that no agreement has been reached. both men had met earlier this morning and before the talk said sounded a note of optimism. they have just ten days left to reach a deal to increase the government borrowing limit or trigger a default. from new york. even before president default. from new york. even before president biden - default. from new york. even before president biden with i before president biden with house speaker kevin mccarthy negotiations were once again around the table trying to strike a deal to avoid a default. sources say the white house is now offering to keep spending flat from this year to next. while republicans, they say they want to increase defence spending while cutting everything else by up to 22%. treasury secretary janet yellen confirmed over the weekend that june one is the hard deadline when the government can no longer pay its bills. and the deadline for a deal may actually be sooner in order for it to pass the house and senate in time. there
geopolitical tensions remain. geopolitical tensions rank number one in terms of the challenges that businesses are facing. however, when we look at relationships at such a complex subject and not something that any single actor can address. we know about geopolitics, there s always going to be redlines that you can t cross but also always opportunities that you can ignore. when it comes to the uk china relations at very complex. what we welcome is actually seeing uk s position on china around the engagement piece and we saw that in the integrated review refresh. and evenin integrated review refresh. and even in their recent house speech from the secretary of state around not oversimplifying china but also seeing china as an engagement for collaborating where interests are aligned. this is exactly what businesses want to see. we want to see the resumption of dialogue now that covid is out of the way we can restart this dialogue and communication, looking at economic financial dialogue