this is business briefing. i'm sally bundock. another record high on wall street as the american economy continues to do well — so is the federal reserve poised to raise interest rates further? and clearing its debts — toshiba settles a lengthy legal dispute that would allow it to sell off a key business to cover billions of dollars of losses. the alabama outcome has spooked investors to a tiny degree because what does that mean for the white house now and donald trumpno commission to pursue tax reform and other key changes that market wants? the world's most powerful central bank — the us federal reserve —

will today announce if it plans on raising interest rates for the world's biggest economy. any rise will be seen as an endorsement of not only the strength of the american economy, but also the global economy, ten years on from the financial crisis. there have been three rises since december 2016 and markets are already factoring in another rise later today. us economic growth has hit an annualised rate of more than 3% in the past two quarters, while the unemployment rate is at its lowest since 2000. us jobs growth was once better than expected in november, with payrolls rising by 228,000 with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.1%. and in october the imf upped its forecast for the global economy and now predicts growth of 3.6% this year and 3.7% in 2018. meanwhile, the us stock market has also been surging ahead —

it's regularly broken records throughout the year. but just who should take the credit for it? turns out there's a difference of opinion — as samira hussain reports now from new york. 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. cheering and

applsause. and we will keep it going. in a tweet after tweet after tweet, he has been pressing the high market and taking credit. but how much can this be executed to the president? 0ne economist said it 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 the financial crisis. there is a massive amount of cash floating around the world. that is what is driving this up. 0riginally, it was 0 d and then there was the rest of the world funds coming into the us. some of the credit needs to go to the woman who has been guiding the ship. current chair of the us federal reserve, janet yellin. donald trump decided not to renew herfor a second term. donald trump decided not to renew her for a second term. what happens

now? janet yellin leaves and the central is trying to win the us of its really loose monetary policies and get the economy to stand on its own two feet. which means us markets may not always make the best rallying cry for donald trump. and as soon as we get an announcement, we will update you hear on the bbc. now let's brief you some other business stories. it's being reported in the financial times that walt disney is close to confirming a deal to buy 21st century fox's entertainment assets for about $60 billion. the sale would include the 20th century fox film studio and the sky and star satellite broadcasters in the uk, europe and asia. disney was left as the front runner after comcast, the nbc owner, dropped out of the race on monday. it's thought that there may be an announcement about the deal on thursday. the murdoch family was said to favour a deal with disney

because it could also face fewer us regulatory hurdles, although it is extremely unlikely to be waved through. we'll have more on this in our paper review shortly. facebook is to overhaul its tax structure so that it pays tax in the country where profits are earned, instead of using an irish subsidiary. the online advertising giant is to make the change in every country outside the us where it has an office. in 2016, facebook said it would stop routeing uk sales through ireland for tax purposes. ryanair passengers face disruption to their christmas travel plans after pilots and crew announced industrial action in a bid to win union recognition and better conditions. in ireland, pilots based in dublin will strike for one day on 20 december. meanwhile ryanair pilots and cabin crew in italy are to to strike for four hours on 15 december. the banks stopped lending for

—— the world bank will stop funding oil and gas exploration from 2019. it's a way for the bank to free up funds to invest in renewable energies — and help developing nations meet the greenhouse gas pledges made at paris two years ago. the bank stopped lending for coal—fired power stations in 2010, but has been under pressure from lobby groups also to halt the $1bn a year it has been lending for oil and gas in developing countries. the american computer data storage company western digital has settled its long running legal dispute with toshiba. it paves the way for toshiba to now sell—off its semiconductor business for $18bn to cover billions of dollars of losses incurred by toshiba's us nuclear unit. let's go to our asia business hub where rico hizon has been following the story.

this has been an ongoing story. finally, that driver is over and both companies agreed to withdraw all claims against each other which also ensures that all parties are aligned. they have brought in us buyers such as apple and dell. toshiba needs to sell this chip to cover heavy losses at its us nuclear business westinghouse. they had threatened to block the sale and the agreement allows western digital to invest in a new production line advanced memory chips and guarantee future supply for the company. legal battle started earlier this year after toshiba said it would sell the chip division to cover big losses arising from the company's now bankrupt nuclear power unit and news of the settlement, with news for toshiba, shares are currently up by about 2.3% in tokyo trade today. toshiba, shares are currently up by about 2.396 in tokyo trade today. and interesting story. we have kept up

to date with every twist and turn on that one. and now — what's trending in the business news this morning: wired looks at silicon valley's next disruption tactic — the connected city. google's parent company, alphabet, has been working on something called sidewalk labs — which has been transforming 16 american conurbations into tech—enabled smart cities. and why do they want to do this asks wired — to get more data, of course. we can't show you some of these stories. the new york times says saudi arabia has announced that it will allow commercial movie theatres to open for the first time in over 35 years. we will looking at that yesterday as well. bloomberg has a report from japan. the high court in hiroshima has overturned a ruling that would have allowed a nuclear reactor in south of the country to operate. look at the financial markets. it has been quite a day. it is

interesting to see the reaction. the nikkei is up by 0.5%. just ignore those numbers because we have an issue with our data on the nikkei at the moment. we are having a stronger session. traders across the board are trading in anticipation of an interest rate rise from the us federal reserve but what is interested in is actually the outcome of the alabama and election, as it were, for the senate seat. the fa ct as it were, for the senate seat. the fact that the democrat doug jones has won it, and not republican roy moore, what does this mean for president donald trump in terms of his populist political base? and what is in any of trying to push through to —— push through changes to things like tax systems. doesn't mean “— to things like tax systems. doesn't mean —— does it mean he will have a

ha rd mean —— does it mean he will have a hard time. let's now have a look at some of the commodity prices so you can have a sense of what is going on. the price of brent crude headed up on. the price of brent crude headed up by on. the price of brent crude headed up by 1%. oil in focus following a story we mentioned yesterday after a crack in a key pipeline in aberdeenshire in scotland which has caused the price of brent to spike yesterday and it is still following through today. we have so much more to discuss in the news briefing. stay with us as we talk you through some of the headlines in the global media. i will see you injust a moment. banks say a new rapid response scheme aimed at combating fraud has already saved customers millions of pounds in its first year and led to more than 100 arrests.

under the scheme — called the banking protocol — police will go to a bank branch within minutes if staff fear someone is being tricked into taking out a large sum of money to pay to a criminal. a rolls—royce, some people have their heart so set on getting one... that things like this are prime bait used by criminals to get hold of your cash. barry fox in ethics had a lucky escape, thanks to swift action from his bank when he went to withdraw the money to buy another fictional rolls—royce in an ebay scam. the fraudsters tried to lure him into bringing cash to pickup in the middle of the countryside. when barry popped into his local bank and asked for £10,000 in cash, there was an immediately concerned. banks often find it difficult to explain to customers that they might be

being scammed that under the new arrangements, they were able to call 999" ranking protocol and get —— talk about banking protocol and get police over within one hour. the police over within one hour. the police check out the car. we checked the business details against ebay and it was the correct business details but the contact details didn't match. banks have stopped people from being defrauded of £9 million but that is people going into branches will stop £100 million has been lost in just six months by people and we sit in —— unwittingly paying fraudsters online. more and more of us bank online and simply had to bank online because bank branches are closing. we want to see more done to protect consumers for being scammed online. more done to protect consumers for being scammed onlinelj more done to protect consumers for being scammed online. i would tell people, if they want cash, don't buy. the bank police tie-up which meant barry did get his dream car will soon be in place across the country. this is the briefing from bbc news.

the latest headlines: in a major upset — the democratic party candidate — doug jones — has beaten his republican opponent to win the senate election in the state of alabama. roy moore has refused to concede defeat. the american secretary of state, rex tillerson, has said the us could hold direct talks with north korea without preconditions. another record high on wall street as the american economy continues to do well — so is the federal reserve poised to raise interest rates further? working letters dig deeper into some

of those stories. democrat doug jones declared winner over roy moore in the special senate election in alabama. this article says it was shocking upset in a solidly republican state and comes after a massive turnout among african—american voters. the world bank will end its financial support for oil and gas exploration within the next two years, in response to the growing threat posed by climate change. the bank currently lends a billion dollars us for oil and gas in developing countries. in the financial times: walt disney closing in on a $60 billion deal to take over fox assets, in a deal that stands to reshape hollywood. the deal is expected to be reached as early as thursday. making news in the japan times: a recent survey by travel site, expedia, has found that japanese workers ranked the lowest for using up their paid vacation

days — they only take up around half of what they're owed. it also showed that 63% of japanese felt guilty for taking their paid leave. and lastly, an article online for the telegraph: a good news story — one of london's central train stations will, for the first time, be transformed into a massive homeless shelter on christmas day with helping to feed 200 homeless people christmas dinner. the station was set to be empty, with no trains running across the network until boxing day.