interest rates steady leaving them at a 23—year high. with inflation cooling and solid economic growth, the question on the minds of many economists, consumers and businesses was when the central bank might start cutting rates. but the guidance offered by the fed chairjerome powell disappointed those on wall street who were hoping for a rate cut as soon as march. powell's warning that it is unlikely the central bank will be in a position to lower borrowing costs at its next meeting sent shares lower, with the dow losing more than 300 points and the nasdaq down by more than 2%. from new york, here's the bbc�*s north america business correspondent michelle fleury. for the fourth meeting in a row, the federal reserve did not raise interest rates. this is the longest pause since policymakers began their aggressive rate campaign to tame inflation back in march of 2022. but for rate weary americans, well, they will likely have to wait a few more months to see any relief, given these comments

by the federal chair. —— fed chair based on the meeting today, i would tell you that i don't think it's likely that the committee will reach a level of confidence by the time of the march meeting to identify march as the time to do that. but that is to be seen. mr powell's words disappointed us on wall street who believed that the first cut would potentially happen in march. this is after policymakers back in december hinted at three rate cuts in 202a. however, mr powell said officials wanted greater confidence that inflation was falling back to its 2% goal first. with prices coming down but still high and with the economy doing well, david russell at trade station believes that this is the right call telling mejerome powell has no reason to show his hand at this point. the rate decision comes after fresh data showing us economic growth slowed down in the last quarter, but performed much better than forecasters expected.

in other news, now to other stories making headlines. boeing boss dave calhoun has admitted that the plane maker faces a "serious challenge" as it seeks to restore confidence after one of its 737 max nine jets broke off in mid—air. he was announcing the firm's latest financial results... which showed revenue growing 10% in the last quarter of 2023. boeing says it will not offer guidance for its earnings this year. trust in the firm has been shaken afterjanuary�*s alaska airlines blow out. let's turn our focus now to social media because the bosses of companies likes meta, tiktok and x have faced a grilling from us senators. at the heart of the fiery hearing was the companies�* attitudes to legislation currently going through congress, which aim to hold them to account for material posted on their platforms. in a heated exchange, meta ceo mark zuckerberg ended up apologising to families who say their children had been harmed by social media. let's have a listen. would you like to do so now?

they're here, you're here on national television. would you like now to apologise to the victims who have been harmed by your products? show the pictures. would you like to apologise for what you have done to these good people? our guest, mitch prinstein from the american pshychological association has done clinical work on teenagers and social media. he told me if social media companies are doing enough to protect young people. it's not nearly enough, i'm afraid. it's very clear that it is notjust the access to the platform but it

is the way that these platforms are built, the functions that are a part of them. the endless scroll, the like button, the followers, the artificial intelligence, they're designed to keep kids engaged for as long as possible and more and more research is showing that that affects kids development, it affects their mental health and it's actually changing the way that their brains are growing. could you elaborate on that about how their brains are growing and how it changes from adults who have come to social media later in life? absolutely. you know, it's important to remember that after the first year of life, adolescence is the next most important time for brain development and around the same time those kids get their device, they have a vulnerability, a part of their brain that makes them super sensitive to getting social feedback and not yet a fully developed area of the brain to keep them from following their every single impulse. so it's kind of a perfect storm where kids are getting access to a device that gives them notifications and likes and encourages them

to stay on for hours at a time, research is showing that that actually is leading to kids�* brains growing to be smaller and also to work in ways that they're not supposed to maintain, being hypersensitive to those kinds of social cues. why should parents be looking out to safeguard their children against these things and how can they mitigate the impacts of too much social media? unfortunately, there's nothing going on in these companies to make sure these products are safe. so until legislators or tech companies make some very necessary changes, it sadly falls on parents to force those devices out of their kids�* hands to make sure that they are going to sleep and getting eight hours of sleep. that�*s so important for brain growth. that they not spending too much time on it. they�*re screening their kids for more addictive behaviours, like having a hard time withdrawing from social media use.

and mostly, setting all the parental controls they can to minimise the amount of time and content the kids are seeing in there. why is it so hard to push through meaningful legislation that can then be meaningfully enforced? so it�*s kind of a perfect storm where kids are getting access to a device that gives them notifications and likes there are questions around free speech but to be clear, it is not talking about the content, it is really talking about the functions that are built in to exploit the way that adolescents have not yet fully developed. that is where the concerns are where we have to make sure kids are not being exposed to videos that teach them how to cut themselves or engage in anorexia behaviours which is unfortunately now, happening quite often. to india next where the company will be outlining its spending plan. this cabinet will be interim

as the country is gearing up for elections in the next few months. the bbc�*s rooted a mukherjee is joining us. we appreciate you joining us. we appreciate you joining us. we appreciate you joining us. it joining us. we appreciate you joining ve— joining us. we appreciate you joining ne— joining us. it is a cold and rainy day _ joining us. it is a cold and rainy day but _ joining us. it is a cold and rainy day but from - joining us. it is a cold and rainy day but from the - rainy day but from the businessmen to the farmer, people would like to warm up to this when they leave that something will be in it for each section of the indian economy as the covenant looks to present its interim budget because as you said the elections are around the corner to give you a sense of how the government has gone about its spending plans so far in the last ten years, its main thrust has been on capital expenditure. just to give you an example, last year capital expenditure and outlay was around a. a little over 3% of the indian gdp and a hike from previous years by about 33%. that is the kind of focus that

this covenant has had on big—ticket infrastructure projects. we have seen some of those projects come up in the way of bridges, big highways being built across the country but this is also, politically speaking, very significant because these are the tangible things the government continues to push harder head of the elections and so it is going to be a lot of big numbers, a lot of big optics but it is also important to sift through the numbers as we decode what the budget is really going to mean for the common man because of we look at the kind of problems or challenges, most importantly, unemployment remains a challenge and also how to pivot india away from its heavy dependence on chinese imports that continues to flood the indian market especially with chinese raw materials. in that sense, the indian government brought out something called production laid incentives which was about $25 billion to indian companies to encourage domestic manufacturing and create employment so they are looking to create more in these spaces and also push hard on the renewable energy space as well so these are some of the

sections we will be looking out for. ., ~ , ., sections we will be looking out for. ., ~ ., , for. thank you for getting us across that. _ before we go. a usjudge has sided with florida governor ron desantis in his fight with disney. the media giant had accused the republican of organising a "campaign of government retaliation" when state officials voided a development deal involving disney�*s florida theme park. this came after disney criticised a state law that restricted the teaching of sexuality in schools. in dismissing disney�*s lawsuit, judge allen winsor said the actions the governor took were legal. adidas says it will not write—off its remaining inventory of yeezy shoes, despite the end of its partnership with kayne west. the sportswear giant was previously unsure of what to do with the over 300—million dollars worth of shoes left from its association with the rapper. adidas said in a statement that it plans to sell the collector�*s item

"at least" at cost. we will have to wait and see how that one pans out. in the meantime, thank you for your company here in asia business report. we will be back tomorrow. goodbye. voice-over: bbc news, i bringing a different stories from across the uk. it isa it is a trip down memory lane. this vintage fair not only attracts the local community but hundreds across the country. but the growing health and safety regulators to comply with men�*s volunteer organisers simply do not have the funds to go ahead with the event this year. go ahead with the event this ear. . ., , year. the increased legislation, - year. the increased legislation, some l year. the increased| legislation, some of year. the increased - legislation, some of which year. the increased _ legislation, some of which we are are aware of, some we weren�*t, a lot of that comes

with additional cost which we would have to raise. and some of this, a lot of it, has come to light following issues at the recent christmas market which the town council held and obviously cancelled their event this year. obviously cancelled their event this ear. ., . ., , this year. the town councillors said they _ this year. the town councillors said they took _ this year. the town councillors said they took that _ this year. the town councillors said they took that decision i this year. the town councillors said they took that decision to | said they took that decision to cancel the christmas market because traffic management, medical, electricaland medical, electrical and antiterrorism teams medical, electricaland antiterrorism teams are needed, all of which cost money. . in whittle �*s bar, the 1940s festival has also been cancelled this year. operators say that fees have become too high. meanwhile, the vintage fair will be back in 2025 in howden the community are gutted to miss out this year. hey. i�*m zof with the catch up! tonight: more on vapes, universal rows with tiktok,

and an unexpected commuter. you�*ve probably heard this phrase a lot recently — dry january. one in five drinkers gave up alcohol for the month, and a charity that looks at drinking habits said it saved people around £118 on average! one bbc reporter decided one month wasn�*t enough and has stopped drinking for a whole year! for me i�*m just curious. what happens in 12 months? am i experiencing big changes? has it completely transformed my life or is it the same without alcohol? you can followjess�*s journey through her �*sober diaries�* on the bbc news app or website. some other stories now... the person who made decisions in scotland during the pandemic says she sometimes wishes she hadn�*t been in charge. yes — nicola sturgeon told the covid inquiry she was overwhelmed at times. she also admitted deleting some whatsapp messages but said everything relevant was made available. next — a headteacher in wales says kids as young as seven are being caught with vapes in school and some are taking up to 15 toilet breaks a day to vape.

last week the government said they�*ll ban disposable vapes to protect kids�* health. and universal music is set to pull millions of its songs from tiktok after a disagreement over payments. this move would mean lots of your favourite tracks from the likes of taylor swift, the weeknd and drake could no longer be on the app. universal accused tiktok of bullying and said it didn�*t and time to leave you with ten seconds of an unexpected commuter on the train tracks at bishop�*s stortford station, delaying trains for as long as 15 minutes! ijust love how unbothered it is. just giving itself a little itch on the tracks! you�*re all caught up now — see ya!

hello and welcome to sportsday. i�*m olly foster. conor bradley is the toast of anfield as he helps liverpool restore their five point premier league lead. the favourites are firing at the asian cup — japan are through to the quarterfinals. just over two years since her olympic dream was taken away, we meet faye rogers on the brink of her first paralympics in the pool.

hello there. the pressure was on liverpool at anfield as they looked to regain that five—point lead at the top of the table, and they came through with flying colours against chelsea, with their inspiration coming from an unlikely source, 20—year—old northern irishman, conor bradley, deputising for trent alexander arnold, he scored his first goal for the club and also set assisted two others as they beat mauricio pochettino�*s chelsea 4—1. bradley set up diogojota before scoring their second of the night by half—time. darwin nunez had also missed a penalty, he hit the woodwork four times during the game. bradley then crossed for liverpool�*s third, a dominik szoboszlai header and though nkunku pulled one back, luis diaz added a fourth for liverpool, a comfortable night for liverpool and a memorable one for conor bradley.