Will Bain is joined by Seijiro Takeshita in Japan and Yael Selfin in the UK to discuss the week&#x27;s biggest business stories. As Nato members agree to greater defence spending, we examine how economic conditions in the UK and Japan are shaping their ability to fund these commitments, as governments balance growing security demands with pressure on public finances. Plus, what Microsoft&#x27;s layoffs at Xbox reveal about the global gaming industry after years of rapid growth.<br>(Photo: Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte and US President Donald Trump meet on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, 08 July 2026. Credit: Filip Singer/Reuters)<br>You can email the team: businessdaily@bbc.co.uk<br>Presenter: Will Bain<br>Producer: David Cann

Taking Stock: Is Trump happier with Nato on defence spending?

Business Daily

Hello and welcome to Business Daily on the BBC World Service, where today we're taking stock of a week of presidential video review. I asked for a review because I didn't think it was a foul. And you know, again, I'm good at this stuff. I didn't think it was a foul. I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled. That was not a guy punching somebody in the face or anything that, you know, would be different. Expert referee, it turns out, and President of the US, Donald Trump.

Well, following FIFA's decision to rescind that red card for star striker Follerim Balogun, the US probably crashed out of their own World Cup, losing 4-1 to Belgium. I do think the controversy played a big part. I think maybe we could have done better if he still kept the red card. Like a little politics got into it and it just didn't help the team at all. They should have just kept him off. They brought him on. The pressure was on him and he couldn't do any work. Unhappy fans, controversy. Hopefully we're free of those two things with our panel today.

And no bans needed to be overturned to get them back alongside us as well. So Jiro Takashita, Professor of Management and Information at the University of Shizuoka is with us alongside Yael Selfin, Chief Economist at the Global Professional Services Firm KPMG joining us from the UK. So Jiro, I cannot imagine you've ever been banned from anything, sports, bars, anything like that. You had to fight to overturn a ban anywhere. Well, no, I didn't get any ban, but I've been playing rugby.

Taking Stock: Is Trump happier with Nato on defence spending?

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Taking Stock: Is Trump happier with Nato on defence spending?

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.