one hand you had democrats and president biden s singh raise the debt ceiling without adding any caveats, without any spending cuts, just do a clean raise, but republicans were pushing for some spending cuts, and needed to find some sort of middle ground here and it seems as though they d got to that point where it would raise the debt limit to 2025 which gets us to the next election cycle in exchange for cuts to things like tighter restrictions on some social safety net programmes like food stamps, allowing for more energy permitting which is something we ve seen republicans really being pushed for here. 50 republicans really being pushed for here. , ., here. so president biden and kevin mccarth , here. so president biden and kevin mccarthy. the here. so president biden and kevin mccarthy, the speaker here. so president biden and kevin mccarthy, the speaker of here. so president biden and kevin mccarthy, the speaker of the - here. so president biden and kevin i mccar
good afternoon. rail passengers are facing fresh disruption with the start of another wave of strikes in long running disputes over pay, jobs and conditions. today it s train drivers from the aslef union, taking strike action at 15 rail companies some of which won t be running any services at all. tomorrow an aslef overtime ban could mean more disruption. then, on friday, other rail workers, from the rmt union, will go on strike. before more action by aslef drivers on saturday, affecting travel to events such as the fa cup final. our correspondent ben king reports. busy rail hubs were unusually calm as train drivers at the aslef union walked out over pay and working conditions. here at manchester piccadilly, there were no trains from avanti piccadilly, there were no trains from ava nti west piccadilly, there were no trains from avanti west coast, no east midlands. great western, south coast and cross country are also affected as well. aslef has rejected a pay rise of 4% for