around the cape of good hope in africa. houthi militants, based in yemen and backed by iran, have repeatedly attacked vessels in the red sea recently in response to the war in gaza. it has raised concerns about the disruptions to global trade through the waterway. by some estimates, about 12% of global trade and 3 million barrels of crude oil traverse the red sea every day. let s stay with news in china, because official figures show manufacturing has slowed for the third straight month in december. the data, which measures business sentiment, came in at 49 and a reading below 50 indicates a contraction. however, a private sector survey done by caixin suggests that factory activity had in fact expanded last month. to understand why these statistics are so different, we re speaking to louise loo from consultancy 0xford economics.