downgrade is forthcoming and what are the reasons behind it?- are the reasons behind it? this is a warnin: are the reasons behind it? this is a warning signal— are the reasons behind it? this is a warning signal and _ are the reasons behind it? this is a warning signal and i _ are the reasons behind it? this is a warning signal and i think - are the reasons behind it? this is a warning signal and i think the - warning signal and i think the message they are trying to send is that you have to take this seriously. we have seen what happened recently, it issued a warning saying it would downgrade the us government's credit rating and then it followed through on the threat so that is the situation the banks are in. there are concerns circling and we saw higher interest rates and the problems caused from regional banks but on top of that there are other concerns looming, notably from the commercial real estate sector, worries that high interest rates are causing real problems and the trend of remote work. putting pressure on developers who may find themselves in situations where they have to default on loans and that would have ripple effects through the banking system. that is the kind of pressure thatis system. that is the kind of pressure that is being brought to bear on the banking sector right now and that is what is driving this potential downgrade. 50 what is driving this potential downgrade-— what is driving this potential downurade. ., . ., downgrade. so more reflective of the broader economy. _ downgrade. so more reflective of the broader economy. we _ downgrade. so more reflective of the broader economy. we have _ downgrade. so more reflective of the broader economy. we have other - broader economy. we have other economic data out about retail sales. what does it say? positive news. sales. what does it say? positive news- that _ sales. what does it say? positive news. that was _ sales. what does it say? positive news. that was a _ sales. what does it say? positive news. that was a good _ sales. what does it say? positive news. that was a good thing - sales. what does it say? positive - news. that was a good thing because consumer activity in the us accounts for two thirds of what powers the american economy and retail sales rose 0.7% last month. compared to the fact economists were expecting something like 0.4% so this was much better. when you take out more volatile items like petrol prices and car prices retail sales actually rose 1% last month so this is a positive sign. the american consumer has been the bright spot for the economy here and if you look back, it is what drove a higher growth figures that we saw beyond what people had expected and it translated into things like blockbuster sales for the barbie movie and the taylor swift tour and it has led to economists saying they do not now exceed the us headed for a recession or at least the words they like to use is it is heading for a soft landing because after months of high interest rates there were fears that could cause real pain for the economy but now people think that because of the strength of the us consumer that looks less likely and this report confirms that. . ., ., , in china, the cost of borrowing has been cut in an effort to stimulate its economy. a series of different interest rates have been reduced in a move shortly before a tranche of gloomy economic data were released. retail sales, industrial output and investment are all growing at a slower than expected pace. curiously, beijing left out one key figure. data on youth unemployment was omitted today for �*societal reasons' the authorities said. when it was last recorded injune, it hit a record high of more than 20%. and it was expected to continue rising. china only reported its overall rate of unemployment which now stands at 5.3%. that prompted quite a lot of chatter on chinese social media — as our china media analyst — kerry allen explained to me earlier. there has been a major talking point on platforms like weibo which is china's equivalent of a platform like facebook, and state media have been reporting that this is not something that young people should worry about, that things are actually, as they see it, projected to improve from august onwards. but on social media, a lot of the comments i am seeing, the ones that received the most likes, are a very cynical from people showing that, statistically, unemployment has been rising since the beginning of the year. so they are commenting things like, "yeah, everything is "stable, everything is improving." and the idea that if you don't see the data, then, you know, it's not a problem. so sarcasm clearly isn't dead over there. hard to ignore obviously the fact that one in five, roughly one in five young people in china are jobless. there is tv news coverage, for example, about things like jobs fairs and initiatives to promote youth entrepreneurship so it has not been completely ignored but i wonder, is it particularly bold of these individuals to speak out on social media there? are they being courageous? do they risk consequences? yes, it is not being ignored and there is going to be a campaign that is very aggressively being pushed out and it is going to be in place until december. but it affects, as you say, so many people, one in five, and this isjust in urban communities. this is not factoring in rural communities as well. we are talking tens of millions of young chinese people and even though social media platforms like weibo have censorship, so anything that is critical of the government generally is removed from platforms, there are just so many voices, so many people leaving sarcastic, critical comments saying, "come on, we are still out of a job, "this is still the situation, you have got to do more." here in the uk, average wages are up. they grew at a record rate of 7.8% in the three months tojune — up from 3.9% in the previous three months. that's almost the same as the latest uk inflation measure from june of 7.9% meaning that average pay has almost caught up with price rises. jane foley, head of fx strategy at rabobank, told me this will all influence the next interest rate decision. what it does mean is that it is just about certain that the bank of england will be hiking interest rates again. their next meeting is towards the end of september so, yes, they will be hiking rates again, almost certainly by another 25 basis points but what this data has opened up is, how much more are they going to go? and now the city has begun to speculate that rates will be going up even further, may be as much as 6%. those expectations had been dampened a month or so ago by softer than expected inflation data and what is really quite interesting is that we have the next release of inflation data tomorrow. if that is softer than expected, well, these expectations about bank of england interest rates could be really quite volatile. indeed. the other element of this data is you are seeing unemployment going up. it is going up from quite a low level, it doesn't sound like good news but is there a chance that that in itself takes the heat out of the inflationary picture? yes. you are quite right and in fact this is what monetary policy or interest rate hikes are all about, they are all about trying to loosen the economy, loosen up the labour market so there is less demand in the system so inflation comes down. so we are seeing in this set of data early signs that the labour market has peaked, that it is loosening. as you said, unemployment has gone up just a small bit but also, the number of vacancies is also slowing down as well, suggesting it is going to be a little bit more difficult to find a job going forward. so from a broader economic perspective, do we actually want wage growth to start ticking downwards once again? u nfortu nately, yes. there is some pain that is necessary to get the inflation down, we have to really go through this. we need the labour market to loosen and that means it is going to be less easy to find a job. employers, therefore, will not have to raise wages to attract workers quite so much. and that is the situation that we need to get to bring inflation down. so there will be pain in the short term for some people who will not be able to find thatjob quite so easily or will not see wages going up quite so much in the next few months but that is the situation we need to arrive at in order for us all to see much lower inflation rates. in other news.... russia's central bank has raised its key interest rate by 350 basis points to 12% to try to reverse the recent slide in the value of the russian currency. the kremlin called for action after the rouble weakened so much that a us dollar could buy more than 100 on monday. argentina has plunged into an economic shock after a far right candidate unexpectedly won the first round of the presidential election. javier milei's radical policies include ditching argentina's central bank and its peso currency and using the us dollar instead. such was the market chaos that followed, the central bank raised the benchmark interest rate to an astronomical 118% up from 97%. milei won 30% of the vote in the first round meaning he'll be among the final list of candidates for the election in october. the swiss bank ubs has agreed to pay a $1.1; billion fine in the us to resolve fraud claims stemming from the 2008 financial crisis. it brings to a close the last case brought by us prosecutors investigating banks' conduct in the run—up to the crash, which sparked a global downturn. ubs did not admit or deny the claims. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. his character spoke to me more than most of the superheroes and he is definitely one of my favourites. the best part is that it actually opens up and if ijust put it on really quickly... so i can actually do the full motion. you're live with bbc news. more than 1,000 people, including victims and witnesses, have had their data breached by norfolk and suffolk police forces. senior officers said the personal information was included in freedom of information responses — due to a "technical issue". the personal data included descriptions of offences including sexual and domestic assaults. i asked the former victims' commissioner for england and wales, dame vera baird, for her reaction. i am not comforted by norfolk and suffolk police saying they do not know whether people have access to it or not. you would hardly take your technical advice from them after this error. it is the second time suffolk have leaked material in a very short time. last november they leaked details about sexual offence victims. i find it worrying. one can only think of the worst at this stage. sexual offence complainants, if any of their names have been leaked, they are entitled to lifelong anonymity, and it is probably a contempt of court to leak it but it is probably terrifying for women and men to think that if they have said on the understanding that their name will never be made public, that they will give evidence about what happened to them, it is very embarrassing and quite frightening if their identities are then made known. they don't know whether they might get a visit from a friend of the defendant or what might go on. it could be anybody who is giving evidence in any court case at all, it could be counterterrorism, for instance. or a serious drug dealer, armed robbers, there are well—known cases in which the identity of people is kept secret so they have the courage to give evidence and do their duty. but if they are being made public they can be approached and they might even be frightened off giving evidence by the fear of that approach. it is, i'm afraid, in an era when there is a lot of worry about policing, yet another dimension when the public have been let down by police. these statistics came from between april 2021 and march 2022, if this had come to light when you were in the role of victims' commissioner, what would you be doing now to make sure that those witnesses and survivors of these different crimes are as safe as they can be? they must be approached very quickly by the police. the only apology i have seen on your website has come from the police and crime commissioner. the police themselves now need to be galvanising to approach, in the best possible way, probably through victim support organisations who are better at approaching victims than many others. they need to be finding out exactly what has happened, making clear exactly what has happened to the public. if they can, get that from somebody else, that there is less danger, and going out to reassure every victim that the absolute worst that could have happened, so they can then count back from it. and to reassure victims. the cps might be worrying right now about whether, because we are very well aware that victims of cases in 2021, 2022, are probably still live. an average wait of three years to get to court about a rape and there are long backlogs. i don't know the precise ones in norfolk and suffolk but these are live cases in which witnesses have not heard that they have been identified. the cps might be worried that they will be frightened of giving evidence and their cases may collapse. all of that is in the ether. i understand the information commission is looking at it and that's the right place to start. he obviously has powers of enforcement and so on but he will find out exactly what has happened and what the extent of the danger to other people is. all of those things need to be done extremely quickly. quite clearly it's notjust the police force in suffolk and norfolk. it is a bit of a deterrent far and wide. it's only a couple of days since the northern ireland police service disastrously published some data and now another pair of forces are doing something quite similar. it is capable of damaging public confidence in the police and they need to repair it as fast as they can and give reassurance about how they will deal with that data in future. reports from southern russia say an explosion at a petrol station has killed at least 35 people — and injured dozens more. the accident happened in the capital of dagestan on the caspian sea. pictures shared online shows the aftermath of the explosion. local media reports say a fire started in an area where cars were parked. it then spread to the petrol station, sparking the explosion. and these pictures were released by the russian emergencies ministry. hundreds of firefighters battled to control the fire. many of those who were injured have been flown to moscow for treatment. 0ur moscow correspondent, will vernon, gave us this update — a little earlier. deadly fires and explosions are a very common occurrence in russia, this kind of thing happens almost every day, but the death toll here was particularly high and that's probably because the area around that petrol station was packed with cars last night at around 9.30pm local time when the explosion happened. videos provided by the emergencies ministry and also posted on social media show people screaming, running, a huge inferno that took around four hours for firefighters to bring under control. president putin has expressed his condolences to the victims and the governor of dagestan, sergey melikov, has declared today a day of mourning in the republic. spain have qualified for the final of the women's world cup, beating sweden to — one, with all goals coming in the last ten minutes of the game. the spanish captain scored the game. the spanish captain scored the winner and they will now face either england or australia in the final on sunday. that other semifinal is tomorrow. this is the reaction from the spanish supporters in new zealand. they chant: ole, ole, ole! the fans had to wait 80 minutes for a goal and then they had three within eight minutes. the game on sunday will be the first major tournament final for spain at a because tomorrow we have england against australia. now to japan where there is a powerful storm. 0fficials where there is a powerful storm. officials are warning a tropical storm could dump a month of rain in some areas. they have been gusts of “p some areas. they have been gusts of up to 140 kilometres per hour, the second storm to hit the japanese are palladio in the last few weeks. travel has been severely disrupted. i want to show you some dramatic footage of a jet plane crashing during an airshow in michigan. a soviet—era jet was mid—flight, when its pilot noticed the plane was losing power. he and the passenger were able to safely ejectjust moments before the plane crashed in a plume of smoke, hitting unoccupied cars as it fell to earth. the pilot had serious but non—life threatening injuries, while the passenger was left with minor injuries, officials said. the airshow — thunder 0ver michigan — was celebrating its 25th anniversary. they said on facebook that the show had to be stopped because of the crash. stay with us here on bbc news. here in the uk, many parents will soon be thinking about whether they need to get their children new uniforms for the coming school year. well, a law is now in place in england to help protect parents from affordable uniform costs. but a survey commissioned by the bbc found that there has been very little change in school uniform policies. here 5 our education reporter vanessa clarke. there's the pe socks, there's the pe top, short—sleeved and long—sleeved obviously, to allow for summer and winter. plans to keep the cost of uniforms down was welcome news to gill long. but even after a complaint to the department of education about her school's uniform policy, which resulted in some changes, the bill for her is still too high. the pe kit is £93 if you buy shorts, tracksuit bottoms, and the long— and short—sleeve top. there should be a maximum number of items, which is a lot simpler to comply with. parents are having to spend money on branded clothes when in my head that money would be much better spent on educational things, music lessons, better football boots, art equipment, educational school trips. i just think spending it on a branded clothing item for the school's vanity purposes is just unnecessary. so these are branded items, anything with a characteristic that is unique to a school. so the blazer with the logo, the tie or the pleated skirt, anything that can't be bought from a range of shops. the law says the number of these items on a school uniform list now needs to be kept to a minimum. i've got the tie, i've got the pe top and i've got the skirt as well. a free uniform is being given to every new starter at this academy in doncaster and students in other years are receiving items too. but getting rid of branded items is off the cards. branded items can be important in some cases because in effect they can be cheaper. they're a leveller. just by saying it's these trousers or this blazer, it stops it being anything else, and it actually means it's cheaper. although that sometimes seems like it shouldn't be the case, it actually is. but a bbc—commissioned survey of teachers shows there has been little change in school uniform policies in the last two years. the industry, which worked with the department for education to form the new guidance, disagrees the law is too vague. i think it's really important to give schools the latitude to choose what they have within a framework. it's because actually you need different things in different school environments. for example, a rural school up in the north of cumbria will probably have a different requirement for their uniform than an inner city school in london. and you've got to give the schools the opportunity to manage that effectively. manufacturers and second—hand uniform shops are preparing for a busy few weeks as the countdown to the new school term begins. vanessa clarke, bbc news. now let's focus on something completely different, because celebrity creative directors are back in fashion — and more companies are hiring famous faces to fill executive roles. we sent the bbc�*s north america correspondent michelle fleury to speak to one of them — in new york — to find out what is driving this new trend. a warning — her report contains flash photography. # when you get this dark, you've got to feel your way out #. dj khaled, the grammy award winning music mogul with the midas touch. his latest partnership with german streetwear brand snipes saw him open a concept store in his hometown, miami. let's go shopping! but he's notjust the brand's hype man. he's also its chief creative officer. a title he doesn't take lightly. why are we seeing more celebrities in executive roles? i mean, you got to remember, you know, people throw that name on a celebrity, which is a blessing. and i'm very grateful for the world to call me a celebrity. but at the same time, as you know, we're visionaries too. and i think it's beautiful if you think about it. it's like levels and steps of your hard work, and then you get to a certain point and, boom, look at this. khaled got his own store. you know, let's not forget about the 35 years of hard work to get to where i'm at today. given his busy schedule, though, how much can a celebrity like dj khaled really contribute? a lot, according to snipes ceo sven voth, who credits the rapper with turbo—charging the company's growth in america from 65 stores to over 300. being honest, that was a crazy move. that time when we made this deal we just had 65 stores in the us and we signed with khaled, we signed with two nba teams and everybody in the united states thought, this german guy is a little crazy because this is a little bit too much for what it is. but i think that was the best starting point we could have. # it's notjust me, it's we #. dj khaled's role is part of an emerging trend of famous faces taking on executive roles. think pharrell williams at louis vuitton or the rapper future at lava. it used to be that to sell product, you'd hire a celebrity to pose with it, run some tv ads and stick their image on a giant billboard. the huge signs here, part of the attraction for visitors to new york's times square. but that was in the age before social media. now it's time for a look at the weather with ben. hello there. the weather has started to turn a little drier and a little brighter. and over the next few days, we can expect it to turn a little bit warmer as well. it will start to feel quite humid. now, through this evening and tonight, most places will be dry with clear spells, but we'll keep more in the way of cloud across northern and eastern parts of scotland, maybe north—east england, bringing just one or two showers through the early hours of wednesday. a few fog patches are likely to form as well. temperatures generally holding up between 9 and 13 degrees. it mayjust be a little bit cooler than that across some parts of east wales, the west midlands and down into the west country. so for southern england, parts of wales, northern england, southern scotland, northern ireland, we do have the potential for some fog patches through the morning, and at this time of year, that fog can linger for a couple of hours. so it may still be quite murky for some through the morning rush hour, but that fog will then lift and clear. we'll see some spells of sunshine. just the small chance for a shower. a bit more of a chance, i think, of catching a shower in the north of scotland, where we will also keep more in the way of clouds. 17 degrees for aberdeen, but further south and east, highs of 26. as we move out of wednesday into thursday, our area of high pressure strengthens, it drifts north—eastwards and the winds will start to come in from the near—continent, and that will lift the temperatures in many locations. many of us will get up into the 20s celsius on thursday. a bit of fog first thing across parts of northern england, up into scotland. that should lift and clear. sunny spells, not too many showers, most places will be dry. and those temperatures, well, quite widely between 20 and 24 degrees. but some places in south—east england, maybe around some western coasts as well, could get to around 26. now, friday will be a warm—feeling day as well, butjust how warm depends upon the progress of these frontal systems from the atlantic. if these fronts hang back and we see more in the way of sunshine, it could be a very warm day indeed. but at this stage, it looks most likely that cloud and rain will spread from the south—west. heavy rain, at that, and temperatures will be held back to between 17 and 24 degrees. but it's going to feel very, very humid. that rain sweeps northwards and eastwards during friday night. and actually, we can expect quite a lot of dry weather as we head through the weekend. live from london, this is bbc news. in a major national security investigation, three bulgarian nationals — suspected of spying for russia — are arrested in the uk. six former london police officers are charged with sending racist whatsapp messages after a bbc investigation. two years since the taliban returned to power in aghanistan, we hearfrom one man who fled the country, fearing retribution for working with the british government. returns to power in a�* donald trump says he'll release a report on election fraud in georgia next week, after he's charged there with trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat. hello, i'm rajini vaidyanthan. a very warm welcome to you. you're watching verified live, three hours of breaking stories and checking out the truth behind them. we start with a major story here in the uk — three bulgarian nationals have been arrested and charged, suspected of spying for russia. the two men and one woman were arrested in february under the official secrets act. they've been charged with having fake identity documents — with "improper intention" — from a number of european countries. the three have lived in britain for years, working in a variety ofjobs and living in suburban properties. they've yet to enter pleas to the charges.