this is business live from bbc news with alice baxter and david eades. shares in asia fall and the euro hovers at a six—month low as the prospect of fresh elections in italy grows. live from london, that's our top story on tuesday, 29th may. the italian economist carlo cottarelli agrees to lead an interim government, but he faces an uphill battle as italy's two biggest anti—establishment parties say they'll block him. also in the programme... starbucks closes every outlet in the us later today to deliver staff training on how to avoid racial bias, we will keep across the markets for

you. asian shares are down in tuesday training, but with public holidays across the globe, liquidity has been thin. here in europe, shares have also opened in the red. and would you agree to rent a home without seeing it beforehand? we'll be talking to one spanish start up which hopes to become the airbnb for long term rentals. has prosecco peaked? there are reports it's no longer seen as a luxury here in the uk. we want to know, has the italian fizz gone flat for you? what would you drink for a special occasion? let us know. just use the hashtag #bbcbizlive. welcome to the programme. shares in asia have fallen and the euro is near a six and a half month low

as italy is plunged deeper into political crisis. carlo cotta relli is a former imf economist and now has the task of trying to form a new government. he became known as mr scissors in italy because of his cuts to public spending. but achieving a majority in parliament will be incredibly difficult. here you can see in yellow and green the two anti—establishment and populist parties — the five star movement and the league. they control more than half the seats in the chamber of deputies and they've pledged to block mr cottarelli. and the country has serious economic challenges. as well as rising poverty and high unemployment, it also has the eurozone‘s second—highest level of government debt, totalling $2.7 trillion — 130% of gdp. with me is our economics correspondent andrew walker. carlo cotta relli, is

carlo cottarelli, is that the name i should consign to my memory or frankly not? we have to think about him fora frankly not? we have to think about him for a little while. he will be at least trying to run the show it seems for the course of the summer. he has himself said he is not expecting to stay on any longer than next year, very much an interim technocrat prime minister and his view is to stabilise the ship followed by further elections next year. but on the strength of the position taken by the league and the five star movement who have the majority between them and the italian parliament, if they do proceed with their threat to block him, there is every chance we will get elections much sooner than that, perhaps as early as august, september. we have seen what it seems to have done to the euro and that was not necessarily the atmosphere even 2a hours earlier and

we have seen what it has done to government bond yields, it seems it has become more acute as a more secure has been put in place. more secure has been put in place. more secure in the sense of someone the financial markets like, not secure in terms of political position at all. of the market things you mentioned, david, iam particularly struck by what is happening in the bond market where government debt is traded. italian 10—year government borrowing, the yield has risen quite markedly in the last day, now up to 2.8%. bearing in mind, i have said this before, in the height of the crisis, we were looking at figures of 7%, we are not there yet, but quite could rise and a very market increasing shorter term borrowing. you expect the figure to be lower. the italy, close to i.5%. looking at

spain which also has its very own quite serious critical problems, the figure is negative, so that does give you some indication of the fact the markets are particularly concerned about exactly what the output is fought bitterly, but i would the size we are not back to the turbulent days of 2011, 2012 —— what the output is for italy. so much talk about structurally what is about to happen to the euro, kick the stilt away, it is not impossible now, we may have another election, a referendum probably. it could well be. and then, who knows? and president macron of france has visions to try to reform the eurozone to deal with some of the wea knesses eurozone to deal with some of the weaknesses that led to the financial crisis, there has been some movement already in the area of banking authorities far from complete. already in the area of banking authorities farfrom complete. but yes, no question, the eurozone is

not in as robust condition to deal with further turmoil as its leaders would like it to be. thank you very much, andrew. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. starbucks stores in the us will be closed today so its 175,000 us employees can receive training on how to avoid racial bias. it follows the arrest last month of two black men in a branch while waiting for a business meeting. staying with coffee, the owner of pret a manger has sold the uk—based chain to jab holdings for $2 billion. the private investment group is taking on beverage giant nestle by rapidly acquiring companies linked to the coffee market. chinese e—commerce giant alibaba has agreed to sell its tmall online pharmacy business to its publicly—traded healthcare arm in a deal valued around $1.11 billion. the firm will transfer the pharmacy business on its tmall marketplace platform to its hong kong—listed healthcare affiliate in exchange

for shares and convertible debt. malaysia's new prime minister mahathir mohamad has announced he will scrap the project to build a high—speed railway to singapore. the country's new leader has made it a priority to cut the national debt and pledged to review big projects agreed by his predecessor. mariko 0i is in singapore. what more do you have on this? as you mentioned, malaysia's new prime minister mahathir mohamad has said he will scrap this project and his focus is to cut down the national debt which is about a quarter of a trillion of us dollars and he hopes by scrapping the projects that he thinks are not beneficial to malaysia's economy, he can bring it down by about 20%. but this project

has generated quite a lot of interest in the region and outside the region, among the high—speed rail manufacturers. i just the region, among the high—speed rail manufacturers. ijust met somebody in tokyo who was interested so somebody in tokyo who was interested soi somebody in tokyo who was interested so i bet they are caught off guard. mahathir mohamad has admitted malaysia will probably have to pay a bit of money, about $125 million, to singapore to get out of the deal, although the singapore authority has said yesterday it has not received an official confirmation. today is a public holiday. we will see if it gets confirmed. thank you very much. staying in the region... asian shares fell on tuesday and the euro struggled near six month lows as those early elections loom in italy, although a revival in diplomatic talks with north korea and a retreat in oil prices is supporting investor sentiment on tuesday. injapan, shares fell to one—month low, with investors selling cyclical shares as concerns over european politics added to the list of reasons to be cautious

about the global economic outlook. chinese shares were in the red too, with the blue—chip down 0.6% and hong kong's hang seng index off 0.7%. liquidity was relatively thin with public holidays in singapore, malaysia, indonesia and thailand. here in europe, a sharp rise in italian debt yields has added to worries about stability. and shares across the region look set to extend losses. after a roller—coaster session with italian stocks, and particularly bank stocks, plunging on fears a snap election could turn into a referendum on italy's place in europe. here in london, the ftse 100 is catching up on monday's action after a bank holiday. and joe miller has the details about what's ahead on wall street today. a short working week on wall street will kick off on tuesday with the monthly consumer confidence survey, the index is based on the perception of the of current business and employment conditions as well as

expectations for the next six months when it comes to business conditions employment and income. consumer spending to two thirds of the us economy and any change in attitudes could move both stock and bond markets. elsewhere, the definitive home price index which charts the changes in the value of residential real estate in 20 metropolitan regions will be released. last month, half of the city ‘s including la san diego registered the highest ever home prices and investors will be on the lookout for signs of an overheating market. joining us is alpesh patel, chief executive of praefinium partners alice was running through the european markets, perhaps no surprise they are down given what we have seen in italy, but the asian markets have also responded similarly, probably over the same thing, the italian issue, its scope is clearly out there, global. not

only is it global, it is outweighing the north korea summit because if anything there was more positive news for the asian markets to react off the back of that. normally italian stories are very much to do with italy. if it can reach as far as asia and concern about europe overlaid with what is happening with brexit, they are getting worried. 0ne brexit, they are getting worried. one other aspect, on friday, a vote of no—confidence against spanish prime minister. at that in, the markets are getting jittery. 0ne line of good news, the euro's falling, european company earnings on paper, in dollars, stirling, they will look a little bit better. what does this mean for the single currency potentially? could it turn toa currency potentially? could it turn to a referendum on the euro itself? it is too early to worry but they will have a technocrat in italy for now who will not expand fiscal spending which is the big worry, that they will keep on spending, more and more debt, and that is

actually better news for the euro and for what the ecb might have had to do in terms of finding more capital to try to stabilise the european economy and would have been the case for the chap they were planning to install. so, actually, the lesser of two evils and better news for the european experiment, if you can call it that. quick sneak view on what will happen in the us, half a week off! the best may for the us stock market in nine years, normally the markets say sell in may, go away. this month, up almost 396, may, go away. this month, up almost 3%, partly off the back of tax reforms in congress, donald trump, so it has been a counterintuitive may and i suspect, only a couple more days to go, it will continue to the end of the month, positive good news. thank you very much indeed. see you later in the programme. still to come... would you agree to rent a home without seeing it beforehand? we'll be talking to one spanish

start—up which hopes to become the airbnb for medium and long—term rentals. you're with business live from bbc news. a 5.5% rise in in british gas prices comes into effect today, which is likely to cost customers an extra £60 a year. a total of 4.1 million british gas customers are expected to be impacted by the price hike. joining us now is claire 0sborne, from uswitch energy. it is the hype justified by five out of the big six? it is certainly true the thing that makes up 40% of the energy bill, wholesale prices, that has increased dramatically recently, driven by things like conflict in the middle east, the effect of exchange rates changing, but also the beast from the east used up a

lot of energy where you are expecting to use next winter, so all of those things are pushing up prices. in which case, is this one of those times when you do not necessarily say, look, if you are?, get out and switch, it will not make -- if get out and switch, it will not make —— if you are customer, get out and switch, it will not make much difference? that is not the case. some of the most expensive tariffs on the market, the five out of the big six, and the cheapest is almost £400 cheaper, so now is the time to get out and switch and make sure you are get out and switch and make sure you a re protected get out and switch and make sure you are protected from the price rises, they are already expensive standard variable tariffs and they are only going up. we are always being told to switch, yet a lot of us still suffer from inertia, we to switch, yet a lot of us still sufferfrom inertia, we stick to switch, yet a lot of us still suffer from inertia, we stick with our providers, is it easy to switch? it isa our providers, is it easy to switch? it is a very simple process, all you need to do is take your bill with

your postcode and all of your consumption, that is all the information you need to do a comparison, you can do it in about ten minutes online, you can use an app which means you can scan the bill and it will pull the information in automatically or you can call the uk based helpline at uswitch, it is very straightforward. i finally uswitch, it is very straightforward. ifinally did it uswitch, it is very straightforward. i finally did it and you are right, it was easier than i feared. thank you very much indeed. lots of other stories. a profits warning issued by currys. also we have another copy story. that is all on our business live page. you're watching business live, our top story: shares in asia have fallen and the euro is near a six and a half month low

as italy is plunged deeper into political crisis. now would you agree to rent a home without seeing it beforehand? well, one spanish start up is hoping to become the airbnb for medium and long term rentals. their staff will go to properties, check them, take photographs and video. it's designed for overseas students and professionals who need to organise a rental in advance but aren't able to look at it in person. well, joining us now is alejandro artacho, founder and chief executive for property tech firm, spotahome. wonderful to see you. thank you very much. where did the idea come for this business? i was working in the

real estate business in london and when i arrived here either property management companies and estate agents and landlords were doing a lot of viewings of apartments and international people did not have time to go and see the property, so we we re time to go and see the property, so we were wondering how could we do it? people do not need to go and see a house and they could book a house for a year. i have been living in different countries in the world. so we got four of us together thinking about this and we went to houses and we we re about this and we went to houses and we were showing you a house as if you were a friend or a family member, showing you everything in the house, opening the drawers and the house, opening the drawers and the windows, and that was the hypothesis. suddenly we had nine properties in madrid and in less than two hours we got a booking from a japanese person who booked for a year and

a japanese person who booked for a yearand a a japanese person who booked for a year and a half without seeing the house. so you immediately got the sense that this had legs and you showed them warts and all what the properties were like. we referred to you as a potential heir b&b and i do not know if you like it or not, but with air b&b you go there for a few night, but this is six months to a year without having that real feel from walking into a property. people say you decide if you like the place from the first few seconds when you enter it. that is not a video. is there a cultural thing going on here? it is a change in the movement. for example, the japanese person was in madrid and not in japan. he was already there. two yea rs japan. he was already there. two years ago it is about a lesser percentage. when you go to a house

sometimes you have less than five minutes to see it and in our videos you have over ten minutes and we have 360 degrees videos and floor plans and ten reviews and all our listings are done by us, so all the information is objective and we do not have cancellations when people go and check in. we have security when you transfer the money to the landlord before the tenant moves into the apartment. we have extra things for both sides. into the apartment. we have extra things for both sideslj into the apartment. we have extra things for both sides. i am curious as to what differentiates you to a normal letting agent, or the moving agent. what marks you out? you can rent and accommodation for whatever amount of years, in one click, insta ntly. amount of years, in one click, instantly. you can be anywhere in the world. if i lived in beijing and

i was moving to brussels tomorrow i could book at the airport in one click. are you dealing with all the different regulations you get in any given country? that is the hassle of any move. all of that we help out with that and we are giving extra services for both sides. it is a booking platform and all the contracts happened between the landlord and the tenant, but after that we have guarantees on default of payment for the landlord. we cover damages. 0n the contracts, for example in our listings, which we think are the most complete listings out there in real estate, then you have the standard terms of the contract and the contract itself and you can do that. now we are working on digital contracts. you are spelling everything out. hold on a second. we have not got much time. 0ne second. we have not got much time. one last question. 0bviously

second. we have not got much time. one last question. obviously you live in one of these rentals and you area live in one of these rentals and you are a minimalist. you own less than 100 objects. has that helped you? yes, it does. we say in the company that we want to set people free and one example is if you have less than 100 items you can move quicker. i moved six times in the last three yea rs moved six times in the last three years and i moved around with one bag. and you change neighbours in a city and that is something that we love. moving home with one bag! that is the way to move. we got the maximum out of our minimalist! 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 day's business news as it happens on the bbc‘s business live page. there is insight and analysis from our team of editors right around the globe. and we want to hear from you too, get involved on the bbc‘s business live web page @bbc.com/business.

on twitter we are at bbc business. and you can find us on facebook at bbc money. business live, on tv and online. what you need to know when you need to know it. what other business stories has the media been taking an interest in? alpesh patel joins us again to discuss. let's begin with this story in writers which we have mentioned. many starbucks right across the country closing down today, undoubtedly costing this company a huge sum of money, and it is all about protecting their reputation. the notion of unconscious bias. two black men walked into a starbucks and they had not ordered anything after five minutes and so somebody called the police. personally i think anybody who does not order any

thing within five seconds in starbucks should be thrown out. there is a whole bunch of white folk getting very worried that they might be unconsciously biased towards black people in america. nobody is talking about it the other way round. but this is a broader issue about unconscious bias more generally. is it unconscious bias when i think women should be paid less tha n when i think women should be paid less than men? i think that is overt bias. it is an issue that has been a problem in other countries. we might not have the same race problem that america has, but there will be other subconscious bias issues. not only is it overkill by starbucks to shut down stores, to teach people that they might be unconsciously biased, but also can you remove that buyers anywhere? it might look like a pr

stu nt anywhere? it might look like a pr stunt in that regard, but this is an important issue. to throw a couple of people out because they loitered for a few minutes. starbucks want people to come in, have a meeting and take their time. bias goes back to effectiveness. i am lecturing on this at one o'clock. the problem of buyers, not racial or sexual, there is bias in business. confirmation bias, we want to hear people who agree with us. can they effectively be removed? i am not sure if this was the right way and if i was a shareholder in starbucks i would be furious at this methodology and what looks like overkill. an important issue, but overkill is a method of solving it. there has been a report out that we are buying less prosecco. the telegraph and other business pages are asking do we no longer see it as an aspirational luxury item? longer see it as an aspirational luxury item ? have longer see it as an aspirational luxury item? have we reached peak

prosecco? my aspiration is to drink decent champagne, my reality is supermarket prosecco says somebody. austerity means have the population cannot afford to have such aspirations says another. what is your opinion? i aspirations says another. what is youropinion? iam aspirations says another. what is your opinion? i am teetotal. but i love the snobby nurse around alcoholic drinks. cheap prosecco tastes like soda water mixed with a bag of sherbet pips says one commentator. what you should be having instead is something called tremont. it is an incredibly precise and pristine sparkler. we will remember that. thank you for being with us. staying warm with a potential for

further thundery downpours as we move through the next couple of days. today's stars of fairly great, but it will brighten up as we move through the day. we have sunshine in the forecast, the best which can be found in the north and the west. northern ireland and scotland saw the warmest days of the year so far. i risk of thundery showers in the south and they will be fairly hit and miss. but they could contain thunder, lightning and hail. the best of the sunshine in northern ireland and north—west scotland. fog lingering on the east coast. temperatures down a bit on yesterday, but for northern ireland and north—west scotland you could see 26. 0vernight more in the wake of cloud working its way in from the east and mist and fog developing.

holding onto clearer skies in north—west scotland and northern ireland and showery outbreaks of rain pushing into the south and east in the early hours. temperatures staying widely in double figures, so a humid night to come. 0n staying widely in double figures, so a humid night to come. on wednesday a humid night to come. on wednesday afairamount of a humid night to come. on wednesday a fair amount of cloud around and mist and fog, again the chance of catching some showery outbreaks of rain which will work their way gradually north and west. the best of the sunshine in northern ireland and north—west scotland with a maximum of 24. in the south east we are looking at 22 or 23. there is a chance of catching the odd isolated shower in the northern isles as well. as we move through wednesday into thursday we are still in that warm and humid air. the risk of catching heavy, thundery downpours. afairamount of catching heavy, thundery downpours. a fair amount of cloud as we start

the day on thursday with mist and fog and the risk of thundery downpours largely in the south. they will be fairly hit and miss and we could see a few further north. a cloudy day for scotland and northern ireland. temperatures again staying warm, a maximum of 23 degrees. hello, it's tuesday, it's 9am, i'm victoria derbyshire, welcome to the programme. 0ur our top story today... doctors and nurses who treated the father and daugher after that nerve agent attack in salisbury have told the bbc they didn't expect the pair to survive. we would try all our therapies, we would ensure the best clinical care, but all the evidence was there that they would not survive. for the first time, we now know how many primary school children in england are severely obese. campaigners say urgent action is needed. we are in the uk already the most

obese nation in western europe and we have to tackle the youngsters, we have to tackle this