the ii-‘u, rr’ ”4 w“ sunday, the ridge of high pressure building from the south—west but this next weather front approaching brings outbreaks of showery rain so it will be a fairly fresh start to the day on sunday, plenty of brightness across england and wales first thing, one or two isolated showers not out of the question, outbreaks of rain feeding from the west into the afternoon with highs of 21 celsius. this is business live from bbc news with ben bland and jamie robertson. getting caught in the traffic — toyota's profits are down as the japanese car—maker fights to get back into pole position. live from london, that's our top story on friday 4th august. toyota's finances are hit by a huge drive to catch up with its rivals on electric and autonomous cars, so can it be a bestseller once again? also in the programme... uber feels the heat in singapore. the ride—hailing company admits it should have acted quick to fix overheating parts on cars it gave its drivers. a softer open across the main

european indices, softer start to the trading day. however, across the water in the us, the dow has hit yet another record high. we will look at what is going on a little later in the programme. and we'll be getting the inside track on germany's diesel problems and fairtrade chocolate as we discuss all the big stories of the week with our business correspondentjonty bloom. today we want to know... using water to way down washing machines instead of using concrete? simple. but what a simple solutions have you found to everyday problems. let us know. just use the hashtag #bbcbizlive. we have already had a tweet, david saying, if i share my ideas, will you go 50/50? smart man! welcome to business live.

toyota was once the company that sold the world more cars than anyone else. and as it struggles to reclaim that number one spot, its profits have fallen. as it released its latest number, the company behind the best—selling car the world has ever seen, the corolla, says its spending more on what is called the "crucial" areas of self—driving cars and green technology. toyota has reported a sharp fall in operating profits for the three months tojune. it made $5.2 billion, a drop of 10.6% on the same period last year. that's partly because of a big increase in research and development spending. last year, despite "dieselgate", volkswagen sold more cars, and in the first half of this year they were both overtaken by renault—nissan, after it added mitsubishi to its alliance. so toyota is spending big

to attract new customers. last month it committed another $100 million to develop artificial intelligence. that is on top of the $1 billion it's already spending to develop self—driving cars and other tech at a new research centre in the us. but all of that research needs top engineers and scientists. and to try and save on silicon valley's pricey talent, toyota recently launched a recruitment campaign on tokyo's nambu railway line, along which many of the country's tech giants are concentrated. james batchelor, editor—at—large for auto express and car buyer uk, is with me. the picture there and has painted is ofa the picture there and has painted is of a company where profits are down but for a very good reason, spending huge amounts of money on rmt. is it spending it in the right places? what kind of things is its spending on? it needs to spend more money on

r&d because toyota fears of being left behind by big tech companies, companies like tesla, for example, producing autonomous cars, so toyota is spending the money in the right area, because it has to. has it been left behind, do you think? they all are, ina left behind, do you think? they all are, in a way. they had the previous, which was a byword for the next big thing, and now it is historic. it is not being left behind at the moment, but the prius is 20 years old, they have sold 3.5 million of them since 1997. toyota is spending a lot of money in terms of the hydrogen fuel cell car as well. if that's the future? it is not what everybody else has been talking about recently, is it? not what everybody else has been talking about recently, is mm not what everybody else has been talking about recently, is it? it is one way to the future. we are all looking at electric cars and hybrids at the moment. hydrogen fuel cell car could be a step far because it involves huge

amounts in terms of infrastructure. what about in terms of electric, is it going down that route? toyota is going down the hybrid route, they have always gone... not pure electric? not at the moment, they championed the hybrid because they see that is the technology most people want to buy and especially as we look at the 2040 ban on petrol cars, hybrid seems to be the best way out for most customers. there is some talk of a merger with the company, possibly muster, eight press release due in a couple of hours? there definitely seems to be a tie—up looming between mazda and toyota, probably to build a new factory in america because a lot of car companies are having to tie up with each other to try to get ahead of their competitors. so that is the way the industry is going, these alliances between like we have with

nissan and renault? absolutely, that is the only way a lot of car companies can spread cost in terms of platforms and new technology. 0k, we will cover that when we hear what happens with that press conference. james, thank you very much indeed. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news... the royal bank of scotland has made its first half—year profit in three yea rs. its first half—year profit in three years. the bank, which is majority owned by the british taxpayer, made $1.23 billion in the period. it has said it will relocate some stuff to amsterdam after brexit as it looks to maintain european operations. the cost of damage from a cyclone which hit australia in march is one of the main reasons profits are down at swiss re. it cost the world's second largest re—insurer $360 million. the company says it made $1.2 billion in the first half of this year, that's a third less than the same time last year. it's seeking to move into new areas to grow its business. a british computer expert credited

with helping to shut down a world—wide cyber attack earlier this year has been arrested by the fbi in las vegas. marcus hutchins stopped the wannacry virus from spreading further, after it affected thousands of computers in 150 countries. the arrest is not linked to that attack. there is more to that story than meets the eye! we should follow it. let's go to asia now, where there is more trouble for taxi app uber. it says it has taken action to fix cars it was using in singapore after one caught fire. monica miller has the details. a spokesman has told the bbc that the company could have done more to fix the problem with these suv ‘s in singapore. the wall street journal reported that the company got

100,000 honda vezels even though they had been recalled due to overheating. 0ne they had been recalled due to overheating. one of the drivers explained an incident where flames burst out of the dashboard, melted the interior and cracked a hole in the interior and cracked a hole in the windshield. luckily no one was hurt. this is a challenging time for the company, it is also in the midst of battling sexual harassment claims in the us and dealing with an exodus of executives. earlier this summer its chief executive resigned and is 110w its chief executive resigned and is now on the hunt for a new ceo. 0k, thank you very much, monica miller there for us. let's look at the markets, that is a picture on the asian markets, tokyo closing low on friday with exporters pulling it downwards as the yen strengthened against the dollar. a weakened dollar against the yen makes japan's exporters less competitive. the dollar weakened after the new report on the probe into the trump administration's alleged ties with russia and also a survey which showed growth in the american services sector slowed

sharply injuly, american services sector slowed sharply in july, so american services sector slowed sharply injuly, so analysts are not expecting the us jobs and wages data out later to offer much relief. 0n wall street, although the tech focused nasdaq, it hasjust disappeared, edged to a record high for the second straight day. here is how the european market started the day, opened in the red but the ftse 100 picking up, as we mentioned a moment ago, feeling a downward pull from swiss re after it missed its profits estimate. benefiting a bit on the rbs share price which has gone up after it announced its profits. and samira hussain has the details about what's ahead on wall street today. it is the first friday in a new month and here in the us it can only mean one thing, jobs numbers. the labor department will release the latest employment figures for the month ofjuly. back injune, the us economy added 222,000 jobs. analysts are expecting non—form payrolls to decrease to 183,000 for this month. they are also expecting to see

the unemployment rate fall to 4.3%. this number will be closely watched by the federal reserve, america's central bank, as it considers the next rise for us interest rates. now, there has been a flurry of earnings coming up this week and those earnings helped push us markets to record—breaking highs. before the week comes to an end, there are still a few more companies that will report, including health insurers, cigna, and newell brands, the maker of sharpie pens. joining us is mike bell, global market strategist atjpmorgan asset management. 22,000 is terribly impressive, should we be impressed or is itjust another number? if you look in the dow there are lots of tech companies, some parts of the tech market are pretty expensive at the moment so we would favour rotating into some of the cheaper parts of the market, particularly the

financials, which should do well. but the financials are boosted because everyone is expecting regulatory reform, basically taking away the regulations, but is that going to happen? we have seen since the start of the year a lot of that has been priced out of the financials. the market is expecting the fed to put rates up, that would bea the fed to put rates up, that would be a positive background. you don't get worried about the market at 22,000? bits of the market look expensive, but the key for your return is what you pay in terms of the multiple and if you look at some tech stock trading at over 30 times, thatis tech stock trading at over 30 times, that is risky, we would favour 12 to 13. jobs data due out later, not expecting great things? about 180,000 jobs added in the month, anything over 150,000 will be enough for the fed to announce in september they will reduce the balance sheet. why not put your money into the

european stock markets? that is where the growth is at the moment europe as a continent is growing faster than the united states, prices are undervalued, we have seen a fall away in some stock prices over the last three or four months, thatis over the last three or four months, that is where you will get value?” agree with that. there is more upside here, we have had a bit of a pull—back, quite an attractive buying opportunity because the eurozone economy is quite broadly across the economy growing quite strongly at somewhere around 2.5%, spain close to three. any particular countries? don't mention germany because we always talked about germany, but places interesting in terms of growth prospects? what is interesting is nearly every economy in the year resident is doing well. even greece?! crease less so! we have seen survey data improving in the last month suggesting even italy is showing signs of acceleration. you mentioned spain, particularly attractive at the moment? spain is

leading the great story with growth of 3% whereas the rest of the economies are more like 2% so spain looks pretty positive. and what about the poor old uk? the uk is really the languard... is it really, ina european really the languard... is it really, in a european context? the rest of europe is growing about twice as fast as the uk, 2.5% in europe, about1.2 in the fast as the uk, 2.5% in europe, about 1.2 in the uk, so uncertainty around brexit really is hurting the uk economy. thanks very much indeed. still to come... we will discuss all of the big stories of the week with our business correspondence including germany's diesel problems and fair trade chocolate. you're with business live from bbc news. royal bank of scotland sees its first half—year profit in three years. it earned £939 million — that's compared with a £2 billion

loss in the same period last year. theo leggett is in our business newsroom. looking through the numbers, what do you make of it? they are very strong numbers for the first top of this year and i think that reflects what rbs has been doing, which is consolidating its attention on its uk and ireland —based retail and corporate banking. trying to focus more on its core businesses. the comparison with last year is a bit misleading because last year, for example, rbs made its final dividend payment to the uk government, which was more than £1 billion. it also had a big amount of money set aside

for payment protection insurance payment and so on. so there were a lot of one—off items that made the figures seem worse than they were. it is moving its headquarters?m it is moving its headquarters? it is talking about moving them if it loses its european passport rights of the brexiter. it already has a dutch banking licence acquired as its legacy of another purchase in 2007. that was the deal that pushed rbs into such trouble and necessitated, eventually a bailout from the uk government. it wouldn't be radical in terms ofjobs, it would mean about 150 jobs would need to be set up in amsterdam and some would be moved overfrom london. but in symbolic terms, it would be important. thank you very much indeed. 0n the business live page, it is updated throughout the day. there is a story on there now about

the institute of directors, one of the institute of directors, one of the uk's biggest business lobby groups urging the cabinet to stop bouncing around the edges of brexit. it is because of the arguments within the cabinet, apparently had within the cabinet, apparently had within the cabinet, about how to smooth the move from the eu two out of the eu, which is commonly known asi of the eu, which is commonly known as i understand is brexit? indeed, you are not wrong. you're watching business live, our top story... toyota has seen a sharp fall in profits. partly thanks to big spending on self driving cars and also technology which it hopes will make it the world's bestselling car brand, which is what it used to be. a quick look at how markets are faring...

that is what the pound will get you against the dollar. and now let's get the inside track: this week german carmakers have agreed with top politicians to cut harmful emissions by updating software in five million diesel vehicles. and sterling has fallen sharply against the dollar and the euro after the bank of england downgraded the uk growth forecast for this year and next, warning that the economy will remain sluggish. let's get more with our business correspondentjonty bloom. let's start with the bank of england. a huge amount of information yesterday. some it all up, what have we learned? we have just heard we want the cabinet to introduce a transitional arrangement for leaving the eu. the bank of england was talking about much the

same thing, it is brexit and the uncertainty about brexit which is damaging the british economy at the moment. that is what the bank of england is saying. it is happening at the moment? it is saying businesses are not investing at the rate they would expect and it is a benign area. you would expecting companies to be investing more and they art and and it says it is down to uncertainty. the other end, it is looking like less moving towards any rate rises soon, the split is not as sharp as it was? we had one person in favour has just left on the new person who has joined in favour has just left on the new person who hasjoined isn't interested in increasing interest rates. compare that with the rest of the western world, the ecb is talking about easing off on bond purchases and we're expecting the fed to do something about that in september. it is already putting

interest rate up. but the bank of england is kicking the can down the road because it is worried about the underlying strength of the economy, it is seen growth, which it says is sluggish and has downgraded the forecast for this year and next. let's move on cars. they have their backs to the wall and they have to do something about their emissions, but a lot of people saying they are not doing enough? people are comparing it to nokia. remember the phone company that dominated the market and was virtually annihilated by the iphone and new developments. it was the leading company. mobile phones, everybody wanted a new one every six months every year, every two years and it couldn't keep up and was overtaken by technology. some said the german car industry is like that. they backed the wrong horse, they went green by backing diesel and then they fiddled the tests to make it look greener and 110w tests to make it look greener and now they have talks with the government out they will crack that.

and the new cars we were talking about our electric cards or hybrids. bmw is heavily, all its products will have a electric elements within them? which is why i think the analogy is wrong, cars last longer and they have put a lot of money and research into this and they will have time. people are still buying petrol and diesel cars, it is not like everyone is going electric. 0nly like everyone is going electric. only 5% of cars are hybrid or electric in the uk at the moment, so they have time to turn it around. writing of the german car industry isa writing of the german car industry is a huge mistake. want to talk about chocolate, green & black's dropping the fairtrade? yes, big companies often by specialist labels, which are organic fair trade 01’ labels, which are organic fair trade or environmentally friendly, ethical. you have to ask, why do they do that, they have to pay a premium. look at what has happened 110w. premium. look at what has happened now. green & black's was taken over

by cadburys, that was taken over by craft and now are dropping the fairtrade label. they had brought their own fairtrade label. they had brought theirown in, fairtrade label. they had brought their own in, cocoa life. yes, it is not fairtrade but it is ethical. you are paying a premium for something you bought because it is ethical and the brand that built itself up saying it is unlikely. you are taking it over and undermining it. be pushing the cocoa life brand to all of the cadbury stuff. very large companies think we are being outmanoeuvred by these ethical companies so they buy them at a great price, and people say, it is not ethical any more because it is owned by you. ben and jerry 's is like that. body shop is another one. ididn't like that. body shop is another one. i didn't know you were quite the cocoa connoisseur. i wrote the story on the website. good to see you. last day, but all eyes were on rio

but some of the real estate they bought remains unsolved. what other business stories? we kick off with washing machines. instead off with washing machines. instead of using concrete, put them in place and fill the base with water, it seems so and fill the base with water, it seems so obvious? and the top. because water isn't as heavy as hungry. this is why i work in news and not construction. it is a no—brainer? and not construction. it is a no-brainer? they will have to be a bit bigger and whether that will be desirable from a consumer perspective. every invention comes along and it seems obvious in retrospect, but self—service shopping only came around in the last 150 years, prior to that you

had to be served by someone. last 150 years, prior to that you had to be served by someonem last 150 years, prior to that you had to be served by someone. it is a real, why didn't i think of that, story. we have asked people to come up story. we have asked people to come up with their own suggestions. 0ne tweet says used shipping containers turning them into affordable homes. solar power power, if i want to live ina shipping solar power power, if i want to live in a shipping container. put a bit ofair in a shipping container. put a bit of air conditioning in, and the window. but the other story which we have, can you get it on the screen. making germany environmentally friendly reducing carbon emissions by 80%. 1.4 euros trillion, how will bea by 80%. 1.4 euros trillion, how will be a fallback? that sounds like a lot, but it is spread out over the next 32 years so it is only 40 billion a year, if you compare that to the german economy, it is about

1.596 to the german economy, it is about 1.5% of overall gdp, so it is pretty affordable and for the future of the planet, it is money well spent. affordable and for the future of the planet, it is money well spentm is not a black hole, it is being spent, people get it for doing stuff. people will be employed and it will provide some stimulus. i think it is money well spent. thank you very much. that's it from business live today. there will be more business news throughout the day on the bbc live webpage and on world business report. hello, good morning and another day of sunny spells and showers is thanks to this area of low pressure which has been here throughout the week, but edging towards the east. it means we are in a regime of sunny spells and showers. a fair amount of cloud across scotland and outbreaks of more persistent rain to the morning but it will be insisting

increasingly showery. not a dry and bright weather to begin across england and wales. showers to look out for but they should be like. temperatures at midday about 20 celsius in the south—east. it will feel warm thanks to the lighter winds in the south. for northern ireland, one or two showers but sunny spells, highs of 17 in belfast at midday. more in the way of cloud in scotland with outbreaks of rain and the north—westerly breeze it will feel cooler. as we move into the afternoon, the risk of thunder across northern ireland and the far south—east of scotland where the showers are heavy. there will be plenty of dry and bright weather across england and wales and one or two showers in the afternoon. temperatures feeling warmer with lighter winds in the south and 23, 20 four celsius not out of the question. if you are looking at the golf, it will be cloudy. write it intervals at times, one or two showers to look out for and they

could be heavy later on in the day. showers in the far north but plenty of dry weather across england and wales. showers feeding into wales into the early hours are all set as up into the early hours are all set as up as we into the early hours are all set as up as we move into the early hours are all set as up as we move into tomorrow. temperatures falling to an over light load between nine and 15 celsius. saturday is another date of sunny spells and showers. you could see showers anywhere, but they will be largely focused in east anglia and they could be heavy. localised flooding potentially possible. temperatures down on today, maximum of 21 celsius in the. as we move into sunday, a ridge of high pressure building from the west means we move into sunday, a ridge of high pressure building from the west m ea ns of high pressure building from the west means we're looking at a largely settled day but this front will bring showery outbreaks of rain later in the day. a fresh start with good spells of sunshine, one or two showers to look out for as we move to later into the afternoon for northern ireland and also scotland. hello, it's friday, it's 9am —

i'm tina daheley, in for victoria, welcome to the programme. the first step to possible criminal charges as a grand jury is assembled in washington to investigate the claims of russian meddling in the american election. president trump has rubbished the allegations. the russia story is a totalfabrication. it's just an excuse for the greatest loss in the history of american politics, that's all it is. cheering this the latest in yet another week of intrigue at the white house. we'll be taking an in—depth look at what's happening in the next hour. the deadline for people wanting to have their say on what the grenfell fire inquiry should cover expires later today. 80 people died in the tragedy in june.