the full effect of higher rates has yet to be felt but households and businesses are coping. for now. plus ripe for transformation. how developments in al are starting to bear fruit in the push for more sustainable agriculture. we are looking at the top business stories. we start in beijing where china s president, xijinping is hosting european union leaders for their first in person summit meeting since 2019. and there is one huge number that is looming over the talks. 400 billion euros. that s roughly the size of china s trade surplus with the eu the difference between what they sell to europe, and what europe sells to china. european commission president ursula von der leyen says it s because of china s unfair support for its industries which means its products are flooding global markets and threaten to undermine europe s industrial base. china says the complaint doesn t make sense when the eu stops it from buying certain sensitive technology such as advanced ch
chancellor of the exchequerjeremy hunt has described his autumn budget statement. 27 million workers will see their main national insurance contributions cut from 12% to 10% from january. and a tax break for companies that invest in new equipment will be made permanent, which mr hunt claims is the biggest business tax cut in modern history . also announced the news that from april, universal credit and disability benefits will go up by 6.7 percent. but those on welfare will have to take a work placement within 18 months or risk losing their benefits. the state pension will go up by 8.5% to 221 pounds 20 a week. the minimum wage for those aged 21 and older will go up to 11 pounds 44 an hour. pouring some cold water on all this however, a report out from the uk s independent spending watchdog, the office for budget responsibility. it warns that despite the new cuts, overall tax as a percentage of national income will soon be the highest since the second world war. here s our p
joe biden entered the conversation trying to dispel some of the concerns about his age and fragility and ability to communicate effectively and he just didn t rise to the occasion and i think that is a bit of a shame for him and the campaign because that will be the story from this discussion. it was halting and raspy and stumbled over some statistics and indeed, misquoted some of them as well, especially in instances of his economic performance which is every bit as strong as the former president s so i think looking through it in that prism does make it difficult reading i think for a lot of democrats and really does change the game very quickly heading into the summer months. very quickly heading into the summer months. ., ., ,., summer months. you mention some statistics he summer months. you mention some statistics he stumbled summer months. you mention some statistics he stumbled over- summer months. you mention some statistics he stumbled over and - statistics he