this is business live from bbc news with alice baxter and sally bundock. the fight for clean air goes to court — a landmark ruling on whether cities can ban diesel cars in germany is imminent and being watched closely by the global auto industry. live from london, that's our top story on thursday 22nd february. if the ban is approved, other major european cities could follow suit. it'll be a pivotal moment for european citizens as three—quarters of all the world's diesel cars driven on their roads. also in the programme, double dutch. will unilever ditch the uk for netherlands for its new hq amidst the uncertainty created by brexit. markets in asia sank overnight on fears of further us interest rate hikes.

here in europe, the focus is on 04 earnings in full swing today. and we'll be getting the inside track on unleashing the beethoven in your babe. did you know there's a simpler way to teach music to your child? we speak to the inventor of the novel musical instrument soundbops. and we want to know what you think about the diesel debate. are you ditching your diesel? should the government decide whether to ban the most polluting vehicles? let us know. just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. europe's car industry is on tenterhooks today, awaiting a german court ruling on whether cities are allowed to ban diesel cars. if it's approved, other big european cities are likely to follow suit. in fact some have already made moves. the leaders of four major global

cities pledged to ban all diesel—powered cars and trucks by the middle of the next decade. paris, mexico city, madrid and athens all say they're doing it to improve air quality. london's mayor sadiq khan has introduced a £10 "toxicity charge" for older petrol and diesel cars. and two of london boroughs have banned petrol and diesel cars during peak times. oslo is going one step further. it plans to ban all cars from its city centre by 2019. nearly three—quarters of all the world's diesel cars are driven on european roads, but other highly polluted cities and countries are also making big changes. last year, india's government vowed to start selling only electric cars by 2030, saying not a single petrol or diesel car should be sold after that. our reporterjenny hill has been

following this story from the german capital. good to see you. it's very interesting this happening today in germany where the car industry is pivotal to the economy and also quite a powerful lobby. absolutely. it's a huge debate because of course, there are many here who say that the german government simply hasn't done enough and has taken a small german environmental group to effectively bring an action against individual german regions. it's a complicated process and the end result is that today a court is going to rule on whether it is legally possible for german regions, german cities, to impose a diesel band. they say they are not going to have a court ruling that says you have a court ruling that says you have to get your cars out of the city has from today, it's not as simple as that. but it does open the

door to diesel vehicles being banned from a number of german cities and as you say, the knock—on effect is widespread. if cities like stuttgart and russel dorf bans certain types of diesel vehicles, many other european cities will follow suit —— dusseldorf. the german population is split on whether they think it is a good idea. in one corner there is the german love affair with the motor car and the fact that cities will be potentially paralysed economic league by such a move. in the other corner are the statistics and we had these from the federal environment agency saying that is up to 8000 people die every yearjust from cardiovascular diseases linked to nitrogen dioxide emissions. there isa to nitrogen dioxide emissions. there is a huge lobby that says it is time to clean up the air in the cities. but at the same time, car—makers in

germany talk about potential job losses if radical plans are implemented with regard to diesel cars. yes, and that is a headache for the german government as 800,000 people are employed by the car industry in germany. looking at the sales of diesel, they have slid dramatically ever since the volkswagen emissions scandal. down 45% to 33% of the market this year, so 45% to 33% of the market this year, so it's a huge problem for the manufacturers and another interesting statistic is that somebody survey german drivers about what they think of the car manufacturing industry and found 87% of germans simply don't trust car manufacturers to reduce emissions and that's one of the reasons why we are looking at the judgment today. many will say it is too little, too late. there are other measures in place in german cities to try to clea n place in german cities to try to clean up the air but it's simply not enough and is not getting the target down. they still far exceed eu

guidelines and some will argue those thresholds are far too high in the first place. that is why many cities feel that of the judgment goes against them today they will have to impose a against them today they will have to imposea ban against them today they will have to impose a ban on certain diesel vehicles. jenny, thank you very much. when we do get the announcement from the court in leipzig, we will update you. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the british government is bracing for one of the country's biggest companies to up sticks. unilever may shift its headquarters to the netherlands after months of political pressure from both sides. the company has so far declined to comment. ford says its president for north america — raj nair — will leave immediately. it says an investigation found his behaviour was inconsistent with ford's code of conduct, but wouldn't comment on the inappropriate behaviour involved. barclays has reported a 10% rise in annual pre—tax profit to $4.9 billion. the bank was boosted by a reduction in costs over the year and the rise

in the value of the dollar and euro against the pound. todayis today is one of those very busy days as so many companies have come out with the latest results and announcement. among them, anglo—american with profits doubling, no surprise there. it's a similar story with commodity prices going up. heathrow reporting results, a fall in profits, and reve nu es we re results, a fall in profits, and revenues were something like $2.9 billion up, by 3% but pre—tax profit was down. the number of customers going through the airport group to 78 million. that is a lot of people. if you go to heathrow, you know about that. the fourth quarter earnings out in four —— full swing today. markets have fallen in asia, following similar moves in the us,

after the federal reserve gave an upbeat view of the economy, fuelling fears of more interest rate rises. first, let's go to our asia business hub in singapore where leisha sa ntorelli is following the story. nice to see you. no surprise in asia. that is a fear factor, if rates go up significantly in the us, asia is one of the losers. absolutely and we have questions around us inflation and questions around us inflation and questions around what the rates will be for the rest of the year and investors in asia did not find any clarity in the results released earlier so we are seeing a lot of risk appetite weakened because of concerns that we will see it will go up by more than expected. markets see a 90% chance that federal rates will go up from the march meeting but it was a merry

picture in the chinese markets because they have reopened after the week—long new year holiday and they scored their best growth in 18 months and the investor mentality was to buy. the best performers were consumer and transport related stocks like 0antas, consumer and transport related stocks like qantas, and the rationale is clear as we saw millions of chinese take trips overseas and they are spending a lot of money shopping and eating out at restau ra nts. of money shopping and eating out at restaurants. aside from china, pretty dismal in the asian markets but we will see how we go tomorrow. many thanks for that. most asian markets sank on thursday, fuelling fears of fresh volatility after federal reserve minutes raised expectations us interest rates would rise further. us stocks were in positive territory most of the session on wednesday, but began falling about a0 minutes after the federal reserve released the minutes of last month's policy meeting. the much—anticipated notes showed the board thought donald trump's sweeping tax cuts could fire up the already humming economy,

pushing inflation higher. so tokyo stocks dropped following falls on wall street as market sentiment remained fragile after recent volatility. here in europe markets have opened. it's busy day on markets with lots of earnings out today — barclays, centrica, astrazenica — offering precious indications as to whether fourth quarter was indeed a strong vintage. clues are expected on the health of sectors which have suffered recently, such as telecoms, utilities or consumer staples but also areas where optimism has risen, such as banks, thanks to lloyds, and miners with glencore. joe miller has the details about what's ahead on wall street today. on thursday hewlett—packa rd enterprise company which provides it solution is expected to report a fall in first—quarter revenue and profit. it's been heard by lower sales in its networking and data storage equipment business. the firm has been trying to find its footing

after a high—profile executive resigned suddenly last november and 110w resigned suddenly last november and now it also has another rival to contend with after its nemesis, dell acquired emc. hewlett—packard split into two a few years ago and the other half of the hp empire which still makes pcs is expected to fare better when it reports its results. and we will see what the tariff effect on imports of solar panels is having for us manufacturers as first sola reveals its accounts. mike is a managing director at pimco, and it's really busy. better to be busy than not. we don't mind busy. let's talk about barclays not. we don't mind busy. let's talk about ba rclays bank, not. we don't mind busy. let's talk about barclays bank, various issues, ppi still bothering it, the payment

protection scandal. barclays bank and a lot of the uk banks have a similar story which is the actual bank itself is now doing very well and you saw a 10% rise in underlying profit, £3.5 billion made last year so the company is doing well and yet they still have these ongoing fines from things they did in the past, the sins of the past, so to speak, so you have this drag which has put pressure on their share price, and even now it's down 10% over the last 12 months but today's news was taken pretty well because may leave the underlying bank itself, if you look forward , underlying bank itself, if you look forward, things are going well and profits are up so the stock was up at 4%. profits are up so the stock was up at 496. they also pledging to restore their dividend pay—out. at 496. they also pledging to restore their dividend pay-out. that will do their dividend pay-out. that will do the share price wonders. that's another indication of the health of the company. once you get back to dividend growth, and potential buy—backs, that's a good indication that the company is fully

capitalised, comfortable with the growth story and they feel they can look forward. in the meantime, companies like centrica, 4000 jobs going. not a good story, u nfortu nately. going. not a good story, unfortunately. 4000 job losses this time centrica and there are a couple of stories going round and one say this might be to do with the utility price bill which has been in the news in the last few years and they are trying to cut costs now, which meansjob are trying to cut costs now, which means job losses so they have announced job losses. they will try to do that in the next 12 months to get the costs down and profitability up, and ideally get the utility bills down as well. absolutely. mike, thank you for now. mike, orwe will come back to stories about unilever moving headquarters. stick around for that. as well as mike. how to unleash the

beethoven in your babe. there's a simpler way to teach music to you child based on building blocks and we speak to the creator. and we might have a play as well. that is all coming. let's talk more about centrica. british gas owner centrica has announced today that it's cutting 4,000 jobs after losing 10% of it's uk customers last year. group profits also fell 17% last year to £1.25bn. earlier, our business correspondent, emma simpson, spoke to centrica's chief executive, iain conn. we have announced further efficiency measures that we are driving. we did announce all so that we have achieved our first phase of efficiencies, three years early. but the reason we announced a further

£500 million per year of planned efficiencies in 2020, regrettably, another 4000 job losses as well, is in response to three things. firstly, competition is very intense and the second thing is that our customers are actually interacting with others in a different way, moving more to digital which is changing the way and then the third reason is to drive more efficiencies in advance of the likely price cap in the uk. so there is a direct link between the job cuts and the looming price cap? presumably to give you a bit more headroom? as i say, it is three reasons. it's about competition and what customers want, but there is a third reason, there isa link but there is a third reason, there is a link between cost efficiency programmes and preparing for any price gap in the uk. we have got to be competitive, and this measure means we have to drive more efficiency. iain conn talking to our

correspondent. much more about centrica on the business live page. something else to mention. i know that we have it on our business pages, the auditors of carillion will face a grilling in front of politicians today. another one to watch. two select committees will also question to light and the pensions regulator as part of the joint inquiry into the crisis that's been going on since its collapse. the work and pensions and business committee says it has a growing pile of evidence, the accounting firm also facing investigation by the accounting council over that. you're watching business live.

our top story. the fight for clean air goes to court — we await a landmark german ruling on whether cities can ban diesel cars. it's being watched closely by the global auto industry and other big european cities. because most diesel cars are driven on european roads. learning a new musical instrument can be a chore, espcially if you're a young child. i know i found it difficult! the piano or violin. but musicality starts young, so are traditional techniques too tough? our next guest is the brains behind a new type of music education devise that is based on building blocks. soundbops aims to tap the $63 billion market for educational technology. its founder won the royal academy of engineering's launchpad competition in 2016. the musical toy is in the final stages of design,

with the first batch due to be delivered in time for this christmas. would imagine that's pretty critical. the award winner, soundbops ceo and creator michael tougher joins us now. you have the one that hopefully will be on sale at christmas, in the meantime we've got one here that we can play with. this is the first prototype. you can tell we're very musical! tell me why this will help me learn to play an instrument because to me itjust looks like mice colourful things that make a sound. you said as a child who learned the violin, how do you make that link? playing instruments is hard, so early, when you are three, four or five years old you have a positive introduction to music, you learn the notes and cause gum you play with your family and friends. you learn the fundamentals and also

the notations are when you move to an instrument you have that backing and you can choose which one to learn. i've got three boys, alice has one, we've had tonnes of toys that make noises, building blocks, things you bash, things you play, including smart devices that all make noises, and buttons that you push, how is this different? how will this make a difference to children learning a musical instrument? as you know, lots of toys make lots of noises. we do have a headphone socket! each block is a different note, so when the child is exploring, they are learning which lets go together, which chords go together. so you can transfer that noise. assuming a child of three known the letters, some don't. young child learns colours and as the child grows older, they can start to learn the letters and understand how they all work

together. it's that positive introduction to music. this is a very young kids, starting aged about three. how did you get going in this because you won this competition in 2016 which gave you some cash and some fallible mentoring. yet you got your initial £50,000 which enabled your initial £50,000 which enabled you to build this prototype from twitter? yes, we are active on twitter, we have been shedding a lot about the product and a belgian company about the product and a belgian com pa ny invests about the product and a belgian company invests in music, phoned me, went and invested quickly. i have been brushing up on my french, it's been brushing up on my french, it's been a lot of fun. they see a lot of value in this product, and in the market, and they've partnered with me on this, which has allowed us to launch the kick starter. we are 30% to our target launch the kick starter. we are 30% to ourtarget in launch the kick starter. we are 30% to our target in a few dayslj launch the kick starter. we are 30% to our target in a few days. i asked you in the green room how much it would cost and you told me £70.

that's quite a lot of money for a toy that may or may not teach your child how to play an instrument aged three. the ability to have a young child playing songs and three is valuable for parents. it is very much like languages, there's a gap when a young child can get interested , when a young child can get interested, so the value of music is that it gets the kid into music early so they can enjoy that for life. and it's a very innovative high quality product. and as we grow and create other products... you are and create other products... you are a guitarist as well. guitar, my dad taught me get out when i was younger and asa taught me get out when i was younger and as a family we played and sang together. i want all children do have the joy of music when they are younger. fascinating stuff. thank younger. fascinating stuff. thank you for coming in, michael. in a moment we'll take a look

through the business pages but first here's a quick reminder of how to get in touch with us. stay up—to—date with all the news on the bbc‘s business live page, up—to—date analysis from our team of editors around the globe. and we wa nt to editors around the globe. and we want to hear from you as well, get involved. you can contact us on twitter and on facebook. business live. what you need to know, when you need to know. that's sound like similar hussein from new york. i'm right! we asked you to tell us what you thought about the decisions being taken in germany. is

back. should governments tell us what we can and can't drive in cities? if you take the uk example it's unfortunate because we were encouraged to buy diesel cars. i bought one. and now unfortunately we are told that they are not good... with you ditch yours, i am ditching mine. we've got an electric car as well. diesel cars can be expensive to sell. hot topic. we've had loads of tweets. one suggests that developing countries would expect subsidies from the government as external support to start buying electric vehicles is expensive, another one, from shaun perry, says the government should not start

implementing changes on banning diesel cars. one viewers says why is it not ok for us little people to drive diesel cars and big people to operate jets drive diesel cars and big people to operatejets in drive diesel cars and big people to operate jets in the skies every day. many of you have been in touch, thank you so much for getting in touch. now the other stories. theresa may braced for the unilever decision on headquarters. unilever isa decision on headquarters. unilever is a massive company. it's perhaps moving its h0 to the netherlands. you don't believe this is a brexit story though? it is not necessarily a brexit story. at the moment unilever has a headquarters in the uk and one in holland and they are deciding to have one single headquarters. i think that pressure has come more from shareholders, there was a takeover attempt by kraft heinz last year, and i think this is more about cost pressure than about brexit. they have to

choose a headquarters. it happens to come at a time when brexit is in full flow although i think this is as much about cost is about brexit. it would have happened anyway? the decision is to go to one place with one capital. and another story claims the antidepressants actually do work. music to the years of the pharmaceutical industry? yes, and also to the ears of people who need these treatments. it's a big issue and hopefully this study has put to bed a question of whether they work or not. presumably they will be more widely prescribed, which will be more costly to the nhs. the study was pretty in—depth. more costly to the nhs. the study was pretty in-depth. will have to leave it there, many thanks to mike amey. from sally and i, many thanks for joining amey. from sally and i, many thanks forjoining us on business live today.

good morning, we have some frost, we will have to get used to it over the next couple of days, the cold air is still on its way. today for many of us, dry, bright sunny spells from time to time, some cloud around as you can see, that quite thin, you can still see the bright lights of the city ‘s beneath that, cloud floating around which should break up floating around which should break up leaving sunshine for many of us during the day. a lot of dry weather, some showers across eastern areas of northern ireland and towards the west of scotland into the afternoon. maximum temperature is down by a couple of degrees compared to yesterday, between five and 7 degrees. through the evening the cloud will once more come and go, more clear spells tonight into friday morning, so more frost and temperatures down to around

freezing, 2—2, minus three celsius, perhaps not as cold in northern ireland and towards the west of scotland, but more of a breeze. through friday some cloud around the game, some good bright or sunny spells, lots of dry weather but with that south easterly wind temperatures coming down again. four to six celsius at the very best. friday evening, and tonight cold air filtering in, they will be a widespread hard frost to take us into the start of the weekend. but for many of us it will turn colder, they will be that widespread frost, lots of sunshine around and it's looking dry as well. this is saturday. you can see by the greenness of the map across the uk, not much cloud at all, lots of blue skies, a crisp winter's day, temperatures between five and 7

degrees. as we go into sunday whether cold air begins to feel to it and it is coming in from siberia on that south easterly wind, just notice is the man turns blue and blue, one smaller hard frost on sunday morning, a lot of dry, a lot of sunshine, cloud particularly towards the north—east, those temperatures start to struggle on sunday, maximum temperatures are into next week those temperatures struggling to get above freezing during the day. that's it. bye bye. hello. it's thursday, it's 9 o'clock, i'm victoria derbyshire, welcome to the programme. antidepressants do work, and more of us should be using them. this is the

final answer to a long—lasting controversy about the efficacy of antidepressants. have anti depressants worked for you ? let us know about your experience. donald trump says if teachers had guns, they could stop mass shootings in american schools. the president put forward the idea during a meeting at the white house with survivors and relatives of victims of recent attacks, who begged him to make sure it doesn't happen again. iam very i am very angry that this happened, because it keeps happening. 9/11 happened once and they fixed everything. how many schools, how many children have to get shot?