balfour beatty has seen through the day. the first half of this year doubled to £20 million and the chief executive credit it to winning a series of large infra structure projects. you're watching business live. our top story... the news that the british government is to unveil its second brexit battle, how to minimise the disruption between the irish republic and northern ireland of course to maintain relations and trade links and the passage of people across that border. they have laid out a number of options but it is still very early days in the negotiations. a quick look at how markets are faring. that is what the pound will get you against the dollar. ever fancied travelling the world with just a backpack for company? well, you're not alone. but what if you wanted some like—minded travel companions to meet up with along the way? well, our next guest founded her travel firm, flash pack, after facing exactly that dilemma. the market for solo travel is booming, especially 30 and ao—year—old singletons with disposable inco

if you were called two years ago, balfour beatty fought off a takeover approach from carillon, and look of labour costs thatis there is a factor of labour costs that is coming into this particular equation. wage growth is being held under the fact that it is costing employers more to take on people because of this pension provision, this auto enrolment from the automated pension enrolment. that is adding between 1% and 2% a year to each employer‘s costs. that means there is less money available for increasing wages. so although average earnings are writing beneath inflation, the cost to employers is rising 1% up to 2% a year per employee per year. let's talk about the insurance company admiral. they are having to pay more for personal injury claims. why is that and is just inevitable that we will end up covering those costs in our premiums? yes, it is inevitable we will pay more. this is as a result of changes to the way in which personal injury claims are calculated. in the past, for every £1000 in compensation for the insurance companies have to pay £975 of that. under these changes,

shares in construction firm balfour beatty have jumped 5% after a strong set of results implied its turnarounde growth have help sterling to recover a little from yesterdays falls — it's up against both the dollar and the euro. that's all the business news. hundreds of thousands of students are gearing up to get their as and a—level results tomorrow. but for two students from manchester the day will have extra significance. shaunna and adam were due to take their exams just days after escaping the bomb that killed 22 people at the ariana grande concert in may. they both struggled after the traumatic events — and have shared their stories with us. all of a sudden there wasjust a huge bang. you could feel it shake underneath your feet. people just started running screaming. subconsciously you knew what it was. i think the initial reaction was just to get out as quickly as you could. my next exam was my next day after the concert. in the morning at nine o'clock. so i was really tired because i didn't get much sleep. i was due to do my last exam on the friday after it happened, and i thought, give

balfour beatty shares rise to the top of the stoxx 600 after the building firm posts a near 70% rise in first half pretax profit. >>> u.s. president trump doubles down on accusing all sides for violence in charlottesville in an erratic news conference prompting more criticism and departures by key business leaders. >> i think there's blame on both sides. i have no doubt about it you don't have any doubt about it either. only -- and if you reported it accurately, you would say it >>> good morning it's wednesday welcome to another episode of "street signs. want to kick things off with comments coming from the ecb saying that the ecb's president mario draghi will not deliver fresh policy messages at the jackson hole symposium which usually takes place the end of august in wyoming, in the u.s. he wants to hold off on that debate until the autumn. that's according to sources familiar with the discussion once again, reuters reporting this morning that the ecb president, mario draghi, will not deliver a fresh policy steer at jackson hole. we know jackson hole is usually known forbig policy

. >>> and balfour beatty swung to a half-year pre-tax profit and carlsberg was down after a tougher secondhe year from the danish brewer as well as a lack of revenue growth. back to you. >> michelle, thank you very much for that the ftse 100 had a nice return there. >>> elsewhere in the uk, we had comments just recently from the uk prime minister theresa may in relation to the race debate here in the united states over the last couple of days. >> i absolutely abhor the racism, hatred and violence we have seen portrayed by these groups the united kingdom has taken action to ban far-right groups here we have banned far-right groups here in the united kingdom i see no equivalence between those who have fascist views and those who impose them. and it is important for all those in positions of responsibility to condemn far-right views wherever we hear them >> guys, we talked about the difference between implicit and explicit criticisms. that was a pretty implicit strong criticism there and from someone who so far has been one of his allies in a relative sense for major world leaders. >> she did

shares in construction firm balfour beatty have jumped 6% after a strong set of results implied its turnaround show that this appearance would be his last as 007. it‘s been a closely guided secret as to whether he would return as the m16 agent. will you return as james will you return asjames bond? yes. thanks so much, daniel craig everybody. let‘s get more reaction with james chapman a film historian and author of licence to thrill: a cultural history of james bond films. hejoins us from milton keynes via webcam. good afternoon to you. at the end of the last bond film, daniel craig sounded a bit grumpy about the whole process , sounded a bit grumpy about the whole process, the whole experience. he seemed to be suggesting he would not returned. was that an elaborate ruse to get higher pay for this film? yes, daniel craig the tourist he said he would rather slashes risk and make another bond movie. he had just come off the back off and logistically complex and physically exhausting film that took months and months to show it. probably a bit of time for reflection and so want. yes, i wouldn‘t be

shares in construction firm balfour beatty have jumped 5% after a strong set of results implied its turnaroundusiness news. the government has said it is determined that border post between northern ireland and the republic of ireland will not return after bragg said. critics maintain that the plans, released in the last couple of hours, failed to contain incredible detail. we can speak to labour‘s shadow ministerfor northern ireland, stephen pound. he‘s in our studio at westminster. can you envisage how it would work without a hard border? i've tried, but it is a fantasy frontier. the idea of having some sort of virtual reality border is just nonsense. it is completely clueless. the problem i‘ve got is there were two major flaws. 0ne i‘ve got is there were two major flaws. one is the idea that you can use technology in an untried way, where it has never happened before. even david davis came out with this marvellous expression of ambiguity. the second thing is that it is about goods, not people. it is about... you can stop lorries coming across from holyhead, but we‘re talking about people as