hello. this is business live from bbc news with victoria fritz and sally bundock. flexible fortunes — samsung's launching a secret new weapon to help revive you're watching bbc the smartphone market and fend news at nine with me joanna gosling, the headlines... off cheaper chinese rivals. off cheaper chinese rivals. braced for further resignations — live from london, three former conservative mps who've that's our top story on thursday, 21 february. quit the party say others are also considering walking out but the chancellor says he hopes they'll return. the south korean firm's new flexible new smartphone iam very i am very saddened by the fact the three have left the tory party and i new flexible smartphone very much hope that in time they will feel able to come back into the conservative family. opens up into a tablet, but carries a hefty price tag no breakthrough in brussels, at almost $2,000. but talks are continuing today also in the programme — as the brexit secretary heathrow airport, now and jeremy corbyn prepare

one of the world's busiest, to meet eu officials. says it welcomed more than 80 million passengers last year, the most in its history. at least 78 people have died and we take a look at the markets in a fire in the bangladeshi and the latest from the us and china trade talks on those numbers. capital dhaka after a blaze swept through a residential building. and we'll be getting the inside track catholic bishops meet at the vatican on charitable globetrotting. for the first global summit soaking up the sun while raising money for good causes — is that even possible? we'll ask the founder of a firm that's raised $26 million by taking 10,000 people round the world. today we want to know, are smartphones too pricey? what do you make of the latest offering from samsung 7 what do you make of the latest offering from samsung? nearly $2000, too pricey for this new foldable tech? let us know — just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. we will start in san francisco. where south korean tech giant

samsung has unveiled what it hopes could revolutionise the smartphone industry. it's called the galaxy fold — a smartphone that opens up into a tablet. we'll take a bit of a closer look at it in a moment. first, let's show you why samsung — and its rivals — need to come up with something a little extra. samsung is still the world's largest smartphone maker, but it's share of the market slipped to 18.6% last year — from more than 20% earlier in the year. cheaper chinese rivals are stealing sales from both samsung and apple. you can see that here, huawei. but the overall market has stopped growing too. smartphone sales had their first ever annual decline in 2018, after hitting a record in 2017. the worry is most people who can afford a smartphone already have one, and nothing's driving them to upgrade as often. 0ur tech reporter dave lee reports — the problem is the price tag. actually, we don't have david. hopefully we will have on a little later on.

with us is raman sidhu, vice—principal of business development at beemray. good morning. you and i have spoken already and you are not convinced. tell us why. you might well come as you said, it simply too expensive. —— as you said, it is simply too expensive. i didn't say that! i think it creates a new class, but there will be an indie following for this, people who can afford to spend such money, however it kind of reminds me of the law of innovation between the nokia and the iphone, when there were lots of new types of devices which did amazing things, but not necessarily in the most sea mless but not necessarily in the most seamless way. but what about that neat? as we go around and do our daily business, we are using our smartphones more than ever. using oui’ smartphones more than ever. using our laptops perhaps a bit less. this

might bridge that gap even more because it is a bigger screen, seven inches, well foldable, small enough to get inside a handbag or whatever? i totally agree, but i think smartphones have been expanding in size for quite some time. i don't think the expansion and size is necessarily... might make this as expansion, but staying small. —— necessarily... might make this as expansion, but staying small. -- but this is an expansion but staying small. good point, but to take people beyond this price tag, maxing out about £1000, doubling it up that quickly. but is it a game changer? we know companies are catching up on the technology is not as expensive so the technology is not as expensive so it becomes cheaper in time. is this new innovation a game changer 01’ this new innovation a game changer or not? i think for samsung buying into a new asset class very cheaply will be more of a game changer. u nfortu nately will be more of a game changer. unfortunately they are about 18

months behind apple. i'm sure you can see people wearing apple's earplugs nowadays, which allows you to have an augmented experience with headphones, very seamlessly, which connects perfectly to your other devices, the watch and the phone. effectively, one plus one equals three in this case, and it paves the way for a new device to come into the market which the market desperately needs. also you where wanting to speak about 56 and the impact that will have in terms of what samsung has been seeing in the last 2a hours? what samsung has been seeing in the last 24 hours? unfortunately, i think it is a feature and it might attract a certain number of developers to start developing early on the android platform, however 56 is not yet released and when it will be it is very much towards specific test—beds. before you kind of bring in the demand, so to speak, or the supply, in the demand, so to speak, or the supply, you must raise the demand,

so supply, you must raise the demand, so having people buy into such devices to early without actually having the creative content or experiences to be able to bridge that gap, i think it is more of the feature and a selling point which won't necessarily come through in the experience. all right, so a big sceptic. raman, thank you for your time this morning. just to say, if you want to hear what dave lee made of this as well, at the event in san francisco, you can find out on the website. yes, and keep your tweets coming in on that story, using the hashtag bbcbizlive. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news... heathrow airport, now is one of the world's busiest, and last year was its busiest ever. heathrow says it welcomed more than 80 million passengers last year — up 2.7% on 2017 and the most in its history. the ceo john holland—kaye says the airport is well prepared for brexit. we also have good cash flows, and that allows us to invest in improving the airport and start

lining up for the very significant investment we'll be making with the heathrow expansion. so we raised £2.3 billion last year in forward financing for that. we were already investing £700 million last year, rising up to nearly £800 million this year. that's a real sign of confidence in the uk economy as we prepare to leave the eu. the world's biggest personal computer—maker lenovo has posted better—than—expected quarterly results and shrugged off the impact of a bruising sino—us trade war. profit for the quarter reached $233 million, up from a net loss of $289 million in the same period a year. the chinese firm relies on the americas for 31% of its total revenue, versus 26% from china. pharmaceutical firm johnson & johnson says it has received subpoenas from from the us justice department and the securities and exchange commission related to litigation involving alleged asbestos contamination

in its baby powder product line. the company faces lawsuits involving 13,000 plaintiffs who allege use of its talc products caused cancer. brazil's president jair bolsonaro has put forward a plan to revamp the country's pension system. the proposal would set a minimum retirement age of 65 for men and 62 for women, among other changes. the government says the overhaul would save more than 1 trillion reais — or $270 billion — over the next decade. but opposition parties argue the changes would penalise the poorest. the us and china are returning to the negotiating table today, again, to try and avoid a major escalation in their trade war. the us has threatened to ramp up import taxes on chinese goods if a deal isn't struck by march first, so tariffs rising from 10% to 25%.

0ur correspondent stephen mcdonell is in beijing. he has been following this for us. stephen, what chance do you think there is of bridging the gap between these two night countries?m there is of bridging the gap between these two night countries? it seems there is some sort of progress. i have just come from the chinese foreign ministry press briefing where they seem to have confirmed the two sides are working towards this mou strategy, having a series of memoranda they can both agree on. something else to come from that briefing, the reported blocking of australian coal into china in the dalian ports region and the clearing up dalian ports region and the clearing up of australian coal from ports, that does seem to be real and we asked about this and the foreign minister said the chinese companies conducted risk monitoring and analysis on imported coal to safeguard the interests of chinese importers and protect the environment. that is not in saying

there is no blocking of australian coal, that is an explanation for why thatis coal, that is an explanation for why that is happening. we asked if it could be for political reasons, given for example australia's blocking of huawei, building the 5g network, could it be punishment for that? the response came that both australia and china should cooperate with one another for mutual benefits. thanks very much, stephen. let's have a look at those market let's have a look at those markets... asian stocks pared gains today as renewed optimism for progress in sino—american trade talks was hit by a spat over coal imports between australia and china. as stephen was talking about there. earlier, the s&p 500 closed slightly higher after the federal reserve was seen remaining patient in its approach to further hikes without ruling them out if economic growth picks up. elsewhere, in europe the volkswagen chief executive herbert diess has warned import tariffs from the us could cost the german car—maker billions of euros each year.

and higher commodity prices and productivity improvements helped anglo american report better than expected annual profits and a sharp reduction in debt. just one other story for you. the hybrid real estate agency in the uk purplebricks has cut profit guidance, uk and us ceos leaving not much in their company statement to explain why, but it's the biggest faller on the ftse this morning. and michelle has the details of what's ahead on wall street today. trade talks continue between the us and china in washington, dc. donald trump has his eye on the next one. he said he wouldn't rule out imported cars from europe. the comments come as a report on whether imported vehicle parts pose a threat to national security in the us. first—quarter results from the ketchup maker, heinz, likely to

report a rise in sales on the back ofa report a rise in sales on the back of a strong performance in the united states, but profit margins may be squeezed by higher commodity prices and a strong dollar. the us banking regulator, the quarterly report is expected to shed light on the health of the banks. thanks, michelle. joining us is supriya menon, senior multi—asset strategist at pictet asset management. lovely to see you. how are you? good to be here. as mentioned elsewhere, the fed minutes were quite interesting and we imagine we will pore over those when they are released later. absolutely, and we already got some colour injanuary on that. we got a few more details on that. we got a few more details on that. we got a few more details on that aspect. we know the fed has been paring back its balance sheet, meaning it has been withdrawing liquidity from the market, essentially the money that would have been otherwise deployed in risk assets is being used to buy assets of the fed, if you think about it

that way. they said they would end that way. they said they would end that reduction of the balance sheet at the end of the year, so quite positive already expected. secondly, on the interest rate front, they main tool, they are being patient at the moment but it looks like the balance of risks are tilted towards an eventual rise whereas the market had priced it otherwise, the small chance of a cut. can we talk about ba rclays ? chance of a cut. can we talk about barclays? looking chance of a cut. can we talk about ba rclays? looking at chance of a cut. can we talk about barclays? looking at the markets, their shares are up about 3% at the moment. they announce profits for the year. following a little short of expectations, but setting aside something like $200 million worth for brexit as a contingency. what do you make of the results? the results we re you make of the results? the results were in line with expectations. 0n the investment banking front it seems they did rather better than expected, especially thinking of some of their peers in continental europe. that was seen as quite positive but i think what is driving things here is the potentialfor a significant buy—back. we got a very large buy—back and ends from lloyds

yesterday, £1.75 billion. investors will be waiting for more colour on cash return because the capital ratios, an important number... can you explain what that means? ratios, an important number... can you explain what that mean57m basically means how much capital they have set aside, strength of balance sheet, which is really important because the regulator wa nts to important because the regulator wants to reduce risks in the banking system, they want banks to set aside adequate capitalfor system, they want banks to set aside adequate capital for that purpose and they have more than met that threshold. positive news. finally, your thoughts on the trade discussions? are you positive, what is your thinking? i would say cautiously positive. now, trade is actually the easier part of the set of issues they have to find some sort of mutual agreement on. thinking about areas like cyber, tech, intellectual property, they are much more difficult and contentious, but i think we will get enough progress to allow the 25% of

200 billion not to go through, whether my a bit of a truce, in a way. light, thank you for now. is back a little later with a look at some of those stories —— supriya, thank you for now. still to come — ever worried that your sun—kissed holidays and globetrotting are a bit, well, selfish? well, one firm is tackling that, helping travevelers explore the world and raise money for charities. we'll talk to the boss in a moment. you're with business live from bbc news. heathrow airport has heralded a record year with the airport handling more than 80 million passengers. it also saw revenues increase 3% year on year. jasper lawler is head of research at london capital group. jasper, what you make of this? heathrow came to pick up what

happened before, but have a lot —— might puta happened before, but have a lot —— might put a lot of uncertainty looking further down that runway? hard to pick much fault in these results as they stand in 2018. it's interesting, and a backdrop of retail armageddon, as it's called on the high street, it is the retail sales at heathrow that has been really driving these results. well the external environment is good for them, fuel prices low, general economy good, well they numbers increasing because of the general environment, but the key thing where heathrow is delivering, they are generating more money from each of those passengers, particularly how they shop, so that is an impressive thing to be doing in the current state of affairs, and it shows people are willing to spend if you create the right environment for them. heathrow are obviously doing well. the biggest thing outside of their control is probably —— my as you alluded to they are, what a

no—deal brexit means for flights, a real uncertainty. heathrow and the uk, for its part, have contingency arrangements, but like everything, brexit, it is the surprise element, something that can't really be planned for. things like extra fees on passengers, that would obviously increase the price when they grow up, and then naturally there would be less demand for flights. the eu even mention the idea of keeping flight even mention the idea of keeping flight levels at the same level in 2019 as 2018, so that would directly be capping heathrow‘s growth, and heathrow is expanding into other parts of the world. the first direct flight parts of the world. the first direct flight to perth in australia, expanding into china now, but you have to remember europe is a third of where the flight destinations are from heathrow and that is actually a growing figure, well europe is still very important, hence the risk of this company going forward is good, but they have been doing everything you could ask of them, really.

jasper lawler, thanks very much. plenty more on that story and others on the bbc business live page. this is business live. 0ur this is business live. our top story today... many sceptics out there as to whether this is a game changer in the market, that is from our top story on samsung's new smartphone. a quick look at how the markets are faring. shares are down about 10%, falling to their lowest level since 1999, the biggest fall on the ftse 100 to their lowest level since 1999, the biggest fall on the ftse100 at the biggest fall on the ftse100 at the moment, down about a third of a percentage point as we look.

now, what better way to see the world than through raising money for a good cause? sun, sea, sand, or exploring iconic places around the globe while boosting the incomes of charities. well, one company that's created a business opportunity with the idea is choose a challenge. over the decade, the tour operator has taken over 10,000 people on their trips, raising around $26 million for charities. dan quille, founder and chief executive of choose a challenge. welcome to the programme. thanks for having me on. how do you make any money from this? element participants post a registration fee when they sign up and that is where a revenue comes from. # participants plus a registration fee. you don't call this holiday? mostly students taking up the challenge? yes, most of our customers, people who take part in oui’ customers, people who take part in our challenges, they are university students, although we have done

corporate trips in the past, anyone is welcome, but yes, students. corporate trips in the past, anyone is welcome, but yes, studentsm corporate trips in the past, anyone is welcome, but yes, students. it is kind of low cost? spit and sawdust, isn't it? i suppose so, at the budget end of the market, so our trips are good value, the lowest priced of these kind of trips on offer. one thing i know, because i went on these trips, one thing, my pa rents went on these trips, one thing, my parents worried silly about me when i was away, very common thing. how can you safeguard the safety of the people who do these experiences with you? a good point. all of our trips are very safe and i would always encourage somebody who is going to travel to think about travelling as pa rt travel to think about travelling as part of a group, and all of our trips are... they have at least several people on them and they are safe because of that and we have a very robust safety system to make sure they are well looked after, even when they are doing something

quite adventurous like this. also, as well, just to say, one thing i noted was when i was reading about your company and the fact that stu d e nts your company and the fact that students raise the money to go on these trips, they are raising a few thousand pounds to go and climb mount kilimanjaro, and quite a few of them are looking for sponsorship for that and i immediately thought, oh, my goodness, i am already sponsoring the scouts, kids in the local school, and we are called on to sponsor a lot of people a lot of the time. do you find giving fatigue is an issue, or not? element we have experienced that. people give to people, at the end of the day —— well, we have not explained that. we find people are happy to give to them because it is notjust money for a great cause, one of the great charities they are supporting. it is also something they are doing with their lives, something they are doing to challenge themselves, take themselves outside their comfort zone, and for that reason, family and friends are happy to support,

even if, you know, it is another person coming at you with a sponsorship form, people are still happy to help. one of the challenges, marathons, one of the ones you organised. lots of people obviously run for charity. how does that work? are you profiteering for people trying to raise money for charity? how does that work? absolutely, definitely not. we are giving people the opportunity to ta ke giving people the opportunity to take part in a marathon. whenever marathon places are bought by charities there is a commercial element, whether it is the great north run or any marathon like that, there is a commercial element, but we are giving people the opportunity to ta ke we are giving people the opportunity to take part and we charge a small registration fee from organising it all. the charities benefit from it massively and the charities raise millions of pounds every year through our programme so it is hugely beneficial to them. in terms of profits, you have to be an organisation that is profitable to pay your salary, you colics' salary. how do you work that out? yes, we

are not a charity, we are a business —— like your colleagues' salary. but we have a social purpose. it is not all about profiteering and making money. at the bottom line, there is more to life. it is also about raising lots of money for charity and giving people great experiences and giving people great experiences and we manage to make enough. that is why we are still around after ten yea rs, is why we are still around after ten years, but we think we strike the right balance between making money and making a difference. all right, dan, thank you for coming in, thank you for telling us about your company. the uk s culture secretary will grill facebook ceo mark zuckerberg later today at the firm's hq in california. mr zuckerberg has refused to engage with uk parliament aabout how his firm has handled data privacy probems. 0ur north america technology reporter dave lee askjeremy wright what he plans to ask the social media boss. what i will be saying to him is that in relation to the select committee report which has come out this week,

and the work the select committee has been doing more broadly, i think it would be in facebook because my interests for him to go and speak up for facebook, put his side of the argument and describe what he says facebook is doing and why, i think that would be a sensible thing for him to do and i would urge him to do it. the period of time we have been through where we have simply urged social media companies to do better and left them to regulate themselves isa and left them to regulate themselves is a period that is now coming to an end. big international companies, who will need a set of penalties available to us, sufficient to make them take some notice, and that is what we will be thinking through. let's have a look at some of the tweets that have come in on our top story, all about this foldable phone. what do you make of it, the $2000 price tag just for the 4g version, and apparently even more for the version, and apparently even more forthe 5g... version, and apparently even more for the 5g... some really great ones here. jerome says phones are already

too cumbersome and we are heading back to carting around bricks. this one. i don't think i have ever looked at my phone and thought, yeah, i wish i could fold that! i think he has a point. thanks for your comments. keep them coming into hashtag bbcbizlive. this one, what is uberup to hashtag bbcbizlive. this one, what is uber up to this time? delivery and just eat. trying to diversify its core away from that group, diversifying into food delivery, etc. but the problem for the market to think about, all of these areas, in order to establish a competitive position, you have to burn through a lot of cash in order to fight off rivals and competition, so is this growth really sustainable? that is something to think about. absolutely, we shall keep an eye on it. thank you for your time today,

supriya. that is all from business live. hello. for much of this month we have been talking about temperatures above average for the time of yearand temperatures above average for the time of year and that theme continues through the next few days. while there is quite a lot of cloud around through the day to day as we head through this afternoon, most places should start to see something a little brighter. we are drawing up this very mild air on this south—westerly wind, which will be quite brisk in places. the cloud dominating the story through the morning, bit drizzly in places, but this afternoon it will dry up and most this afternoon it will dry up and m ost pla ces this afternoon it will dry up and most places brighten up as well. cloud in southern scotland, east anglia and down towards the south—east but even here we should see some bright, even sunny intervals. when is quite noticeable

across northern ireland and western scotla nd across northern ireland and western scotland but elsewhere they are fairly light. a south—westerly breeze. today is really all about the temperatures. around the moray firth we could hit 17 celsius and it isa similar firth we could hit 17 celsius and it is a similar story for north—east wales. a fine end to the day for most of us. we will start to see increasing cloud for northern ireland and western scotland, and here it will remain breezy overnight, but elsewhere under clear skies it will be more chilly. we could see some dense patches of fog forming through the midlands, south east and down towards southern england. temperatures for most places above freezing, not too cold at all, but that mist and fog may ta ke at all, but that mist and fog may take a while to clear first thing friday morning. we are under a ridge of high pressure. this rent will try to make inroads on friday but will tend to fizzle out. but it will introduce more cloud for northern ireland with outbreaks of patchy rain gradually working into western scotla nd rain gradually working into western scotland and some of the showery

outbreaks may make it over to the far north—east of scotland too. away from that, another decent —looking day. lengthy spells of sunshine, light southerly winds and temperatures more or less in line with where they have been today. a similar setup through the weekend. we still have that ridge of high pressure. this weather front will try to make inroads on saturday and it looks like it will bring rain for northern ireland and western scotland, but away from that many places remaining fine and dry. some bright intervals, and for us it still remains dry as we head into 00:28:35,431 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 the weekend.