clothing giant uniqlo under pressure on fears of a boycott in china, after an interview here on the bbc. welcome to business today. lam ben i am ben thompson. we start in europe where the euro is under pressure, and france's government borrowing costs are at their highest in 12 years on concerns the government in paris could be toppled in the coming days. in the last couple of hours, french prime minister michel barnier has forced through 60 billion euros of tax rises and spending cuts without parliamentary approval, despite opposition from parties on the left and right. they now say they will back a no—confidence vote that would bring down the government and make mr barnier the shortest—serving french prime minister ever. he is in a lose—lose situation, caught between the markets on the one side who want to see action taken on france's shaky government finances, and a hostile parliament that

wants to see more support for working people. joining me now is carsten brzeski, global head of macro for ing research in frankfurt. good to have you here. explain this. what is going on good to have you here. explain this. what is going on right now? we said that michel barnier is caught between both sides. difficult to please the opposition parties in the markets. what happens your? figs markets. what happens your? as we markets. what happens your? sis we see markets. what happens your? is we see the french government debt has become too high. the french fiscal tips —— deficit have been .6%. they have to save money somewhere and michel barnier has come up with a plan to raise taxes and cut a little bit on spending. remember that he wanted to reach the european

target deficit of 3% of gdp by 2028 - 2029 target deficit of 3% of gdp by 2028 — 2029 services mild. but we have political games being played here. this is what we see from the left and right sides, they are trying to use this occasion to bring down the government.— this occasion to bring down the government. , . ., , , ., government. yes and as you say, the are government. yes and as you say, they are expected _ government. yes and as you say, they are expected to _ government. yes and as you say, they are expected to trigger - government. yes and as you say, they are expected to trigger a - they are expected to trigger a vote of no confidence in the government is unlikely to survive that and michel barnier would not be in government after near. how can fix this? element the friends loss is that element the friends loss is tha . , element the friends loss is tha i , ., element the friends loss is than , ., , element the friends loss is than , ., that there needs to be a year before the — that there needs to be a year before the next _ that there needs to be a year before the next parliament i before the next parliament elections us so if this government were to fall, he would stay in office until the new year and then the pen would

need to find a new government. the government will not change before that. so we need to be prepared for this situation to continue until we have new elections. continue untilwe have new elections-_ elections. put this into context _ elections. put this into context in _ elections. put this into context in terms - elections. put this into context in terms of - elections. put this into i context in terms of what elections. put this into - context in terms of what it means in the wider continent. what does this and stability mean for your? the markets do not like it. there will be no clear direction. what happens in the meantime? stagnation. the new us — in the meantime? stagnation. the new us government - in the meantime? stagnation. the new us government will. the new us government will probably be more attractive than the european economy. so what we are seeing in france is a reflection of the dilemma we are having in europe. we have a big need for investments, not only in france, but across the

entire continent. infrastructure, digitalisation to improve european cohesiveness. on the other side we have increasing debt levels as a result of the pandemic and may be too many expenditures in the past. so how do you get these things together? it is very hard to combine sturdy with new investments. so one way out would be to think of european solutions and come up with a european investment funds so you get new money for european vestments causing more european vestments causing more european investments and still at the same time force national governments, in this case the french, to engage in some type of austerity. french, to engage in some type of austerity-— of austerity. thank you. we will talk again _ of austerity. thank you. we will talk again about - of austerity. thank you. we will talk again about this . of austerity. thank you. we will talk again about this as | will talk again about this as we get clarity on what happens next. the head of ing research. to the tech sector now, because shares of intel have been surging in the us

after the chip giant announced veteran ceo pat gelsinger is to retire. investors have been concerned that intel has struggled to keep up with the ai revolution. the news comes amid the prospect of more tech tensions between washington and beijng, as president biden launched a new crackdown on china's chip industry. he has imposed new export restrictions on advanced semiconductors and chip—making equipment, targeting 140 chinese companies. it's the third such move in three years aimed at stopping china developing its artificial intelligence capabilities. let's go to new york where our north america business correspondent ritika gupta is following the story. give us a sense of the significance of his departure. will investors be glad to see the back of them do you think? you can see in the share price today, you seeing intel is rising amidst this announcement that the ceo will be retiring.

we have two temporary ceos intact into a —— until a more permanent solution. they have been struggling to bring iran a turnaround to an iconic chip maker. but that didn't happen. in fact, they fell further behind their rivals. he wanted to take intel beyond their typical processes and put them in direct competition with samsung and other companies. he had also laid out a plan to expand intel's factory network but it was costly and he just ran out of patience and got fed up ran out of patience and got fed up with losing all of this money. his departure could be to some germanic strategic chefs. one of the biggest challenges they were facing was ai -- to challenges they were facing was ai —— to some germanic and strategic chefs —— some

germanic and strategic shifts. there isn't likely to be some big changes in the company but the broader industry, as well. in turn, the announcement from the white house with the concern about china's inability to manufacture.— to manufacture. use restrictions - to manufacture. use restrictions about i to manufacture. use - restrictions about semi... to manufacture. use _ restrictions about semi... they are concerned it is going to be used for powering ai and threatening the us's own security interest. this is only the third major update in the biden administration for three years trying to cement his registry and this crackdown. it is notjust registry and this crackdown. it is not just affect the registry and this crackdown. it is notjust affect the us, though. the rules are avoiding the us screening all of —— any

of these bands. but it could make china more independent if they develop their own semi... technology. so we are watching them. ., ~ i. shares in one of the world's biggest car companies, stellantis, have slumped after its ceo carlos tavares resigned abruptly on sunday. mr tavares, seen here with france's president macron, was due to stay on until his five—year term ended in 2026. but reports suggest there were tensions with the board over the compa ny�*s strategy. stellantis is a giant in the auto industry with 11; brands including fiat, peugeot—citroen and opel in europe, and chrysler and jeep in the us. but its shares have lost 40% of their value this year. our international business correspondent theo leggett explains what's been going wrong. problems have been starting to engulf stellantis since the start of the year, many of them in north america, where sales have been plummeting.

and that appears to be because of bad choices made within the parent company. dealers in north america have essentially found themselves with large inventories of cars that they just can't sell, because they're not what the market wanted. and there's been a lot of criticism of stellantis itself and of mr tavares because of that. at the same time, in europe, stellantis is facing pretty much the same pressures that other car—makers like volkswagen, bmw and mercedes—benz are facing in that it has a large number of factories making a lot of cars, but there isn't the demand there should be, particularly for electric cars, that it's invested a lot of money in developing. and at the same time, like other manufacturers, it's facing competition from chinese brands, which are coming in and taking a share of the electric car market. so all of this is coming together. last year was a very good year for stellantis. this year has been a pretty dreadful one, and the share price has been plummeting even before the resignation of mr tavares. so it would appear that

the rest of the board, and possibly the agnelli family, through the chairman, john elkann, have decided now is the time to do something different. mr tavares was due to resign due to retire in 2026 anyway. his position had been weakened because of that. it seems they've brought forward the transition and decided to get rid of him sooner rather than later. the latest there from respondent feel. —— mike respondent, theo. now to japan, where shares in fast retailing, which owns clothing giant uniqlo, have been under pressure over fears of a boycott in china. in an interview with the bbc aired last week, the firm's ceo was pressed on whether they used cotton from xinjang, which has been linked to allegations of forced labour. the company said they did not use xinjiang cotton, prompting criticism on chinese social media. here's our asia business reporter mariko oi who did the interview with fast retailing boss tadashi yanai. the initial reaction that i personally got after the interview aired was from chinese netizens,

who were basically very angry with uniqlo, calling for a boycott of its clothes. of course, cotton from the xinjiang region is a contentious issue because, even though it was once known as some of the best fabric in the world, it's fallen out of favour after allegations that it is produced using forced labour by people from the muslim uyghur minority. now, beijing has consistently denied these allegations and brands such as h&m, which removed cotton from xinjiang from their supply chain a couple of years ago, they were boycotted in china. at the time, mr yanai didn't confirm or deny if the brand was using cotton from xinjiang. but when i met him earlier this month in tokyo, he confirmed that the company is not using cotton from xinjiang. in response, china's foreign ministry spokesperson said that they hope relevant companies can eliminate political pressure and negative interference and make independent business decisions that align with their own interests. but for uniqlo, though, they were trying to stay politically neutral, but they're also expanding rapidly in europe and in the us, where consumers are increasingly conscious of how their clothing is made, whether that be from human rights issues or

environmental concerns. in fact, uniqlo was criticised several years ago for not removing, or for not confirming that they removed cotton from xinjiang in the west. so they do have a very difficult, tricky balancing act to play. you that is your business today. see you soon.

you are watching bbc news. more now on syria, where the government's military says more than 400 rebels have been killed in air strikes by russian and syrian warplanes in the last 2a hours. officials in damascus say they attacked targets around aleppo and idlib. rebel forces continue to occupy aleppo, and there are reports of fighting around hama, about 140 kilometres south of aleppo.

the kremlin has said it will continue to support the syrian government. they're facing a rebel coalition, made up of several groups which appear to have come together to fight president assad's regime. barry marston from bbc monitoring is a specialist onjihadi groups and explained more about the group that seized aleppo. tahrir al—sham have been a fascinating group to follow because they started off as being part of the same ideological camp as islamic state and al-anda. but since they started consolidating their hold over idlib province, they've been going all out to rebrand themselves as a very different kind of entity that perhaps can be trusted to, to to hold territory and act as something of a normal de facto government.