you're watching bbc news at nine, with me, annita mcveigh. the headlines: 0n the 29th march, the day the uk this is business live from bbc was due to leave the eu, news with maryam moshiri mps are voting yet again on a plan and jamie robertson. for brexit, nearly three years lift off for lyft: the ride—hailing after the referendum. app gets ready to makes its stock market debut ahead of its arch rival uber. the serious issue here is can live from london, that's our top we deliver us parliament on what the voters instructed us to do way back in 2016? story on friday 29th march. that is a clear democratic and very important decision we take today. what theresa may has done is to cut the deal in half and to present one runaway investor demand is expected to make it half without the other. the bit she a blockbuster launch has cut off is the bit that tells but the question remains, when will lyft start you where you are heading. making any actual money? also in the programme... mrs bay —— micro mrs may battles crisis? what crisis? with brexit deal with a warning that chinese telecoms giant huawei shrugs off its row with the us to post stellar profits. defeat today could mean a lengthy we'll get the latest delay from our asia business hub.

european markets have opened in positive territory. are you confused by the brexit crisis? you're not the only one. our economics correspondent andrew walker will be here to make sense of it all — and the other big business stories of the week. and have you everfancied having a moan about your work, friends orfamily? then how about paying for the privilege? a new company offers a middle—aged man to listen to you complain for £7 an hour. would you pay to rant? let us know — just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. £7 an hour is more than double your right, jamie! hello and welcome to business live. welcome to the programme. we start in new york, where taxi app lyft is set for the biggest stock market listing since alibaba went public in 2014. strong demand for shares has seen

them priced at $72 — higher than expected, valuing the company at $24.3 billion. lyft is the smaller rival to uber, which is expected to list its own shares next month — and could be worth almost five times as much. let's show you some of the numbers. lyft says it now has a 39% share of the ride hailing market in the us. that's up from 22% two years earlier. its drivers have given more than a billion rides since it was founded in 2012 and its revenues doubled last year to more than $2 billion. but like uber, it's losing money. in fact, its losses are deepening as the company invests in expansion. last year, it was getting on for a billion dollars in the red. with us now is richard kramer, senior analyst at arete research. i get igeta i get a slight whiff of the dot—com boom. there was a lot of money

looking for a place to go and there is something which is not making money, but says it will make lots of money, but says it will make lots of money eventually, i right? we are in a period very reminiscent of the dot—com boom and since arete is over 20 years old, we have seen these cycles before. the market as a whole is very narrow and it is very focused on tech. and in tech, we have run out of profitable companies deflect, so we are letting the unprofitable ones to take advantage of the wall of money that is out there. but there is a future in the taxi services. you are looking at autonomous driving and in the future, we may not own cars at all. we may just use future, we may not own cars at all. we mayjust use these services. it is going to change and aunt lyft and over at that cutting edge? they are, but there is a danger about extrapolating upper behaviour to the mass market, and also to understanding that this is a fundamental labour market arbitrate.

so uber‘s workers are contractors, not employees. this contentious in a number of markets. it is contentious in the us. but nothing has come of it. , there were uber and lyft protests in california the other day and these companies have to pay a large bonus to make sure they keep a source of drivers as well as seeing the riders increase. if i was an investor, i would be looking at where your costs are going and what the competition will do to your prices. yes, and when you look at lyft, in the con text of battling with uber in the market, these two companies are in a knife fight. they will keep stabbing each other to make sure the other doesn't gain an advantage and by doing so either have to continue offering incentives to drivers or the riders, meaning they will not be able to raise prices to cancel out the losses they

are making. if you buy these shares, do you get the voting rights? no microbe the last time we saw a dual share offering was with snap. as with lyft, it will be carefully managed. the shareholders who buy those shares will only get a fraction of the voting rights you would normally expect. also, wall street convinces people that your extrapolating losses that are magically somehow going to turn into profits, and that doesn't happen as quickly as people imagine. richard kramer, thanks very much. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. uk prime minister theresa may will attempt to get mps to back part of her brexit deal later today — on the day the uk was due to leave the eu. mps will vote on the withdrawal agreement, which sets out the terms

of the uk's departure from the eu. ministers say their backing is vital if britain is to avoid a disorderly exit. us authorities have charged facebook with discrimination in violation of the us fair housing act. federal officials have accused the social—media firm of allowing advertisers to restrict minorities and protected groups from viewing real estate ads. it could cost facebook millions of dollars in penalties. negotiators from the us are in china for the latest round of talks aimed at resolving their ongoing trade war. us treasury secretary steven mnuchin and us trade representative robert lighthizer are meeting china's vice premier liu he for a full day of negotiations on friday — with both sides warning there's still a lot of work to be done. five of the uk's largest airlines are facing legal action which claims pilots and cabin crew are regularly exposed to toxic fumes during flights. the unite union says legal notice has been served in 51 cases, the majority of which are against british airways as well as easyjet, thomas cook, jet2 and virgin atlantic. the airlines say that previous studies found no proof of long—term ill—health arising from cabin air quality.

china's tech giant huawei says it made record revenues last year, despite controversy around the world over the security of its products. sales of its smartphones soared — it may be on track to leapfrog apple and samsung to become the world's market leader this year. christine hah is in singapore. it's doing well despite these issues and controversies over security worldwide? yes. if you remember, this is the company that the us says could help china spy on the world. at the heart of that suspicion is the telecom equipment business, which only saw a slight decline in 2018. there are a few reasons for this. this is a long—term business, so this. this is a long—term business, so whatever damage is being done now will only show up on the balance sheets a few years down the road. keepin sheets a few years down the road. keep in mind as well that this is its most profitable part of the

business. so when the losses do show up, profits will be hit. in the meantime, huawei is doing very well in its other business lines, selling more smartphones than ever, driving reve nu es more smartphones than ever, driving revenues in the consumer business up 45% . revenues in the consumer business up 45%. it is also doing more business with other businesses. all that is not to say it doesn't still have a lot of challenges ahead. it's still very much a pawn in the us—china trade war and the latest report out yesterday said its telecom equipment softwa re yesterday said its telecom equipment software still presents serious technical flaws. and there are still the extradition hearings in canada. yes, the story is set to run and run. christine hah, thank you very much. the markets have closed on a high, markets benefiting from us trade

talks. in terms of european markets, they have been open for a little while and they are also looking good, investors brushing off any uncertainty over the brexit saga here in the uk to look to china and the us and hope there will be some resolution to those trade talks. let's go now to jamie and chris. looking at the markets, today is and is not brexit day. how do you price in brexit at the moment? as you have seen, the hang seng is a global index, so it is much more about what is going on with regards to donald trump. so it's more about the pound. it is much more about the pound. it is the best reflection of what is going on in the uk at the moment. 45 minutes ago when i was on my way

here, the pound was slightly stronger against the euro and the dollar. now it has dipped slightly. you won't see any meaningful moves until we get any news. if you compare the pound over the last two 01’ compare the pound over the last two or three years, it is easy to talk about it going up or down, but compared to where it was the day before the referendum ? compared to where it was the day before the referendum? it was £1 50 before the referendum? it was £1 50 before the referendum and now it is 1.30. the changes are comparatively small. if you see any positivity, you will see the value move to a more sensible long—term range. you will see the value move to a more sensible long-term range. let's talk about mike ashley, sports direct and the battle for the rest of debenhams that he doesn't already own. we have seen mike ashley desperately trying to make a move on those remaining shares. what has happened today? he is a shrewd businessman, but today debenhams have secured the support of their

bondholders for refinancing, so they have been able to get back to their lenders and borrow more money to effectively wipe out their shareholders. mike ashley is a shareholders. mike ashley is a shareholder already. they own 16% of the business, and he and the sports direct bid were contingent on this refinancing deal being rejected. but it has been accepted, which seems to have put paid to this bid he was looking at. and his shareholding disappears, almost? it looks like colla pse disappears, almost? it looks like collapse at the moment, because it isa collapse at the moment, because it is a debt for equity type deal. as it stands, he is not happy. feel free to google the quotes he has said. chris justin, come back in a bit to go through the papers. we will find out whether chris likes a glass of gin. or if he likes to go and rant to the person to whom he pays £7 an hour. still to come...brexit may have

dominated the headlines — but it's not the only business story in focus this week. 0ur economics correspondent andew walker will be here to give us the lowdown on a very busy week. you're with business live from bbc news. councils across the country are under pressure from the government to meet stringent air quality targets. nottingham is the only council in the uk to have introduced a workplace parking levy, where businesses with more than a certain number of parking places pay a fee to the local authority. ben thompson is in nottingham city centre to find out how it works. welcome to nottingham, where the city council is trying to improve air quality for everyone that lives here by charging businesses that offer car parking spaces for their staff. it is designed to get more money to spend on public transport to encourage more of us ditch the car and use that public transport. but how does it work? i've been finding out.

businesses with more than ten parking spaces pay an annual fee ofjust over £400 a space. some businesses pass some or all of that charge on to their staff. since it was introduced in 2012, the scheme has raised more than £50 million. the money is ringfenced, though, so can only be spent on improving public transport. by reducing the number of cars on the road, the scheme has been crucial in helping nottingham meet its clean—air targets. with me is bridget fox from the campaign for better transport. what difference does this scheme make? on paper, we can all see why this is a good idea to improve air quality, but is it that simple? well, there are multiple benefits from this scheme. it's cut traffic congestion, which is why it has helped improve the air quality. people now have to think twice about bringing a car into the city centre, and the revenue generated is about £9 million a year. that's funded some of the best public transport in the country, modern trams, electrical buses,

which are also good for air quality, and generally made it a much better place to live, work and do business. thanks very much. so that's one scheme that's up and running here in nottingham. 0ther councils are looking at how this works and working out whether they could implement something themselves, something similar. it's not been without controversy, but it means more money for public transport. let me direct you to our website. plenty on the brexit saga, but there is lots of other business news including this story about house prices. uk house price growth subdued according to nationwide. we saw house price growth at 0.7% in march, london remaining the weakest performing region. more on our website. your're watching business live —

our top story: the ride—hailing app lyft makes its stock market debt in new york, later on friday — with a valuation of about $24 bn — despite having never turned a profit. it comes ahead of the flotation of its biggest rival uber and indicates major investor appetite for "sharing economy" stock market launches. a quick look at how the markets are faring... these are the european markets, all looking pretty positive. from the slowing us economy to the trade challenges for washington and beijing and the small matter of brexit, it's been another busy week in news. 0ur economics correspondent andrew walker is here to look at some of big stories that have been causing waves. i want to start with bond yields. what's interesting is the way that

long—term bonds, the rate at which you burrow over long—term bonds, the rate at which you bui’i’ow over a long—term bonds, the rate at which you burrow over a long period, have really fallen. that is very odd. the story in the last week has been about the united states, although there are some issues in other economies as well. in the united states, we have, to use the phrase many economists are using, an inverted yield curve. that means that in the us, it currently costs more for the us government to borrow for three months than it does for ten years. normally, investors want to have more compensation if they are tying their money up for a longer period, so you would normally expect the ten year borrowing costs to be significantly more. that ain't the case for the last week. it is really striking because for one thing, it is widely reckoned that in the past, it has generally been signal of an the past, it has generally been signal ofan impending the past, it has generally been signal of an impending recession. the last time we saw it was 2007. that's right. and what happened

then! nearly in all cases where this warning sign has flashed, there has been a recession, according to research, within 24 months. the one occasion when it didn't happen was in the 1960s, when there was a significant slowdown. there is one important health warning to put on this, which is that long—term bond yields, the bit that is lower than you would normally expect it to be, artificially affected by something else the federal reserve has been doing, quantitative easing. they held a total of $2 trillion worth of these bonds, and that inevitably does have some impact, so maybe the long—term yields are being pulled down artificially and maybe that is a reason for suspecting that this might turn out to be an exception to the general rule. but it has got a lot of people scratching their heads about the outlook, and it is striking that the us economy has slowed in the latter part of last year, although with growth in the final quarter of 2.2% annualised, it

is still 0k. final quarter of 2.2% annualised, it is still ok. enough of bond yields. let's lighten the mood with some more trade talk between us and china. i have been here with you so many times. we have had these talks and there hasn't been much movement. where do we stand? the treasury secretary ‘s devolution is back in beijing and he says he has had constructive talks with the chinese side —— uber. we still have the underlying big issue about intellectual property, technology patents and so forth, which the americans say the chinese are either stealing through cyber attacks of forcing american companies to share against their better judgment forcing american companies to share against their betterjudgment as a condition for teaming up with chinese partners. the chinese have moved a bit on the theft bit of it, if you like. there are some reforms in hand that are intended to impose more severe penalties, but we are

not there by quite a long way at. i don't think we can say that agreement is imminent. bear in mind that originally, the americans want to have all this settled by now. they haven't implemented the even higher tariffs they threatened. so when others do? we don't know. but the threat is absolutely there.|j get the impression we are never going to see a day when we have done the deal and everything is ok. it is one of these things that will go on for a long time. that is probably true and that is partly because under the trump administration, it plays into a wider concern about the whole chinese economic element model, with what they regard as being excessive use of subsidy to promote national champions and give them what the americans see as an unfair advantage in competing internationally and especially in

getting into the more advanced economic sectors, robotics, information technology and so forth. i would add that it is a concern thatis i would add that it is a concern that is shared widely. the european union takes the same view, but they don't go along with the trump administration's method of tackling it. i think we will leave it there. thank you very much. we have had enough of bond yields! we always need to have time for aaron heslehurst on this programme. you probably use one every day without thinking about it, but how did we open our drinks cans without the ring pull? for over 50 years, it has been an integral part on the hundreds of millions of cans churned out every day. i remember before it was invented, people had to carry around a special can—puncturer called a church key.

why was it called that? i have no idea. it was a v shaped thing you would put on the edge of a can. as aaron heslehurst explains, the ring pull was the brainchild of a thirsty man who had forgotten his church key and couldn't open his beer on a picnic. hey! it's the ring pull can opener! but how did we open our drinks before they came along? well, i'll tell you, with one of these. it was called a church key, and it was used to punch holes in the top of a can. one day, this bloke right here, ermal fraze of dayton, 0hio, he was on a picnic, but he couldn't open his can of beer because he left this little baby at home. so he wondered, why couldn't the opener be on top of the can itself?

then in 1963, ta—da!, he invented the ring pull and sold it to the aluminium company alcoa. they were the first company to use the ring pull with these guys, a pittsburgh beer company. their sales tripled in a year. but there was a problem. ring pulls caused this, tonnes of litter. people opened their can and tossed the ring pull anywhere. so in 1975, a new device was invented. yeah, it's the stay—tab, which we still use today. nowadays, they're on top of the 300 billion plus cans of drink produced every year, not to forget tins of soup and tins of fish. and it's all thanks to a beer lover who left his church key at home. every cloud, hey? what other business stories has the media been taking an interest in? chrisjustham from seven investment managementjoins us again.

let's talk about paying someone to ra nt let's talk about paying someone to rant at them. what is this story in the mirror? doesn't sound like the bestjob in the world, does it?|j could sit having someone ranting at me if! could sit having someone ranting at me if i was paid £7 an hour. could sit having someone ranting at me if i was paid £7 an hourlj could sit having someone ranting at me if i was paid £7 an hour. i don't pay my wife and she has to listen to me! this business was started by a japanese businessman in 2012, and it basically allows you to ring up and chat to somebody if you want to have a moan 01’ chat to somebody if you want to have a moan or if you want advice from someone a moan or if you want advice from someone who has been around the block a couple of times. it is someone block a couple of times. it is someone at the end of a line. jamie, you do that for me! the viewers might think they should be paid £7 an hourto might think they should be paid £7 an hour to listen to us. we have had an hour to listen to us. we have had a lot of tweets about this. sue says her husband has done this for 46 yea rs. her husband has done this for 46 years. andrew says, £7 an hour to have someone listen to me rant? not when i have got twitter, friends and family. william says, just get a

husband or even a wife. the magic of moaning lies in making someone who doesn't want to listen, listen. john says, how do i get thisjob? doesn't want to listen, listen. john says, how do i get this job? jane says, how do i get this job? jane says that is not even the minimum wage. well, i imagine it is not the uk. chris, good money making idea? it works. 3000 people apparently subscribe to. if you have got a support network, great. it's a good addition to the service economy. you could automate it, couldn't you? it's not the same if you have a robot at the end of the line. it's not the same take, jamie. does he give advice back? i am sure he does. a good uncle always gives advice back. now, this story in the male.

—— daily mail. gin sales have almost doubled. what is it about gin? we have come a long way from that hogarth picture wherejen was seen as the scourge of society. now it is seen as as the scourge of society. now it is seen as quite a distinguished drink for people. it's really popular. you can go into any pub or bar and get a whole range of gin that you can try. it is not really my bag. you know where it came from? the dutch introduced it in 1688 when they came over. william of orange brought gin with him. before that, we all drank beer. tonic sales have also gone up as well off the back of gin doing so well. and you get all these different flavours as well. so we area different flavours as well. so we are a country of gin lovers. chris, thank you forjoining us. that's it from business live today.

we'll see you again tomorrow. some dense fog patches this morning in the south—west of england, the south—west of the midlands. high pressure still kind of in charge, but is a moving way to the east and moving this cold front closer in. that will bring cloudy skies to northern ireland and there will be patchy when in the north—west. in the north—east of scotland, sunny spells here and after the fog clears from england and wales, there will be lots of sunshine this afternoon. and another 11. tonight, we will continue with

some cloud in scotland and northern ireland. still some outbreaks of rain in the far north—west. for england and wales, we could see the return of fog, especially in central and south—eastern areas. 0therwise, there will be clear spells and it will turn chilly again into saturday morning. 0ver will turn chilly again into saturday morning. over the weekend, will turn chilly again into saturday morning. 0verthe weekend, it will turn chilly again into saturday morning. over the weekend, it will be mostly dry, but it will turn noticeably cooler, particularly for all of us during sunday. cold air is moving southwards. it is behind that weather front i showed you at the start. you can see the blues coming from the north. by sunday, that cold airwill from the north. by sunday, that cold air will have reached all parts of the uk. during saturday, a bit of a chilly start. for many, it should be dry and bright and still quite warm across southern dry and bright and still quite warm across southern areas. dry and bright and still quite warm across southern areas. further north, a bit more cloud. it is here where the temperatures will start to fall away. still quite mild in the south, though. further north,

temperatures are ten to 12 degrees. that cold front will continue southwards and it is bringing that colder air. but higher pressure is building in behind this weather front. so for most of us on sunday, it's a settled bay and i pretty chilly start. some frost in northern parts. still some cloud, but that cloud will break up in the afternoon. quite a big drop in temperatures in the capital from saturday to sunday. 0ver temperatures in the capital from saturday to sunday. over the next few days, it remains largely settled, but we will see a big difference in the temperatures.