hear us? i don t know if he can hear us, unfortunately. let s try one more time. thomas is ready and poise. we will try to talk to him later on in the programme. apologies, clearly he could hear us, to get his take on what is ahead for the fed. we will look at that later. let s get some of the day s other news: the united states says it has helped secure deals to protect europe from running out of gas in case supplies from russia are disrupted due to sanctions. the news comes as some of italy s top companies, including pirelli, gear up for a meeting today via video link with president putin to discuss boosting business ties between the two countries. microsoft s latest results are out. the tech giant saw revenue rise by 20% to $51.7 billion in the final three months of last year. the firm has become one of the world s most valuable companies in recent years after betting big on cloud computing. last week, microsoft announced plans to expand its gaming offering by purchasing activision