, inflation. inflation. oil mean for global inflation. oil prices hitting their highest levels this year. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm steve lai. let's begin in the us, the world's number when economy grew at a better—than—expected pace last year. led by strong consumer spending. drove stock markets to new highs. s&p 500 logs is fifth record close. michelle fleury has more from new york. for an economy many said was headed for recession, the us continues to defy expectation. in the final three months of last year, the american economy grew faster than expected, expanding at an annual later three x 3% while inflation fell. growth for the entire year also accelerated, even as the federal reserve was engaged in the most regressive rate height cycle in years. dr biden ceased on the moment. here is

the president in the battleground state of wisconsin.— battleground state of wisconsin. ., . ., , wisconsin. economic growth is stron . er wisconsin. economic growth is stronger than _ wisconsin. economic growth is stronger than we _ wisconsin. economic growth is stronger than we had - wisconsin. economic growth is stronger than we had during i wisconsin. economic growth is l stronger than we had during the trump administration. thanks to the american people, america now is at its strongest growth and lowest inflation rate of any economy in the world. mi any economy in the world. all this way. _ any economy in the world. all this way, joe biden's... have been on the road with the message that the president's strategy to help the middle class is working. on wednesday, the president picked up a major endorsement from the united auto workers. donald trump is a scam! (cheers) he was a thing, with trump trouncing biden in polling but the economy at the end of last year the white house is trying to change the narrative. pouncing on the latest gdp data to help make its case. overnight, oil prices havejumped to highest its case. overnight, oil prices have jumped to highest levels this year. as you can see, they are up about 3% as tensions in

the red sea continue to disrupt global trade. the red sea continue to disrupt globaltrade. financial the red sea continue to disrupt global trade. financial survey elegance has forecast that if the crisis continues for several months, global inflation could be pushed up by half a percentage point if i put my%. that is partly because taking the longer route costs freight carriers five times more than going through the suez canal. patrick labat hobbies from in photo and told us at this crisis compares to the covert disruption. ye—lim agut we see is the price increase of october around 850% on top of the very low rates that we saw that decreased over covid and $50,000 per container from inaudible to europe.... what are you advising clients to do? yes en i—handed, keeping track of stocks. improving production planning and adjusting it to the past and extended leadtimes

we are currently seeing. roughly 2— three weeks that the journey is extended through the way across africa. but how do you see this playing out? it is incredibly hard to predict i appreciate going forward given the unpredictable nature of what's been happening in the red sea? , we are expecting a further increase of rates at least until chinese new year and then it will pretty much stay on that level or even decrease slightly. what you make of the pressure from the international community to ensure safety of shipping in the red sea, particularly from china? pm the red sea, particularly from china? �* , china? an interesting element. china? an interesting element. china invested _ china? an interesting element. china invested quite _ china? an interesting element. china invested quite a - china? an interesting element. china invested quite a bit - china? an interesting element. china invested quite a bit into l china invested quite a bit into the inaudible in the past years and obviously they are quite keen to keep up trade across the suez canal into europe and into all the other markets they are serving. so there will be quite a bit of pressure from the chinese government in the background in order to secure that rate. but in other news, making

headlines, from march people in the eu using apple devices will be able to download apps from rivals. and notjust from its own store is currently the case. it comes after the eu introduce new rules to encourage competition represents a major u—turn. apple has always insisted it's vetting process limit secured... protect security and limits... levi strauss as it will cut as much as 50% of its global workforce to raining cost. its executive said the layoffs were aimed at producing a leaner company. becomes a sales and profits outlook missed wall street's expectation. chances are if you work in an office, you are probably there a few times a week. many companies, particularly those who went fully remote during the pandemic a few years ago are trying to get employees back into the office more regularly. lewis garrard from the consultancy mercer told me how

the trend will affect employees and job prospects. the trend will affect employees andjob prospects. , the trend will affect employees and job prospects. , the kind of work you do really matters. the data suggest that from the economists who are researching this that fully remote work is less productive than being around your colleagues in person. only slightly, just a few percentage points, but that disappears when you are in the office a few days a week. so you can form those relationships and perhaps get that little buzz that you get from being around others. that will probably be the status quo. but frankly, steve, in recent times we have started to move past this trend and start to ask ourselves a bit more bigger questions as you have mentioned, the rise of generative ai mentioned, the rise of generative al on some of these other things are really starting to be on the minds of workers these days. elaborate on that point, coming to ai workers these days. elaborate on that point, coming to alas we are emerging from the pandemic. the shift changes we have seen in the last year or so towards the workforce. there

are a coume _ so towards the workforce. there are a coume of— so towards the workforce. there are a couple of big _ so towards the workforce. there are a couple of big train. - so towards the workforce. there are a couple of big train. i - are a couple of big train. i would stress that we are still in quite a tight labour market, which means the demand for employees is still quite high. yes, we have had really successful economic performance in you have just mentioned that the united states as an example. that means we have more jobs than people example. that means we have morejobs than people in many markets. we have ageing population, people are reaching retirement ages, fatality rates are down, which means the overall labour and workforce is small in many places and that drives demand and competition for workers. drives demand and competition forworkers. but drives demand and competition for workers. but of course there is some question about whether or not generative ai will help alleviate some of that by boosting productivity and allowing us to do more with and allowing us to do more with a smaller workforce. but we all know that the theme really coming into this year that a lot of organisations we are talking to really are looking at is risk and uncertainty. individuals are feeling that too. economic uncertainty,

inflation, the economic run continue, geopolitical offcourse and the impact of generative ai itself on labour markets. perhaps we will see bill be more cautious coming into this year, a bit more thoughtful about whether or not they should be up in the labour market looking for a newjob, if they are gainfully and securely employed. irate if they are gainfully and securely employed. we were talkinu securely employed. we were talking early _ securely employed. we were talking early in _ securely employed. we were talking early in the _ securely employed. we were l talking early in the programme about challenges facing the global supply chain. even before the recent tension sparked in the red sea there was already lingering crisis on land. during the pandemic, thousands of truck driver stopped work and many have never come back. my colleague alan hassell has asked the president of of scania about the problem. and whether the answer is building new infrastructure for electric vehicle. , , vehicle. this is the problem and ou vehicle. this is the problem and you might _ vehicle. this is the problem and you might think- vehicle. this is the problem and you might think it - vehicle. this is the problem and you might think it is - vehicle. this is the problem and you might think it is a l and you might think it is a problem in the uk or europe, it is a global problem. wherever i 90, is a global problem. wherever i go, whether brazil, or china, we hear the same thing. young people seem to don't want to

become truck drivers. this could be a huge problem for the global logistical system. trucks are some kind of bloodstream of society. if trucks are not moving we will not have food on the shelves in our stores, not have food on the shelves in ourstores, injust not have food on the shelves in our stores, injust a not have food on the shelves in ourstores, injusta number of hours or perhaps days. so this we need to address and we are trying to do our best as a vehicle manufacturer to create an attractive vehicle with attractive appealing and ergonomic workspace, with a good bed, good infotainment system. so that at least life in the cab can be made really attractive. i think we need to go beyond that. this is a systems issue. we need to look into drivetime. we need to look into drivetime. we need to look into giving younger people opportunity to return to base and sleep in their own bed when they come home. not many people think about that but [and transport is culminating global trade. —— dominating it depends

on country again but you have around 60— 70% of transport being on that and usually it is a flexible part up to the last mile. but you have markets where 90%— japan is a good example, injapan 90% of transport is done on trucks. if that does not work, if there is a shortage of drivers, there is a shortage of drivers, there is a shortage of truck haulage capacity, the entire global trade will become dangerous. this is a tremendously important. what about this? as we are building the infrastructure for electrification is that the opportunity to build better infrastructure that makes truck driving more appealing? , i think you're onto something very important. power dummett probably they can combine. truck stop start not very important most of them today. as you need to rebuild and build out spaces where 20, 30, maybe 50 trucks can stop at the same time to charge, it is a great opportunity to create an

infrastructure around that with possibilities to rest, with food, possibilities to shower and amenities that really look nice and appealing to drivers. great chat. before we go, us trade regulator says it will investigate investments made by microsoft, google and amazon into ai start—ups openai and anthropic. federaltrade commission says it is about keeping up a developments in al there as well as stopping major players from shutting out competitors. microsoft has so far move this busters in the generative ai revolution, having reportedly spent $13 billion investment in openai. we are out of time in asia business report.— business report. bringing different stories _ business report. bringing different stories from - business report. bringing i different stories from across the uk. it seemed to grow

organically by lots of people visiting. grew, and grew and grew and just over the years each time mother nature takes it away again we have to come back and put it back together. there is not a lot left at all. everyone who came along to help rebuild the bench has their own memories of the place. we saw... died _ memories of the place. we saw... died last _ memories of the place. - saw... died last april. memories of the place. we saw... died last april. are | saw... died last april. are used to — saw... died last april. are used to put _ saw... died last april. are used to put little - saw... died last april. are used to put little stones with a little — used to put little stones with a little message on it to remember herand now a little message on it to remember her and now it is all gone — remember her and now it is all gone so— remember her and now it is all gone. so we have started again. these _ gone. so we have started again. these are — gone. so we have started again. these are memorabilia from previous bench, people have written their names on them. so, it might be nice to answer some of those back, so when people come they can see them. it is not the first time they have had to do this. the bench has been damaged by storms before and in the summer by fire. this class which was donated than is now the centrepiece for the new bench wants more. the group says they hope more people come along and

add more driftwood and mementos to build the bench up ones again to the community hub it wants was. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. hey, i'mjulia with the catch up. tonight, an update on rubiales, a seven figure mix up and a lion in a bentley. but first, a man who stabbed three people to death on the streets of nottingham has been told by a judge that he'll probably spend the rest of his life in a high—security hospital. faldo karl o'kane was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia when he killed ian coates, barnaby webber and grace o'malley—kumar. so thejudge accepted a manslaughter plea, but the victim's families say that he got away with murder. true justice has not been served today. we as a devastated family have been let down by multiple agency failings and ineffectiveness.

some other stories now. a spanishjudge has proposed that luis rubiales should go to trial. he grabbed playerjenni hermoso head and kissed her after spain's victory against australia at the world cup. she said the kiss was not consensual, but mr rubiales denies that. police in thailand have arrested a woman whose pet lion was spotted going on a ride in a bentley. you can legally own a lion in thailand, but it needs to be officially registered. and white lotus star tom hollander got a big surprise when he received a seven—figure sum by accident. it was actually a box office bonus meant for tom holland, who played spider—man in the avengers. we'll leave you with ten seconds of this week's red carpet star, claudia schiffer�*s cat. yes, dua lipa and samuel l jackson went to the premiere of their new spy film argyle. but it's chip, the cat, and this iconic matching backpack that definitely stole the show. you're all caught up now. see you.

hello and welcome to sportsday. india have the advantage as we head into day two of the first test against england.

stoppage time drama in the asian cup — we'll bring you the latest as we enter the knockout stages. and, 16—year—old zak carrick—smith continues to impress at the winter youth olympic games. welcome. you are very welcome along to the programme whether you are watching around the world. it's one of the toughest places to go to and win a test series — and there's nothing that happened on day one of england's first test in india to suggests that it will be changing anytime soon. although it's very early days, india seem to have already grabbed control of the opening match — thanks to excellent

bowling initially — and then some excellent batting