welcome to business today. we start in the us where, in the next few hours, president biden is set to block a $14 billion takeover of us steel by its japanese rival, nippon steel. that's according to sources speaking to both reuters and the washington post. but with just days left in the white house for biden, the big question is whether the incoming trump administration will reverse the decision and allow the controversial deal to go ahead. our asia business reporter mariko oi has more.

there were reports that president biden will decide on the deal soon and according to the washington post and reuters, he will likely block the deal. that's despite reports that nippon steel has proposed to give the us government veto power over any potential cuts to us steel's production capacity. that was one of the major concerns of the union, that nippon will eventually cut steel production in the united states and maybe start importing cheaper steel from japan, for example, which of course would then affect the employees�* job security. interestingly, while the union is still against the deal, not only us steel's leadership, but also some of its workers are now starting to favour the deal because the financial situation of the company has been so challenging and nippon steel has committed to investing almost $3 billion in us steel mills over the next few years. now, responding to the report of mr biden�*s imminent decision, us steel said in a statement that the company hopes mr biden will do the right

thing and adhere to the law by approving a transaction that so clearly enhances us national and economic security. but if the reports are accurate, he will likely block the deal. us steel, though, has indicated previously that it may file lawsuits, including against the biden administration, if the president decides to block the acquisition. some are also watching what mr trump may say on the deal because during the election campaign, while he opposed a deal, that was before all the new proposals made by nippon steel, which is trying to, i guess, show commitment to protect steel production in the united states. and if mr trump decides that the deal could be good for the us economy and manufacturing, according to experts, he could actually nullify mr biden�*s decision. let's stay in the us where shares in electric car—maker tesla have fallen sharply after it reported its first drop in annual deliveries in more than a decade. tesla shares have been big post—election winners,

with boss elon musk cementing a role at the heart of mr trump's new team. but these figures have raised concerns about future growth for the company. here's our north america business correspondent michelle fleury. tesla delivered a record number of cars in the final three months of last year, 495,570 vehicles to be precise, but that figure was short of the number it needed to beat its 2023 full year performance. for all of 2024 tesla delivered 1.79 million vehicles worldwide, down about 1% from last year, the first time the company has reported this kind of drop. part of the problem is increased competition. chinese rival byd said this week that its electric car sales grew double digits last year to about 1.76 million globally. and it's notjust chinese ev makers snapping at its heels. legacy global car makers like gm, volkswagen and hyundai are also vying

for market share. tesla has responded to slowing demand for evs by cutting vehicle prices in china and the us. elon musk has also pivoted the company to focus on robotics and artificial intelligence, but that is still a ways off. for now, tesla remains dependent on car sales to make money. shares in tesla fell 6% on the news, but it is worth noting that the stock ended 2024 up more than 60%, with most of those gains coming after the us election. investors are betting that elon musk�*s closeness to donald trump will help his businesses. earlier i spoke to dan ives, global head of technology research at wedbush securities. he's long been bullish on tesla's prospects. i asked him whether musk�*s increasingly controversial politics might be an issue for the company.

definitely a risk in terms of alienating some customers, especially ones that are super negative on trump but if you look, the benefits far outweigh any of the noise because for musk, he was really iced out of the biden administration. fortrump, i mean, that's an alliance that was getting stronger and stronger and he's going to have a front row seat in the white house. that's a great thing for tesla. they continue to be, musk and tesla, the biggest winners from the tech world when it comes to trump getting into the white house the second time. to germany now because the number of people out of work in europe's biggest economy continued to rise in december. germany's jobless total is soon expected to hit three million for the first time since the european debt crisis a decade ago. things look bleak on all

fronts for the eu's industrial powerhouse. it is facing a snap election next month after the collapse of its ruling coalition amid disagreement over how to handle a host of economic problems. the inauguration of donald trump is set to add to germany's challenges. we spoke to carsten brzeski, a global economist at ing research in frankfurt. he says a weakening labour market is just a symptom of germany's years of economic decline. for the first time i think in 20 years these elections will mainly be decided by the economic platforms. so voters clearly fear that there is more stagnation, more structural change coming up. we have all the discussions about iconic german companies laying off people, going through restructuring. so this is clearly giving many german citizens, rightly so, big creeps. we now see that voters are looking at the economic programmes by the individual parties. in all honesty, no single party has really come up with a strong

programme so far, so we will get a little bit of reforms, a little bit of investment. but this is not the election that will bring big change to the german economy. we often talk about germany as europe's powerhouse now perhaps powerhouse, now perhaps europe's sick man. why has it gone from outperformer to underperformer? it's a long, long list of explanations, and probably to sum it up, it is for too long just betting and banking on an old success model without innovating, without investing, without reforming. and, of course, there's also competition coming out of china, which the german corporate sector has, i think, underestimated for too long. so underestimation, a bit of too much arrogance from both the corporate world and politicians has simply led to the fact that germany has lost over the last ten years, international

competitiveness and this is now being paid by a stagnating economy. from one struggling european giant to another. france's new prime minister, francois bayrou, is holding his first cabinet meeting after a deadlock over the country's budget brought down the government of his predecessor, michel barnier. monsieur bayrou is expected to push ahead with tax rises and spending cuts amid growing investor concern over the state of france's finances. on thursday, more bad news on the economy as a survey showed that last month france suffered the biggest slump in manufacturing activity in five years. let's bring in tomasz michalski, associate professor of economics at the hec business school in paris. it's a delicate government, its mission is to pass an amendment to the 2025 budget. remind us why that was so important and so controversial.

the issue is we didn't have agreement in the parliament is among the main forces over what the budget should look like, whether there should be tax increases or not and whether there should be cuts. the government eventually fell because of the budget and the laws of funding social security. the new government starts with the same copy and it is going to try to find resolution by negotiating with the socialist party or the greens, at least getting neutrality from then so that you bring down the government. we can look at live pictures from paris other than surrounding the new incoming cabinet. given the slim majority that it has in the febrile state of french

politics right now, canada's new government achieve anything beyond getting this budget over the line? , , ., ., , the line? this is going to be the line? this is going to be the first question, - the line? this is going to be the first question, whetherl the first question, whether they can even survive january and whether they can then deliver any budget at all. what is very likely is that there will be new elections. that may not bring any new resolution. the short answer to your question is probably we will have no major reforms. if anything, we will have some tax increases, some reversals of the reforms that were done by president macron. simply put he lowered taxes but he didn't adjust the spending and with covid shocks and war in ukraine this provided two large negative shocks to the french

economy that caused this huge budgetary issue that has not been resolved since.- budgetary issue that has not been resolved since. what will been resolved since. what will be the ripple _ been resolved since. what will be the ripple effect _ been resolved since. what will be the ripple effect for - been resolved since. what will be the ripple effect for the - be the ripple effect for the rest of europe, across the border in germany, too? we have no support _ border in germany, too? we have no support by _ border in germany, too? we have no support by government - no support by government spending for gdp growth. at the time when we need the green transition, cross—border investments, also perhaps in defence that generates nice multiplier effect in research and development, but also we have very large uncertainty in private investment. for the french economy there is going to be very little private investment growth and that augers very badly for the future because today? investment is future productivity and future growth.

this is all across the board in germany, the nether lands and other countries.— other countries. thomas, who will have _ other countries. thomas, who will have to — other countries. thomas, who will have to leave _ other countries. thomas, who will have to leave it _ other countries. thomas, who will have to leave it there, - will have to leave it there, but thank you very much for joining us in sharing your thoughts with us today. stay with us here on bbc news.

hello from the bbc sport centre. i'm hugh ferris. it's advantage australia after a fiery first day in the final test against india in sydney, one that while ending with an indian bowler in the faces of his opponents, was dominated by those of australia. india need a win at the scg to tie the series and were without captain rohit sharma, who dropped himself after poor form. after batting first, they were immediately in trouble. scott boland picking up three of the first five wickets as india slumped to 120—5. he would finish with figures

of 11—31, while mitchell starc got three of his own. india bowled out forjust 185. there was a moment of joy for the tourists. an angryjasprit bumrah removing usman khawaja with the final ball of the day. australia closing on 9—1, 176 runs behind. liverpool manager arne slot says trent alexander arnold remains fully committed to the club despite a recent approach by real madrid being rebuffed with the player's contract expiring at the end of the season. slot wouldn't rule out alexander arnold being sold in the january transfer window, preferring only to confirm he will be in the liverpool team for their next premier league match against manchester united. i can tell you that

he's playing on sunday and hopefully he brings the same performances