tv Business Today BBC News January 13, 2025 3:30am-3:46am GMT
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continue to rage with its governor saying the disaster may be the "costliest in us history." plus, what the incoming trump administration could mean for the world's second—largest economy. hello and welcome to business today. i'm steve lai. we start in the us where firefighters in los angeles are making progress in battling wildfires across the city. one smaller fire was contained on sunday, but two of the largest blazes are still raging. 2a people have died according to officials. there are fears of more devastation to come as strong winds are forecast for the coming days, raising the threat that the fires could spread. private forecaster accuw eather estimates that the disaster —— accuweather estimates that the disaster will result in losses exceeding $250 billion. california's governor gavin newsom said in an interview with nbc news that this could be the costliest disaster in us history.
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is or will it be the worst natural disaster in the history of the united states? i think it will be in terms ofjust the costs associated with it, in terms of the scale and scope. governor newsom also signed an executive order on sunday which suspends some environmental laws, aimed at helping los angeles rebuild faster. much of the focus would be on constructing buildings that can withstand future threats. kate cotter is the founder and ceo of the resilient building council in australia — a country that frequently experiences wildfires. she said the damage in los angeles was "eye—watering". la fires are absolutely catastrophic. we haven't seen single fire events in australia, you know, more than a few thousand building losses. so seeing that go over the 10,000 building amount is just eye watering, it is so devastating. so, what we find is similar is that fires burn homes down in the same way, they
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need the same things, fuel and wind and steep terrain, and both countries have got those things that make them fire prone. what is, i guess, different is that la has got very dense populations within very close reach of that risk, and with those high winds and canyons and things, the los angeles landscape has added extra risk that has caused these fires to destroy far more property than we have seen in events in australia. how do you think these homes have been built with fire resiliency seemingly not in mind? ., ., , resiliency seemingly not in mind? . ., , ., mind? the areas are quite urban and fire resiliency _ mind? the areas are quite urban and fire resiliency might - mind? the areas are quite urban and fire resiliency might not - and fire resiliency might not be top of mind in those communities. they are not out in the forest themselves, surrounded by the visible risk. so it is again about adjusting
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what is happening in terms of risk today to our education and how we can better inform people that might not be able to actually see that risk themselves and do not have an understanding of it. over to india which, will be hosting the world's largest religious gathering — the kumbh mela. more than 400 million devotees are expected to converge at a holy city in uttar pradesh for the six—week long festival. archana shukla joins me live from mumbai for more. archana, take us through the economic impact of the event. 0rganising the movement of millions and hosting them in one single place itself generate so much economic activity. a temporary city has been set up where the festival takes place with about 150,000 tenths being set up to accommodate millions, and some of these are in fact luxury temps with hotel chain group like the indian hotels which runs a group of hotels setting up runs a group of hotels setting up luxury tents. some would pay
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more than 350, $400 per night to stay there, and apart from that, new electricity connections to power these 150,000 homes have been set up, new road lines have been set up in this temporary city, and the government, the government of uttar british, that host this festival, this entire event over 45 days could generate economic activity with $23 billion, and that would include some in the sector to travel and tourism payments group cetera that are hoping to benefit out of this. advertising gurus say this is a marketing opportunity of a lifetime for many brands and they would be spending close to $1 billion injust advertising alone. the biggest challenge in the test for the government would be to organise logistics for these millions who are coming there and to avoid any stampede or disease outbreaks
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which have been an occurrence in the past at this event. thank you very much. china's export growth quickened in december, expanding almost 11% from a year earlier — that's according to the latest customs data. the country's trade surplus with the united states also widened to $33.5 billion during the month from under $30 billion. exports have been an important driver of the chinese economy, helping to offset a property market slump and sluggish domestic demand. this latest data comes a week ahead of donald trump's return to the white house where his biggest target appears to be china. during his first term, mr trump started the trade war between the world's two biggest economies, slapping tariffs of up to 25% on thousands of chinese goods. the biden administration kept most of them in place. for his second term, mr trump is proposing even higher tariffs — as much as 60%. stefanie holtze—jen from deutsche bank private bank gave us a sense of how damaging the tariffs will be.
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the last administration has been following on with these tariffs as you already said. on average, chinese exports are right now tariffed at 23%, so, yes, if we look at 50 to 60%, this is a higher number, but there's also a few differences. so, number one, it doesn't come as a surprise. so the diversification of trade partners and diversification of supply chains has already taken place over the last year. so, from that angle, if you compute the potential impact these new 60% could have, we come to a point where we see this down to only 35% effective tax rate. and also, of course, then talking about the impact on the economy being also watered down to 0.5%, which is something we have incorporated into our gdp growth target, which is 4.2% for the year
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ahead. but one more point for the year ahead, as i said, the timing of this is also important. right now we are sitting here, they have the implementation of any higher tariffs. it is a lot retoric around it, but there are still a good amount of uncertainty whether these are to come more what the actual timeline of that is. we assume the biggest impact will come only by the second half of this year. ahead of possible us tariffs, china is setting its sights on south america. a new megaport on peru's coastline that's part of china's belt and road initiative will increase the frequency of trips to asia this month. its direct route to china cuts sailing times by ten days and bypasses north america entirely. the bbc�*s ritika gupta reports. huge unmanned cranes loom over peru's chinese—funded port. a symbol of beijing's growing influence in south america. situated on the edge of peru's coastal desert some 50 miles north of the capital,
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a small fishing town looks set to become a major hub for trade in a region the us has long considered its own backyard. this giant new port is a game changer, notjust for peru, but the wider latin american region, and at a time when the newly elected president donald trump is looking to clamp down on trade with china, china has set its eyes on peru, making peru a strategic piece on the global geopolitical chessboard. the man overseeing the port's operations, mario, says the port will dramatically speed up trade that will bypass america entirely. you are going to have express directly to shanghai. it is a huge opportunity for south america because right now all the materials that you export to asia, you have to go to mexico
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and then you cross the pacific ocean. but despite the promises of growth, some in the local community feel left behind. the fully automated port has so far offered fewjobs. the nearly $1.5 billion port majority owned by china's cosco shipping, is china's latest belt and road project. china has overtaken the us as peru's main trading partner, a trend that could widen across latin american countries, as donald trump threatens tariffs under his america first policy. critics warn of overreliance on china and jeopardising the existing relationship with the us with some of trump's aids pushing huge tariffs on old merchandise coming through the port. but for peru's minister for foreign trade, ursula leon, it is not a cause for concern.
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translation: our agreementsj enhance with china enhance our competitiveness without compromising other markets. peru must navigate a delicate balancing act. for now, the port stands at both the beacon of opportunity and a source of uncertainty in a world bracing for heightened trade tensions. apple's board of directors have recommended that investors vote against a shareholder push to abolish its diversity programmes. it comes after a conservative think tank proposed that the company drop dei as it increases the risk of possible litigation. apple has since called the move "unneccessary" in a regulatory filing. the tech giant's stance is in stark contrast to meta and amazon, which have recently rolled back on their dei efforts. and that's it for this edition of business today. thanks for watching.
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knocking out arsenal on penalties. ten—man barcelona hit five past real madrid in the spanish super cup. and a desert rose: justin rose's great britain and ireland team win the team cup in abu dhabi. hello there. welcome along. it has been a gripping day in the third round of the fa cup. the two most successful sides in the history of the competition were facing each other with the 13—time winners and holders manchester united knocking out 14—time winners arsenal on penalties. that's after the game finished 1—1. they won the shoot—out 5—3 withjoshua zirkzee scoring the winning kick after united's turkish keeper altay bayindir had
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