大象传媒

Italy is staying on track for a collision course with Brussels over its budget. Giarda Zampano is an Italian freelance journalist and tells us why Rome is not backing down on what the European Union regards as excessive government spending. Also in the programme, the tobacco giant Philip Morris has begun an advertising campaign to try and persuade its customers to quit smoking. Peter Nixon is managing director of the company in the UK, and tells us what is behind the move, whilst Hazel Cheeseman from the charity Action on Smoking and Health suggests this may be a ploy by Philip Morris to sell other products including heated tobacco and e-cigarettes. As British prime minister Theresa May tells the UK parliament that a Brexit withdrawal deal is 95% settled, our reporter in Brussels assesses whether that is really the case. A recent report by the RAND Corporation suggests the US, Canada, UK, Germany and Japan lose up to $400bn per year through lack of sleep. We have a report from the Somnex Sleep Show in London asking what we can do to ensure we get enough rest. Plus our regular workplace commentator Pilita Clark considers why virtual assistants on smartphones and smart speakers feature predominantly female voices.

(Picture: An Italian and EU flag. Picture credit: Getty Images.)