this is business live from bbc news with sally bundock and ben thompson. stepping up sanctions, new restrictions on russia come into force today as america ups its economic battle. more penalties could follow. we're live, we're in london, that's our top story on wednesday 22nd august. the latest round of us sanctions targets products that could pose a threat to national security as relations between the us and russia show few signs of thawing. also in the programme: uber pays nearly $2 million to settle sexual harrassment and discrimmination claims but will it be enough to change corporate culture? financial markets in europe, the day has begun on a mixed note, we will

explain why. are you worried about your environmental footprint? well, what you put on your feet could help. we meet the man behind one company that uses recycled plastic to make shoes. and, big brother is watching, a new report says google 5 android sends data to google 5 servers 1a times an hour. do you worry about the power of big tech firms and the data they collect? let us know, use the hashtag bbcbizlive. yes, a very warm welcome to the program. a fresh set of us sanctions against russia is due to come into force today in response to a former russian spy and his daughter being poisoned by a chemical agent in the uk

and under these terms, nothing can be sold that could have a potential national security purpose, so this includes things like gas turbines and certain electronics. the sanctions came after it was determined that chemical or biological weapons were used in salisbury, breaching international law and this has specific procedures that don t come into force with other economic deterrents. further and tougher sanctions could be put into place if russia doesn t allow external verification that it's no longer producing those sorts of weapons. and that seems unlikely. you may remember earlier in the year, 2a russian individuals and 1a companies were targeted for allegedly meddling in the 2016 election

and other "malign activity. " shares in oil giant gazprom and aluminium producer rusalfell sharply at the time. important to note that russia is denying any activity in salisbury. sunny mann is a partner at the international law firm baker mckenzie. why new sanctions? the us, has reach a conclusion that russia has deployed chemical weapons, so the impact of that follows on from that determination. what we are going to see, as we heard, is restriction on sales of arms and related financing and further related restrictions on the sales of certain goods and technologies to russia. we already have a number of restrictions, you are right, and arms embargoes, so what we will be seen today and the

coming days won't have a significant additional impact on businesses trading with russia. what does it tell us about the impact of existing sanctions, are they working? one thing is clear, there has been trade disruption, not only for russia but those countries that trade with russia, particular sectors include impact did include energy, defence, banking and capital markets, and thatis banking and capital markets, and that is why business and the business community will be hoping for a diplomatic solution to the impact rather than continued ratcheting of sanctions. when i say, are they working, what is the intended goal, from russia's point of view, it is restricting things, from the american point of view, that restricts trade they could have with a potential trading partner but it is achieving an aim, what is the end game? to have an impact on policy related to certain sensitive matters, involving, for example, ukraine. they hope to achieve

certain political objectives through these sanctions. we have said there could be more to come, the question, what happens next. is it wait and see? more in the pipeline? november will be the next key milestone in this development, if the us cannot get comfortable that russia will not be moving away from its alleged deployment of these types of tools, thenif deployment of these types of tools, then if this cannot be verified by independent observers, then we may well see a further increase in sanctions that could include fairly wide ranging export bans. bans on certain products coming out of russia. bans on loans to the russian state. even restrictions on russian airlines as well. we tend to talk about sanctions as specifically targeted at one country or another but it is true, actually, everyone gets caught up in these in some shape orform, gets caught up in these in some shape or form, because global trade,

it is global, what happens in one country will affect others. what we are seeing in russia is not unique, the us and the eu are introducing sanctions, sanctions reintroduced by the us against iran, venezuela, a trade war with allies like canada and the eu from the us. trade disruption at the moment is fairly widespread and again, that is why it will be very much hoping the business world will hope to see a ratcheting down rather than a ratcheting down rather than a ratcheting up. fiendishly complicated, thank you for explaining all of that. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. uber is close to reaching a settlment over the firm will pay $1.9 million to 56 workers who say they were victims of sexual harassment and in addition a85 people will receive $11,000 each over gender and racial

discrimination claims. facebook and twitter say that they each removed about 300 accounts stopping underground misinformation campaigns from iran and russia. mark zuckerberg says his company has shut down more than 650 pages, groups and accounts as part of its battle against fake news ahead of elections in the us and elsewhere. some ryanair passengers who have received compensation for cancelled and delayed flights have been charged extra fees after banks rejected the cheques. several people said their bank had returned cheques they had received from the airline because they were unsigned. rya nair has apologised and blamed the problem on an "administrative error". i know all about delays and cancellations, my recent flights. look at his twitter feed, you can see the rage! supplies of wheat, a key foodstuff for many countries, are expected to hit an all—time high

at the start of the next season, according to the us department of agriculture. but it's not necessarily good news, because china, which produces half of that crop, is unlikely to actually sell any of it onto global markets. sharanjit leyl is in our asia business hub. 0n the face of it that should be good news, global supplier is up, but there is a spanner in the works, thatis but there is a spanner in the works, that is china. trying to explain this very quickly, in 45 seconds, this very quickly, in 45 seconds, this matters because your loaf of bread may end up costing you more in months to come, that is because those wheat stocks, all—time high, nonetheless, wheat reserves of all the major exporters have fallen to their lowest level since 2007 and 2008, that is really worrying. you may recall, that is when low grain stocks contributed to food riots across asia, bases in africa as well. the crux of the problem is

that nearly half the reserves lie in china for that. experts predicting that by the end of the season, the eight major exporters will be left with 20% of the world stocks, just 26 days of cover, and essentially, that may well mean that you don't really have to panic so much about your bread, because economists are predicting actually, you know, you will not end up seeing a lack of wheat on the markets, just that your loaf of bread may end up costing a bit more. all right, well done, you did it, thank you forjoining us. let's look at markets in general, japan, hong kong, most share markets are down, and that this despite mayhem emerging out of the united states, we had a guilty plea on the pa rt states, we had a guilty plea on the part of donald trump's former

lawyer, mr fix part of donald trump's former lawyer, mrfix it, as he was known, and also, former campaign manager found guilty of tax evasion and fraud, all this was kicking off at a time when the asia markets were trading, safe havens were back that kind of reaction, as the day progressed, people brushed it off and thought president trump can ride the storm, as ever. the european markets now. mixed session progressing. mining stocks lower, people looking at the trade talks that are expected to happen between chinese officials and officials in washington full up hopes that they will lead to a resolution in the ongoing trade battle. looking ahead to wall street, could be a historic day today, kim kittles and will explain why. —— kim gittleson looks ahead to wall street today and what could be a big day for the s&p.

the snp 500 is set to hit a milestone. the longest bull market in history. what is a bull market? no formal definition, but it is widely accepted to be when a market rises 20% from a trough. the opposite is a bear market, which is a 20% fall from the peak. and as of wednesday, the snp 500 will have been rising for 3553 days, the longest of the. —— since the dot—com boom of the 1990s. expect a future years and quibbling about definitions on the us stopped today. hope you are paying attention, there will bea you are paying attention, there will be a test tomorrow! laughter we know all about the numbers, what do you make of this strong bull run. 0ne, as explained there, going on quite a while. it is amazing,

re ce ntly quite a while. it is amazing, recently driven by the tax—free form in the us, but good, strong growth numbers, and yesterday, hints that maybe us and chinese officials will start talking to agree some kind of end to the possible sanctions that are going on, that is what has pushed markets on yesterday. certainly since the financial crisis, a tremendous recovery. this is with the snp 500, the cruellest index, 500 biggest companies, many would say, you know, it is a barometer of how the us economy is doing. despite all the mayhem that is unfolding in the white house. obviously we have been through periods where the technology sector, 2596 periods where the technology sector, 25% of the us stock market, has been growing at an unbelievably fast rate. that has been pushing the market on further. nevertheless, the economy broadly is doing very well.

a quick word on uber, looking at that story, potentially a big settlement, in a disco nation case, the question, they are very keen to draw a line under this part of their history, corporate culture has now changed, our finds like this the way to do it? certainly, putting pressure on these companies that are growing at a huge rate, has probably been the way to deal with this problem, because certainly, they have been growing so fast, concentrating topline and building out their infrastructure and so on, probably not paying attention to these government questions. 50 it probably has been a way to put them under pressure. more on that on the website. for the moment, thank you very much. there is much more detail on that on the website. still to come: tackling your environmental footprint with what goes on your feet. we will meet the man whose

company uses recycled materials to make shoes, saving 65,000 plastic bottles a year from ending up make shoes, saving 65,000 plastic bottles a yearfrom ending up in landfill. you're with business live from bbc news. a question we often ask here: how confident are firms about the future for the uk economy? new data suggests not very, according to the recruitment and employment confederation. in its latest report, it says employers confidence dipped for the first time since april. neil carberry is the chief executive of the recruitment and employment confederation, what factors have caused that sentiment? what we get in the survey this morning is a pretty clear to part story: firms are pretty confident about hiring right now, low and slow economic growth we have been seeing through the year is feeding through into newjobs. through the year is feeding through into new jobs. when through the year is feeding through into newjobs. when we look onto the horizon, there are clouds ahead, as

you have said, survey falls into negative territory, most firms failing the economy is not going in the right direction, some feel it is, that has got to be about the uncertainty we face through brexit and into next year. that is the real problem, the word brexit, most business leaders i talked to talk about the fact they have no idea what they are looking at in less than 12 months' time. that is exactly it, if you look at hiring intentions, you can see that in the survey, temporary staff, going up more strongly, than permanent placements, though permanent placements, though permanent placements are going up, a bit less confident about what next year looks like. the problem is, leave aside the politics of brexit, the political timescales might see us go through councils like this year, and get quite close to march before we see the shape of the deal. that may work for politicians but this misses

cannot work with that type of timescale. we will leave it there. thank you very much forjoining us. volkswagen has been accused of causing a drought in mexico, how is that, well, it is to do with their use of a cannon, a hail cannon, essentially, mexican farmers accusing the car maker of using this cannon to protect their cars from hailstones, tries to move on the clouds, to stop denting the cars... nonetheless, they say that has caused a drought for farms and accuse volkswagen of causing that out, more details on the business life page on the website. your‘re watching business live, our top story, fresh us sanctions are set to come

into force against russia after a former russian spy and his daughter were poisoned in the uk earlier this year. now, to something rather different, how sustainable are the clothes we wear and the fashion we buy? well, the industry often gets a poor reputation for using cheap labour and disposable materials to keep costs down. so can it ever be properly sustainable? well, yes, and it could be profitable too. a report by mckinsey says 66% of millennials are willing to spend more money if they're buying from a sustainable brand. and as a result, 42% of brands give details of where their materials come from. one of those brands, vivobarefoot, makes its products directly from waste, saving 65,000 plastic bottles from landfill last year. the footwear company was founded by a seventh—generation

member of the famous british shoemaker, clarks. galahad clark is founder of vivobarefoot. interesting in the report, people are winning to pay for it, people will actively seek out brands that are more sustainable. thank god for the business, and especially you see in the outdoor industry, a brand like patagonia is moving the agenda forward , like patagonia is moving the agenda forward, and undertaking sustainable initiatives way beyond what the legislation is. is that a fundamental part of the business, probably a criticism that one decade ago it wasjust probably a criticism that one decade ago it was just a note to environmentalism, we are a green company, we are great, we wonderful, delving into the details they were anything but; has that changed? the

entire part of the business is about sustainability? more and more companies are embracing it fully. industry bodies involved in sustainability are very profound and with very open source platforms, very detailed, about cataloguing life — cycle very detailed, about cataloguing life—cycle impact of every product, and the leading companies in the world a re and the leading companies in the world are genuinely doing a lot. tell us about the shoes. green one in the middle is made of only plants. one of our big initiatives is to replace all petrochemicals in the shoes, and you can make this shoe out plants. plant —based polymers. that is an exciting step for us. that would cost £50? this pair is more, children shoes, £50, this is £100. they last a long time. we make them foot shaped, so use

cuff a lot less, so there is very little shoe there are, they are flat, wide and then. the health of the foot, not just the environment. allow your foot to do its natural thing. an entire industry has been built around support and comfort and arch padding and all that sort of stuff and you say that is rubbish, it should have very little? rubbish isa it should have very little? rubbish is a strong word! laughter but the food are —— the foot has been developed over millions of years of revolution, very sophisticated, to allow the foot to do its natural thing and have strong, healthy, naturalfade, that is good for the rest of the body. a lot of the modern shoe industry built up in the 20th century art obsessed with technology. there is no evidence at all to show that any of that support or underfoot padding does any good whatsoever. in fact, it probably does more harm, especially for children, whose feet are often deformed by the modern

shoe industry. it is a bit of a public health scandal. most kids in the western world end up with shoe shaped feet rather than foot shaped shoes. interesting you should say that, i have three little boys, i went to clerks to get their first shoes, that is your family company, and they give you a photo of your child, all about development of their feet. how has the family reacted to use starting this company, that is all about shoes that are better for feet, company, that is all about shoes that are betterforfeet, not discounting what they have done for generations but challenging them in a major way. my cousin and i, my cousin is the design director, i have... i cousin is the design director, i have... lam cousin is the design director, i have... i am seen as the black sheep!... laughter as far back as the 19th—century, clerks were into foot health, making

durable shoes, extremely thin, very flexible, that is a relatively modern luxury. —— clarks. because of new technologies and new materials available. no question, companies had the best intentions, but we are arguably not set by 21st 20th—century problems, we can make shoes in a modern way which gets feedback to being strong and healthy. —— feedback to being strong and healthy. — — we feedback to being strong and healthy. —— we are arguably not this set by 20th—ce ntury healthy. —— we are arguably not this set by 20th—century problems. healthy. —— we are arguably not this set by 20th-century problems. here is how to stay in touch. stay up—to—date with all the days business news as it happens on the bbc's life page, insight and analysis from our team of editors right around the globe. we want to hear from you, too, get involved on the business live web page. jane is back to look

through the papers. we touched on this at the start of the programme, google could be tracking us even if we decide we do not want to be, ticked all the boxes, google has a very good eye on what we are doing. there is a lot of information that has been collected, some people have called it the largest artificial intelligence company in the world. even though you can turn your incognito mode off, and location history and so on, nevertheless, there is a passive, anonymous data collection which seems to be going on all the time. staggering number, 14 times every hour, if you using the operating system, and is own browser, that will send data to google services as

often as 14 times every hour. it is a lot, post facebook issues, suddenly everyone is becoming aware that these companies are able to collect a lot of data. is thisjust something we have do accept is happening, i wonder, something we have do accept is happening, iwonder, notjust something we have do accept is happening, i wonder, notjust google and the android system but all these devices that we have in our homes, that supposedly help us turn electricity on and off, whatever it might be, everyone and everywhere is collecting data, do we have do accept that is how it is? now awareness is increasing, we will see what pushback there is. what form it takes. that was pushback, gdp. that was the first form, there will more overtime. a lot of you getting in touch. i have always gone with the belief that whatever i do type online is probably being tracked by someone, somewhere. family times are you caught in a camera walking down

the street. using a product has advantages and comes with disadvantages, which is what we have been talking about, we should get used to it. it is still very early daysin used to it. it is still very early days in the industry. quick word, before you go, on this sainsbury‘s mega mode, sainsbury‘s, as do, biggest shareholders... looks like it will put pressure on tesco, the new combination will be bigger than tesco, 51 billion. although they will maintain separate brand names, there will be some benefits of buying together, and £500 million of cost savings. thank you. lovely to see you, thank you for coming in. thank you for your company. we are back tomorrow. goodbye. we will see some big changes in the

weather over the next few days, turning significantly cooler, through the next few days, into the weekend, that freshening up will occur with a band of rain moving south, cold fronts, moving through, and behind that, fresh conditions moving into scotland and northern ireland. rain will move out, sunny spells as we get through to the afternoon, that rain will be a bit more patchy, moving into northern england and across wales, head of that, in the south—east, some sunny spells, that is where you keep hold of the warmer weather. temperatures still getting into the mid—20s. north of this area, you notice the yellows, fresher feel, highs north of this area, you notice the yellows, fresherfeel, highs of 17 to 20 degrees in scotland and northern ireland. it is this band of rain, the dividing line, to the

warmer, milder, muggy weather, moving south and east into thursday, some makienok down towards the south—east, overnight tonight, further north and west, temperatures getting into single figures in rural areas. the first weather front, bringing the rain in the south—east, behind the fresher air, and another weather front will introduce much cooler air, the yellows will be replaced by the blues, the air coming in from the arctic as we go through thursday, pushing south, across the uk. during thursday, early—morning rain across east anglia and the south—east of england, clearing, sunny spells behind it, showers moving in to turn heavy across scotland and northern ireland, that cooler air is moving m, ireland, that cooler air is moving in, temperatures 15, 16 degrees in northern parts, holding onto a little bit of warmth across the south—east, up to 22 degrees. that will not last, as the second cold

front will not last, as the second cold fro nt m oves will not last, as the second cold front moves through, all of us through the influence of the north—westerly airstream, bringing in sunny spells and showers, most of those on friday, scotland, northern ireland, drier weather towards the south—east, but those temperatures in the teams. 14 degrees northern ireland, 19 celsius in london. temperatures dropping below the average for the time of year. staying fresh and cool into the bank holiday weekend. hello, it's wednesday, it's 9 o'clock, i'm victoria derbyshire, welcome to the programme. today, we bring you dramatic new images of migrants trying to jump onto the back of lorries in france, trying to get to the uk. at 9.15 our exclusive report on the tiny port becoming known as "the new calais". you must try every night. if you stay here just eating and sleeping, you can watch our exclusive report

in around 15 minutes' time. and if you are a lorry driver or work for a haulage company that