In a speech by king charles at the State Opening of parliament. As well as pledges on economic growth, transport, energy and housebuilding the government says its seeking to rebuild relations with the European Union after years of tensions since the uk voted to leave the bloc in 2016. My my government will seek to reset the relationship with European Partners and work to improve the united Kingdoms Trade and Investment Relationship with the European Union. My ministers will seek any Security Pact to strengthen cooperation on the mutual threats faced by the united kingdom and the European Union. Well, prime Minister Sir Keir starmer will have an opportunity to start that process as he hosts dozens of European Leaders at Blenheim Palace in oxfordshire, the ancestral Home And Birthplace of winston churchill. On wednesday he met with Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris for Talks ahead of the meeting of the European Political Community a group which brings together the leaders of the 27 Eu Nations
that s down from 3.9% in the three months to november. it marked the lowest level seen since the november 2022 to january 2023 period. wage growth slowed again in the britishjobs market. but and this is key it is still outpacing price rises, according to the office for national statistics. let s hear now from michael stull, director at manpowergroup uk. michael, what are you expecting to see a little later on? i m always very excited for when the numbers come out. i m expecting a couple of things, one is i do think unemployment will take up a little bit, as you mentioned wage growth is going to slow. we will see vacancies down and underlying all of that in the labour market we have two bosses, a cold and hot going on. on the cold and hot going on. on the cold side we have sent a dropping, we ve seen hiring slowing down and we are not out of the woods. we are blue business and consumer confidence. manufacturing pmi is a very low, big into caters. 0n the hot side we see a l
with israel warning ofan impending ground offensive. more than than half of gaza s population now lives in rafah. the potentialfor a ground campaign has sparked alarm from israel s allies, including the us. as the king and i discussed today, the united states is working on a hostage deal between israel and hamas, which would bring an immediate and sustained period of calm to gaza for at least six weeks, which we could then take the time to build something more enduring. nearly 100,000 people have been killed, injured orare missing. the majority are women and children. we cannot afford an israeli attack on rafah. it is certain to produce another humanitarian catastrophe. the situation is already unbearable for over a million people who have been pushed into rafah since the war started. we cannot stand by and let this continue. we need a lasting ceasefire now. this war must end. for more analysis on king abdullah s visit to washington, here s our north america correspondent nom
what do you think is happening to jobs and wages in the uk? i m excited to see the numbers today. on the surface, it looks like a tie market and a healthy market but underneath is really what the question is and i think there s a couple of things going on. the waters are pretty murky right now for employers. you ve got political and economic uncertainty and that will be in the job numbers as well. you are getting a lot of cross currents. we are definitely seeing a pull back in hiring, pretty broad based across the economy but at the same time you see hiring numbers increasing. there is a lot of hiring going on in skill short areas and people are continuing to go after the skills they need. and after this there s a couple of areas where we are seeing wages come down, there s always a couple of months lag in wages from the inflation rates so we ve been seeing that as we would expect. say you are suggesting there is no wages headache the bank of england? i no wages headache the
germany s public transport network will be at a near stand still today as two of the country s largest unions strike in an ongoing dispute over pay. workers walked out shortly after midnight for 2h hours. two of the country s largest unions which are demanding significant pay rises for their workers want to increase the pressure on employers ahead of another round of negotiations. there ll be all but no trains, planes or ferries in operation after workers walked out, and motorists have been warned that staff who maintain motorways and repair road damage after accidents are also on strike. damage after accidents let s are also on strike. talk about the impact of all let s talk about the impact of all of this. joining me now is christian schulz, deputy chief european economist at citi. they seem huge. what sort of impact will the strikes today across germany? impact will the strikes today across germany? well, good morning- across germany? well, good morning. everything