us president—elect donald trump selects billionaire wall street investor howard lutnik as new commerce secretary. with passenger numbers set to soar, we sit down with the middle eastern carrier, gulf air. welcome to business today, i'm katie silver. donald trump has selected billionaire investor and veteran wall street boss howard lutnik as the next commerce secretary. in an announcement on his social media platform, truth social, said the executive will lead to the tariff and trade agenda. let's go to new york and our correspondent president—elect donald trump

is tapping up the ceo howard lutnik to lead at the commerce department. on truth social he said that the wall street veteran will lead the white house's tariff and trade agenda with additional direct responsibility for the office of the united states trade representative. as commerce secretary he will be responsible for enforcing the sweeping tariffs trump campaigned on for which lutnik has expressed fervent public support, yet many economists say the tariff proposals could cause inflationary effects for consumers. lutnik, whose domain stretches from brokerages to real estate had previously been considered for the role of treasury secretary and had been one of donald trump's biggest promoters from the business world in recent months. and wall street is keeping a close eye on lutnik�*s position on various policies. he's advocated for more jobs for americans and criticised the us, canada, mexico trade pact as hurting us auto manufacturing jobs. lutnik is also a big supporter

of crypto with his business providing leverage to investors who hold bitcoin and is also a staunch supporter of israel, in line with donald trump's position. common trump's position. cast is moving ahead with common cast is moving ahead with a spin off of its nbc universal network channels including msnbc, cnbc. the company has been playing with the idea of separating its entertainment and news channels for a while. entertainment and news channels for a while-— for a while. the separation could take _ for a while. the separation could take about _ for a while. the separation could take about a - for a while. the separation could take about a year- for a while. the separation l could take about a year with for a while. the separation - could take about a year with an announcement expected on wednesday. shares ofjapan�*s wednesday. shares of japan's holding wednesday. shares ofjapan�*s holding his rallying today with a stock of 8% of the state broadcaster reported the retailers founding family was aiming to take it private by march next year. according to the report, the family is in the report, the family is in the process of raising over $51 billion to complete the privatisation. seven and i has been under pressure to convince investors it can enhance value

on its own and fend off a $47 billion takeover bid. staying with japan the new prime minister recently said that he will not be having a face—to—face meeting with donald trump before his inauguration. that is in sharp contrast to the former prime minister abe who managed to meet trump in new york three days after he won the 2016 election. the two were also really close during the us president's first term which helped pave the way for a bilateral trade agreement between the us and japan, signed in 2019. in answer to your question, it is not in the immediate future. and for two or three reasons. already the prime minister said it was mr trump's office that came to mr ishiba and said they could not meet mr ishiba citing that meeting foreign

leaders such as ishiba is deemed illegal at present. it sounds funny because as you say, when shinzo abe was in office eight years ago, eight years ago, he made a visit to the president—elect trump, so it was obviously a piece of a white lie. and i would imagine that mr trump is very well aware what sort of relationship ishiba had with shinzo abe. i have to say the relationship between mr ishiba and shinzo abe, the previous prime minister, was not a good one. so those combined, short term, there will be little to no chance for ishiba to meet president—elect trump.

what impact do you see it having on trade? we mentioned shinzo abe securing i bilateralfree—trade agreement at this time trump has promised worldwide tariffs, so what are the japanese trade risks in terms of this? there are trade risks forjapan, but in the context of the us and china trade frictions, and japan must make the case that honda, toyota and otherjapanese major manufacturing companies have invested quite substantial substantial amounts of capital in the united states and that is something that shinzo abe repeatedly mentioned when he met president trump in person, but it is a square one sort of situation in that the japanese have to be the same again. a high—profile national security trial has resumed in hong kong asjimmy lai takes the stand for the first time.

the 76—year—old has been in jail since late 2020 and is facing two charges of a conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under beijing's security law. lai denies all charges against him. the security crackdown from beijing has brought into question the viability of hong kong is a global business hub. sam goodman assesses the potential economic impact of this latest national security trial. i this latest national security trial. ~' , ., , trial. i think investors face is that they _ trial. i think investors face is that they need - trial. i think investors face is that they need the - trial. i think investors face is that they need the rule | trial. i think investors face i is that they need the rule of law to remain intact in hong kong to operate their businesses and the reality here is the hong kong government has just trailed 45 of their political opponents and very spurious charges. i would describe hong kong is facing somewhat of a perfect storm

where you see local economic downturn linked to the national security crackdown where half a million hong kongers have left since 2020 and millionaires have left. hong kong is exposed to the wider downturn in the chinese economy, particularly in the property sector and is exposed to geopolitics, and the potential restarting of a trumpet trade war. how do you see hong _ trumpet trade war. how do you see hong kong _ trumpet trade war. how do you see hong kong being _ trumpet trade war. how do you see hong kong being two -- i see hong kong being two —— impacted when it comes to the us relationship with china where we hear about 60% tariffs being placed on goods coming from china. how much will hong kong feel that pain?— kong feelthat pain? hong kong could feel quite _ kong feelthat pain? hong kong could feel quite acutely - kong feelthat pain? hong kong could feel quite acutely on - kong feelthat pain? hong kong could feel quite acutely on one | could feel quite acutely on one of the things actively discussed in washington in congress is whether the trumpet administration will provoke the hong kong special status under the hong kong policy act and treated like any other chinese city were trade and customs

terms —— the trump administration which means it would apply to goods from hong kong. according to the international air transport association global air passenger numbers will double in about 20 years to 8.6 billion and that even despite the setback from the pandemic. bahrain owned golf air is rooting for that growth. my colleagues caught up with the boss to talk about the challenges and opportunities he sees in the near future. we are challenged by two significant concerns, one is geopolitical conflicts in the middle east which has affected unfortunately with israel and iran that has affected traffic in the region. and we live in hope that this will not escalate, as much as other tensions around the world will not escalate because it does not do us any good. second, the challenge of engine availability and that is impacting operational stability and confidence in the industry and impacting brands. there has been a lot of safety concerns about boeing aircraft. is that a concern for you?

aircraft delivery has been late, but the main challenge for us at gulf air and the industry generally is the availability of aircraft as a result of an engine shortage. that is impacting us more than the concerns on the safety side. not to say that safety is not paramount and always will be, but we make sure that we are always ahead of the curve when it comes to safety. china's economy is in a slowdown and tourists are not travelling the way they used to from china. how has that impacted your business? we see a lot of uptick in domestic travel and international travel is fairly targeted for the chinese consumers today. but we remain invested because we believe that the chinese market will return, and it was and it is a significant force in terms of aviation growth. so we were never in two minds when we decided earlier this year and decided last year that we would launch the flight into shanghai to remain invested and being present in the chinese market.

what is the gulf air position on sustainability, especially coming from a region that produces so much gas and oil? in terms of gas and oil for bahrain, it's only 15% of gdp today and bahrain has divested towards other sectors and you look at the logistics of the financial industries, this is a bigger part of the overall national gdp. but in terms of the omissions for the airline, gulf air is committed to the target of net zero emissions by 2050 and we have different measures in place and it is still a very expensive product because of the limited quantity available but we are addressing it in other ways to manage our emissions and are in our license to fly through offset programmes, waste management programmes, energy consumption programmes and more responsible procurement.

that's it for this edition of business today. thanks for watching.

hey, it's lucy with the catch—up. tonight, thousands of farmers in london. paul mescal and the king. and animals in the snow. first, tonight, a post—mortem has found that 24 year old harshita barella

died of strangulation. her body was found in a car in east london on thursday. the prime suspect is her husband, pankash lamber, who's 23. police think he's fled the country. thousands of farmers from across the uk held a protest in london today over new government plans to make farmers pay more tax on farms. they get passed on to them when family members die. there are laws like this already for people being given houses or money, but farms weren't included. under new rules from 2026, people inheriting farms worth more than £1 million will have to pay 20% inheritance tax. farmers aren't happy. a lot of us young people especially, we don't get paid minimum wage because it's our belief that we get the farm. well, we're not going to get the farm. we're not going to have a future. this will ruin us. the prime minister says he understands their concerns, but says the vast majority of farms won't be affected. some other stories now.

a man who accidentally binned a hard drive containing bitcoin says it's now worth more than £500 million. james has been trying to get the hard drive back for over a decade. and was meeting the king wild? that's what paul mescal was asked about this interaction at the gladiator ii premiere. he said meeting the king wasn't on his bingo cards or list of priorities. and we know the news can be a lot. so let's have 10 seconds of something a little lighter. here's some very cute animals at a wildlife park in doncaster enjoying the snowy weather. and for candy and tafari, it was their first time in the snow. that's us for tonight. have a good one. hello there and welcome

along to sportsday. i'm gavin ramjaun. it's the final curtain for rafael nadal. spain's loss in the davis cup means the 22—time grand slam champion�*s pro career comes to an end. the dream is over too for britain in the billie jean king cup. their long wait to make another final goes on as they are beaten by slovakia. and job done for wales. they're back up to the top tier of the nations league after a superb win over iceland. hello there, and welcome along to the programme. it was always going to be a momentous and highly charged night of tennis action in malaga, as spain faced the netherlands in the davis cup. it proved to be the last outing for rafael nadal. his illustrious career coming to an end after the men's team event.

the deciding doubles match went the way of the dutch