president trump has heard emotional appeals for gun control during a televised ‘listening session' at the white house. the meeting brought together young survivors of school shootings and members of theirfamilies. mr trump heard from students, who said they simply wanted to feel safe at school. the un security council is being urged to consider a resolution which calls for a thirty—day ceasefire in syria. the move comes as international concern grows over the syrian government bombardment of a rebel—held area on the outskirts of damascus. and this video is trending on bbc.com. if you've been following the winter olympics, you'll know how the sport of curling has captured the imagination. so here's a few people trying it at home. they look like they're having fun! that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: the government has published proposals for how it wants to work with the eu during the brexit transition period.

the document suggests the uk won't be able to sign trade deals without permission. now on bbc news — all the latest business news live from singapore. federal reserve, minutes out of. will the central bank take a more hawkish approach on interest rates? and a global tech consultancy shows businesses how to play their cards right in the year of the dog. good morning asia, hello world. glad you could join us for this exciting edition of asia business report, i am rico hizon. we start off with the us and federal reserve has released minutes, giving an upbeat assessment of the economy and inflation,

changing expectation about interest rates have created more volatility in the markets, just like what happened on wall street yesterday, opening on the plus side but closing in negative with the dowjones down by 167 point. as for asian markets, currently open and it is a mixed bag. the nikkei up and the all ordinaries down the. earlier i put the question to our reporterjoe miller in new york. if you ask the markets when they had closed at 4pm the answer would yes but if you ask the answer would yes but if you ask the markets just a a few minutes after the minutes can out it was anyone's guess and you will know that usually when these minutes come out, a few minutes later my inbox and your inbox i am sure is filled with comments of analyst and pundits explain what they mean. there was stony silence as people try to interpret exactly what the wording

in the minutes meant and this is the all sorts of confusion, eventually the markets settle on the fact that the markets settle on the fact that the words increased likelihood of further rises meant we would see a more hawkish fed and therefore stocks fell and us bond yields went up stocks fell and us bond yields went up to four—year highs. overall i think this is not the sort of market move that is too alarming. it is not the sort of thing that would have happened if there had been even stronger language suggesting that perhaps instead of three rate rises expect in the next year there might be four. people are still on the fence about that. with pundits decoding the federal minutes, what are they generally seen? when will be the first rate hike from the said this year? everyone now, it seems, is expecting a much rate rise of 0.25%. the question is really beyond

that. the question is what happens in the rest of the year? we seek to make more rate rises or three, how confident is the federal reserve that inflation isn't going to rise well above its 2% target? the wording in the report really was a sort of meddling about this. the fed noted that the minutes noted that inflation was edging towards that 2% target, but there was no alarm about that and had there been a little bit more alarm that have seen a huge market reaction but because they we re market reaction but because they were fairly calm about the prospect of interest rates moving towards 2%, the markets were not too alarmed. overall i think these minutes had less of an impact that many thought they might. amazon have reached a new high, stocks rising above the

$1500 mark, a huge contrast to walmart, which dropped overnight, a day after they experienced their worst day on wall street for more than 30 years. i am joined by my colleague, eight ten walmart compete with amazon? they are claiming a stiff learning curve and are going as fast as they can but you look at the earnings report, it is not moving fast enough. on tuesday they came out and they missed their projection, the first time into a half years and that new scent their stock in a freefall. it went down 10%. so what the chief executive of walmart is saying that they ran into operational challenges and that is because their online sales were soft. the big test is over the christmas holiday, had trouble in their distribution centre getting electronics and toys out in time and this is what amazon has done incredibly well. a streamlined the

distribution process and some is the most efficient system in the world. they have a long way to go, they said they want to get their online sales up 30% by the end of the year. if you take a look at amazon stock price, its market cap is more than 700 win us dollars, that1 trillion mark ever so 700 win us dollars, that1 trillion mark ever so near. 700 win us dollars, that1 trillion mark ever so near. thank you for that update. my colleague monica miller. —— that update. my colleague monica miller. -- $700 billion. whatsapp that update. my colleague monica miller. —— $700 billion. whatsapp is used by millions of indians, they target payments and eating sports scores without a data connection. but it is an ambitious plan for a firm that is burning more cash than it may. —— makes. sally bunged up sat down with its executive. hike is different in the sense that we don't

have logistics, we have a team in bangalore and most of our costs are absorbed. some marketing costs and oui’ absorbed. some marketing costs and our people. that is not a concern with respect to hike. others say it isa with respect to hike. others say it is a concern. very unlikely. there is a concern. very unlikely. there isa is a concern. very unlikely. there is a concern. very unlikely. there is a concern in the market to shore. i think at the end of the day, internet businesses at such an early stage of the economy, we are all looking at other e—commerce businesses and businesses in india, they are in investment phase. will you have to raise more money soon?|j think you have to raise more money soon?” think it is very likely that one would go for two more rounds of funding, we are very early in our journey and have raised $260 million but it is so early on in its journey that we still believe a lot of work has to be done to bring us into the online. have you had any approaches 01’ online. have you had any approaches or people interested in buying your company? i can't comment on that.

0k. company? i can't comment on that. ok. having said that, facebook, we know they have had difficulties penetrating the indian market, so people will see you as an attractive option? to shore. no doubt. i think thatis option? to shore. no doubt. i think that is the case for a wall local companies doing well. —— all locals to be when i founded the company idea was1 billion people will come online for the first time in their lives. a billion people. china, it hasn't happened, it japan, lives. a billion people. china, it hasn't happened, itjapan, it hasn't happened in the us. ins will be different and we believe messaging could simplify the way people come online which is why hike itself is more than messaging, it has content, scores, live music. it is different from the market, which is why we have chinese investing in the company andi have chinese investing in the company and i think that is where we are today. speaking there to the bbc‘s sally bundled. technologies

ever—changing, making it hard for businesses to keep up, which trends ranging from a chain to the internet of things should they focus on? lisa caught up with tech consultancy company damage and data, which weighed out predictions from a deck of cards. —— to mention data. it has to look at cyber security and help the chain will disrupt it. cyber currencies like bitcoin are interesting but the underlying technology which is an irrefutable system has a lot of uses. altercations and certifications, land registry titles, people need to get those instantly. these can be online, public and they are guaranteed to be accurate. there is a number of uses of the underlying gene technology which we are yet to ta ke gene technology which we are yet to take advantage of. is move on to the

next card and what it holds. it has to do with customer experience and how that is going to be powered by the internet. the use of new digital technologies now to improve the way you work it out there. there are nine typical channels, i am, voice, e—mail, social media, that you can interact. from the voice varies voice recognition technologies, they can actually look at your intent, they can throw up box or guide you. if you are frustrated with eight website at playing for a new credit card. and also potential analysis, they can predict what it is based on your speech pattern that you're trying to look for. completely changing the way you interact with your bank or your telco. and finally. digital business and how thatis finally. digital business and how that is going to be disrupted by ai, machine learning robotics and virtual augmented reality.” machine learning robotics and virtual augmented reality. i think we are still very at the early

stages i think the platforms are out there, freely available for a lot of used. we need to encourage and educate our employees to use these tools and make sure you have a record of all the data in the organisation seek a start to get inside and make smart decisions. thanks andy for your insight and predictions, will have to check back in in 2019. a deck of cards predicting the future of it. that is it for this edition of asia business report. all of those on twitter. thank you so much for investing your time, bye for now. the top stories this hour: in an emotional confrontation at the white house, several school shooting survivors have urged president trump to tighten gun control. with casualties increasing in syria, european diplomats are calling on the un security council to consider a new resolution for a thirty—day ceasefire. the uk has seen the strongest six

months of productivity growth since the recession of 2008. here's our economics editor kamal ahmed. bring on the robots, more efficient in helping this firm in hastings make electrical equipment more quickly. and the more quickly you make things, the more you make every hour, and the more wealth you create. that's productivity. since the financial crisis, our productivity performance has been pretty poor, but over the last six months there has been a jump into positive territory, the strongest since before 2008. global growth is helping firms. we're seeing a huge opportunity for us in the chinese market that we've been working on for the past 18 months, two years and that's starting to come to fruition now, and that's why we've found it's time to reward the staff. it's time to reward them in terms of bringing in machinery, like the robot behind me, that will help them and help us increase productivity.

and where productivity goes, wages tend to follow, up over the last three months to 2.5% from 2.3%. that's still below the rise in prices, but that living standard squeeze is easing. we've just had a pay rise. we haven't had it long enough yet to really decide whether it does make a difference or not. i'm sure it will but, like you say, it's still early stages. despite having a pay rise, when you look at how things, the cost of things is increasing, then what you have fluid at the end of each month after you've done your essential, utilities and things like that, the difference is quite noticeable. quite a noticeable difference for the government as well, the public finances are £7 billion better off than they were last year. better growth means higher tax revenues and less borrowing. a lot of important figures about the economy today. three of those figures are better, one is a worry. lower levels of government borrowing are good for the public finances. productivity is up, that's good for the creation of wealth.

that leads to higher incomes, and there is some evidence of that. the one worry, unemployment, which has risen slightly for the first time in two years. it's very hard to predict whether unemployment‘s going to carry on rising. you can't read too much into one month's figures. the employment rate is still quite high, but it's all going to depend on the outlook for the economy in the next few months. it's that outlook that really matters, for our incomes, for ourjobs. brexit uncertainty is still weighing on the economy, government debts are still high, but today it was the better economic figures that won out. kamal ahmed, bbc news. you can go to our website at abc .com. —— bbc.com time now for all the sports news in sport today. hello. i'm tulsen tollett.

this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: david de gea helps rescue manchester united with a string of saves against sevilla as the opening leg of their last 16 champions league tie finishes goalless in spain. sofia "the samurai" goggia cuts through the snow and her opponents to win a first women's downhill gold for italy at the winter olympics. and defending champion, elina svitolina, is through to the quarter finals of the dubai tennis championships. hello, and welcome to the programme, where we start with the footballing news from spain that sevilla and manchester united have played out a goalless draw in the first leg of their last 16 uefa champions league tie despite numerous chances for a goal. club record signing, paul pogba, was left out ofjose mourinho's starting line—up, but an early injury to ander herrera meant the french international came on afterjust 17 minutes.