so let s get down to business. and we begin with president biden s trip to the middle east. when he arrives in israel today he will be the first us president to visit the middle east since 9/11 without american troops engaged in a combat mission there. the white house has said the visit s aims include expanding regional economic and security cooperation . israel s finance minister says its hoped the visit will lead to a common middle east market that includes saudi arabia. with businesses on all sides poised to make the most of the opportunities. well, let s go live tojerusalem and discuss this withjon medved chief executive and founder of our crowd a global equity funding platform for investors. orwarm or warm welcome to the programme. what are your hopes for this visit? i programme. what are your hopes for this visit? for this visit? i think it is incredible for this visit? i think it is incredible that for this visit? i think it is incredible that the - for this
this is bbc news the latest headlines. after months of mass protests against his rule, the president of sri lanka flee5 the country. the first round of voting takes place later in the race to be britain s next prime minister. later today we ll find out how the uk economy fared in may. you may remember in april it unexpectedly shrunk by 0.3%, adding to concerns of an economic slowdown. though disappointing, that fall was driven by a reduction in the covid te5t and trace and vaccination programmes without that impact the economy would have expanded by 0.1%, according to the office for national statistics. janet mui i5 investment
race. there is a lot of uncertainty at the moment. there are still eight candidates going so i don t think i can comment on that but there is a very clear chance that the upcoming prime minister would propose for more tax cuts going forward that would appeal to the population and that was certainly helped with the economic environment but we have to bear in mind that the office for budget responsibility have been warning that, actually, a tax cut is not going to help with the situation and it is going to be fiscally unsustainable. i really don t know how much room there is going to be for the new prime minister. he or she can promise a lot before they are elected but i m really not sure how much room there actually is for tax cuts. absolutely. we are very familiar with the premises and the reality, they are often very different. thank you very much indeed, janet. very different. thank you very much indeed, janet. very different. thank you very much indeed, janet. the global gender pay