Business Matters

Despite cabinet departures, UK Prime Minister Theresa May is sticking to her Brexit plan. Whilst some big British businesses are coming out in favour of the proposals, we gauge reaction from elsewhere on the continent with Ian Talbot, chief executive of the Irish Chambers of Commerce, and Ilja Nothnagel, head of international trade at the German Chamber of Commerce. And we have a report from the BBC’s Rob Young, who went to the UK's south coast to find out how cross-border trade is likely to be affected should Britain leave the EU without securing a deal by the end of March 2019. Also in the programme, as scientists redefine the exact mass of a kilogram, from a physical object to a scientific formula, Ananyo Bhattacharya of The Economist explains the background to the move. One of the most controversial industrial projects ever built in the UK, the THORP nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield, is closing down after nearly a quarter of a century of operations, but the decommissioning process is expected to take several decades more. The BBC’s Theo Leggett explains why. Dan Beckerman is the president and CEO of AEG which owns, operates or is affiliated with over 120 of the world's biggest venues, sports centres and entertainment districts. Kai Ryssdal of our partner programme Marketplace caught up with Dan in downtown LA, for a tour of the famed Staples Center. And finally, plenty of us have dreamed of giving it all up and escaping to renovate a chateau in the middle of the countryside. Dick Strawbridge and Angel Adoree did just that, and they join to talk about their adventure. Plus we take a look back at the rest of the week's big business stories with Lisa Abramowicz of Bloomberg Markets in New York, and Lianna Brinded of Yahoo Finance UK in London. And all through the show we’ll be joined by Robert Milliken, correspondent with The Economist in Sydney.

A succession of British ministers has quit the cabinet of UK Prime Minister Theresa May, in the wake of a draft EU withdrawal agreement. The Financial Times' George Parker joins the show to help untangle where things go from here. The US government is moving to tighten regulations on vaping products, as well as outright ban menthol cigarettes. Sheila Kaplan writes about health and social affairs for the New York Times and explains how clamping down on menthol will have a disproportionate effect on African-Americans. With the unemployment rate at its lowest for almost half a century, many US employers are struggling to attract the workers they need. The BBC’s Kim Gittleson reports from New York on how this is impacting holiday retail. And finally, the Japanese minister for cybersecurity, Yoshitaka Sakurada, admitted recently that he has never used a computer. In light of this extreme example, we’re asking just how much knowledge a government minister needs to have in the area they administer. All through the show we’ll be joined from Hong Kong by Jodi Schneider, Senior International Editor at Bloomberg, and Peter Morici, Professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, in Maryland.

The UK cabinet has backed a draft withdrawal agreement between the UK and the EU, Prime Minister Theresa May has said, after a "long, detailed and impassioned debate" in a five-hour cabinet meeting. Prime Minister May said it was a "decisive step" in the progress of Brexit, and would allow the long-awaited agreement to be finalised. We'll hear from the BBC's Rob Watson on how this deal came about. Many economic issues are at stake with Brexit, including the future of the British fishing industry, which had hoped to benefit from the deal. We get a report from the UK's busiest fishing port, Peterhead in Scotland. Also in the show, the leaders of the countries making up the ASEAN group are meeting in Singapore. High on the agenda is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a massive trade deal backed by China. The BBC’s Sharanjit Leyl joins from Singapore, on the current state of talks. Michael Hudson is an eminent economist, one of the few to have predicted the crash of 2007/08. He joins the show to speak about his latest book, ‘And forgive them their debts’ which explores the history of debt cancellation throughout ancient history, and what lessons it offers to the world of debt crises we live in today. And finally, a famous US TV host says the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has a little buzzer under his shirt that will summon his assistants to get him out of a meeting. Liz Brewer is a former diary editor of Tatler and an expert on social behaviour and etiquette. She tells us what she makes of the practice. All through the show we’ll be joined by Madhavan Narayanan, freelance writer and former senior editor at the Hindustan Times, from Delhi.

The wildfires in California continue to burn. In terms of fatalities and damage, they're the worst ever in the state. Over the weekend, the president angered a lot California residents by tweeting that the fires had been caused by poor forest management. Rich Gordon, CEO of the California Forestry Association, responds to the charge. The 33rd ASEAN summit is underway in Singapore. Trade is expected to be on the agenda, of course, as well as territorial disputes in the South China Sea and perhaps even the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar. Deborah Elms is the Executive Director of the Asian Trade Centre and tells us what to expect from the summit. Also from Asia, GagaOOlala is one of a very few LGBT-themed movie streaming platforms servicing the region. Its founder, Jay Lin, spent 20 years living in the US before returning to Taiwan five years ago, where he also established the Taiwan International Queer Film Festival. He tells us about setting up new markets for gay-themed content in Asia. Also in the show, after a long tour to find a new location, Amazon has announced its second head-quarters will be split between Washington D.C. and New York. Michael Coren is a reporter for Quartz and explains the impact the decision will have. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay has replaced Fifth Avenue in New York City as the world’s most expensive retail street by rental value. Darren Yates heads the retail research team at Cushman & Wakefield and tells us about the shift. All throughout the show, we will be joined by Jyoti Malhotra, National and Strategic Affairs Editor at The Print in Delhi and Alison van Diggelen, host of freshdialogues.com, coming to us from Silicon Valley.

A judge in the US has asked Amazon to hand over audio recordings from an Amazon Echo which was in a house where two women died. We hear from the BBC's Dave Lee. Stan Lee, the father of the modern comic book - he invented Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Spider Man and a hundred other characters - has died. The characters are the base of multiple multi-million dollar film franchises and we talk to Jeremy Conrad who runs the The Marvel Comic Universe website. Indian Railways recently launched the world's largest recruitment drive, and our reporter went to meet some of the job hunters. Only 5.18% of the world's commercial airline pilots are women - so why are there so few women, pilots? We hear from Kathy McCullough, communications chairwoman for the the International Society of Women Airline Pilots and herself a retired captain. Plus our regular workplace commentator Pilita Clarke considers how best to deal with a scenario where a temporary replacement for you at work turns out to do the job better than you. And we're joined throughout the programme by Alexander Kaufmann, of the Huffington Post, who's in New York and David Kuo, Director of The Motley Fool UK who's in Singapore. Picture description: Amazon Echo voice recognition system Picture credit: Getty Images