welcome to the programme. there are tentative signs that inflation is coming under control, and the recession forecast last year will be shallower and shorter than expected. butjust to make sure, the central banks are raising the interest rates again. yesterday it was the fed, today the bank of england increased the base rate, half a point, to 4% the highest it has been in m years. we think inflation will come down rapidly, and a lot of that is down to energy prices, which have fallen rapidly. but i m afraid there are big risks out there which mean that it may not happen in that way. yet we re still seeing stronger pressure from price and wage setting in the economy in the question is, will that start to ease off? coinciding with the bank s decision came a profit announcement from shell and a rather blunt illustration of why we re all getting poorer. the oil and gas giant has reaped profits of £40 billion last year. the taxman has reaped far less. shell said it paid $1
and mike johnson became speaker i believe he s an extremist republican, but history has placed him in a moment of dire consequence and very often it seems like that the debates that take place in the american congress or completely detached from the reality of what s happening in the world. and this is a momentous moment the russians have sustained half 1 million casualties. and they re on the march and the bet that putin has made is that the west america lacks resolve. this is the same congress that invited zelenskyy and cheered for him. yeah, not so very long ago. and the bet that, that putin is fundamentally made was perhaps best expressed by winston churchill in 1938 when he talked about the moral collapses democracies in the appeasement to hitler and checklists of aki. and he said, they ll aren t