hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm arunoday mukharji. we begin in the us where the tech heavy nasdaq ended the trading session sharply higher. google parent alphabet and advanced micro devices — or amd — leading the rally. gemini and amd from yesterday shares of alphabetjumped more than 5% with optimism over its newest ai model — gemini. and amd soared nearly 10% after the chip maker released a new ai chip to rival nvidia's. meanwhile, data showed that the number of americans filing forjobless benefits increased less than expected last week. a labour departmentjobs report out later on friday could sway whether the us central bank starts cutting those high interest rates. from new york, michelle fleury has more.

we should get further evidence that there's a real slowdown happening in thejobs market. employers are growing more cautious, putting off hiring. employees are sticking around longer. one caveat, we could see some distortion to the numbers. the auto and actor strikes both ended in november, with many returning to work that same month. plus the end of the year is when many seasonal workers get taken on. now, america's central bank, the federal reserve, will be watching closely. that's because slower job growth and wage gains will fuel expectations that the fed will leave rates on hold. rates have risen to above 5% from nearly zero since march of last year as it wrestles to bring down inflation. the jobs report is the last significant piece of economic data before the us central bank's rate setting meeting next week. now we should note that despite expectations for a slowdown, america's labour market remains strong by historical standards. still, if economists frequently use the word resilience to talk about the economy

in 2023, they may be looking for a new word in 202a. talking about japan's economy, the data released on friday is even worse than estimated household spending also is felt for the eighth month in a row and real wages declined for a 19th consecutive month in october, showing that price pressures continued to affect purchasing powers. china and the european union are major trading partners, but they have agreed their trade relationship needs to be more balanced. the two sides met on thursday — theirfirst in—person summit for four years. but there was no sign of resolving differences on a range of issues. the bbc�*s stephen mcdonell has more from beijing. nobody expected there to be any great breakthrough as a result of these high level meetings.

the point is having the talks themselves and both sides have welcomed this chance to increase their dialogue. xijinping even spoke about the good momentum in terms of relations between china and europe. but the differences between them are stark. from the outset, the president of the european commission put trade at the forefront. in the opening meeting with xijinping, she spoke about the clear imbalances in trade between europe and china. now, what this is all about is european companies are saying they can't get access to the huge chinese market because of these artificial impediments which have been put in place by the chinese government, for example, tariffs or local government support for the electric car market here. they want to sell more european cars into china. now, the chinese government is saying, though, this was a temporary measure, just needed to get evs off the ground in the first place. eventually that will stop. the point is, when now on the

chinese side, they're saying the point is, when. now on the chinese side, they're saying they don't want there to be blockages in terms of the sale of, say, microchips. now, the sale of chips is being blocked because of supposed concerns that they're being used as part of china's military build up. they were rocky from time to time but more or less both sides. after the pandemic, and after the risk of the chinese government responding by those with their own circulations and depending more on their local or domestic

supply chains, and overall i think the geopolitical war in europe and russia and ukraine changed the energy landscape so the production in europe i think is off the charts and by that measure, the trade export to china i think become less competitive at the same time, i think the chinese government has subsidies to deal well and they come with many questions. last month sean paying joe pleaded guilty to money laundering charges and agreed to pay more than $4.3 billion in fines. efs faces a maximum prison sentence of 18 months. there has been an explosion of interest in artificial intelligence since the launch

of openai�*s chatgpt last year. major technology players — including apple and google in the us and china's alibaba and tencent — have rolled out their own ai models. meanwhile, european union countries are trying to reach an agreement on rules governing ai. joining us now to look at what this all means is maribel lopez from lopez research. it's a real win for the ai industry, given the breadth of companies and countries, we expect there is going to be a regulation that comes out of it, were trusted and secure ai, and more collaboration in this sace. ,,, ., ~ and more collaboration in this sace. ., ., space. speaking of more innovation _ space. speaking of more innovation and _ space. speaking of more - innovation and collaboration, what do you think of the eu union is being called the world's first comprehensive artificial intelligence rules? the eu is actually very ahead in the industry in terms of actually trying to quantify this and put risk entities behind regulations, but it's no surprise when the rubber meets the road, people want

innovation, they also want security and both of those are highly debated topics with the eu acted moment. we expect to hear more tomorrow.— eu acted moment. we expect to hear more tomorrow. there have been giant _ hear more tomorrow. there have been giant leaps _ hear more tomorrow. there have been giant leaps in _ hear more tomorrow. there have been giant leaps in the _ hear more tomorrow. there have been giant leaps in the sector, i been giant leaps in the sector, we keep covering those leaps. what more really needs to be done to ensure more checks and balances, and do you see the grounds for that or the foundations of that happening? i think there is a real tension between the desire to innovate and that need to make sure that we are using the right data, that we are protecting individuals as we use that data, and we are not overstepping our boundaries. so that's the big issue, i think when we look at regulation everybody is saying, hey, how do we regulate? but the business tension for innovation is still there, and that's where we see places by ai lands trying to come in. trying to balance multiple stakeholders in terms of pushing ai forward. we're going to see a lot of research and improvement in chips and will see a lot of big models. fortnite is one of the biggest video games in the world — drawing in around 70

million users every month. now it has joined forces with lego to try to appeal to younger players. but the move is proving controversial. our technology correspondent marc cieslak has more. the massively popular video game, fortnite, has launched a high profile collaboration with lego. while fortnite is famous for blasting, building and last player standing battle royale, this new game is a survival crafting title, heavily leaning into the crafting element using lego bricks. fortnite is no stranger to controversy, with questions being raised about child safety in the game since it first launched. it has in—game purchases which used to be loot boxes, and it has the ability to talk to other players. so when i'm talking to parents. what i wanted to make sure is that they understand that experience before they hand it over to their child. so how has its developer epic games address these issues when working with famously family friendly lego? we've been on a journey. you don't implement these features in a week or a day. like these are things that we've been building for years and years. and so one of the things that we recently implemented

was a rating system. so each piece of content is rated appropriately for the audience, and we allow through our parental controls, the parents to decide what type of content their kids will be able to see tonight. it's clear that this collaboration - between lego and fortnite i is about making the fortnite ecosystem more appealing to younger players. - but for a game which has attracted criticism from a wide variety of different quarters parents, groups, even prince harry is seeking ever younger players a wise move. you can apply some of the criticism - that's been levied at fortnite to video games in general, . and a lot of that criticism i is how are they interacting with other people on the internet? i and it's a battle royale by its very nature. - you're going to be in combat. and there are people who that's not - what they're - interested in, that's not what their tastes are, or there are people who,| like with lego, are probably a bit too young for that. - there are already lots of lego video games, but does collaborating with fortnite

create a particular risk for the company? every collaboration and everything that you do always, especially things that are ambitious, carry a lot of unknowns because we don't yet know exactly how the game is going to land. this new game lands in fortnite today. let's see if it manages to build its makers an even bigger audience. mark cieslak, bbc news. and that's it for this edition of asia business report. thanks for watching. the first ever harrycop beans grown in the uk entering a trial at a spalding factory. they're delivered to us in the dry format and we have to rehydrate them. then the next process is fill these into the can we then add the tomato sauce and spices. what spice's?

what spices? the spice? no, the spices are unique to us and there are trade secrets. but what do the great british public think? all right. what do they taste like? would it make you buy them more? i would buy that, yes. to be honest, they're better than heinz. really nice. do they do they taste any different? the seeds for these beans took 12 years to develop by scientists at the university of warwick. their main aim — to make them exactly the same as what shoppers expect. we're always trying to grow new things and trying to do things to save on food mileage and to save on imports because we're importing too much food and to be able to produce something that we consume in such great quantities in this country, it's just unbelievable. it could take years to replace the entire supply chain from canada and china, but today marks the start of a journey

to self—sufficiency. hi. i'm ellis with the catch up. tonight — a famous poet dies, cash use rises and chanel takes over manchester. but first, of a war in in gaza. tens of thousands of palestinians are continuing to move into rafah, a city near the egyptian border, trying to escape the intense fighting elsewhere in the southern gaza strip. meanwhile, the bbc has been hearing from young people who survived the attack on a music festival in israel back in october. more than 360 young people were killed there, and thousands who survived are now facing mental health challenges. trained volunteers have set up their own centres to offer the help that's needed. this woman is 24. she's one of the people using the service. it's almost been two months

and i only feel comfortable hearing music with the concerts and with the artists that come here. i really feel that the therapists are here to help and to listen. some other stories now. one of the uk's most influential modern poets, benjamin zephaniah, has died. he was also a star in peaky blinders. born in birmingham, he wrote and recited poetry in a caribbean dialect, which reflected his family's immigrant background. and cash use has gone up for the first time in ten years, retailers say. it's because shoppers are keeping a close eye on their budgets while prices rise. time now to leave you with 10 seconds of chanel in manchester. part of the city's northern quarter has been taken over by the french fashion brand and used as a catwalk. now you're all caught up. bye for now.

hello, i'm mark edwards. welcome to sportsday. here's what's coming up on the show.

docked points, but out of the drop zone, everton thrashed newcastle to climb out of the bottom three. hotspur hammer blow. west ham see off spurs at the london stadium to make it three wins out of four. and it's happened. masters championjon rahm ditches the pga tour and joins liv golf. hello and thanks for joining us on sports day, wherever in the world you're watching this from. we start with football and a massive result for everton football club. they've thrashed newcastle 3—0 at goodison park to climb out of the relegation zone. worth remembering, everton were deducted ten points for breaching premier league financial regulations last month, but a flurry of late goals gave them a much deserved win. abdoulaye doucoure scored the all important second,

with just 4 minutes left on the clock.