45 pro—democracy activists jailed in hong kong in the financial hub's national security case. new delhi's pollution readings hit their highest levels of the winter so far — flights affected and construction work restricted. welcome to business today. let's start in hong kong. 45 pro—democracy activists have been jailed in the city's landmark ruling. these are live pictures just outside the courtroom. we understand 50 family members will emerge from the courthouse

shortly, and present trucks are waiting to take away those that have been sentenced. they were all charged with subversion after organising an unofficial primary vote to select opposition candidates for a legislative council election in 2020. sentences ofjust over four years up to ten years. legal scholar benny tai is an activist who has received the harshest punishment. prominent campaigner joshua wong has been jailed forjust over four years. the us has condemned for the verdict after previously calling for the activists to be released. so far we haven't seen much market reaction to the story in hong kong, currently the hang seng up 0.3%. in india, toxic smoke continues to wreak havoc on the capital new delhi. flights have been diverted, primary schools closed and diesel trucks are banned from entering the city, these are the latest measures

by authorities to respond to a thick toxic smoke that has gripped the city. the pollution authority in the country says air quality is at severe levels. a researcher specialising in environmental issues explained how the smog could have a big impact on the economy. the economic impact is primarily to do with health outcomes of the people and productivity impact that it has on people. it has morbidity costs. but that translates to economic costs, because they are not able to work as much and contribute to the economy. some studies have put it at anywhere between $28 billion and $30 billion annually, about 2% of gdp, not an insignificant figure. 1.4% of gdp, pardon me. india has been looking at the economic dividend

and demographic dividend of the young population. unfortunately, those impacted are the young and productive. through disability days, when they are not able to work. as a result, facing some significant consequences. many large enterprises, overseas ones especially, housed in the capital city, are considering relocating and it's a missed economic opportunity for the country. interesting that you mention it is hitting young people harder. longer term, i understand you have researched the attractiveness of delhi as a place to live and work and how that might be impacted by this consistently high level of smog. can you talk us through the research? the annual air quality levels in delhi for instance are close to 100 micrograms per metre cubed. the standard in india is about a0. so even on good days, we are not really

breathing great air. 0n bad days you can question the choice of making the city your home. delhi is the place where a lot of professions thrive, especially those which have interfaces with government, with overseas governments, a whole lot of multinationals housed in the outskirts of the city now. making a change away from the city is a big problem. that state of paralysis, where you're not able to trade between yourjob and good air, which is fundamental to life. the option that most upper and middle income families have is to try to enclose themselves in bubbles, literally, purified spaces. whether it's in offices, restricting the activity of their children, moving around in private transport, presumably with air purifiers, inside cars or taxis. literally separating yourself

from the rest of the world. and that's not a sustainable and tenable option in the long run. you can do it once in a while, but if it gets to 100 days, it's a problem. budget airlines account for around a third of all airline seats globally today, and although asia has seen a robust rebound from the pandemic, low—cost carriers in the region are struggling with the rise in prices. 0ur reporter sat down with the chief executive ofjetstar asia, part—owned by qantas, and asked how they are rising to the challenge. costs are definitely an issue for a low—cost carrier. if you do the research back to 2005, and see what we were charging for a fare to manila, it was probably about $79—80. you could probably still get $105—iio on certain days now, but probably a 30% increase. the majority of other costs in the landscape, the ecosystem, have grown

significantly over that. so we need to use technology and innovative ways of maintaining our fleet, looking after our customers, always with a safety focus. but i think from a landscape perspective, it is becoming challenging for a low—cost carrier to continue to see these fares and costs continue to grow when we are trying to keep the fares under $100. if you made a booking on the jetstar website today to fly to malaysia, you might find a fare of $72 — probably $65 of tax in the fare. so at some point, we may need to re—look at what the fare is, because the margin and the increase impact the sustainability of the route on a long—term basis. do you have any plans for india? we're definitely looking at south india. if you look at the rise of the middle class and the changes in the centres of demand for traffic, when you think about

the capacity shifting in southeast asia and how it operates, probably capacity from china is not back where it was, demand's probably not 100% returned. we've seen the southeast asian region and market get back to almost 100% of capacity, but india is definitely growing, there's definitely an opportunity, something we're looking at within our business next year. what you think the outlook is next year for chinese tourists to return? long—haul traffic will return, it's just a matter of time. it's probably already returning in single—digit growth, but we were used to such huge amounts of chinese traffic coming out of china pre—covid, right? so there is an opportunity for it and i think it will definitely recover. can you deal without the full return of chinese tourists? like i said, i think india has played a really important part in helping tourism and countries recover from that shortfall in chinese tourism. i think it willjust be an added bonus when the chinese

tourists come back. like i said, they're travelling, but probably not in the same numbers, and some of that is due to capacity. when you have a capacity constricted environment, that drives up fares. the us carrier spirit airlines has filed for bankruptcy protection after years of losses and failed merger attempts. the florida—based airline has agreement to restructure debt and raise money during the bankruptcy process which is expected to last until early next year. 0perations continue as normal and they say passengers will be unaffected. in southeast asia, a region which benefited from trump's tariffs in his first administration, the imf found the tit—for—tat tariffs between china and the us diverted trade to southeast asia, particularly with buying things like electronics. trump has now promised 20%

tariffs on all us imports, 60% if they are from china. it's hard to know what this could mean for economies in southeast asia. we don't know, at least yet, simply because we need to know what is the reaction of china to potential new tariffs being imposed from the united states. at the same time, whether there would be a shift in production from china as a way of avoiding high tariffs from the united states to the economies of asean, and that is why the asean economies may, if you look at a particular scenario, benefit from high tariffs in china, because production could shift to asean economies. at the same time, you need to note that many american

companies, including tesla, operate in china. what would be the consequence of high tariffs on china when american companies are also going to be hit hard? so they are some of the unknown issues that we need to wait and see. but at the end of the day, protectionism is not good for the global economy. given those pledges of 60% import tariffs, do you see companies like tesla, apple, with factories in china, re—shoring their goods to the us or do you think it will not have that impact? we don't know. again, depending on some political issues in the united states, given elon musk�*s involvement in the new administration. as well as the opportunities in other parts of the region. such as the asean economies, we think. markets in asia up for the most

part. thanks for watching business today.

hey, it's lucy with the catch—up. tonight, huge delays for women's healthcare, professional mermaids and reunited after five years.

but first tonight, 24—year—old harshita brella from corby had her whole life ahead of her. harshita was a victim of domestic violence. she'd been in touch with police, and in september they put a special order in place to protect her. but on thursday, her body was found in the boot of a car in east london. police believe that her husband, pankaj lamba, murdered her and fled the country. now there's a massive international manhunt to find him. anyone with information is being urged to contact the police. and if you've been affected by anything in this story, there's help on the bbc action line website. some other stories now. around three quarters of a million women in the uk are waiting for a gynaecology appointment. waiting lists for women's health issues have more than doubled since 2020. the government says it's working on plans to improve things, but health leaders say women are being let down. 19—year—old ella lloyd is going to be driving for mclaren in next year's f1 academy season. she only started driving two years ago, but has

raced all over the world and secured podium positions. ella says there's no reason why girls can't be as good as or even better than guys. and this story might make you want to quit your currentjob — unless you're already a professional mermaid. jasmine loves swimming and dressing up, so when this opportunity came along, it was perfect. she'll compete in the miss 0cean world uk competition at the end of the month. and now, ten seconds of, you guessed it, a nice story about a cute cat who was missing for five years. but when her owner came across this photo on a facebook page, she was reunited with seven—year—old bubba. that's us for tonight. have a good one. hello there, and welcome

along to sportsday. i'm gavin ramjaun. it's robertson to the rescue for scotland as they snatch a win in warsaw and relegate poland in the nations league. italy seal their spot in the final of the billiejean king cup for a second successive year. can they go one better this time around? and it's three out of three for australia, as they thrash pakistan in their final t20 thanks to a stunning innings from marcus stoinis. hello there, and welcome along to the programme. lots to get through, but we start with another busy night of uefa nations league matches, with five more groups being concluded, promotion and relegation at stake for some. the most dramatic result of the evening came in warsaw, as scotland retained their top—tier status, for now at least. they beat poland 2—1,

liverpool's andy robertson with a 93rd—minute winner for the away side.