from the house of commons, you would have every right to be utterly ashamed. it's been a disgrace. all sides, all parties. i can't believe the low standard of behaviour and toxic atmosphere, turning friend against friend, family against family, business against his nose, appalling. sally,

i honestly think