Brands barbie, fisher price and moi, that is mattel to find out how his company s fortunes are being revived. Wherever you are joining around the world, once again hello and welcome to the programme. It is a billion dollar industry driven by creativity and innovation with a global reach and a diverse market. The toy industry is forecast to reach $302 billion in sales by 2030 and that estimate is at the conservative end of the scale. But falling birth rates and some of the highest inflation rates we have seen in decades have created challenging conditions for manufacturers and retailers and signal more tough times to come. While the covid pandemic boosted sales of toys and games temporarily, big name companies reported sales have started to slip back once again. Let s look at some of those numbers. Local toy sales reached $108. 7 billion in 2023, a 2% drop compared to 2022 with toy companies calling it a normalisation process after that exceptional growth linked to the pandemic. But acr
hearing from tata steel, which owns the steelworks in october, it is bad news for the thousands of people who work at that steel facility. we have just been told that tata steel plans to close both remaining blast furnaces at the steelworks and that could come at the cost of 3000 jobs. clearly something which will devastate the local community. stay with us on bbc news for more updates on that story. tata steel says they will close the remaining port talbot blast furnaces at the steelworks with potential loss of up to 3000 jobs. news coming to us from bbc sources, ratherthan jobs. news coming to us from bbc sources, rather than confirmed by tata steel themselves. the unfolding issues around attacks on cargo ships by houthi rebels from yemen, warning from the world trade organization that it could affect developing countries the hardest. today the us has launched a fourth round of air strikes against the rebels, the us military said it targeted missiles that could be intended
another day of strikes more than 1,000 ambulance staff in wales walk out in a dispute over pay and conditions. meanwhile in england, nurses continue their strike action for a second day in a row. new zealand s prime minister jacinda ardern makes a surprise announcement saying she ll stand down in less than three weeks time. a day of national strikes begins in france over plans to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64. king charles asks for millions of pounds in profits from the crown estate to be used for the wider public good rather than for the royal family. the government has released details of projects which will benefit from its levelling up fund, which is intended to spread economic growth more widely across the uk. in all, £2.1 billion will be spent on regeneration projects. they span more than a hundred areas across the country. some of the biggest winners include a new eden project at morecambe bay which gets £50 million. there s 50 million pounds for
welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. i m whitney wild in for christine roman. a dangerous new storm system headed to the west coast with heavy rain, mountain snow. the pacific northwest will get it first. california gets it tomorrow. right on the heels of the storm that shut down a stretch i-70 in colorado for nine hours leaving drivers stranded. meteorologist chad myers is live in the weather center. chad, these storms have millions of people under alerts right now. there is no relief. there are still two more in the west to come on shore monday into tuesday. the storm that was in denver has taken its energy and focused it down here near lake charles. bumpy weather in houston and beaumont. we ve had two to four inches of rainfall and snow in the high sierra. more snow, more rain and flooding. flash flood watches for rising rivers in parts of california and then when you get up to the higher elevations, winter storm warnings are posted. i m
also tonight, after more than 15,000 cancellations, southwest now vowing to return to normal operations within hours. the airline s chief personally apologizing for the chaos. what the airline is now saying about reimbursing passengers, some finally being reunited with their lost luggage. alex perez with important information for travelers. and that breaking news from brazil. global soccer superstar pele, the three-time world cup champion and arguably the world s most famous athlete, dead at 82. matt rivers on his lasting legacy. a new and deadly wave of russian missile strikes rocking ukraine. the biggest barrage in weeks. further crippling the country s damaged infrastructure. firefighters battling this fire at a critical substation. britt clennett on the ground in kyiv. for congressman-elect george - santos to resign. the republican now under scrutiny by multiple prosecutors, but santos tonight refusing to step down. this, as a new alleged fabrication emerges about his