the us into recession. jerome powell is trying to make this point, that it is worthy to avoid that. nina trentmann is bureau chief at the wall streetjournal, in new york. she joins us live now. good evening. good to see you. we will come to the painful families and is this in a moment but talk us through in a bit more detail what the fed is trying to achieve here? the fed ist in: trying to achieve here? the fed is trying to trying to achieve here? the fed is trying to achieve trying to achieve here? the fed is trying to achieve something l is trying to achieve something which is reasonably complicated, which is attempting down inflation while attempting down inflation while a hard landing economy, while avoiding a recession. it is not necessarily clear if the us is in recession already or not. we have seen two consecutive quarters of negative growth but we are still waiting to see if there is official confirmation as to whether this is a recession or not which is about
up there for a little while. this is bbc news. our main story: the us announces a further $1 billion in military aid for kyiv and urges allies to provide more weapons to help ukraine battle russian forces. the us central bank has announced a rise in interest rates of three quarters of a percentage point the largest since 1994. the federal reserve is trying to curb inflation which reached an annual rate of more than 8.5% last month. nina trentmann, bureau chief at the wall streetjournal, joins us now from new york. good to see you. it is the biggest interest rate rise in nearly 30 years. why now was yellow well, you just mentioned it, basically because of recent inflation figures that came out
home for them? translation: i feel ashamed in front of my family that i m i so poor, i cannot afford to provide good food. there is nothing i can do. even if i try to borrow money, no one will lend it to me. my sons are really thin because they re not eating well. i cannot afford meat, even once a month. 0utside kabul s bakeries, women wait for loaves of fresh bread to be donated. even when billions were pouring into this country, corruption, the war, meant that life here was a struggle. now the war might be over, but for many, the struggle is getting even harder. secunder kermani, bbc news, kabul. the us central bank has announced a rise in interest rates of three quarters of a percentage point. the federal reserve is trying to curb inflation which reached an annual rate of more than 8.5% last month. i spoke to nina trentmann
which reached an annual rate of more than 8.5% last month. nina trentmann is from the wall streetjournal. i spoke to her earlier on. she told me why this interest rate rise was happening now. basically, because of recent inflation figures that came out of friday, at 8.6 for may, which is an increase from 8.3 in april, and a similar rate to what we saw in march. i think we just saw in recent days that there was this momentum building up in the markets and among market participants, and also then, federal reserve officials are saying, well, ok, maybe we shouldn t wait untiljuly to increase rates by that much, but we should do it now, given that the fed also faces criticism of having waited too long before it started raising rates and wound down its quantitative easing programmes that were launched in the pandemic to help the economy. and now, of course, we re seeing inflation being persistently high,
3.75, which, of course, is quite an increase from previous projections from the fed. so that 3.75% gets us to a level where also things will start getting. where also things will start getting- - - where also things will start getting- - - where also things will start caettin. ., ., getting. ok, we ll have leave it there. nina getting. ok, we ll have leave it there. nina trentmann, - it there. nina trentmann, bureau chief at the wall street journal in new york. thank you. let s get more on ukraine. 0ur defence correspondent, jonathan beale, has been given rare access to the us military base in germany where they re co ordinating supplies of military aid. western weapons have been arriving in ukraine and are being used to deadly effect. more recently, they ve been sending more heavy equipment. ..artillery guns like this, but ukraine says it s still not enough. and they re vastly outgunned by russia. but from this us military base in stuttgart, germany, western nations are working