this is business live from bbc news with ben bland and david eades. a record deal is announced in the aviation industry. airbus signs a $19.5 billion contract to supply 430 aircraft. live from london, that's our top story on wednesday, 15th november. is coffee,

hello and welcome to business live. we will get to the environmental summit in bonn in a minute but we want to bring you some breaking news from zimbabwe. explosions and gunfire have were heard overnight in the capital, harare. military vehicles appear to be on the streets, but for now the situation remains confused. there are even reports that the finance minister is amongst

many people detained. the army denied this is a coup. it hasn't used that phrase. it says it is targeting criminal elements. so it is trying to restore order. it has taken over the crucial tv station there. one of the main tv stations and read out a statement, but they are trying to reassure people, they said that the president, they describe him as their excellency, the president robert mugabe is safe and well. we will keep across that and we can get the latest from our correspondent. milton nkosi in johannesburg. what we know is that the zimbabwean capital is quiet, but tense. there

are troops in particular key areas. they are guarding government buildings and the parliament and there are reports that there are troops guarding president mugabe's residence. we also know that the army made an announcement at 4am local time this morning and they've taken over the local time this morning and they've ta ken over the zimbabwe local time this morning and they've taken over the zimbabwe broadcasting corporation building. and explained quite clearly that this is not a coup and that the president is safe and sound together with his family. milton, this follows some rather turbulent political movements in zimbabwe. we saw the vice—president sensationally sacked suddenly, he is a long time ally of president mugabe and what looked like the positioning of his wife, grace mugabe, as about to ta ke of his wife, grace mugabe, as about to take on the role of vice—president, possibly of

potential successor to the 93—year—old mugabe? potential successor to the 93-year-old mugabe? yes, you are correct. this seems to be the trigger of what we have been witnessing in zimbabwe in the last 24 witnessing in zimbabwe in the last 2a hours or so is the idea that there was some sort of system of paving the way for president robert mugabe's wife, grace, to take over as vice—president and eventually as head of state and a lot of the people in the army, who fought in the liberation struggle against white men in order to rule under rudisha, feel like a person like the sacked vice—president, being sacked, is redressing those gains that they made in the liberation struggle. milton, thank you. apologies for the quality of the sound on the line. there's also some breaking news in the aviation industry.

airbus hasjust signed a deal worth $50 billion to supply 430 jets to an investment company. it's a huge boost for airbus which has been struggling against its great rival boeing. theo leggett hasjoined me. to say it's huge it almost an under statement. it is as big a deal as we have seen? in terms of lifts prices it is the biggest order airbus has taken in. airbus likes to save up its orders for the air shows and the dubai airshow is under way. this is an orderfor a320s dubai airshow is under way. this is an order for a320s and a32is. they are the work horses of the airlines fleet, they are used by budget airlines. it is the most recent and efficient model and it is very, very important and it helps airbus get over one thing which is at the same time as these aircraft are selling very well, it has not yet managed to

get a new order for its a380 superjumbo which it was hoping to do at dubai. a side track from a problematic story. good for airbus. where are they all going? they are not being bought up by an airline as such? no, they are bought up by an investment company which will lease them to airlines. the order will be distributed between four airlines, so distributed between four airlines, so they are aimed at the budget sector. what is interesting here though is that airbus already does have a very big backlog ofjet orders. it didn't necessarily need to get new orders in the can except for reasons of prestige and we will have to wait and see whether the size of its backlog now, its back order book, which is over 6,000, causes it any problems in the future. you have to imagine, theo, if you're going to shift 400 plus aeroplanes, someone if you're going to shift 400 plus aeroplanes, someone is going to get aeroplanes, someone is going to get a good discount out of this? we have this headline price of $50 billion. in fact, it will be substantially below that because of the size of the order. so, often when we get the

orders, they are not actually at list prices. 0k, theo, thank you very much indeed. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the venezuelan government says it has begun repaying interest on its foreign debt after two major credit ratings agencies said the country had partially defaulted. in a televised address, the communications minister jorge rodriguez also said the government is renegotiating all of its foreign debt. taiwan's foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, saw quarterly profit slide 39% — a result far below estimates. it's been widely attributed to production issues for apple's iphone x. the product has been a success, but has faced a string of production hurdles centered on new technologies and features. japan's economy has logged its longest period of growth in more than a decade.

data out this morning shows the world's third largest economy posting yet another quarter of gains. leisha santorelli is in singapore. so, some pleasant surprises there. was it what was expected?m so, some pleasant surprises there. was it what was expected? it was better than expected, benl. was it what was expected? it was betterthan expected, benl. so was it what was expected? it was better than expected, benl. so seven straight quarters of economic growth is an impressive feat notjust for the japanese government, but for a nalysts. the japanese government, but for analysts. a lot of the credit goes to prime minister shinzo abe. let's recap the numbers. preliminary gdp rose by an annualised rate of 1.4% in the third quarter which as i said beat market forecasts and this was due to a big jump in exports. now, this has to do with the weakening japanese yen and there is greater demand from overseas of japanese made cars and machinery and other goods. there was a negative point from today's data and that was the

fa ct from today's data and that was the fact that consumers spending fell, but japan's economy minister said this was due to the effects of bad weather. so it is probablyjust a seasonal blip. looking forward though, japan's economy does face serious structural problems. this includes a rapidly ageing and shrinking population and so all eyes are now on how mr abe and his government plan to say tackle that and he is expected to unveil a multi—trillion yen economic stimulus package by the end of the year. thank you very much. asian stocks tumbled on wednesday after a weaker crude oil price took after a weaker crude oil price took a toll on wall street. they tracked the losses. the euro kept big gains after enjoying a boost from some robust economic growth data out of germany. a batch of data from china, thatis germany. a batch of data from china, that is australia's biggest export market, showed the economy cooled further with industrial output, fixed asset investment and retail

sales missing expectations. you can see the impa bt sales missing expectations. you can see the impabt of that. all three major stock indexes dipped on tuesday. as again electric plunged for a second straight day. and samira hussain has the details about what's ahead on wall street today. on wednesday the us labour depth will report on the growth of consumer prices in october. economists expect that consumer prices will have moved up 0.2% compared to 0.1% in september. now, these numbers known as cpi is a qe measure of inflation. two companies reporting earnings that are worth mentioning. sisco systems will report a fall in revenue. now it is being hurt by continuing declines in its traditional business of making switches and routers and target will likely report a boost in sales as the retailer has been launching private label brands ahead of the holiday season. in investors will have a keen ear for any news on

sales going forward as the company faces fierce price competition. joining us is david buik from panmure gordon. a lot of data out today, european and british. following through more from yesterday we had the inflation number coming in and confirm at 3% with some sort of confirmation that's about the top of it because when the value of the pound against the dollar fell from 150 at the stroke of a pen or a heartbeat on 23rd june last year down to 125, it was going to take some months before inflation come up from 0.5% which is where it was then to 3%. we genuinely believe that now this is ironed through and we seem to have found a level of 130 against the dollar and whether that can be maintained with the political wea kness maintained with the political weakness of the government remains to be seen. if it can, the general feeling is that inflation will be nearer 2% than 3% than by the middle

of 2018. what came in which was unhelpful in terms of the uk economy was growth rates. europe is really flying, 2.5% against the united states at 2.3%. and the uk at 1.5%. the uk is down in my opinion through lack of confidence and lack of investment as a result of brexit obviously. and also the fact that we have a very weak government that seems to be having some problems organising things in a manner that brings things to a sensible conclusion. what's driven it very well, of course, is germany which is up well, of course, is germany which is up 0.8% and that on an annualised rate was 3.5% and france and italy doing very well, whereas we seem to be languishing. david, thank you very much indeed. still to come, is standing up in the office the key to better workplace health? we'll talk to the man who thinks the answer is yes. you're with business live from bbc news. house—builder barratt has given

a first—quarter update on the back of mostly positive recent reports from its rivals. let's get more from our business correspondent theo leggett. let's get more from philip hampshire. how are they doing? they are doing well. they have seen an 8.4% rise in their sales come through, that's a significant lift for them. it takes them to £2.88 billion worth of sales, barratt homes, of course, is one of the national based developers. they are not one the regional based companies based in london like barclay homes so they have managed to escape the slowdown there have been in sales within the metropolitan district by spreading themselves nationally around the country. they are concentrated in the lower end and the mid—end of the market place and where we have seen a cooling off in the uk housing market is in

extremely high value properties, anything worth over £1.5 million. so, barratt really seems to have managed to have threaded the needle here. philip, how are the markets taking this? well, the markets don't seem taking this? well, the markets don't seem to be taking it so well. it is very early days right now. if we have a look at this. this is the share price of barratt over the course of the last three days. you can see that they had a light up come through to where the earnings came out, but in the early part of trading so far, they are down by 1%, taking their shares to 6.21.5, that does belie the picture course of the last 12 months. if you look back over the last year, you would have have seen barratt homes share price up have seen barratt homes share price up by have seen barratt homes share price up by 33%. people have been talking about the prospect of a bubble, of there being too much money in the british housing market for many, many years now. so you might be surprised to see home builders have gone some of the best performing stocks in the market place over the course of the last 12 months and

barratt has been no exception to that rule. philip, thank you very much. philip hampshire for us in our business newsroom. there is more on all the stories on our business live page. it is updated throughout the day. on there right now, a couple of stories to pick out. talktalk falls into the red during the six months to 30th september. it reporteded a pre—tax loss of £75 million, that's compared toa loss of £75 million, that's compared to a profit last year. it seems angel delight is back in fashion! it helped premier foods rise. you're watching business live — a record—breaking deal is announced in the aviation industry. airbus signs a record—breaking deal worth $50 billion to supply 430 aircraft. is sitting really the new smoking?

spending too much time on our posteriors has been described by some as a disease — encouraging sedentary lifestyle habits which cause poor health. in fact, it's been suggested that 3.2 million people each year die because of physical inactivity. one area of focus has been our working spaces. sales of so—called standing desks have soared — and are projected to reach $2.8 billion by 2025. but the research is far from clear. one study analysed the amount of time people spent sitting — and found it didn't make death more likely. joining us now is pete segar, the boss of ergotron. his company designs and builds sit—stand desks. you're not exactly a johnny come

lately, either. we are hearing about it now but you have been around a while? that's right. we were founded in 1982 by while? that's right. we were founded in1982 bya while? that's right. we were founded in 1982 by a gentleman named harry. he was a salesman and he had actually sold the first electronic reservation systems to american airlines. he went into his account and he found employees hunched over their computers developing back injuries and neck injuries and duplicate nice it is a fundamental problem with computers. they're not made for the human body and he founded the company as a result. we have broadened it to all elements of health and productivity for computer users. some people will say this is a bit ofa users. some people will say this is a bit of a fad and people way will say things like it will come and go and then we will revert to what we

have been used to — are you seeing that at all that people try them and then always use them in the seating position perhaps? you know, there's different levels of adaption by people who get these desks. but we have done a number of independent studies which have shown that users of sit—stand desks report greater comfort, less lower back and neck pain. they also report feeling more alert, more attentive, more productive at work. so, these are things that people are looking for. so, we actually see people using their sit—stand desks.|j so, we actually see people using their sit-stand desks. i think the message is loud and clear — we should be doing more. it is not good—looking stuff, is it, though? it is clunky gear? well, it may start that way. what happens is at

the very beginning, the first products might be a bit more utilitarian, but as we progress we're making the products aesthetically pleasing, fitting better with the modern office and looking attractive. there was one person i met recently, a director at the science museum, who has a treadmill in his office with a desk on top of the treadmill — is that where we're going? is that the kind of push that you would like to see? you know, no. it might be a surprise to you, while a treadmill does promote activity and discover some great to use one at work, it also negatively impacts your ability to type accurately and it does not help your computer productivity. i think a model which really makes sense is to have a few shared use treadmills that can be used for example by readers. one reason i referred to the treadmill is, we are told about sitting for too long is not good for you, we get that, but an awful lot

of us now also take it upon ourselves to get out and go to the gym, to fitness after work or before work, we're finding ways to fulfil the need to exercise? that is one of the need to exercise? that is one of the real big surprises in the research that has recently come out. we all felt that 30 minutes of vigorous exercise would be all we need for cardiovascular health. the recent research is saying, no, it's actually periods of long inactivity, sitting still for more than 30 minutes, is also damaging. and you just need to move. i hope it is not a generational thing, but you quite like standing up, don't you?! i love sitting down! i'm much more co mforta ble sitting down! i'm much more comfortable this way so it takes a bit of persuasion! so i guess, is there any sort of kit which gets you moving without having to be on your feet all day, especially if you've got flat feet? really the key is moving between positions, frequently moving. you don't have to stand. walking, standing meetings, all

sorts of things which introduce some level of activity into what is currently a sedentary activity. level of activity into what is currently a sedentary activitylj level of activity into what is currently a sedentary activity. i am interested where your biggest markets are, where do you see most interest and where do you see your company growing in the future? well, we see strong growth in australia, new zealand, europe and also the americas, is where we have the strongest growth today. and presumably, you're talking about double—digit growth, what are your hopes for the next decade?” double—digit growth, what are your hopes for the next decade? i would hopes for the next decade? i would hope for more than that but i think double—digit will continue, and part of the reason is, it does take a while to change people's lifestyles. we will see how it goes. pete segar, thank you very much forjoining us. i don't have a standing desk but what i'd try and do isjoke and i don't have a standing desk but what i'd try and do is joke and yet the teas and coffees. —— go and get the teas and coffees. —— go and get the teas and coffees. —— go and get the teas and coffee is. let's see what other

stories are being talked about on social media. we were talking about talktalk on the business live page. in a moment we will go through some of your tweets and a couple of the other stories as well. but first, here's a quick reminder of how to get in touch with us. the business live page is where you can stay ahead with all the latest business news from the bbc‘s team of editors right around the world. and we wa nt editors right around the world. and we want to hear from you, too. editors right around the world. and we want to hearfrom you, too. get involved on our web page. you can find us on twitter and on facebook at bbc business news. business live, on tv and online, whenever you need to know. joining us is david buik from panmure gordon. we were talking about this idea that

one estate agent estimate that millennials could save vast sum towards a deposit on a house byjust cutting out little daily luxuries?” think this is true. when i look at myself in the mirror i shudder to think how much i spend on coffee in a year but it has got to be £2000-£3000 for the a year but it has got to be £2000—£3000 for the whole family. the young, of course, have changed their culture enormously. they have changed away from buying clothes and any kind of sartorial elegance, a razor blade is a real shock to the system to a young person!” razor blade is a real shock to the system to a young person! i have no idea what you're talking about! and jeans rather than a suit and people wa nt to jeans rather than a suit and people want to spend money going out and having a good time and on holidays. so, they have to make up their mind what they want to. what is suggested that apparently over five years you could save $84,000...” that apparently over five years you could save $84,000. .. i was only quoting! anyone who sees me walking

in will see i always have a takeaway coffee in my hand! if! may in will see i always have a takeaway coffee in my hand! if i may say so, you're exceptional because you're sartorial elegance! most people don't! they want to have a good time and they want to have good holidays. but get real, if you're always complaining about you can never get on the housing ladder, you have to put in some kind of economy. you pays your money... you takes your chance! we have been asking for your tweets on this. loads of responses. this one says, i take buses instead of the tube. this one says she has cut back on the internet. she uses public why five and has also cut back on tv, car, heating... i wouldn't say those were luxuries! and this one says using a reusable bottle of water, i don't drink coffee or go to the cinema any more. thanks for sharing those little suggestions with us. another interesting story which is very close to home for us in as much as

bond street is now a more expensive place to rent for a shop than the champs—elysees? place to rent for a shop than the champs-elysees? that's right, it is now number three in the pecking order. but there is a real danger behind this. just so that viewers can understand, new york is still the most expensive, fifth ave, madison, places like that, $3000 per square foot. hong kong is second, london third, followed by milan and paris. however, ithrow london third, followed by milan and paris. however, i throw caution to the wind — how long are these rates going to be allowed to be maintained, with the internet and online sales increasing every single day? i doubt that there will be... may be the crown jewels still have that in a way that the provincial high street... you've got the answer. absolutely, it is a long—term problem. 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. we'll see you again tomorrow.

good morning. it is a rather chilly start to the day across scotland and northern ireland. but we have had some clear spells here and that will translate into sunshine today. elsewhere it is cloudy, some hope for some brighter skies later on. this is the extent of the cloud this morning, much of it across england and wales. it will be fairly slow to clear away today. further north, you're seeing plenty of sunshine across scotland and northern ireland and the far north of england. later this afternoon we will see some brighter skies developing in wales and the south—west of england. still the odd shower here and there. for central and eastern areas, it will stay quite cloudy and murky. particularly across east anglia up into lincolnshire. for the north of england there is some sunshine. in the far north—west you will see the

cloud increasing, with outbreaks of rain and the breeze picking up as well. that area of cloud and rain will move southwards and eastwards. across england and wales, a rather cloudy night. some mist and fog patches developing by thursday morning. unlike this morning, that should clear away fairly quickly. there will be sunshine across many areas throughout thursday. but this band of cloud and rain spreads southwards and eastwards through the day. behind it, much cleaner, folder air filtering day. behind it, much cleaner, folder airfiltering in. —— colderair. behind this area of cloud and rain, which is a cold front, as it clears away from the kent coastline into the early hours of friday morning, you can see all of us under the influence of this colder weather. that wind coming in from the

north—west. and that wind will be fairly strong across scotland throughout friday, making it feel pretty chilly here. many of us, though, on friday, well, it's going to be are fine and sunny day. but it will be feeling colder. a few showers around on saturday, particularly moving towards sunday. hello, it's wednesday, it's 9am, i'm victoria derbyshire, welcome to the programme. our top story today, what's happening in zimbabwe? where is president robert mugabe, the man who's ruled the country with an iron fist for decades? and who exactly is running the african nation? his excellency the president of the republic of zimbabwe and commander—in—chief of the zimbabwe

defence forces, robert mugabe and his family are sound and they are security is guaranteed. we'll be live in the capital harare in the next quarter of an hour. also on the programme — the makers of rap and grime videos hit back at accusations they can glamorise gun and knife violence.