this is business live from bbc news with ben bland and ben thompson. a turbulent day ahead for ryan air with 100,000 passengers affected across europe. live from london, that's our top story on wednesday the 25th ofjuly. 600 flights are grounded by the lowcost carrier as unions call for better pay and working conditions. also in the programme, president trump announces $12 billion for us farmers who're caught in the crossfire of intensifying trade tensions. a mixed picture across europe at the start of the trading day. recognise this? the robe worn by britain's prince george when he met barack 0bama sent sales soaring for one kids company.

we'll be speaking to one of its co—founders about the pressures of dealing with overnight success. could san francisco ban workplace canteens? two lawmakers there say they should, to support local cafes a nd restau ra nts. so, would you miss yours? do you even have one? let us know, just use the hashtag bbcbizlive hello, and welcome to business live. some of you have been tweeting saying you would miss the canteen, others saying it would be a blessing in disguise! yet more trouble for ryanair. the irish airline is facing a fresh round of industrial action, following a pilot strike that concluded yesterday. its cabin crew in spain, portugal, italy, and belgium will walk—out over wages on wednesday and thursday, forcing ryanair to cancel 600 flights. around 100,000 inconvenienced passengers are expected to be

affected by the cancellations. however, the airline says its managed to rebook some with other carriers. the row over wages and the impact of higher oil prices has hit ryanair financially, with the carrier reporting a 20% fall in profits for the second quarter to $374 million. the current industrial action is symptomatic of a vexed relationship with trades unions. rya nair only officially recognised unions for the first time in december 2017. aviation expert, john strickland is with me now. it's an interesting one. a very new problem for ryanair, they've only just recognised unions and hopped on the heels of that they've got a big strike on their hands. how are they dealing with this? they are toughing

it out. they had a pilot strike in ireland yesterday and cancelled a very small number of flights. they said they could have actually operated some of those flights because they had enough crew. the biggest strike is today and tomorrow in the mediterranean markets, particularly spain and portugal. italy are affected... at a pretty crucial times. its italy are affected... at a pretty crucialtimes. its peak italy are affected... at a pretty crucial times. its peak season so we've seen 300 flights cancelled, 100,000 passengers affected. it's about 10% of rya nair‘s 100,000 passengers affected. it's about 10% of ryanair‘s operation and 10% of their customers. they did recognise unions in the autumn which came as a surprise to many people. they want to engage with unions but not at any price. it's going to be a long road to get to a position where they can coexist. you talk about how they can coexist. you talk about how they have come out fighting as we would expect. they published a mist of salaries and payslips for pilots and crew, saying they are pretty

well paid, what's the problem? pay is very good, especially for pilots. cabin crew are not well paid, or not highly paid in the industry as a whole. it's a job which many people would start in their career with a smaller number of people making it their career and rising to hire positions. they are an airline based on low fares, of course, which we wa nt on low fares, of course, which we want as customers but they've got to make a profit from that. if they don't watch their costs they can't make a profit. it can be knocked off course with so many factors. ryanair is proficient at making sure it has cash resources and keeping costs low. also with being agile. in the last few minutes ryanair saying it's potentially going to cutjobs, 100 pilotjobs could go, 200 cabinjobs

could go which is all about moving planes around for the winter. this reflects the tough talking. it's not a coincidence this message has come out. they've talked about a successful new charter operation in poland. it's a clear message to the pilots looking to strike and called industrial disruption in ireland which they point out is a minority. they say, we will talk to you and find ways to work but not at any price. ryanair has said you can't underestimate what a massive job this is corporately, as any company gone from zero union recognition to saying we will do so? i think the level of engagement has been different. they've acknowledged they've had some good union engagement in some markets where people have come to the table with a clear list of what they want, understanding what they might get from ryanair. understanding what they might get from rya nair. 0thers understanding what they might get from ryanair. others have come ill—prepared and want to cause

ructions. thank you. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the president of the european commission will meet donald trump in washington later to discuss trade and security. jean—claude juncker‘s visit comes less than two weeks after the us president described the eu as a "foe" the us has announced $12 billion to support its farmers as trade tensions begin to bite. the money is intended to protect jobs in agriculture as countries raise taxes on us products such as soybeans, in response to trade tariffs set by the trump administration. deutsche bank has posted a 14% drop in profit to $1169 million in the three months tojune. germany s largest bank is being overhauled by new ceo christian sewing, who plans to cut more than 7,000 jobs. the european court of justice is to rule later on whether the confectionery group,

nestle, can trademark the shape of kit kat bars. the decision will end an eight year legal battle with rival mondelez over whether the four fingered shape can be legally protected. american airlines and cathay pacific are the latest carriers to change how they refer to taiwan online, bowing to pressure from china. beijing set the 25th ofjuly as a deadline for airlines to remove references to taiwan, and instead call the region chinese taipei. monica miller is in singapore. this is fascinating. china saying you're not allowed to call it taiwan and a lot of airlines aren't yet compliant. you just mentioned american airlines and i was on right 110w american airlines and i was on right now to see if the change has taken

place, and it hasn't. they still have a couple of hours to comply with this and they say they will. again, in america people are still asleep. they say they are going ahead with this. however, i was on delta and if i wanted the same flight delta and if i wanted the same flight to taiwan, all i see is taipei and the airline code. the same goes for cathay pacific. they go as faras same goes for cathay pacific. they go as far as saying that it is a pa rt go as far as saying that it is a part of china. chinese aviation officials sent letters to 36 foreign air carriers earlier this year demanding that they say taipei was not part of taiwan. this goes back toa not part of taiwan. this goes back to a civil war that took place between them. both china and taiwan have been ruled separately but if you tell the chinese they are a separate entity they will come down ha rd separate entity they will come down hard on this. it's also expected united airlines will fall into this category as well as delta. 0ther

airlines have done it in the past, including qantas. taiwan officials say they are incredibly disappointed and would like them to reconsider their positions. thank you. asian stocks have made modest gains in wednesday trading, after a batch of generally solid us earnings and news of china's stimulus plans helped drive markets up. beijing on tuesday signalled that it would put money into the to protect itself from the effect of us tariffs. elsewhere, mining companies including bhp billiton, rio tinto, and glencore all gained around 5% on tuesday on the expectation that they would benefit from higher chinese demand for metals. those trade tensions remain in focus ahead of a meeting between the us and european commission presidents. all eyes will be on the meeting between eu officials, and the us

president in washington later. paul blake has the details of what's ahead on wall street today. well, earnings continue to dominate in the us. while tech has largely been in the spotlight, it will be sharing it with transport today. at the top of the agenda is facebook which wall street is expecting to post a rise in profits off the back of ad sales on its mobile platforms. of particular focus is video ads, which are very popular with advertisers at the moment. transportation companies will also be driving the day, with boeing, ford, gm and fiat chrysler all reporting their earnings for the second quarter. wall street expecting good news from boeing of the back of increased demand for air travel. traders will have a keen ear out for any comments from the car companies on how they are being affected by the ongoing trade dispute between the us and many of its key trading partners. chris justham is from seven investment management. let's pick up on the theme of trade.

it's a really important date, jean—claude juncker meets with it's a really important date, jean—claudejuncker meets with trump and they'll be talking about the trade war. we've seen both sides attention going up and now they are trying to calm things. if you look at donald trump's twitter account, he mentioned tariffs were a great thing, they were fantastic. to see the european trade commissioner has been a bit more conciliatory, she said she hopes to de—escalates the situation is slightly. it's difficult because both parties, if you rewind back a couple of years, that partnership fell apart and was supposed to be the first step towards a trade deal. we have the character of the trade deal and the sticks of tariffs. of course, the damage can already been seen from the threat of tariffs. when there was talk of tariffs and cars, car

maker shares around the world fell and that was even before the tariffs came in. whenever you hear that this is escalating, you see that index in particular full. is escalating, you see that index in particularfull. whirlpool is escalating, you see that index in particular full. whirlpool have is escalating, you see that index in particularfull. whirlpool have been affected in the us because aluminium and steel are more expensive. harley—davidson saying they will have to add to the cost of a bike. you've got levi's and bought —— levi's and bourbon affected. trump says he will provide financial help to firms who could potentially be worse off. even people within his own party have said that's not the way to do this because then you are selectively choosing jobs and industries to protect, and that's not going to work in the long term. you're right. it's the $12 billion he's mentioned he would provide in aid to farmers. the best quote i saw

is that this was 12 billion gold on crutches for farmers who have had their legs cut off. it doesn't solve their legs cut off. it doesn't solve the problem. but it indicates is this could be a protracted fight and he has no intention of stepping back. what he's trying to do is facedown any backlash that may occur from a domestic company. thank you. still to come. the personal touch. a british company specialising in personalising kids clothes is on the up after some royal help. we'll explain more in a few minutes. you're with business live from bbc news. itv has announced profits of £265 million for the first half of the year, but warned that future revenues from advertising may be lower than initially expected. that's because of increased

competition from streaming services like netflix and amazon. to combat this, itv says it's considering launching its own streaming service. for more on this we're now joined by claire enders from enders analysis. what's this broadly in line with what was expected from itv? absolutely. what itv have promised was a strategy refresh and that's what we got this morning. basically saying the pivot of our strategy will remain the two pivots, i eat production and advertising income and to that they will at a greatly enhanced focus on subscription revenue. both an existing streaming service and exploring possibilities including with the bbc to launch a british themed subscription video on demand service to compete with netflix. it's not really to compete

because the scale of competition of netflix is that netflix is already spending more on original content every year than all of the public service broadcasters combined. they have a certain track record with this. the current screening service, you can pay to get rid of arts. indeed. that's where they will be enhancing their services. for insta nce enhancing their services. for instance by adding downloads and services that people can buy. 0bviously, services that people can buy. obviously, we are looking at small sums of money. this is not a titanic push. that has been the theme for the last

eight years so the strategy remains pretty much the same but with more juice and effort into it and with the objective of generating substantial income and profits. claire enders, thank you very much. much more on that and the repercussions for the rest of the industry on the bbc live page, details the. bbc.co.uk/ business. you're watching business live — our top story, hundreds of ryanair flights are cancelled today, affecting around 100,000 passengers, with unions angry over pay and working conditions. much more on the website for that and also advice if you are affected by those strikes. now, let's get the inside track on the lucrative babywear market. it's a market worth $11 billion, according to new figures. and it's growing quickly, by around 2.7% over the next three years. it may be no surprise

that the most valuable market is the united states. consumers there are expected to spend $8.5 billion on babywear this year alone. so how do firms get a slice of that market? well, one brand was catapulted into the spotlight in 2016 when prince george wore one of its dressing gowns while meeting then president, barack 0bama. you couldn't write it, could you? what a good endorsement. daniel price, co—founder of that firm, called my first years. welcome to business live. nice to see you. we will get onto business ina bit. see you. we will get onto business in a bit. prince george, and barely two feet tall, meeting bowker dharma in the gown, had it happen? that was incredible for us. from day one we

we re incredible for us. from day one we were gifting celebrities and we thought, why not gift prince george? it would be amazing. when you say gifting, that is sending some stuff to the palace? we sent a robe and some items on clothes and some trainers and we thought it would be a nice gift. that is always thought. suddenly one evening there was a dinnerandi suddenly one evening there was a dinner and i looked at my phone and i had 185 messages telling me to go on the daily mail now and it was prince george wearing our dressing gown when he was meeting bowker 0bama andi gown when he was meeting bowker 0bama and i couldn't believe it. what does that do for the firm? clearly it is in newspapers around the world after that, it was the iconic image, this is one of the dressing gowns, we should say. when you have something like this you then have a pretty tough job you have something like this you then have a pretty toughjob because you've got to meet the demands for those you can't provide you've got put in bigger orders. ourjob was to get it out there, we had 1800 articles written worldwide within 48 hours and we sold out of the robe within seven minutes and within half an hourwe had within seven minutes and within half an hour we had it back on my first

years as pre—order on the website and we have suppliers meet demand quicker than normal. you look like you are sizing it up. is not going to fit! why has it got charlie on it and not my name, ben? it is all about personalisation of stuff. how did that come about? from a young age i was really driven, i lost my father at 13 and back gave me the drive and motivation to run a business one—day. i set up with a childhood friend and we said to each other, this is it, we had an idea based on a personalised baby shoe for a friend's baby so we thought, let's go for it and we tried every way we could to go for it and we found a way and we watched in 0ctober found a way and we watched in october 2010. you still remain friends to this day? lots of friendships go under a lot of strain. it has put a lot of strain

on my marriage because he is like my second wife! even though you him at the doors of downing street?” forgot to put him on the guest list when we went to downing street and gifted the camerons which he has just forgiven me for! a word on the gifting, because it's so important, we talk about social media and influencers and people being weren't certain things —— people wearing certain things —— people wearing certain things. you would imagine many babies have instagram and social media accounts. powders gifting work? it is important to get out to the right influencers, so all the parents, and we gift celebrities and they also become customers and dennisjust about and they also become customers and dennis just about them putting it up on instagram and giving that social proof and showing them we have a great product and brand. tell us about the expansion into the us because that has come as a result of all of the exposure you have had from that iconic photo. yes, so, when that image went global the us was a huge part of it. it was about

60% of the orders that week. we had sold the robes but also other products as well. within thought we need to spend a year on automating oui’ need to spend a year on automating our personalisation so that we can really fulfil the us market so now we are selling online in the us sending from northampton to east coast next—day delivery and west coast next—day delivery and west coast two day delivery and it's going well. lots of it is logistics, you talk about the delivery but this involves work to put names on it so a lot of investment upfront to make sure you can meet demand because there is nothing worse than trying to send a gift that doesn't get there in time for a birthday or a christening or whatever. exactly and we wa nted christening or whatever. exactly and we wanted to be the number one in personalisation so we invested in money to automate a name. if somebody put daniel on a robe or a blanket we will get it out the same day which is pretty much unheard in the industry. we often ask people who come on the show, biggest success 01’ who come on the show, biggest success orfailure. who come on the show, biggest success or failure. the who come on the show, biggest success orfailure. the biggest lesson you have learned. what have you learned in doing this? it is not necessarily a market you would have

imagined he would have ended up in but clearly there have been some real highs, have there been any lows ? real highs, have there been any lows? the real learning curve was that we just thought the us, prince george has happened, it is going to blow up, and we needed to understand it isa blow up, and we needed to understand it is a completely different culture. they like different products to what we do in the uk and it's about tweaking that and learning the market. daniel, it is really nice to see you. thank you so much. congratulations because it's not everyday that a business goes global overnight so congratulations. i've just realised the train is coming you have a parent like that but slightly different size. again, without the right name on. we will have one sent to you! 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 of the day's business news as it happens on the bbc‘s business live page with insight and analysis from our team of editors around the globe. we want

to hear from you too. get involved on the bbc‘s business live web page at bbc/ business, on twitter we are @ bbc business and we are on facebook @ bbc money. business live on tv and online, what you need to know and when you need to know. chris is back to look through the papers. the first one we are looking at, chris, is from san francisco, this idea that they might stop any new companies setting up in the city from having on—site workplace cafeterias. they want to support the local restaurants and cafes instead. that's right. loss of these companies have these ridiculous on—site kitchens where every whim is catered for basically for their workers and it has been an incentive for many workers to go and join the likes of twitter or facebook and everything over the course of the last five years or so. the difference is with the local community and businesses and cafes and food outlets therefore don't get

investment, don't get people going to buy their goods and don't have the workers engaged in the community. you have a huge building full of thousands of workers and it's a strange set up so they are trying to incentivise people to do that. they might be worried that people will go out and take too that's the debate, you get free stuff so that you spend longer at your desk but if you go out you might be away for longer. some staff workers going out, might be a good thing. thank you for your tweets. "i loved having a cafe at work as it made my lunch hour seem longer and i didn't have to drive around looking for my lunch." didn't have to drive around looking for my lunch. " kerry didn't have to drive around looking for my lunch." kerry said the workplace canteen is important, the union fought for this basic right. mrjohnson, you can guess what he does for a living, don't think it would be viable for teachers who have 30 minutes to eat, drink, toilet, check e—mails, ring parents, sort issues. keep your comments

coming in and if you want to follow that, #bbc business live. china tech hub to cultivate innovation. i was surprised they didn't have more already. they are banned in china and for mark zuckerberg it is a huge pa rt and for mark zuckerberg it is a huge part of the business plan because facebook numbers have been declining, they have come under pressure over the last 6—12 months with the revelations over cambridge analytica and advertising and we are quite fickle and as people get older and use social media lest they miss out on some of these people signing up out on some of these people signing up on facebook app that can impact on advertising revenues. china is a big market. the fact they are banned there, they are trying to get china in through the back door. nice see you, chris. thank you forjoining us. thank you for your company. we will do it again tomorrow. more online. bye—bye. temperatures are set to get even

higher over the next few days and then some changes. this system in bjelland it will bring outbreaks of rain, thunderstorms for a time on friday and then behind it something fresher for the weekend. before then, another dry and warm, if not hot day, sunshine around, showery rain in the far north—west of scotland. you could squeeze out a shower almost everywhere but most will be dry and these orange and red colours show the extent of the warmth and heat across the country. temperatures widely 22, 20 eight celsius, hitting 31, 32 in south—east england and east anglia. 0vernight mostly dry, clear skies for many, some cloud across southern and central england could provide one 01’ and central england could provide one or two showers, more cloud arriving into the far north—west of ireland, northern ireland. slightly

warmer night across scotland, northern ireland and northern england than the one just gone and still warm and humid for central and eastern england. tomorrow looks like the hottest day of the year, mainly dry save for one or two isolated showers and plenty of sunshine. more cloud and showery outbreaks of rain arriving into the north—west of northern ireland and the window strengthening in western parts of scotla nd strengthening in western parts of scotland but ahead of that, holding onto the warmth and heat, temperatures up to 32 or 33 celsius the further east you are, some could get 3a or 35 and we hold onto their heat the further east you are on friday. those fronts start making inroads bringing outbreaks of rain to northern ireland, western scotland, wales, south—west england and ahead of that sum thunderstorms breaking out. they are going to be hit and miss. don't take the blobs of blue too literally but some heavy and thundery showers for some on friday. they may not get to east

anglia and south—east england, to some very high temperatures here. those thunderstorms and outbreaks of rain continue on friday night, slowly pulling away north and eastwards into the north sea but some may linger during saturday. this is how we start saturday, very muqqy this is how we start saturday, very muggy and humid with showers around. slowly through the weekend something fresher arriving from the west, some spells of sunshine but also some outbreaks of particularly for western areas. bye. hello, it's wednesday, it's nine o'clock, i'm chloe tilley, welcome to the programme. the search for survivors is continuing in greece, where the fire brigade there say 79 people have died in the wildfire that swept through a resort near the capital athens. we are now here in the seaside village of mati. the priority is trying to work out how many people are missing and emergency services are missing and emergency services are coordinating now, just working out how many people managed to get away. there are many calls fire

services are getting and loved ones saying theirfamily services are getting and loved ones saying their family members are still missing. hundreds of thousands of people had their homes burgled last year, but this programme's found that an increasing number aren't getting any justice. he came in, the door was wide open, upstairs he went, and up