this is business live from bbc news with tadhg enright and ben bland. the us central bank cuts rates for the first time in over a decade — heralding lower borrowing costs around the world. live from london, that's our top story on thursday 1 august the last time the fed cut interest rates was during the financial crisis... but markets — and president trump were unimpressed: they'd wanted to see something bigger than a cut of a quarter percent also coming up: the uk government announces an extra $2.5bn of funding to prepare for a no—deal brexit —

doubling the amount of money it has set aside this year. and this is how european markets have started their day. we'll dive into these numbers in the next few minutes. and we'll be getting the inside track on excercising at home: do you really need to go out to the gym, when you can do it all from the comfort of home? there's an app for that. today we want to know do really you need to spend pounds — or dollars or euros — to shed pounds at the gym? is a run around or lifting weights at home better — and cheaper? let us know — just use the hashtag bbcbizlive hello and welcome. thanks forjoining us on business live. we start with the cost of borrowing — because the world's most powerful central bank — the us federal reserve — has cut interest rates for the first time since the financial crisis more than a decade ago. time since the financial crisis more the move disappointed financial markets —

not to mention president trump. they wanted a bigger cut — or at least a clear signal that more are to come. but the move is part of a global trend of falling borrowing costs from europe to asia to south america — as the economic outlook grows more uncertain. the fed cut its main interest rate by a quarter of a percent — toa range of2 —to2 and a quarter — percent... chairman jerome powell citing signs of a global slowdown. last week european central bank chief mario draghi made it clear it they are going the same way — with markets expecting a rate cut in september — along with more stimulus measures today it's the turn of the bank of england. it's not expected to cut today — but markets are betting it will do so by december, amid rising risks of a no—deal brexit. it wasn't so long ago their next move was expected to be up. india's central bank was the first to cut rates — it has now done it three

times this year. the reserve bank of australia has cut at each of its last two meetings — taking borrowing costs to a record low. and brazil's central bank has also just cut its interest rates — again to a record low. ben... with us isjulian howard, head of multi—asset solutions at gam. good to have you with this. with the cut, that was expected but the response was very counterintuitive, wasn't it? markets fell, normally on an interest rate cut, they rise. wasn't it? markets fell, normally on an interest rate cut, they riseli think a lot of this was about the language that surrounded the cut, the market expecting this to be the beginning of a prolonged interest rate cutting cycle but mr powell made it clear that actually this was a mid—cycle cut and effectively they would see what happens next in the

market wanted more certainty that they were going to get this constant easing and so did mr trump. we've seen the ripple effect around the world, the us federal reserve starts signalling it may be going to cut rates, other banks follow suit, they almost have to. yes, that is true but there is also a common factor here which is the world economy is slowing down because of the trade war. that particularly affects emerging markets in europe which are tied into the global supply chain so there is a common factor here of easing around the world. is there a danger of being too proactive rather than reactive when it comes to these things, generally banks cut rates in response to things that are happening in the world economy, not necessarily for things that they think might happen in the future?” think might happen in the future?” think this is one of the criticisms that the federal reserve has become a slave to the market, the market throws a tantrum and says every time there's a bit of a slowdown in the economy, hey we want an interest—rate economy, hey we want an interest— rate cut economy, hey we want an interest—rate cut so we can carry on growing and growing of the market

reached record highs quite recently. the danger is if we cut too much the markets start getting frothy and we could get into bubble territory. what's interesting, they are cutting rates again but interest rates never really recovered to the point they we re really recovered to the point they were at pre—financial crisis a decade ago. that's true and again one of the other criticisms is that there won't be room to cut if there isa there won't be room to cut if there is a genuine crisis. i mean, at the moment will be seen in america is a slowdown in industrial when you factor in, that tends not to pre—stage a recession, for a recession you have to see consumer slowdown, when the consumers slows down the fed will need more ammunition and it doesn't have that much room. julian, thank you. and for those who are fans of central bank action we haven't talked about the bank of england and their decision later but we will come to that later in the programme. stay with us. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news barclays has reported a pre—tax profit of around $3.7 billion for the first half

of the year, down from $libillion in the same period last year. it blames a "challenging income environment" and also one—off accounting measures. the retail bank in the uk saw growing mortgage and deposit growth, but profit margins fell. profits at royal dutch shell have tumbled. in the second quarter the oil giant reported income of around $3billion, half the amount in the same period last year. it is blaming lower prices for oil, gas and other chemicals. profits were also hit by write—offs totalling $1i79m, mainly related to businesses in trinidad and tobago and australia. british airways is facing a possible summer of disruption after the airline lost its legal attempt to stop pilots from taking strike action, as part of a pay dispute. the pilots union balpa says it is not announcing strike dates yet —and will hold talks with ba for the rest of the week. ba maintains a pay deal of 11.5 per cent over three years is fair

chinese billionaire liu zhongtian has been indicted in the us over allegations he evaded $1.8bn in tariffs on aluminium imports. prosecutors accuse mr liu of using the aluminium company he founded to smuggle huge amounts of the metal into the us. mariko oi is in singapore... good to see you. what more do we know about what's going on? a p pa re ntly know about what's going on? apparently prosecutors say huge amounts of aluminium were disguised as pallets in order to avoid customs duties so that's rather creative, isn't it? it is to do with one of the earlier tariffs that the us imposed on steel and aluminium over a year ago if you remember. the trade war between the countries of course is ongoing and this indictment comes at a rather testing time as negotiators just wrapped up another round of high—level talks without any meaningful progress. the

company he founded did not respond when the bbc contacted them for comment but according to the wall streetjournal a comment but according to the wall street journal a warrant comment but according to the wall streetjournal a warrant has been drawn up for his arrest. although he is believed to be in china which doesn't have an extradition treaty with the us so it's highly unlikely he will get arrested in the us u nless he will get arrested in the us unless he visits in the movies rather symbolic but still, it's very significant because it is believed to be one of the biggest tariff related cases that the us has brought. thank you very much for that update from singapore. let's look at the latest market movements. equity investors were disappointed by what the fed chief jerome powell had — or did not have — to say about the prospect of more rate cuts. some had hoped for a series of rate cuts to be flagged but they weren't. that saw the dollar strengthen. that's why the dow lost ground after the announcement, prompting stocks on the main asian indices to hit six week lows,

even ifjapan's nikkei got over it eventually. this is the picture here in europe with the trading day under way forjust over half an hour. here in the uk, watching for the bank of england's announcement. no move expected today, but we'll be watching for clues about when it might. and samira hussain has the details of what's ahead on wall street today. us car—maker general motors will report earnings on thursday, several other car—makers have reported weak results so many analysts will be looking closely at what the number one automobile maker will say. new vehicle sales in the united states and china, the world is largest car markets have been falling. investors will be keen to hear what gm has to say about future vehicle car sales for both the company and the auto industry as a whole. also reporting earnings on thursday as the global grain trader, earnings will likely be hit by the ongoing trade war with

china and severe us weather along with shipping delays and other supply uncertainties. joining us is jeremy thomson—cook, founder, complete currency consulting jeremy, we were nodding toward the bank of england was going and is going to decide, numb and expecting movement. not at all today, the bank of england dry to stay away from cutting interest rates until the outlook for brexit is looking a little bit more certain, god knows when that is going to happen! but in the short term the bank of england will probably outline its options and continue to say it remains vigilant and dry to continue to communicate to businesses and consumers in the uk that should the worst come to the worse they will step in and try and help the uk economy. what else is in the mind of european investors? the fed took up a lot of time yesterday, continues to have an effect on market as we see this morning, chinese manufacturing numbers overnight, as

much as we can talk about the federal reserve and the impact of the trade war, it's federal reserve and the impact of the trade war, its continuing to her things, chinese manufacturing stabilising a little over the course ofjuly, we saw the trade talks break down between the us and china and they are not due to resume until september so in the short term, in august, august is always a funny month for the market as everyone goes away so things may quieten down and by the end of the month people will talk a lot more about trade and for that we start to see constructive talks lead to anything positive. it's also the month when little movement or a little bit of trade can trigger big movements. absolutely. liquidity is low so not many people are trading, a big headline comes out, another trump tweet, you know, borisjohnson decision or anything similar, and you can see an outsized move over the course of a trading day and that can be in stocks, bonds, and obviously on the pound recently. jeremy, thank you, we will see you later to go through the papers and a

big story about brexit contingency planning, that's coming up a little later. still to come do you really need to go to the gym? and we'll be getting the inside track on the home excersise app that's aimed at people who are too busy to join a gym. you're with business live from bbc news. only half of the food we consumed in the uk in 2017 was produced here. the rest imported — with 30% of the imported food coming from the eu. but one exception is peas. ben is live at birds eye's 24/7 operation in hull

giving peace a chance! laughter the farm is busy here this morning. they have been harvesting and it is a2047 they have been harvesting and it is a 20 47 operation, to get these things out of the ground you might be able to make out some of the keys that are harvested, they have eight weeks to harvest everything. eight weeks to harvest everything. eight weeks to harvest everything. eight weeks to last us for the entire year, that in itself raises lots of questions about food security, not least because brexit and the warnings about border cues. with me is james whose job it is to make sure this runs smoothly. great to see you. talk through the operation, a bit ofa see you. talk through the operation, a bit of a lull, the pickers are at the other side but it's a really important time for you. it is, that's right, we've got one chance to get the crop right and quality right. this we see is a culmination ofa right. this we see is a culmination of a year 's right. this we see is a culmination of a year '5 worth of hard work and collaboration with farmers and lots of detailed planning. it's on a massive scale, we have 10,000

hectares of peas and they have to be harvested in the peak period. there is no second chance, we have to get it right. and it is a bit of a lull, actually, but as you saw earlier, the logistics here are quite complicated and big scale. because we have to get the peas, as soon as they are picked from the plant they have to be in hold and frozen within two and a half hours. we talk about stuff being stuck in the poor that might be imported but for you it's about exports, those vegetables being sold overseas. what we do here will keep us going for the uk birds eye peas all year but we are a european business, we have brands and businesses in other countries. a good example is peas, that's right, we grow all the peas here, suppliers in the uk but the italian brand love the vegetables here, the quality fantastic, the discerning palate in italy, they prefer these so we export a lot over there. james, good to see you and thank you for having

a seer. there you have it, really important time for them right now to get the stuff out of the ground. you're watching business live — our top story — the us central bank cuts rates for the first time in more than a decade heralding lower borrowing costs around the world. the markets and president trump wanted a bigger cut. a quick look at how the markets are faring bit of a mixed picture, you can see how stocks and shares are. a lot of attention on the bank of england interest rate decision. not expecting any movement on interest rates in the uk. now, have you ever promised yourself to take more exercise — but somehow never get around to it? if so, you're not alone. that's a rather pointed question, thank you! a recent poll in the uk alone found

that around $libillion is wasted every year on unused gym memberships. not dry to cast aspersions, i would probably be more in that category than you! between workplace demands, domestic chores and everything else, there can often be little time for many people to go to the gym. this is the market that uk—based fiit comes in. it's a fitness app that connects to your tv and allows subscribers to choose from a variety of exercise classes taught by top workout instructors. it started in 2017 and the start—up has already raised around $9 million. with us is daniel shellard, chief executive of fiit. home workouts have been with us since the 80s, who was the famous vhs aerobics jane fonda. the jane fonda work—out. so what are you doing this different? there is an evolution happening now, you are connecting hardware and software together to make the experience more

social, and came like, you can take a class with one of your friends anywhere in the country together in real time. that already exists in other forms, palatine, real time. that already exists in otherforms, palatine, for real time. that already exists in other forms, palatine, for example and other competitors, they've already got this do it from home but with a social encouragement network. that's right. peloton has been extremely successful. the hardware is quite expensive to buy. what we look at is providing a piece of hardware that's affordable, comes free with a subscription, people can get up and running really quickly. incredibly crowded sector as we've mentioned, you have so many social media influencers who are kind of cornering this market for themselves, monetising it, how do you make yourself stand out? there's a new category involving alto fitness, interactive fitness, this isa fitness, interactive fitness, this is a combination of hardware and softwa re is a combination of hardware and software that allows a social game if i'd experience, it is a

relatively new market, peloton had been very successful but the direction of travel in the fitness market, we believe, evidence so far it suggests people don'tjust have unused memberships, they use it quite often. a lot of social media influencers involved but if i was signing up, what's to say the social media stars know anything about fitness and exercise and what's safe and what's going to work? good question. from our perspective the number one priority is making sure we give them the best advice, to the consumers. we go through a long audition process, we have 200 applications for every trainer that comes on board, we have some of the top fitness experts in london helping assess the quality of all of our trainers and that means we can give the best advice to the consumer. on the subject of safety, do you have to adapt the workouts that you have on your platform to suit people because my comes, we don't all have the space to do a big energetic work—out, i know an

occasion i've tried, i've tripped over at various things including stuff that i don't actually use. everything can be done on a regular sized yoga mat and you don't need any equipment to get yourself started and once you want to level up started and once you want to level up and upgrade you can buy equipment to ta ke up and upgrade you can buy equipment to take it to the next level. what's your background, how did you get into this, was it from the personal training side ought my background is tech, i started my career in google in 2005, i served with another technology company in 2010, a website personalisation space, we come at this from a technology background bringing in the expertise of social media influencers. we've been asking today do you have to spend pounds to lose pounds as their eight science research that backs it up the people make a financial commitment, they might be more willing to commit? there is definitely that debate, making a financial commitment, we have a free product and they pay for product and you see people on the pay for product use it more

frequently. but i think a lot of it comes down to the experience that you create, if you can do classes with rents to make it accountable, have the game fight element, you make the entire experience more immersive, that's where we believe people will continue to use the subscription, i need to ask you about the name, fight the two letter eyes, is it when people use it, someone will go to them and say it's a play on high intensity interval training. i see! it's a play on high intensity intervaltraining. i see! that makes more sense. daniel, thanks so much for coming in, really good to talk to you. ina in a moment, jeremy will be back with all the news. stay up—to—date with all the news. stay up—to—date with the news as it happens on the web page. there is insight and analysis from our team of editors around the globe and we want to hear from you, get involved on the bbc

business alive web page. 0n from you, get involved on the bbc business alive web page. on twitter. and you can find us on facebook. business alive, on tv and online, what you need to know, when you need to know it. we are asking if you need to spend pounds to shed pounds, a lot of you in touch. 0ne viewer tweeting to say a home gym is good for experienced people but for beginners they need trainer or peers but if ask and replace travel time it would be great. i think top marks has to go to mike who says he is in shape and then pointed out round is a shade, isn't it? i love that. and dan assess a person only needs to have the right clothing, a good 30 minute walk every day will keep most of us physically and mentally healthy. your approach, jeremy? i go

to the gym, i don't tend to exercise at home because i have a sofa and a fridge and they are far more tempting. but there is the work between them. exactly. counts as your daily steps. but you have to deal with carpet burning things like that, it's not good. let's talk about some of the stories in the papers. this is big news in the uk, today, the extra £2 billion to go towards contingency planning for a possible new deal brexit. yes. 2.1 billion town —— pounds on top of another 11.2 that's been released, taking the total bill so far to £6.3 billion. good to see the magic money tree is alive and well and can't be shaken for these no deal brexit preparations. it is an astounding amount of money. and i guess raises questions, not least, you know, is this going to be money usefully spent even in the event of there

being a deal in brexit? is this an actual commitment, and actual spending of money orjust a commitment to spend money?m spending of money orjust a commitment to spend money? it seems to bea commitment to spend money? it seems to be a commitment at the moment, while there will be some money spent on for example, more customs officers at the border and an information campaign both advertisements and pamphlets sent to every address in the uk, in the grand scheme of things this is money set aside which could obviously be put into other public services which need them at the moment. and held aside for the worst outcome. to be honest, if we see a recession as a result of no deal brexit £6.4 billion is not going to do anything. i suppose one of the big concerns is the backlog at ports and orders and borders and this is to try and put contingency plans in place to smooth all of that as much as they possibly can but we saw the difficulties with very contracts and all of that. the one thing we know from trade and regulation and working with

international and i know working with international businesses, there is only a certain amount of time you can throw money at the problem, and the grand scheme of things there has to be moved on both sides of the argument before things can start moving. boris johnson is undoubtedly talking tougher when it comes to preparing for no deal. what do you think is the read from your friends on the continent about whether they are actually taking this thread seriously? they are not taking it too seriously at the moment and i think we've still got a, you know, in political terms, decent amount of time between now and october the 3ist time between now and october the 31st and to be honest, obviously, europe is on holiday for most of august. we may see more of a crunch in september. i want to get onto this in the telegraph, anyone who tries to do their bit and recycle, may come up against this, 58 baffling recycling symbols, all of them with a different meaning. is it an issue for you, do you find ..” looked at this article and i thought, i'm probably doing this all a little bit wrong, i try and

recycle a nd a little bit wrong, i try and recycle and try and recycle as much asi recycle and try and recycle as much as i can but in the grand scheme of things i've only got one bin stop if i had 58 different beans i might be able to separate it out perfectly but in the grand scheme of everything goes into the green bin and you have to hope local authorities and recycling centres are able to push it away and say this can be recycled, this has to go we can see some of these different symbols. the point of a symbol is that it's a universally understood language and perhaps reflects a degree of disarray that there could be in this sector with promoting responsible treatment of waste. absolutely. we've seen headlines in the past couple of days about the amount of plastic bags people are taking other supermarkets and how that's going down by 90% since 2015, it's halved in the past year, people are becoming more conscientious about how they treat plastic and the environment but this has to be simplified because she can bring it all home from the shops on a campus back but you can recycle the packaging, there you go. jeremy,

thank you. good to talk to you, we will see you soon and thank you for watching. see you again soon, have a great day. take care, you've been watching business alive, stay with the website for more. hello. torrential downpours dominating the forecast over the next few days. yesterday as part of great manchester and glasgow sorts and heavy downpours. 0ver manchester and glasgow sorts and heavy downpours. over the next few days we see a gradual improvement to the weather with fewer showers. there is an settled weather courtesy of low pressure that's slowly working its way eastwards over the next few days. as a clear is we see something a bit more settled. after a largely dry start this morning there is sunshine around and dry weather through this afternoon but the growing chance of seeing some heavy, thundery downpours especially through north—west scotland down towards east anglia. here's how it looks at apm. there will be some dry

weather across scotland, sunny spells, you can see the showers, where they form, heavy and thundery with a large amount of rainfall in a short time. the risk of the showers through northern england into parts of east anglia as well. for southern, central england and wales, the risk of one or two showers but some sunshine and a lot of dry weather, feeling pleasant in the sunshine, highs of 25 degrees. the ashes starts today, some play but this afternoon the growing chance of one or two showers and if we do see showers forming, they will be heavy and slow moving. through this evening and overnight, still some heavy showers for a time but as the night wears on, they should ease, more in the way of dry weather, could see if you lingering showers for eastern areas, parts of scotland, image is fairly similar to what we saw last night, low to mid teens. as we start the day tomorrow, fairamount of dry teens. as we start the day tomorrow, fair amount of dry weather around again, some sunshine as well, patchy cloud, as the day wears on,

temperatures start to rise it could trigger if you shop showers. temperatures tomorrow similar to what we saw today, the high teens and 20s, perhaps reaching 2a degrees. into the weekend, saturday looks like it will bring a good deal of dry weather for many, with a brief ridge of high pressure but you see this weather front working its way in as we move into sunday. more in the way of showers, some spells of rain, looks like it will be quite u nsettled of rain, looks like it will be quite unsettled as we move into the start of next week. goodbye.

you're watching bbc news at nine with me, rebecca jones. the headlines: the chancellor is to earmark an extra £2 billion for a possible no—deal brexit — something the labour party calls an "appalling waste of taxpayers' money". flood warnings are still in place across yorkshire and the north west of england, after heavy rain caused damage to buildings, roads and rail lines. research finds the number of teenagers in care is rising — and the system in england is struggling to cope. the bank of england is to announce its latest interest rate decision, which looks set to remain the same. and in sport, the wait is finally over — day one of the ashes begins this morning at edgbaston. having been on both sides of it, lifting it before under cooky,