us president—elect trump selects billionaire wall street investor howard lutnick as his new commerce secretary. and with passenger numbers set to soar, we sit down with the boss of middle east carrier, gulf air. hello, and welcome to business today — i'm katie silver. president—elect donald trump has selected billionaire investor and veteran wall street boss howard lutnick as the next commerce secretary. in an announcement on his social media platform, truth social, trump said the executive will help lead the tariff and trade agenda. for more, let's get to new york and our correspondent, ritika gupta. president—elect donald trump is tapping up the ceo

howard lutnik to head at the commerce department. on truth social, trump announced 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 forecast 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 has 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. turning tojapan — new prime minister shigeru ishiba recently said that he will not be having a face—to—face meeting with donald trump before his inauguration. now that's in sharp contrast to former prime minister shinzo 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 us and japan, signed in 2019. tomohiko taniguchi, who worked with abe for seven years, explains why ishiba and trump haven't yet met in person. already, prime minister ishida 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 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

that having on trade? we mentioned abe securing that bilateral free—trade agreement, but 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—china trade frictions, and japan must make the case that honda, toyota, and otherjapanese major manufacturing companies have invested quite 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 do the same again. sexual harassment at the

company has risen in the past two years. incidents of bullying have also gone up. racism behaviours are at the same level since 2021. the company's boss said he was disturbed by the fact that people are being hurt by bad behaviour. australia's mining industry was rocked by a parliamentary inquiry by the australian government in 2022, revealing incidents of sexual assault and harassment. jimmy lai's trial follows tuesdays sentencing of 45 pro—democracy activists, who were given between a high—profile national security trial has resumed in hong kong today as pro—democracy media tycoon jimmy lai takes the stand for the first time. the 76—year—old has been in jail since late 2020. he is facing two charges of a "conspiracy to collude with foreign forces" under beijing's security law. he told the court he wanted the paper, the apple daily, to deliver freedom, paper, the apple daily, to deliverfreedom, and he deliver freedom, and he requested deliverfreedom, and he requested mike pence to voice

out support for hong kong. jimmy lai's trial follows tuesdays sentencing of 45 pro—democracy activists, who were given between 4—10 years in prison — including legal scholar benny tai and pro—democracy campaignerjoshua wong. the group was charged with subversion. the security crackdown from beijing has brought into question the viability of hong kong as a global business hub. sam goodman from think—tank the china strategic risks institute — assesses the potential economic impact of this latest national security trial. i think investors face that they need the rule of law to remain intact of law to remain intact in hong kong to operate their in hong kong to operate their businesses, and the reality businesses, and the reality here is the hong kong here is the hong kong government has justjailed 45 government has justjailed 45 of their political opponents of their political opponents on very spurious charges. on very spurious charges. i would describe that hong kong i would describe that hong kong is facing somewhat of a perfect is facing somewhat of a perfect storm where you see local storm where you see local economic downturn linked economic downturn linked to the national security to the national security crackdown, where half a million crackdown, where half a million hong kongers have hong kongers have

left since 2020 and left since 2020 and millionaires have left. 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 trump trade war. how do you see hong kong being impacted when it comes to the us—china relationship? we hear about 60% tariffs being placed on goods coming from china. how much will hong kong feel that pain? hong kong could feel quite acutely. one of the things actively discussed in washington in congress is whether the trump 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, which means it would apply to goods from hong kong. global air passenger numbers are set to double in about 20 years to 8.6 billion, according to iata.

bahrain—owned gulf air is readying for that growth. my colleague suranjana tewari caught up with its boss jeffrey goh to talk about the challenges and opportunities he sees in the near future. we are challenged by two significant concerns, obviously one is geopolitical conflict in the middle east that's affected by unfortunately the conflict between israel and iran, that's affected traffic in the region. we hope this will not escalate, as much as other tensions around the world will not escalate because this does us no good. second is the challenge of engine availability, that is impacting operational stability and confidence in industry. there's obvious he _ confidence in industry. there's obvious he been _ confidence in industry. there's obvious he been a _ confidence in industry. there's obvious he been a lot - confidence in industry. there's obvious he been a lot of - confidence in industry. there'sj obvious he been a lot of safety concerns about boeing

obvious he been a lot of safety concerns abc aircraft |g the ability of aircraft and aircraft shortage. that's concerning us more than the safety side. not to say safety is not paramount, it always will be, but we always make sure we are ahead of the curve when it comes to safety. china's economy is in a slow down, and tourists aren't travelling the way they use to from china — house that impacting your business? we from china - house that impacting your business? we see a lot of uptake — impacting your business? we see a lot of uptake in _ impacting your business? we see a lot of uptake in domestic- a lot of uptake 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. it was, it is, and will return. it was, it is, and will be a significant force in terms of aviation growth, so we were of two minds when we decided earlier this year to remain invested in the chinese market. ~ . , remain invested in the chinese market. . , , remain invested in the chinese market. . ,, ~ �*, market. what is gulf air's position _ market. what is gulf air's position on _ market. what is gulf air'sj position on sustainability, especially coming from a region that produces so much gas and

oil? in that produces so much gas and oil? , ., ., , ., that produces so much gas and oil? , ., .,, ., ., oil? in terms of gas and oil for bahrain, _ oil? in terms of gas and oil for bahrain, it's _ oil? in terms of gas and oil for bahrain, it's only - oil? in terms of gas and oil for bahrain, it's only 1596 i oil? in terms of gas and 0in for bahrain, it's only 1596 of for bahrain, it's only 15% of the gdp today. bahrain has divested to its other sectors, and you look at the logistics and you look at the logistics and financial industries, they are a bigger part today of the overall national gdp. but for the omissions for the airline, gulf air remains committed to net zero emissions by 2050. we have measures in place, sustainable aviation fuel — it is still a very expensive product because of the limited quantity available, but we are addressing other ways to earn our licence to fly through offset programmes, waste management programmes, energy consumption programmes, as well as responsible procurement. markets in asia are relatively mixed, and markets in china and india up.

and 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 ten 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.