confidence has "slumped" to its lowest in two years, with almost two thirds of firms worried about higher taxes on business in the latest budget. joining me now is david bharier, head of research at the bcc. good to have you here. quite a damnin: good to have you here. quite a damning indictment _ good to have you here. quite a damning indictment of- good to have you here. quite a damning indictment of the - damning indictment of the environment businesses find themselves in, given that the government is asking business to do so much.— to do so much. yes, this is the bi est to do so much. yes, this is the biggest survey _ to do so much. yes, this is the biggest survey of _ to do so much. yes, this is the biggest survey of businesses i biggest survey of businesses since the autumn budget, and i think it is very clear that the policy measures announced have had some impact on business confidence. i think the key take aways from this survey are that taxation concern is now at its highest level on record. we've been monitoring the top concerns that businesses faced for the last 35 years now. taxation has now emerged as the

highest on record now, so taxation has had a material rise in concern. we are also seeing that turnover growth expectations have dipped slightly. in fact, they have gone back to 2022 levels. if you recall, then, we were facing quite a serious inflation crisis. and finally, we are seeing a spike in businesses expecting their own prices to go up over the next three months. taken together, the package of announcements from the autumn budget, as well as the cost pressures that businesses face, are all mounting into expected price growth. so far, we haven't seen a huge impact on the labour market, but it is still early days and there is still some time to go for businesses to process the changes. [30 time to go for businesses to process the changes. do you think businesses _ process the changes. do you think businesses feel - process the changes. do you think businesses feel a - process the changes. do you think businesses feel a bit i think businesses feel a bit cheated or a bit like they are being put up on here, that they are being asked to deliver more and more and at the same time there is this perfect storm of regulation, highertaxes, added regulation, higher taxes, added costs, regulation, highertaxes, added costs, and i are saying, give

us something here to work with? i think that's right. it goes beyond the last few months. this has been going on for the last five years now. we have seen crisis after crisis, inflation, things like lockdown, a new relationship with the eu, that businesses have had to adapt to and absorb a huge amount of new costs and admin burdens. the latest round is just another issue for them to contend with. on the positive side, i guess, we are expecting to see from the government some plans around infrastructure, a new trade relationship with the european union, which is something we've been calling for, as well as a wider industrial strategy. but these are all announcements that we are looking at maybe this summer to come to fruition. in the meantime, business perception has gone down. business sentiment has gone down as a result of the increased cost pressures you

referenced. increased cost pressures you referenced-— increased cost pressures you referenced. ., ., ~ referenced. david, good to talk to ou. referenced. david, good to talk to yom we _ referenced. david, good to talk to you. we will— referenced. david, good to talk to you. we will keep _ referenced. david, good to talk to you. we will keep a - referenced. david, good to talk to you. we will keep a close . to you. we will keep a close eye on what emerges from this in the coming days. thank you. to big tech now, because the rivalry between the giants of silicon valley is heading into orbit. amazon has asked for permission to launch broadband via satellite here in the uk to rival elon musk�*s starlink. its project kuiper division plans to place 3000 small satellites in orbit to offer interenet connection in remote areas. the first were launched in 2023. starlink, which is part of elon musk�*s spacex rocket company, already allows users around the world to access the internet through a network of 6000 satellites. its dominance has raised concerns about the power mr musk has over internet access in some parts of the world. for more, i'm joined by techjournalist chris stokel—walker. chris, give me your assessment of how much of a game changer this is, and was on getting

into this game in the uk. it will be incredibly important because as you mentioned, it is almost a monopoly at the moment with elon musk dominating the area through starlink. we will increasingly see satellite internet provided by satellite internet provided by satellite in low earth orbit, about 500 orso in low earth orbit, about 500 or so miles above the earth's surface, becoming ever more important to reach those hard to get to places, things where you can't really get to through your traditional means of broadband internet. and so we know that elon musk can be a quixotic character and can change his mind, so any competition, not least from a big company like amazon, can really provide that strong competition that will hopefully help consumers in the long run. amazon now asking the lego rock —— regulator to launch the service. you would imagine the regulator would say competition is good, will keep prices down and competition higher? this is likel to

and competition higher? this is likely to be _ and competition higher? this is likely to be rubber-stamped . likely to be rubber—stamped through. we know they have plans in the coming months to try and launch this. obviously those 3000 satellites will only be around half of the constellation in space at the minute, thanks to elon musk�*s company. we can imagine that will start to ramp up here. it is a big, growing market in the uk. we saw that there was a doubling nearly of users of starlink in the uk in the last year, about 87,000 now. there are about 4 million worldwide using elon musk�*s company, so it is something we will see becoming more and more important in the years to come. from a tech point of view, how much of a game changer is the sort of technology, because it all relies on the lag, the fact you can get that communication more quickly than a satellite out in far orbit? it more quickly than a satellite out in far orbit?— out in far orbit? it is much closer to _ out in far orbit? it is much closer to the _ out in far orbit? it is much closer to the earth's - out in far orbit? it is much i closer to the earth's surface, which means things are much quicker, and it is more reliable. this is one of the things we have to bear in mind, particularly in the last few months when we have been

reading and watching news about internet disruptions, the cutting of subsea cables. this avoids that, which is busily a good thing, and it will be increasingly difficult to try and sabotage the satellites because they are in space, but thatis because they are in space, but that is something i think will help make the adoption of satellite internet more important as we start to develop these things and be they become more normalised and available in everyday shops that we see.— available in everyday shops that we see. , ., , that we see. chris, always good to talk to you. _ that we see. chris, always good to talk to you. the _ that we see. chris, always good to talk to you. the latest - that we see. chris, always good to talk to you. the latest on - to talk to you. the latest on plans by amazon to launch internet services via satellite. shares in the japanese giant nippon steel have fallen in tokyo today after president biden blocked its $15 billion takeover of us steel. in a joint statement, both companies called the move "unlawful" and nippon steel intends to take legal action, according to reports injapan. meanwhile, the country's prime minister shigeru ishiba says the us needs to explain clearly why there is "a national security concern". our asia business reporter suranjana tewari has been looking at what happens next.

we are hearing that nippon steel will hold a news conference. japanese media are reporting that could happen as early as tuesday, during which we are hoping for some clarity on the next steps. that could mean some sort of legal action in the us, and that is because in the us, and that is because in a joint statement, nippon steel and us steel had called buy them's decision unlawful, and said they were left with no choice but to take all appropriate action to protect their legal rights. we do understand the proposed deal has not been terminated yet. understandably, though, president biden blocking the proposed $14.9 billion acquisition of the us deal on national security grounds is causing a lot of headaches for the japanese country, which is japan's largest steel maker. biden's operation to the deal had been well flagged, so this doesn't come as a big shock.

but the question is over how will nippon steel will continue to achieve its growth strategy without expanding operations in the us. with us steel, nippon steel had aimed to raise its global steel production capacity. and just a mention as well, the trump inauguration is also coming up. he was planning to block the deal anyway, and said he wouldn't allow it to be foreign owned, so that is what we would have expected if the deal continues until he is inaugurated as president of the us. the first congestion charge scheme for vehicles in the us came into effect on sunday in new york city. car drivers will pay up to $9 dollars a day, with varying rates for other vehicles. 400 lanes of traffic are now covered by more than 1400 cameras, with more than 110 detection points. the boss of the metropolitan

transportation authority explained what impact he hoped to see as a consequence of the new charge. over time, we will look at how traffic is changing. the number and types of vehicles, where they are coming and going, and we are all hoping, this is one of our goals, and it has been won in new york for some time, we can get trucks to start to do more deliveries in the late night hours. there is a huge discount on the other night, and it is specially designed to incentivise trucks. they take up incentivise trucks. they take up so much space and create so much traffic. do more of their deliveries overnight. proof of how historic this is is that, at midnight, the bbc world service lead with a story that new york was the first city in the united states to adopt a congestion pricing scheme, so we are very proud of that.

let's stay with climate — because as 2025 gets under way there are predictions that this could be the year we see a peak in global carbon emissions. the question is though — how quickly can the world start to bring emissions down next year? something we discussed with mike childs — head of science, policy & research at climate lobby group friends of the earth. the global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions is a good thing, but it is many years later than it should have been, so we will have to make a rapid reduction in emissions over the next five to ten years if we are to avoid the worst of climate change and extreme weather that we are seeing around the globe now. it will get a lot worse. 2025 is a really big year. we need to start reducing those emissions, but there was also a big international conference at the end of the year in brazil, where all the world's leaders are meant to be getting together to agree how they will make those 2030 commitments and 2035 commitments, as well as funding for developing countries to help them adapt to

the impact of climate change that they haven't caused, that we have caused, wealthier countries. in the uk, the government is legally obliged to produce a new climate plan to produce a new climate plan to spell out how it will reduce the emissions cuts we need here in the uk. so they need to produce that plan, and the plan could be very good news for people, because it should mean we are investing more in insulating people's homes so people aren't shivering in the winter, that we are helping people switch to cleaner heating, such as heat pumps, that we are speeding this transition to electric vehicles, and therefore having cleaner transport. finally— a modest but of good news for uk workers — the pay gap between bosses and and staff has come down slightly. according to campaign group the high pay centre— top bosses will have earned as much as the average worker makes in a year by midday today! however, this year, ftse 100

bosses are having to work two hours more to overtake uk median worker earnings worker makes in a year by midday today! however, this year, ftse100 bosses are having to work two hours more to overtake uk median worker earnings than they did in 2024. that's because median earnings are rising faster. median ftse100 ceo pay currently stands at £4.22 million. stay with us here on bbc news.

hello from the bbc sport centre. while the future of liverpool's trent alexander arnold remains unclear, his performance came in for criticsim as they drew with manchester united. it finished 2—2 at anfield and alexancer arnold had a torrid time at the hands of diego dalot and bruno fernandez. real madrid made a move for him last week which was rebuffed, but he's yet to sign a new deal. arne slot doesn't believe transfer talk was behind his performance. nine out of ten people will tell you it affected him, but i am one of the ten that will tell you i don't think that affected him. what affected him

was that he had to play bruno fernandes and darlow, who are two start for portugal, great, great players. i think that is more difficult than the rumours during the week. that's my opinion and probably everybody is going to tell you it had to do with the rumours, but my opinion is different. it was a much improved performance from manchester united, who showed an energy and intent that's often been lacking, but ruben amorim says it's too early to say they've turned the corner. we had some good games during this last month. good games, but then we dropped again. it's something that we need to be really consistent, so if you have this talk, after again city it was the same, so we can talk but we need to show. japan's hideki matsuyama set a new pga tour record for 72 holes with an incredible 35 under par to win the season—opening event at the sentry in hawaii.

the former masters champion hit a final round 65 to beat