hello and welcome to business today. uniqlo has become a brand that is recognised internationally and its boss has directly addressed being in the news around the controversy around cotton from xinjiang. forthe controversy around cotton from xinjiang. for the first time the boss of the company told the boss of the company told the bbc xinjiang cotton is not used in its products. the bbc�*s mariko oi sat down with mr yanai in a wide—ranging conversation. i am at one of uniqlo�*s latest stores at the heart of tokyo. this year fast retailing has achieved its goal of generating annual revenue of y3 trillion. to become the world's biggest retailer, it needs to at least double that. but the boss even has a bigger target, a revenue of y10 trillion. can he achieve that

as the company's president before passing the button to his successor? translation: i would like to achieve it and i believe i need to achieve it. in order to do that we need to imagine how different a y10 trillion firm is from a y3 trillion firm and recreate our company every day. we want to change people's perception of our clothing, that it can continue to evolve. i want to ask your views on today's fast fashion industry, especially chinese retailers, what do you think is the future of this industry? translation: i don't think there is a future i forfast fashion. they are producing clothes without careful considerations, which you can only wearfor one season. that is a waste of the planet's resources. you can wear our clothes for many seasons, the shirt or sweater when i am wearing today, i have no idea how old they are. i want to ask you about china

because its economic challenges have been affecting your performance as well. what is your strategy? do you think you will have to change your strategy or outlook? translation: | don't think. we need to revise our strategy for china, they are 1.4 billion people and we only have 900 to 1000 stores. i think we can increase that to 3000. uniqlo have been trying to build supply chains customers can trust where there is transparency about the environmental impact and human rights. is it because of its controversy whether it gets its cotton from xinjiang. you didn't confirm or deny that, can you clarify if there is any cotton from xinjiang in any products? translation: no we're not using cotton from xinjiang. l we are not mentioning which cotton we are using. actually, it gets too political if i say anymore. so let's stop here.

its success is partly due to its focus on clothes that are essential to customers day—to—day lives. for example its heat tech collection to keep you warm in winter has been a lasting hit. it also sells the breathable airism line of closing. for hot weather. both of them developed in partnership with a company that specialises in synthetic bible. retailers like uniqlo are coming under pressure to disclose where they source their materials from, as customers want to know where and how their clothing is made. that was tadashi yanai, the boss of uniqlo�*s parent company. you can find out more on out website including what he said about not using xinjiang in the products, addressing the contentious issue for the first time. volkswagen will pull out of xinjiang region. it comes after years of

mounting pressure to sell its business in the region. human rights commission's have accused beijing of carrying out violations against uyghurs minority groups. the german car giant will sell its operations to a chinese state owned firm. the us federal trade commission opened an anti—trust investigation into microsoft. it reportedly involves the firm software licensing and cloud computing businesses. technology companies are increasingly facing scrutiny from regulators. the ftc refused to comment. softbank�*s boss is on a visit to india where he reportedly met the prime minister and start—up founders. 0ur reporterjoins us now from mumbai. tell me more about the japanese company's plans for india? india stands as a great destination for investment

for the japanese tax giant and softbank has seen a very good return on investment they have made in some of the start—ups in india. they have reaped benefits. india has been one market driven by the large ipos of some of softbank�*s portfolio companies in the recent past, softbank has benefited a bit out of the investments they have made in the indian start—up. whether it was the electric company that was said earlier or the food delivery giant that listed in $1.3 billion ipo and some of these have also driven the profitability of the global softbank where they recently announced a billion—dollar profitability and most of which has been driven by the benefits they have reaped from india and going forward while for the last two years there were in a wide and what situation because of a funding winter, for start—ups but now it reportedly

softbank is looking at increasing fresh investments in the start—up capital of the world and they are looking at artificial intelligence and chip designing as two areas. reports say that son met start—up founders with some of its portfolio companies his recent visit and spoke about investments in artificial intelligence and chip designing and this could be areas that softbank is looking to invest further in india certainly stays at one of the top destinations for the tech investor. in the world. keeping us u- to investor. in the world. keeping us up to speed _ investor. in the world. keeping us up to speed on _ investor. in the world. keeping us up to speed on japanese - us up to speed onjapanese investments in india, many thanks. one in five uk children aged between eight and 17 has lied about their age in order to get social media accounts, according to new research from the online regulator 0fcom. the figure has been consistent for the last two years despite the introduction of age verification and other tools by technology firms. protecting children from harmful content will be

a legal requirement once the uk's 0nline safety act is fully in force next year. social networks have introduced a number of measures aimed at ensuring that children aged below 13 do not have access to their platforms, but this report suggests the problem has not yet been solved. australia has moved closer to an outright ban on social media for children. lawmakers are calling it a �*world—first�* bill that to protect youngsters at a critical stage in their development. meta, google, and tiktok, have all challenged the planned law. let's bring in tony allen, ceo at age check certification scheme, is working with the australian government and took us through the process of age verification. there are three types of age assurance. age verification as we establish somebody�*s date of birth through a document or school record or whatever and you calculate that

difference to today's date. age estimation where you look to features of humans that vary with age. that is not about identifying but looking at your face or voice or whatever is a get older, it changes. the third one is age influence where you establish a set date of birth, some other pack, marriage or mortgage or whatever to be able to determine whether they are likely to be a child or adult. that would be the range of age assurance measures. presumably social media companies will be asked to adopt this technology. what other role can they play to try and solve the problems regarding this? social media companies are generators of the problem, children having access to them means encountering risks it is up to the social media companies to address that risk. how they do it is up to the social media companies

looking at different types of technology and different methods of doing that. this is about assessing those different products and services and how the social media companies do things. and seeing what works and what does not work and what might be an area of improvement. there are criticisms of blanket bans. briefly, can you outline why they might not be the best solution? as far as the trial goes, our role is to look at what you do once the age—related eligibility prompt is created. what creates the prompt is a problem for politicians. whether or not there should be a ban or whether it should be restrictions or a different products or services that have to go through that is a political question, i am not a politician. what i am here to look at is what you do, once the prompt is created, how you go about that challenge it created by that. meta chief executive mark zuckerberg met

donald trump at the president—elect mar—a—lago resort in palm beach florida. the facebook owner says the meeting comes at an important time for the future of american innovation. he had dinner with mr trump and met members of the incoming us administration. this comes as leaders of the technology industry are trying to get a sense of what to expect when the administration changes next year. that's all for business today, stay with bbc news.

hey, i am aisling with the catch up. tonight, the latest from lebanon. an arrest over secret filming and some gorgeous animal pics. we will start in lebanon where thousands of people are returning to the south of the country after israel's army and hezbollah agreed to pause fighting in a ceasefire. but many are now finding their homes have been destroyed. my parents spent their whole life in this house and we did as well and in one night all is gone.

have you seen these kind of secret camera videos of women being filmed on nights out? a 27—year—old man has been arrested on suspicion of stalking and harassment in connection to videos like these. a 23—year—old who spoke the bbc said she did not know she had been filmed until she was sent a link to one. and cctv from a london school shows autistic children locked in padded rooms. some thrown to the floor, restrained by the neck or even left alone sitting in vomit. the school says new leadership found the footage after the rooms had been shut and shared it with police. the investigation did not lead to charges but parents say their children are traumatised. time now to leave you with ten seconds of nature because the wildlife photographer of the year shortlist has just been announced. there are 25 shortlisted from nearly 60,000 chosen by the natural history museum in london and an international judging panel.

now it is time for you to have your say. you are all caught up now, have a great night.

hello and welcome to sportsday. i'm gavin ramjaun. a statement of intent from liverpool who beat champions league holders real madrid at anfield. so near to another famous european win for aston villa,

but they're denied right at the end of their match with juventus. and a blunder of an own goal, but celtic fight back against club brugge as the scottish champions rescue a point. hello there, and welcome along to the programme, it really is a case of the arne slot machine at liverpool continuing to pay out. what an evening for them in the champions league on wednesday, they got the better of holders real madrid, winning two goals to nil at anfield, which ends a long winless spell against the holders. liverpool hadn't won in the last eight meetings in the tournament, including two champions league finals. but there was no stopping them against their spanish opponents. alexis mcallister, and then

cody gakpo in the second half, with the goals.