the moment. traders across europe are waiting on the speech from the leader of catalonia today. expats sending money home can add hundreds of billions of dollars to a country's economy, especially in developing nations. we'll be speaking to the man behind worldremit, the tech company specialising in worldwide remittance. with the global cost of obesity forecast to hit more than a trillion dollars we want to know how you would tackle the problem of bulging waistlines? just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. please send us your comments on the issue of obesity, automated, france, strike action, you name it. we have got lots in the programme today. let's get started. deja vous — france is braced for mass strikes and protests today. civil service unions have called on their 5.4 million members to take to the streets. so what's got them marching this time? they're angry about massive job cuts in the public sector — 120,000 positions are to be axed over the next five years. plus the unions are calling for higher wages that they argue have become stagnant and hugely impacted their buying power in the country. another main sticking point is proposed changes to social security contributions. president macron‘s plans would unify payments for all taxpayers, eliminating separate contributions for sickness and unemployment insurance. to add to the chaos today some air traffic controllers will be on strike which may result in the cancellation of up to 30% of flights across main airports in france today. so, if you're flying in and out of france make sure to double—check with your carrier before you set off. eric chaney, economic advisor to institut montaigne, is with me. mr macron must have realised he was going to have a huge amount of opposition to his reforms. do you think this opposition will have any effect on what he is trying to do?” do not think so. the big reform is not about the civil service, it was about the labour market, but for private sector employees, and unions wa nted private sector employees, and unions wanted to demonstrate against these reforms which were passed in the summer. reforms which were passed in the summer. the demonstrations were too small, too weak, to change anything. now there is this strike in the public sector. i took the tube this morning and there was no trouble at all. most people will not notice there is a strike, with the exception of schools where the teachers might show they are not happy. this is unlikely to change anything. the government wants to cut the labour force in the public sector by 120,000, which is 0.2% a year, so this is a drop in the ocean of the civil service in france. in terms of his political support, as mr macron still got the support he needs? i would not say that he has a strong support to implement these reforms. the french do not like reforms, but he was elected on the platform of reforms. the more important point is that the trade unions, which are opposed to most of the reforms, are not united at all. some of them are accepting partly the reforms and they have been talking to the president and the government all summer, so it is the opposition which is not united. but i would not say the support is massive. in terms of pensions and insurance and the next set of reforms, that will be more difficult? that will be more difficult, you are absolutely right, because the government wants to have eve ryo ne because the government wants to have everyone in france being exactly on the same level playing field as far as pension contributions are concerned. the truth is that civil serva nts concerned. the truth is that civil servants have an advantage in what they pay. it is lowered and in the private sector and they get a higher pension. this will be much more difficult. but mr macron‘s way of doing things is you announce a big thing and there is a long negotiation and the result is a compromise. my bet is there will be a compromise. thank you very much indeed. thank you very much indeed. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. ikea will experiment by selling its famous flatpack furniture through online retailers. the swedish chain — known for its vast edge—of—town outlets — is also testing a smaller city centre store format. they want to see if that will draw in more shoppers. they want to see if that will draw in more shoppers. google has found evidence that russian agents spent tens of thousands of dollars on advertisements in a bid to sway last year's us election. the washington post quotes sources saying they aimed to spread disinformation using youtube and gmail. they say the ads don't appear to be from the same kremlin—linked source that bought ads on facebook. if you have been watching us, you will be well aware of the wildfires raging across the united states at the moment. more than a dozen wildfires raging across the us state of california's northern wine region have killed at least ten people and forced thousands from their homes. australia's treasury wine estates is reporting "limited damage" to its infrastructures and its shares were down as much as 2% on tuesday. our business reporter leisha sa ntorelli in singapore. this is an odd connection between australia and california, but there isa australia and california, but there is a huge amount of investment that goes that way into the napa valley. that is right. treasury wine estate looks after the penfold ‘s brand and many others, so the napa valley is where their wineries are located. as sally mentioned, this is one of the deadliest wildfires to hit california in its history and at least 1500 holmes and businesses have been damaged, so we are looking at billions of dollars in destruction. the smoke from these fires have reached as far as san francisco, nearly 100 kilometres away, and the california governor has declared a state of emergency. california is the most valuable wine region in america. napa valley has major tourist attractions and it contributes billions of dollars to the local and national economy and the local and national economy and the fires are threatening many of the fires are threatening many of the vineyards. at least two wineries have been destroyed, so why the treasury says they have seen limited damage, we have seen some wineries burnt out and some severe damage. damage, we have seen some wineries burnt out and some severe damagem has been absolutely awful. thank you very much. it is something we are keeping a cross on the bbc. a terrible situation out there. so much going on in the markets today. most major markets open in asia for the first time in over a week, we had the golden week holiday last week. japan opens today and hong kong opened yesterday. just a slight dip on wall street. let's have a look in europe. an interesting day for europe. we had talked about france already. nothing too dramatic going on, that everybody will be watching the catalan president later as he makes his speech to parliament. will he declare independence for the region of catalonia? that independence for the region of catalonia ? that is independence for the region of catalonia? that is a big story happening later on today in spain. there is a lot going on in france and in stateside as well. and michelle fleury has the details about what's ahead on wall street today. the war on coal is over, that is what the head of the environmental protection agency told a gathering on monday. the boss of the u pa is expected to sign a withdrawal from the clean power plant. former president barack 0bama centrepiece legislation designed to fight climate change. finance ministers and central bankers from around the globe are headed to washington for the annual meeting of the international monetary fund and the world bank. the imf is publishing its twice yearly world economic 0utlook. it is currently predicting global growth of 3.5% in 2017. procter and gamble shareholders will decide whether or not to give activist investor nelson tells a seat on the consumer—products board. joining us is sonja laud head of equities at fidelity international. good morning, welcome. shall we start with spain or should we say catalonia watermark how big are wave is that making in financial markets? we have seen things moving down fairly gently over the last few weeks. is there any more of an effect? it is difficult to say at this juncture but we will have this speech today. markets will only react to it when we have greater clarity on whether this will have a fundamental impact on the economic situation in spain and the eurozone. yes, we had higher volatility, which is normal, because a few companies announced they would shift their headquarters out of catalonia to other regions in spain. but if we are not seeing a fundamental change in the economic trajectory of spain, markets might well continue in their recent past. is that the same story for france? it is the same story literally everywhere. investors have been scratching their heads because despite all the political turmoil and headlines across the world, markets have had a very benign face. the fundamental backdrop is still very benign. we have a decent global synchronised growth and inflation seems to be under control. from a market point of view so far there is no reason to really shake. implicit in everything you say there is something that the market seriously. amongst all those political certainties we have around the world, one odd two or three of them will have an impact. which one will it be? that is a good question. you are right, we should not be too complacent. it sounds like a reasonable goldilocks scenario, but there are threats on the horizon. purely economic goldilocks but not a political one? not political, but thatis political one? not political, but that is important, but there is a distinction between them. we are going to have the fed minutes released from the previous meeting. will there be anything in that? no, but it is another one that could potentially shake markets. part of my goldilocks scenario is the central banks have remained supportive and have provided sufficient liquidity to keep market is going. thank you very much. we will be back with the newspapers. sonia has still got more work to do! still to come: making it easy to transfer money abroad — we'll speak to the man whose company is using tech to revolutionise remittances. you're with business live from bbc news. it's ada lovelace day — a celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics also known as stem. ada lovelace was the english mathematician whose work on the first general purpose computer was crucial to recognising the full potential of computer programming. but more than 200 years since she was born, women still make up only 21% of the core stem workforce. lets find out more from the founder of the day and technology expert suw charman—anderson. good to see you. just tell us more about why today is so important. ada lovelace day is trying to inspire girls and women around the world to study these careers. it is very much a global phenomenon. we have events literally on five or six continents and it is important because there is and it is important because there is a huge shortage of stem talent and we have got a lot ofjobs that are not filled and we have to make sure that women are engaged with stem and using that stem talent to its fullest potential. over the last ten yea rs we have fullest potential. over the last ten years we have seen fullest potential. over the last ten years we have seen in schools mathematics coming on leaps and bounds, it is becoming more popular, but what about the girls? have more and more of them been doing mathematics or have they been lagging behind the boys? girls have a lot of interest in stem when they are younger, but that interest drops off as they get older, so you see girls very interested until they are seven or eight or nine, but when it comes to choosing gcses and a—levels... comes to choosing gcses and a-levels. .. do comes to choosing gcses and a-levels... do you know comes to choosing gcses and a-levels. .. do you know why? comes to choosing gcses and a-levels... do you know why? as comes to choosing gcses and a-levels. .. do you know why? as far as we are aware it is about self identity, girls are identified as not stem and part of that is because we have not been very good at communicating what a stem career really means. there are still a lot of people who think if you are a scientist you live in a white coat and stare down a microscope every day and if you are an engineer you have a hard hat, a high vizjacket and as usual there is lots more information about this on our website. you're watching business live. our top story: france braces itself for a day of strikes and protests as unions vent their fury of planned labour reforms. we have been talking to various people in france so far today and one of the economists i spoke to, he just took his kids, he came back from the school run and did a live with me, clearly his school was open. he did say many schools are affected and hospitals as well. right. quite a tricky day. a quick look at how markets are faring. a mixed picture, the dax down 16 points. the pound against the dollar looking stronger. but the other markets fairly indecisive. a small fall on the ibex in spain. let's get the inside track on how technology is transforming the way we move money around the world. now, 39% of the world's population don't have a bank account. that's almost three billion people. but of those, more than one billion do have a mobile phone. worldremit is one such company. it allows cash transfers from 50 countries to more than 140 destinations, through mobile and digital wallets. most of its customers are migrant workers supporting their families and it processes 750,000 transactions per month. ismail ahmed is founder and ceo of worldremit. good morning and welcome. good morning. good morning. what makes you different from others because there are a lot of you doing this kind of business? this industry has been largely off line and you know more than 90% of the $600 billion of remittances are still sent off line. solicitor, we were one of the first companies that are transforming that and we are making sending money as simple as sending an instant message. my customers often have multiple jobs. they don't need to spend time to travel to a corner shop to send small amounts of money, especially now when they are talking to family members all the time using instant messaging apps. so they are aware of the situation that they wa nt aware of the situation that they want to share money and probably send five, six, seven pounds to manila. that's where we come in. ok, there is not many, in terms of the whole market, evenly small percentage is done on a mobile via an app, but there are other companiesjust likes an app, but there are other companies just likes yours out there, because we have interviewed them on this programme and just to say that you, as a company, have attracted a lot of financing. almost £200 million. why do you stand out? we lead the mobile to mobile remittances. so we're connected to mobile money services in many parts of the developing countries and particularly in africa. as you said earlier, there are of the one billion who have got access to financial services, there are 500 million people who have more mobile money accounts. so we're connected to more than 100 million of those. so we enable people until developing countries, particularly in africa, to receive their money on a mobile phone. sometimes the mobile number becomes your account number and you can use that to pay for goods and services. for those people, they don't need to leave their villages to get their money. so that is where we have the largest market share. i want you to tell me when you raised something like, you did venture capitalist and then you did series a and series b, raising money from venture capitalists, if you we re from venture capitalists, if you were to talk to somebody who wants to do something like what you did, what would you say? what would your advice be to them, what tipped the balance in favour of getting the money out of venture capitalists? before we were able to raise money we had a strong traction to show that what we were doing was going to work... but you need the capital to start with, initially? now days to test your service doesn't require a lot of capital like in the past. so you don't need a lot of money. so you don't need a lot of money. so you have got to get traction first. you have got to get people with you. we we re you have got to get people with you. we were targeting a lot of industry, truly global. so, you know, more than 80, close to 80% of our revenues come outside of the uk. so, certainly we have been very ambitious business and you should be doing something that's you're passionate about. i have been involved in this business for more than 20 years. i come from a family that used to receive remittances. when i became to the uk i became a senderand when i became to the uk i became a sender and saw the costs and the inconvenience involved in sending money. how do you guarantee the security of this? the movement of money, so many transactions i would imagine every minute? what about fraudulent transactions? before i started in worldremit i was a compliance adviser at the un remittance programme and my role was really to fight financial crime. 0ne of the advantages of doing digital is that we only deal with migrants who have got bank accounts. and we capture a lot of detail when somebody is using an app so it's far more secure than cash based transactions because in digital transactions because in digital transaction there is an audit trail. we work can companies that know their customers better than banks. thank you very much. automation is rapidly changing the employment market. one study by pricewaterhousecoopers suggests more than a third ofjobs in the us could be at risk over the next 20 years. so how can people and countries prepare? the world bank is set to roll out a new initiative to encourage more investment in human capital and education. the head of the organisation has been speaking to michelle fleury about the urgent need to prepare people for the future workplace. autommation and technology is going to eliminate so many low skilled jobs. imean... in developing and in developed countries? in both developing and developed countries. the one thing you know for sure that you'll need in whatever the economy looks like in the future is people who can learn, who are able to adapt to new situations, who are able to learn new things and right now many countries in the world do not have a workforce that's capable of that and it's time that we move on it. what is the human capital project? we started looking at what is the connection between investments and human beings and their health and education, social protection, what's the connection between investments and human beings and economic growth? what we found was that the connection is far more profound than we had imagined. one of the studies that we looked at where we compared the countries in the world that have improved their human capital the most, versus the countries in the world that have improved their human capital least. the top quartile grew over a 25 year period 1.25% of gdp faster per year than the group than the group that improved their human capital the least. that was the president of the world bank. sonja is back. this is from the guardian global cost of obesity crisis to hit £1.2 trillion. it is horrific. the cost has not been really worked out, but in social term and in economic terms it is massive. there have been quite a number of studies, it is not a new subject. 0besity a number of studies, it is not a new subject. obesity is causing most deaths in today's day and age. you know, governments and institutions have been slow to respond, what needs to be done. most scary is the fa ct needs to be done. most scary is the fact that childhood obesity is rising dramatically. they are talking about the issue of obesity and diabetes, but also this is coming ata and diabetes, but also this is coming at a time when health care systems pretty much worldwide are creeking and under funded systems pretty much worldwide are creeking and underfunded and struggling with the current demand never mind the demand in the future? yes, exactly. this is something that obviously needs to be tackled straightaway. we asked viewers for their points of view. we have got some ideas. a people said, "put people on bicycles, they can lose weight and generate electricity." sarah louise says, "0besity weight and generate electricity." sarah louise says, "obesity is caused by too many calories in and not enough out. that's the other talking point, should the onus be on companies, the drinks industry, the food industry to do more about this? more individuals taking exercise. we could talk for hours. we could. that's it from business live today. there will be more business news throughout the day on the bbc live web page and on world business report. we're back tomorrow. so we'll see you then. have a good day. hello. good morning, the best of the brightness in the north of the uk this morning. further south, a cloudier picture across england and wales as this cold front clears its way south and east. the bright start in the north will be short—lived. 0ur in the north will be short—lived. our next area of low pressure and weather fronts bring our next area of low pressure and weatherfronts bring more in the way of cloud and rain later. so for england and wales a cloudy start to the day with a few showers, particularly the further west you are, but it will brighten up from the north as we move through the day. in the north, the reverse. for northern ireland, scotland and the far north of england, sunny spells and one or two showers this morning, but turning cloudy with rain pushing into the late afternoon. just pushing into the far north—west of northern ireland at around apm. we will see more in the way of rain for north—west scotland. the further east you are in scotland, dry with a risk of one or two isolated showers. as we head south into northern england, still a lot of dry, bright weather around. temperatures into the mid—teens. 0ne weather around. temperatures into the mid—teens. one or to isolated showers to look out for. we will see more in the way of cloud across the south—west. the weather front taking its time to clear out and the risk of one or two showers. temperatures around 16 celsius. inn plymouth. as we head our way over to the south—east, more in the way of cloud. still one or two showers, but brightening up. highs around 18 celsius today. as we move through this evening and overnight, the rain will push its way south and east. it will push its way south and east. it will push its way south and east. it will push into northern ireland, scotland, northern england and wales and into the north—west of the midlands. further south and east, a drier picture with clear spells. temperatures overnight staying in the double figures, but the in the far north you could see it falling cooler than that. so a wet start to the day tomorrow. fairly windy where we have got the band of rain. it will edge its way south and eastwards, but slowly, so we are looking ’£5 7 ' eastwards, but slowly, so we are looking 2: " ofrainin looking at heavy bursts of rain in the south—west scotland and into cumbria and into lancashire and the far north of wales. some heavy bursts, we could see up to 100 mile meters by lunch time. cloudier in the south and the east with a few outbreaks of showery rain and highs of 18 celsius. a drier day on thursday across—the—board, we will see sunny spells. it the cloud tending to increase as we move through the day and the risk of an isolated shower in the north—west. temperatures at a maximum of 17 celsius. hello, it's tuesday, it's 9 o'clock, i'm victoria derbyshire, welcome to the programme. our top story today — serious racial divides exist across british society. that's the findings from the government's huge race audit. although i was the most qualified and the most experienced, i was still looked over by a white man who was eventually put into the position. we are gathering people from across the uk to to the fact over what can be done to shorten the racial divide. also, animal welfare groups say mobile blues are an ethical and can cause distress to animals. if they go for things, does that mean