the first crew from mainland china has just completed the prestigous sydney to hobart race. to conquer the world of sailing. with an average age ofjust 2a, the crew onboard this yacht includes professional athletes and former members of china's special forces. they've been here both training and competing for weeks. back home, sailing continues to ride a wave of popularity. a sailing club from shanghai has been flying the flag for china during the summer racing season in australia. they've been up against some of the most formidable ocean racing crews in the world. and that's a sign of china's ambition — they are notjust here to make up the numbers, ultimately they want to win. britain, the netherlands and australia dominated sailing at the rio olympics, but china, which won a silver medal, has lofty ambitions in a sport that requires money and motivation. you could probably draw some comparisons with maybe some other sports that they've taken on and there's always a timeline and sailing is a complex sport, so it will take a while, but if they are committed to it they will w

the crew from shanghai was the first team from mainland china to compete in the famous syd ney to chinat will also ta ke sydney to hobart race. it will also take its place in the australian yachting championships in melbourne. after a dog in pursuit of success, it will there be time to head home in time for chinese new year. —— dogged pursuit. love sailing! you have been watching newsday. i'm rico hizonk in singapore. stay with us. we will be having a look at bubblewrap and its history and the millions people make out of it. we will have aaron hessel first talking about the history and business of bubblewrap! so much to learn from shakespeare! before we leave you, we will leave you with these pictures because we have been hearing so much about the bad weather in the us and canada. this was just outside our offices, right here in london. this giant balloon is all part of a festival of light across oxford street and across bits of central london. it is pa rt across bits of central london. it is part of a festival of light. this huge balloon became untethered, possibly due to the high wind

confirmation today of an announcement in the middle of last year that apple's icloud services in mainland chinatially handed over to a company linked to the government down in the south of china and this company gcbd will run apple's icloud services in china and that means there is going to be new terms and conditions. in an e—mail sent out to icloud users in china, those who have chinese accounts, it warned them that they should look at the terms and conditions and said photographs, documents and any back—ups will be subject to different terms and conditions by the end of february and it said anyone who might not be happy with that, could deactivate their account 01’ that, could deactivate their account or change it to a different country. this is just the latest sign of apple having to comply, it says, with chinese regulations and the key regulation here is that any firm wishing to provide cloud computing services must have the servers based in china and they will be subject to chinese laws and rules, laws and rules which some critics say are different to regulations say in the european union

mainland china, you cannot trade. most of of the people in mainland china were processing through south score ria. kennedy: or north korea. >> the sec said u not put bitcoin or block chain, of any these buzz words that versus means, you can't slap that on your company and hope for the best because it's feeding this frenzy. wall street seems mixed. we had jpmorgan ceo saying it's a fraud, then he had a back peddle and say the block chain is real, the infrastructure hirnltd is real. kennedy: so is the risk. but sometimes there is an upside to that. >> i think conceptually this is fascinating. you had senator paul accepting bitcoin donations in his last campaign. you had peter teal. he made millions through his founders funds. i think eventually this is where money goes. and it's not that much different than you and i do apple pay. sounds like we have a deal. kennedy: president trump is healthy as a horse. at least according to rear admiral ronly jackson, the doctor who conducted the president's physical. the doctor also

right now the majority of the west coast to mainland china. but that could be set to change.nge also represents an opportunity for recyclers. waste management is big business. some companies in hong kong want to recycle the plastic rubbish themselves. the man in the driving seat is mr lam. the ceo of one of hong kong's largest recyclers. he has invested close to $1 million to upgrade his equipment, ready for the ban. translation: the recycling industry in hong kong faces many obstacles that these days. the chinese government has put in place certain restrictions on importing waste plastic. because of this, the industry has to look at how to deal with the imminent demand of how we process it. hong kong has a relatively underdeveloped recycling sector. activists hope the chinese ban will encourage hong kong companies to do more to develop the industry. andy lee is the founder of a community—based recycling programme. if the chinese policy is changed, i think they don't want to accept changed, i think they don't want to a cce pt waste changed, i think they don't want to accept w

in mainland china the markets were higher. seng up by 1% we had mixed data out of china the december trade data was mixed. exports rose that beat estimates. imports rose but less than expected the overall numbers for the year as well there. we talked about the euro earlier. we checked in on european politics and what's going on with angela merkel and the coalition parties there. the markets across the board are higher in europe germany is higher by 0.2%. italy continues to lead the way higher by a half percent at this point with the euro above 1.21 there's a trio of economic reports out this morning the december consumer price index is out at 8:30 a.m. along with december retail sales at 10:00 a.m., november business inventories. eric rosengren and patrick harker are speaking today. plus we'll also hear from dallas fed president robert cap lan when he sits down with steve liesman. catch that at 7:10 a.m. eastern time right here on cnbc. on the earnings front, jpmorgan, wells fargo, pnc financial and blackrock are reporting res

regina ip is is a strong supporter of mainland china.ng legal fundamentalists. in a free society like hong kong, with a wide range of different opinions, we have among our citizenry people who you might call "fundamentalists" you know, legal and judicial fundamentalists, who believe in sticking to every letter of the basic law. many pan—democrats in hong kong feel that the government and perhaps beijing are targeting them and carrying out somewhat of a political persecution. what do you say to that? we have no political offences in hong kong. if people are charged for disrupting public order, incitement or disturbance, that is all based on common law and common law principles and the statutory laws that we inherited from britain. i think these accusations are totally ungrounded. hong kong's autonomy was enshrined in the basic law, but the criminalisation of the umbrella protesters and others who challenge beijing does raise questions about the rule of law in the territory. it also raises questions about britain's commitment to the people

voiced their concerns about a proposed new rail terminal which could result in officials from mainland chinana daily reports that xi jinping's new year's address to the nation has gone down very well. the video of the chinese president speaking of his plans for reform went viral in its first few hours on social media. it has already been viewed more than 11 million times on weibo. and the new york times has an offer which is probably out of the reach of most of us. $500 million for a home in los angeles is what one property developer is asking. it boasts 20 bedrooms, four swimming pools, and its own beauty salon. now, kasia, what stories are sparking discussions online? mariko, a group of new zealanders and their creative way of getting around the law has caught people's attention online. they built an island out of sand, in coastal waters, so that they could have a drink on new year's eve. they did this because there is a ban on drinking alcohol in public in this part of the country. but they argued that their island was in international waters, and exempt from the official liquor ban. you

voiced their concerns about a proposed new rail terminal, which could result in officials from mainland chinaly reports that xi jinping's new year's address to the nation has gone down very well. the video of the chinese president speaking of his plans for reform went viral in its first few hours on social media. it's has already been viewed more than 11 million times on weibo. and the new york times has an offer which is probably out of the reach of most of us. $500 million for a home in los angeles is what one property developer is asking. it boasts 20 bedrooms, four swimming pools and its own beauty salon. now, kasia, what stories are sparking discussions online? mariko, a group of new zealanders and their creative way of getting around the law has caught people's attention online. they built an island out of sand in costal waters, so that they could have a drink on new year's eve. they did this because there's a ban on drinking alcohol in public in this part of the country. but they argued that their island was in "international waters" and exempt from the official liquor ban. you can rea

anger in hong kong that a prominent bookseller is reportedly snatched again by authorities in mainland china. and in sport russia's other official olympic team unveiled their look appealing chang. which is going to be some breaking news coming out of the us a magnitude eight point two earthquake has struck off the coast of alaska the tremor was centered two hundred fifty kilometers south east of chile yank at a depth of ten kilometers a tsunami warning has been issued for parts of alaska and canada almost one hundred people mostly children have been killed by measles and malnutrition in the indonesian province of pop over the past four months now the military has sent more than fifty medics to the area and plans to send more is rich in mineral resources but is one of the poorest parts of indonesia the government has promised to improve infrastructure but papon say the region is being neglected . address of sana is an indonesian researcher at human rights watch and he joins me now from the indonesian capital jakarta good to have you with us live on al-jazeera now the recent cases of the infan

one would like to serve a sentence inside prison but compared to the price paid by activists in mainland chinaust a small piece of cake. in 2017, i would describe hong kong as a semi—do crop —— democracy city turning into a semi— authoritarian city and in 2018, i would describe it as the start of a new crackdown. danny vincentjoins danny vincent joins from danny vincentjoins from hong kong. where this has lead forjoshua wong and the protest movement? forjoshua wong, he will be spending three months in prison. the most significant point in that development means that he will be barred for standing for any type of election in hong kong to the next five years. many activists feel the government perhaps influenced by beijing, your accusation of systematically using the law to attempt to politically persecute, to criminalise the opposition, so even this month, there are around 50 project —— pro— democratic leaders and activists. they would argue that many of the charges are convoluted and quite vague, charges such as inciting others to incite people to go to the street and cause public nuisance. it

was closed permanently two years ago when the publishers associated with it were detained in mainland china lam winkie claims he was abducted and subjected to mental torture before finally being released. after the incident our bookstore everyone in the publishing chang is terrified there are less political books and some publishers have stopped says it if titles altogether even in hong kong with its freedom of speech when it comes to she's reputation china seems determined there will be only one official version problem bride al-jazeera beijing. your child has their arms the whole rubber these are all top stories talk is president recipe i've heard one has vowed to launch a military operation on a major kurdish stronghold in syria now it comes after the us confirmed it's helping set up a thirty thousand strong border force in the north of the country it'll be compromised to comprise sorry mainly of kurdish one p.g. fighters who turkey considers to be terrorists. god willing in the coming days we will continue the operation to purge our southern border from terror for which the first step w

was closed permanently two years ago when the publishers associated with it were detained in mainland china lam winkie claims he was abducted and subjected to mental torture before finally being released. after the incident for our book store everyone in the publishing chain is terrified there are less political books and some publishers have stopped so sort of titles altogether even in hong kong with its freedom of speech when it comes to she's reputation china seems determined there will be only one official version of bride al jazeera beijing. hello again. the headline. turkish president. operation on a major kurdish stronghold in northern serbia he's pledged to attack in the coming days that's controlled by the kurdish. terrorists well the move comes after reports the u.s. coalition plans to build a thirty thousand strong personnel border security force in northern syria and that would include. the u.s. has previously supplied arms to kurdish fighters turkey is condemning the move of one of the us not to interfere. god willing in the coming days we will continue the operation to purge o

was closed permanently two years ago when the publishers associated with it were detained in mainland china lyme wing he claims he was abducted and subjected to mental torture before finally being released by gumtree after the incident for our book store everyone in the publishing chain is terrified there are less political books and some publishers have stopped says it if titles altogether even in hong kong with its freedom of speech when it comes to she's worth be taishan china seems determined there will be only one official version probably bright al-jazeera beijing they've got plenty more content on our website al-jazeera dot com. let's get remind of the top stories here on to syria turkey syria and russia have attacked a u.s. plan to form my thirty thousand strong border security force in northern syria the united states announced its support on sunday for the force which it hopes will help to defend territory held by u.s. backed kurdish fighters in northern syria turkey's president has accused washington of trying to create a terror army russia says it's a u.s. plot to partition syri

mainland china for restricting oil and coal supplies to north korea but said beijing could too much more north and south korea will march under a unified flag at the opening ceremony of next month's winter olympics also be a joint women's ice hockey team for the games and south korea it follows the first high level meeting between north and south korea and more than two years the apparent reconciliation efforts are opposed by many in the south with several petitions filed against it at the novak has more from seoul the south korean government says the agreement reached with north korea on its participation in the winter olympics is significant and will help to push forward this message of peace olympics but not everyone here in south korea is happy about it in a poll four out of ten said that they supported the idea of the two koreas marching together under a unified korean peninsula flood also some have questioned the idea of south koreans going into north korea to participate in a joint training event at a ski resort that is the pet project of the leader kim jong un one worry and that

handover happened in one thousand nine hundred seventy two turn from british colony soon back to mainland china but over the years there's been a systematic erosion of democracy here of people's rights here many of the democracy activists say they have just seen as heightening a french role in the city and each time they push back the authorities have been pushing back harder and so yes people are still passions and wondering about their future people i spoke to said they're ok but they're worried about their children in the future but many people think it's absolutely a few teil now to be shouting and marching because it seems that every time they do express their views china pushes back harder against them. or i will leave it there for now thanks so much to figure paula. south korea's clergy is going to have to start paying income tax this year religious leaders had been exempt for more than six decades some priests and monks have been paying income tax on a voluntary basis but others are resisting calling it interference in religious affairs the reforms are coming into force at a time when s

mainland china for restricting oil and coal suppliers to north korea but said beijing could do much more france's president. expected to press for stronger cross-channel border security when he meets british prime minister. later on thursday the leaders are expected to discuss ongoing negotiations. those are the headlines the news continues keep it here on al-jazeera the stream is next and then more news. are in power america's controversy over president tenting use to polarize opinion. in a week of special reports al-jazeera examines his impact at home and around the globe. donald trump's first year on. either way ok you're in the stream where live on al-jazeera and you tube fake news if your tweets watch t.v. or even just talk politics with your friends it's a phrase that you can't escape but what does it really mean to date the stream explain. although it's first uses can be traced back more than a hundred years the current popularity of the phrase fake news is down to one man u.s. president donald trump he first started using it as a weapon against his critics walk and painting and s

was closed permanently two years ago when the publishers associated with it were detained in mainland china lam winkie claims he was abducted and subjected to mental torture before finally being released. after the incident our book store everyone in the publishing chain is terrified there are less political books and some publishers have stopped city of titles altogether even in hong kong with its freedom of speech when it comes to shes reputation china seems determined there will be only one official version probably bright al-jazeera beijing. i was there i'm still rather these are all top stories two suicide bomb blasts in baghdad have killed at least thirty eight people will face. amongst the ninety wounded and i'll taran square in the iraqi capital. turkish president reza typos one says he plans to launch a military operation on a major kurdish stronghold in syria it comes out to the u.s. confirmed it's helping to set up a thirty thousand strong border falls in the north of the country syria's government it's called it a blatant assault on its territory and russia's foreign minister sa

books which detail the private lives of communist party officials material which is banned in mainland china a jim brown explains. well graeme in haiti is chinese but he's also a swedish citizen and as of tuesday his whereabouts remain unknown the only official information we're getting is coming from the foreign ministry in stockholm and from his daughter now she says that her father vanished while traveling to beijing by train in the company of two swedish diplomats apparently he was taken away by unidentified chinese officials it's not known exactly why he was going to beijing but the fact that he was in the company of two swedish diplomats suggests that he suspected he might well be detained now this is not the first time the way has suddenly disappeared he vanished in thailand while on holiday in two thousand and fifteen only to emerge in china shortly afterwards along with other publishing colleagues from hong kong he then later gave a televised confession on state television in which he admitted to being involved in a traffic accident some ten years earlier now subsequent to that tele

was closed permanently two years ago when the publishers associated with it were detained in mainland china lam winkie claims he was abducted and subjected to mental torture before finally being released. after the incident our book store everyone in the publishing chain is terrified there are less political books and some publishers have stopped says it if titles altogether even in hong kong with its freedom of speech when it comes to she said reputation china seems determined there will be only one official version of bright al-jazeera beijing a south korean government has made public transport free during peak hours on monday because of a pollution crisis the fee waiver is an emergency measure to tackle the poor quality the concentration of fine particles in the air in so dangerous levels on sunday i think novak has been talking to commuters and some people may welcome a free ride but in terms of public reaction to this move by the sole city government there's quite a bit of cynicism about whether it will really work first of all souls public transportation is already quite affordable it

was closed permanently two years ago when the publishers associated with it were detained in mainland china lam winkie claims he was abducted and subjected to mental torture before finally being released. after the incident our bookstore everyone in the publishing chang is terrified there are less political books and some publishers have stopped says that if the titles are to get there even in hong kong with its freedom of speech when it comes to she's reputation china seems determined there will be only one official version problem bride al-jazeera beijing. you're watching all just their arms the whole robber the reminder of our top stories at least seventy five people have been taken to hospital after being hit by falling rubble at the indonesian stock exchange it's all the balcony collapsed on an upper floor sharing day break on to people in the lobby below. two suicide bomb blasts in baghdad have killed at least thirty eight people more fatalities a faired among the ninety wounded to ryan square in the iraqi capital. also syria's foreign ministry has called the u.s. decision to back the

mainland china for restricting oil and coal suppliers to north korea but said beijing could do much more france's president. expected to press for stronger cross-channel border security when he meets british prime minister london later on thursday the leaders are expected to discuss ongoing negotiations those are the headlines the news continues keep it here on al-jazeera the stream is next and then more news. a year in power america's controversy president continues to polarize opinion. in a week of special reports al-jazeera examines his impact at home and around the globe. donald trump's first year i'm. going to stream we're live on al-jazeera and. fake news if you tweet or even just talk politics with your friends it's a phrase that you can't escape the.

ronnie: hong kong or mainland china? ramy: hong kong. ronnie: hong kong will be fine.esidential real estate should be careful. especially if you are buying it for your own residence. almost any time is a good time. anytime the market dips, surely, people should jump in to buy. it should be fine. ramy: you brought it up, china retail, mall properties. do you expect further improvement? the retail sales for all of our properties in the last year, the number has been up. the occupancy rate is up. our rent for the most part, up. as the market continues to recover, our number is reflected in perhaps 12 to 18 months time. ramy: some of the chinese developers have been very aggressive in hong kong government land building. do expect this to change, going ahead? ronnie: six months ago, a lot of the land was bought by mainland developers. today it is quiet. thing, when the mainland players were crazy about hong kong prices, all the hong kong guys stepped back. they were not that crazy to buy. fromthey began to retreat the market, the hong kong people rushed in. is aong kong mar

. >> the potential in mainland china, where we have 60% market share of swiss watches over there, it's growing tremendously there is no reason to be concerned. you see people are really wanting to buy products for themselves and as a gift to others and i can see no cloud >> shares in italy's luxottica are trading higher after the italian company said it expects strong net profit growth the eye wear maker also reported an increase in sales infourth quarter, nearly doubling the pace of growth in the first nine months counter intuitive that people are buying sunglasses in the winter months. shares in philips trading fleer the b near the bottom of the stoxx 600 after fourth quarter sales came under analysts forecasts philips saw high-end equipment boost sales by 5% to 5.3 billion euros. that's more than 2% below expectations the dutch health technology firm also reported a rise in adjusted earnings for the last three months of 2017, but that was below estimates >>> the european union agreed to allow the uk a 21-month transition period after the formal brexit date in march 2019 that would m

mainland china did see equities turn in higher at the end of the session.he nikkei was down 0.3%, as was the cob p kospi was down a half percent. the shanghai logged some slight gains. bitcoin slipping more than 11% thursday after south korea said it was preparing a bill to ban all cryptocurrency trading that's a big mover overseas because of the biggest market in seoul if you look at what was moving in those markets, chipmakers were down along with automakers and manufacturers look at what was going on in europe marginally mixed to start out trade. you can see here we are ever so slightly higher for most of the major european indices so the german dax is at least extending yesterday's losses into the early going today tesco shares lower after missing christmas forecasts. one of the large uk retailers, pandora had shares down sharply after profit margins will decline for several years. >> fascinating to see banks outperform yesterday as yields rose let's look at bitcoin. tumbling on the news that south korea is planning to ban trading of the currency. it is

and if you're from mainland china, overseas includes macau look, we've been through this before okay in december of 2016, there was the scare about china slashing the atm withdrawal limit in ma may of last year we started hearing macau would start monitoring atm withdrawals. none had any long-term impact. i think it's going to be the same this time the best thing about these stories, wynn and las vegas sands look pretty darn cheap on an earnings basis. wynn which is maybe one of the best companies on earth sells for 20 times next year's estimates. las vegas sands trades at 22 times next year's numbers. given its apparent growth rate, wynn deserves a multiple growth year wynn simply is not that expensive, even after its monster run. for those who listened to me on wynn and bought a position in this one, let her ride if you own las vegas sands, sell, swap into wnyy what if you don't want to own something that's totally hostage to the prc after all, there's nothing stopping the communist party from cracking down again whenever they feel like it maybe you prefer a casino stock that's a mu

nintendo rising by 5% on reports bet pokemon go could launched in mainland china.dropping in japan. it has a stake in ripple. since we saw japan come online the cost is more than doubled. this is a cannabis supplier in sharply, a lotg of these cannabis supplier's did as we saw australia open up exports of additional marijuana. -- medicinal marijuana. anna: breaking news to mop up from the top of last hour concerning their retail sector. numbers are stronger and that sent the sector higher. deb and hymns was below views. they said the first week of post-christmas sales was a low market use so warning coming through. interesting given what we heard and given the strong reaction to the market. and talkve u.k. retail about what is going on in the u.s. officials debated the risk to the economic outlook while some were concerned about low inflation. others pointed to robust growth that was about to get a further boost from tax cuts. the fed minutes show most policymakers backing continued gradual rate hikes. mike mckee has more. was top of mind at the december meeting. t

. >> woodruff: mainland china banned ivory sales as of january 1. an estimated 30,000 elephants are killed illegally for their tusks every year. back in this country, the justice department has dropped its corruption case against senato federal prosecutors had accused the new jersey democrat ofin trpolitical favors for gifts and cash. his first trial ended in a hung jury, and last week, a federal judge threw out several counts against him. south carolina congressman trey gowdy says he won't run for re-election, the ninth house republican chairman to do so. gowdy led the investigation of 12 attacks in benghazi, libya, and now chairs the oversight committee. the former prosecutor said today that he will return to the courts, and added that he has come to believthat "it is the bs that both seek and reward fairness that are the most rewarding." the federal reserve today left its benchmark interest rat unchanged. it said it expects to resume raising rates later thisear. and, wall street recovered a little of yesterday's big losses. the dow jones industri

was closed permanently two years ago when the publishers associated with eight were detained in mainland china lam winkie claims he was abducted and subjected to mental torture before finally being released. after the incident our book store everyone in the publishing chang is terrified there are less political books and some publishers have stopped says it if titles altogether even in hong kong with its freedom of speech when it comes to she's reputation china seems determined there will be only one official version problem bride al-jazeera beijing and that's it for me. back in a minute with another round of the day's news thanks for watching. this business. it's business. the river triggers. the run of the mill the it's. easy to get the girl. will do anything just her and. risking your all the destroyed one l.g. series. in two thousand and eight al-jazeera documented a groundbreaking scheme. preparing some of india's poorest children for entry into its toughest universities. ten years on we return to see how the students and the scheme a helping change the face of india. super thirty at this

>> for those companies with high among all the developers on mainland china, it concerns me., we saw a lot of whosemainland developers share price gained a lot and valuation was high, but their earnings improved significantly, but to me i think that they are really risky. justyear, i don't see any wait and see investment strategy. i see volatility this year, especially for those companies with high debt. chineseavoid those developers with high debt ratios. and quite amazing price-earnings ratios as well. if you strip out some of these bt, some ofith de the banks as well, you're talking about hang seng buy opy,ons that are t aren't you? >> you are right. we can't look at just a forward pe. that doesn't mean the whole picture, you are right in this point. i do think that tencent will have another good year, even though valuations are high and the market is over more than china mobile and hsbc combined together. rishaad: does that were you? >> a little bit, but if you live in china, you cannot live without tencent or alibaba. even daily groceries or daily lives, you cannot avoid

part of it is the fact that mainland china, but also the u.k., decelerated.don't have a creative director. what are people worried about at burberry? robert: today, they are looking at a pretty tough comparison. last year, sales really jumped due to the lower price of sterling. burberry has a lot of stores in the u.k. this year, it was a little less attractive to spend money and bounds in comparison to last year. the news is also coming from the fact that investors are worried about how expensive their plan might be. burberry is planning to renovate some stores and at the moment they don't have a creative director. is this highly unusual? some of the other companies are looking for a new creative director. do they just find someone, the right person hopefully, but also just give it to the markets? robert: it can take quite a bit of time to find a creative director, specifically in the current climate where the use of noncompete agreements is widespread. burberry might identify a candidate, and it can take a really long time to negotiate. robert, thank you so

china. government restrictions reduced mainland outbound m& by: if you count megadeals, asia saw four major2017, one more than 2016. i spoke to stephanie hanna in hong kong and i asked her about the future for deals already on the table. i think it casts a shadow for other deals that are still waiting for approval that involves chinese buyers. were talking about deals likejen worth being sold to china ocean wide, a life insurance company, other deals being sold in the semiconductor space. it doesn‘t bode well for those deals that are still hanging in the balance and i think it goes to show that cifius is considering access to consumer day as part of that umbrella of national security risks. later today a uk court will rule on evidence pertaining to the extradition case of the jane malcolm turnbull, the fugitive tycoon has co— ownership of formula 1 force india race team and he also owns kingfisher airlines, which has been grounded since 2012. let‘s go to mumbai. what is this case all about? well, rico, vijay mallya is a wanted man in india and ever since he left india for the uk in 2016, th

mainland he said china could do so much more about praise restrictions on oil and coal deliveries and the north now north and south korean athletes are to march under a unified flag at the opening ceremony at the winter olympics next month and a joint women's ice hockey team will play in south korea the announcements followed the first high level meeting between north and south korea and more than two years several lawsuits that have been filed in the south against those reconciliation efforts a reporter kathy novak has more from seoul. the winter olympics are just twenty two days away and the two koreas have come to a last minute agreement that they will walk together at the opening ceremony the south korean government says it's all part of an effort to promote this event as the peace olympics but not everyone here is happy a recent poll found only about four out of ten support the idea of marching under a unified korean peninsula flag and others are against the idea of a joint women's ice hockey team. we need to carry our own flag i'm also against a united team because the athletes

china. emmanuel macron is on the mainland for a second day as he tries to drum up closer trade ties with thergest economy. trade between the countries in 2016 was worth $70 billion us, but massively skewed in china‘s favour. they have roughly $33 billion surplus with france. chinese economists say they believe emmanuel macron will be able to narrow the trade gap. after this basically he is definitely bringing back some big deals. at least now the rumours have been saying that at least the chinese will invest in airbus, narrowing the trade deficit with france. definitely that deal with airbus is much bigger than exporting more wine and beef to the mainland. i think airbus has been traditionally there, but the new way of narrowing the gap should go beyond nuclear, automobiles, and then the airbus jet. because it is then the airbus jet. because it is the new growth area. surely the chinese also want more french investments into china. yes, and thatis investments into china. yes, and that is why i think on emmanuel macron‘s agenda will be asking china for preferential policy towards the french,

mainland he said china could do much more but praised restrictions on oil and coal deliveries to the north. well there has been a mixed response to news north and south korean affluence will march under a unified flag at next month's winter olympics they'll also form a joint women's ice hockey team for the games and south korea's chang several positions have been filed with some complaining it could affect the team's medal chances the announcements follow the first high level meetings between north and south and the south in more than two years a reporter kathy novak has more from seoul. the winter olympics are just twenty two days away and the two koreas have come to a last minute agreement that they will walk together at the opening ceremony south korean government says it's all part of an effort to promote this event as the peace olympics but not everyone here is happy a recent poll found only about four out of ten support the idea of marching under a unified korean peninsula flag and others are against the idea of a joint women's ice hockey team. i think we need to carry our own

when i say china, i mean the majority of that, about 200 were in the mainland of china and then anotherlast yearand i, and taiwan. i was there 214 days last year and i, and then taiwan. i was there 214 days last yearand i, and then i did taiwan. i was there 214 days last year and i, and then i did some work in kazakhstan and some work in poland last year and i did the rest in london. anyway, coming to your question about the equal pay conversation with the then head of news gathering, current director of news. i guess gathering, current director of news. iguess i'm gathering, current director of news. i guess i'm not a lawyer, so i went into that saying i think that i've been underpaid for, you know, a long time at the bbc. not absolutely. i say that again, but in comparison with male peers. did he comment on that? no. i said, with male peers. did he comment on that? no. isaid, i with male peers. did he comment on that? no. i said, ithink i've been underpaid since probably 2000 when i started on the news channel, possibly longer, ijust started on the news channel, possibly longer, i jus

mainland and that the launch button is on his desk. thousands of people have marched in hong kong at what they say is china's tightening grip on the territory that accuse beijing of eroding freedoms which were guaranteed when british colonial rule ended twenty years ago i'm just giving the pollen the reports many fear the year ahead will be another disappointing one for the democracy movement defend hong kong the theme for this year's rally those taking part say the protest has particular resonance after year when people's rights were violated repeatedly israel because about history because. we see there with the torah the asian news in the rule of law in hong kong so we believe we should stand here to protest the future of the various posters depict their grievances they are protesting against the jailing of three young pro-democracy student leaders and also condemning a change in legislative council procedures that would enable the government to push through unpopular loss without opposition and they are angry at a plan that could for the first time allow mainland chinese law enforcement officials to operate on hong kong soil i'm afraid a

they're angry at a plan that could for the first time allow mainland chinese law enforcement officials to operate on hong kong soil elsewhere in china where the government cracks down harshly on any kind of dissent but with new security last proposed unlikely to be implemented next year many fear that they will not be able to express their anger or criticize the government so openly in the future but there are those who feel beijing has hong kong's best interests at heart dozens of people held their own rally holding up hong kong and china flags they say they represent many in the city who would rather stay out of politics. people like susan kwan who has been running this two food shop for forty five years business is brisk on the first day of twenty eighteen for the sixty four year old she says hong kong people have a lot of freedom and democracy shouldn't be a priority don't look at that china is a very strong country we should upset them if you haven't done anything wrong there's no need to be scared of the chinese government. the rally entered civic square with protesters surrounded by police they are defiant almost euphoric to

mainland. that's deterrence. don't attack me. the other thing that will happen, china won't let that occur.beijing signalled that the u.s. attacked first, china would come in on north korea's side. that could take my forms. if we strike north korea first, china could cause trouble in the south china sea. you can see the russians go after the baltics. we could see asia be -- >> shepard: sounds like a world war. >> it's close. it's asia being embroiled on both sides. this could spread fast. that's the danger here. when you have senator lindsey graham say they're deaths only over there. that's one scenario that could spread. the chinese and the russians could get into a nuclear exchange with the united states. i'm not saying it's going to happen. but that's a possibility that the hawks need to talk about. >> shepard: we get caught up in the day-to-day on north korea and everything else. if you look at this from 30,000 feet, which you're wanting to do, are things with north korea improving or are they getting worse or are they about the same? >> i think they're pretty much about the same. the t

bear in mind mainland inflows have been moderating in hong kong and china, therefore soothing investorsigns of overheating emerging for the hang seng index. they say we could see a more healthy run if we have more happen along the way. sophiethank you so much, kamaruddin. let's get the first word news with courtney collins. >> first up, bond markets have been further rattled after bloomberg reported chinese officials have recommended slowing or halting purchases of u.s. treasuries. global debt markets were already selling off on signs banks are stepping back from bond buying stimulus. it could make it harder for the u.s. to finance the deficit brought on by president trump's tax cut. catalonia's two main pro-independent parties want carles puigdemont to serve a second term in office. he remains in exile in belgium but could be sworn in remotely as he tries to have a new challenge to mariano rivera he. -- rajoy. he illegally declared catalan independent. following allegations of a privacy breach in the world argest biometric database, virtual id to avoid sharing number.ique id personal

mainland. take all kinds of potential threats and then -- and then you have china, which i think is trying, trying not as hard as they should, to put pressure on north korea. and when the president is totally disruptive and is not recognizing this effort that china is doing to put more sanctions on oil, on food, on all kinds of energy that might really sway the north koreans to negotiate on denuclearization, it hurts not just our allies, but it hurts the potential talks and diplomacy which i think is the only way out in our relationship with north korea. sanctions don't seem to be totally working. i think the preemptive military strike is not really an option. so then there's diplomacy is the only avenue. and when that is killed off by tweets, by insults, by our own allies not knowing where we're going, that's what's very unhelpful. >> all right. despite our talk of the size of donald trump's buttons, our esteemed guests are sticking with us and when we come back we'll get their insights on another hot spot. >>> violent protests in iran trust #1 doctor recommended dulcolax. use dulcolax tablets fo