"These are radical interventions in the UK labor market, policies we have never tried in this country before."

The UK's Conservative finance minister, Rishi Sunak, was perhaps surprisingly talking up his radicalism when announcing new but scaled-back job support, amid a British economy fractured by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

At the heart of the new measures is a replacement for the so-called furlough scheme, which supported 8.9 million private sector jobs at its peak in May and ends next month.

The new program will only be available to workers whose employers keep them on at least a third of their normal hours. For unworked hours, the government and the employer will each pay staff at a third of their normal rate, with a maximum government contribution of 698 pounds ($889) a month.

Despite the intervention, unemployment is expected to surge in the final months of the year. 

Read on for the day's biggest business headlines, an interview about China's pledge to become carbon neutral by 2060 and charts detailing the German government's history of national debt/surplus. 

Enjoy reading,

Daniel Harries 

Digital correspondent 

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The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment aid rose last week to 870,000.

A tiny but playable Rubik's Cube, so little it fits on your fingertip, has gone on sale in Japan for 198,000 yen, or about $1,900, for delivery starting in December. It was created to mark the 40th anniversary of the original puzzle going on sale in Japan.

Representatives of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, both of which are developing COVID-19 vaccines, say pharmaceutical companies are trying to give the public as much information as possible, in a joint bid to boost confidence in the process. 

Westpac, Australia's second-largest bank, agreed to pay a 1.3 billion Australian dollar ($919 million) fine for breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, the largest ever civil penalty in Australia.

Germany's Institute for Economic Research said its Business Climate Index has risen for a fifth month in a row as Europe's largest economy rebounds from the coronavirus shutdowns, the index is seen as a solid indicator of German business confidence.

ChargePoint, one of the world's oldest and largest electric vehicle charging networks, will go public by merging with Switchback Energy Acquisition in a deal that values the company at $2.4 billion.

Any final trade deal between the European Union and Britain will only be ratified if EU member states are fully certain the Brexit withdrawal agreement will be implemented in full, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.

Samsung has signed up Verizon as its first customer in the U.S. for its 5G products to increase indoor coverage, weeks after winning a $6.64 billion order for telecoms equipment from the mobile network operator.

WATCH: The European Commission has announced a long-awaited proposal to overhaul its migration policy, which has been accused of being outdated and ineffectual. The new plan would mandate participation from all member states in a bid to share the burden across the bloc. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China plans to become carbon neutral by 2060 in his United Nations General Assembly speech. He also said CO2 emissions will peak by 2030. CGTN Europe spoke to Isabel Hilton, the CEO of China Dialogue, on the significance of the pledge. 

Some analysts say it's a major step forward in the fight against climate change, in your mind is the pledge realistic?

Well, yes it is realistic. China's plans are always hugely significant because China is by a very long way, the world's biggest emitter. And to commit to carbon neutrality is progress. 2060 is a realistic target. Clearly, it would be nice if it were done earlier and the European Union has committed to an earlier target. However, to set a target is a step forward for China. I think there is a little disappointment in the 2030 peaking target because that was already on the table. And in fact, it's widely believed that China could peak well before that. And if it did, it would peak at a lower level. So, you know, that could perhaps be improved. But progress at this point and commitment, continuing commitment from China, is an encouraging sign in a sector that has been having quite a difficult year.  

China dominates the world's renewable energy sector and at the same time, as you mentioned, it's the world's biggest polluter. So why is a green recovery so strategically important for China?  

What I think climate analysts and activists would like to see is China with an even bigger commitment to renewables than to the traditional sources of energy. China is still very heavily dependent on coal. Essentially, if China doesn't move quite radically, then the world has very little chance of meeting a 1.5 degree target. China is in a good position to move. It's invested heavily in renewables. It's invested also in nuclear and in big hydro' and is now looking very seriously at the hydrogen economy as a lot of countries are. So there's a sense that we're on the edge of a number of possibilities if we can summon the political will. So, as I say, the commitment from China to continuing with the Paris Agreement and enhancing its ambition is very welcome. I think if there were some encouragement, we would ask China to look at its overseas investments in the same light. Of course, the nationally determined contributions refer to what China is doing inside China's borders. China is now a very important development actor, and what it does outside its borders is almost as important. 

The German cabinet has approved a draft budget for 2021 that includes a shortfall of 96.2 billion euros ($112.3 billion). How does that compare with recent years?