Welcome to Business Today live from new york. Shares are inching higher on Wall Street ahead of the most closely watched meeting of the Us Federal Reserve in years. In just underfive federal reserve in years. In just under five hours time the fed is expected to finally start cutting the cost of borrowing from its two decade high. But how deep are the first could be and with concerns in some quarters about a rapidly weakening us economy, has the fed left it too late . Let s get more from the chief fixed Income Strategist at janney montgomery scott. The big debate here, 25 or a 50 Basis Point Cut. What are you expecting . Basis point cut. What are you petting . Expecting . Its a close call. I think there expecting . Its a close call. I think there is expecting . Its a close call. I think there is relatively think there is relatively little economic impact from one or the other depending on how that decision is made. 0ur Expectation is that the federal reserve will reduce overnight Intere
i m sally bundock. a very warm welcome to the programme. we start in hong kong where the high profile trial of the former media tycoon and pro democracy campaigner jimmy lai has, in the last few hours, got under way. the 76 year old was originally arrested in 2020, accused of undermining the territory s national security through articles published in his apple daily newspaper and on social media. mr lai has been held in solitary confinement for the past three years since his writing was deemed to be illegal under new legislation imposed by beijing. security was tight around the court for the start of his trial. mr lai who is also a british citizen has pleaded not guilty to all charges. the united states and britain have condemned the trial and have urged the authorities in hong kong to release businessman. we ll be live outside the court in hong kong shortly. first, this report from our diplomatic correspondent james landale. jimmy lai used to be a powerful media boss in
what else are you learning about when this call could happen? reporter: well, it s going to be pretty soon according to the sources i have spoken to inside ukraine. but nothing concrete, i have been told, by senior officials have been scheduled. so it s still very much in the it could possibly happen stage. if it does happen, it would be the first time that president zelenskyy of ukraine has spoken with xi jinping and that contrasts starkly with the amount of contact there has been between the chinese and russian presidents. it s been more than 40 occasions that they have had face-to-face meetings. the latest occasion is scheduled to take place anytime now within the next few minutes they are expected to meet inside the kremlin for formal negotiations how to bring these two increasingly autocratic countries even closer together. remember, russia is an important resource for china s economy. it s got massive reserves of oil and gas and a forestry of minerals that is supply
that has just wrapped up with russian president vladimir putin calling his meeting with chinese president xi jingping successful. today, the two leaders signing a joint declaration deepening their partnership. and the summit obviously comes at a critical time for the war in ukraine. there are strong indications now that russia and china are moving closer both economically and militarily. xi is framing himself as a possible peace broker and they say it could be the basis for ending the war. but the u.s. and western allies remain deeply sceptical. there are signs that russia has requested lethal aid from china but added they don t see evidence that weapons are being delivered. we have team coverage on this. ivan watson is in ukraine. but let s begin with will ripley in taiwan. what more do we know about the talks in moscow today? well, you know, there was a line from vladimir putin as they were signing these documents deepening their partnership that really summed up the re
energy bosses have held talks with the government to discuss plans to help customers struggling with soaring bills. ministers are promising more help in the coming months. a british man accused of being a member of the islamic state group is remanded in custody charged with terror offences. and the crisis of local swimming pools. the bbc finds more than 60 have closed across the uk in the past three years. hello. welcome to bbc news. welcome to bbc news. a&e departments in england had one of their worst months ever injuly, with record numbers of patients waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted. this is from the latest monthly performance data from nhs england. and the number of people waiting to start routine hospital treatment has risen to a new all time high. 6.7 million. the ambulance are dealing with the most urgent cases took an average of 29 minutes longer took an average of 29 minutes longer to respond than injune. shadow health secretary wes streeting has told the b