Today, we look at the Chancellor Rachel Reeves defending her budget, telling businesses she is “not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes”. Reeves was speaking at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference. Her message comes after the boss of biscuit company McVitie’s warned it was becoming “harder to understand” the case for investing in the UK. Adam and Chris are joined by BBC business editor Simon Jack. And, Europe editor Katya Adler tells Adam about her interview with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In it, Merkel discusses dealing with President Putin, growing up in East Germany and Brexit regrets. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhere Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Anna Harris. The technical producer was Ben Andrews. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.