Welcome to countdown. It is just 6 00 here in london. Coming up, the Israeli Basketball Team with big plans for cracking america. How they are making a play for the big time. Our top story, democracy protest in hong kong luck to streets and divided the city for the two months and it is coming to an end. Baliffs have moved in the last remitting site. Live from hong kong with the details. This hour,nd that at 6 00 here in london, and this hour has been targeted as a key deadline for the protesters in hong kong. Yes, where Hearing Police that now announcing protesters and others who should not be in the area should be leaving immediately. They have announcing this at regular intervals for the last hour. They said able start clearing this site very soon, maybe in the next five minutes. What has happened today is that part of the protest site was covered by an injunction in that part was cleared this morning by some people who are authorized by the company to do so and they were watched by bailiffs who were surveying the area. No resistance from protesters there but now they have moved on to the main protest site. This area is not covered by an injunction but authorities did say that when they clear the outer parts they would also take the opportunity to declare this part as well this main part which goes all the way down this hide way. Highway. Protesters have been camped out here for more than 70 days and the police or authorities will finally clear them and that could happen anytime in the next five or 10 minutes. As these protests come to an end what are protesters telling you, what did they achieve . A lot of the protesters this morning said a are not going to put up resistance though they may put up peaceful resistance but they are not looking to go into a physical confrontation, but there are many different elements here and we dont know exactly what will happen. We have seen protesters armed with things that look like ryan shields and helmets. Riot shields and helmets. They can take away from this long occupation is a political awakening. Lee, one ofmartin the founders of the Democratic Party in hong kong and he has been there for many years. Find the fire of democracy burning in the hearts of every student who participated over 70 days. Be clenched. Not quenched. It will continue to grow. You can expect the students to talk to other students and their parents and we part of a generation. This is the biggest ever movement of democracy we have had in hong kong. For many, the protesters they say this is the beginning and not the end of the protest of the fight for democracy. There are many signs around today saying we will be back and that is generally the spirit. Rosalynn, thank you very much. We have numbers breaking from europes biggest closing retailers. How to they look . How do they look . Theyre giving us the numbers as a ninemonth numbers, sales seem to be climbing and we are seeing an increase in their profitability, but not by much. Only up 1 . Another 6. 9 billion euros just ahead of analyst estimates. Stills a company that is seeing plenty of growth. The Fourth Quarter is off to a great start, they say sales are up 14 from november to december and suddenly it has turned cold and we are buying heavier coats from them. Clearly this is a company that is exposed to areas of volatility in the Foreign Exchange. We think of japan and they are big and in russia. That means when you bring back sales home and convert that to euros, the profitability is not underge so it has been because of that but you have seen some issues about a warmer october than many had expected. It is hard to remember that now. 72 of their stores are in europe and it has been a warm autumn. Very mild so we were not going out to buy coats and things, people were still buying their light clothing. X has a clearindite streamlined ability to change what is in stock very quickly and the Business Model has held up as the want to look for. They have not been as exposed as say h m, they can change their seasonality according to the weather. They were likely to be heard. Interesting that this company is starting to benefit from the southern european recovery, we are seen an improvement in alsol sales and we are seeing big exposure to russia and japan and overall not much improvement in overall Earnings Growth. Seventhlikely to be the straight quarter of limited Earnings Growth and many analysts have been hinting at the fact that the weather might be an issue. It looks true but remember the scale of the company. The biggest retailer of clothing in the world. Eight rands and 6500 stores. And safety 500 Stores Across the world. You have not just got your winter hat on which represents retailers, you have your telecom hat on as well. The deals are coming thick and fast. I am multitasking, keep an eye on brazil. Brazil is where it is at, hot november whether and hot when it comes to activity. And your hot description. I will not make too many analogies today but interesting play pim is the second biggest mobile provider in brazil and it will be carved up. Weve learned that hoy, telef claros group will be going together and calling themselves grupo btg factual. Catchy. Yes, how will they make that better . Pim, currentlyup owned by the Telecom Italian unit. That is 40 above when they are currently trading at. 40 premiums above the value of tim. Hoy will take 25 . Hoy just sold off its portuguese units to drum up enough money to get big into brazil. Driveand telefonica will divide up the rest. But telefonica just bought the broadband operator in brazil and it has to get signed off from the regulators. Consolidation is clearly what is wanted. It has beens that so competitive over there. On cell people getting phones this time around. Spending billions to improve the network. This is the move many had expected but the key question is, is it enough . What telecoms wants. Join the conversation on twitter, caroline is caro linehydetv. We are at im using the royal we. Anna and mark barton. Tell if the stories we should be focusing on. Rubleer the break, as the remains near its record low will be looking at the market with global crashes. Welcome back to bloomberg. Urveillance countdown bloomberg now is the russia expert. Good morning to you, what can we expect today . The big issue is the ruble. Looked, it is a list changing, it was just shy of 55 to the dollar, a record low as you said, the expectation is that they will raise rates, the real question is by how much. Mind that the bank of russia has already raised rates by 4 this year and the fundamentals like the oil crisis are really tanking. There are people saying, would that really be enough to do anything . To move the needle on the ruble and inflation. A note saying if they really wanted to do something substantive they would have to do Something Like hike rates by 2. 5 to 4 . Its not clear they had that kind of conviction. Decision, 2. 5 hours from now, this is no ordinary Interest Rate call from the bank of russia today. Austrias bank has come under scrutiny for managing a bond sale by a russian bank. The issue is their management of a bond sale for the russian this was a bank that was a bailout bank during the crisis and it has morphed into a state infrastructure bank. It is the management of that bond sale for that bank that is being scrutinized because veb has been sanctioned by both the United States and the european union. The sanctions do not bar russian units of International Banks from doing this kind of transaction as long as the securities are not sold internationally. As long as there are no eu and u. S. Citizens involved in the execution. The bank says they are very mindful of the sanctions and are in compliance with the rules, that is not what happened here but that is what the eu and u. S. Investigators are looking at. Thank you very much. Lets get more insight on the ruble with our next guest the global strategist, good morning it is a lovely chart on bloomberg which says, it is oil, stupid. As russia is down to oil how the ruble fares, not whether they change Interest Rates. Is that true . Does any rate hike translate to a fall under the ruble . No rate hike changes things for the ruble but youll get there forecast on what theyre going to do with policy rates and you have only just started. Way. Uble has fallen a long you would have to bet that the ruble could fall another leg, but once youve seen the currency fall this far, youre out of intelligent observation and itas not stabilized would be crazy to think we could reach stability when we have not reached a floor in oil prices and while the sanctions are slowly biting more, they are having more and more effect. Yet sanctions on one side and the economy on the other side if you raise rates 2 , would that make a difference . I have no clue about what a big rate rise could do to stabilize the thing. I suspect the currency in fact goes on and on. Outline how central bankers think, if you could. Weve heard from the central bank in russia that the leader says it is not possible to stand in the way a fundamental factors with one of those being the oil price, they say it is a freefloating currency but they reserve the right to intervene. How do those things go together . No central bank likes to watch the currency out of control. The u. K. Did it most spectacular as all, lets raise rates, it does not work, lets raise the more, doesnt work then lets cut rates and leave in one day. So it sounds sensible in that context . It does, but it can move an awfully long way and you of a population that is importing a lot of things so maybe cost do go up quickly and in a big way. Is, there is not sort of a playbook that anyone is confident with. Go help. And you the reality is Central Banks are , then they control are making stabs in the dark thinking, does a 2 rate hike help or will it make things worse . European central bank has been raising rates for a long time, we will get the latest results of their longterm lending this morning. This is another bloomberg story and the last way for hours that mario draghi might be hoping for a poor figure as it might persuade the naysayers to accept sovereign bond purchases. He was terribly optimistic at first and i think he is hoping for a good figure and is having some sensation about sovereign bond purchases separately i think the bigger from the liquidity injections are they doing anything for the underlying economy . Is is doing more but allowing more banks to buy Government Bonds and can i say anything much other than, the whole program and everything we have fullblownthere is a crisis in athens that is having very little impact on Government Bond markets elsewhere in europe. That is it. Mediumsized Companies in europe borrow any money or hire people to do stuff s or anything that the European Central bank its a today that would convince you that the measures so far are doing enough that we dont need to see soul quantitative easing. Start finding money supply and bank lending numbers that astonish me. I will scratch what is left of my head. On the greece, are you troubled by recent moves in bond and stock arc its and stock markets and impending moves next week . Economica terrible situation and a lot of Political Uncertainty, this might not work. This could end up with no president for a while and a third round vote with not necessarily the outcome the government will want and then what . At this point, i think the effect of greece on the wider Global Economy and europe so these headlines that greece could derail the globe is going to far . I am struggling to see how greece can do that anymore. Greece can derail greece even further. That is audibly all that it can do. That is probably all it can do. I personally struggle to see how it can at the moment. They are just short of having all their bailout money and the economy is not well. Thank you very much, we will continue our conversation and talk a little bit about you cant japan and the fed note. Welcome back to countdown. Lets talk about the u. S. , whether we will see wage growth starting or continuing, you of been doing some digging. The thing that surprised me about wages wage growth overall is flat. One. 9, 2. 2 month after month. It is held back because all of the employment growth has been in the lower paid sectors and the higher paid sectors have been shedding jobs is 2008. That means we could all have pay rises and average Wage Inflation will stay low because we are changing the makeup of the labor market. What is happening now is that the lowest paid jobs the lowest paid sectors have 3. 7 pay growth. It was falling and its lowest paid jobs saw wages cut in the andssion, slow to pick up fully unemployment for the people does mean wage growth. Thinks a good thing and i this is the part of the economy were people spend the highest portion of what they earn it is a part of the economy where i dont think you can outsource hospitality jobs as easy as you can outsource some. Nutshell if we a are going to see those wage numbers, we are going to see the u. S. Economy maintain momentum through the first half of next year and i would say you will see wage growth get to 2. 5 , which is really low but on a chart it will look like a lift. In 10 seconds, should the considerable time pledge be removed from the statement . It should. Will it . Not sure. Probably just above 50 . Still to come, Lebron Jamess coach wants to make it big in america. Police have started to advance on protesters in hong kong. At thec today we look russian ruble, which has fallen to another record low. The big event in russia today is the meeting of the central bank. According to economists we surveyed at bloomberg, the Russian Central Bank will probably raise borrowing costs to reverse threats to financial stability, oil prices have fallen to the lawyer to the years. Est in we expect that bank of russia to increase its key rates to 9. 5 . Nine analysts out of 34 predicted bigger increase. The ruble has fallen by 40 against the dollar, and it has left policymakers with dwindling options amid freefloating exchange rates. They spent 80 billion defending the currency. The central bank has raised putinby 400 points since moved into crimea. A great bloomberg chart in the last couple of days which basically shows that the ruble has tracked the price over the last few months of both falling roughly 39 . Each time, russia has raised rates four times in the last year. There has been no noticeable response from the nations capitals is. The title of the story is that russiantupid, that rubles are following the trajectory of the price of oil rather than what the central bank does to Interest Rates. But that is the big event today in russia will the Central Bank HikeInterest Rate . Im anna edwards. These are our top headlines. Blockadeshas removed around its offices in an attempt to bring an end to prodemocracy protests. They are moving to force an injunction against the demonstrators. Protesting students are not resisting but pledged to say to stay. Vladimir putin heads to a meeting with the indian prime minister. That is the latest destination on the russian leaders tour to strengthen trade and political alliances. s visit comes on the day that russias of central bank will be announcing its latest benchmark Interest Rate decision. They could raise rates in an effort to shore up. The bank off england, mark carney, revealed he will make the banks making more transparent. Recordings ofoys Monetary PolicyCommittee Meetings which decide Interest Rate. That practice could come to an end after a review. They will present their findings at a News Conference at 10 00 london time. Lets get to hong kong with the democracy protests have blocked the street and divided the city for more than two months. They lets supported by police have moved into the last remaining campaign site. We are joined now live from hong kong with the details. What is going on . This morning, the action was taken the Court Injunction undertaken by people authorized by the company that was granted the injunction. They didnt need to get involved in clearing the barriers because the people who authorized it did it themselves. Is thathappening now the injunction area has been cleared and we are moving on to the main focus, which is not covered by the injunction. This is where the police come in. The police are moving in just from across the hill, that is the flyover you can see there. Always are moving in from that direction. They get the warning a while ago, telling everyone to leave the area or it will be sealed. Anyone trying to leave will have their id cards taken down. Linksigil im standing on the public transport system to the Government Office complex. Just in my left you can see some there, and beyond that, have been some protests gathering and shouting at the police. As the police started their action beyond the bridge. That is what has been happening in the last 15 minutes or so here. We expect the police to come in and move along the main road, and clear the rest of the protesters out. Back to you. Thank you. Roslyn chin out in hong kong. In a few hours the ecb will announce the targeted refinancing operations. That news could be good news is you are looking for quantitative eating. Lets go to our International Correspondent for a preview. Good morning. Should we be looking for any what should we be looking for . You tell us. We should be looking for the number 150, 150 billion euros. Thating less than could mean that quantitative easing is going to be in the fast lane. That could give you an indication that mario draghi is having a hard time growing that Balance Sheet by one trillion euros. Heres what the estimate is 148 billion e