this is business live from bbc news with victoria fritz and sally bundock. bracing for apple results. the world's most valuable company reveals how it performed in the three months to september — has it hit a stumbling block in china? live from london, that's our top story on thursday 1st november. depending on how its done, in the three months to september apple's results have the power to lift confidence in tech stocks and even global markets but there are concerns about it's sales in china. also in the programme, there are reports of a deal between the eu and the uk on financial services — sending the pound higher. we have got all the details on that story and this is how we are looking

in the markets. and we'll be getting the inside track on health tracking apps — the founder of diabetes.co.uk will tell us how he built a community of over half a million members. sorry is the hardest word. the retailer anthropology apologise after it sold good that imitated an artist's designs without her permission. we are asking you today with the company has done you wrong, how has it said sorry? let us know — just use the hashtag bbcbizlive hello and welcome to business live. we are going to start with the world's most valuable company — apple. later on today the tech titan will revealjust how much money it's made in the last three months. a strong set of numbers would not only boost the business itself, but the whole sector and markets too. let's take a look at

some of the numbers — they're mind boggling. apple is valued at over a trillion dollars. 12 zeros after its name. only 16 countries in the world are bigger than apple. so it's no wonder that apple makes up 4% of america's biggest stock index, and over 10% of the us tech index. we've heard from some of its its peers — amazon, google and facebook — already. it was a mixed bag of results — and it led to very choppy trading on financial markets last month. apple's results will almost certainly swing the markets one way or another. what might we hear? well worth watching will be the performance in china. goldman sachs predicts a fall by as much as 15%. it has to keep re—inventing products to keep drumming up new demand. just last week apple launched its latest range of computers and ipads.

paul kavanagh, chief executive of patronus partners joins us now. good to see you. what are you expecting from apple? it will be a strong quarter. investors tend to look festival at how many phones did they sell in the quarter? that is around 48 million. in the next quarter, the christmas season, that number could well jump to quarter, the christmas season, that number could welljump to 78 million. one of the key measures and benefits we have seen over the last few years is how they have been able to keep increasing the price of the product. it used to be $600 and it is now moving up to $900 and some at the $1100 level. we look at the average selling price. that could come up average selling price. that could come up nearer to average selling price. that could come up nearer to $800 in this quarter. i presume that is for the iphone. as victoria mentioned, a

whole load of new products were launched last week and we can see tim cook presented on the stage right now. he was enthusiastic about the new ipad. $2000 for an ipad. who would have thought that years ago? that means their profit margins are getting bigger. that has been a pleasa nt getting bigger. that has been a pleasant surprise for apple, how they can increase the prices and it does not dent demand. the volume remains fairly static and it gets driven by the new products. often we think from the apple iphone eight, nine and ten, did they make a difference? it did. the upgrade cycle has been incredibly beneficial. it is all about this aspirational lifestyle, people are so aspirational lifestyle, people are so into the apple brand, they have got a cult following in a way that you are not into samsung or another device. apple has done really well which is why people are willing to pay more. there are also apple services and a lot of other stuff

goes on. that is the stickiness of the product. about one third of reve nu es the product. about one third of revenues come from this very stable corner of the business, apple services, cloud services, music and apps. that drives a very consistent, underlying revenue stream for the business. a quick word about china, victoria mentioning goldman sachs will say there is a 15% fall on business. it saw only a 10% climb in the previous quarter. china is important. it represents about the sixth of apple sales and is an important market for them. if they saw a 15% decline in that, you are knocking a couple of percent of the business. it is not a drama for them, but given expectations are high, any negativity could lead to a bit of softness in the aftermarket trading. paul, thank you so much. when we get the results we will let you know. let's have a look at some other stories. hundreds of google employees in more

than 20 offices around the world are staging walk—outs to protest what organizers describe as "a workplace culture that's not working for everyone". the demonstrations come in the wake of a new york times' report that detailed how google shielded executives accused of sexual misconduct. organisers of the walk—out demand more transparency from the firm around its handling of sexual harassment and pay and opportunity inequality. the us has hit back against a uk plan to impose a new tax on sales by technology giants. us political leaders and business groups say the proposal would violate tax agreements by targeting us firms. they warned the tax could spark us retaliation and hurt prospects for a us—uk trade deal. ryanair is changing its baggage policies from today, meaning passengers who want to take anything more than a small bag on board must now pay.

only those paying about $7 for priority boarding will be able to take a small suitcase of up to 10kg in the cabin. that option is cheaper than the $10 charge to check in a 10kg bag. ryanair says the changes are intended to reduce flight delays. whenever i fly i am always confused about that. what am i paying for? exactly, and if you are at the back of the line they take your baggage of the line they take your baggage of you anyway and do not put it in the hold, it is a nightmare. let's talk about the stability measures in china. the leadership in china has now signalled further measures are being planned, but will they put china back on track? sarah toms is in our

business have today. talk us through these ideas. there have already been a variety of measures the government has pledged to do and so far this year we have seen has pledged to do and so far this year we have seen china's central bank cut the amount of funds banks need to hold as reserve in an effort to pump more cash into the economy. we can expect to see them spend more on infrastructure projects, lowering taxation, perhaps lowering borrowing costs for businesses. all of this is in an effort to stimulate growth in the economy. there has been disappointing data out. confidence took a bit of a hit on wednesday after some disappointing factory output figures. factory data is usually significant because it is a good indicator of how the economy is doing. yesterday's figures showed output we can to its lowest level in two years output we can to its lowest level in two yea rs in output we can to its lowest level in two years in october and the government now knows it needs to do more in the future and we will have to wait to hear more of their plans.

but investors saw it as a good sign today and chinese stocks are up. thank you very much, sarah. let's have a look at the stocks, rising after the communist party leader showed confidence. let's talk about gold as well. central banks bought around $5.8 billion of gold in the third quarter of the year. that is their biggest buying spree since 2015. the ftse 100 their biggest buying spree since 2015. the ftse100 is down slightly. no doubt because the pound is rising, the pound is rallying sharply up at about 1.29 at the moment against the dollar, following reports theresa may may have struck a deal on agreement for financial services companies, that they would have continued access to european

markets after brexit. big news, plenty more coming up throughout the programme on that. before we do, let's go over to wall street. on thursday investors will once more be treated to a slew of third—quarter company earnings. we will get apple's results after us markets close but before then we will also get earnings from everyone from starbucks to the new york times company to kraft heinz. heinz is of particular interest to investors because the company has already warned that rising trade tensions could hurt its bottom line. the maker of everything from hobnobs to walkers crisps to oreos to ketchup has said that rising input costs in addition to those tariffs could hurt its profitability. it has already said it plans to sell off some of its india business so investors will be curious to see what the company's plans are going forward to try and mitigate these rising trade risks. that is came in new york. joining us isjeremy stretch, head of currency strategy at cibc world markets.

quite a lot going on. let's talk about the pound. give us your take on thejump on reports of about the pound. give us your take on the jump on reports of a breakthrough. we have had two reports of potential breakthroughs in the last 24 hours, both of which have provided stimulus to stirling. one was the letter from the brexit secretary regarding a deal being done. now we have this times newspaper report regarding a deal in the financial sector, allowing the facilitation of business between uk banks into europe. it is very much one report at the moment, we do not quite know how realistic this backdrop is. but it has provided impetus for sterling in the short term. this is an interesting dynamic because sterling is going up. going into the bank of england decision todayit into the bank of england decision today it will be fascinating to see if there will be a reversal, if the bank of england will be a little less optimistic. do you think they

will be? i think they will be. on monday we had growth forecasts from the office budget responsibility when they were talking about growth average of i.5%. that is bit lacklustre. that is less than the bank has been thinking and that may well be a reflection of the direction of travel. a strong pound means a weaker ftse100 and most of the companies listed on that are international. indeed, many of those companies have earnings in dollars, so companies have earnings in dollars, so if the pound is going up in value, the dollar earnings will be translated into the domestic backdrop and they will be impacted. risk appetite is looking more optimistic but the ftse perhaps may be missing out a little bit on that optimism because of the current influence of sterling. come back, we have got the papers at the end of the programme. for now, thank you very much. for now, thank you very much. still to come... are you diabetic or do you know somebody who is?

we speak to a man whose business online is helping millions of people ease the condition. you're with business live from bbc news. as we've been hearing, the pound has risen after the times reported the uk has struck a deal with the eu on post—brexit financial services. it claims the deal will give uk financial services companies continued access to european markets after britain leaves the eu. we are talking about banks, for example. we are talking about banks, for example. joining us now is jane foley, investment director, rathbone investment management. what do you make of this? the market

seemed to believe this is on. we wa nt to seemed to believe this is on. we want to put it into perspective, it only takes us back to the levels we we re only takes us back to the levels we were trading at only a week ago. last week was a really very grim week for the pound and really quite remarkably having held up quite well over the two months previously. it is interesting because this week it is interesting because this week it isa is interesting because this week it is a big week for the pound in terms of the budget and the bank of england reporting on inflation later on today. the movements in stirling last week really did prove that what matters to investors more than any other factors is brexit. matters to investors more than any otherfactors is brexit. brexit matters and the market is short of sterling and is vulnerable to bad news and once there is a little bit of optimism, a good press report, sterling jumps and that is what we have had over the last 24 hours. when it comes to this particular press report and the optimism it brings, for you, your colleagues and

those in the city of london, this is what you want to hear? it really is, but the devil is in the detail. we have had one press report, but there isa have had one press report, but there is a lot of detail to be thrashed out. what they are talking about here is equivalence. as long as regulators in the uk are equivalent to the regulator in europe, then business can continue. some plan like that was always potential on the table, but this time they said, we agree that being able to strip that equivalence away in 30 days' time is not enough. you will be able to have a longer period of negotiation and that is more a cce pta ble negotiation and that is more acceptable to uk firms. hopefully there is cause for optimism, but there is cause for optimism, but there is cause for optimism, but there is not a lot of detail yet. thank you. we are looking ahead to the results

from one of the well‘s valuable companies, apple. let's have a look at the markets. we have just talked about why the ftse might be flagging. the pound is 1.29 with the dollar on a report that there is a breakthrough with brexit and financial services. now let's get the inside track on an online community sharing resources against a growing global epidemic. the number of people with diabetes rose from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014, that's an increase of nearly 300%, and the disease directly caused an estimated 1.6 million deaths around the world in 2016. diabetes.co.uk was set up in 2003 as a forum for diabetics and their supporters.

it now claims over 3 million visitors per month and more than 614,000 members sharing knowledge and experience. arjun panesar, co—founder of diabetes.co.uk, is with us now. good to have you on the programme. explain why you set this up. good to have you on the programme. explain why you set this uplj good to have you on the programme. explain why you set this up. i was doing a degree in artificial intelligence and in my first year my grandfather was diagnosed with type two diabetes. food and nutrition has a lwa ys two diabetes. food and nutrition has always been a concern for people with diabetes and for my grandfather it was the same. he was not sure what to eat and we were from a multiculturalfamily. what to eat and we were from a multicultural family. how does your website work? what does it give people that you cannot do in a simple google search? it is when people search go on to google that they find us. if you are looking for

information or advice about diabetes, you will eventually end up in our website. but we are just one strand, we provide digital health interventions that we give to people with diabetes that are slightly different from the diabetes website. it is important to mention to our viewers that there is a charitable organisation that campaigns on issues with regards to diabetes and yours is a different one, you are a company, a business, you make profits. explain how that works and when you talk about what you provide wide that is different to all the other information available. we are an organisation that is for profit, although we have not for profit culture. the tasks we perform at creating educational, structured interventions. the low carb programme is interventions. the low carb programme 15 one interventions. the low carb programme is one of those. we have a

digital health intervention that gives people personalised education and support so that they can achieve their health goals. we are going to look at your smartphone because you have got it on that low carb programme. this is what each individual diabetic would receive and follow and you are seeing quite and follow and you are seeing quite a high incidence of those in your community seen diabetes reversed? absolutely, there are round about 4 million people with diabetes in the uk and we have got 375,000 people within the platform and the published evidence demonstrates one infour published evidence demonstrates one in four patients get the diabetes into remission. those figures are amazing. what evidence do you have that this is something that could go on? there is one thing to see people in remission, but do people stick to it? we have all tried four—week programmes for things whether it be a diet because of something we have to do, do people make lasting

change? i would suppose that the evidence we are providing demonstrates it is sustainable. previously type two diabetes was understood as a chronic disease. but the data we provide is that it could go into remission. you are working outside the uk as well. where do you see this going? we seek a tremendous number of people with a number of long—term health conditions come onto the platform and the data we are collecting helps push the academic understanding of how nutrition and lifestyle can affect health. that is fascinating, thank you for coming in and telling us all about that. tell us what you think about that. tell us what you think about that. tell us what you think about that as well and what your experience is if you have diabetes. get in touch. say up to date with all the day's business news as it happens on the bbc‘s business live page. there is insight and analysis

from our team of editors right around the globe. and we want to you from you too. get involved on the bbc‘s business live web page at bbc.com/business. on twitter we are at the bbc business. and you can find us on facebook at bbc money. business live, on tv and online. what you need to know when you need to know it. we have gotjeromy stretch back with us we have gotjeromy stretch back with us to talk about some of the stories in the media at the moment. one is those mass walk—outs at google today all over the world because of their treatment of women which, when i first read the story, i was really surprised and shocked. google is relatively speaking quite a young company. it is. those companies you a lwa ys company. it is. those companies you always assume have good working

cultures which is different to some of the older, more established companies. this article suggests that are still some of those selfsame problems which have not been eradicated, so very much a case of male dominated, but also in terms of male dominated, but also in terms of the relationships which are very inappropriate. you would have thought that silicon valley would be better at this but it does have a problem when it comes to its treatment of staff, particularly women. it does seem that way in the context of the story. in it in general it has been historically very male dominated and in a sense that can lead to a culture which is perhaps less than perfect, shall we say, if we can use that euphemism. clearly there is a domination of the men versus women in terms of general employment and in terms of the executive grouping. that underlines the steps that the company still has to go in terms of the equal treatment across the board. interesting story and dave lee our

correspondent in north america will be across this today and how big unfulfilled google and the reaction. sorry is the hardest word, a few interesting stories. let's start with hmrc who runs our tax office in the uk for viewers around the world, they have a big budget for flowers. they really do. they find themselves ina they really do. they find themselves in a position where they have done something which is perhaps not appropriate in terms of demanding tax or not paying it back. i have never had the money. if the taxman sends you flowers it suggest...” don't know what my husband would say about that. it suggests your tax affairs have been handled in a far from appropriate way, but it underlines the difficulties in terms ofa underlines the difficulties in terms of a business orientated world in order to get these things right and hmrc are trying to solve it with flowers. i am not sure it is the answer. say it with a cheque. we

have got some tweets and we were asking you your views on this. how ha rd asking you your views on this. how hard is it for a company to say sorry. big business are usually very relu cta nt to sorry. big business are usually very reluctant to say sorry and or pay up. kenneth armitage says, a hard word because it is overused and often insincere. peter stephenson says, i caught up a call centre and the feature says sorry for the delay and it drives me around the twist. i am with you there. let's talk about anthropologie, a retailer which many people love in terms what it sells. it seems quite a newcomer hip retailer, but it is saying sorry. it has copied someone's designs. retailer, but it is saying sorry. it has copied someone's designsm retailer, but it is saying sorry. it has copied someone's designs. it is the classic issue of copyright and the classic issue of copyright and the company decided they wanted to work with a designer and the designer was knocking, so they decided to copy the design anyway and sell them in their shops. that is an inappropriate response and it

is an inappropriate response and it is not the first time a company has done this, but it is a case of big business deciding they can overs ha d ow business deciding they can overshadow and run over a smaller designer and push ahead. they say they deeply regret it. or deeply regret getting caught? it comes back to your comments about apologies being insincere. one suspects that deep regret is also in the context of being found on the wrong side of the law on this one. they look identical. this is the issue. how do you protect your own designs? identical. this is the issue. how do you protect your own design57m identical. this is the issue. how do you protect your own designs? it is andi you protect your own designs? it is and i am not a designer, but when you produce a product, it is susceptible to copyright and you have to limit that by whatever legal means you can utilise. but there is a lwa ys means you can utilise. but there is always the way and we have seen this in terms of chinese products on occasions when they tend to mimic others. a difficult area. thank you, good to have you here. that is it

from us today, plenty more on bbc news. the weather will remain fairly quiet over the next couple of days before the remnants of ex—hurricane oscar start moving in. at the moment it is in the atlantic and it will push its way in for the weekend. in the meantime, we have got this cloud in eastern areas and that is bringing us eastern areas and that is bringing us rain this morning. that will clear away gradually and for many of us clear away gradually and for many of us there will be sunny spells. but it will take quite a while to clear away from eastern areas which will stay wet in the afternoon. elsewhere, lots of sunshine developing. a few showers in western scotla nd developing. a few showers in western scotland and north—western areas of england. temperatures getting up to 9-13. this england. temperatures getting up to 9—13. this evening that rain will clear away from those eastern coasts. a lot of clear skies, a few showers initially into north—west scotland. for most with those clear

skies it is quite a cold night and frost develops into friday morning. patchy fog for wales, the midlands and south west england. while it will be a frosty start, it will be a beautiful start with lots of sunshine and blue skies throughout friday. not a great deal of change except for northern ireland where the cloud increases, making the sunshine turn hazy. elsewhere, remaining sunny with highs of 9—12. but it is that cloud and that rain in the west all associated with the re m na nts of in the west all associated with the remnants of ex—hurricane oscar which itself will move towards iceland. but it will bring in this rain across scotland, northern ireland and eventually into north—west england, wales and the south west. staying dry in eastern areas, but quite windy day on saturday, particularly in the north—western areas. because that wind is coming

in from the south west it will be fairly mild. those temperatures 13-15. on fairly mild. those temperatures 13—15. on sunday that rain will have moved further south and east, so the south eastern areas will have the rain during the day. in the far north and west it will be drier and brighter with sunshine. the wind is not as strong on sunday, still fairly mild. still coming in from south westerly direction. quite an u nsettled south westerly direction. quite an unsettled weekend come up. hello. it's thursday. it's nine o'clock. i'm victoria derbyshire. welcome to the programme. "these countries invited #rape—fugees and now they're paying the price." that tweet sent by a russian bot in an attempt to stir up hatred of islam in this country. we've seen new research which shows the extent of russian attempts to sow division in british society in the wake of last year's terror attacks in manchester and london. russian accounts immediately started

spreading rumours and disinformation blaming islam and multiculturalism in the uk for those attacks. but it was notjust politics that is the target of russian influence operations, but also our society. so what if anything can be done to stop russia fermenting social division here?