Virtually of course to discuss their response to the coronavirus pandemic. But its all being overshadowed by a huge row over money two trillion dollars worth. On monday, hungary and poland vetoed the entire eu budget because of a clause blocking countries from receiving eu funds unless they respect the rule of law. The budget includes 1 trillion euros to fund the eus entire operations for the next six years and a 750 Million Euro Fund to help countries fight coronavirus. The european comission says its essential this money gets approved, without delay. Indeed, we have a very serious situation now. People in europe and the businesses, the companies in europe are urgently waiting for the funding in this unprecedented crisis and deep recession coming from next generation eu, and now we sit down and we negotiate and we listen to what theissues negotiate and we listen to what the issues are and we try to solve them and again, i want to reiterate that europe in many Critical Situations in the end has Found Solutions to move forward. Poland and hungary say if the need is so urgent, why is the eu attaching new conditions . Heres hungarys justice mininster, speaking to hardtalk here on the bbc. It is morally irresponsible behaviour when those are not concentrating on the covid and the economic crisis but pressuring and blackmailing us with ideological debates, certain countries, and they all knew that we would never accept this. Tying eu funds to the rule of law was an initiative of the european parliament, with the support of several Member States. And the commission is already pursuing infringement proceedings in this area against the two members. It referred hungary to the eus court ofjustice when it passed a law making it a crime to help people claim asylum. Hungarys government opposes mass migration into europe which has often put it at odds with the eu. The eu also took action when hungary forced a University Run by george soros, an opponent of the government, to shift its activities abroad. The European Court ruled that broke eu law. One of the countries leading the drive against hungary is the netherlands. Heres the Prime Minister. We are worried about the rule of law, in effect, for example, in hungary. About gay rights, the free press and democracy. We believe it is important that there would be an instrument to safeguard the rule of law. Poland has been found to be in breach of eu law for trying to force judges into early retirement. The measure was seen as an attempt to undermine their independence. The court ofjustice also ruled against polands efforts to discipline the judiciary. The polish government essentially says none of this is any of the eus business. And its prime minster says the Budget Proposal unfairly singles his country out. We say a resounding no to all the mechanisms that punish us like naughty children, which treat poland and other Member States of the European Union unequally. Jan van hove is chief economist at kbc group in brussels. Hejoins me now. And thank you for making time. Good morning. This is a sticky situation with a lot of money involved and there were some discussions on thursday. The two sides coming closer to an agreement . No, actually they arent, and this is not an easy situation for the european institutions all the european institutions all the countries involved. On the other hand this is a crisis that one could have expected because the rule of law, discussions have been going over several years and i think what is happening today is we are basically linking to fundamental issues with the European Union, on the one hand, the financing on the policy areas and the fiscal support for Member States on the one hand, and on the other hand, there is the discussion on the rule of law. Some countries in Central Europe dont like that, which you can understand, but its a very smart move by the European Commission in particular because in general, the Central European countries are receiving quite a lot of money from the european budget, so therefore this is probably the only punishment that you can create if you want to bring them in line with the rule of law for the fundamental principles of the European Union. As you say, this rule of law discussion has been going on for a now but this is unprecedented situation now with this coronavirus recovery money that so many countries need. Is this fund going to be delayed for long and what will countries suffer as a result. Delayed for long and what will countries suffer as a resultlj countries suffer as a result. |j dont think so. First it was clear in the summit yesterday that the european institutions didnt want to spend too much time on this debate. Obviously the more platform you give to the more platform you give to the opponents of the new rule of law system, the more it will be used in their countries against the European Union, so it was very smart of the european leaders and the president of the European Council to say, look, were not going to discuss this today, and we are taking it off the table, so it will probably happen that negotiations behind the scenes will be happening where the german presidency will play a very important role. Angela merkel, the german chancellor, has always been a bridging figure between the east and west and you see some kind of east and west contradiction in this debate as well. Just briefly before i let you go, on the long term impact, we are hearing some quite Strong Language around this now. We heard from the dutch Prime Minister in september talking about the possibility of founding an eu without hungary and poland. Is this going to cause very deep divisions . Lets be honest, after the Brexit Debate which is still going on and was probably the more important issue yesterday at the summit, nobody is really in favour of kicking out countries from the European Union. That would be much worse. I think ultimately they will find a solution and a compromise but honestly these countries are playing hard and you can understand, because they at least want some compensation and maybe they dont interpret the rules so strictly. That is one option, and the other option is they get political compensation. Lets not forget that the party of the hungarian Prime Minister belongs to the christian democrats faction in the european parliament, so he is in the same faction as angela merkel, so those two, and there have been discussions between them already in the past, but probably they will try to find a way out. Sorry, we have to leave it there. So great to get your perspective on this. Thank your perspective on this. Thank you forjoining us. Us markets have closed higher despite growing concerns over the spiralling rate of covid infections. Boosting the mood, the news that democrats and republicans in the senate have agreed to restart talks on a new stimulus package. But the head of the International Monetary fund has warned that theres now a disconnect of Financial Markets from the real economy and that poses inherent risks to financial stability. As Michelle Fleury in new york explains, the economic signals in the us are not good. We have got the weeklyjobless figures which points to the fa ct figures which points to the fact that things are looking worse and worse just as Coronavirus Infection rates are surging again, leading to more fears that you could see more lock downs than the one you just mentioned in california. Restau ra nts just mentioned in california. Restaurants where i am already suffering curfews, restaurants where i am already suffering cu rfews, the restaurants where i am already suffering curfews, the School System in New York School closed, and that has a cascading effect on the economy. Just as you are going into the Holiday Season when many retailers are depending on consumers be spending more, add on top of that that many people are going to see their Unemployment Benefits expire before the end of the year, and you can see why economists are increasingly calling for stimulus to be passed. As things currently stand, we are in what is known as the lame duck session, that period after an election but before the new senate and house of representatives take their seats in january and representatives take their seats injanuary and before you see the change of power in the white house. As a result of that, expectations are low that anything could get accomplished before the end of the year. Not impossible, and clearly there is increasing pressure from the Business Community to get things done. We know the republicans on the democrats remainfarapart, republicans on the democrats remain far apart, both in terms of the scope and the size of the aid needed. Susannah streeter is Senior Investment and markets analyst at hargreaves la nsdown shes in bristol in the west of england. Thanks forjoining us. This disconnect between what is going on in the markets and what is going on in the real economy, that has been going on for a while, but is it getting worse . Yes, it has been, as you say, been going on for a while and it has got worse and that is partly because many of the industries that have been worst affected, only make up a small example of the s p 500 whereas the Technology Sector which has accelerated strongly through the pandemic takes up a large portion of that index. In many ways, the trends we have witnessed in the pandemic have been an acceleration of the trends we saw before, so the shift to digital, and that is why there has been so much enthusiasm amongst investors for tech stocks, expecting that they might be a safer long term bet, but however, as the imf has pointed out there are still plenty of risks on the horizon. Michelle was talking there about unemployment, and there are fears it could spike at the beginning of next year, and that could add to worries about consumer demand and really could affect the fragile economic recovery we are seeing globally. Also there are talks of this us stimulus being restarted, which is obviously good news, but we are still not sure how large the stimulus will be and that could be another risk and again we are still in a tunnel of uncertainty as far as infection rates for the coronavirus are concerned. We have had this triple dose of confidence because of the vaccine breakthroughs but there are still a lot of logistical hurdles to go through. As you say, still a very uncertain picture. But what are you telling investors about those risks that are on the horizon . The markets were buoyed by this news of a vaccine but now it looks like the recovery might not quite be so clear. Certainly the long road to recovery is going to be a bumpy one, and also we have other risks on the horizon. For example, democratic lawmakers have expressed an interest in breaking up the power of big tech and although it looks likely that the senate will majority republican this point, there could be a lot of working across the aisle because democrats and republicans have said they are very concerned about the monopoly that some Large Tech Companies have over certain industries, so it would be wise for large Tech Holdings to trims and profits now and diversify. I think diversify is absolutely key. Many investors still believe that the future is very bright for tech but still there are certain hurdles in the future. We dont know exactly what will happen with regulation, how big the stimulus will be, and what effect spikes in unemployment will have on consumer demand and that could all have a domino effect on the sector. Thank you very much. Lets go to asia now, because the malaysian capital kuala lumpur is hosting a Virtual Summit of apec the Asia Pacific Economic cooperation forum. It was to have been addressed by us President Donald Trump in the last few hours, but theres no sign of him. Our Asia Business correspondent Karishma Vaswani is following this. Karishma whats going on . This may well have been one of the last opportunities for President Trump to attend a global summit like apec, but when his allocated slot came up he was meant to be speaking on the future of trade, just a bit ahead of that slot, we were told by apec organisers that nobody from the United States would be taking that position to address the apec dialogue and no reason was given, but they did confirm to us that it is very likely that President Trump will attend the virtual Leaders Summit when the 21 member economies to meet virtually later this friday. The fact that he did not show up the fact that he did not show up to this ceo dialogue is significant in and of itself and the reason is that at previous apec summits he and the Us Administration took the opportunity to lambast the International Trading system and really pin americas economic woes on the rest of the world, and in fact, at the 2017 apec event that i attended it was President Trumps first and he talked about the fact it was time for america to put america first, in contrast to what we heard from the chinese president at that event, who talked about global collaboration and cooperation, even back in 2017. Since then of course, the us and china have been engaged in a bitter trade war. No change to that at this point in time, but we did hear from the chinese president at the apec event on thursday where he continued to talk about this message of global collaboration, particularly in the face of this pandemic. Thank you very much for keeping an eye on that for us. The boss of the worlds biggest Cruise Company carnival has told the bbc coronavirus has been devastating for his industry. With regulators around the world stopping cruise ships from sailing a 150 billion dollar industry has been brought to a standstill and Carnival Corporation is losing about 650m a month. But its chief executive Arnold Donald insists his company has the finances to survive into next year, by which time theyll be back in business. Zero revenue which could go well into 2021, deep into 2021 and not because we thought that was going to be the case, but we did it in the event it became the case, so you always have to prepare for the worst scenario, and we are very optimistic we will be cruising again in 2021 at some scale. We are cautiously optimistic. That we might be sailing in early 2021. And viewers on bbc world news can see more of that interview with Arnold Donald, the chief executive of Carnival Corporation on talking business with Aaron Heslehurst this weekend. The times are on your screen now with the first airing at 2330 gmt on saturday. Stay with us on bbc news, still to come digital waste why hitting reply all could be damaging the environment. We look at the curse of unneccessary emails and now for some news here in the uk. The chancellor, rishi sunak, is preparing to freeze the pay of millions of Public Sector workers as part of his Spending Review next week. Mrsunak will make the case for wage restraint to reflect falls in private sector earnings during the pandemic. It is thought that the freeze will not apply to nhs workers, but theres been a furious backlash from trade unions. People over the age of 50 will be offered free therell be enough doses for 30 Million People to be vaccinated at gp surgeries and pharmacies. The government hopes it will help the nhs cope with the twin threats of flu and coronavirus. Scientists have created a global map of all 20,000 species of bees on earth. The map will help in the conservation of crop pollinators. Researchers found bees gather in their highest numbers in the Northern Hemisphere in dry temperate areas away from the heat of the tropics. This is bbc world news, the latest headlines Election Officials in georgia confirm joe biden Election Officials in beat President Trump in the state. The us president elect called the president s refusal to accept the result totally irresponsible. The European Union looks at giving the go ahead to two vaccines before the end of the year. Lets turn to the war on Plastic Packaging now. The cosmetics industry produces some 120 billion items of packaging annually and here in the uk alone we throw away half a billion plastic shampoo bottles each year. So could this be the answer . Today cosmetics giant garnier is launching solid shampoo bars packaged in recyclable cardboard for zero Plastic Waste. Adrien koskas is global brand president at garnier, and hes in paris. Thank you for coming to talk to us. Thank you for coming to talk to us. So, talk to us a little bit about what exactly this packaging is. Its completely free from plastic, is that right . Absolutely and good morning, nancy. It is a big innovation and more than the plastic repackaging is also the product itself which is a true revolution, a shampoo bar, so a full solid form of shampoo that delivers fantastic performance for the consumer. We know people are sometimes sceptical to use these products because they dont deliver as much but with these innovations that we have been working on for many months now, we can deliver an efficacy and experience that is comparable to a liquid shampoo ina zero comparable to a liquid shampoo in a zero Plastic Waste packaging, so that is at an affordable price as well. |j have to ask. Other, smaller brands like lush have been doing this since 2018 so how come it has taken you so long . We have been working a lot on the formula to make sure that we are delivering a fantastic experience for consumers, before you ask about shampoo bars people stink it is so can they do not want to put it on they do not want to put it on the head and what this formula does is gives you a fantastic experience and full satisfaction. That was the priority, to be able to have that innovation that we would be able to scale and change habits. What about the consumers . Will it be quite difficult to convince them that they can use a shampoo bar when they can use a shampoo bar when they are so used to getting shampoo ina they are so used to getting shampoo in a bottle . You know, we feel that now more than ever consumers are ready to change their habits. I think the covid crisis has been a wake up call to many consumers and they are ready to try and make a difference and take a small green step, and the more people are able to do that, the more it will have a better impact on the planet, so we think its the planet, so we think its the right time and we want to convince as many people as possible. A step at a time. Thank you very much. Lets stay with that environmental theme. If your workplace is anything like ours, you will get a lot of unneccessary emails. Well, we are being told today that they are not just annoying but bad for the planet. Uk researchers say we send some 64 million unneccessary emails a day, and they all use energy to transmit and store. According to one estimate if each person in the uk sent one fewer email a day, it could cut carbon output by more than 16,000 tonnes a year equivalent to taking well over 3,000 diesel cars off the road. Chris preist is professor of sustainability and Computer Systems at the university of bristol. Thank you very much for coming on. Level with me here, just how much energy to sending a thanks, see you later e mail actually use up . Well, our Research Suggests its a lot less tha n Research Suggests its a lot less than the figure you quoted, certainly that is an old figure and something where systems a re old figure and something where systems are more efficient than they used to be but also that figure takes into account a lot of things that when you send an e mail you have no control over, so it includes energy use on the data centre and used in the network, used by your home la ptop the network, used by your home laptop and also energy and Carbon Emissions from building equipment. Whether you send the e mail, it wont make a large amount of difference to the amount of difference to the amount of difference to the amount of energy the system sends. So if it wont make a lot of difference whether you send the e mail or not, what are the things about the way we use computers, the way we use e mail that could make a big difference . My career to be honest, its not about personal Behaviour Change, its mostly about the companies themselves changing systems to merck as efficiently as possible across the world. The Carbon Footprint from Digital Technology a small, so if we are thinking about Behaviour Change, we need to think about what is big. We need to focus on what we eat and how we dispose of our food, how we heat our homes and how we travel. Those are the big things. Having said that, the companies are busily putting out products because people use them. Streaming is growing, gaming isa them. Streaming is growing, gaming is a big industry growing and using up lots of energy. Is there really knows settle for individual responsibility here . Im a great believer in system change not Behaviour Change for this one. Companies need to set science based targets for moving to a zero emissions in the future in line with the paris accord, and they need to put in place structures which allow them to Live Services more efficiently. Most importantly, they need to work with other companies because these services are right the way around the world, notjust one Company Controlling what is happening. Notjust a data centre owners, but the Network Providers and the people who develop the software, they need to Work Together to work out how to do as efficiently as possible to emissions down. Chris priest, thank you for your thoughts and coming on. We will leave it here. Hello there. The short lived cold snap, its on its way out now, as we start to see mild air making inroads off the atlantic but laden with moisture. Well see a lot more cloud and outbreaks of rain spreading eastwards across the country during the course of today. You can see the cold air still looms across the eastern side of the country to begin today, but gradually, that milder air will move in on a strengthening west southwesterly breeze. So it starts off dry and chilly, maybe some early brightness in the east. Very soon, the cloud thickens, with patchy rain spreading eastwards. Mainly light and patchy, a few heavier bursts across scotland, perhaps even some brief wintriness over the higher ground, before that mild air moves in. The winds also picking up, particularly out across the north west, gusts of a0 to 45 miles an hour into the evening. And here, it will be turning milder by the end of the day 12, 13 degrees but further east, still quite chilly under that cloud and rain. But as we head through the course of tonight, it does look like itll turn milderfor all. It stays rather cloudy, but drier for england and wales. Scotland, Northern Ireland, a new cold front will be sinking southwards, bringing outbreaks of rain. Behind it, it will turn cooler with some blustery showers, but double figure values for most. So into the weekend, then, weve got that new cold front sinking southeastwards across the country gradually. Behind it, the air will be turning cooler. And along that cold front, there will be a band of cloud and some patchy rain moving out of Northern Ireland and southern scotland and heading south into england and wales through the day. Behind it, skies brighten up. Well see sunny spells but some blustery showers for scotland and Northern Ireland. Itll be very windy here, particularly northern scotland, with widespread gales. So, turning a bit cooler later in the day across the north, but mild for england and wales. Quite a bit of cloud around, 13 14 degrees. That cold front then moves southwards and ends up lingering across southern england on sunday, but behind it, youll notice were in that cooler air mass, so it could be cloudy across southern england throughout the day. But for much of the country, actually bright on sunday with some good spells of sunshine. But it stays breezy in the north, with further blustery showers across northern and western scotland. Winds lighter in the south. Those temperatures lower than on saturday eight to around ten or 11 degrees in the south. And then as we head on into next week, it looks like it turns milder again, with south southwesterly winds moving in, but a low pressure system will bring outbreaks of rain, particularly to the north and the west of the country. She said they were starting a new life abroad but they ended up new life abroad but they ended up in the heart of the caliphate. One wrong move and i probably could have died. She said she was tricked into taking her children. What am i going to do . But was she. Panorama, a familys story, monday at 9pm on bbc one. Good morning. Welcome to breakfast with Naga Munchetty and charlie stayt. Our headlines today. The pay of four million Public Sector workers not including nhs employees could be frozen as the government tries to bolster finances. Its a sign of the scale of the challenge facing the chancellor. Well get an update later on just how much the pandemic is costing later as the Government Works out its finances for next year. The Prime Ministers expected to give his verdict on the home secretary after an inquiry into bullying claims is said to have found that she broke the ministerial code. More than two Million People in scotland prepare for the countrys toughest level 4 restrictions
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