good to talk to you as always, kamal ahmed. i still play that on my phone on the tube on the way home! a veteran developer has reimagined the game in virtual reality. he's been speaking to our north america technology reporter dave lee. the music is kind of like a pulsating soundtrack that's getting gradually louder, i think. it's quite hard to hear with the convention, but i can imagine if you were sat at home in a nice, quiet room, this would be very, very relaxing. you'd be taken to a different place, altogether. it's very unique. it's a very unique games design. it's very simple, but very strong. and anybody can play. tetris theme tune. translation: it's a known fact that as far as computer technology is concerned, not everything is so good here. but as far as programming and computer thinkers go, i think we occupy an honourable place. tetris theme tune. cani can ijust can i just say that when i play tetris, i play it on silent because i cannot bear the music. it is annoying. what other business stories has the media been t

kamal ahmed, bbc news. time now for all the sports news in sport today.gramme: injury means serena williams is a late withdrawal from her french open fourth round match with maria sharapova. right now i can't actually serve, so it's kind of hard to play when i can't physically serve. in the men's draw, 10—time champion rafael nadal is through to the quarter finals after a straight sets win over maximilian marterer. and leroy sane is left out of germany's world cup squad on deadline day for the 32 nations involved. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with tennis news, and with the anticipation building at roland garros on monday and the match due to take to the court, serena williams withdrew from her fourth round tie with maria sharapova at the french open.

kamal ahmed, bbc news.ffered concussion during the club's champions‘ league defeat to real madrid in the final. karius was criticised for making two crucial errors in the game. doctors in massachusetts examined the goalkeeper and concluded his performance could have been affected by the concussion. liverpool football club have made no comment. the people of yorkshire believe they live in god's 0wn country. in lancashire, they're proud of their red rose county. kent boasts that it is the garden of england. but which county in england has the strongest identity? for the first time, bbc news has tried to map the local and regional loyalties across england. our home editor mark easton has been exploring people's sense of belonging and local identity. beneath the veneer of national identity, england is a rich tapestry of ancient allegiances and rivalries. support your county! show your colours! in yorkshire, the medieval emblem of the white rose is still glorified as a symbol of county pride. as the tour de york

kamal ahmed, bbc news. 0ur deputy political editor john pienaar is at westminster.n the way ahead on brexit, and kamal mentioned calls for clarity. what do you read the current cabinet position? preserving even a veneer of unity has gone from a near impossible mission to a lost cause for theresa may. today in the commons she insisted again that we leave the eu, the single market, the customs union. but her business secretary has told company bosses that britain should stay some sort of customs relationship, trading relationship, single market relationship, single market relationship with business after brexit and keep open special access for eu migrants in some form. her brexiteer foreign secretary has been famously quoted saying eff business, when asked about their concerns. at this stage we could still walk away with no eu deal. there is no majority in parliament for that, but it could happen. it looks nigh on impossible for theresa may to restore order. there is no clear idea of the past that she would like to charge for britain after a brexit and a transition pe

0ur economics editor, kamal ahmed, is here, what did he have to say?e of the head of the ukfor chief executive of the head of the uk for bmw, this week the chief executive of the japanese car maker nissan, both big car companies looking for clarity on that brexit deal. nissan employs 7,000 people in the uk, the british, the biggest british car plant is in sunderland. they export 80% of the 500,000 cars they make every year, the chief executive of nissan said he was still in the dark about that brexit deal. we are talking about tens of thousands ofjob, we are talking about tens of thousands of job, we we are talking about tens of thousands ofjob, we are talking about hundreds of millions of pounds of investment. that is what i am talking about. nothing really very blurry about it, we are talking about things that matter for people, that ensure the livelihood of people. that is why we take it very seriously and we don't want to take any decision in the dark and we don't want to make any decision that we may regret in the future. to be clear he wasn't say

kamal ahmed, bbc news.eople injured, in a crash between a double—decker bus and a lorry in cambridgeshire. police say five of those caught up in the accident on the a47 have serious injuries. 0ur correspondentjo black reports. just after 7:30am this morning, the emergency services were called to this — a terrible crash between a ali—tonne lorry and a double—decker bus on the busy a47 near guyhirn in cambridgeshire. two men, the bus driver, in his 50s, from norfolk, and a passenger, a man in his 70s from northamptonshire, both died at the scene. 12 others who were also on the bus were wounded, some of them seriously. when we're talking about an hgv, articulated lorry, and a double—decker bus, two very, very big vehicles on the road there, possibly the biggest vehicles on the road. for me, i'm astounded there wasn't more casualties. the crash, which involved a bretts lorry, happened just behind me, near the firm's distribution centre. it's thought the bus collided into the side of the hgvjust as it was pullin

kamal ahmed, bbc news.country's supreme court judge has announced his retirement, paving the way for president trump to change the political balance at the summit of the country's legal system. judge anthony kennedy has been a key swing vote on the court for nearly three decades, backing issues such as gay rights and abortion. 0ur north america editor jon sopel is in washington. he explained the significance of the move. this is a huge day for us politics, with the decision byjustice kennedy to stand down. roughly speaking, the supreme court through the last decade has been split, four liberals, four conservatives, and as you say, he has been the swing vote, the swing vote that allowed gay marriage to become law, the swing vote that stop the tightening of the abortion laws and donald trump has vowed that with his departure he will appoint a conservative to that age. he is also saying he is going to get onto it quickly, ahead of any mid—term elections, so expect this process to happen quickly. the president

kamal ahmed, bbc news. let's have a brief look at some of the day's other news.ponse to the blaze at grenfell tower, has told the official inquiry he was "out of his comfort zone", when dealing with the rapidly—spreading fire. he said he quickly became concerned that the blaze was burning through cladding panels in an " when shown footage from the night of the fire, mr dowden became upset, which led to the inquiry being suspended for half an hour. two people have died after a lorry and a double—decker bus collided with each other on a busy road in cambridgeshire. the bus driver and a passenger in his 70s were killed, with 12 others left injured, several of them seriously. a french couple who murdered a 20—year—old nanny at their home in south—west london will serve at least 30 years in prison. sabrina kouider and ouissem medouni had blamed each other for killing sophie lionnet. the taxi hailing firm uber has got its licence back to operate in london. but it has been warned it is on probation for the next 15 months. transport for london refused to renew its licenc

rates unchanged but its chief economist has expressed support for an increase. 0ur economics editor kamal ahmede details. a night for the finest chains of office, and the smartest outfits, for one of the biggest city events of the year. and the chancellor here at the mansion house in london, with a big message about the future of taxes, which he said were going up. earlier this week, the prime minister announced a five—year nhs funding package that will boost spending on health by over £20 billion a year in real terms, in england alone, partly funded by lower contributions due to brussels. so, as the prime minister said, taxpayers will have to contribute a bit more, in a fair and balanced way, to support the nhs that we all use, while delivering on our fiscal commitments. mr hammond insisted he was no enemy of brexit, but was working for the best deal. that does not make the treasury on my watch the enemy of brexit. rather, it makes it a champion of prosperity for the british people outside the eu, but working and trading closely with it. now, it was only a year ago the conservatives were promi

slowdown is likely to dampen expectations of an interest rate rise this summer. 0ur economics editor kamal ahmedfter a bumpy ride at the time of the financial crisis, the number of jobs created has soared. we haven't seen figures this strong since 1971. that usually means higher wages, as firms battle to hire from a shrinking pool of available people. but look at how weak wage growth has been over a similar period. between 3% and 5% before the financial crisis, struggling ever since, and today a dip again to 2.8% after a few better months. the big question is why. first, productivity — our record on producing greater economic wealth for every hour we work, by investing in things like new technology, has been poor. second, the type ofjobs being created in the changing world of work — zero—hours contracts and hyperflexible employment, like delivery driving — mean that people have sacrificed bargaining powerfor the convenience of when they work. weak wage growth has been the economic problem of the last decade, and if we don't solve it, weak economic growth tends to follow for a pretty simple reaso

unchanged but its chief economist has expressed support for an increase. 0ur economics editor, kamal ahmedht for the finest chains of office and the smartest outfits, for one of the biggest city events of the year, and the chancellor here at the year, and the chancellor here at the mansion house in london with a big message about the future of taxes, which he said were going up. earlier this week, the prime minister announced a five—year nhs funding package that will boost spending on health by over £20 billion a year in real terms in england alone. partly funded by lower contributions due to brussels, so as lower contributions due to brussels, so as the prime minister said, taxpayers will have to contribute a bit more, in a fair and balanced way, to support the nhs that we all use, while delivering on our fiscal commitments. mr hammond insisted he was no enemy of brexit, but was working for the best deal. that does not make the treasury on my watch the enemy of brexit. rather, it makes it a champion of prosperity for the british people. 0utside makes it a champion of prosperity for the br

our economics editor kamal ahmed joins us now.year looking likely and tonight the chancellor is expected to talk about tax rises on the way too? absolutely right. today the bank of england really did show, give a strong signal that interest rates we re strong signal that interest rates were going to rise later this year. the chief economist of the bank of england said interest rates should rise now. he was outvoted by the monetary policy committee for the moment. but it looks like interest—rate rises are ahead. the economy has bounced back after those miserable months at the beginning of the year down to the beast from the east. and with real incomes rising and high employment, the bank is worried about inflation and uses interest rates to in control inflation. those interest—rate bills going up, bad if you've got a mortgage, better if you are a saver. just over the load later tonight, philip hammond, his first words since the big pledge to increase health spending by the prime minister by £20 billion by 2023. philip hammond says,

the bbc‘s business editor kamal ahmed joins me now to discuss this.ake this important speech. he is very keen on eliminating the deficit. how is he going do that? he has a few challenges. the prime minister of the uk pledged to increase spending on health care substantially. the chancellor tonight will say that to do that they will need to raise taxes. but the mansion house speech is about more than that. it is also about financial services, the city of london, what will london look like after the uk leaves the eu. he will want to say a lot about that. but on the economy, the british government has pledged to balance the books by the middle of the next decade. the chancellor is committed to that and so if there is going to be any extra spending, it is going to be tax rises that are going to bring that. that brings a headache for the treasury, because the next financial announcement on taxes won't be until the autumn, in the autumn budget and that means from now until then, there will be lots of speculation about what those tax rises will look like. yo

our economics editor, kamal ahmed, joins us now with more on this. better growth next quarter. they have said that, but they are expecting weaker growth in 2019 as well. i think this is really fundamental moment for the uk economy. we had those very poor economic growth figures for the first three months of the year, just 0.1% of positive growth in the uk. the british chambers of commerce now say that business investment has been negatively affected, possibly mostly connected to the brexit uncertainty, that household finances stretched and that real incomes, although rising, not rising very quickly. if that weak growth from the first quarter of the year continues through the rest of this year, this will be a weak year for growth. and the big debate here is not only what does that, how does that affect people's households, but how it affects the government and the government's revenues? we had that discussion about how to fund nhs increases in health budgets, well, if the economy does not perform as well as expected, that is means what is called the p

our economics editor kamal ahmed is at the bank of england. what more has been said this lunchtime?est rates by the bank of england, as you say. andrew haldane, the influential chief economist at the bank, says interest rates should happen now. he wasn't in the majority on the mpc but the direction of travel is that interest rate rise will happen, and interest rate rise will happen, and interest rate rise will happen, and interest rate rise will happen this year. they say the economy, the bank of england says the economy is improving after that terrible first three months badly affected by the weather, that household spending is getting stronger again now, and that the economy is starting to gain momentum. the bank uses interest rates to try to control that laments and therefore control inflation. if you have a mortgage be ready for an interest rate rise, if you're a saver and interest rate rise is good for you. but the bank, i think, saver and interest rate rise is good foryou. but the bank, ithink, is trying to signal to people that these historically low interest rates which we'v

noise pollution with an extra 700 planes a day. 0ver over to you, ben. 0ur economics editor is kamal ahmedning through those issues, is this a done deal? this process has been going on a very long time, how far through are we? certainly not a done deal. it will have to go through the uk parliament, lots of mps are opposed to the expansion of heathrow. i have covered this story for a decade, we have had endless false starts. a full—length runway has not been built in the south—east of england since the second world war, which is a remarkable statistic. the airport at frankfurt, charles de gaulle in paris, dubai, china builds more ipods than the uk builds runways. very important economic development is the argument from the supporters of heathrow, but it has a clash with the environment. —— china builds more airports than the uk builds i’u nways. more airports than the uk builds runways. it is a highly populated pa rt runways. it is a highly populated part of britain and there is an environmental impact. when the airport is near a city, with airport expansion the environmental impact on the

we can get more details now from our economics editor kamal ahmed who is at the bank of england for usconomy, has said that interest rates should rise immediately. the mdc, the organisation that sets the interest rates on behalf of the bank of england, has got nine members and the split is now six members, led by the split is now six members, led by the governor of the bank of england, mark carney, saying no rate rise now. the other three members say we do need one. it means that the bank is pretty bullish on the economy, thinking it has bounced back from that pretty miserable performance in the first three months of the year, affected by the weather and some other factors, and secondly that the august rate rise is now more likely than was initially expected. that doesn't mean definitely. the nbc doesn't mean definitely. the nbc doesn't really deal indefinite. —— deal indefinite. in june doesn't really deal indefinite. —— deal indefinite. injune 2017, when there was a split, the rates then went up the following november. if things are bouncing back, i now think august is looking more l

is increased, which translates to higher prices at the pumps for drivers. 0ur economics editor, kamal ahmed up steadily but surely, haven't they, and now really quite shocking escalation? absolutely. as the guest from the rac said, it is that double whammy. so, the oil prices have been going up ever since the americans announced that they would be reimposing sanctions on iran, iran is the fifth largest producer of oil in the world so that meant the price has gone up. and also the weakness of sterling has meant that because we buy our fuel of sterling has meant that because we buy ourfuel in of sterling has meant that because we buy our fuel in sterling, the fuel imports cost more. really there has been more around this inflation issue, not just down has been more around this inflation issue, notjust down to fuel but things like people's energy bills have started to go up. there is the sugar tax which means that some softwa re sugar tax which means that some software and is have become more expensive. there is more inflationary pressure in the economy than some people expected. we saw a real