this is worklife from bbc news, with sally bundock and david eades. fast—fashion fortunes — british pioneer primark says international expansion is helping its profits grow. live from london, that's our top story on tuesday 5th november is a t—shirt for a few quid a sustainable way to go? the industry is under scrutiny for its enviornmental impact — and the welfare of millions of workers around the world. also in the programme ...ride—sharing giant uber continues to lose money — billions of dollars —

but the boss promises to hail a profit in two years time. .and.. a glimmer of hope that there is an end in sight to the us—china trade war and punishing tariffs — that's pushing up stock markets to record highs. and — where would sherlock holmes buy his maps and how did ernest shackleton navigate antarctica? with the help of 166—year—old british firm — we'll get the inside track on the world's largest map maker. today we want to know map or app — when was the last time you unfolded a good—old fashioned map or are you reliant on your smartphone telling you where to go. let us know — just use the hashtag bbcworklife. hello and welcome to worklife.

get your comments, coming in, i must admit, the a to z for me once get your comments, coming in, i must admit, the a to zfor me once upon get your comments, coming in, i must admit, the a to z for me once upon a time was like the bible. let's hear from you about your map reading skills. lets start with one of the world's largest fashion retailers — primark — a pioneer of fast fashion, its just announced that its yearly earnings have risen by 8 percent. this comes despite increasing pressure on an industry that sells clothes for a few dollars. here in britain, mp's have been scrutinising fast fashion — and made a series of recommendations. these include a penny tax on every garment sold, in order to help fund more recycling — and moves to ban the incineration of unwanted clothes. in the uk alone, consumers send around 300,000 tonnes of clothes a year to incineration or landfill. the environmental campaign group friends of the earth says up to 64% of fabrics we wear are now synthetic —and these are damaging when burned or sent to landfill.

the fashion sector employs around 60 million workers. the walk free foundation estimates a0 million people are living in modern slavery today, many of them in supply chains of western clothing brands. some big questions to deal with. nina van volkinburg, associate lecturer at the london college of fashion, university of the arts london is with me now very nice to see you, you follow and understand customers thinking around why they buy. when sally runs through the issue of waste in particular, maybe we will get onto workers conditions. our people not taking these sorts of things into account because primark is still doing very well? they are, their sales and profits are rising and over the past 15 years consumption has risen by 60%. whilst we understand the sustainable challenges, we are concerned, as

we've seen with extension rebellion protests, our behaviour of how we are purchasing has not changed and if anything it's even risen because that's our purchasing is dependent on convenience, price and value and with social media, we are constantly bombarded with images, products, and when you can just tap and buy immediately, you are thinking of the ethics in the background. as we get towards christmas, busy time for retailers. certainly in the uk, and in other parts of europe and elsewhere, we are in a tough time financially, hassell is feeling the pinch, they will head to places like lima, h&m, where things are really cheap. —— places like primark. lima, h&m, where things are really cheap. —— places like primarkm lima, h&m, where things are really cheap. -- places like primark. it is a short term vision, we think we are getting a bargain on something but there is a price being paid on the environment, workers rights, but also the consumers themselves so when they buy a £2 t—shirt, the

quality will wear off and maybe a couple of wares and you go on and purchase something else. 0ver couple of wares and you go on and purchase something else. over time, those purchases accumulate. that of course is the appeal, where it a couple of times, i've lost nothing effectively. is there is perhaps some opportunity to find ways in which this clothing doesn't go into landfill, doesn't go to be incinerated and goes to a better use and that could be a role and responsibility? absolutely, you see fast fashion retailers like h&m, primark have started initiating this, you can recycle in—store, you bring your old clothes, and you bring your old clothes, and you bring them back to the flagships and they go back into production and are turned into something new so we are going from a linear model of take, make and dispose and that is going to something more circular so we are

recycling, giving something a second life. but also young showers are recycling more, selling their stuff, it's quite normal and trendy to buy second—hand trainers on apps. absolutely. and we look ahead, the next ten years, the resell models are actually outpacing fast fashion. so fast fashion retailers have to start thinking how do we compete with these second—hand clothing retailers ? with these second—hand clothing retailers? big challenges, i am not sure you will get much for a primark t—shirt when you resell. you don't see those on the apps. we had better move on. thank you. thank you. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news mcdonald's says stephen easterbrook who was fired as boss after having a relationship with an employee is entitled to six months severance pay. he earned $15.8 million in 2018, according to a filing. the board found that the relationship had been consensual — but violated company policy. mr easterbrook says it had been an error ofjudgement.

britain's leading shale gas company hopes to overturn a uk government suspension on fracking by proving that it can be safe — despite triggering earthquakes. cuadrilla says it would provide industry regulators with new data to address the concerns of communities near active fracking sites. uk businesses are optimistic about international trade and future growth overseas — but mainly outside the eu. that's according to a new survey by hsbc. it found that 86% of uk businesses were positive about the outlook overall — but were gloomy about the prospects for stronger trade with europe. us commerce secretary wilbur ross is in indonesia this week and he's accompanied by officials from boeing. what's he hoping to achieve? karishma vaswani is in singapore. there is a lot at stake? yes, david,

actually, to be fair he is notjust visiting indonesia, thailand and vietnam are on the list, the big group of us business people as you pointed out, tesla, boeing, each of these countries has seen i think it will be fair to say, a testy relationship with the us recently on trade, thailand has lost some aspects of its preferential trading status with the united states because of allegations on worker abuses, indonesia which is of course the big focus for this trip, it wants to retain that status but it is also dry to navigate that relationship with boeing which of course is under fire under two crashes involving the same model of aircraft, 737 max plane. 0ne crashes involving the same model of aircraft, 737 max plane. one of those involving the indonesian airline lion airand those involving the indonesian airline lion air and now, really one of the standard beneficiaries of the us china trade war has caught the attention of the us which frankly says, vietnam you are not buying enough american products so it's very worried about being hit with

tariffs of its own from the united states. all of this coming at a time when the region is eagerly awaiting some sort of resolution in trade talks between beijing and washington and frankly, speaking to journalists today, on a call i was listening into, secretary ross said to us he was reasonably optimistic that phase one of the deal will be signed soon, just no details on when, where and any specifics of what is actually in that deal. 0k, thank you very much. and markets hanging on the hope of comments from wilbur ross and others at the trade talks are going well, that's why we are seeing markets globally being pushed higher, that combined with good earnings stories coming through and good news coming out of the united states in terms of how its economic performance is at the moment. so let's look at european markets, this was how asia traded earlier today, you can see markets in europe are pretty flat, the ftse up only slightly, associated british foods, shares up

over 4% today, the owners are primark, the primark story boosting the share price but flat markets in europe having had a really stellar session on monday. david. sally, thank you. now to the us, where uber has disappointed investors with its latest set of results — it's reported more than a billion dollars in losses. but uber says that it is on course to make a profit. samira hussain has more from new york. over $1 billion in losses, that's the headline take away from uber‘s latest earnings report. sure, more people are using the service both the ride hailing app and its restaurant delivery service uber eats, but the company reported more than $1 billion in losses during the quarter and that loss is despite a 30% increase in revenues. so, what gives? according to uber‘s ceo this is when the company will be making big investments into the business. and that all that spending should really slow down in 2020 and beyond. but the pressure is on. last week uber‘s biggest

rival lift reported earnings and they were better—than—expected. and they even said it will become a profitable company by the end of 2021. much sooner than anyone expected. that was samaria talking about uber. 0llie barrett is with us, talking about some stories. the headline, supermarkets must dig fruit and veg packaging and sell by dates to cut waste. i'm interested how using less plastic packaging reduces food waste. this is a recommendation from a food waste charity and also from a government department and the answer to your question is firstly when it's all packaged people tend to buy a bit more it turns out because they

don't buy what they need whereas when theyjudge it i will have just one potato for example, all the supermarkets charge more when food is loose. not packaged. they charge more? don't you mean they charge less ? more? don't you mean they charge less? they end up charging more when it is loose, it's cheaper to buy for peppers, you need to know your onions. gosh! but you have to explain that, why on earth? can i say a bag of bananas is more than your individual banana, i do know that much, i buy a lot of bananas. there you go, indeed, how do you like them apples, as they say! it adds up to a lot, 20% of food brought into homes ends up in the bin, gets wasted and that costs billions, £4 billion in fruit and veg wasted every year, this is a big issue and it's one supermarkets seem to be committed to solving but it needs everybody to muck in.|j to be committed to solving but it needs everybody to muck in. i was going to say why don't theyjust do it? if you think about iceland, they rana it? if you think about iceland, they ran a trial, they noticed sales were

about 20%, they have to lean into this. when you say they ran a trial, you mean having a trial of loose veg? in one particular site, in an interview with richard walker recently, they said it had their bottom line but that doesn't mean they will give up, they have to keep doing it, the numbers are absolutely staggering, but we end up wasting on the other recommendation in this report says in terms of best before, we need to hold off on that, allow the customer tojudge it by their eye in many cases. cheddar cheese takes 64 days to go up, the package says use within 5—7. takes 64 days to go up, the package says use within 5-7. that is a harder nut to crack at best before. you just have to smell it, have they squished, you can tell and it depends on i will do my own shopping. and it depends when you are going to eat it, it really does. let's look at the times newspaper, the front page, the labour party four day week costing taxpayers £i7 billion, this is the labour party pushing the idea of us working four

days instead of five, productivity will be better, the rest of us, who says it will cost this much? the ce ntre says it will cost this much? the centre for policy studies, the run—up to election fever in the uk, the shadow chancellorjohn mcdonnell says aspiring towards a 32 hour working week within the decade, we are about 42 hours, back in the 18605 65 are about 42 hours, back in the 1860s 65 hours, the trajectory is downwards, however, they have crunched the numbers and they said it will cost a lot of money because in public services you need more teachers, police officers, you will have to employ more people and they reckon that will cost £17 billion every year. worth making the point you would look to different papers for different slant on this, obviously. but flexible working is becoming very, well, i say popular, more people are pushing for flexible working, certainly those coming into the workforce, they want to have more control and flexibility, 9—5 monday to friday week is very much becoming a thing of the past. and what is interesting, all of the studies seem to show within either

companies admittedly come you give people the option to work a bit less time, the stress goes down, the amount of sick time goes down and productivity rockets which is this big contract not for britain. what they hope is it will trigger a more interesting conversationjust they hope is it will trigger a more interesting conversation just about productivity and how we enjoy our work. well, we will see how it pans out, elections not far away. and we are only too aware here at the bbc. 0llie, thank you so much, good to see you. still to come ...it‘s where sherlock holmes would buy his maps and helped ernest shackleton navigate antarctica. we'll get the inside track on a 166—year—old british firm that's the world's largest map shop. you're with worklife from bbc news.

i have to say, shopping is very much a theme in the programme today! uk shoppers spent more this 0ctober than they did in the same month last year, despite political uncertainty surrounding the general election and brexit. here to tell us more about the state of the high street is kyle monk, head of retail insight & analytics at the brc. thank you forjoining us and you do so as we thank you forjoining us and you do so as we hear that mothercare is another big high street name which is heading into administration. more of the same, is it, same old story? not entirely, in october retailers entered into a period of extraordinary discounting, fashion retailers are susceptible to this, asa retailers are susceptible to this, as a result we saw non—food sales rise for the first time since july which is what helped sales reach a positive story in october. unfortunately the longer term trend is still negative, we see sales to

september unfortunately just about 0.1% which isn't particularly brilliant. with brexit on the horizon and unresolved issues and the general election in december retailers will be looking nervously at the coming months. this is an issue for retailers, very tough in the environment, we expect discounts all the time. the january sales seems to be all year round, we've got black friday coming up pretty $0011. got black friday coming up pretty soon. absolutely, black friday unfortunately being later this year, we see the demand curve over the november, december at peak unfortunately it should catalyse more sales than it should and that it has historically. can i ask you about black friday? is becoming more beneficial to consumers but less beneficial to consumers but less beneficial to consumers but less beneficial to retailers because as you say, the discounts have to be bigger and betterfor the you say, the discounts have to be bigger and better for the customers to buy in? we don't do black friday in the uk in the same way the americans do. promotions are targeted, only certain lands are on,

certainly isn't something all retailers engage in, we see more doing it differently or opting to do ita doing it differently or opting to do it a different way. we see it as a period per brands, showers are primed to spend however there is still spent to be made up over the christmas week. thanks very much. as ever, let me remind you, we have our online page, updating with business stories and earnings news that we don't quite get to hear on the show. you're watching worklife. a reminder of our top story: showers flocking to primark helping the retailers profits rise. but criticism mounts about fast fashion and its impact on the planet and the welfare of millions of textile workers all around the world.

now let's get the inside track on the world's largest map and travel guide shop, sta nfords. the family owned business first opened its doors in 1853 in covent garden in london. past customers include aviator amyjohnson, explorers ernest shackleton and captain scott and nurse florence nightingale. now in the age of satnav and digital maps, stanfords has also been growing online customers around the world the shop has now moved into new premises to cater for this demand. vivien godfrey is the 3rd generation to lead the company. she is chairman and chief executive of stanfords she joins us now(how do did you have a choice about what you are going to do when you grow up? my father, grandfather were involved in the business and when i graduated from university my father said to me you could join the company but i think it will be better if you went off and got experience elsewhere.

0k. off and got experience elsewhere. ok. you came back later. we've got some lovely maps here and atlases and the sort of stuff that many people look on frankly with great nostalgia now. how do you compete with the digital world, with sadness? we are definitely not luddites we embrace the idea of digital mapping as well as paper maps like these. and we think there's a place for both. maps, paper maps in particular give you a sense of where you are in the world, it's very hard to get that when you have a tiny little digital device on your screen. have a tiny little digital device on your screen. so, there is a place for paper maps especially when you're planning your journey for paper maps especially when you're planning yourjourney and when you go to places in the world where it's difficult to get a gps signal or it's very cold and your battery has run down quickly. can i elaborate on that point and i understand what you say but there a suggestion the military are saying we have to know, we've got the maps so we have to know, we've got the maps so they are rushing back to paper.

rushing back, really? ithink rushing back is an exaggeration. but a numberof rushing back is an exaggeration. but a number of militaries around the world decided that they would try and go all digital and that's turned out to not be such a good idea because as i mentioned before, you are reliant on power and if you are only using batteries, unless you got something really enormous like a tesla battery, it's going to run down very quickly and you have to turn back to paper maps. do you worry that the skill of map—reading is becoming a skill that is dying and also, a sense of where we are? i know, i am lazy, and also, a sense of where we are? i know, iam lazy, i and also, a sense of where we are? i know, i am lazy, i willjump on the car, put a postcode in the machine and offi car, put a postcode in the machine and off i go and i'm just listening to left, right, turn here, second exit, i haven't really got a sense of where i'm going and where i end up. yes, i do worry and studies have been done that suggest our brains are changing when we don't understand where we are and the mapping and the landscape. so i'm

very excited when organisations like the ordnance survey offer map—reading courses for both adults and children. but i don't want to put a damper on it but it's a bit like being able to use a slide rule, reading a map now? it's great if you know how to do but frankly, you don't need to know how to it any more. yes, i think i used don't need to know how to it any more. yes, i thinki used a don't need to know how to it any more. yes, i think i used a slide rule at school and moved on to using a calculator and now i use a personal computer or tablet so we have all but fundamentally, if you don't understand the underpinning of how mathematics works, so it's the same with mapping, if you don't understand north, south, east, west, if you don't understand scale, if you don't understand the symbols on the map name because even that little digital thing on your phone, you need to understand what the symbols mean, if you are dry to find something, you need to be able to read a map. and you don'tjust sell maps, you sell books and other elements, how have you survived this long, you are 166 years old, in the age of amazon, the age of online

retail, you've got big shops, and the high street, it's expensive just to read them, let alone anything else. we are clinging on by our fingernails, it would be fair to say. we are ambitious about opening new locations that won't necessarily be ina new locations that won't necessarily be in a prime location on the high street. the business rates are franklyjust street. the business rates are frankly just killing us. street. the business rates are franklyjust killing us. something has to be done about those. the locations that work well for us or off the high street, they are like where we moved off long acre, very expensive street in london. just up the road here, we've moved 100 metres and the rent is about a quarter of what we were paying before. what's the family politics lie, is it harder christmas? can you ever leave ? lie, is it harder christmas? can you ever leave? can you ever leave the business? i'm very lucky my brother joe is our it director and he does a wonderfuljob and joe is our it director and he does a wonderful job and right joe is our it director and he does a wonderfuljob and right now his daughter kerry, mike nice is working in the business so we are lucky to have family members still involved.

it must get difficult at times.|j have in my hand the edward stamford limited book and think about, are we on camera here we are, when vivian looks at this, handwritten, this is your lot, your history, tradition, you can understand why ...ifyou tradition, you can understand why if you open that up, you have my grandfather in the chair and my father on the board. so that's very exciting, handwritten. your children are not... exciting, handwritten. your children are not not directly involved, i have two stepsons and four grandchildren and they are in the united states because i married an american and spend a lot of time there. not involved in the business. how do you do that? a week over there and three weeks here? luckily lam able there and three weeks here? luckily i am able to buy my carbon offsets to make sure that i'm doing the right thing for the planet because i am ona right thing for the planet because i am on a plane twice a month. stay with us, we have some tweets.

viewers comments. about map—reading. deep breath. let's look at how you responded. stephen said ijust looked at another 15 minutes ago, well done! it say why. james is a retired geography teacher, we know what james will say, i retired geography teacher, we know whatjames will say, i do it regularly, interesting and informative, i keep a road atlas in the car to back—up dodgy satnav instructions. and alpha, the twitter handle says paper maps don't lose gps signals or need batteries to work. absolutely. gary says i have a large collection of maps, mainly the yorkshire dales and lake district, the newest is of new york where we are visiting soon. it's funny, vivian and i were talking about the difficulty of reading maps in the us, ifind, they difficulty of reading maps in the us, i find, they are like gobbledygook to me. everything is in straight lines. not a problem, gobbledygook to me. everything is in straight lines. nota problem, of course! it is much too easy, that's the problem. you got a lot of fans out there, you've got to draw encouragement from that. that's

great, iam encouragement from that. that's great, i am encouraged. thank you for coming in. thank you for coming in the programme, good to have your company, that is work life, see you tomorrow. it's been a rather misty and foggy started the day in central and southeastern areas of england, some rain affecting northern parts of england, over the next few days it will stay quite unsettled, further rain in the forecast, turning quite chilly. today we've got that rain in northern england coming from this weather front, moving southwards, low pressure slipping away into the near continent. as it moves away, we've got a northerly wind developing, bringing much colder air in and across scotland and northern ireland through today. you can see the rain across parts of east yorkshire, lincolnshire, going to slip down towards the midlands, eastern england by this afternoon, some brighter skies in south—west

england, west wales, northern ireland, scotland, eventually northern england but even here the odd shower around but look at those temperatures, eight or 9 degrees in scotland, double figures for northern ireland, england and wales. if you're heading out this evening for bonfire night, there will be some shower surround, turning quite chilly, you will need a hat, scarf, some gloves through this evening, you can see the showers are mainly in central and eastern parts, and to the south—east, still some showers dotted around northern areas but as we go into the night there will be fog developing and some clear skies so fog developing and some clear skies so it will turn chilly, temperatures below freezing in rural areas of scotland. throughout wednesday, that weather front clearing away to the south, we've got this next weather system pushing its way in from the west, another area of low pressure keeping things very unsettled. it will be a bright start for some of us will be a bright start for some of us but also some fog patches lifting and clearing gradually. for eastern areas of the uk remaining dry and

bright for long periods, in the west, we have this cloud, rain moving in and also a bit of wet snow over the higher ground of the pennines and the scottish mountains, temperatures lower. as we go to the end of the week low pressure continuing to move into the south and east, remaining quite unsettled, many more of us having this colder air across us so the blue colours across the uk, darker blues in northern parts of scotland, a chilly feel, temperatures thursday and friday at not getting up into double figures. seven, 8 degrees, showers particularly on thursday, should be a little bit drier i think on friday. that is all for me. goodbye.

you're watching bbc news at nine with, me annita mcveigh. the headlines: parties step up election campaigning by challenging their opponents on their plans for brexit. under labour, ifjeremy corbyn were prime minister, he would go back to brussels, renegotiate the whole deal so we brussels, renegotiate the whole deal so we go back to square one, taking months, possibly years. so we go back to square one, taking months, possibly yearslj so we go back to square one, taking months, possibly years. i am very well aware of the parameters of a deal which could be struck, and i think struck very quickly. new rules inspired by the death of 18—year—old 0liver mcgowan will mean training for all nhs staff on caring for people with learning disabilities and autism. research suggests three quarters of people who use food banks are from homes affected by illness or disability. chelsea and liverpool are in champions league action tonight. wins for both could take them

to the brink of qualifying