this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. will they or won't they? the federal reserve decides later today whether to cut us interest rates, which will send a clear indication on the health of the world's biggest economy. and we're at the paris air show, where some of industry's biggest players have announced their electric dreams for a cleaner future. and forfinancial and for financial markets, the focuses strongly on the fed.

global trade tensions, geopolitical uncertainty, it's all playing on the minds of the world's top central bankers this week. the most important, the us central bank. it will tell us later today if it plans to cut the cost of borrowing to shelter its economy from the fallout. this week the us federal reserve, bank of japan and bank of england all tell us the direction of rates. while the european central bank, which met on tuesday, said it's willing to cut rates or launch more stimulus if needed. as tensions rattle the global economy, central banks around the world are moving toward looser policy to keep their economic engines chugging along. in australia, russia, india and chile, central bank

bosses recently lowered the cost of borrowing. and the us president has hit out at the ecb boss mario draghi, who stressed he's ready to boost the flagging eurozone. trump said it would weaken the euro against the dollar, unfairly helping european firms. the bbc‘s samira hussain looks at the issues the us central bank will be taking into consideration. at the beginning of 2019, the people who sat interest rates at the us federal reserve were talking about raising rates by as many as three times this year. well, back then, the us economy was growing fast and the us economy was growing fast and the concern was how many rate hikes they would have to incorporate. us interest rates have been stuck at 2.596 interest rates have been stuck at 2.5% since then and now everyone is talking about whether they need to be cut. so, what changed? growth is one thing. the economy's still seems in robust shape, but data shows

rough times ahead. and of course there is the president. mr trump's enthusiasm for trade disputes with eve ryo ne enthusiasm for trade disputes with everyone from china to mexico is being watched carefully for the damage they could do to the global economy. mr trump says the fed was wrong to raise rates last year and should definitely be cutting them 110w. should definitely be cutting them now. that's the kind of political pressure that the fed would rather not have to deal with while combating the effects of mr trump's policies. so let's unpack this further, we have harry colvin with us. he's a director and senior market strategist at longview economics. good morning. good morning. so the campaign launched yesterday for real

action, when asked would you change the leader of the central bank, i.e. look for a new fed governor, he said let's see what he does next. that's right, i think the issue here is legality. john has been told by his advisers that he will struggle to remove power from his advisers that he will struggle to remove powerfrom his office advisers that he will struggle to remove power from his office at this point. the broader issue is politics, of course, for trump and what he wants to do is put pressure on the fed to cut interest rates. that is what he's doing by threatening hisjob that is what he's doing by threatening his job and that is what he's doing by threatening hisjob and part that is what he's doing by threatening his job and part of what he is doing by escalating trade tensions with china. in terms of what his power may do next, most believe there will be no teens today but maybe injuly believe there will be no teens today but maybe in july we believe there will be no teens today but maybe injuly we will see a cut in the cost of borrowing. it's unlikely we will get a cut today, very largely price for a cut in july. the key tonight will be the language we get from powell and whether that confirms these expectations. what is he looking out, mostly, in terms of the health

of the us economy. we have the news that president trump and presidencies in being a more than likely to have long discussions on the sidelines of the g20 summit next week, that's boosted financial markets today —— president sheeting being —— xi. markets today —— president sheeting being -- xi. of course he is looking out the trade discussions, but it's more than died, there's clearly a slowdown in the us and global economy. so housing has slowed an awful lot, there's been a large inventory build in the manufacturing sector, so their issues in us economy sing without retail has been soft, employment has been soft, he will have to respond to that as well. we're running out of time. do you think the us economy could be heading to recession are some out there could believe? heading to recession are some out there could believe ?|i heading to recession are some out there could believe? i think the risk is low. in history, post—world war ii we have never had a recession when companies are throwing off free

cash, no need to retrench, and so i think the cycle continues. thank you harry colvin. when we get news from the fed, we will make sure you know what happened. let's go to paris now. at the paris air show this week, the future of aviation has been coming under the spotlight. passenger numbers are expected to double within twenty years, and the industry is under pressure to improve its environmental performance. theo leggett spoke to the chief executive of rolls—royce, warren east, about his compa ny‘s future plans. for the last several years we've been on an agenda of saying we need to contemplate a world where electrification makes an impact in the aviation world in terms of — in terms of greater fuel efficiency, less c02, et cetera, et cetera. and we've been doing a whole lot of stuff internally on that, we have three electrification projects under way, the siemens acquisition is

about accelerating that. last week you embarked on a restructuring programme of the entire business, thatis programme of the entire business, that is resulting in thousands of job losses. is that going to be yea rs or job losses. is that going to be years or is there more pain to follow? we are dealing with the loss of net a600 jobs, it is a fundamental restructuring of some of our costs, some of our legacy cultural issues, making ourselves competitively fit for the 21st century, so we are right in the middle of the transformation now. i think when we've been through that, of course, part of being fit for the zist of course, part of being fit for the 21st century is being agile and being simple in operation and being able to change with changing requirements as we go forward. for instance, new technologies demand different skill sets. on top of that of course there is brexit. you have

said in the past that you are bored with preparing for a no—deal brexit, you've done all you can. but with a no—deal brexit looking likely, are you happy you've done everything? we can't tell right now of course whether it is a dealer no—deal brexit, what we can tell is the day after whatever happens, we have to run our business and we have to serve our customers and so we are prepared for every eventuality and we will deal with the reality when it actually emerges. it's like the weather, you just have to get on with your own business. are you confident you've done enough? we've done a huge amount, with bad various buffer stocks, we got logistics in place —— we've prepared, and we work closely with our supply chains, so we are as well—prepared as we can be. that's the boss of rolls-royce there, interesting saying preparing for brexit is like preparing for the weather in the uk, which is very

difficult. president trump said he had a good telephone call with president sheeting peeing on tuesday in the talks would continue at the g20 summit injapan —— xi kinping, so this has boosted share markets there —— xijinping. sharanjit leyl, expectations are high, aren't they? they are indeed. so the trump teams going to restart talks to prepare for that g20 summit and this has had a huge impact on the markets. we saw wall street rise earlier and hear some strong gains. china, which had previously decided to decline whether the two leaders would meet did decide to get together as well. the two worlds largest economies are ina

the two worlds largest economies are in a huge trade war which has damn damaged the world economy —— damage the world economy. the two leaders had backed away from previous commitments. any of the communications between the two have been fairly limited and trump has continued to threaten slapping more ta riffs continued to threaten slapping more tariffs on chinese products. that has left businesses in both countries wanting to avoid — in his 2020 real action campaign speech, trump had said he had taken historic action to confront china's chronic trading abuses. washington has imposed 25% tariffs on $25 billion of chinese goods ranging from furniture to semiconductors and trump is learning to put more ta riffs trump is learning to put more tariffs in place. so we are watching this very closely indeed. thank you, sharonjed. this very closely indeed. thank you, sharon jed. —— sharanjit this very closely indeed. thank you, sharonjed. —— sharanjit leyl. now let's brief you on some other business stories: let's start with another story

from the paris air show. boeing has received a boost for its grounded 737 max jet after british airways owner iag signed a letter of intent to order 200 of the planes. boeing is currently trying to develop a software fix for 737 max planes after two deadly crashes. shares in the plane maker rose almost 3% after the announcement. pacific gas and electric corp has agreed to pay $1 billion to local california authorities for wildfire damage blamed on the firm. the camp fire, which started in butte county, claimed 85 lives. californian fire investigators said that the blaze was sparked by transmission lines owned by the firm. that is your business briefing. i'll see you in a moment. the bbc‘s director general, tony hall has been defending

the decision to end free tv licences for the over 75s from next year. only those receiving pension credit still won't have to pay. more than 560,000 people have now signed a petition opposing the decision. 0ur media editor, amol rajan reports. # stop in the name of love... the bbc has always tried to reflect britain, and today the affection it is regarded with reflects our generational divide. very broadly, the older you are the more you love the older you are the more you love the bbc. my television is on from when i come downstairs until i go to bed at night. it's on all day, is it? what do you watch? i don't watch it. it's just on. it? what do you watch? i don't watch it. it'sjust on. in front it? what do you watch? i don't watch it. it's just on. in front of a lord select committee, the bbc‘s chairman strongly criticised the nature of the negotiation would lead to the

bbc taking on the cost of the first place. we think the matter in which the 2010- 2015 place. we think the matter in which the 2010— 2015 matter was poor and has had very little impact from the bbc, none from the public, despite the fact that the bbc is there to serve the public. welcome and good morning everybody. it will be a hard sell. 0ne petition demanding the government pay for it in full has achieved thousands of signatures. and this meeting feel strongly also. this should not be the responsibility of the bbc, this is the responsibility of national governments. so to be pennypinching for £15a a yearfor governments. so to be pennypinching for £15a a year for an over 75—year—old sitting at home rolling in isolation is an absolute scandal. with its annual report due in a footnote, scrutiny of bbc expenditure, whether on famous names or its new scottish tunnel, which has been the focus of damaging headlines about viewing figures will be harsher than ever. amol rajan,

bbc news. you are with the briefing on bbc news. the headlines: president trump launches his 2020 real action campaign in florida with a promise to, in his own words, keep america great. and after a heated tv debate, the remaining five candidates to lead the governing conservative party and country face another vote by tory mps today. a survey of attitudes towards vaccines around the world reveals that public confidence is at an all time low. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the guardian, and the race to become the next uk prime minister. like most of the uk papers, it is reporting on last night's fractious five—way debate on the bbc, and of course, the first tv performance

for borisjohnson. staying with the debate, the daily telegraph says it was a good day for the favourite, borisjohnson, and for the outsider rory stewart, who has almost doubled his support among tory colleagues. let's move on to the tampa bay times, based in florida, and another race for the top job. it is donald trump, of course, who has launched his 2020 reelection campaign, saying, we're going to finish the job. and the financial times looks at the reaction by regulators to facebook‘s announcement to launch a digital currency. now, abc news says the state of victoria today becomes the first australian juristiction to legalise euthanasia. and finally, the bbc online. it reports that the scots bought less alcohol last year than any year since records began in the early 1990s, aftera minimum price