let s get down to business. as promised, we have more for you on the nato summit that will be getting under way in a few hours time. where, as you ve been hearing, finland and sweden have joined the alliance after turkey dropped its opposition against their membership. so, two of the hot topics at the summit are deciding whether russia or china is the biggest threat to world stability currently, and how to share the combined costs of defence security. members are expected to meet the nato target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defence. the uk presently spends 2.1% of its gdp on security, but there have been calls for an increase after russia s invasion of ukraine. michael rowe is vice president of aerospace and defence at frost & sullivan. good morning to you, michael. first of all, finland, sweden joining nato. what does that mean in money terms? good morning- mean in money terms? good morning. when mean in money terms? good morning. when you - mean in money
Barely any aid had been reaching the region after other crossings were closed. With me is mohamed taha from bbc arabic. Good morning to you. So, lets talk about rafah to start with before we move onto humanitarian aid. What is happening in rafah . The humanitarian aid. What is happening in rafah . The idf are askin happening in rafah . The idf are asking more happening in rafah . The idf are asking more people happening in rafah . The idf are asking more people to happening in rafah . The idf are asking more people to leave asking more people to leave rafah, they asked last week that people in the eastern part of rafah to leave near khan younis. Now they are expanding this area to a larger area to ask people to leave rafah, the ground of enzyme rafah, there are many warnings from the united states, from the uk, from the National Agency that this widening area of fighting in rafah lots of humanitarian crisis, would cause lots of Human Casualties between civilians and the situation in ra
Lets start in the eu, where Three Tech Giants the social media platform x, Tiktok Owner Bytedance and the travel website booking. Com, are waiting to find out whether they could face an Antitrust Crackdown under the eus new digital antitrust rulebook. The Eu Commission has until the end of today to decide whether those three companies would qualify as so called gatekeepers under the new Digital Markets act. The aim of the act is to help competition in the Technology Sector and to try to break down the stronghold of Big Tech Companies. Well, someone who knows a lot about this, because she co negotiated the eu ai act in her previous role in the German Federal chancellery, is kirsten rulf who now is partner and associate director at boston consulting group. A warm welcome to bbc news. Good to see you again. Good to see you again. Greg manning good to see you again. Greg manning 50 good to see you again. Greg manning. So lets good to see you again. Greg manning. So letsjust good to see you
Donald trumps former lawyer has taken the stand today at the former president s criminal trial in new york. Michael cohen is testifying about his role in what prosecutors say was a cover up of payments to hide an affair with the Adult Film Actress Stormy Daniels. Mr trump denies falsifying Business Records to reimburse his then lawyer and fixer for the payment on the eve of the 2016 president ial election prosecutors say his motive was to avoid political damage. Lets speak to our correspondent, nada tawfik, who is live for us in new york. He is the star witness in this trial. What has he said in the first hour or so . Trial. What has he said in the first hour orso . Prosecutors trial. What has he said in the first hour or so . Prosecutors have already covered a lot of ground, starting first with how Michael Cohen came to work for donald trump, and they are trying to establish that Michael Cohen, yes, wanted to please donald trump, that he was on Top Of The World when he took care of ma
It has been the wettest 18 months on record since 1836, one of the wettest winters in decades that many farmers can remember. It has had a huge impact on the ability to grow crops and it has been quite sudden. In 2022 we were talking about extreme heat and drought and farmers not being able to get crops out of the ground because it was baked too hard. This winter they have not been able to get them in the ground because it has been too wet, waterlogged and soft, basically. That means that the amount of wheat and winter barley, oilseed rape were likely to harvest this year will be down a third, and looking across all the farming sectors, fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy, eggs, that will be enough to drive an 8 reduction in the headline self sufficient and seen when, Self Sufficiency when measured by volume. Around 86 over the period btween 2018 and 2022 to 78 this year or thats what we estimate. Egypts economy has been struggling with the burden of high debts and an overvalued