this is business live from bbc news with susannah streeter and david eades. america edges closer to massive tax reforms, but will they really deliver president trump's promised boost to the world's biggest economy? live from london, that's our top story on friday 1st december. as the president lights up the christmas tree, he's hoping senators give him the gift he wants — but can the us really afford the biggest tax changes in a generation? also in the programme... the world's largest lithium ion battery gets up—and—running in australia, so will it spark a global energy revolution? and as always we will get the latest

from the global markets, this is the picture in europe as the markets open. and we'll be getting the inside track on the bumpy ride uber have been on this week, as well as bitcoin‘s rollercoaster ride, with our tech guru rory cellan jones. december is finally upon us, and this weekend is set to the busiest for christmas tree sales here in the uk, but amid warnings that glittery decorations are bad for the environment — we want to know if you use the same ones every year or buy them new? let us know — just use the hashtag #bbcbizlive. hello, and welcome to business live. the united states is on course for it's largest tax reforms in more than 30 years but hasn't quite got there yet. if last—minute disagreements can be overcome, president trump's big hope is that the refrorms will boost growth for the world's biggest economy. and that could eventually make the rest of the world richer, too. firstly, it will be very expensive —

costing the government $1.5 trillion over the next decade. some of that is expected to be offset by higher economic growth, but most would be added to the us national debt — already at $20 trillion. that is what is still bothering some in the senate. who would benefit? the big winners would be us firms, who would see the corporation tax rate slashed from 35% to around 20%. the white house claims the average american household would also be better off by between $4,000 and $9,000 a year. but some critics say the plan really favours the wealthy. 0thers dispute the idea that a handout to firms will trickle down to the wider economy. not including the banks, us companies are already sitting on $1.9 trillion cash piles. and some have said they'd use tax cuts to give more money to shareholders.

pippa malmgren used to be an economic adviser to president george w bush and founder of the business advisors drpm research group. thank you forjoining us. there are huge questions there, an awful lot of money to spend effectively for these tax cuts. how far, assuming this all goes through, how far could they weaken that through improved tax revenues? well, the republican view is that if you lower tax rates you will increase business activity and business investment. what is interesting is businesses keep saying, our intention is to do share buy—backs, which is not so productive for the economy. that is the big companies, that does not mean smaller companies won't benefit and they will invest, but the question is the magnitude of the impact. if share buy-backs particularly a bad thing? the dow will have a field day for a few months if that is the case but is there any benefit economically? there is another way of thinking about it, not so much a benefit but

by stimulating the economy with more capital you create more inflationary conditions. we have a little inflation, as it picks up, people stay, i can't stay in cash, i need to invest, because your money is eroded when you sit in cash in an inflationary environment so in that case it stimulates but it is not the ideal way to stimulate the economy. there has been some pushback against this deal, particularly over the last 12 hours, and there is a lot of concern that these are projections for economic growth, there is no guarantee that there will be a boost, and we saw there the numbers, how much it could cost as far as the deficit is concerned. the real issue is that the economy is going well, so is that the economy is going well, so people expect that it will go better if you give it the stimulus. the actual debate about the substance of the bill is not so much about the substance, frankly, it is about the substance, frankly, it is about fighting with trump over what he will be and will not be allowed to do. senator mccain

was annoyed with donald trump for picking on him personally and said he was not a real war hero, has said this is not going to be the trump bill, it will be the mccain bill, so he has taken it into the senate and ta kes he has taken it into the senate and takes control of the process, that accou nts takes control of the process, that accounts for more than the substance. that will not wash with donald trump if it goes through and succeeds, this is his baby, he will ta ke succeeds, this is his baby, he will take the plaudits if you like? he will try, but the senate can absolutely put their fingerprint and signature on this thing in a way that will let them take a good deal of the credit which, by the way, they want going into the mid—term elections. do you think the discounts that the state currently offers as far as tax bills are concerned, do you think those will be debated in the senate? will that be debated in the senate? will that bea be debated in the senate? will that be a sticking point? what other factors will they bring in to amend the bill? what they will do in the next 2a, 48 hours the bill? what they will do in the next 24, 48 hours is not so clear, it isa next 24, 48 hours is not so clear, it is a very detail oriented

process , it is a very detail oriented process, there are thousands of pages involved in this kind of legislation which, interestingly, no single senator actually reads, only their staff read the part relevant to their state, so it is through traditional messy process and we are all going to have to wait to hear what they come up with. much more horse trading to come. people, thank you very much indeed. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the irish foreign minister has told the bbc that it cannot be asked to ta ke the bbc that it cannot be asked to take a leap into the dark when it comes to brexit negotiations. he said more progress needs to be made on the solution of how the border between northern ireland and the republic works if there is to be progress on trade talks. amazon has launched another version of its voice controlled assistant alex for business, firms will be able to use the smart speakers to set up meetings with colleagues, book conference rooms and do other basic tasks as well. there have been

concerns raised for privacy in meetings where sensitive information is being discussed. in the uk, the royal bank of scotland, which is still 72% owned by the government, says its cutting almost 700 jubs and closing more than 250 branches. the lender is trying to reduce costs as more customers move to online banking. trade unions have raised questions about the move. the japanese carmaker nissan has become the latest foreign company to seek artibtration against the indian authorities. the company believes it is entitled to $770 million as part of the agreements it reached to set—up a factory near chennai. reports suggest there are more than 20 similiar cases pending. the indian government hasn't responded. the world's largest lithium ion battery has begun dispensing power to the electricity grid in south australia. it has been dogged by tesla, best known for its electric cars, which

aims to end the state's energy problems. mariko 0i has more from singapore. they have created this thing and done it ahead of schedule? indeed, and if you remember it all started as a bet on twitter. it was actually an australian software entrepreneur who asked elon musk, the boss of tesla, if he was really serious about helping south australia after the state suffered a state—wide blackout. elon musk said yes, he was, and if the battery was not built within 100 days, the state would get it for free. the countdown started on the 30th of september, after approvalfrom started on the 30th of september, after approval from regulators, and tesla managed to finish it in about 60 days, so i guess the state would have to pay now, as, as i mentioned, the plan started dispensing electricity today, it is situated in jamestown, about fixing, just north

of adelaide. let's check in with the financial markets now. in hong kong, losses as technology companies have offered some games at energy companies, but then the hang seng dropped back a little, a choppy session for the mckay as well. it finished the session a little higher. the dow is continuing its epic climb, surging above 24,000 for the first time as the us senate move towards proving that massive tax—cut package. 0il prices edged higher as 0pec‘s decision to extend production limits took place. the ftse has opened lover, the dax in frankfurt slightly higher, then pack 40 slightly lower because of a stronger euro and stronger pound. and samira hussain has the details about what's ahead on wall street today. it's finally friday, but it could be a very busy end to the week. the dow jones industrial average

crossed a milestone on thursday, 24,000 points for the first time. us markets are just downright euphoric at the prospect of major tax reform, so we'll continue to watch what happens in washington and how us markets react. in other business news, we see that light vehicle sales will have fallen ever so slightly compared to the month before. we're seeing that construction spending is going to be up by about 0.5% for the month of october. 0verall factory spending will have dropped ever so slightly from the previous month. joining us is lucy macdonald from allianz global investor. thanks forjoining us. after everything we have seen coming from new york, asia playing it very cool, waiting, presumably, for this tax

reform bill to pass or not? yes, and there is certainly some anticipation of this bill. we have been waiting 110w of this bill. we have been waiting now for months, and it looks very, very close. it is better priced into markets now, i think, so if it passes there will be some positive benefit, but if you look at the trump trade type stocks, the cyclica ls trump trade type stocks, the cyclicals and industrials and financials, they have been moving, there it is also the domestics...m is interesting you say it is priced m, is interesting you say it is priced in, many were saying before it reached this point, the bill, that actually the markets have priced all of the tax changes in but still you see this epic climb, don't you? why do you think the market is still going forward and do you think when it is passed, there won't be a further climb? i think more of it is priced in now is that the probability of it getting through has been priced in gradually and

thatis has been priced in gradually and that is why you have seen this, that particular area of the market, giving better, and at the same time some other areas of the market, technology, health care, slightly coming back to fund some of those areas, so more rotation in the market. it is similar to what we saw a year ago but not anywhere near as drastic, and that makes sense, so it seems to me it is priced quite rationally. just time to look at what is happening with oil, prices going up, 0pec reaching a deal, the russians leading it, to keep production down for another 12 plus months? guess, that has extended it further, clearly that agreement so far has stabilised the oil price and we have seen it coming up and the sector following close correlation between the oil price and the sector so we have seen that now for six months and now that the saudis and russians, who are 10% of the total supply, russians, who are 10% of the total supply, agreed to extend, i would

have thought that should continue. and it is still an area of the market where you can find some value, it is not necessarily the highest growth or the highest quality market but there is still some value and yield there and yield is still something we are looking for. absolutely, lucy, thank you very much indeed. still to come... bube's bumpy ride and bitcoin‘s roller—coaster, we catch up on another big of technology news. you're with business live from bbc news. ajump in online sales has helped fortnum and mason announce a 23% rise in pre—tax profits to £7.6 million. 0nline sales rose by 17% over the past year, with rising demand from asia helping to boost the upmarket department store's bottom line. fortnum recently opened a new store in south korea, and operates in 160 countries globally. joining us now to discuss

these results, is the ceo of fortnum and mason, ewan venters. thank you forjoining us. pretty impressive figures, is that mostly down to growth abroad? there is a substantial element of that but over 50% of our growth last year came from the rising demand from uk and domestic consumers, which is exactly what we wanted to happen, we are very happy about that, and i believe pa rt very happy about that, and i believe part of that success story is that so much of what we sell in our business is actually produced here in the united kingdom, over 80% of our products are manufactured in the uk, so every pound spent with fortnum ‘s is 82p spent with art producers across the uk. does it surprise you that there is still growing demand for luxury goods at a time, particularly in the uk, where people are really feeling poorer

because of austerity or the economy? 0r losing jobs? because of austerity or the economy? or losing jobs? my experience tells me that when there are periods of uncertainty and times are tough, people turn to brands that the trust, brands great the great authenticity, great heritage, great story, and i think the british at the moment like a great cup of tea and a proper english biscuit! keep calm and carry on! you are tapping into that trend?! it would appear that way, but the rest of the world is also engaging with us, whether they are coming to london, and undoubtedly the drop in the value of the pound has helped to drive more tourism into london, but also through the website, we are reaching out across the world more than ever. thanks very much indeed, cup of tea and a biscuit, my biscuit does not a lwa ys and a biscuit, my biscuit does not always come from fortnum and mason, i have to say! lets see what else is happening on the business pages. rbs is decimating its branch network. that

comes from unite, the union that says the bank is betraying communities with the closure of 259 branches and the loss of manyjobs. you're watching business live — our top story... the united states senate is edging closer to delivering the huge tax reforms president trump wants. voting is due to resume in a few hours time amid concerns over whether the country can afford them. a quick look at how markets are faring.... the dowjones the dow jones reached the dowjones reached another epic point, above the 24,000 mark. the dax is down, as is the dax and cac, not sharing the same amount of enthusiasm for those tax cut plans in the us. and now let's get the inside track on another big week of tech news.

it's seen the ride hailing app uber suffer a string of setbacks and the crypto—currency bitcoin suffer a roller—coaster ride that was just as tumultuous as it reached new heights. the poems keep on coming! 0ur techology correspondent is rory cellan—jones is here. let's start with uber. what a week for uber, every week seems to bring more drama. this company that has grown into one of the most powerful in the world, still privately held, having all sorts of disasters. we had them accused of hiring ex—cia agents to spy on rivals. a trial which is supposed to be getting underway where they are accused of industrial espionage against google's self driving car division. that has been delayed? yes, because of new information. a dramatic day in court with a former uber employee coming in and spilling the beans about their use of covert

surveillance on their rivals. rumbling on in the background is all of this app fallout from the hack. yes, we heard here in the uk, 2.7 million uk users probably had their information exposed during that hack 13 months ago, which we are just learning about now! surprise surprise. and more bad news on the actual numbers. they are trying to close this deal with softbank to ta ke close this deal with softbank to take a share in the company, but they had to share information of further losses. uber are in the firing line, people are out to look for stories. issues like industrial espionage, isn't that a case of loads of businesses do it, just don't get caught doing it, isn't that the reality? i think... a lot of people would be offended by that. the extent of bad behaviour by uber by their own admission, not

revealing a hack for 13 months, allegedly stealing all sorts of industrial secrets and hiring people to do that. this comes at a time when lift, the us rival in the states has released great numbers, revenue more than tripled. there are contenders to the uber throne. certainly in the us. they face fewer challenges overseas but they are running up against regulators. in london they are fighting a potential ban. and israel ruled against this week and stopped operating there. the trouble is carry on. a roller—coaster ride as well for bitcoin, that is a huge story. hundreds of thousands of people trying to jump hundreds of thousands of people trying tojump in on the hundreds of thousands of people trying to jump in on the act. hundreds of thousands of people trying tojump in on the act.|j hundreds of thousands of people trying to jump in on the act. i am in obsessed... i keep meaning to sell it, but the roller—coaster ride is ridiculous. i'm looking at what has happened in the last 24—hour. it

reached $10,500, went as low as $9,200 and has picked up a bit since then. there are real signs of strain in the system, one of the biggest wallets where people store their bitcoin, inaccessible for many, and inaccessible right now. it is those who create bitcoin who are responsible for maintaining transactions? the other huge concern, the really interesting story we are looking up at the moment is the energy use around bitcoin. actually, as it gets bigger and bigger, it requires more and more computer processing power. the figure came out this week, more energy used by bitcoin each year than the whole country of ireland in a yearand than the whole country of ireland in a year and that is continuing to grow. very briefly, i think even the goldman sachs pass that this is a vehicle forfraudsters. goldman sachs pass that this is a vehicle for fraudsters. but one day, once regulated, crypto currency will be the way of the future? that is

what the believers say. and there is huge belief in the technology underlying it. a lot of people plumping that. there is a frenzy around it, anything around crypto currencies has got people potentially losing their minds. thank you very much indeed. and if you want more of the latest tech news you can catch rory‘s ‘tech tent‘ programme on bbc world service radio at 1500gmt, and if you miss it you can download the podcast from our website, just search for bbc tech tent. that is just an allegation. have to watch it and see for yourself. you find them in almost every cafe and bar in the world. they're used by the billions every year. we're talking about the drinking straw and it's the latest in our million dollar idea series. here's aaron heslehurst. it's drinking straws. however did we

slurp our drinks without them? we used pieces of real straw. then one day in 1888, this man, marvin stone of washington, was sipping his whiskey. his straw with getting 5°99)” whiskey. his straw with getting soggy, leaving gunk in his class, so he took on paper, wrapped it around a pencil to make it tube and fastened the end with glue. the first straw. fast forward to 1936, joseph freeman from san francisco. his young daughter couldn't drink your milkshake, she is too small to reach the top of the straw. if only the straw would work if you bent it. sojoseph took the straw would work if you bent it. so joseph took a the straw would work if you bent it. sojoseph took a screw, put it inside the straw and then wrapped dental floss around to make a spiral indentation. hey presto, it's the

world's first bendy straw. nowadays the world goes through billions of dollars of drinking straws each year, most of them plastic. americans won't go through 500 billion of these every single year. that's 2 million tonnes of discarded plastic. can't we use anything? i bought some wooden straws. that's a start, well done. let's see what other stories are being talked about on social media. lucy mcdonald, first of all, a story in the daily telegraph, african finance minister of the year is facing jail for telling his country's politicians to trim their perks. this comes at a time when the eu africa summit is winding up. that is aimed at trying to boost africa's growth and economic development. that is also to do with cutting corruption. what has happened here?

it is, africa is a great growth area that hasn't really delivered. if you look at population growth, that is where all the population growth is going to come in the next 50 years. we have seen some improvement in overall economic growth but corruption is the big problem. there has been a lot of work done to help this issue, but it seems very difficult to completely eradicate it and this feeds into the same story again. 1.2 million dollars worth, not an insignificant amount of money and it is their allowances. i suppose that would be their argument. it is more the manner in which you respond, seeking arrests. it seems beyond bizarre structure exactly. and as i say, itjust really ta ps exactly. and as i say, itjust really taps into the big concern that all investors have about investing in the region. ok, it is

finally the start of december, the green light by many to put up their christmas decorations. there is a warning all that glitter is not good for the environment. apparently it is very difficult and get stuck in filtration systems. it is plastic. are you a fan of glitter or a decorating fan, a christmas fan?l christmas plan definitely. this is the concern about the oceans. fish versus fun. the micro beads legislation that's been talked about here and is being put in place in the us is tapping into that. let me bring in some tweets. 0ld—fashioned comedy says i'm afraid i don't have christmas decorations, but we always used to have a real treat. what is wrong with wire coat hangers and tinsel? nothing, go for it!|j have had some for 25 years. thanks for joining have had some for 25 years. thanks forjoining us. have had some for 25 years. thanks for joining us. thanks have had some for 25 years. thanks forjoining us. thanks for watching.

good morning, the first day of meteorological winter which is ironic given the fact it will become less cold over the next few days. we have lost that northerly arctic wind that now have a north—westerly winds, which is a less cold direction and with it it will bring more proud and a few spots of rain. watch out for some ice and some wintry showers over higher ground but increasingly into this afternoon, though showers will be mainly rain. the cloud will increase in scotland, some patchy rain moving in, temperatures up to 4—7. for much of england and wales, there will be some sunshine. still a few showers around parts of east yorkshire, lincolnshire and into the midlands. wales on the south—west, we have even lost showers around pembrokeshire and cornwall, so plenty of trying sunny weather here. some more shows to come across

south—eastern areas that temperatures a little higher than they have been over the last few days. tonight, cloud will trickle further southwards, with it some lighter and patchy rain spreading into the midlands, eventually into southern areas. with all that cloud around and less cold air moving in, temperatures won't fall as far. pretty much frost free to start off the weekend. during the weekend we will have this milder air, the orange you can see, coming from the north and west, across the uk for both saturday and sunday. milder or less cold weather, cloudier skies and with that there will be some light rain at times as well, particularly on saturday. let's have a look at saturday. a pretty cloudy start, some patchy rain in wales, the midlands, southern england. there will be a few holes developing in the crowd, especially toward southern scotland and northern england. more rain spreads in the far north—west of scotla nd spreads in the far north—west of scotland and most temperatures up to

about 7—9. there could be more like susan. this week weather frontwoman southward, bringing the spell of rain but that should clear away the sunday. for most of us will be a dry day. lots of cloud around but i am hopeful there will be a few brighter spells here and there. look at those temperatures. back up into double figures across southern areas. while it is not quite as cold as it has been recently, it will be more cloudy for the weekend. bye—bye. hello, it's friday, it's 9am, i'm tina daheeley — welcome to the programme. a former detective who examined damian green's parliamentary computer nine years ago has said he has no doubt that the mp had accessed pornography found on the device. mr green has always denied the allegation. there were a lot of them, so i was surprised to see that on a parliamenatry computer. we'll bring you more on this story later in the programme. darren tunstall left his home on a sunday evening in december and never came back — that was 25 years ago. his mum has been talking

to our programme exclusively about why she believes he is still alive. it's the only thing i want in life. i don't need or want anything else. just to know that he is happy,