this is worklife from bbc news, with sally bundock and david eades. less than a year to negotiate a brexit trade deal with the european union — the huge task facing uk prime minister boris johnson after his election victory. live from london, that's our top story on monday 16th december. "let s get brexit done" — that's the pm's mantra, but time is tight to get a trade deal signed and sealed by the end ofjune.

we will talk you through what's at sta ke. also in the programme: politics off the pitch — arsenal distance themselves from comments made by one of its players over china's persecution of the uighur population. and what do you do with millions of tonnes of plastic? australia's answer to a recycling crisis — make green bikinis. naturally! talk about recycling... and coffee conundrum — it's not as easy to recycle your takeaway coffee cup as you may have thought. we will find out why and what can be done about that. as instagram rolls out its new anti—bullying and abuse warnings, are you doing the 30—day digital detox to stop social media affecting your mental heath? let us know — just use the hashtag bbcworklife. let us know via social media! yes, indeed, we look forward to

hearing from you but a snail mail won't work for all this programme, get in touch and we shall discuss your comments a little later. a very warm welcome. we start in the uk, where the mantra, "let's get brexit done" was the main campaign slogan of prime minister borisjohnson. many say it was a key part of the party's winning campaign, however, now the party has to deliver on that pledge. the brexit date, when the uk leaves the european union, is set forjanuary 31st 2020. prime minister boris johnson agreed a deal with the eu, but it still needs to go through parliament. a vote could take place as soon as friday. assuming it's a "yes", the next step is to negotiate a post brexit trade deal with the eu. talks are expected to begin in march. a final agreement is needed by the end ofjune. that's the point at which the uk must decide whether or not to extend the transition period. although mrjohnson

has ruled this out. if no trade deal has been agreed by the end ofjune, then the uk faces the prospect of leaving without one at the end of 2020. it sounds like a very familiar tale. not very far away either. with me now is andrew gray — he's the pricewaterhousecoopers‘ global head of brexit for financial services. thank you forjoining us. the two things spring to mind, the timeframe and what it will look like as a deal. and, in a way, they are very closely linked, aren't they? is the time frame, in your view, remotely doable. it is certainly very ambitious. that means no, almost certainly, doesn't it? the original deadline of december 2020 was that when the original brexit deadline was the 29th of march earlier this year, it would have allowed more time but even that is incredibly ambitious. does it seem reasonable then, or would you expect at some

point borisjohnson with this very co mforta ble point borisjohnson with this very comfortable majority to be able to say, i think we need to push that back a bit? he's always been very clear that is the last thing he wa nts to clear that is the last thing he wants to do. but it rather depends on how negotiations are going. as you said, march is when they will start but the breadth and depth of areas to be covered is enormous. and that's obviously the key for business above all, what the breadth and depth of the deal, the arrangement. what might it look like? can you see any way of a free trade element are still as a cornerstone to this deal? some aspect of a free trade agreement is very likely. clearly, from a uk perspective, a deal which results in open borders, free movement of goods, free movement of services, particular for the goods, free movement of services, particularfor the uk goods, free movement of services, particular for the uk economy, goods, free movement of services, particularfor the uk economy, is something that businesses will want to see. but, of course, it's got to be negotiated and negotiated by both sides. what do you see is the real sticking point in this negotiation process when it comes to trade? what

the eu has said is that they want to see tight alignment for free markets, free, open, no tariffs and no quotas. clearly, the uk wants to have trade deals elsewhere with other countries. that may involve certain changes and compromises on both sides. what about the issue of northern ireland, given the political landscape has changed significantly since last week's election. also the fact that the government doesn't need to be dup on board any more? no, but one of the things that i think the northern ireland backstop, which articulated what would have happened in the event of a no deal because no deal can still exist at the end of december, some of the complex situations around the northern ireland deal will be sticking point in negotiations. briefly, what do you think will happen? it is most likely we will end up with some very serious negotiations during the course of 2020. i don't think it's going to be complete. whether that still allows us to complete the transition period at the end of

december with some ongoing negotiations permitted, i think we will have to wait and see. it will depend a lot on where borisjohnson decides to place himself now as a tory prime minister. andrew, thanks very much indeed. thank you. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the us and china finally reached a phase one trade deal over the weekend. that was over the weekend. the us dropped plans to slap fresh tariffs on sunday, while some existing tariffs would be cut to 7.5%. according to the us, the agreement also covers contentious issues like intellectual property and forced transfer of technology. germany's second—largest trade union has called for a pre—christmas strike for higher pay and better working conditions at a amazon logistics hub in the country. germany is amazon's second—largest market after the us. amazon said in a statement that the logistics centre is one of "best employers" and customer orders are still being filled. boeing could announce today whether to further cut or suspend production of its grounded

737 max plane, the wall streetjournal reports. boeing has already decided to reduce its production pace from 52 to 42 planes per month after two crashes led authorities around the world to ground the entire 737 max fleet in mid—march. a halt in production would signal the plane's grounding could last longer than previously thought. chinese football fans have burned arsenal football shirts and called on the club to fire its player mesut ozil. i'm a gunner. it is difficult to take! it follows ozil's public criticism of china's treatment of muslims in xinjiang, which over the weekend resulted in china's state broadcaster cancelling its screening of an arsenal football match. christine hah has the latest from our asia bureau hub. you meddle at your peril, christine!

yes, of course. this is yet another example of chinese state machinery moving into buffer beijing's stance on global affairs. fans burning mesut ozil's shirts are one thing but a boycott by the state broadcaster and even other online streaming platforms and video game companies, that means a lot of lost reve nu es companies, that means a lot of lost revenues for arsenal. which, like many other sports club these days, they do have a very sizable business inside of china. this is, of course, not the first time china is using economic threat to suppress political views. it does not agree with. the chinese government did ask the nba, the national basketball association, to fire player darryl murray, after he expressed his support for hong kong's protesters on twitter a couple of months back if you remember. unfortunately, with all the kind of nationalistic fervour brought up by this us — china trade war and trump's strong arming of china, this is a new reality that businesses all over the world have to deal with. the balance

between commercial reality and the protection of its own interests. we are keeping a close eye on how that develops going forward. thanks. now let's turn to the us, where markets await clues about how manufacturers are faring, with economic data due out today. the phase one between the us and china but china releasing economic news much better than expected, industrial production numbers higher, showing that the chinese economy perhaps isn't slowing as much as we all thought. but, no, we can see a negative day in asia, lets see how europe is going. we have been going for a0 minutes, the ftse is upi% in been going for a0 minutes, the ftse is up i% in germany and france both up is up i% in germany and france both up halfa is up i% in germany and france both up half a percent. ftse 100 probably riding the up half a percent. ftse100 probably riding the wave of optimism following the general election result at the end of last week. the

pound sterling remaining strong. david. thanks very much. i wonder what the us markets will do. now let's turn to the us, where markets await clues about how manufacturers are faring, with economic data due out today. vivienne nunis has more from new york. there's plenty of good news about the us economy to be seen at the moment. unemployment is incredibly low, and, overall, the economy is growing steadily. but there's been a big exception to this in the past few months. and that's in the factories and workshops that make up the manufacturing sector. now, a lot of people have blamed us president donald trump and his trade war with china for that, as tariffs have taken their toll. well, now that there is at least the first part of a trade deal in place, might there be a bit of a turnaround for manufacturing to look forward to? well, on monday, the first estimate of december‘s purchasing manager index for manufacturing comes out and that will tell us how manufacturing bosses are feeling about their business outlook. it has started to look up in recent months and we'll see if that continues.

that was not vivian. that was samira. time now for our daily look at some of the newspaper and website stories which have caught our eye. joining me is professor birgitte andersen, chief executive and co—creator, big innovation centre. welcome to worklife. you wanted to talk about the financial times' coverage of the un climate talks initially at the ft is damning of how they went. yes, but not only the ft. how they went. yes, but not only the ft, it is a whole range of newspapers they are quite damning. literally, they have now been speaking for several days on the carbon emission trade. this is about the carbon market, where they felt, clearly, the whole issue which is stability and climate change is a global issue —— sustainability. they can change the protests. this whole thing of how to create rules and norms and standards has completely broken down. they couldn't agree.

they couldn't agree on the levels of carbon emission and what they should be. you had the big countries like china and india and brazil who wa nted china and india and brazil who wanted to roll over an old agreement and put their carbon credits into this. there's lots of different areas. but that was a legitimate... it isa areas. but that was a legitimate... it is a legitimate argument, isn't it? it's just morally not the right argument, that's how a lot of people would see it now. right now, we all have to cut down, literally, and we have to cut down, literally, and we have to cut down, literally, and we have to start afresh. 0ne have to cut down, literally, and we have to start afresh. one aspect here is also that the very small countries and the islands are complaining of the level of sea levels, storms, floods, drought. well, they are having to grapple with the consequences of climate change right now, aren't they? exactly. my take on this is that, actually, it's not only about reallocating of carbon footprints, but we need innovation. we need to think more forward about what we can

do to reduce it stop true innovation to create much more renewable energy, biomass, clea ntech, to create much more renewable energy, biomass, cleantech, more batteries. there are many different areas. also, we can think about alternatives to plastic. we will have a bit more on that in the programme, won't have a bit more on that in the programme w ' have a bit more on that in the programme, won't we? let's move on to the instagram story, which the telegraph have picked up on among others. instagram users who capture photos with abusive messages will get prompts to rethink their message in an anti—bullying initiative. it is an initiative. it is an initiative. these social media playback have been excused for not tackling issues of hate crime, bullying and fake news —— these social media's. this is one extra weight they have done this, to say actually, let's start education and rethink. it would catch some, wouldn't it, who would think that was a bit clumsy? but an awful lot

of the stuff going out there is just vitriolic and that's not going to make any difference, is it, really? well, i think many people will rethink when they get a prompt. if you probably want this completely... control of these social medias they have in china and other countries, we are in between how much it is the individual and the government and the company themselves stop again, here, a major issue is education. it is about digital literacy. almost, people need to understand what to write, how to write, went to like and share. all these things. it's not only just about social media and share. all these things. it's not onlyjust about social media but schools and parents at home. we will look back one day and realise how immature the whole situation is. it isa immature the whole situation is. it is a big social experiments. it is. thank you so much. still to come...

the coffee conundrum — recycling your takeaway cup is not as easy as you may have thought. we will find out why — and what can be done. you're with worklife from bbc news. some good news for you in the uk. families could see a big cut in their water bills after a ruling from 0fwat, the industry watchdog. it is still a could households can expect to save 12% on their water bills over the next five year, saving an average of £50. let's hear more from our business correspondent theo leggett. that's quite a drop, theo? it's a challenge that has been laid down to the water companies. what 0fwat does, because these water companies are regional monopolies, it has to set the standards to balance shareholder returns against the kind of services they provide and the investment they put in for the

future. the challenge laid down is quite stark. the companies are expected to spend £51 billion over the next five years, of which 13 billion will be new investment, providing things like flood defences, new reservoirs to come back areas —— to combat and sought out areas affected by drought. that sort of thing. at the same time, the water companies are expected to reduce leakages by 16%. across the country, that is equivalent to the water needs of six major cities. it is quite a major challenge. at the same time, they are going to have to reduce consumer bills quite a lot. 0ne reduce consumer bills quite a lot. one of the things this review does is set out a limit on the return is the water companies can actually ta ke the water companies can actually take home. does that then mean they don't have to meet those particular savings? it does slightly depend on other things? it does. but if they don't meet these standards that 0fwat is setting out, they can face sanctions, they can face fines. but

they water companies can complain about this. if they don't like what 0fwat has set out, they can go to the competition and markets authority and set out their grievances. it is quite likely that in the face of these requirements, which are quite tough, a number of them will choose to go down that path. this is a trend, is it, theo, this direction, getting those costs down? it's clear that things need to be done about the cage and there are challenges coming up, for example, with the effects of climate change —— about leakage. these water companies have been criticised in the past about taking large shareholder returns are not investing in a. 0fwat is there to say we are doing something about this and keeping these companies in czech —— not investing enough. this and keeping these companies in czech -- not investing enough. more detail on our website if you want to find out more. -- keeping these companies in check. can find out about that and all the

other business news on the website. you're watching worklife. a reminder of our top story: less than a year to negotiate a brexit trade deal with the european union — the huge task facing uk prime minister boris johnson after his election victory. coffee on the go is more popular than ever. as we know. in the uk alone, about 2.5 billion paper cups of it are consumed every day. can that be right? that's ridiculous! and yet, less than one in a00 of those cups get recycled. that's because conventional takeaway cups are made from plastic—coated paperboard, which doesn't break down easily in the recycling process. well, that's exactly what our next guest, malcolm waugh, is trying to tackle. he runs a uk—based company frugalpac that makes a new type of takeaway cup that doesn't need specialist bins — it can be recycled in any standard recycling system. malcolm, you can tell us, it looks

like will give us a magic trick, but these are the cups. yes, these are these are the cups. yes, these are the cups. the difficulty in recycling comes is about separation, there is a plastic liner, they are water coated. the frugalpac concept is to make this easily separable. as the product hits the pulping process , the product hits the pulping process, what is involved in making paper and the cup easily separates. that is our solution. but have they still got a plastic film? they do, a96 still got a plastic film? they do, a% plastic and that enables us to probably use the most important part of the cup that is 96% recycled paper. no other cup can do that. when did you come up with this and who is using this at the moment, this tech? the idea was four years ago. we are a young company based in ipswich, engineering —based. it is machinery that does this. that product now has hit the market in january of this year. it took us three years to get it to that point. users are independent cafe is, we have about 100 cafe is currently

using the product and we are trying our damnedest. is it more expensive compared to the cups that say starbucks are using by the million? what is the cost? between 8p at 12p, which is in line with the end user, the customer, not the consumer, once it has gone through the value chain. it is in line. what is the comparison? today, if you are not interested in sustainability you can buy cups from asia for about ap. interested in sustainability you can buy cups from asia for about 4pm is almost double the cost for starbucks and somebody like that. no, i wouldn't say starbucks because they do work with eight sustainable product. it is not as easily recycla ble product. it is not as easily recyclable as ours —— with a sustainable. it is like everything in life, if you are not interested you can buy it cheaper. and if you are you can buy it cheaper. and if you a re interested you can buy it cheaper. and if you are interested it is a small add—on but only a small add—on. it is fine to have that, but isn't the real ultimate answer no more of these

one—off cups? ultimate answer no more of these one-off cups? frankly, frugalpac would advocate that. if you are going to have a cup of copy, use a reusable cup in a coffee shop. if you have got to walk around with it, use your recyclable cup you can bring with you —— have a cup of coffee. people will forget those caps. if you want to use a single use cup, caps. if you want to use a single use cup, use caps. if you want to use a single use cup, use the frugalpac. how long do you think you will be needed for? if we all get used to this, like plastic bags, we'll get used to bringing our bags for life, we're not going to be using these, are we? well, i think we will. because if you look at the recent research on bags, they are starting to go back up bags, they are starting to go back up again. doesn't make it right. we are quite humble in what we do. we are quite humble in what we do. we are not perfect, as we say, but we are not perfect, as we say, but we are trying to solve one of the issues in packaging today. that is the raison d'etre of our business. it is interesting because we would all go along the same line, have your own capcom but i forget it. i forget mine all the time! and i feel

really bad about ordering a coffee when i know it is a disposable cup —— have your own coffee cup butter. what did you do before you created these recyclable coffee cups? 30 yea rs these recyclable coffee cups? 30 years in packaging, various guises. i myself didn't realise coffee cups we re i myself didn't realise coffee cups were not easily recycled. i joined... iwas were not easily recycled. i joined... i was asked tojoin a start—up business, frugalpac and we have been working hard to bring a range of products. spending so long in the packaging industry, from your perspective, what is being done about this problem of waste? for me, it's a massive frustration as a consumer, when i buy something and it is in this humongous amount of packaging that i think it's so unnecessary. packaging has value. 0ne unnecessary. packaging has value. one of my previous companies would a lwa ys one of my previous companies would always say the package saves more thanit always say the package saves more than it costs. but it is not the cost in terms of price, it's the cost in terms of price, it's the cost of the planet, isn't it? it's the total cost right the way through. there is food preservation that packaging deals with, food waste is the biggest waste, if we

are talking about food. packaging has a place to play but also sustainable packaging is even more important. most businesses now are working towards an agenda to improve that. but it's the whole value chain. so, packaging producers, the producers of the food bringing the products together. there is some cost associated in making it right but right the way down the value chain, the collectors and the recyclers have a part to play and as consumers, we have a part to play in trying to aid the recyclability and reusability of products. it is a nonstop work in process, that is the reality. thank you. good to meet you. thanks very much. staying on recycling, china — the world's largest recyclable materials importer — says it will no longer accept waste from overseas. the move has thrown the global recycling efforts into chaos with countries like australia struggling to deal with its plastic. phil mercer has more, from sydney.

much of what australia throws away goes to the tip, like this one in sydney. waste is still exported to countries such as indonesia, but it's a practice the australian government wants to stop. recycling makes australians feel good. it's very easy. some contaminated items often can't be recycled. and because of stockpiles of waste, much that could have another life ends up in landfill. increasingly, australia seeing waste as an opportunity. this road in sydney is 100% recyclable. it includes a reused plastic and glass and is supposed to be more hard wearing than traditional asphalt. laughter. sun, sea, and recycled swimwear, made from plastic bags by a designer in sydney. i want to send a message, one bag at a time, that we can make change and that this is not rubbish, it's a resource.

but australia is still a long way from reprocessing its own discarded plastic and paper. last year, it exported almost four and a half million tonnes of waste, mainly to countries in asia. phil mercer, bbc news, sydney. there you have it, on the christmas list, plastic bikini. innovative if nothing else! indeed. at the top of the show, we asked you about digital detoxing. let's take a look at how some viewers have responded: anisimonetta michelotti... i apologise if i got your name wrong. "we need to stop blaming the tools (social media, firearms, cars... it's the human beings behind them... fashioned—comedie says: i have not renewed my broadband contract which lapsed in august and now use the library to cut down my online activity.

only use my phone when i need to. and for getting in touch with us! we thank you for that. take a look at the hashtag to seem some of the other comments, there we re some of the other comments, there were many “— some of the other comments, there were many —— to see some. that's it from worklife today. hi, there. we've had a rather wintry feel over the last few days. over the weekend, we saw some hail, some snow, mainly over the higher ground and it's been a rather chilly start this morning, but gradually, throughout the week ahead, temperatures will rise and with this, some wetter and windier weather arriving for the second half of this week. today, that winteriness will continue with some showers, hill snow across scotland, showers affecting the north of northern ireland. rain in the south—east of england, it's quite patchy, but staying quite cloudy in the south—east. elsewhere, though, something a bit drier and brighter. fairly light winds but around the north west of scotland, more for northern ireland, here, some fairly gusty conditions. maximum temperatures today getting to about 6 to 9 degrees.

through tonight, we'll continue with some cloud, still some patchy rain in the south—east of england, but for wales, the midlands, northern england, southern scotland, there'll be some fog developing into tomorrow morning. still a few showers further north across scotland and northern ireland. and temperatures, well, they're not going to fall too far in the south—east, but elsewhere, there could be some patchy frost into tuesday morning, temperatures close to if not below freezing. throughout tuesday, we'll continue with some outbreaks of rain in the south—east of england. elsewhere, though, looking largely dry and bright, the best of the sunshine will be the further north and west you go. one or two showers dotted around, but for most of us, it's dry and those temperatures, again, in the mid to high single figures. through tuesday night, that area in the south—east will tend to clear away and then we've got a ridge of high pressure developing. it'll be a bit of a cold night to come, some patchy fog around, but then we're going to see this area of low pressure from the west starting to move its way in. rain will eventually spread its way

into wales, south—west england, into northern ireland and around irish sea coasts. further east, though, looking laregly dry with a bit of bright skies and a bit of sunshine across eastern areas where temperatures will be about a to 8 degrees, temperatures generally coming up to about 9, 10 or 11 celsius. and this is what is going to dominate the end of the week, low pressure out towards the west. weather systems will gradually move their way through. the white lines, the isobars, getting closer together, so, certainly breezier conditions. some rain at times, both on thursday and friday, but it does mean temperatures will come up slightly. we won't see overnight frosts and those temperatures generally about 9 to 11, maybe even 12 celsius. that's it from me, bye—bye.

st, you're watching bbc news at nine with me, carrie gracie. the headlines... the prime minister will welcome more than 100 new conservative mps to westminster today as he aims to deliver on his election promises. many are from former labour strongholds in the north and midlands. they'll be sworn in tomorrow. the labour party's general secretary has recommended the timetable for a leadership election should begin on the 7th of january. water firms in england will have to cut average annual bills by around £50 under new rules from the regulator. doctors urge parents to vaccinate their children, who are super—spreaders offlu, as they warn of an increase in patients using nhs services.