scotland s first minister, nicola sturgeon, has condemned a very warm welcome to the programme. a very warm welcome to the programme. scotland s first minister, nicola sturgeon, has condemned the uk government for blocking a piece of legislation passed in holyrood, saying it was a full frontal attack on its parliament. the measure had aimed to make it quicker and easier for trans people to change gender. but the scottish secretary, alisterjack, said allowing the bill to proceed would have a significant impact on equality laws across great britain. here s our political editor, chris mason. this is the ceremonial mace. it represents the scottish parliament s authority. we are seeing it here at the opening of its sixth session the year before last. and next, the crown of scotland, a symbol of royal authority. but power is shared in the uk, and with a rule book. all the laws that are passed here are checked to make sure they don t contradict with laws for the whole of the uk. i
we begin in china where we ve just had a slew of data that shows how deep the impact of both the pandemic and its demographics is having on society and the economy. data from the national bureau of statistics shows china s economy grew by 2.9% year on year for the last three months of 2022. that beat expectations reuters expected the economy to grow byjust1.8%. for the full year growth came in at 3% far below china s official target of 5.5%. excluding the year covid hit in 2020, this is china s worst showing in nearly 50 years. also today, the news that china s population has shrunk for the first time in more than 60 years a change that is expected to have deep economic, social and political implications for china. for more on that let s go to katie silver in our asia business hub. tell us more. that s right. the bi . tell us more. that s right. the big figure tell us more. that s right. the big figure that tell us more. that s right. the big figure that we ve tel