susan caruana waited six long years for this message from her grandson, alex batty. their first direct contact since he failed to return from a holiday in spain with his mother and grandfather. now back in the uk, alex and his grandma have been speaking to the sun newspaper, describing the last time they spoke over the phone in 2017 from a beach in spain. i said to him, you are coming home on saturday, aren t you? and then i heard in the background his mother telling him to put down the phone. all the phones had been switched off, all communications were cut. and ifelt so betrayed. and i was absolutely devastated. alex spent the next few years living a nomadic lifestyle in france and spain with his mother and grandfather. during the whole six years, susan told the sun, i never knew if they were dead or alive. with no school or formal education, alex said he resorted to books. i used to read harry potter, gosh, i ve probably read it about 20 times in complete order. i used
there is a roughly one in four chance that the us will hit the so called x date, when the us government runs out of money to pay its bills without a deal to raise the debt limit. that is according to the banking giantjp morgan chase. and they say the odds are getting worse. that forecast comes after house speaker kevin mccarthy said on wednesday that he thought progress could be made, but warned the two sides remain far apart. republicans are warning that any deal must cut future federal spending in exchange for raising the debt ceiling a red line for the white house. on wall street, us stocks fell as investors have been watching these talks closely for any sign of an agreement. and even if a deal is done in time, economists say that depending on the details, cuts to government spending are likely create economic headwinds that could bring down inflation a possible silver lining for the federal reserve, which has been raising interest rates to fight inflation. fed officia
eurovision song contest. now on bbc news, talking business. hello, everybody. a very warm welcome to talking business weekly with me, aaron heslehurst. let s go and take a look at what s on the show, what s in store for 202a? another year of struggle for the global economy. but are things about to get brighter? how much we spend in the shops, jobs and interest rates as well as elections and war are all on the agenda for the next 12 months. but what will it mean for our cost of living? i m going to tackle those questions with these two, there they are, the chief economist atjp morgan, one of the world s biggest banks, who tells me why the us is still leading the way but europe is the big worry. and the boss of the world s biggest recruitment firm, randstad, is going to give me the lowdown on what might change in the world of work. plus, coming out of the clouds, the head of the global airline body, iata, tells me why the cost of flying is one thing that won t be getting cheape
by turning up the heat on the freezers. making a cone product is the food equivalentl of making, some might say, a formula 1 motor car. - i think i ll have mine without the petrol, though. now, what happens when fortnite goes lego? we ll find out what to expect from an epic new gaming collab. how gaming for blind and partially sighted players is keeping pace at a couple of hundred miles per hour. not that the game cares, because you ll all smash into each other, spin round, laugh, and then, speed off in pursuit of everyone else. for many of us, ordering something online and waiting for it to be dropped on our doorstep is a convenience we don t even think about. but, for those in brazil s favelas, the densely populated, low income communities that lie on the outskirts of cities like rio and sao paulo, that convenience simply isn t an option. but that could be about to change as angelica mari has been finding out. angelica mari: favelas can be like giant labyrinths built deep
is going to give me the lowdown on what might change in the world of work. plus, coming out of the clouds, the head of the global airline body, iata, tells me why the cost of flying is one thing that won t be getting cheaper next year. wherever you rejoining me from around the world, once again, a big hello and a warm welcome to the show. so as we wrap up 2023, we ve decided to take a look at what s in store for all of us in 202a. what will change in our global economy? what about ourjobs and paycheques? will we continue paying those high prices in supermarkets, or will the cost of living get easier? but before we start to take a look forward, let s just remind ourselves where we re at today. 2023 was a year of struggle for millions of us as the global economy continued recovering from the pandemic and, of course, remains blighted by war in ukraine. things are being felt very differently in the world s two biggest economies. the many differences between the us and china, incl