the british government s hand in the looming brexit negotiations. instead, it backfired spectacularly. theresa may is a weakened prime minister at the head of a minority government ill prepa red for the complex, difficult talks that lie ahead. my guest is deputy prime minister of belgium, alexander de croo. does europe view britain s travails with sympathy or relish? alexander de croo, in brussels, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. there you sit as a senior minister in a european government and, as luck would have it, in the institutional capital of the european union. be honest with me, how much attention do you pay to what is happening in british politics right now? well, we do pay a lot of attention to what is happening there, because we know that the discussion on brexit is one where time is of the essence. we have a two year period to negotiate a good deal with the united kingdom, but three months have gone already and the time is ticking. so we are ready to go to the tabl
the fire burns on at grenfell tower this morning more than 2a hours after this west london tower block was engulfed in flames. 12 residents are confirmed dead, but police expect that figure to rise significantly as scores of people are still unaccounted for. fire crews have simply not been able to search every floor of the 2a storey building yet. 78 people are in hospital, 18 of them critically ill. andy moore has the latest. the official death toll is expected to rise, but even so, it is outstripped by the number of the missing. these are some of their faces whole families are unaccounted for. many of them lived on the top floors. this woman was searching local hospitals for her friend and three children. we don t know if they are alive or dead or in hospital or not. we don t have any clues. just waiting and hoping. as dusk fell nearly 18 hours after the blaze started, there were still pockets of fire inside the tower block. the prime minister promised there would be a ful
the fed raises interest rates and says it will start unwinding its $4.5 trillion stimulus programme. but is the us economy really out of the woods? plus roam if you want to. the eu scraps extra mobile charges for travellers from today after a decade long battle. but will users end up footing the bill anyway? welcome to world business report. i m sally bundock. also coming up: the end of an era forjapan inc. toshiba s set to sell off its chip division as it battles for survival. we start in the us where the central bank, the federal reserve, has raised the cost of borrowing, as was widely expected. it s the second increase in three months, and comes despite some fairly mixed data on the health of the us economy. let s show you the details. the fed has raised its main interest rate by 0.25%. that takes its target range to between 1 1.25% the highest it has been since before the 2008 financial crisis. and it s set to go higher: the fed is forecasting one more increase this y