this is worklife from bbc news, with sally bundock and james menendez. one step forward, two steps sideways for brexit, as uk mps approve borisjohnson's withdrawal deal but vote down the timetable. live from london, that's our top story on wednesday 23rd october. so the brexit bill is paused for now. what happens next? extension or even general election? we'll consider the alternatives. also in the programme... is this a turning point

in the treatment of alzheimer's? the us drug company biogen says it's seeking approval for a drug which appears to slow the disease. and... should a 30—something launch a dating app for the over—50s? we'll catch up with the entrepreneur behind it. a marriage of planning expertise with a multicultural background. we'll get the inside track on how to compete in the crowded wedding planning field. the founder of la fete joins us live. and we want to know is a dating out the best way to meet a potential partner? how did you meet yours? and if you are single, do you use dating apps? let us know — just use the hashtag bbcworklife. hello and a warm welcome to worklife.

many have you have been in touch already about how you met your partner, it is great to see your stories and keep them coming, we will mention a few later. we start in the uk, where developments in the house of commons yesterday have prolonged the uncertainty over brexit. mps initially backed prime minister boris johnson's withdrawal agreement to take britain out of the eu in principle. it's the first time the commons has approved a brexit deal. but mps then rejected the government's fast—track timetable, which would have given them just three days to consider the legislation in detail. downing street has indicated that the pm will now push for a general election if the eu proposes to delay brexit untiljanuary. our political correspondent helen catt is in westminster to make sense of it all. if you can do that, you will be doing very well. i would be winning, in that case! the big question, is

brexit going to happen on the 31st of october? it is looking increasingly unlikely, it is a week tomorrow. it is still the date in law the uk is set to leave but, at the weekend, a letter was sent by borisjohnson, the weekend, a letter was sent by boris johnson, written the weekend, a letter was sent by borisjohnson, written by parliament, that parliament compelled him to send, asking the eu foran compelled him to send, asking the eu for an extension, to delay that leaving date. the dating outlet was the 31st of january so after last night's defeat for him, when he worked out he would be very unlikely to push the legislation to get the deal ratified in the uk through parliament in time to leave a week tomorrow, he has now said he is going to pause that legislation, stop trying to push it through parliament which means it is now effectively up to the eu, if they will decide to offer an extension or not. will they do it to the date of the 31st of january that mps have suggested? would the 31st of january that mps have suggested ? would they the 31st of january that mps have suggested? would they come back with something shorter? so everything at westminster at the moment is a little bit in limbo as we wait to

see what is going to come back from the eu and once it does, it will be a case are probably a choice, does borisjohnson decide to keep going? if they are offered a short extension, does he keep going with this bill to try and leave with a deal or if it is a longer extension, does he pull the bill entirely and push for a general election? helen, thank you so much. with us now is chris southworth, secretary general, international chambers of commerce. good to see you again. the last time you and i talk to, you were in brussels, you were pretty bewildered then. your thoughts now? well, we are ina then. your thoughts now? well, we are in a mess. the current situation is completely unsustainable. businesses need certainty, it is impossible for them to plan, they don't know what they are planning for so whatever the solution is, whether it is an election or referendum, we need a result and we need clarity for the economy. what you think about what mps said yesterday? a majority said they were in favour of the deal but they said they needed more time. that is

reasonable, isn't it? you know, we are talking about a deal that is going to affect generations to come, it is going to affect the economy generations to come and we have to get it right and if that means you need extra days, take the time, don't rush into something that is going to have huge consequences for everybody just because going to have huge consequences for everybodyjust because we are running out of time. it doesn't make sense. your organisation represents companies globally. we have a sense of what british business leaders believe and what they are grappling with. what about those in europe? we are moving into a very difficult trading environment where the eu, china and the us are increasingly asserting their power to do trade deals. any country going out alone is going to be very exposed, when every other major trading company are all moving into blocs because they neither leveraged against china, the eu and the us. so we have to be aware of that, it is extremely naive to say we are going out to do all these trade deals when we are in

an environment that is very different now than it was six months ago, let alone three years ago. speaking of which, this deal that they are proved, do you think it means to loose a relationship between britain and the rest of the eu? would you like to see something tighter, as in the previous deal that was rejected? we have always said from day one that if the uk is deciding to come out of europe, it needs the closest possible relationship with europe, the alignment across borders is crucial and you can see that with the costs that would be imposed on businesses going into northern ireland with the irish sea border. it is significant, it means less competitiveness, it means more red tape and bureaucracy and they are less able to trade easily up to compete in the world. thanks, chris, good to see you again. i know we will talk again in the near future. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the embattled office space firm wework has been thrown a multi—billion—dollar lifeline from japan's softbank.

softbank says it plans to provide $5 billion in new financing in a deal that will see the japanese firm take more control of the troubled property start—up. the move marks the end of a tumultuous period for wework — once valued at nearly $50 billion. boeing has replaced the top executive of its commercial division, kevin mcallister. it marks the first high—level departure since two fatal crashes of its 737 max. the world's largest planemaker faces a growing crisis over the eight—month grounding of its previously best—selling jet, prompted by crashes in indonesia and ethiopia that killed 346 people. online retailer amazon has opened a vast warehouse the size of 20 football pitches in a southern suburb of paris. the warehouse is amazon's largest in france and mainly staffed by robots. but humans are not entirely out of the picture, more than 600 permanentjobs have been created already and the company says it plans to increase that to 1,000

jobs in three years. just wondering how you would find your way around that factory. well, they are robots. but if you are one of those 600, what is the map like? anyway, let's move on. china's state broadcaster, cctv, has gone against tradition, by not showing a single nba game on the opening day of the new season. it follows a dispute sparked earlier this month when houston rockets' manager daryl morey tweeted support for pro—democracy protesters in hong kong. monica miller is in our singapore burueau. yes, well, some 800 million fans in china were really disappointed today. that first game between the reigning champions toronto raptors and the new orleans pelicans was blacked out, as you said, on the state—run television. however, chinese online giant tencent did

televise the next game. lebronjames has come out in support of the chinese in this protest debate in hong kong. this all started when houston rockets coach daryl morey sent a tweet in support of the hong kong pro—democracy supporters and his comments unleashed a wave of anger in china. basketball legend shakeel 0'neill earlier today came out in support of daryl morey, saying he has a right to free speech. monica, thank you, good to see you again. let's talk you quickly through how financial markets fared earlier in asia. a bit of a mixed day, that is the night before on wall street. everyone is keeping their eye on politics, us china trade discussions but brexit is very much up there this week as well. as well as that, let's have a look at europe. many, big companies are coming out with their stories this week, and most of

them are coming out surprisingly well which has really helped confidence as far as markets are concerned. in europe, all headed slightly lower. now to the us, where tech giant facebook is pushing forward with its libra digital currency despite recent departures by a quarter of the members of the currency‘s governing body. samira hussain is following the story from new york. facebook is still planning to launch libra, a digital currency, even though a quarter of the companies that were backing the project, like paypal, mastercard and visa, have all backed out. so why did they bail? well, they are worried that global financial regulators won't give facebook the go—ahead to launch the crypto currency. us lawmakers, who have already been very critical of facebook and how they handle people's private information, will ask facebook how it plans to keep bad actors from taking advantage of the digital currency and who would ultimately take responsibility if something goes wrong? now, although the focus of the hearing is libra,

this is a rare opportunity for congressional leaders to question mr zuckerberg, so expect questions on the company's alleged anti—trust behaviour or even what the social media company is doing to protect the 2020 presidential elections from interference. let's have a look at some of the story is making the headlines. joining us is benita matofska, author of generation share this story is front page of the times but elsewhere as well, a breakthrough in looking to slow down alzheimer's. it is interesting because biogen's drug could reduce the mental decline by 25% in alzheimer's patients if detected early. that is an important if because the earlier trials actually failed and it was only a follow—up trial involving more than 3,000 people when it was discovered, given

in high doses, this could have quite a significant impact on early treatment. what i find really interesting about this story is, as you say, the early trials, it didn't come up with the results the company was looking for and, in fact, all of these companies have been going down an avenue and people had started to think maybe we are approaching alzheimer's in the wrong way but i guess this, for the first time, sta rts guess this, for the first time, starts to give those scientists some hope. some hope indeed. where i see the sort of issues here is where is this money being invested? and we know that in order to develop the research and development of these drugs, this is a vast, costly industry. what we are not seeing is where money is being invested in the prevention of alzheimer's and dementia and that is perhaps where some of these companies, we could be looking much more at lifestyle factors, prevention, rather than some of this very costly treatment. let's have a look at the guardian and its take on fracking. the spending watchdog has found that

fracking is years behind schedule, it has cost the taxpayer £32 million, a dramatic headline. what is the story here? it is interesting because the problem here, of course, is the fracking process itself is seen as completely barren... not by everyone, some argue it is another means of getting energy out of the ground. absolutely out but why this has been slowed as there is a sway of public opinion against fracking, we have seen protests up and down the country and we are seeing it worldwide, in australia, in the us and it is interesting, the spending watchdog has found only three wells have been dug despite the aim to have been dug despite the aim to have 20. what has held it up? has it been the protests? it has absolutely been the protests? it has absolutely been the protests and we know that i3 been the protests and we know that 13 million of this 32 million has been spent on policing and security at the protest but we have some interesting groups. the knitting

nannies up in lancashire who have been protesting every day for the last three years and they have been successful and have prevented some of the fracking from happening. there is certainly a sway of opinion against theirs and at a time when climate change is such a key, pressing issue, we are seeing these kinds of processes that cause unbelievable damage to the planet are seen as quite apparent and needless to say, also, we know that in terms of earthquake risk as well, this has been high. 2.9 million on the richter scale, it is pretty significant. interesting, thank you, benita, power of the people. absolutely. still to come she's wedded to herjob. like us! who wrote that line? we'll meet the entrepreneur behind la fete, the bespoke wedding and events planning company. you're with worklife from bbc news.

the one young world summit kicked off yesterday in london. it is a global forum for young leaders, bringing together 2,000 young people from over 190 countries around the world to accelerate the one young world summit kicked off yesterday in london. it is a global forum for young leaders, bringing together 2,000 young people from over 190 countries around the world to accelerate social impact. the duchess of sussex meghan markle was in attendance to support the next generation of more responsible and effective leadership. paul polman is chair and counsellor with one young world. paul, just tell us more about this event, why do we need it and why is it important? first of all, it is the biggest event we have had in london since the olympics and paralympics. as you mentioned, 2100 young delegates descending to the royal albert hall in the presence of the duchess of sussex and debating over the next three days what they can do individually and collectively to create a better world for all and

thatis to create a better world for all and that is obviously a very burning platform as we sit here. paul, i know one thing you have been championing is disability inclusion, trying to get businesses on board. tell us how that is going? we have some amazing leaders in one young world. it is in its tenth year, we are celebrating the tenth anniversary and we have about 10,000 delegates globally, all working on their own countries, in their own companies, their own organisations, and projects coming out of one young world. one of them is caroline casey, 1.3 billion people with disabilities in this world, 15% of the world population, grossly underrepresented in the workforce of all of the companies. she single—handedly is trying to move that forward. we are close to getting 500 companies to sign up of the biggest companies and, obviously, we are trying to then build a movement. 0ther obviously, we are trying to then build a movement. other initiatives coming out of one young world would be on mental health, marshall on

violence against women, lauren bush, this is a movement of young people between the ages of 18 and 30 that are indeed changing the world for the better. we are going to have to leave it there but thank you for joining us, paul. the event is taking place in london. you saw footage of last night's event at the royal albert hall. don't forget, bbc online, the business pages packed with all the latest business stories. we have mentioned a few of these already. you're watching worklife. a reminder of our top story: number ten has indicated that the uk prime minister will push for a general election if the eu proposes to delay brexit until january. that's after mps rejected boris johnson's plan to get his withdrawal deal signed off in three days.

shall we have a breatherfrom brexit? yes, please, we all need it! do i sound a bit desperate? no, no but you might send desperate soon, we are talking about getting hitched. weddings are an expensive affair. this will send a shiver down your spine, he has got daughters. in the uk, the average spend in 2019 is almost £32,000 — that's $41,000. i hope you are saving! i will start tomorrow. there are hundreds of professional wedding planners in britain, all after some of that. so what made our next guest decide to set up a bespoke wedding and events planning company, calling it la fete? charlotte ricard-quesada i , why ,why did , why did you start this. some of them and they are really famous and hope profile, what made you put your

toe in the water? i used to work in fashion as a fashion merchandise of the nearly a decade and i had worked alongside a wedding planner in tuscany when i was studying out in florence. i loved it and thought one day i would come back to it and that they presented itself, jumped right in with the love of remembering what i'd done years ago and i think there isa gap i'd done years ago and i think there is a gap in the market if you find your specific niche of who your clients are and there is a place for everybody, like in any industry. isn't it a complete nightmare, given that you can't make any mistakes?” think for a lot of people, it is a nightmare. but i live on stress and i need that to actually make the days go by and, you know, adrenaline is like my coffee, i suppose. and you are is like my coffee, i suppose. and you a re pretty is like my coffee, i suppose. and you are pretty much a one—man band. this is the kind ofjob where you are wedded to your clients, sometimes for years. not literally!

no, not literally, pardon the pun. and sometimes, it is emotional, it is exhausting, it is physical, financial and you get between the bride and the in—laws and the pa rents. bride and the in—laws and the parents. i mean, it sounds like a nightmare to me. ourjob is predominantly, you know, to make sure that the couple are happy and that they get everything that they wa nt that they get everything that they want as stress—free as possible. so we absorb the stress for them and then sort and ask them to do specific... then sort and ask them to do specific. . . what then sort and ask them to do specific... what is the most outrageous demands you have ever had, naming no names of course. of course, naming no names. we have turned a real—life horse into a unicorn once, and we have had a bride on a camel in morocco as well. i think anytime you involve animals... there is always a bit unpredictability. and when it comes to preparing for everything that could go wrong, that in itself is a huge task. i imagine

with uk weddings, a lot of that is about the weather? definitely. i think anywhere in the world, whether it is in the uk, obviously it rains more here but i got married myself in seville last year and it was pouring with rain. you don't expect that in southern spain. absolutely not, it was the first time in 15 yea rs on not, it was the first time in 15 years on that date it was raining but i think any venue you pick, the top to please have a plan a but have a strong, solid plan b that you love just as much. i'll weddings become more and more expensive because it is not just about the event and who is not just about the event and who is there but about the instagram coverage, social media? do you think it has gone a bit over—the—top? i know your business depends on it but it is getting crazy, isn't it? i think depends on it but it is getting crazy, isn't it? ithink the attention to detail has developed a lot more in the past few years because of instagram and things like that but i always say to my couples, look, they are great tools to get you going but never remember what you going but never remember what

you actually wanted, what your actual dream was, because it is so easy, within the process, to get lost and say, i have seen that on instagram, iwant lost and say, i have seen that on instagram, i want that now and then you are delivering an instagram wedding but not the one that comes from the heart that you have always wanted. so they are great tools, they have really woken up the industry to do things differently and creatively, but i wouldn't com pletely and creatively, but i wouldn't completely rely on them either. so don't always try and copy something you have seen and get cross when it doesn't quite match that. when we get given images from the clients, we always say we will take inspiration from them but we will never copy. from a creative point of view, i wouldn't feel correct copying someone else's work. charlotte, thank you very much indeed. we're all about the romance today. there was time when online dating wasjust for millenials. apparently! but apparently everyone is at it now, even the over 50s,

james... thank you! 0ne enterprising woman has spotted an opportunity — launching a dating app aimed at the over fifties, despite being in her thirties. in a moment, we'll check out your tweets on the subject of dating. but first let's hear from charly lester. people quite often assume i'm going to be in my 50s and 60s before they meet me and sometimes get a bit of a shock. quite often i get asked why i'm doing this when i'm in my 30s and how can i be qualified to help over—50s with dating? and while i'm not in my 50s or 60s, i'm a dating expert. i've worked in the space for over six years so i know a lot about dating apps. i'm quite a firm believer that you don't have to be in your target audience. to be a good entrepreneur, you just need to recognise a gap in the market and understand

a problem and then create a solution for that problem. obviously, i understand dating apps a lot more because most dating apps were designed for millennials. i think the biggest misconception that people have about people in their 50s and 60s is that they don't use smartphones and they don't use apps whereas, in reality, most over 50s behave very similarly to people in their 30s and 40s when it comes to their phone and to meeting people these days. if you've got an idea for a start up and you're not in your target audience, that isn't a problem. just make sure you do your research, chat to people who are in that target audience, understand your problem as much as you can and then come up with a solution for it. well, at the top of the show, we did ask you about dating apps. so let's have a look at your responses and there have been quite a few.

is in it is the good old—fashioned way! eilish says... don't do clubs or bars, success for her. this one says, i am 5a, i have been single forfour her. this one says, i am 5a, i have been single for four years and i have never been on a dating site but it has crossed my mind. i'm old—fashioned, a bit shy and hoping to bump into someone socially and hope there is an attraction. would you, yes or no? dating apps? hypothetically? no comment, response to that. what about you ? no comment, response to that. what about you? no, no, face to face. that's it from worklife today. there are so many more comments, ta ke there are so many more comments, take a look, it has been great to

hear from you today. thank you for listening, we will see you again tomorrow, i think. i will. we will, we will be back tomorrow. hi there, good morning. it's been a rather chilly start this morning across england and wales, temperatures turn into pretty much single figures and some patchy fog around which is mostly clearing away. and we have this area of low pressure towards the west of scotland, that's going to bring in some cloud and some rain across the far north—west. another front down to the south—east, that will bring in some cloud through today as well and eventually some rain pushing into the south—east of england. cloudier than yesterday and they will be some rain around, particularly western scotland, where the rain could be heavy. i mention a cloud in the south—east of england, a bit of rain arriving in the afternoon which will turn heavier into the evening. for wales and

northern areas of england, the most favourite place to see some sunny spells and temperatures about 12, 15, maybe 16. tonight, the rain will continue across the south—east and we have rain in the west moving its way gradually eastward so quite a messy picture moving into thursday morning but with limited clear skies, it's not going to be as cold as it was last night. temperatures staying up at 7—11d. throughout thursday, we have got this weather system moving eastwards. that warm front in the south—east almost disappeared but around this area of low pressure, the white lines, the isobars are getting quite close together so expect to see some gales across the west of scotland, they will be some heavy showers moving in here. sunny spells with a northern western areas but down towards the south—east, we got cloud and outbreaks of rain could linger on across east anglia and the south—east of england well into the afternoon. temperatures on thursday about 11—111. into friday, we got cold air moving its way in from the

north, that will affect a good part of northern britain. further south, milderaircoming infrom of northern britain. further south, milder air coming in from the south—west but with that, this area of rain spreading up and as it hits the colder air, they could well be some snow, mainly over the higher ground on scotland, the far north of england. for most of us, it'lljust bea england. for most of us, it'lljust be a case of a very wet afternoon as the rain spreads in, turning particularly heavy across wales, north—western areas of england, mainly over the higher ground. they could be some localised flooding issues and it's going to feel pretty chilly, temperatures eight or nine in the north. down towards the south—east, largely dry but we got milder air, temperatures 1a or 15. wales, north—west england, friday into saturday morning, a lot of rainfall, so that could lead onto some localised flooding, maybe even some localised flooding, maybe even some travel disruption. bye—bye.

you're watching bbc news at nine with me, annita mcveigh. the headlines: borisjohnson is understood to be pushing for a general election if the eu agrees a three—month brexit extension — after mps rejected his fast—track commons timetable we want to crack on, and if we can't crack on then, you know, regrettably, it does seem that a general election is the only way to sort this impasse out. labour will be calling for a general election once a no deal is off the table. now eu leaders will consider whether to grant a delay to the 31 0ctober brexit deadline and what length it should be.