:00:07. > :00:13.This is Business Live from BBC News with Sally Bundock and Ben Thompson.
:00:14. > :00:15.Turning up the heat - Qatar's credit rating is cut
:00:16. > :00:40.Live from London, that's our top story on Thursday the 8th of June.
:00:41. > :00:50.Who will blink first in this dispute, and how damaging could it
:00:51. > :00:53.be for Fatah-- Qatar's economy and the region?
:00:54. > :00:55.Also in the programme: Countdown to Comey.
:00:56. > :00:56.The former FBI Director will offer testimony
:00:57. > :00:58.about Trump and Russia, but could it damage
:00:59. > :01:05.And investors worldwide are watching the UK election, the European
:01:06. > :01:09.Central Bank meeting and that James Comey testimony in Washington.
:01:10. > :01:14.We meet the woman with a remarkable career that began on a farm
:01:15. > :01:17.in rural Illinois and has taken her all the way to the shining
:01:18. > :01:21.And with polls now open in the UK general election, we promise
:01:22. > :01:26.So let us know what you make of the stories we're covering today.
:01:27. > :01:50.When we say politics free, we do refer to the UK election and not the
:01:51. > :01:53.politicking going on at the moment in the Middle East.
:01:54. > :01:56.We start in the Gulf state of Qatar, where concerns are growing
:01:57. > :01:58.about the economic fallout after neighbouring Arab states cut
:01:59. > :02:00.off diplomatic and trade ties over its alleged support
:02:01. > :02:08.of terrorist groups, something Doha denies.
:02:09. > :02:10.Late Wednesday, top credit rating agency Standard and Poors cut
:02:11. > :02:12.Qatar's credit rating, with a warning it could
:02:13. > :02:16.Its stock market is down almost 10% in the last three
:02:17. > :02:18.days, and its currency is at an 11-year low.
:02:19. > :02:20.Qatar is a tiny nation, but it's a very important
:02:21. > :02:33.It has one of the world's largest reserves of natural gas.
:02:34. > :02:36.It has seen exports of its liquefied natural gas or LNG
:02:37. > :02:38.That's made the state phenomenally wealthy.
:02:39. > :02:41.It has built up one of the world's biggest sovereign wealth funds,
:02:42. > :02:54.It's used that money to buy assets across the globe.
:02:55. > :02:57.They range from Paris Saint-Germain football club to big
:02:58. > :02:59.stakes in Volkswagen, Russian oil giant Rosneft
:03:00. > :03:03.and commodities trader Glencore to Britian's Barclays Bank.
:03:04. > :03:08.Not to mention millions of square metres of London,
:03:09. > :03:11.including Canary Wharf, the Shard and Harrods.
:03:12. > :03:14.The success of Qatar Airways has made it a major aviation hub.
:03:15. > :03:17.But more than 50 flights a day have been grounded
:03:18. > :03:27.And it's a huge employer of migrant workers, many of whom are working
:03:28. > :03:36.Families from India to the Philippines depend
:03:37. > :03:45.There are half a million workers from India alone in Qatar.
:03:46. > :03:47.Zeynep Kosereisoglu is practice leader, Middle East,
:03:48. > :03:52.North Africa and Turkey at Frontier Strategy Group.
:03:53. > :04:04.nice to see you. Let's start with some background to this. How are we
:04:05. > :04:09.in this position, and why is Qatar looking increasingly isolated? This
:04:10. > :04:12.is because of long years of tension between Qatar and its neighbouring
:04:13. > :04:21.countries, like Egypt. We started seeing these problems that in 1985
:04:22. > :04:24.when we had an attempted coup. We have been watching a lot of these
:04:25. > :04:29.tensions over the last few weeks increase over the foreign policy,
:04:30. > :04:33.through mostly soft power but of course the fact that these measures
:04:34. > :04:38.are taking place today, and to such an extent that it shows us that
:04:39. > :04:44.maybe a change from a US Per Spett with to the region could also have
:04:45. > :04:50.been the main trigger for such a large move from these countries. I
:04:51. > :04:53.remember in 2014 there were some similarities with hot what happened
:04:54. > :04:58.then, but it strikes me that this time it is more severe. We have had
:04:59. > :05:10.a lot of talks between these countries about Qatar's foreign
:05:11. > :05:13.policy, that was more of a short-term spat, but this time we
:05:14. > :05:16.are seeing unprecedented levels of measures, so different in terms of
:05:17. > :05:20.the extent and the pressure they will put on the economy. So what
:05:21. > :05:25.does it mean day-to-day for the economy and people living in Qatar?
:05:26. > :05:29.A few factors are important. The first one, you have seen already
:05:30. > :05:32.some shortages within the economy, it is very much import dependent so
:05:33. > :05:37.we will see domestic prices increasing, but also economic
:05:38. > :05:40.activity in the country depends on imports as well so we will be seeing
:05:41. > :05:45.a halt in the construction activity. Qatar Airways as you have mentioned
:05:46. > :05:55.as well. But most importantly we will see precious on the peg to the
:05:56. > :05:59.dollar. -- we will see pressure on the peg to the dollar. They do have
:06:00. > :06:05.reserves to maintain the peg, but as this conflict last longer, we will
:06:06. > :06:09.set pressure on liquidity within the banks. And as Sally outlined, so
:06:10. > :06:15.many investments from Qatar around the world, it has been active in
:06:16. > :06:19.spreading the wealth around the world so it has a diverse economy.
:06:20. > :06:25.How long does this crisis last? No one really knows. But what are those
:06:26. > :06:32.ripple effects around the world? It is going to be very hard for the
:06:33. > :06:36.Qatari authorities to prove to these countries that there will be a
:06:37. > :06:40.change in policy. They are asking for a very big change, so you have
:06:41. > :06:44.to make a big move to showcase and prove that the foreign policy is
:06:45. > :06:49.going to change and that will be quite difficult from Qatar's
:06:50. > :06:54.perspective. So this might last a little longer than we saw in 2014.
:06:55. > :06:58.You mentioned some of the investments within the world, but
:06:59. > :07:03.also a lot of investment in the region, from Turkey to Egypt, so
:07:04. > :07:07.some of them are in projects that can't be moved out, but the liquid
:07:08. > :07:15.ones that are mostly in stocks can be pulled, and we could see that if
:07:16. > :07:20.this lasts much longer. Zeynep, it is good to here your thoughts on
:07:21. > :07:25.that. For now, thank you very much, Zeynep Kosereisoglu, thank you for
:07:26. > :07:29.coming in. Let's take a look at some of
:07:30. > :07:32.the other stories making the news. China's imports and exports were up
:07:33. > :07:34.strongly last month. Exports in May rose 8.7%
:07:35. > :07:36.compared to the year before. The latest official trade figures
:07:37. > :07:43.gave the country a trade surplus Sony says it has sold more
:07:44. > :07:49.than 1 million virtual reality The PlayStation VR headset
:07:50. > :07:59.was released in October, and its relatively low price has
:08:00. > :08:02.seen sales grow faster than rival The headset is designed to work
:08:03. > :08:22.with the PlayStation 4 rather Three events are keeping traders
:08:23. > :08:25.transfixed today. One is the UK election, and of course we won't
:08:26. > :08:31.know the outcome of that until maybe this time tomorrow or earlier. The
:08:32. > :08:36.other one is the European Central Bank meeting happening at lunchtime
:08:37. > :08:39.today. No policy change expected, but what will be said at the press
:08:40. > :08:45.conference afterwards is critical. And then there is that James Comey
:08:46. > :08:50.testimony taking place today. What does that mean for the Trump
:08:51. > :08:53.administration? That is playing a part in markets worldwide, we are
:08:54. > :09:01.seeing a lot of caution in terms of trade. Data out of Japan as well,
:09:02. > :09:04.about its growth figures. The final figures showing growth at 1%. But
:09:05. > :09:10.missed estimates by quite a distance, so that the pressure on
:09:11. > :09:15.stocks in Tokyo. Let's have a look at Europe right now, so a sense of
:09:16. > :09:21.how things are going. The FTSE 100 pretty flat, sterling still bubbling
:09:22. > :09:25.along. A slight gain for Germany, and that is the state of play here.
:09:26. > :09:30.Samira Hussain has the details about what's ahead on Wall Street Today.
:09:31. > :09:37.All eyes will be on Capitol Hill, James Comey will testify to US
:09:38. > :09:41.lawmakers. This will be his first public appearance since he was fired
:09:42. > :09:45.by President Donald Trump. Any damaging revelation in his testimony
:09:46. > :09:52.could dampen already flagging momentum for Trump's pro-business
:09:53. > :09:56.fiscal agenda. In earning the series, James maco will be
:09:57. > :10:03.reporting, and they have warned that four-year sales will be lower than
:10:04. > :10:06.previously thought. It faces treasure from rising competition and
:10:07. > :10:14.commodity costs. And a little bit of economics news. The jobless claims
:10:15. > :10:17.dipped slightly to 240,000 from 248,000 in the week previous. Thank
:10:18. > :10:19.you. Joining us is James Hughes,
:10:20. > :10:29.Chief Market Analyst, at GKFX, Let's talk about ECB, because we
:10:30. > :10:33.haven't talked through at least two days since we talked about the
:10:34. > :10:37.time this is happening, Greece is time this is happening, Greece is
:10:38. > :10:41.rearing its ugly head again in terms of the debt crisis, but let's talk
:10:42. > :10:47.debt first of all. There is no change expected, and this has been
:10:48. > :10:50.the case for a long time. It is not necessarily the rates we are looking
:10:51. > :10:52.at now, it is the quantitative easing which is extending to
:10:53. > :10:55.December this year, but there is so December this year, but there is so
:10:56. > :11:00.much discussion at the moment about the fact that the German economy is
:11:01. > :11:05.overheating, the German economy is performing well and this is having
:11:06. > :11:10.stimulus pumped into it. So much pressure coming from Germany to the
:11:11. > :11:14.EEC beta start to take that back, but it is getting a balancing act,
:11:15. > :11:19.Germany much stronger than the other countries. And you have Germany in
:11:20. > :11:29.that position, you have Greece in a really dire position still.
:11:30. > :11:33.Yesterday we had banks bailed out by Santander, the whole banking support
:11:34. > :11:39.system kicking in, and then you have this weekend, Parliamentary
:11:40. > :11:44.elections in France. It is just a mess, isn't it? It isn't a mess, but
:11:45. > :11:48.it is complicated! But it is a mess, as it has been for the last ten
:11:49. > :11:55.years, and we have known this story for such a long time. You call a
:11:56. > :11:58.spade a spade! We talked about Greece tenures are going exactly the
:11:59. > :12:03.same situation, and they said, but the IMF said, we will deal with your
:12:04. > :12:08.debt later. That doesn't work, because later eventually comes
:12:09. > :12:12.around. Yes, at the time we talked about them kicking the can down the
:12:13. > :12:16.got to the can, and what will they got to the can, and what will they
:12:17. > :12:23.do? There will be a few more measures, a few more statements from
:12:24. > :12:27.Germany about what they will do, and it is a mess, unfortunately, and it
:12:28. > :12:30.doesn't show any signs of changing. We will talk more about that a
:12:31. > :12:32.little later, you will talk as though the papers, but for now,
:12:33. > :12:36.thank you. Let's go to Australia now,
:12:37. > :12:46.where Special K is a special name. You may think of it as a serial. But
:12:47. > :12:59.in Australia, it is all about tennis star who is becoming well known. The
:13:00. > :13:02.top 100 tennis player Thanasi Kokkinakis is trying to use the name
:13:03. > :13:07.commercially. We have seen this sort of row before, but not often between
:13:08. > :13:12.a serial provider and a tennis player!
:13:13. > :13:18.It really is a different type of court case the Thanasi Kokkinakis!
:13:19. > :13:22.It is over intellectual property. The 21-year-old is known as Special
:13:23. > :13:26.K, and what he would like to do because he is trying to bank on his
:13:27. > :13:30.fame and his good health at the time being is to create a special tennis
:13:31. > :13:42.line of clothing, and all the stuff that can come with it, Kellogg's is
:13:43. > :13:45.saying that Special K is one of its best selling cereals, and they are
:13:46. > :13:54.taking him to court in Adelaide. Lawyers on both sides of decided not
:13:55. > :13:56.to say nothing, but they just showed the crying emoji with the sad words
:13:57. > :14:02.on his account. Don't cry over spilt milk, that is
:14:03. > :14:10.what I say. Thank you for your input. Still to
:14:11. > :14:14.come, we will meet the woman who started out counting cows and now
:14:15. > :14:17.runs her very own tech firm. It is an accounting software company, it
:14:18. > :14:22.has gone from strength to strength. We will hear that story very
:14:23. > :14:30.shortly. You are with Business Live from BBC News. First, let's focus on
:14:31. > :14:34.some more corporate stories. Flybe, Europe's largest regional
:14:35. > :14:37.airline has announced a pre-tax loss of ?20 million,
:14:38. > :14:39.compared to a ?2.7 million The airline recently created
:14:40. > :14:43.an alliance with Eastern Airways to operate its scheduled route
:14:44. > :14:45.network under the Flybe brand. Theo Leggett has been
:14:46. > :14:59.looking at the figures - We have talked about fly be before,
:15:00. > :15:01.a UK regional airline, it does all of those routes you don't
:15:02. > :15:05.necessarily want to get a train for but it has not managed to make it a
:15:06. > :15:09.success this year, big turnaround. We knew this year would be bad
:15:10. > :15:13.because in March the company put out a profits warning, saying that there
:15:14. > :15:19.were issues. Some of the problems are beyond its control. For example,
:15:20. > :15:21.bad weather which has forced flight cancellations, strikes among air
:15:22. > :15:25.traffic controllers in France, that has had an impact. You say they do
:15:26. > :15:29.routes that people won't necessarily take trains for but some of the
:15:30. > :15:32.routes they do, there are rail alternatives and the rail companies
:15:33. > :15:37.have been discounting so that has had an effect as well. But to a
:15:38. > :15:40.certain extent, Flybe has also been a victim of its own actions. When
:15:41. > :15:45.things looked better if you years ago it ordered a lot of planes. It
:15:46. > :15:48.has renegotiated some of those contracts, but other planes had to
:15:49. > :15:52.be brought into the fleet and it had to find something to do with it.
:15:53. > :15:55.That has left it with a problem of overcapacity. It has not been able
:15:56. > :15:58.to fill up the planes quite as well, not been making so much money and
:15:59. > :16:01.there is a lot of competition in this market. That is where some
:16:02. > :16:05.other problems have been. It has been insulated from other issues
:16:06. > :16:10.because it mainly flies of the UK, it hasn't had many problems as other
:16:11. > :16:15.airlines with a fall in the value of sterling. They does have the pay
:16:16. > :16:18.aircraft leasing products in dollars but it has hedged against those in
:16:19. > :16:22.done rather well from those hedges. It is struggling at the moment in a
:16:23. > :16:25.broad brush. It thinks it will be able to reduce the size of its fleet
:16:26. > :16:29.when leases come up for renewal later in the year so that should
:16:30. > :16:31.help sort itself out. So it is saying things should get better in
:16:32. > :16:35.the future, on the other hand there are big cost involved as well
:16:36. > :16:39.because it is revamping its IT systems and expect over the next
:16:40. > :16:43.year to have ?6 million worth of costs associated with cancelling
:16:44. > :16:46.existing contracts. So a mixed picture but the past year has not
:16:47. > :16:56.been particularly good. Thank you very much. A reminder of course, in
:16:57. > :17:00.case you had missed it, it is the general election today. A reminder,
:17:01. > :17:03.BBC coverage begins on BBC One at five to ten this evening, the first
:17:04. > :17:26.results around midnight. Qatar has had its rating cut.
:17:27. > :17:28.Reuters reporting that Qatar's central bank has asked commercial
:17:29. > :17:32.banks to provide it with details and frequent updates on their foreign
:17:33. > :17:36.exchange trading. Lots of people scrabbling to get hold of US
:17:37. > :17:40.dollars. We are also hearing anecdotal evidence of just quite how
:17:41. > :17:44.this rift is affecting people. We have heard women the last half-hour
:17:45. > :17:47.that the Emirates Postal service is stopping all Post a Qatar, and says
:17:48. > :17:58.if the posters midway there it will come back. -- all post-to Qatar.
:17:59. > :18:00.Let's remind you how market are doing in Europe, trading has been
:18:01. > :18:08.underway for nearly 15 minutes. Pretty flat really. Rent crude up
:18:09. > :18:13.nearly 8%, but at $48.43 a barrel. The FTSE 100 fairly flat. Keep an
:18:14. > :18:15.eye on the pound, tomorrow, in the wake of the vote of the UK general
:18:16. > :18:18.election. And now let's get the inside track
:18:19. > :18:22.on coding - an industry that's often Therese Tucker runs a financial
:18:23. > :18:27.software firm - black line - and is one of only a handful
:18:28. > :18:30.of female tech entrepeneurs Originally from a farming town
:18:31. > :18:35.in Illinois, she took one of the first ever programming
:18:36. > :18:38.courses offered by Apple In 2001, she founded BlackLine,
:18:39. > :18:49.funding the business herself. She's had to battle sexism
:18:50. > :18:52.in the tech industry - some funding for the business
:18:53. > :18:54.was only offered on the condition that she was replaced
:18:55. > :18:57.as Chief Executive by a man - but she's seen off these
:18:58. > :19:07.challenges and joins us now. Still the boss. Quite an achievement
:19:08. > :19:11.just to be here given all of that, welcome to the programme, good to
:19:12. > :19:16.have you here. Let's start with the business. We said during the
:19:17. > :19:19.programme, your background was very rule, talk us through this course.
:19:20. > :19:23.You went to university and you took the Apple course. That is when you
:19:24. > :19:27.fell in love with coding and that is pretty where you are. Focus through
:19:28. > :19:31.that. The beautiful thing about programming is that you can direct a
:19:32. > :19:35.computer to do something for you, and you can then run that on a
:19:36. > :19:38.million computers. The power is amazing for what you can do for
:19:39. > :19:42.business with that, and I fell in love with it. And I have spent my
:19:43. > :19:48.entire career doing that. Take me back to the 1980s, and that Apple
:19:49. > :19:52.course. We all see at full a certain way now and we see what it has done
:19:53. > :19:56.an transform the business, what was apple-like back then? It was
:19:57. > :19:59.radically new. At that time, most of the computers were still mainframes
:20:00. > :20:04.with cards, and is terrible to work with. Apple was this amazing new
:20:05. > :20:11.innovation that actually made it fun. Not that different from today,
:20:12. > :20:16.in many ways. Tell us about the journey, it sounds like it has been
:20:17. > :20:20.pretty tough. Any journey is tough. But if Nutley in the tech industry.
:20:21. > :20:28.It is very male dominated, and that is true, starting in university. I
:20:29. > :20:36.would be in classes weather might be -- where there might be one other
:20:37. > :20:39.woman in the class of 500. It has not held you back, have you heard
:20:40. > :20:44.had to overcome certain things or have you just ploughed ahead
:20:45. > :20:49.regardless? How have you tackled it? I believe it has both a good and bad
:20:50. > :20:53.side. If you were the only woman in the room, you absolutely get
:20:54. > :20:56.noticed. You do have to have a bit of a thick skin however, so that
:20:57. > :21:00.certain things just don't bother you, you just move on from them. You
:21:01. > :21:05.have also got to be pretty persistent. I'm just looking at some
:21:06. > :21:10.of your journey. You drained your bank account, emptied your pension,
:21:11. > :21:14.second mortgage to your home, and you maxed out your credit cards and
:21:15. > :21:20.baked your friends. That is quite a gamble! It is a little scary at
:21:21. > :21:23.times, I had many sleepless nights. The funny thing about being an entry
:21:24. > :21:26.to nor is when you are doing people think you are crazy, and when you
:21:27. > :21:31.are successful they think you're brilliant. And they love you. But
:21:32. > :21:35.you are exactly the same person throughout the entire journey.
:21:36. > :21:38.Putting all of that money on the line, your livelihood on the line
:21:39. > :21:43.from your friends, family, it could have gone the other way. I could
:21:44. > :21:49.have been completely poor, starting over in my 40s, it was terrifying.
:21:50. > :21:53.And put this into perspective as well, you were facing a woman with
:21:54. > :21:56.two children at that time as well. Yes, it was terrifying. So you must
:21:57. > :22:05.have just absolutely believed in this company you created, which is
:22:06. > :22:09.still black line. Yes, it is still black line. Being an entrepreneur,
:22:10. > :22:14.you have this overwhelming desire and drive to build something. I knew
:22:15. > :22:20.that if I gave up that six months later I would be thinking about the
:22:21. > :22:23.next company. When you were looking for venture capital funding and the
:22:24. > :22:29.U approach said yes, we are interested but we want this man to
:22:30. > :22:34.run the company, not you, what was your reaction? I wanted to evaluate
:22:35. > :22:37.it, I was the new CEO, I wanted to do what was best for the company, so
:22:38. > :22:42.I did have a meeting with him, and was not terribly impressed. So you
:22:43. > :22:46.didn't go ahead? We didn't go ahead, and we did not go ahead with that
:22:47. > :22:50.venture capital. I have since found many people that are quite
:22:51. > :22:54.supportive, regardless of my gender, and that was the right move at that
:22:55. > :22:58.point in time. Time is really tight but I'm interested in your view, I
:22:59. > :23:02.have a bit of a perspective on this. Are things changing, are more women
:23:03. > :23:09.able to succeed in the tech industry? No. Enrolments in
:23:10. > :23:12.university in technology courses is at an incredible low, it is hard to
:23:13. > :23:15.find women programmers and subsequently there are less people
:23:16. > :23:20.promoted, less women technology entrepreneurs. Why is that? I don't
:23:21. > :23:29.think they teach it correctly, they need to teach it with much more of a
:23:30. > :23:33.will real-world perspective so that it reaches out to women who like to
:23:34. > :23:36.solve problems. Sounds like another venture for you. It could be.
:23:37. > :23:41.Therese, thank you very much. President Trump's plans to ease
:23:42. > :23:43.regulation on US banks will have dire consequences -
:23:44. > :23:47.that's according to the former Congressman who orchestrated major
:23:48. > :23:50.reforms after the financial crisis. Barney Frank helped
:23:51. > :23:51.introduce the Dodd-Frank Act But the US House of
:23:52. > :23:56.Representatives will vote later Mr Frank has been speaking
:23:57. > :24:09.to the BBC's Mariko Oi. What they are talking about undoing
:24:10. > :24:13.are the rules that keep large inch oceans from getting so indebted that
:24:14. > :24:18.the government is faced with a choice between paying taxpayer's
:24:19. > :24:22.money to bailout their debts or letting them go under and causing a
:24:23. > :24:27.crisis. But do you agree with some of the proposals made by the choice
:24:28. > :24:32.act? You yourself said there were some mistakes in the Dodd-Frank law
:24:33. > :24:37.you would like to change. I do believe that the $50 billion level
:24:38. > :24:40.we set to be in the super jurisdiction was too low. That was a
:24:41. > :24:49.mistake we made of the time. There is a bipartisan coalition ready to
:24:50. > :24:52.raise that. I think the smaller banks and the 10 billion should get
:24:53. > :24:56.some explicit relief. There were rules we didn't think would apply to
:24:57. > :24:59.them. In fact they are concerned about them, they spent about of
:25:00. > :25:03.money showing they are affected by them, so I think there would be a
:25:04. > :25:09.consensus to do those two things. Beyond that, everything that the
:25:10. > :25:14.Republicans pill verse, the rules we put in place to prevent
:25:15. > :25:16.irresponsible behaviour. I would argue for any of those. Barney Frank
:25:17. > :25:26.of the Dodd-Frank act. Ken Dodd, a of the Dodd-Frank act. Ken Dodd, a
:25:27. > :25:28.comedian in the UK, let's not go there.
:25:29. > :25:30.Joining us again is James Hughes, Chief Market Analyst, at GKFX.
:25:31. > :25:41.This is an interesting story from our transport correspondent on the
:25:42. > :25:45.BBC website today, does BA's explanation stack up? This is to do
:25:46. > :25:50.with their delays. Their explanation has some people worried a little
:25:51. > :25:53.bit. The explanation being it was human error? Yes, someone
:25:54. > :25:56.messed up the reboot and fried the messed up the reboot and fried the
:25:57. > :26:01.circuits, and that is the language that was used, it was like me saying
:26:02. > :26:05.to my dad what happened, that is the kind of excuse I would have for
:26:06. > :26:07.smashing the TV or something like that, not bringing down a
:26:08. > :26:10.multibillion-dollar company. James, thank you, thank you for your
:26:11. > :26:13.company, sorry it was so brief. Goodbye.