in a car crash in paris, 26 years ago. india launches its first observation mission to the sun, just days after the country made history by becoming the first to land near the moon's south pole. the studies will help scientists understand solar activity. those are the headlines on bbc news. now on bbc news, talking business. hello everybody, a warm welcome to talking business weakling with me, aaron heslehurst. let's take a look at what is on the show. a demographic time bomb: the global life expectancy has doubled in just over 100 years. but it is not all good news, what does our rapidly ageing population mean for society and our wider economy. in some places, there is a growing imbalance between an increasing older

generation and a birth rate that seems to have fallen off a cliff. it means paying for health care and welfare is one of the biggest challenges facing governments around the world. but, this older generation, it represents a huge commercial opportunity, so how do businesses capitalise on the silver consumer? i will be discussing all of that with these two, here they are. we have the director of the centre of population change and the big boss at the mit age lab in boston. also on the show, i am joined by the big boss of moleskin, the luxury accessories company. they provide beautifully bound notebooks every generation. after three years at the helm, they are going to tell us how the business has adapted to the changing demand for stationery. wherever you joining me from around the world. welcome to the show. three score years and ten, what is

that? it is a biblical number expressing a typical healthy human life span, 70 years. but, it was only in 2010 that the global life expectancy finally passed that number. an average baby born today should now expect to live to 73, it has near enough doubled in a hundred years. but of course, that figure hides big variations. girls should expect to live a few years older than boys stop wealthier people tend to be healthier as well. on the whole, they live longer lives. naturally, you see disparities between rich countries and poor. here is how global life expectancy has changed since 1950. injapan, it is now approaching 85 years old. in the united states, it is 80. and it is close to that, 79, in china. in india, the world's most populous nation, it is 72 years old. and, in sub—saharan africa, it is generally much lower. —— much lower. in chad, one of the world's poorest

countries, the life expectancy is just under 5a years old. and that, tragically, is a country where one in ten children die before they are five years old. but, life expectancy is improving near enough everywhere. and that presents huge challenges but also huge opportunities for those of us living much longer than our ancestors. you those of us living much longer than our ancestors.— our ancestors. you can see why we worry about — our ancestors. you can see why we worry about this _ our ancestors. you can see why we worry about this in _ our ancestors. you can see why we worry about this in society. - our ancestors. you can see why we worry about this in society. it - our ancestors. you can see why we worry about this in society. it is - our ancestors. you can see why we worry about this in society. it is a l worry about this in society. it is a fundamentally good thing. having fewer children, fewer parents in middle age, we get to see more grandparents and even great parents meet their grandchildren. that is a great thing. i think that if we can exploit that age diversity, and really make the most of those intergenerational relationships, thatis intergenerational relationships, that is a really positive thing. and of course, if underneath, we can make these lives notjust longer but healthier, more productive, we create economic resources necessary to pay for this longer life. i'd make some societies are struggling to cope with these big demographic

changes. i mentioned japan, where the old's oldest life expectancy, japan also has the highest proportion of elderly citizens. the birth rate there is low, so as immigration, so there are big questions about how to deal with social health for tens of millions of older people. there is a similar issue in south korea, the proportion of elderly people is expected to surpass that of japan in the years ahead. the birth rate has been falling since 1960, and the population is now in decline. it is expected to fall by half in the decades ahead. china has a one—child policy, but that was closed in 2016. the birth rate remains low. especially as more and more women want careers in the big cities. de—ageing societies is well under way in italy, where women are having fewer children. governments are offering financial incentives our babies and one quarter of women have none at all. there is a growing reliance on young migrants to

bolster that workforce. in some parts of sub—saharan africa, falling infant mortality means a growing number of delay�*s children will grow old. a, number of delay's children will grow old. �* , , number of delay's children will grow old. m _, ., ., , old. a bulging elderly population is to be exnected _ old. a bulging elderly population is to be expected in _ old. a bulging elderly population is to be expected in the _ old. a bulging elderly population is to be expected in the years - old. a bulging elderly population is to be expected in the years to - old. a bulging elderly population is i to be expected in the years to come. many countries are increasing their age, keeping people working and paying taxes for older. here in the uk, an 18—year—old entering thejob market should expect to retire at 68 or possibly even older. in france, president macron recently raised his country's pension age actors from 62 to 64. it created months of riots. from this month until 2030, they will be phased in. my first guest is a specialist researcher in demography and international social policy at the university of southampton will stop she is also the director of the centre for population change at the economic and social research council.

and jane, let's start with this because global life expectancy, it's rising on the face of it. like that's great news, right, for individuals or for families. butjane, i'mjust wondering, what kind of societal challenges does it pose? it's fantastic news that life expectancy is rising and it's rising right across the globe. but of course, it does have challenges with more people living longer. one of the things is we've got more people living now into their 70s, 80s, 90s, and even into their hundreds. life expectancy is why we as individuals are living longer. but actually it's falling birth rates, which is why societies as a whole are aging. we have fewer people of working age to support more people of older ages, and of course that then presents challenges in terms of, how do we take care of those older people, their health?

and their wellbeing at home and also their incomes, pensions. i think it's one of the biggest challenges, probably the changing age structure of our populations and, and, and climate change are probably the two biggest challenges i think we're facing. which countries find themselves most exposed to health care or welfare risk as a result of these ageing populations? the countries in the world, which have the highest proportions of older people are those in the global north, but it's taken us quite a long time to get there. so, in france the population went from 7% aged 65 to 14%, a doubling, and it took 115 years. so policymakers and planners had a pretty long time to plan that. that same transition has nowjust taken place injapan and it took 26 years. so that's really not a lot of time to plan for changes in your population age structure. i want to look at sub—saharan africa, jane, because the life expectancy there, it's rising rapidly as well. but these are countries where it's approaching 65 instead of 85 in nigeria or chad.

i mean, the life expectancy there is still in the mid fifties. life expectancy in sub—saharan africa is still quite low because they still have relatively high infant and child mortality rates. but if you get beyond, say, age five or six then actually, your life expectancy is now starting to run into the 60s and 70s. and i've done some work in the slums of nairobi with colleagues in in in kenya. and there are old people living in the slums in nairobi. what measures can countries take to to adapt to the challenges posed by these ageing societies? made affordable when the call on health i mean, if you look at health care in particular, how can that be made affordable when the call on health care, one would assume it's going to be dominated by the very old.

we know from research in the global north that the most expensive year in terms of health care is the year immediately before you pass away. so first of all, that's a big thing is to actually introduce more preventative health care. and then, actually, i think we need to start having probably a grown up debate around end of life and end of life care. so in countries such as the netherlands now, actually people can make the decision to have an assisted suicide and a good death. so, a good life followed by a good death. jane, let's talk about the costs of pension bills, because in the past, the pensions were a liability to to be paid out for four, two or five years. but now many people are living decades into retirement. surely that's unsustainable. there are a number of different levers that you can pull with pensions. so the first of those is the age at which people start to take their pensions. so a lot of countries are looking at raising the age of retirement. so taking my own example, for example, when i started work

in the 1980s, the retirement age for women was 60, it's now 67 and it's going to be going up even higher. the second tool is to then think about actually who's contributing to pensions as well. and we've seen a massive change in the labour market over the last 30 years, particularly with women. so increasing female labour force. and then the third tool that governments have and businesses as well is to think about the structure of those pensions. so, to what extent are they related to your your salary in terms of defined benefit or whether they're contributing pensions? jane, how do you see national workforces changing in the in the years ahead? we're already starting to see that workforces are becoming older, particularly in the global north. in the global south, of course, they've still got fairly young populations. but in the north we're seeing a shift of the age of the workforce upwards. and i think employers are now starting to think about, well, what does that mean?

how do they reskill their workforce, lifelong training initiatives. and also they need to start to think about the other demands that are placed on people as they become older. if you look at your fifties and 60s, you're starting to care for your older parents. you may be caring for your grandchildren to enable your children to start participating in the labour market. and you're working. so how do we balance off all of these different roles and responsibilities? and i think employers are starting to recognise that they need to be a little bit more family friendly, introducing carers' leave and things like that. and let me end on this, jane. i mean, are you hopeful? i mean, there's some really big challenges ahead for some of these economies that we've been discussing. how are we going to navigate this reality of living longer so that it actually becomes an opportunity and and not a burden?

we're living at a particular moment in human history where populations are being reshaped. so for the last million, 2 million, 3 million years, populations have been shaped like a pyramid with a few people at the top ages and then most people at the bottom ages. we're reshaping. so we're moving from a pyramid to a skyscraper. and then in a couple of hundred years time, that would just be completely normal. so we're actuallyjust going to have to come up with a new way of thinking about things. well, on that point, a real pleasure having you on the show. thanks forjoining me and we'll check in with you soon. lovely to be with you. well, the work of my next guest explores how global demographics, technology and changing behaviours are transforming business and society. he's the big boss of age lab at the massachusetts institute of technology, the mit. he's also the author of the longevity economy. he's been an advisor to several multinational companies and even the white house.

drjoseph coughlin, a real pleasure having you on the show. and i know you like to go byjoe. sojoe, let's start with this, because we've just been hearing from one of my other guests, a demographer who's explaining the societal challenges of aging populations. but but, joe, i want to know, what are the challenges that you see, especially for businesses? frankly, there are many challenges, but longevity or aging population should also be looked at as an amazing opportunity. we've never had this many older people and frankly living this long and this well. so some of the challenges, however, are what will they want? how do we keep them engaged? how do we maintain productivity in an aging world? these are notjust challenges, but they're global opportunities as well. we're now in an era when people who do retire in their 60s are often still very healthy. how are businesses reacting to that ever growing class

of consumer? i want you to imagine this. the 60 plus consumer worldwide is the third largest global economy in the world after the gdp of the us and china. and yet they only get on average 2 to 3% of the advertising dollar. some of the things that businesses can do to respond to this amazing market that is growing worldwide is to actually start looking at them as a market, doing more research to understand the amazing diversity in the aging population. this is not your grandfather's old age. this is the most educated, best income that we've ever seen in an older population in history. start understanding that most older adults do not want to buy or wear anything that says old man walking or old man about to fall down. largely, we want products that, should we say, help us age by stealth, whether it's the the apple watch that has a motion detector that can tell whether or not you've fallen and can't get up, whether its products like honda's element or renaults twingo that are easy to get into and have easy to read dashboards that are made for young kids

but older adults like it too. 0r, frankly, even dyson vacuums and hair dryers that are designed with elegance and great color but are very light and easy to put over your head or or vacuum the floor. what are the barriers or some of the barriers for businesses fighting to to exploit the aging marketplace? probably the greatest barrier for business and frankly, society in general is the story of old age business, like many of us, unfortunately, continues to believe that, you know, those older people, they don't buy anything new or they're not willing to change brands or they're they're set in their ways. or the big myth, they don't like technology. these beliefs are actually keeping them from innovating things that excite and delight the most lucrative, largest, fastest growing market in the world. and by the way, you may find it fun that the catalyst to this innovation and the longevity economy are women. indeed, in the longevity economy, the future is female. we've seen retirement ages creeping

up in in many countries, and especially to try and control the soaring costs of paying out for pensions for decades. how will that affect businesses accommodating more workers in their in their late 60s, maybe even into their 70s and their eighties? these workers, shall we say, have the skills that make the business do what it does. they have the memory of why businesses do certain things and not others. and frankly, in many cases they even have the contacts with the clients that keep things going. but business is going to have to rethink things like flexibility, rethinking promotion, and older workers are going to have to appreciate that. just because you've been on the job for 30 or 40 plus years does not necessarily mean you continue to get paid 30 or 40 plus years the same way. i'm also wondering now, what do older workers and younger workers have in common in the workplace

nowadays? you know, we'd like to believe that there's this generational conflict out there. in fact, one of the things that's emerging since the pandemic in particular is a convergence of ideals. so younger workers want flexibility largely for quality of life. older workers want flexibility for quality of life, as well as jobs like caregiving or or transitioning down. younger workers want to be trained and kept up to date with technologies and processes. older workers that have been in the workplace for 20, 30, 40 years also want training and education to make the business case that they can remain in the workplace. so we're seeing a convergence, not a divergence. what about us? i mean, given a fair wind, we might hope for four more healthy years than our ancestors. how do we make the most of that? you know, you have to think about this, that the average retirement age and period that we call retirement today

is going to likely be the same amount of time as it took you to get from 21 years old to midlife crisis, 46, 47 years old. so think about the time, the diversity, the experiences you had during that period. now we're looking at from 65 to 85 and change being a full 8000 days or one third, if you will, of your adult life. what we have to do is we have to start writing a new story of old age. it has to be more than golf, beach walks, and please let it be more than pickleball. let's talk about paying for it. because, joe, you know, we're we're staring in the face of enormous pension bills and we have to save for that. there's no guarantee of that longer life. some of us could save hundreds of thousands, possibly $1,000,000 for retirement in our working lives. and by a cruel stroke of fate, we may end up not seeing a penny of it. imean... but we have to save aggressively, yeah? yes, we have to save aggressively.

and unfortunately, most of us are not. we have to start thinking notjust about whether our health wealth span will, shall we say, coincide with our life span. we also have to start thinking about what are we going to do with that time? where will we live? what will we do? some of the things we may want to think about for people like you and i that effectively get paid by running off at the mouth or driving a keyboard is we may choose and may need to work longer. what i worry about are the people that work with their bodies, the bricklayers, the truck drivers, those are the folks where retirement was truly made for them because by 50 something, your body begins to give out. and joe, let me end on this, because this trend of aging has been ongoing for some time, essentially since the well, the industrial revolution. how long might it continue? how old do do you think we'll get to in the future? i think that we are going to continue to see things where100 is going to be the new norm. let me leave you with this. some research indicates that children born already in the last 20 years,

one half of them only in the industrialized world, but hopefully expanding beyond that, one half of those children will make it past 100. the challenge now is notjust to live longer, but how do we live better? well, on that point, drjoseph coughlin, the big boss of mit age lab, really appreciate your time. thanks forjoining me and i'll talk to you soon. real delight. take care. let's talk luxury now, because my next guest is the big boss of moleskine. that's the italian accessories company notable for its beautiful stationery products, its bags and gifts. she's been running the company since april of 2020, just as the covid pandemic was hammering society everywhere. prior to moleskine, she also led some other big brands, such as diesel and bakara. daniela riccardi, a real pleasure having you on the show. let me start with this, because we've been talking on on this show about

the aging society, basically how how more and more of us are living longer into into retirement. i'm just wondering, is this something that moleskine is addressing as you look out into the marketplace? i'm also wondering, is there an opportunity for you to target, as they call them, the the silver consumer? thank you. this is a beautiful question. i think moleskine, you know, is one of the beautiful skin that is a brand that live with you for your life it is the is the place where you treasure and you record all your life. so most of our consumers and clients are really aficionados. they start when you're young and they keep going until the end of their lives. a lot of people give them as a gift to senior people, to the silver client, as you call it. i actually call them golden clients because they are the ones that have been without.

that have been wuith us the longest and and it's beautiful for them to be able to continue record the journey of their life. so they are our most beloved clients. and daniela, we know you sell a range of luxury products. i'm just i'm just wondering, how are you finding the current economic climate? is it having a big impact on on the business? i'm sure the luxury sector is probably the most resilient during crisis time. so the brands, i think, that have a strong standing, a strong heritage, a strong credibility, like i'm lucky to be at moleskine. i've actually chosen also for that because i like clear brands, brands that are built to last sales for, you know, over 250 years. imagine how many crises that brand went through, how many wars and economic crisis. and still the resilience of the brand was pretty incredible how there is, of course, the luxury consumers is less affected by economic difficulties than other consumers. has the the war in ukraine had any impact on you?

i'm just wondering, do does moleskine still sell in russia? we don't sell directly in russia. we don't have our own operation on the grounds. but we as a principle, we don't discriminate clients and consumers. so i'm sure that there are many russians that are still using them, buying moleskin and have access to the brand. so i'm sure that there are many russians that are still using them, buying moleskin and have access to the brand. in ukraine, of course, the situation is very difficult, but we have been sending a lot of moleskine blue and yellow moleskines, particularly for children. and daniela, as we know, more and more people. and it's notjust the young people. we're using tablets, we're using laptops, etc., to get work done. do you see technology as a major competitor to your brand? moleskine was created in the 90s by three friends,

italian friends, and they created it with the idea of a moleskine to be the companion of a technology device. so in fact we know that the combination of writing and sketching and then bringing everything on the digital platform offers the best possibility in the process of idea, creations and creativity in general. and we know that moleskine it's, you know, you're a global company. you've got very strong european roots, of course. but i'm just wondering, daniela, do you do you see cultural differences in your business around the world? i have to tell you, when it gets to and writing and sketching and sketching and drawing, we see about the same behaviors all over the world. we have a pretty big business in the usa. we have business in latin america, we have business in asia.

japanese, chinese are very fond of writing, dreaming of calligraphy, journaling. so the state of the development our business depends on the fact that we started in europe first and we went to the us and we went to asia last. but from a consumer acceptance and consumer behavior point of view, i have to say we see about the same dynamic everywhere in the world. and daniela, let me end let me end on this. what would you like the future of moleskine to to look like? the mission we have of unleashing the human genius through pen to paper, because this is an important part of the human capital. we don't like to lose it. so the most important thing is really understanding the power that it is into using pen to paper. we are clearly a respected brand

for our story, for our heritage. and, you know, i want to show and empower people. so showing what the importance of unleashing the creativity. well, on that point, daniela riccardi, the big boss of moleskine, really appreciate your time. thanks forjoining me. good luck with everything and we'll talk to you again soon. thank you. well, that's it for this week's show. i hope you enjoyed it. don't forget, you can keep up with the latest on our global economy on the bbc website, the smartphone app. of course you can also follow me on x! x me. i'll x you back. hello there. we started off this morning with a bit of patchy mist and fog, but much of that has starting to clear away, started to clear away, and for many of us, we're looking at some warm, sunny spells into the afternoon. that was the scene this morning in gwynedd, a lovely calm start to the day there across the sea.

now, this is the satellite image. you can see we've got quite a bank of clouds to the far northwest of the uk, but generally speaking, across the uk, this is where we've got the clearer skies, the finer weather as we go through this weekend. so, still a bit of cloud across some central areas continuing to clear away, and we could catch just the odd shower across the far south of england and across wales. but really, for most of us, it's going to be a dry day with those warm, sunny spells, temperatures getting up to about 21 to 24 degrees celsius quite widely, about 15 to 18 degrees further north and west across scotland where the cloud will thicken later in the day. tonight, there'll be some patches of mist and fog developing mainly across southern areas of england, the midlands, towards east anglia as well, that cloud thickening in the far north and west of scotland. some outbreaks of rain here, but a milder night to come across scotland compared to last night. temperatures last night down close to freezing in the northeast but tonight 13 to 15 degrees. throughout sunday then, still that cloud and that rain across the far northwest, any of that mist and fog across southern areas clearing away and lots of sunshine expected during sunday.

and with light winds across england and wales, that's going to feel really quite warm, breezier across scotland and the far northwest, really, with that cloud, that rain, that brings temperatures to probably more like about 15 to 17 celsius, but towards eastern scotland, 23 degrees celsius there in aberdeen, 24, 25 degrees, the further south we come. 0n through next week, high pressure we will move its way a bit further eastward. but what it does, it keeps things relatively settled. and with that, a southeasterly wind will bring in much warmer conditions. so, this is the air mass picture. there's a lot of orange here in the map and that's just showing us that we've got this warm air coming in from the south east. temperatures will rise throughout the week, particularly for england and wales, 25 to 28, perhaps 30 are doing degrees on wednesday or thursday with that sunshine. temperatures even across scotland, northern ireland in the low—to—mid 20s. it will start to break down a little bit though by the end of next week.

bye— bye. live from london: this is bbc news. concerns in england over the presence of lightweight concrete in schools and hospitals. labour calls for urgent checks on all public buildings. the flamboyant businessman mohamed al fayed, the former owner of harrods whose son was killed alongside princess diana and a car crash in paris has died. blasting off to study the sun. india launches its first solo mission to learn more about the star closest to

us. week every public building in england should be checked for structural problems caused by the lightweight concrete, raac. that's the call from the opposition labour party after more than a hundred schools were ordered to close classrooms until they can be re—enforced. there are warnings that many more public buildings, such as hospitals and prisons, could be affected. with the latest details, here's our reporter zoe conway. the risk posed from raac concrete has been known since this roof collapsed into a school staff room five years ago. luckily, no—one was there. now the government is so concerned about the condition of the concrete in more than 100 schools and colleges in england, that they have been told to close or partially close.

katherines primary academy, in harlow in essex, won't open next week.