polls have closed in alabama, where voters are choosing a representative for the us senate. the campaign has been dominated by allegations of sexual misconduct against the republican candidate, roy moore. he's denied the claims. if his rival, doug jones, wins, he'd be the first democrat in 25 years to take the seat. us secretary of state rex tillerson has said he's ready to talk to north korea without preconditions. his offer appears to be a change from previous demands that north korea must first disarm. and this story is trending on bbc.com. it's a0 years since the first star wars movie and now the latest instalment, the lastjedi, received royal approval in london at its european premiere. stay with us, more to come here and also the result of alabama. greater manchester police have made a sixth arrest in connection with a fire at a house in which three children from the same family died.

detectives believe it was a targeted attack. now, all the latest business news live from singapore. the u—turn for uber as it strikes deals with taxi operators in singapore. and the shopping mall operator westfield has sold the european giant for $25 billion. good morning, asia, hello, world. it's a wednesday. glad you could join us for asia business report. i'm rico hizon. we start off with uber and it is backin we start off with uber and it is back in the headlines, this time for forging partnerships they taxi

operator in thailand. lastly, it also close the deal with a company here in singapore. it is a major change for the company. travis kalanick step down five months ago because of investor pressure and allegations of sexual harassment, and was replaced by a new ceo. the scandal did not and there, last month it was revealed that they had suffered a data breach in 2016, impacting 57 million users. and the company continues to lose money, reporting a loss of 1.5 billion us dollars in the third quarter of this year. earlier, a spoke to about‘s chief business officer for asia—pacific and i started by asking him what the new partnership in thailand will mean for the company. this taxi partnership that we will announce today will give riders more options in bangkok, give riders opportunity to increase utilisation

and it is a great partnership brought together by our technology. are you planning to do more of these partnerships with taxi operators around southeast asia 7 partnerships with taxi operators around southeast asia? we are, today, in bangkok, we're seventh. we had a big announcement with comfort in singapore on friday and today in bangkok will be truly exciting as well. over the past mac two years, you had uber retreating from china. it struck a deal, as you mentioned, with the singapore company and our partnership with a thailand taxi operator. is everforging partnership with a thailand taxi operator. is ever forging these deals because you have to make up for lost ground to the competition in asia? not at all, the singapore deal and comfort is truly expensive, it is great for singapore drivers and riders and it is great for uber and riders and it is great for uber and comfort, these are two companies

coming together to provide more options. we're really excited about the rollout the back of this. last time you on the bbc, he discussed the scandals and the cultural issues within uber. now that you are on board, since august, has this started to change? we are making terrific strides and this is coming from a terrific new ceo, who is driving change from the top. but every week, i am out with our teams, speaking with all of our people about culture, compliance, making sure that we are growing in a way that behind this incredible growth we've had, with all the proper procedures and culture in place. lot of positive things to look forward to from uber, but what challenging things will either be facing in 2018? if you look around the region, one of our biggest challenges is how help cities save

—— solve these congestion issues. that is one of the big things we are doing around the region, making sure we are providing the local transport, multimodal solutions, whatever it is, so that writers and drivers in singapore and across the region have great year and beyond. about‘s chief financial officer for asia—pacific. living under other news and what could be australia's is ever takeover, the shopping at operator westfield has agreed to sell the group for $25 billion to a french group. an estimated 8640 stores shut their doors in america this year, and that is the highest number since the 2008 financial crisis. earlier, ispoke number since the 2008 financial crisis. earlier, i spoke to a retail technology expert and ask him if moores will be able to compete.

there is definitely a struggle because the online is getting more and more penetration, however, i think this is not the apocalypse or the end of work and brick and mortar retail, we did not have the technology to do it and now we do and that is where we are heading. you were talking about transformation, why hasn't that mindset changed for asian shoppers to e—commerce? mindset changed for asian shoppers to e-commerce? i think it is not necessarily southeast asian or the west, i think it is eroding forces in the markets. i think it is really the penetration of the online technology and market places, there are certain clear example is like south korea, singapore, china, but clearly there are certain markets,

indonesia, still in need of development, like india. i think the online is still taking off, so they still have to be more and more development of online shopping that has to happen. so what are the trends right now in retail technology? so they could be synergies between brick and mortar and online retail? that is correct, i think that is the future of retail, that we envision. there is going to be more and more convergence of online and off—line, in terms of the consumer behaviour, other consumer is to shop going forward. so now that there are technologies like block chain available, to enable about. and that was a retail technology expert. in other news, social media giant facebook has dismissed a former executive's comments, that said that the sight was destroying the way society works. facebook‘s former vice president for use growth says

he feels enormous guilt over the size creation and that social media left people filling vacant and empty, but facebook said he had not been at the company for six years, but it was a different company now and was working hard to improve. toshiba has settled its legal disputes with us partner, western digital, clearing the way for the multi— billion—dollar sale of its business. westinghouse wrapped up billions of dollars in losses, the sale of its chip unit is a key part of toshiba's rescue initiatives. the federal reserve is expected to raise rates at the end of their two—day meeting on wednesday, as the us economy improves. us president donald trump likes to take credit for america's economy but in the case of markets, that may not actually be the case. in yet another

campaign style event, us president donald trump took to the stage to talk about his accomplishments, among them us markets. the stock market is hitting an all—time high record for another, and think of this, 86 times since election day, 86 times... it hit a record, 86 times. and we are going to keep it going. and it does not stop there, in tweet after tweet of the tweet, the president has been praising the record highs on financial markets and taking credit for it. but how much of these skyrocket valuations can really be attributed to the president? one economist says this has more to do with the federal reserve and its programme of quantitative easing, when the us central bank was buying up bonds to

support the us economy after this financial crisis. there is this massive amount of cash floating around the world, and so that is what is driving this up. originally, it was qed, 90% of the growth in the market has been bombed out since 2008. -- oe. some of the credit needs to go to the woman who has been guiding the current ship, federal reserve chairwoman janet yellen. donald trump decided ironically, not to renew janet yellen for a second term. so what happens now? janet yellen leaves the top spot as federal reserve chair, and the central bank is trying to win the us offered is really this monetary policies and get the economy to stand on its own two feet, which means us market may not always make for the best rallying cry for president trump. let's have a look

now at the asian stock markets, and currently most of them are in positive territory. the all ordinaries index is in positive territory by seven points, this is after the dowjones territory by seven points, this is after the dow jones industrial average and the s&p 500 pushed to record highs overnight as congress made progress on the tax cuts planned, and with expectations for high interest rate when the federal reserve makes a decision later today. thank you so much for investing your time with us, i am rico hizon. sport today is coming up next. watching bbc news, a reminder of the top stories this hour... voting has closed in the american state of alabama, in an election which could affect republican control of the us senate and where the party's candidate, roy moore, is accused of preying on teenage girls.

the american secretary of state, rex tillerson, has said the us government is willing to talk to north korea without preconditions. it appears to be a change from previous demands that the north koreans must first disarm. last night was the coldest this year and if you live in shropshire, you'll have known all about it — it was down to —13 celsius in one area. the freeze has led to fresh disruption for travellers, and hundreds of schools were closed for a second day running. from shawbury in shropshire, sima kotecha sent this report. a bed of snow with freezing conditions — across parts of the midlands, it's not been easy, icy roads and extremely cold temperatures. for the children, though, it's been another day off school. we've been obviously sledging, snowball fights. we've been like building snowmen. yeah. here in shropshire, more than 200 schools were closed and in gloucestershire and herefordshire, almost 100 remained shut. it is pretty difficult, trying to find them things to do. you know, keep them occupied.

when you've got childcare issues and you're working full—time, then obviously, it would be disruptive to you because obviously the schools are closing on a day—to—day basis and you're not knowing until that last—minute. obviously, it's very disruptive to the home. well, it's bitterly cold here, the temperature is around minus four celsius and there's no sign of this snow melting any time soon. as night falls, the temperatures are expected to plunge even further. in the west midlands, it was a similar story — more schools closed than open. some councils have been criticised for advising them not to reopen, even though many roads have been cleared. so the initial advice, last friday, was to all schools to close. we have now changed that advice to say the decision should be made locally, depending on whether you can get school transport to the school and whether or not it's safe to do so in consideration of the roads and other conditions.

more than 200 homes in the region were without power this morning. tomorrow is likely to present its own challenges. with rain coming in from the west, some of the snow will be turned to ice, making roads and pathways even more slippery. sima kotecha, bbc news, shropshire. police are appealing for witnesses and any dash—cam footage as they investigate the death of a woman who was struck in a suspected multiple hit—and—run in south london. the 29—year—old victim was hit by a lorry on a pedestrian crossing, before she was thought to have been struck by another lorry and two cars. none of the drivers stopped after the incident in tulse hill on monday. mike is here in 50 minutes‘s time with all of the day ‘s news, but first it is sports dei, see you soon. “— first it is sports dei, see you soon. —— sport today. this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: in the english premier league two late goals from crystal palace against watford takes them out

of the relegation zone for the first time this season. the russian olympic committee gives its approval to athletes who want to compete as neutrals at february's winter olympics. and, with the third ashes test in perth just over 24 hours away, can england stop the australians from regaining the urn? hello, and welcome to the programme. we start with the news that two late goals from crystal palace at home to watford has taken them out of the relegation zone for the first time this season. marco silva's side had looked set to collect all three points, but it was roy hodgson's team who struck with goals from bakary sako and james mcarthur in the dying minutes. this, just moments after tom cleverly had received a red card for a second bookable offence for the hornets. the results takes palace up to 17th, and gives them hope for survival, having lost their opening seven games of the season, in which time they didn't even score a goal.