Us treasury secretary janet yellen called the downgrade arbitrary and said Economic Conditions had improved under the biden administration. The news of the downgrade came after the close of trade on wall street but in asia investors have been pulling out of equities in reaction. Lets look at markets now in asia. Japan is currently down by over 2 . Hong kong not that far behind. This was off the back of yesterday, and most of this week we have seen the sharemarket, certainly wall street and asia having a strong session but this is certainly spooked sentiment. Lets discuss this with tom stevenson, whos an Investment Director at fidelity. Good morning. Janet woody allen saying this is arbitrary. I have her statement janet yellen and she said she strongly disagrees and says it is based on outdated data. That is based on outdated data. That is riuht. Is based on outdated data. That is right it is based on outdated data. That is right. It seems is based on outdated data. That is right. It s
by 11 of the 31 members of the alliance. uk prime minister rishi sunak is expected to urge nato allies to learn the lessons from russia s invasion of ukraine and invest more in defence. joining me now is hugo brennan, research director at the risk intelligence company verisk maplecroft. good morning to you, hugo. so, just talk us through the level of defence spending going on at the moment. because this has been a contentious issue for years within nato, hasn t it? it very much has been, yeah. i mean, the first thing to say is the question of who foots the bill to pay for the alliance? as you say, that s long been a question mark. you ll remember back to 2019, when donald trump made it very much top of the agenda. and again, it s going to be in this latest nato summit. as you said, we re expecting some sort of agreement that will make it a requirement for nato member states to spend at least 2% of their gdp on defence spending, which would build on that 2014 agreement you r
to victory with up to 44 percent of the vote, across ukraine, there s been intense speculation about how events in russia will affect the counteroffensive currently under way. the bbc s mayenijones is in kyiv. like millions of people around the world, ukrainians followed this weekend s events in russia closely. for a brief moment it seemed like president putin s iron grip on russian politics might be coming to an end, but as many people here in kyiv wake up on sunday morning, they still don t know what to make of it all. translation: we hoped things would advance, . that prigozhin will change his mind and join the ukrainians. but money does miracles. he was obviously paid off. he has basically surrendered. translation: for me, both prigozhin and putin are war criminals. they bomb peaceful cities while people are sleeping. for example, yesterday everyone was talking about prigozhin when ukraine was hit by missiles. i m not interested in him. he is a criminal. translation: ev
bloc known as mercosur likely to dominate. both blocs have entered the last stretch of negotiations to seal a trade deal that has been over two decades in the making. so what progress will be made this week? let s discuss this withjimena blanco chief analyst and head of americas research at the risk intelligence company verisk maplecroft. it s company verisk maplecroft. a really big week for ti eu it s a really big week for the eu and for south america. remind the viewers, mercosur what is it and who is involved with that and why is it taking so long for this trade pact to be aligned? be aligned? good morning, sall . be aligned? good morning, sally- the be aligned? good morning, sally. the mercosur - be aligned? good morning, sally. the mercosur and - be aligned? good morning, sally. the mercosur and eui sally. the mercosur and eu talks have been going on for a couple of decades, but in 2019, the south american block that comprises argentina brazil, uruguay and paraguay
to discuss the war in ukraine. live now tojimena blanco, chief analyst and head of americas for the global risk intelligence company verisk maplecroft. she s in andalucia, spain. thank you so much forjoining us. take us through the agenda of this trip, what does lula want and from the chinese perspective? there are two areas of the chinese perspective? there are two areas of main the chinese perspective? there are two areas of main interest. - the chinese perspective? there are two areas of main interest. the - two areas of main interest. the first one is a commercial one. china is brazil s main trading partner. it is brazil s main trading partner. it is in competition neck and neck with the united states for market share and in numerous industries in the country. of course, agricultural commodities from brazil are crucial for china to feed its population, but china plays a major role in infrastructural development in brazil and also in key industries, like metals and min