this is business live from bbc news with vishala sri—pathma and david eades. america or iran — european companies are forced to choose their future as us sanctions come back into force. live from london, that's our top story on tuesday, 7th august. iran accuses president trump of psychological warfare for reinstating sanctions after he pulled the us out of a deal designed to curb tehran‘s nuclear programme. also in the programme... taxi wars — indian ride—hailing app ola plans to expand into britain as it continues to plot its route to overseas expansion. and a quick look at the markets as they open in europe, positive that they open in europe, positive that the moment, european markets were

predicted to open in the green, and they have. the coffee—cup craze, with billions of disposable cups being used every year — we'll speak to the centuries—old paper—making company that's trying to recycle them into tomorrow's packaging. and as robert redford announces his retirement at the age of 82, we want to know, would you want to keep working into old age, and what would keep you going? let us know — just use the hashtag #bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. in the last few hours, us sanctions on iran have come back into force. they‘ re being reimposed because president trump pulled out of an international deal designed to stop iran developing nuclear weapons. now, for many western companies, president trump's decision means they have to choose whether they would rather trade with iran or the united states, which is of course the world's biggest economy.

now, us companies have far less to lose than their european rivals. us trade with iran was just under $200 million last year, but for the eu, it was more than $24 billion, as it continued to grow after the 2015 nuclear deal. well, today marks the first of two phases of the sanctions coming back into effect. and they will impact the car industry and currency transactions, as well as trade in gold and precious metals. there will be significant restrictions on exchanges of the us dollar and the iranian rial. as investors have fled, the iranian rial, it's beome more and more expensive to buy a single us dollar. it now costs about two and a half times as much as a year ago. some of the big european companies reassessing ties to iran include french oil giant total, car—maker renault, plane—maker airbus and german engineering firm siemens. now,the eu put in place a blocking statute to try and protect them but it's unclear how effective it will be.

thank you. amir paivar, business correspondent for bbc persian. thank you forjoining us. we will focus on the european aspect in a moment, but first of all, we have seen moment, but first of all, we have seen the impact of sanctions have had before they come in, now they are there, is it going to make a discernible further difference. what we have seen so far, it was in anticipation of the sanctions. they will take effect today and we will have practical, real impact of them hitting the iranian economy. forget about the currency which has lost half of its value already, which is very, very important, because it has triggered hyperinflation and will probably also translate into a recession. for example, the car industry, right now, the second

largest employer in the iranian economy after oil and gas and has the second—largest share of the uranium gdp. the entire car industry will be sanctions. —— iranians gdp. they will not be able to finance projects. the same with buying aircraft which iran desperately needs, and order the 200 of them, in the small window of the nuclear deal. the real impact of the sanctions will be severe to the iranian economy but yet nothing compared to the second batch of sanctions that will come in. that will get into oil and the big business. exactly. focusing on the eu companies, they are also big beasts, giants. they are pulling out or have pulled out already, the blocking mechanism that eu has brought forward, it has done it before, it does not even apply to them, because they have already made

them, because they have already made the move to get out? is that right? exactly. those who have already left will not be subject to the so—called blocking statute which prevents european companies following us sanctions. the blocking statutes will protect small companies that do not have exposure to us markets, have made up their minds that they wa nt to have made up their minds that they want to stay in iran because the small business they have in iran is profitable to them, and they needed this kind of protection from european countries saying, if you state, and if you are subject to any damages by the us treasury, we will support you. good for the small companies, you can understand, but hardly even crumbs off the table in terms of real economic value or impact. exactly. what in-run's oil industry needs is something like total —— what iran's will industry needs. that is the kind of

technology or know—how iranian industry needs desperately and those are the companies that have great exposure to us markets and they had to leave. very briefly, bit short of time, interestingly, the people who ta ke time, interestingly, the people who take the rap for this, within iran, americans or government? well, from the ordinary iranian point of view, it isa the ordinary iranian point of view, it is a combination of both the sanctions and internally, people are blaming both, and the west politicians and also their own, and at the end of the day, it is the ordinary people the victim of the war between the two sides because it is their finances which are shrinking by the day. always comes down to the ordinary people. thank you for that. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the us billionaire stan kroenke has made an offer to buy the 30% of arsenal football club that he doesn't already own. the deal would value the football

club at around $2.3 billion. in a statement to the london stock exchange, the american billionaire said he thought the club would benefit from being ta ken private. it's struggled to compete with the likes of manchester city and chelsea in recent seasons. it is worth far more than that! germany's second biggest bank, commerzbank, has beaten expectations — bringing in a net profit of $314 million over the past three months. germany's second biggest bank, commerzbank, has beaten expectations — bringing in a net profit of $314 million over the past three months. the bank, which is partly owned by the german government, is in the midst of a restructuring programme — cutting staff and upgrading its technology. japan's household spending fell again injune — dropping by 1.2%. it's the fifth month spending has fallen. consumer spending has been a soft spot in the economy as slow wage growth prevents households from loosening their purse strings. the indian ride—hailing app 0la is expanding into britain. it's the company's latest move to expand overseas as it tries to compete with the us giant uber.

devina gupta is in delhi. a pretty bold move by the company? absolutely and the second international for a further seven—year—old indians start up, after australia, now eyeing the uk market and a market which has seen a bit of competition between existing uberand bit of competition between existing uber and the iconic london cabs. here is where 0la is planning to give a solution. it is saying its users will be able to choose between a private hire vehicle and a black cab. also it is offering low commissions for the taxi drivers, something that has worked for the company in australia as well. and 0la is hoping to turn profitable after the uk market. here is the catch, the real story is both 0la and uber have a common investor, calling for a merger of the two taxi

hailing bats and with this move, you have seen how uber has exited from the south asian market, it will be very difficult the uber to catch up on the competition 0la brings along. softbank doing well with investments, interesting to see how 0la does. this is how the markets opened... the figure from yesterday, dow jones, finishing in positive territory. europe... the ftse 100, territory. europe... the ftse100, all opening in green, lots of earnings out today, it is earnings seasons of calls. the ftse fairly flat considering. we will talk about that later. and pau that later. what's ahead on wall street today. disney sector lease quarterly earnings. wall street is expecting a mixed picture from the media powerhouse. 0ver mixed picture from the media powerhouse. over the previous quarter, it had big hits like the

incredibles 2. wall street is looking for the compa ny‘s incredibles 2. wall street is looking for the company's executives to offer comments on bringing assets bought from 21st century fox into the magic kingdom, the first earnings call we have had since disney purchased the film and television assets and famous brands like the simpsons from rupert murdoch's media empire. beyond disney, look fat earnings from snap, wall street is expecting positive news “— wall street is expecting positive news —— look at earnings. joining us is richard hunter, head of markets at interactive investor. we may talk arsenal later! the markets, interesting, slightly positive at the moment across asia, we have the massive trade tension issue which is global and yet we have an american economy which is on an absolute roller—coaster, they are balancing each other out, do you

think? in normal circumstances, you would have seen the us market race away a lot more than they actually have, you are right, detentions there, the escalating trade spat between the us and china, very much on people's minds. we have had a synchronised global economic recovery, the us in particular is absolutely firing on all cylinders, and what you would normally expect and what you would normally expect and hope is that the economic growth could continue on its own. 0bviously, markets at any given time looking to what sort of thing can this and us, china, that could be one of those things. it appears to be weighing on the ftse100, pretty good earnings in the last few weeks and they have not swung the index. a bit disappointing because it is fairly flat, the ftse, the last ten days. you are right, we have a lot of world—class companies in the ftse 100, overseas earnings, it is becoming a slightly binary bet on what sterling is doing, but given the recent... you properly would

have thought the ftse would have been stronger. i wasjust going to say, quick reference topsoil, the next raft of americans factions will focus on iranian oil —— reference to oil. we have got 90 days to work it out. it is all about demand and supply when it comes to oil. in the last few days, saudi production is lower than expected. by the same token, 0pec turning up and down the track as necessary. difficult though this will be the iran, it is likely to have more of a limited impact. this will be the iran, it is likely to have more of a limited impactm it going to hit it? it is not terribly likely at the moment. we we re terribly likely at the moment. we were predicting a few months ago when we first heard about the sanctions that it was a possibility but it has tapered off a little, interesting to see what happens.

absolutely. while there is excess supply available, that will continue to keep a lid on prices. richard, thank you, see you later for the news about arsenal, possibly, if we can squeeze it in. still to come... the coffee—cup craze — with billions of disposable cups being used every year, we'll speak to the company trying to recycle them into tomorrow's packaging. you're with business live from bbc news. the restaurant industry's had some well—publicised problems recently. we've seen the gaucho group go into adminstration, and chains like prezzo and byron burger have closed some sites. so, how are takeways doing? did the world cup give them a side order of extra profits? dominos pizza has just published its first half results for the uk and our business reporter theo leggett is in our newssroom. having digestive those results, how

are they doing? investors are finding them quite hard to digest. although domino's pizza made a like—for—like profit of £45 million, up like—for—like profit of £45 million, up 2.5% on the same period a year ago, like—for—like sales increased as well, but investors do not seem to like it, shares down 12% early in the day, still down around 10%. part of that might be problems with international expansion, domino's, master franchise in the international expansion, domino's, masterfranchise in the uk international expansion, domino's, master franchise in the uk for the american brand, but it also controls franchises in norway, switzerland, places like that. it is in the nordic countries it seems to be having more of an issue. although it is expanding sales quite quickly, that seems to be absorbing money. from that point of view, things are not great. there seem to be concerns over the way the company is being run. the chief executive is thought of as being quite hard to deal with by the franchisees, they are

complaining a lot of the increasing costs of the business in terms of ingredients needed and that kind of thing are being passed directly onto them, not taken up by the company. a little bit of conflict in recent months between them. and the finance director, rachel 0sborne, she left recently, the fourth finance director at domino's group has had infour director at domino's group has had in four years. although sales are increasing, although people hate more than 8 million pizzas in the world cup period, —— eight more. it is not going entirely smoothly for the group as a whole. thank you for joining us. just have a link at our business live page. 0la are challenging buber. it will be interesting to see if they can knock uber off their perch. that is deep but business.

0la are flying so we will see how they get on. you're watching business live. our top story — iran has accused the us of psychological warfare for reimposing economic sanctions. the restrictions cover the car industry, metals trade and currency exchange. a quick look at how the markets are faring... european market of opening in green. busy early season at the moment so we will be seeing how results will affect those markets. also the dollar and pound against the dollar slightly below 1.30. it has been hovering around that area since the last seven days after incest rates went up in the uk. bat interest rates. —— interest rates.

now, many of us can't live without our morning coffee — but that's having a significant impact on the environment, with one—use cups ending up in landfills around the country, and indeed around the world. just in the uk alone 2.5 billion disposable cups are used every year. but efforts to recycle them are stepping up. the process — called cuprcling — was introduced in 2015. through various treatments the plastic is separated from the paper and that paper is then given a second life as something else. james cropper plc is the company behind this — and it's partnering with brands like selfridges and lush to make fully recycled bags and packaging for those companies, with plans to extend to others. phil wild is the chief executive of james cropper. thank you forjoining us. here is a very old well—established family firm, looking for survival or moving with the times? i think to survive

the time that companies like james cropper one and is —— 170 years you have the the times. it is about innovation and being spoken and niche. that is why the company is there today and thriving. you are doing cuprcling, talk us through the process that you are working on and where the cups end up. we manufacture a whole series of different markets and we are focused on environmental and sustainability as well. we saw these cups as a very valuable source of raw material. today try to cuprcling these were going to landfill and if so narration as well. we are taking these cups and using them as raw material. the issue with the cup, let me try the plastic, let me try

and break that through, on the inside of that cup there is a plastic inside and that is what makes it difficult to recycle. what we developed a few years ago is a process that cleanly takes the inside of the cop off and then the plastic can go to a third party to be reused. we are then left with the fibre for the product which can be used as a raw material. what is interesting to hear is about all the different industries, it is notjust paper traditional products you would think. we manufacture paper out of a whole series of different materials, carbon that goes into aerospace, fuel cells, wind turbines as well. the coffee cup typically goes into paper products. i'm interested about cuprcling and the recycling, presumably that is not cheap. is that raising the cost of the paper, does it change the quality of the

paper? how does that work?m does it change the quality of the paper? how does that work? it is interesting because the quality of the paper in a cup is very high, there is a process we call up cycling so that is where we take waste and put it into a better product. hence the logo of cuprcling which is used in the coffee cuprcling which is used in the coffe e cu p cuprcling which is used in the coffee cup to but the in a different product. a couple of examples here, this is a retail bag, you can see the cuprcling logo and in here are two copy cups and the bigger the bag the more you have in there. —— coffee. and then when i thought that the way that is just paper again. you would dispose of that as you would normally do with your waste paper. we took that one step further and we developed a moulding process for paper so rather than a paper sheet that we would make into bags and boxes, but we have also developed is moulding paper. this

replaces angle use plastics. this particular one is used for perfume but the entire box is made of paper. it is made out of coffee cup. we have ta ken a it is made out of coffee cup. we have taken a product which was going to landfill and we have replaced single use plastics with the sustainable product. the most important thing is end of life. that is where single use plastics have the biggest downfall, the lack of biodegradability and recycling in plastics with a product that you mould, you can fully recycled. very quickly, i know you deal with 20 million cups year, what is your goal? we have capacity for half1 billion cups. that has ramped up quite significantly, we just put more capacity in place. we are encouraging people to recycle the cups. thank you very much. good to have you. the intercontinental hotel group, which apart from intercontinental

operates chains like crown plaza and holiday inn, has reported healthy earnings for the first half of the year, helped by higher demand in china. 0ne one of the most important numbers is how they make for each available room. revenue per available room rose 3.7% in the three months to 30 june. the company's chief executive keith barr explained their strategy for growth. we focus on where do we have a gap in the portfolio? where do we have a product that customer wants to buy from us. the hotel brand is great. we recognise that there was a huge potential market that we didn't have a product were. we launched the brand last september and already have 130 hotel signed on a short period of time. we have on the list for a period of time that while we have 40 macro as the largest luxury brand in the world we had a gap higher than that at a higher price point for customers wanted to pay more to stay in the market. that is

why we acquired region hotels and resorts so we will keep wanting and acquire new brands to strengthen our portfolio. what other business stories has the media been taking an interest in? richard hunter is back with us. yesterday we heard that the pepsico ceo will step down. a woman who has been at the company for about a decade. she has that, in the public but she is one of the biggest female bosses of a major company that we have had around for a long time. yes, iconic rather like the brand. if you go back to 2006 share prices have risen 78% in that time which includes the big jump in the middle of the financial crisis. she has done a sterling job and the big boosts to build. fewer female ceos, fortune 500 underworld last year. boosts to build. fewer female ceos,

fortune 500 underworld last yeahm is interesting because it is getting a lot of airtime in the uk at the moment. it is interesting that the states that you would normally expect to be the vanguard of this kind of thing are slight and living in the other direction. the success of indian migrants essentially, indra nooyi, the boss of microsoft, the boss of gogol, all from south india, all migrated and became ceos. if you are taking the rose coloured glasses view of this, it is proof that the american dream can work. we asked the question for everyone, robert redford, 82, orjust coming up robert redford, 82, orjust coming up to 82, said he is retiring from acting. we wonder what sort ofjob does it take to want to go one to 82? i will focus on one reply in particular. i can think of anything

worse than retiring. i am lucky to have a job i love doing, meeting people, playing great music that they choose and working on very different shows every week. who is that? tony blackburn, aged 75 still going strong. here is one from john sta nton. going strong. here is one from john stanton. with current austerity policies and pension plans this may become reality. i suppose the question for you, become reality. i suppose the question foryou, richard, how become reality. i suppose the question for you, richard, how much longer? a little while yet. a few yea rs longer? a little while yet. a few years to go to 75, let alone 82. longer? a little while yet. a few years to go to 75, let alone 82m comes down to passion. and you need money to pay for your long life. we have loads of tweets. quite a lot of those involving creative stuff. jazz players and teachers. that's it from business live today. there will be more business news throughout the day on the bbc live web page and on world business report. we'll see you again tomorrow.

hello. it will be another hot and sunny day across the south—east of england. temperatures up into the high 20s to the low 30s but further north and west little bit fresher, similarto north and west little bit fresher, similar to yesterday with a fair amount of cloud and showers will step the rain for that is this area of low pressure. this weather front is the dividing line between the pressure conditions of the north and the hotter conditions towards the south—east. we have also got a bit of cloud and showers across scotland, northern england, wales, those showers more focused across northern ireland but you can see by the yellows with the pressure conditions compared to the hotter conditions compared to the hotter conditions towards the south—east of england where i mentioned temperatures would get up into about 32, 33 celsius. elsewhere the typical values are about 18 — 21 or 22. through this evening there is a

chance we could see some quite heavy showers moving to the far south—east of england. some of these could be heavy armour maybe even some thunderstorms, particularly kent, east sussex, up into norfolk and suffolk. gradually does will start of way. elsewhere when i denied it remains largely dry, apart from a few showers in the north—west. temperatures in the north—west perhaps into single figures but the south—east, 17 celsius. that will change the wednesday because this weather front will continue to move east and as the cold front may suggest it introduces these fresher colder conditions. the heat has been pushed away. all of us on wednesday being influenced by the north—westerly wind. there will be a significant drop in temperatures across the south—east. notice the difference. sunny spells for many of us on wednesday. some showers mainly focused towards western england,

wales, northern ireland and scotland. temperatures here very similar but look at that, then celsius, a drop in temperatures wednesday afternoon. this is thursday. some rain moving into the paris of these. some uncertainty as to how far north and west the rain will post but for most it will be a dry day on thursday. showers again in the far north—west. look at those temperatures up into the high teens or low 20s, below where they should be for the time of year. big difference compared to today bye— bye. hello, it's tuesday, it's 9am, i'mjoanna gosling. welcome to the programme. is it too late to save britain's high streets?

as house of fraser becomes the latest big name to hit trouble, with over half its stores closing, have we reached a tipping point? and what can be done about it? this is the long—term issue because the changing consumer habits of what people want when they come into the town centre is changing rapidly and businesses, together, we have to work with them to understand what the change is. we have a group of people in the studio together and they have been thinking long and ha rd they have been thinking long and hard about how to save the high street and we will be debating what can be done. also today, he claimed that actors actually faked the sandy hook gun massacre, and that the 9/11 attacks were staged.