as we have been hearing on newsday, william lai has won taiwan's presidential election. the third consecutive term for his ruling democratic progressive party. at the same time, two former us officials are visiting taipei for post—election talks, underscoring washington's long—standing interest with the territory. but china views the president—elect as a dangerous separatist and warned any move towards independence will be severely punished. my colleague spoke to a taiwanese analyst at the economist intelligence unit about how the results of this election will impact the island's relationship with beijing. china is suspicion of his intentions and much of this ties back to his past. he is infamous in that he has been vocally supportive of independence but it is also

important to mention that he has generally softened his stance in the last few years and on the campaign trail since he served as vice president in taiwan he has really espoused more of a pro—status quo, the idea that he will inherit the foreign—policy and domestic policy of the outgoing president and that suggests there will not be any radical change and we do not expect him to formally declare independence anytime soon. that said, the question here is will china believe that? policymakers in beijing are so incredibly wary of his intentions and they are also going to be smarting from the fact that this is the third consecutive victory by the dpp, and so looking forward i think we can expect a lot of anxiety at least over the next few months or even years. let's talk a little about trade and what the consecutive

succession under the dpp could mean for trade with china. that is an interesting dynamic to look at because as strained as the relations are under the dpp, economics are still intertwined. china is taiwan's most important export market, the cross strait economics in terms of supply chain and investments, they are tight and that is persistent despite the fact that the dpp has been in government since 2016. we have seen moves to try and diversify taiwan's trade away from china towards southeast asia and western economies but in reality these moves have been difficult to implement. china isjust an incredibly important centre of gravity for the region and that is true for taiwan and as we look at policy proposals moving forward, he will still promote diversification push but it will be hard.

thinking about china's reaction, one of the things we are worried about is what potential retaliation may look like from the economic sphere. we have something called the economic cooperation framework agreement between the two sides and there is potential that china could seek to tweak that agreement. we have seen some economic pressure tactics in the form of ending tariff exemptions for taiwanese products. so there are some moves here. we could see some tricks manifest but when we look at and look at the nature of the ties they are in sophisticated taiwanese electrical components and that is something china is still reliant on in terms of imports. so the situation is complicated and the room to manoeuvre for china in terms of damaging the taiwanese economy, those are relatively constrained. turning now to the red sea where tensions continue to escalate. the us and uk led strikes on mainland yemen last week against the houthi movement after the armed group launched several attacks against

commercial ships. this was in response to the conflict in gaza. around 15% of global trade passes through the red sea it is causing a lot of problems. and it is connected to the suez canal. deborah from the hemrich foundation is watching the developments closely. if you are a commercial shipping agency the difficulties in trying to navigate what is an incredibly fast moving set of risks, which is unusual. normally in this world we have challenges, of course, but most of those challenges can be seen ahead of time and you can at least try to calculate where the risk is, but when you have airstrikes and missiles lobbed in the direction of shipping, it is hard to say whether your ship will get through safely or whether you will have a problem on your hands. deborah, trade in that

region accounts for 15% of global trade. is it unusual for two sovereign nations to launch these kinds of attacks to protect commercial interest? it is a bit unusual although not unprecedented. there are a number of choke points, particularly for shipping, where it makes a juicy target if you have either terrorist intentions or if you have intentions of making money off of seizing ships. we have seen that in the past, and what i think is unusual this time is the intensity of the weaponry being used and the likelihood of escalation. there is a real threat and a real challenge. looking at the asia region and the impact here, we also obviously just had the taiwan election and we will have to see what happens with the semiconductor ecosystem because of that, but what impact do you see these attacks in the red sea having on the asia pacific

region? it will probably be a bit less obvious in asia than in europe but one of the challenges that companies are facing is that if you do not use the suez canal and the red sea, you have to go all the way around continents, and that adds 1a days or more to the shipping route and an enormous amount of cost. so you start to see increases in cost for companies, and then, ultimately, that could be passed on to consumers for a wide variety of product that normally transit through the suez canal. what is the next step? what do you expect policymakers and business leaders asking for going forward? i think they will ask for a diffusion of tension, "please stop the attack in both directions." but it is challenging because it is a little unclear what the goals are. at the moment the houthi are saying it is about gaza and it is unclear how quickly that situation will be stabilised. so you are left grappling with long—term uncertainty

about whether or not this route through the red sea will be viable. google has pulled many crypto exchanges from its play store in india over the weekend, coming two weeks after the global crypto exchanges were flagged for operating "illegally" in the south asian market. let's cross to mumbai where we find our business correspondent. why has google taken this step? the government's major concern is that these offshore crypto exchanges are not compliant with the anti—money laundering laws in india, and that

millions of users in india are using these offshore platforms to evade taxes on crypto currency trading. late december, the government sent out show cause notices to nine such offshore firms asking them to talk about their registration and compliances and since last week first their websites were blocked and then they were removed from the apple store and now the google play store has also removed these apps. the government in india has been increasing oversight on virtual digital assets. in 2022, they impose heavy taxes on profits as well as trading of digital assets. many users had moved away from local platforms to these offshore exchanges because the local platforms had more stringent customer rules, while these offshore companies and offshore platforms had more easier rules for traders. platforms had more easier rules fortraders. some platforms had more easier rules for traders. some of those

volumes are now coming back in the last week since these offshore platforms have been banned. bloomberg quoted industry experts saying nearly $4 billion worth of crypto currency assets have been traded on offshore platforms and that could be a bunch of money that is evading taxes on indian soil and that is the reason. before we go looking at other key economic events on the calendar this week, india is due to release december trade data on monday. the country's trade deficit talents surged to a record level last year. mid week, a lot of attention will be on china as the world's second—largest economy is set to unveil a slew of data, including growth figures for the final quarter and all of last year. also the five—day annual meeting kicks off in the swiss alps resort of davos.

more than 60 world leaders willjoin hundreds of business leaders to talk about a challenging global economic picture. talks to end wars in gaza and ukraine are expected to be top of the agenda. that is all for asia business report for today. thank you for watching. voice-over: bbc news, - bringing you different stories from across the uk. this agricultural land between wetherby road and the river wharfe could be the site of a new housing development in tadcaster. peter is one of around 300 campaigners against the plan. so, this piece of land here covers 35 hectares, and gladman developments are proposing to build over 400 houses on it. the water levels are gradually seeping up onto this land, which would be a disaster to build on. i think it would | definitely make

the flooding issue worse because they are going i to concrete over - what is now wetland, which can drain through, whereas houses, - it doesn't drain _ through, it willjust run off. you can see today it's completely underwater. so i don't know how they would propose to build pathways because presumably they would get washed away on an annual basis. gladman developments declined an interview, but say the planning application for the ii arches development follows over a year of consultation and that there will be measures to manage surface water and increase flood resilience. and all built development is located in a flood zone one, identified by the environment agency as areas of low risk. voice-over: for more - stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website.

vmcsovsk: bbc news - - bringing you different stories from across the uk. all right, we'd better get this — get these shoes on, then. tony is 78 and has parkinson's disease. after a hospital spell following illness, he and his family decided tony needed more help. now, three mornings a week a carer comes in. today, paul has helped with showering, dressing and getting breakfast, which can take tony three hours when he is on his own. it also takes a bit of stress away from the family because, obviously, they worry about me. care charities such as dementia support in west sussex have also seen an increase in demand

for its advice and activities, up 75% on last january. they always see a seasonal increase but believe this year, it's largely due to difficulties for patients to see a gp and the suspension of new assessments for dementia by the local nhs following a budget overspend. the impact of the nhs diagnosis service that's actually closed from january through to march, so we have three months without diagnosis going on. i think families have got together and seen that there have been changes in behaviour and health, so they're reaching out for support and help, trying to find out what to do and where to go. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. hello and welcome to sportsday.

drama at the africa cup of nations as ghana are beaten by cape verde in their opening match of the tournament. japan begin their bid for asian cup glory with a win over vietnam. and the rocket fights back: ronnie 0'sullivan claims a record—extending eighth masters title at alexandra palace. hello there. welcome to sportsday. there were dramatic scenes in abidjan on sunday as cape verde beat ghana 2—1 in their opening match at the africa cup of nations. and it had looked — for a while, at least — as if the seven—time champions egypt might be beaten as well. also today, nigeria were held to a 1—1 draw with equatorial guinea. rounding up the day's action

is ian williams. well, the african underdogs really found their bite on day two of the tournament here in ivory coast. the biggest shortcoming in the late game here at abidjan�*s felix houphouet boigny stadium, where cape verde beat ghana 2—i, thanks to garry rodrigues's goal in injury time. before that, we had egypt with a late goal as well — mohamed salah to the rescue. a 97th minute penalty saving egypt against the minnows, mozambique, a side who have never won a game at afcon in what is now 13 attempts — and var was needed to award that penalty to save the pharaohs. in the early game, victor 0simhen, his first goal at afcon salvaged a 1—1 goal for nigeria against equatorial guinea. so, a combined 14 afcon titles among them but really not a good day for nigeria, egypt, and especially ghana. those games were in groups a and b. and then, on a monday, we've got groups c and d getting under way.

the standout game, really, the defending champions senegal getting their defence of the title under way against