this is business live from bbc news with jamie robertson and samantha simmonds. italy goes to the markets to raise billions of dollars today. its borrowing costs surge as global investors fret over the country's deepening political crisis. live from london, that's our top story on wednesday 30th may. investors in asia continue the global sell—off and seek safe havens, as fears over italy pushes the euro to a ten month low against the dollar. also in the programme, china warns it's ready to fight back after the us calls off the truce, saying it's going ahead with $50 billion worth of tariffs against the world's second biggest economy. that is where the market stand, not

a huge reaction, despite the problems in italy, a little bit of a bounce back in germany, the ftse is down a fraction, the cac a0 suffering a little bit, and the spanish market, having died at the start of trading, has recovered a little bit and has suddenly gone positive. wonky cucumbers, squashed raspberries and knobbly lemons. we'll be talking to the company making use of fruit and vegetables the supermarkets won't touch. and the coffee and sandwich chain pret a manger is giving every worker a £1,000 bonus — that's $1,300. today we want to know — what's the best bonus you ever got and why? let us know, use #bbcbizlive. welcome to the programme. today we have an italian question. investors in asia have continued the global sell—off, heading towards safe—haven assets as fears mount over italy's political crisis.

the euro has now reached a ten—month low against the dollar. later today, italy, the eurozone's third biggest economy will try and raise billions of dollars from financial markets. the italian treasury is selling up to $7 billion in bonds. essentially, it's borrowing money from the markets which is then used to help fund government spending. but the price italy is now having to pay to borrow has surged. in an auction yesterday, the price or yield — the amount of interest italy is charged — reached its highest level in three and a half years. it's rising because investors worry any new election could potentially become a referendum on the euro, which would raise questions about the future of the single currency. that would with us here is nicola marinelli, portfolio manager at valeur capital. welcome to you, thank you for being

with us. basically, two things going on, the political situation, we don't know where that is going to ta ke don't know where that is going to take us, possibly snap elections, or maybe an opportunity to form a government. we have the italian treasury selling up to $7 billion in bonds. tell us what you think is going to happen in terms of what impact did a's developments will have? well, clearly, the political developments are going to impact the markets, for better or worse. the situation is dealt very unclear, as you mentioned, they should be talks about a new government agreed, but that could collapse as quickly as it is started, and if it is a snap election at the end ofjuly, otherwise september or october, i think markets will probably focus on

what the parties are saying in their campaign. we are already in campaigning mode, and their platforms, you know, if it is too eurosceptic, if it is pushing more and more a huge budget deficit with universal income and other fiscal expenditure that are not funded in any other way, so these are real, you know, concerns, because italy already has more than 130% of gdp, and so this is taking markets by surprise, because even after the election, after the results, the markets were complacent, or at least quiet. yes, maybe there's going to be, you know, some kind of agreement

that we in the various coalitions, but nothing too extreme — and that is exact what has happened in the end. we are sadly out of time, a lot will depend on what happens in the coming hours, thank you for your analysis. nicola marinelli there. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. shares in the budget carrier air asia have fallen to a six—month low after police in india raided its offices. the police say they are probing allegations the airline illegally obtained operating licences. airasia has denied any wrongdoing and says it's working with all regulators and agencies involved in the situation. sir martin sorrell is set for a return to the london stock market just weeks after leaving advertising giant wpp. he is taking charge of a shell company, derriston capital, and plans to turn it into a new advertising venture. sir martin stepped down from wpp in april after the board investigated claims of misconduct. estonia's taxify is stepping up its battle against global rival uber.

it's raised $175 million in funding to further push into into europe and africa. it says it has ten million users and 500,000 drivers across 25 countries. around one million indian bank employees have gone on a two—day nationwide strike, causing huge disruption across the country's banking sector. the dispute involves a 2% rise offerforjunior staff. trade unions representing the workers called the offer unacceptable. public—sector banks in particular have been hit hard by the strike, with foreign exchange and cheque clearance both seeing some disruption. for more on this, we are nowjoined by sameer hashmi from mumbai. welcome to you, those people out on strike behind you, as we can see, 1 million people going on strike, how

widespread is destruction going to be because of this? well, that is right, 1 million employees, mostly working for public sector banks across the country, are on strike. it is causing huge disruption, because unlike other countries, in india more than 70% of business is controlled by public sector banks, so controlled by public sector banks, so what they have said is that 85,000 bank branches across the country have been affected, atm machines, not all of them are working properly, but they have said that online banking is something customers can rely on. but nevertheless, it is a huge disruption, earlier in the morning there was a huge crowd here, employees had turned up, categorically saying that they want the bank management to reconsider the bank management to reconsider the wage hike that has been proposed right now, 2% is not acceptable to them, and the strike will go on until tomorrow. this is one of the largest banking strikes we have seen

in the last few years. management say it is difficult for them to meet the demands, because banks across this industry have been struggling with high levels of debt. most banks, including some of the big ones, have either turned very little profit this quarter, or most of them have ended up making losses, so they say they are not in a position to increase the wage hike. but clearly the strike is going to have a significant impact across banking operations. china has reacted with disappointment after the united states confirmed it plans to impose 25% tariffs on some $50 billion worth of chinese imports shortly after mid june. beijing said it was both "surprised and unsurprised" by the move. the tougher line from the white house comes ahead of another round of negotiations. robin brant is in shanghai. they are obviously surprised and unsurprised, just as they go into

negotiations — they are playing hardball, aren't they? yeah, the threat of tariffs on up to $100 billion worth of chinese goods exported from this country to the us is the big weapon that donald trump and those in his administration have been able to hold around the negotiating table. at the talks in washington a couple of weeks ago, they agreed to essentially puts that weapon down, and the threat of a trade war was taken off the table. but with wilbur ross, the us commerce secretary, due in beijing for round three in a few days' time, it now appears that tariffs are back on the table, they will push a head when it comes to next month, and in particular america is concerned about the theft of intellectual property bill bus companies, something it says china has been doing for a long time. so now this is back on the table, and the sparring between these two sides,

the tactical manoeuvres, you know, changing week by week, and we are looking at the prospect, from the trump administration, of a grand bargain, a big dealabout intellectual property, market access, the tariffs charged in goods, maybe even involving north korea as well. in terms of the town ahead of wilbur ross's arrival, it doesn't look good, but the us have decided to bring their big weapon back to the negotiating table. a quick look at the markets, they area a quick look at the markets, they are a little bit muddled at the moment, . .. are a little bit muddled at the moment,... these are down as a result of the italian market problems, the political problems in italy, possible economic problems. and also to do with china problems as well that we have just been talking about. let's come to the european markets as they open up, the ftse down a little bit, not too much, the jack —— dax up, not a

straightforward decline, as we looked at the asian stocks. and kim gittleson has the details about what's ahead on wall street today. on wednesday it's all about banking regulations here in the united states. please stay with me! one of the biggest regulations that was passed in the wake of the financial crisis here was the so—called volcker rule. the rule is named after the former us federal reserve chairman paul volcker, and what it did was it and banks from using customer deposits to buy or trade risky securities. why? the idea is that in using customer deposits to buy things like credit defaults during the run—up to the financial crisis, the banks were making risky decisions that then necessitated a us government bailout. but on wednesday the us federal reserve will hear arguments that the volcker rule went too far. so investors will be keen to see if the federal reserve buys this argument, and of course they will be watching shares of bank companies that could be impacted by any

relaxation of those regulations. these are banks, of course, like goldman sachs, jp morgan and citigroup. kim gittleson there. joining us is mike amey, managing director and portfolio manager at pimco. as we have seen, not a straightforward picture in europe, but overnight in asia, yesterday in europe, all reacting strongly to what is happening in italy, so let's look at the huge debt that italy has, alex pose—gil as the rest of the world? so the issue with italy, as you say, their total debt is 130% of annual output. the challenge with this is that italian interest rates we re very this is that italian interest rates were very low, which makes paying a large amount of debt relatively straightforward. the challenges, as interest rates go up, it becomes much harder to pay that debt. the

last time italy got into serious trouble, the interest rate got up to 7%. so we are now three, roughly speaking, so there are someone in signs, but nothing like as bad as what we saw in 2011—12. that is why the markets, if you look at the broader markets, it has only been the last couple of days. and if you thought paying that off was hard, it would be even more difficult in lire! is anybody taking that seriously? both people see that as a few steps away, the reason that the markets have become more sensitive to this is the rhetoric, the italian populist parties have become more eurosceptic, and that is why we have seen this big pick—up, because so—called predetermination risked being a biggest you, and the banks had a tough day, very exposed. —— re—denominations. still to come... id

1d cucumbers, squashed raspberries, knobbly lemons, not describing the people here! we will be talking to the company making use of fruit and veg that the supermarkets don't want to touch. you are with business live from bbc news. de la rue has announced its annual operating profit fell by 11.2% to £62.8 million, mainly because it lost a key contract to print uk post—brexit passports. the firm, which makes money and passports, also blamed the fall in profits on some delays in other contracts. for more on this we're joined from the business newsroom by theo leggett. they did warn that this was expected and anybody who follows the news and saudi passport debacle would have expected it. absolutely and they issued a profit warning in late march —— who saw the passport

debacle. the share price is slightly up debacle. the share price is slightly up which shows you the results were anticipated. 0ne up which shows you the results were anticipated. one of the biggest factors driving them was the paper business, banknote paper printing that de la rue used to own. it sold that de la rue used to own. it sold that business but after the end of the financial year and it was a loss—making business so if you strip out those results they are not doing that badly, its operating profits would have been up 7% stripping out those figures. it was beneath the service eight reasonably strong performance. you would have thought somebody like de la rue, what better business can you have than printing banknotes and credit card and passport? the news about the passport? the news about the passport must be a real kick in the teeth. it is steady and stable but not a licence to print money! the passport decision was a bad one for the company, that contract went to a

franco dutch group which created a certain amount of political uproar in its own right but de la rue had invested £a million into trying to obtain the comeback —— the contract and it was a big setback. and news about rbs losing their chief financial officer. ewing stevenson has been in his post for the past four years and is seen as one of the architects in the turnaround in rbs which is 70% owned by the british government. they recently reached a settle m e nt government. they recently reached a settlement with the department of justice in the united states which effectively puts to bed a lot of its long—term legal problems so this is seen long—term legal problems so this is seen as a long—term legal problems so this is seen as a transition point for them. its agm is today and it seems the financial directors decided why not leave now while we are on a high? good to talk to you, thank you. a quick look at this, nuisance call bosses might face fines. we will find out more in a second.

you're watching business live. our top story... investors in asia continued the global sell—off heading towards safe haven asset as fears mount over italy's political crisis and the europa has reached a ten month low against the dollar. —— of the euro had reached. many of us are trying to not only eat healthier, but in a more environmentally friendly way. it may surprise you to learn that of all the produce grown in the uk, on average 10% to 16% of it goes to waste, according to a survey published earlier this year. to give you an idea, that's enough food to provide around 200,000 people with five portions of fruit and vegetables a day for a whole year. one reason for this is that the produce doesn't fit cosmetic specifications, meaning it isn't the right size, shape or colour. 0ne company, dash water, saw a way to use these unused fruit and vegetables to make what they've dubbed ‘ethical‘ sparkling water. alex wright is founder of start—up brand dash water.

good to see you. you have brought in a vegetable as an example of the kind that you use. explain how you came up with the idea to use cucumbers like this which are not straight. why would you throw that away? straight. why would you throw that 7 i straight. why would you throw that away? i would straight. why would you throw that away? iwould buy straight. why would you throw that away? i would buy it. we both come from farming backgrounds. we are passionate about using food that would otherwise go to waste but at the same time we worked at a mainstream fizzy drinks brand and we wa nted mainstream fizzy drinks brand and we wanted to create a drink that did not have any of the high sugar, calories or sweetener content. last year we founded dash water which we infuse wonky fruit and veg, stuff that would otherwise that would go to waste and we let it rest in

spring water. do you use it in your marketing? i can't see it on the container. it is on the can. the fa ct container. it is on the can. the fact that it is waste which is being used to the first time rather than thrown away, that must be a great selling point and how do you make use of it? it is a good selling point. what we want to do is capture people's imaginations and broaden the way that people use wonky fruit and veg that would otherwise go to waste. how do you get hold of the fruit? we sourced it via a food waste charity called feedback. and the notion that content and other visual sweeteners, i is to drink a lot of diet drink because i —— but i stopped because of the artificial sweeteners. how are you managing to ta ke sweeteners. how are you managing to take any natural sugars which does

add calories out of this? through the unique infusion process. we chop up the unique infusion process. we chop up the fruit and veg, let it rest in the water for six to eight hours that carries through the flavour but not the nutritional value. a lot of juices have a lot of natural fructose sugars but dash water has none of those. we are going to try one. which do you want? what i want to know the veg you are it is going to know the veg you are it is going to waste, waste, it must be free? we pay a market price for it. sorry, i'm just going to have a drink! it can't be the same price as the supermarkets play? we pay the same price as the supermarkets otherwise its defeats the object of what we had fun to do which is to encourage people to use more fruit and veg that would otherwise go to waste. there is no sugar. it is sweet but

you can taste the natural flavouring. how much is a camp? £1.29. sales are good, we are in about 1000 stores, we only started a year ago and we are in places like bp, amazon and whole foods. how did you get funding? we self-funded to start and we raised privately in november last year, a couple of notable angels coming on board. how did they hear about it? this was through the network mainly. good to talk to you. it's not for a sweet tooth. it was sweet enough for me. i was going to say for kids as well but i don't want to encourage fizzy drinks! my kids are not allowed fizzy drinks and that might be an alternative because it is fruity and they like the bubbles. good to talk to you and good luck with it. 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's 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 at bbc.com/business. on twitter we're @bbcbusiness. 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. what other business stories has the media been taking an interest in? joining us again is mike amey, managing director and portfolio manager at pimco. let's start on this about martin sorrell, who is going back into business, only has been away for a couple of weeks. is he going to make an impression again like he did last

time? that is what he is hoping to, wpp did not start as advertising company. it was shopping baskets. and the market capital rose to £16 billion. how old was the when he started it? he is mid—70s now. billion. how old was the when he started it? he is mid-70s now. he is obviously pretty healthy. he has got more money now as well! he is putting up 80% of the capital himself which obviously helps. i think what he wants to do: he wants to compete. and you don't leave the job that you run for 30 or a0 years and turn up a couple of weeks later u nless and turn up a couple of weeks later unless you have a lot of energy and are very ambitious. that will go down badly with his former employees, isn't it? i suspect there will be some nervousness. i am sure he will intend to compete. this is in the financial times, a story that

will warm the heart of anyone who has been runner—up in the middle of the night by a nuisance call. directors could face fines of £500,000. actually i think that is a bit mild! we're all been there. i've had a lot of nuisance calls! why not a million?! £500,000 is a lot of money. the other interesting thing about the story was the off, comment about the story was the off, comment about the story was the off, comment about the number of nuisance calls and text last year, 3.7 billion —— off . there is a way to opt out but our producers are they did it and they we re producers are they did it and they were still getting them. producers are they did it and they were still getting themlj producers are they did it and they were still getting them. i get them every so were still getting them. i get them every so often. what they're trying to do is tighten up the rules. there has been scope for fines but the total number was something like 70 million of which 50% has been paid since 2010. it is all about

tightening up the rules and holding people to account. one more story in the guardian, pat 0'shea staff are getting £1000 each as the business is sold —— pret a manger staff. it is sold —— pret a manger staff. it isa is sold —— pret a manger staff. it is a nice farewell bonus. i was going to ask you what your biggest bonus was but i don't imagine you will tell me! i'm very happy for pret a manger bulls up its a nice story. why would you do that? why do you think you would give... the deal is done. i assume it is as a gesture of goodwill to make them feel good as they move to the next company. and to stay. thank you so much for that. we will find out what that bonusis that. we will find out what that bonus is of —— of air! thank you for watching. another mixed bag on the way. blue

skies in the forecast, thunderstorms as well come down pours in places and guess what? it will not change for a few more days. it is pretty unusual across our part of the world to have such a prolonged period of stormy weather from the blue skies to thunder and lightning and we could have seemed like this again tomorrow with some flash flooding in some southern parts. a lot of storms and other parts of europe, flash flooding in germany for example, so certainly not just in flooding in germany for example, so certainly notjust in our part of the world. in other parts of europe it has been even worse in fact. this is what it looks like for the second half of the day, the downpours moving to northern england, effecting merseyside and into wales. it brightens up after them in the south but by far the best of the

weather is across western scotland and northern ireland with temperatures well into the 20s. still some showers this evening, you might catch some rain by midnight in glasgow and edinburgh and belfast but to the south it is cloudy, damp and murky. and muggy, 15th in london. it will start cloudy in many parts of the country, then the sun comes out and we have a spell of downpours on the way, this time reaching southern and south—eastern areas, maybe the west country and the midlands and these could be really heavy downpours reducing some flash flooding and a lot of rainfall ina flash flooding and a lot of rainfall in a short space of time, thunder and lightning as well. you can see these blue patches coming from the continent, that means that the risk of storms continued into friday but not necessarily in the same place. this is the forecast on friday, rain in north—western areas for a time, shower was breaking out in northern england. it looks like on friday

perhaps less of a risk of catching showers and thunderstorms across southern areas showers and thunderstorms across southern areas so showers and thunderstorms across southern areas so the temperatures will pick up a bit as well. on saturday, not so bad at all in southern parts, some sunshine for many areas of wales and england and a few showers scattered further north and the temperatures again on the warm side for the time of the year. goodbye. hello, it's wednesday, it's nine o'clock, i'm victoria derbyshire, welcome to the programme. as preparations for the us—north korea summit are back on, we bring you rare and fresh insight into the lives of everyday people living in north korea. it's brutal, repressive and despite the threat of imprisonment or even execution for speaking out, one describes leader kim jong—un asa vampire sucking up the money of his people. mostly, people criticise kim jong—un for being a businessman. people say that kim jong—un makes the same as

us that kim jong—un makes the same as us but takes away our money a lot. he uses his head to suck up money like a he uses his head to suck up money likea vampire. another north korean citizen told us about the notorious labour camps. we'll have more on what life's like living in north korea