Paul McNamara , Reporter

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is heading to London this weekend to carry on with the trade talks, although Boris Johnson warned that “substantial and important differences” remained.   

We took a closer look at the chilly economic figures put out by the spending watchdog

For those fond of travelling abroad there may be light at the end of the tunnel – but it comes at a price.

If it wasn’t already a struggle to get onto the housing ladder, things just got that much harder for people on furlough.

Union leaders say that will lead to widespread anger and they have warned that industrial action can’t be ruled out.

Nowhere is the progress of the Internal Market Bill and the Brexit negotiations being followed more closely than in Northern Ireland. Hopes are high that the prospect of a Joe Biden presidency will promote the interests of peace and frictionless trade in Northern Ireland.

Businesses in England, which have already been struggling to keep going, now face the prospect of shutting their doors altogether for a month at least. We have spent the day in Brighton, where shoppers, drinkers and fitness fanatics have been saying goodbye with a bang.

The second lockdown will be “incredibly painful” for British business, the head of the CBI has told this programme.  

How will the prospect of a second national lockdown be received amongst the political parties?

One of the main sticking points in the post-Brexit trade talks is fishing rights and what access European boats should have to British waters.

The fine balance between health and the economy is the key issue at the heart of government at this time.

Modern-day oil barons with a stranglehold on online commerce; Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook have all been heavily criticised by a US congressional committee.

A day after the Chancellor unveiled his latest Job Support Scheme, the economic cost of the coronavirus crisis was laid bare again as government debt hit a record high of more than two trillion pounds.

For sectors like hospitality that have just about been clinging on – battered by social distancing requirements and the absence of office workers – there is now the added burden of a 10pm curfew in England, Scotland and Wales, and no prospect of an end in sight. 

No jobs, no training, no opportunities – in an economy battered by the impact of the pandemic there’s little wonder that young people are being called the lost generation.