Business Matters

Millions of Italians go to the polls on Sunday to vote on whether their constitution should be reformed. Lorenzo Codogno, former chief economist and director general at the Treasury Department at the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance discusses whether the Prime Minister might be on the way out.The BBC's Guy Hedgecoe in Madrid reports on the pollution problem in Spain, and the decisions by the Mayors of Paris, Mexico City, Madrid and Athens to ban the use of all diesel-powered cars and trucks within a decade to improve poor air quality.As Barbados celebrates 50 years of independence, we ask Guy Hewitt, the High Commissioner for Barbados in the UK, why the country still retains free education and healthcare systems, in a difficult economic environment.The fashion and fragrance company Chanel warns that a planned high-speed train through the centre of France's perfume-making region will threaten production of its iconic product - Chanel No 5. Elizabeth Musmanno, President of The Fragrance Foundation in Ne

President- elect Donald Trump has begun a victory tour of US starting in the state of Indiana where he's taken credit for stopping a thousand jobs at an air conditioning firm Carrier from going to Mexico. Can Mr Trump live up to his campaign pledges - and does it matter? We asked economist Irwin Stelzer at the Hudson Institute. Food giant Nestle claims is claiming a breakthrough that will cut the sugar in its chocolate by 40 per cent. The company suggests it can scientifically 'restructure' the sugar without affecting the taste. Professor Julian Cooper, chair of the Scientific Committee at the UK Institute of Food Science and Technology, explains the implications. About 10 million turkeys are consumed in the UK over the festive season. Rearing the birds however isn't as easy as you might think with natural predators like foxes providing a constant threat. Elizabeth Hotson has been finding out about a rather novel solution to the problem.Business Matters is joined from Washington by Michael Brune, Executive D

On Wednesday morning in Vienna OPEC is holding a meeting, aimed at halting the biggest decline in oil prices for a generation. Back in September, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reached a tentative agreement to restrict output - but they still haven't hammered out individual output targets for each nation. We spoke to Amrita Sen of Energy Aspects about the biggest and most influential producer - Saudi Arabia.The old certainties about politics in America have been turned on their heads, including the twin beliefs that organised labour delivers votes for the Democratic Party candidate, while evangelicals deliver votes for the GOP. This time round things were less cut and dried, as Mitchell Hartman of Marketplace reports. Lithium - or white petrol as it's becoming known - is a hot commodity. Demand for the metal could triple in the next ten years - driven particularly by a rise in demand for batteries in products like smartphones, laptops and electric cars. On Tuesday a group of leading carmake

Reckless, careless, even irresponsible, but not criminal. That is the judgment from the FBI on former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for president - over her use of a private email server for highly confidential government material. Still, not exactly labels that any politician is going to wear with much pride. Will voters change their views? Mrs Clinton's Republican Party rivals have been flogging the email issue for months and going by Donald Trump's Twitter feed that is not going to change any time soon. Following Britain's vote to leave the European Union, the internal Conservative Party process to replace David Cameron as prime minister has whittled five candidates down to three. The second round comes on Thursday. Also, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, used his third public speech in less than a fortnight to say that many of the predicted consequences of Britain's departure from the EU are already starting to happen, Still, he sai

Britain's vote to leave the European Union has caused damage to banks and to the wider economy in Italy. Growth forecasts there have been more pessimistic since June 23rd, and investors fear there'll be more defaults on loans. Italian banks are already sitting on a big pile of bad debt - but on Monday the world's oldest bank, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, saw its share price fall to an all time low after the European Central Bank said it had to cut back on the risky loans it holds. Professor Enrico Colombotto of the University of Turin described the scale of the problem faced by Italian banks.The Australian Electoral Commission has begun counting millions of postal and absentee votes today with the election still too close to call. Phil Mercer is watching the long-drawn-out process.The US space agency NASA is no stranger to dramatic count-downs, but right now early on Tuesday they are really holding their breaths. NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft is about to reach Jupiter after an almost five-year jou

We get global reaction as the UK votes to leave the European Union.In Finland, the Foreign Minister, Timo Soini - who heads the eurosceptic Finns Party - said the UK result had to be respected - and he warned against what he called retaliation in future negotiations between the EU and Britain. We hear from Alexander Stubb , who was until recently, the Finance Minister of Finland.In recent weeks, we've heard the views of Roger Bootle of Capital Economics - arguing in favour of a British exit from the EU. We put to him that he must be very pleased today.Some of the world's largest companies warned they could relocate their British-based operations following the EU referendum result. But how do smaller businesses in the UK see their bottom line being affected? Lucy Hooker has been along to talk to the owner of the Brompton bike company here in the UK, a big exporter.We are joined throughout the programme by three guests. From Washington, Philippe Le Corre, a visiting fellow at the Centre on the United States

The Colombian government and Farc rebels say they have reached a definitive bilateral ceasefire in Latin America's longest running armed conflict. The main issue - the disarmament of the rebels - has been addressed. And, after half a century of war, the Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has said a final peace deal could be signed by late July. There have been plenty of reports of peace before, so is this really it? We hear from the BBC's Natalio Cosoy in Bogota. California's last nuclear power plant will close by 2025 under a proposal announced on Tuesday, with safety concerns given as the main reason. But the Diablo Canyon plant produces enough power for 1.7 million homes. There is now a plan to replace the energy with renewables, though some environmentalists do not think they will be able to match that produced by nuclear. However, Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth US, says he is celebrating the closure of the plant.Are we heading towards a cashless society? It is a subject of intense deb

France wins the opening game of the Euros tournament, but will businesses lose out as striking workers disrupt the country's transport system?The US news site Gawker files for bankruptcy after being told to pay 140 million dollars in damages to a celebrity wrestler Plus the feat of engineering over common sense - we find out more about the multi billion dollar satellite constellation which was very nearly crashed back down to earth.And Susannah Streeter is joined throughout the programme by Professor Danny Samson from the University of Melbourne in Australia.(Photo: Nice, France where some Euro 2016 matches will be played. Credit: AFP/Getty)

So we now know, barring major incidents, that Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump are the choices for US President in November. But what are they offering American business? That's a concern of course for the US Chamber of Commerce. We hear from J.D Harrison, a senior editor at the US Chamber of Commerce based in Washington.The creative money-spinner that is Harry Potter moved on to its latest incarnation in London this week with the start of a series of previews of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child". It's been described as the eighth Potter story - although it's the first to originate as a piece of theatre. But does it have the magic of its printed predecessors? Our arts correspondent Vincent Dowd was among those blessed with a ticket and gives us his view.It seems the UK isn't the only country in Europe where enthusiasm for the European Union is less than whole-hearted. Britain may be the country which is about to have a referendum on membership - but new research by the US-based Pew Research centre suggests m

Officials in Brussels are proposing rules that would force online video services in the European Union to ensure at least twenty percent of their content is made in the EU. The biggest companies in the sector, Netflix and Amazon Prime, are American and much of their material currently comes from Hollywood. Supporters of the plan say it would have "a positive effect on cultural diversity". EU rules already oblige television broadcasters to spend at least half of their time showing European works, including material made in their own country.The world's biggest publicly traded oil company, Exxon Mobil, has largely seen down a rebellion at its annual general meeting over its climate change policies. Only a third of shareholders backed a motion that would have forced the company to work out a strategy against global warming. However a majority did approve a motion that could allow green activists to nominate members of the company's board.A report by the charity Human Rights Watch says thousands of children,

Former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has been indicted over accusations that she oversaw irregularities in the central bank's sale of dollars in the futures market. The number of migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey has fallen dramatically...as Ankara tightens the border, but elsewhere in the Mediterranean, attempts to stop the smugglers are failing. Miners seeking millions of dollars in compensation for contracting a serious lung disease have won a landmark judgement against the gold mining industry. The High Court in South Africa has given the go ahead for a class action by thousands of workers who developed silicosis while working underground. The head of GSK Sir Andrew Witty tells Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal why developing new drugs is so expensive. And throughout the programme Susannah Streeter is joined by Danny Samson, Professor of Management at Melbourne University in Australia. And the power of Eurovision - why the song contest has such an enduring appeal.

In Brazil, the new president is putting together a very different-looking cabinet to his predecessor - a much more market friendly one. His new finance minister is Henriques Meirelles, former head of the central bank. So what is the likely effect going to be on Brazil's wobbly finances?"Fantastically corrupt". That's how British prime minister David Cameron described Nigeria and Afghanistan earlier in the week. On Thursday he was hosting a global anti-corruption conference in London. Fifty states were represented at the summit, alongside banks, civil society organisations and the International Monetary Fund. Though delegates promised to make tackling corruption a top priority, the meeting led to few firm commitments. Just six countries agreed to publish registers of who really owns companies in their territories, a key goal of anti-corruption campaigners. So - just how much was achieved?St Louis, in Missouri, made international news two years ago because of race riots in the suburb of Ferguson. But it would r

Rahul Tandon looks at India's changing entertainment industry - the competition that Hindi films face from regional cinema and Hollywood. He also speaks to one of India's leading actors Manoj Bajpayee about his latest film Aligarh, based on the life of gay professor Ramchandra Siras. Plus the risks and opportunities posed to the industry by the ever growing numbers of Indian smartphone and tablet owners. Also, why aren't more Indian bands cracking the international music scene? Rahul hears from rock band Indus Creed. Joining Rahul in Mumbai is author and film critic Deepanjana Pal and from Boston, journalist and academic Hasit Shah.(Photo: Manoj Bajpayee in Aligarh. Credit: Eros International)

The BBC has exclusive evidence of the large-scale destruction of a reef in the South China Sea by Chinese poachers and the theft of valuable and endangered giant clams. The Philippines, which is pursuing its own legal claim to many of the islands, says the Chinese navy is allowing the poachers to plunder the reefs with impunity. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes has the story.All public schools in the Los Angeles area were closed on Tuesday after a ‘credible threat’ was received via email. Almost 700,000 students were affected. A similar threat was received by police in New York, but was not deemed credible - schools remained open. We hear from families caught up in the California alert.Also in the programme, the US central bank the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates tomorrow, for the first time in almost a decade. Our economic commentator Roger Bootle offers his assessment.We discuss big data, as the EU announces new laws requiring companies to ask permission to keep clients data. Customers are also gi