biggest broadcasters falls apart. plus, the british high street shop that has found a new lease of life after covid. hello and welcome to asia business report. we begin our programme this hour in india where a mega merger between two media giants has broken down. japan's sony group has terminated plans to merge its indian unit with tv broadcaster zee entertainment. it would have created one of india's biggest media entities. let's bring in our reporter from mumbai with more on this story. what are the implications of this deal falling through? the implications _ this deal falling through? the implications are _ this deal falling through? lie: implications are required serious, particularly for zee.

they were looking to salvage a terrible financial performance that it has been seen, but also for sony, which is also really facing stiff competition right now in the indian market from the likes of amazon, netflix as well as a potential merger between disney and reliance industries. these two giants were looking to come together and consolidate their presence against this competition, but of course it has now fallen through because there was no consensus it has been said between the two companies and who would lead the merged entity. zee of course wanted its current loss to be leading it. sorry of course had reservations about that because of a number of corporate governance cases that have been pending against him. so despite nearly two years of negotiations and a 30 day grace period, the deal has now fallen through. it doesn't look like this is the end because sony is

now seeking a $90 million termination fee and zee has said it will go to the courts as well. we will have to wait and see what the stock market reaction is, particularly for zee enterprises because the markets were closed yesterday when the markets were made. i am sure you will keep a close eye on that story for us. in other news, a video game developer will lay off more than 500 employees, that is around 11% of its staff. the terms and owned companies behind popular titles like legal legends and its chief executive said some of the firm's investments have become unsustainable. to the us now where the stock market has continued its rally. the snp 500 and the dough downs —— dow jones industrial average launch new record highs building on friday's massive gains. from new york, a report has the

latest. from new york, a report has the latest. for the dow, a new benchmark — the index traded above 38,000. that's a first. the tech heavy nasdaq, for its part, ended the day up more than three—tenths of a percent. this is what they call a �*bull run�*. the market's been on the upswing since october 2022, and it's thanks to a few tailwinds. among them, an outperforming tech sector and a resilient labour market. the federal reserve has a role too. so far, it's been able to cool inflation without tipping the economy into a recession. that's called a �*soft landing' and it's buoying wall street. stocks are rallying in anticipation of interest rate cuts that the fed has signalled this year, which would let interest rates fall from a 22—year high. when interest rates go down, it makes it cheaper for businesses and individuals to borrow money. so spending increases and usually that makes stock prices go up. it is a very different story for the chinese stock markets, which have been struggling in the new year. chinese premier li qiang

has pledged to take forceful and effective action to support market confidence. i spoke to moody's analytics economist, harry murphy cruise. he explained the market reaction. 2023 — it wasn't the year that officials had hoped for. it's been shaky. it's been uneven, that recovery. and so, really, we're now seeing that flow through into equity markets. we've seen those big sell—offs across chinese stocks. ultimately, investors are hoping to see the economic recovery pick up through this year, with officials still reluctant to put that stimulus in, we're seeing them pull out from those markets. and, harry, what's expected to happen going forward? i mean, the leadership says that they'll do what they can to prop up the market. yeah, definitely. i think officials are kind of being pulled in two directions here. so, on the one hand, you've got this economy that, as i say, is pretty desperate for some extra support

and some stimulus. but then on the other hand, you've got officials who are very conscious and, you know, very keen to avoid the mistakes that they've made in the past. so, you know, if you look at previous downturns in china — officials, they've spent massively to support the economy — you know, the global financial crisis, a great example. they spent massively on infrastructure and through the real estate market. china was very successful in that. china really pulled the rest of the global economy up through that crisis. but it comes with those consequences, you know, very, very costly. we are seeing that in the blowout in local government debt. it can inflate markets, particularly in real estate, which obviously we're living with the consequences of that now. it can also lead to this big investment in quite unproductive assets and overcapacity, which ultimately pulls down growth in the future, and it's just unsustainable. so those are the two dynamics that officials are having to navigate. ultimately, we think it'll probably land somewhere in between. it's not going to be the big bazooka spending of the global financial crisis.

but, ultimately, we will need to see officials step in to try to support the economy this year, and we'll likely see that coming out of the two sessions in march. the company behind the crash terra and luna stable coins has filed for bankruptcy in the us. they have collapsed and lost $40 billion of their value, contributing to the so—called crypto crash of 2022. our business reporter katie silva has more on the story. they are based in singapore and has been a long time coming. the company has a coin called stable because it was designed to maintain a constant $i price. but it, along with its sister token, luna, collapsed almost two years ago when it failed to maintain that $1 peg. those two cryptocurrencies lost around $40 billion and the fallout hit the wider crypto market. some investors lost

their life savings. its founder who was originally from south korea was arrested in montenegro after interpol issued a warrant for his arrest. a court in the us has recently delay the trial against him while it waits for him to be extradited. in the latest twist and turn according to these court filings, the company has between 100 million and 500 million in assets and liabilities. they say they will meet all financial obligations to employees and vendors, but despite filing for this bankruptcy protection, it says it is not over yet. terraform labs wants to continue to expanded offerings in web 3, something that has been dubbed the future of the internet. h&m has pulled an advertisement for school uniforms in australia following accusations it encouraged the sexualisation of young children. the ad has shown two primary school aged girls under

a slogan that said "make those heads turn" in h&m's back—to—school fashion. many shops on the uk's high streets have been vacant and have shut their doors. now, many empty units are being filled by businesses which started online, known as pop—up shops. dougal shaw reports. he went to see those up—and—coming spaces. a morning pep talk before they meet the customers. these entrepreneurs all run successful online businesses. now, they're getting their first taste of high street retail on london's world—famous carnaby street. for clothes, it's so important to try things on and see them in real life. so being in store is an amazing experience to give to our loyal customers. i work with discarded balloons, turning them into fashion accessories and homeware. meeting customers in a space like this has been great. the feedback is amazing. totally boosting my confidence. more and more pop—up shops like these are filling retail spaces that fell vacant during covid

as lockdowns accelerated the trend towards online shopping. this shop was empty six weeks ago. it's now full of brilliant creatives from across london who are learning how to do their own shops, re—energising our high streets and making them better for everyone. this project is supported by the mayor of london's office, but some entrepreneurs have seen a business opportunity in satisfying this demand for pop—up spaces. pop—up club has run more than 25 shops like this one across the uk since 2017. this latest one in victoria, central london, took over a space left vacant by a chain of tea retailers. we go into empty spaces, we share it out collaboratively, and they have 30 to a0 different artists or makers in one space and make it affordable and accessible for them. we call this trend online to offline — or 020. and what we're finding is that a lot of these retailers that started their lives purely online are now actually benefiting the high street by opening physical shops. such is the demand for pop—up spaces,

there is even a kind of airbnb platform for them run by another business called appear here. it offers space in all kinds of places, from shopping centres and outdoor markets to warehouses. the hope with all of these pop—ups is that online entrepreneurs will get a taste for face—to—face retail and so become the next generation of high street shop owners. from seeing the way a pop—up works, i definitely think i'll have my own shop in the future. dougal shaw, bbc news. that is it for this edition of asia business report. do stay with bbc news. many thanks for watching. voice-over: bbc news - bringing you different stories from across the uk. reunited once again...

..theodore and his dad meeting in lviv. in the summer, theodore's school friends did a camping—out fundraiser to pay for his trips back to ukraine. actually, it means all the world to us. it's so amazing when children of that age are thinking of the future or thinking of what is happening in the world. what was the best bit about it? seeing a lot of my family. and i slept with my dad all the time. it was a boys' room at that time during our stay because, yeah, they both snore. laughs no, i don't! yes, they do. no, i don't...! laughs theodore and his friend liam have started a new fundraiser — cycling the distance between manchester and the middle east to raise funds for children affected by the situation in gaza. itjust felt as if it's unfair, so we need to do another thing for all the people as well.

they've currently travelled more than 500 miles. we started there, and we have to get all the way over to palestine. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. hey, i'm zoph with the catch up. tonight — storm isha causes chaos, reese witherspoon gets icy, and a rough landing. we start with storm isha, which is causing chaos across the uk. thousands of people are still without power after heavy rain and winds of up to 99mph. scotland, northern ireland, northwest england and wales have been hit and some in remote areas have been warned they might not have power until tuesday. it's also caused travel disruption for lots of people, including toby, who was in scotland for his stag—do. i'm in edinburgh waverley station outside the caledonian sleeper,

which was supposed to be taken back down. so we're ready for an extended stag—do on the sleeper itself tonight. you can keep up with the latest on this on the bbc news website or app. and reese witherspoon has defended her choice to eat snow. yeah, you did hear that right. she tried to make what she called a choco—ccino. no idea either. fans warned her it isn't safe to eat, but she insisted it was fine. i'm going to be honest, though, i have eaten snow before and i do find it crunchy and fresh, i think it's fine, butjust don't eat it if it's yellow! time now to leave you with ten seconds of relieved passengers landing at gatwick. applause as they had to land in crazy winds on the way back from ibiza, and yet i fully would have clapped when that plane landed. let's just normalise it now. i don't think it's that cringy. i think it's fine. you're all caught up now. see you later.

hello and welcome to sportsday. coming up on the program: liverpool score four at bournemouth to extend their lead at the top of the english premier league. the first knockouts at the asian cup. and — a blow for india, but a boost for england — virat kohli will miss the first two tests of the series.

welcome along. aft the africa cup of nations, hosts ivory coast were thrashed 4-0 hosts ivory coast were thrashed 4—0 by equatorial guinea. egypt's rode their luck to the knockout stage of the competition, without winning a game, after being held by cape verde. 0ur reporter told us how it all unfolded. when cape verde has been blowing at this cup of nations, they've always brought the drama and the goals. they took the lead early on and went to the lead early on and went to the break i—0. everybody thought, "oh, my god, this is overfor egypt," as thought, "oh, my god, this is over for egypt," as mo saleh watched from the stands as he's injured. they fought back in the 50th minute, thanks to their substitute, to make it 1-1. as their substitute, to make it 1—1. as we thought it would end 1-1, 1—1. as we thought it would end i—i, egypt got the lead. initially, they thought it was