the us has promised more major sanctions on russia. we'll look at what this could mean for the economy. and how climate change is hitting the panama canal exacerbating the supply chain crisis. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm steve lai. let's begin in the us, where presidentjoe biden has just announced plans to impose "major" sanctions on russia. officials say the measures will target a range of items, including sources of revenue for the economy. more details will be provided on friday. the move follows the death of prominent russian opposition leader alexei navalny, and comes as the war in ukraine rages on. president biden has blamed russian counterpart putin for navalny�*s death. the bbc�*s erin delmore has more from new york.

when news broke on friday that the foremost critic of vladimir putin had died in an arctic prison, questions arose on how the us would respond and now we have one answer. the us is expected to announce further sanctions against russia. this comes as washington struggles to agree on funding to assist ukrainian armed forces in their fight against russia. in this week marks the two—year anniversary of the full—scale invasion of ukraine. at the start of that conflict, us enacted a slew of economic sanctions against russia and thus included freezing russian banks and businesses out of western financial markets and along with europe, canada and japan, freezing some $300 billion of russian central bank assets. the us also enforced economic restrictions on the oligarchs and band russian energy imports. all of this was intended to dampen the countries economic and military

power and ultimately statements might in the world are. but russia's economy is whether the effects of the sanctions and restrictions and is actually grown at a better pace than expected. they predicted last month that russia's gross domestic product would grow by 2.6% this year. we do not know yet what will be included in this round of sanctions by national security council made it clear that the point would be to hold russia accountable for what happened to alexei navalny and for all of its actions over the course of this vicious and brutal war that is now raged on for two years. major hong kong based lender hsbc is due to report its latest results on wednesday. and there's a lot of question marks over its operations in asia, particularly when china's economy has been slowing with the government rolling out measures designed to get consumers and business spending. this week, china's central bank cut its benchmark lending rate used to price mortgages. and last month, it lowered the amount of cash banks need to keep as reserve.

for more, i'm joined by harry murphy cruise of economic analysis service moody's analytics. but as harry murphy cruise of economic analysis service a lackluster start and investors have been calling for more support and it goes some way and appeasing that and ultimately, cutting interest rates, it is not enough to shift the dial in china's economy and it seems like a bit of a stopgap before we go into the two sessions oversee a bit of a broader stimulus programme but in terms of monetary policy but in terms of monetary policy but also on the fiscal side. before we go, imagine being able to control a mouse with your thoughts. that's what the first human patient of brain chip startup neuralink can do, according to its founder elon musk. mr musk says the patient also appears to have made a full recovery "with no ill effects

that we are aware of". the firm is now trying to get as many mouse button clicks as possible from the patient. neuralink implanted a chip in a human for the first time last month. british beauty retailer the body shop has started closing up to half of its stores in the uk. it will also reduce the size of its head office, leading to hundreds ofjob losses. this comes after the company's uk arm was put into administration last week. administrators said the move will help to "re energise" the brand. the body shop currently employs more than 2 thousand people in the uk, where it had almost 200 stores. the country with the world's highest unemployment rate gets worse with south africa's jobless rate rising further, to over 32% in the last quarter of last year. let's check in on the singapore airshow. the philippines is back pre pandemic levels of travel, and is one of the fastest growing countries in south east asia. to meet the demand, the country is investing in expanding their airports

in places like mindinao and clark, the former us military base. the bbc�*s monica miller spoke to philippines transport secretaryjaime (hi me) bautista about the impact of the 3 billion dollar reconstruction project of its international airport in manila on travel in the region. increasing capacity from 5 million _ increasing capacity from 5 million passengers to 60 million _ million passengers to 60 million and within the next six years — million and within the next six years. right now, we are already— years. right now, we are already handling almost 50 million _ already handling almost 50 million passengers and we have a range — million passengers and we have a range around 130,000 and 240,000 passengers every day. was that— 240,000 passengers every day. was that have an impact on delaying flights in the region? , we will expand and maybe fix some _ , we will expand and maybe fix some of— , we will expand and maybe fix some of the existing turbulence and result in major disruptions. and result in ma'or disruptionsi and result in ma'or disruptions. and result in ma'or disrutions. , ., disruptions. used to run philippine _ disruptions. used to run philippine airlines, - disruptions. used to run philippine airlines, the l philippine airlines, the president of it, i'm wondering what your thoughts are on boeing 737. what your thoughts are on boeing 731— what your thoughts are on boeina 737. , , ., .,, ., boeing 737. they use to operate them and during _ boeing 737. they use to operate them and during my _ boeing 737. they use to operate them and during my time, - boeing 737. they use to operate them and during my time, we i them and during my time, we replace —

them and during my time, we replace this and we have ordered. we had a full evaluation of the fleet and the airlines— evaluation of the fleet and the airlines and we look at all of the advantages and disadvantages of operating both aeroplanes and it shows that we will be _ aeroplanes and it shows that we will be more successful if we operate _ will be more successful if we operate and safety is always paramount in terms of making decisions _ paramount in terms of making decisions and during the time that_ decisions and during the time that we — decisions and during the time that we selected this, we think that we selected this, we think that the — that we selected this, we think that the aeroplanes are also safe — as we've been reporting in recent months, global shipping has been severely disrupted by houthi attacks on ships heading to the suez canal. across the atlantic the other canal vital to international

trade, the panama canal, is also suffering from major disruption. the culprit is climate change. michelle fleury reports. consists of rope most expensive trafficjam outside the panama canal and billions of dollars with the cargo flows through your each year. but it's vital link between two oceans is running out of water. which is a huge problem for shipping companies and could spell trouble for global trade. the number of vessels that can pass through here each day has been slashed from 36 to 24. from the shipping company told me that the short cut between the specific and atlantic oceans is the natural route and block alternative meaning that more time and extra costs and the

panama canal looks petty microbes through a set of locks in an artificial leg in five feet above sea level but it means the canal here is reliant on rain water which is in short supply stability doesn't 23 has been the second race year in the history of the panama canal. and saying the drought made worse by the weather phenomenon is expected to last until may. we phenomenon is expected to last until ma . ~ ., phenomenon is expected to last until ma . ~ . ., until may. we are having lack of rain, until may. we are having lack of rain. and _ until may. we are having lack of rain, and the _ until may. we are having lack of rain, and the rainy - of rain, and the rainy season which goes from may into december we were supposed to get tonnes of rain and get blakes and el nino year and now that we are in summer, the lakes have started with very low level and we had to cut down a number of ships being able to transfer to maintain the lake level through the summer. the lake level through the summer-— the lake level through the summer. , ., , summer. the freshwater feeds

the locks in — summer. the freshwater feeds the locks in the _ summer. the freshwater feeds the locks in the canal- the locks in the canal hydrologist said showed us first—hand the scale of the problem. first-hand the scale of the problem-— first-hand the scale of the roblem. .,, i. , problem. the level as you see here, it problem. the level as you see here. it is _ problem. the level as you see here, it is 81.20 _ problem. the level as you see here, it is 81.20 feet - problem. the level as you see here, it is 81.20 feet in - problem. the level as you see here, it is 81.20 feet in the i here, it is 81.20 feet in the level— here, it is 81.20 feet in the level should be five feet more than _ level should be five feet more than that. level should be five feet more than that-— level should be five feet more than that. , ., than that. the boats, fewer are allowed to _ than that. the boats, fewer are allowed to pass _ than that. the boats, fewer are allowed to pass through - than that. the boats, fewer are allowed to pass through the - allowed to pass through the panama canal now, putting billions of dollars a trade at risk and raising difficult questions about the future of this engineering marvel. they're trying to reuse as much water as possible, it is considering building more reservoirs to stall the water and exploring cloud seeding to make it rain more. we and exploring cloud seeding to make it rain more.— make it rain more. we believe it is climate _ make it rain more. we believe it is climate change _ make it rain more. we believe it is climate change and - make it rain more. we believe it is climate change and if- make it rain more. we believe it is climate change and if we | it is climate change and if we look at the world in 2023, the amazon river, very low, and mississippi river had to stop transit at very low levels and it's not only panama, it is the world that a lot of different

climate situation since 2023. while other routes suffer disruption from piracy, the problems of the panama canal are a reminder that climate change may yet be the biggest crisis for global trade. the country with the world's highest unemployment rate gets worse with south africa's jobless rate rising further, to over 32% in the last quarter of last year. nearly eight million working age people are without work. it's a blow to the governing african national congress with a general election expected between may and august. commentators say the anc may especially struggle to win over younger voters, who continue to experience even higher rates of unemployment in what is africa's most industrialised economy. and that's it for this edition of asia business report.

thanks for watching. bbc news bringing you different stories from across the uk. russell coleman is at home with stone. but at his newcastle studio, an idea he had a decade ago, is now starting to take shape. so this is my new big project and it's called drone. this is a million drones drone over the next five years. by you? by me. each one is individual. there may be insects. there may be in sets. so this is 1000 of on chinese paper for the chinese new year. but the idea is that a million people can own one big artwork. how long is it going to take you?

five years, you say? yeah, five years. what does that mean? about 4000 a week. blimey. why are you doing it? it's a sort of antidote to the art world. so this one, we could have a million owners all alone so this one, we could have a million owners all owning this one artwork that will only ever exist once it's made. for more stories from across the uk. head to the bbc news website. hey, i'm rachel with the catch up. tonight, pressure on israel. tom lockyer speaks out and fashion week wraps up. in the middle east, pressure is building on israel to pause its war in gaza. the us, which is one of israel's biggest supporters, wants the un to vote for a temporary ceasefire. that's when both sides stop fighting for a bit. and it warned israel

against invading rafah, which is an overcrowded city in the south, where more than a million palestinians have been forced to shelter. here, the labor party has gone further and called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire for the first time. keir starmer had already been calling for the fighting to stop, but he'd avoided using that specific phrase until now. and prince william has also spoken out. he says he wants to see an end to the fighting as soon as possible. next, it's not often we hear a footballer talk openly about the lowest point in their career, but luton's captain tom lockyer has been speaking to the bbc about how his heart literally stopped when he collapsed during a match before christmas. he says he's not given up on playing again. it'll depend what doctors tell him, but he says he's living a normal life and talking about it helps. time now for 10 seconds of glamour at london fashion week.

and everyone from skepta to anna wintour has been in town to celebrate 40 years of the event, including the 0g supermodel naomi campbell, who'll wrap things up walking at burberry�*s closing show. you're all caught up now. see you.

hello and welcome to sportsday with me, marc edwards. haaland the hero as manchester city bank their game in hand with a win over brentford. the real deal, mbappe on the move to madrid as the la liga giants get the worlds most wanted man. the yorkshire chairman colin graves explains why he has never personally apologised to azeem rafiq for the abuse he suffered at the club.

hello and thanks forjoining us on sportsday, and we begin