all eyes on the us federal reserve as policymakers meet to decide on whether interest rates should go even higher. plus — a warning from the world bank: that an escalation in the conflict in the middle east could send oil prices into "unchartered territory." hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm mariko oi. we begin in the us where a two—day meeting of federal reserve policemakers

is under way. it sets the stage for a wednesday decision on whether they'll hike interest rates, or leave them unchanged. our business correspondent erin delmore reports from new york. what do you get when you add strong consumer spending? a tightjob market and remarkable growth. you get a resilient economy, an economy that defied earlier predictions of a recession and one that's not buckling under the weight of the fed's interest rate hikes. see, raising interest rates is the fed's best tool to combat persistently high inflation, which consumers have seen reflected in higher prices for nearly everything. and while inflation has fallen by half from itsjune 2022 high of 7%, it's still higher than the fed's target of 2%. earlier this year, federal reserve policymakers hinted that they may hike interest rates once more before the year is out. they'll have a chance this week or at their last meeting in december, or they could not do it at all. investors and economists

are predicting that policymakers will skip a rate hike this week and instead hold rates steady, giving everything more time to work its way through the economy. we'll know the fed's next step on wednesday. one of the many things that have been more expensive for consumers is energy. oil prices have swung wildly over the last few years due to covid—19 and the war in eastern europe. at one point after russia invaded ukraine, prices rose to about $120—per—barrel, but have since dropped. but the world bank has a new warning: the war between israel and hamas could send prices into "uncharted waters." its latest report forecasts oil prices to remain at around 90 dollars a barrel for the rest of the year, only easing in 202a. but — a surge over 150 dollars per barrel could also be possible if the middle east sees what they called a "large disruption", according to the world bank's deputy chief economist ayhan

kose, whom i spoke to earlier. middle kose, whom i spoke to earlier. east a cause for give—and—ta ke middle east a cause for give—and—take one third of global oil supply, so if the conflict escalates and affects the supply of oil coming from the supply of oil coming from the middle east, it would have material consequences for the oil price. material consequences for the oil rice. " :: , material consequences for the oilrice. ”~' :: , oil price. $150 per barrel, that's quite _ oil price. $150 per barrel, that's quite a _ oil price. $150 per barrel, that's quite a high - oil price. $150 per barrel, | that's quite a high number oil price. $150 per barrel, - that's quite a high number you are warning about, what kind of scenarios are you seeing that could actually happen that could actually happen that could push oil prices up that high. a, could push oil prices up that hiuh. �* ., could push oil prices up that hiuh.�* ., , high. a multitude of reasons that we might _ high. a multitude of reasons that we might see _ high. a multitude of reasons that we might see that - high. a multitude of reasons l that we might see that conflict escalated. i can't speak late about those reasons was stopped the important point is that if the important point is that if the conflict escalates, depending on the duration and scale of the escalation, of course, we might see oil supply declining at the global level by 68%, then you look at what happened in the past, that type of the client translated into a very sharp increase in oil

price. having said all of that, the important point is that the most likely scenario, and the scenario we are hoping for, is that the conflict is contained in the baseline point is that prices will go don't this year as well as next year. various governments _ as well as next year. various governments around - as well as next year. various governments around the - as well as next year. various i governments around the world have been tackling inflation, finally prices are easing, but if oil prices were to go higher, what can governments do to push in against this impact? if prices go up for a protracted period of time, you will see inflationary pressures come back and that would put the central banks in a corner. beyond that, the big challenge is if oil prices go up, food prices will go up. you already have a very serious food insecurity problem around the world, which becomes even more challenging.

in other stories making headlines today... washington has, for the first time, directly targeted the main source of foreign revenue for myanmar�*s ruling junta. the us will impose sanctions on the state—owned myanma oil and gas enterprise, banning americans from providing it some financial services starting 15th december. it previously aimed sanctions at myanmar�*s leadership following the military coup in 2021 which displaced the country's elected government. much of myanmar has been embroiled in a wider civil war the un and other rights groups have accused the military of violence against civilians in efforts to crush resistance. butjunta leaders insists they are fighting "terrorists" and have refused to cease hostilities. wework will reportedly file for bankruptcy protection as early as next week, the wall streetjournal has reported citing sources familiar with the matter. a spokesperson told the bbc that it doesn't comment on speculation. the flexible workspace provider has been grappling with losses and debt since 2019 when it planned to go public failed, worrying investors.

earlier on tuesday, it said creditors had agreed to allow a payment delay for some of its debt shares in the softbank—backed company, once valued at $li7—billion—, have plunged as much as 32% in late trading. now onto some tech news... apple has found itself in the middle of a political storm in india — one of its big emerging markets. several politicians on tuesday said they received notifications from apple on their phones that they were being targeted by state—sponsored hackers. the bbc�*s arunoday mukharji has more. leaders of india's opposition have demanded an explanation from the government, asking why a majority of the leaders who've received these notifications from apple happen to be the voices which have been critical of the government. leaders shared screenshots of notifications they received from apple on their phones, which said state sponsored attackers were targeting their devices remotely. they said their microphones

and cameras could also be compromised. india's i.t minister responded, saying the government was committed to protecting the privacy and security of all citizens and that they will be investigating the matter. in fact, they also said that one of their own ministers had also received a similar notification from apple. they said they have asked the company to also join the investigations. now for apple, india is a growing and emerging market where they are focusing, especially as they look to diversify beyond china. they have issued a statement, interestingly, not denying having sent these notifications, but also added some context. the statement said that they did not attribute these threat notifications to any specific state sponsored attacker, but that such attackers were very well funded and also sophisticated and their attacks evolve over time. the statement also cautioned that detecting such attacks rely on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and also incomplete. now, india's opposition parties have long alleged and accused the government of misusing state agencies to intimidate

those voices, which are critical of the government. now, this incident will also add to that narrative, especially as india heads to elections next year. artificial intelligence, or ai, has been the talk of the town this week. us presidentjoe bidenjust yesterday signed an executive order to regulate technoloy. many tech leaders and some world leaders are also gathering in the uk for a global ai summit. our economics editor faisal islam has the details. although this week's ai safety summit is about catastrophic risks to lives, even, the uk's economic strategy here is a more open attitude with less regulation of more immediate risks around bias, discrimination and to jobs. welcome to a place where unicorns thrive. that's because rishi sunak wants those cutting edge ai innovations to happen here in the uk, with the creation of billion dollar tech businesses that are referred to as unicorns.

this is quantexa, one of those british unicorns, an ai company which scans billions of bank transactions to find strange patterns typical of fraud. what the algorithm, the ai here is determining, its spotting those suspicious patterns. forfounder, vishal, it's a record year — the only unicorn born in britain in 2023. what we've seen in the last 12,18 months, faisal, is a huge increase in scale, being able to interpret data at a volume that's been unprecedented. so there's huge opportunity here for the united kingdom to be the frontier when it comes down to embracing ai and machine learning. the uk has a long history of innovation, famously so here at bletchley park, but has not always been the best at forging business success and growth out of it. it was the code breaking mathematical geniuses on this site, who, 80 years ago, cracked the enigma code and then formed the foundation of modern computing and artificial intelligence.

and could it be that those same technologies are the key to unlocking britain's long standing productivity puzzle? ai is the biggest transformation of the economy since the internet. this government adviser says british strategy is to offer freedoms for al companies to experiment. what the uk government has decided to do is take what they call this light touch approach, right? they're saying that we are really obviously very keen to look at how we ought to make ai safe across the board for consumers, right, for the british public. but what we have to do is do that on a case—by—case basis. europe and the us could put in more controls over actual new ai technologies. and so here at bletchley, the americans want to talk about that, notjust what rishi sunak referred to as a nuclear war style human extinction risk. everyone, notjust britain, wants to win the economic battle over ai. faisal islam, bbc news.

a quick look at markets, japan's market is up, after its week. investors are welcoming that news. and that's it for this edition of asia business report. thanks for watching. bbc news bringing you different stories from across the uk. these are some of the last of their generation men and women who can still remember the second world war. my army call out papers arrived in august 1939, three days before germany invaded poland. how good we would have been. i only had three bullets. these stories and others now form part of a book. a book mostly telling the stories of how children across the country were touched by the conflict.

children like janet, who went to school in taunton and is now 96. it'sjust been an eye—opener, really, to see how other few other people must have felt. the book was the brainchild of the manager of highfield house in castle cary. it struck me that it was really important to try and capture these before it was too late. there was an example of one lady who told me about skipping across westminster bridge singing que sera sera while the bombs were dropping. and that just stuck with me. so i thought, we've got to get these stories. john and his friends describe their stories as ordinary. but what can't be denied is they lived through an extraordinary time. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. hey, i'm steven with the catch up. we're starting with the inquiry into what went wrong

with the government's handling of covid. now, this isn't about finding anyone guilty or innocent. it's all about learning lessons. today, we've been hearing from two of the top advisers to borisjohnson. who was prime minister when the pandemic started. dominic cummings, who wass his right hand man, said the government didn't work properly to deal with the outbreak. let's get an update now on the war in the middle east. there's been a big explosion at a refugee camp in gaza, with reports dozens of people have been killed. israel says it was behind the attack, and claims it killed a top commander of hamas, which the uk and other governments classed as a terrorist group. some other stories now, and it's going to be illegal to own an american xl bully in england and wales from february next year. the government is bringing in new rules after a number of people died in xl bully attacks. dog charities are

against a ban, and say owners and breeders are the real problem. and in football, it looks like saudi arabia are going to host the world cup in 203a. they're the only bidder after australia decided to pull out. there's been lots of criticism of the country as women's rights are restricted, and it's illegal to be gay there. and time to leave you with ten seconds of celebrity halloween costumes. take a look at some of these. megan, thee stallion has been rocking a rose look. kim kardashian and north went to cher and beyond from clueless. and adele pulled off an amazing morticia addams at a show in las vegas. i have neverfelt more underdressed right now. you're all caught up now. have a good one.

hello and welcome to sportsday. another controversial world cup host, but saudi arabia is the only option that fifa have for 2034 a shellacking for switzerland as spain score seven in the women's nations league and while its bye—bye bangladesh.....pakistan keep their hopes alive of a world cup semi—finals