kasia f525 lg“. .- world news. a small group of protesters remain at hong kong's polytechnic university for a fourth day. the last of the protesters are still inside, facing an increasingly desperate situation, with water and food running up. hundreds have already surrendered and left the campus. in washington, several witnesses have appeared on impeachment hearings against president trump. they were asked whether pressure was applied on ukraine to investigate the demographic candidate joe biden ukraine to investigate the demographic candidatejoe biden and his family, in exchange for military aid. and this is getting a lot of attention on our website. shinzo abe has become japan's attention on our website. shinzo abe has becomejapan‘s longest attention on our website. shinzo abe has become japan's longest serving leader. after serving as prime minister for just leader. after serving as prime ministerforjust one leader. after serving as prime minister forjust one year in 2007, he came back in 2012 and has remained in power then. that's all from me, bye bye. as always, we have

lots more on all of our stories on a website, you can even try the bbc news app, but now let's go to singapore for asia business report. shinzo abe becomes japan's longest serving perimeter, has his economic programme been a success? how the boss of mozilla, the company behind the firefox web browser, is taking on big tech. it's wednesday! good morning asia, hello world. glad you could join us for an action packed edition of asia business report. i'm rico hizon, let's kickoff the programme with japan because this morning we had that exports flipped by 9.2% in the month of october

compared to a year ago levels. and this comes on the same day that shinzo abe passes the milestone of becoming the country's longest serving prime minister. his time in office has been marked by his centrepiece economic programme called abenomics. for more on this economic revival initiative from the prime minister, i'mjoined now economic revival initiative from the prime minister, i'm joined now by my collea g u es prime minister, i'm joined now by my colleagues and business reporter mariko 0i. what has it achieved? there are pros and cons, but can you believe that his landmark abenomics policy was introduced seven years ago, and they were of course, three arrows if you remember. bold monetary easing, fiscal spending, and structural reforms, and part of that structural reform was to increase the number of female managers. it has not met the target but at least it is encouraging japanese companies to change. so, how have investors reacted to abenomics? check this out, these

initiatives really boosted stock prices, especially at the beginning, the uk more than doubled. —— the nikkei more than doubled. and despite years of fiscal spending and ultra— loose monetary policy, inflation has yet to reach the central bank's target of 2%, and the concern about japan's huge central bank's target of 2%, and the concern aboutjapan‘s huge debt remains, and wages haven't grown that much either, so people aren't actually feeling wealthier. if anything, they might be feeling poorer because of the sales tax hikes, and it has left lawmakers very little firepower against another downturn. thank you so much, my colleagues and business reporter mariko 0i. a spoke earlier about

that impact of abenomics. on one hand, ithink that impact of abenomics. on one hand, i think abenomics can claim some success, hand, i think abenomics can claim some success, the jobs have been created, but the structural reform of so—called third arrow is still a mixed bag. that labour reform, gender equality issues, regional revitalisation, this is still a work in progress. it has been a work in progress for such a long time. has he failed on this aspect of abenomics? no, i think it is he failed on this aspect of abenomics? no, ithink it is still in progress, so the labour reform, for instance, the policies are just in place so we are seeing it unfold as we speak. in 2014, he raised the sales tax to 8%, now it's at 10%. a lot of economists are saying that this could lead to the failure,

eventually, of abenomics because it could lead one again to lower growth and eventually a recession. do you agree with that? the slowdown is inevitable. the market concerns are going to be year over year minus growth. that said, the domestic consumption, the household consumption, the household consumption, is actually showing some resilience and consumer confidence index was up from september. 0n the other hand, the external environment and the export contraction is starting to affect earnings. the first half earnings was down by 14%, therefore it may catch up with the domestic economy at some point. but going forward, what more needs to be done to make abenomics successful?” what more needs to be done to make abenomics successful? i think we need to double down on the structural reform and really faith the hard issues. consumption tax is

an example of that because on the one hand japan really needs the tax revenue to offset the rising social security costs caused by the ageing society, so it is a remedy that needs to be put in place and that will eventually ease people's on the other hand, it a hard medicine to ta ke other hand, it a hard medicine to take because it can dampen the consumption appetite, so it's a balancing act of long—term fruit and a short—term pain. balancing act of long—term fruit and a short-term pain. and other business news, making headlines, america's biggest e—cigarette companyjuul has been hit by a lawsuit from the state of new york. the attorney general accused the company of misrepresenting the safety of its product and targeting teens in advertising stopping the move follows similar actions by officials in california and north carolina as well, as federal warnings. australia's second—biggest bank westpac has been accused of breaching anti— money laundering rules. the countries regulator says it allows payments from high risk

countries and convicted child six offenders. it is pursuing fines. boeing faces another challenge as regular letters have called on it to redesign the engine cover of its 737 planes. the call comes after a fatal accident last year in which a woman died after being nearly sucked out ofa died after being nearly sucked out of a window. but the safety board did not call for the planes to be crowded. the 737 max model remains grounded after two fatal crashes. turning to india, and catch me's main business body says that economic losses have run well over $1 billion after they revoked the economy in august. let's cross to monica miller whojoins economy in august. let's cross to monica miller who joins us economy in august. let's cross to monica miller whojoins us now from mumbai. what kind of impact has it had on the region? when we look back

in august to win the indian government revoked the economy of kashmir, one of the promises were that it would promote its development, however kashmir‘s chamber of commerce and industry says that that never happened. in fa ct says that that never happened. in fact when they did look at numbers just one month into that, they said that they lost one point $4 billion in revenue, and what they are saying now is that those numbers are probably much higher in november stopping the chamber of commerce says that they are planning to sue the government but really they are expecting those numbers to be higher, and one of the reasons they are not sure of what those numbers are not sure of what those numbers are is because there has been a telecom blackout in the region they can't even get in touch with some of the people who are doing business, but what people can attest to is that certainly tourism down, and they are looking at how they can possibly make amends with the. the indian government has given no comment at this time. thank you so

much forjoining us from mumbai. my colleague and business reporter monica miller. mozilla is the company behind the firefox web browser. it is a not—for—profit operation, competing against giants of the tech world like google. it relies on a lot of volunteers promoting the browser around the world. chief executive mitchell baker says that to keep the volu nteers baker says that to keep the volunteers goodwill, they have to be com pletely volunteers goodwill, they have to be completely open with them. my name is mitchell and my ceo secret is, don't hide things. even the scary thing is. we have a pretty big mission, to improve internet life stopping the number of companies that track where you go and gather

information, mozilla is a leader in allowing you to stop that. the volunteers are there because they believe in what they are doing, and that it can be effective. that they are much more likely to raise difficult missions. it is the volu nteers difficult missions. it is the volunteers that stand up and say i'm sorry, the elephant in the room is that this just isn't working. in the tech industry that we work on, competing for that kind of talent, we are competing with the giants so people have to want to be at mozilla to stay there, and people want to stay when they believe that our products are effective and we are operating in the way that we do. and that was mitchell baker. let's have a quick look now at how asia—pacific markets are faring and mid—morning trade, they are all in the red copy

the nikkei down by 0.3%. the hang sengindex the nikkei down by 0.3%. the hang seng index is currently in the red as well, down by 0.6%. this isn't all because wall street stock slipping, the us and china could agree to end a trade walk, continues to make many investors very edgy. and those are markets, thank you so much for your time, i'm and those are markets, thank you so much foryourtime, i'm rico and those are markets, thank you so much for your time, i'm rico hizon. sport today is coming up next. just before sports today, let's bring you up before sports today, let's bring you up with our main story this hour. a small group of protestors remain at hong kong's polytechnic university for a fourth day.

ever since the eu referendum here and the election of donald trump in america there have been fears that social media platforms can be used by foreign powers to manipulate opinion and influence the result. one of facebook‘s most senior executives has been speaking to the bbc. steve hatch told our media editor amol rajan that the company is "consta ntly vigila nt". so far in this election campaign, has there been any foreign interference on facebook? to date, we have not seen anything. and instagram? similarly. and whatsapp? similarly. what i can say is, this is an area where we always have to be co nsta ntly, co nsta ntly vig ila nt. to date, no, but there's certainly no complacency by this organisation. twitter has banned political ads, but you haven't, why? so, in this country, we've made this decision that advertising is part of the political process and is part of the election process. to ban political advertising actually has an inherent bias in it, in that it helps entrench the positions of the incumbents, at the cost of those that are less representative.

isn't it ultimately absolutely absurd that, whether or not people see millions of true orfalse claims online, it's something you — as a private company — decide on and adjudicate on, rather than regulators and lawmakers in this country? for many years now, we think there is a clear role for reform and regulation in the political advertising space. in the uk, for every pound you make, your pre—tax profit margin isjust 8.5%. that's artificially diminished, isn't it, in order to avoid paying full tax? no, it isn't. it's based on the rules in which we operate and every company that's like us operates. so, why is facebook so much less profitable in the uk than elsewhere? based on where the value is created, which is the rules of taxation as they're set at the moment. so, where are the things being built and made and generated? so, if that's the case, and jeremy corbyn were elected prime minister a few weeks from now, if he brought in this so—called tech tax, you would pay it, you wouldn't lobby against it, and you wouldn't shift your operations elsewhere? now, we will work with whatever

government has the privilege to be elected by the people of this country. so you would pay this tech tax, you won't lobby against it, and you won't move your operations elsewhere? we will work with every government that comes in. we always want to be an additive to the uk. we've been that for more than ten years and we certainly envisage ourfuture in the uk being more than ten years hence. now on bbc news, sport today. hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: sacked by spurs after five years in charge, tottenham part company with mauricio pochettino. semi—finalists in 2016, wales book their place at euro 2020 after beating hungary. and canada win again to become the first country

through to the quarter—finals of the davis cup. welcome to the programme, thanks forjoining us. tottenham have sacked mauricio pochettino after five years in charge at the premier league club. he was appointed in may 2014 and led spurs to the champions league final last season. but they have made a disappointing start to this campaign, and are currently 14th in the league, 20 points behind the leaders, liverpool. jose mourinho is the favourite to takeover. patrick gearey reports. totte n ha m tottenha m fa ns have tottenham fans have long said that mauricio pochettino is magic. very few expected this disappearing act. the manager considered the best of their recent history, sacks less than half a year after taking them to their first—ever champions league

final. ina to their first—ever champions league final. in a statement,