"The financial consequences have been, and may continue to be, fairly dramatic," Adam Silver said.

Earlier this month Houston Rockets' manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

As a result Chinese firms suspended sponsorship and telecast deals.

The state-run broadcaster CCTV and Tencent Holdings, which streams NBA games in China, said they would stop broadcasting Rockets' matches.

The Chinese Basketball Association suspended co-operation with the Houston Rockets, as did Chinese sportswear brand Li-Ning, and the club's sponsor in China, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.

Mr Silver said: "The losses have already been substantial.

"Our games are not back on the air in China as we speak, and we'll see what happens next," he told Time magazine's Time 100 Health Summit in New York.

Basketball in China
Basketball is the most popular sport in China with 300 million people playing the game. according to the NBA.

The NBA has had a presence in China since 1992 when it opened its first office in Hong Kong.

The Houston Rockets are widely followed in China after it signed Chinese player and eight-time NBA All-Star Yao Ming in 2002.

NBA China, which conducts the league's business in the country, was launched in 2008 and is now worth more than $4bn, according to Forbes.

Mr Morey's tweet captioned "Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong", prompted a furious backlash in China and Mr Silver said the Chinese government had called for Mr Morey to be sacked. But Mr Silver has defended his right to express his opinion.

"We were being asked to fire him by the Chinese government, by the parties we dealt with, government and business," Silver said. "We said there's no chance that's happening. There's no chance we'll even discipline him."

"The values of the NBA - the American values, we are an American business - travel with us wherever we go. And one of those values is free expression."

Mr Silver said he understood the point of view that the NBA should withdraw from all activities in China, due to authoritarian nature of the regime but said the NBA felt that "constructive engagement, especially in sports, is very positive".

President Kh.Battulga also informed that a world standard football pitch was built alongside numerous sports projects being implemented in connection with upcoming ‘Children of Asia’ sports festival to be hosted by Ulaanbaatar in 2020, and talked over about constructing a football stadium with closed roof. Underlining an essential need of FIFA’s advice and experience in construction of the stadium, the President put forward a request to Mr. Gianni Infantino to cooperate and give support to Mongolian Football Federation on this matter.

At the meeting, the sides concurred on the issue to make two of the existing football pitches closed by air dome and financing the required expense by 50:50 percent. Practicing in team sports, in particular a football is a great boost for teens to spend leisure time effectively and to be disciplined; therefore, renovation works of football pitches are ongoing everywhere regardless of urban and local areas. In this regard, the president requested to render methodological support to train coaches and cooperate with MFF.

The British Embassy in Mongolia has moved office
An official opening ceremony was held on Wednesday, 2 October 2019, when UK Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific, Heather Wheeler MP, paid an official visit to Mongolia.

The Embassy’s new office address is as follows:

Level 19, Shangri-La Office
Olympic Street-19A, Sukhbaatar District,
Ulaanbaatar 14241, Mongolia
More details about the embassy:

E-mail: enquiries.mongolia@fco.gov.uk

Switchboard phone: +976 (11) 458133

Switchboard fax: ++76 (11) 458036

He made the remark when exchanging congratulatory messages with his Mongolian counterpart, Khaltmaa Battulga, on the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the countries.

Mongolia is one of the first countries that established diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China

In the message, Xi said China and Mongolia are friendly neighbors linked by mountains and rivers and Mongolia is one of the first countries that established diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China.

Over the past seven decades, the two countries have been committed to friendly cooperation, jointly pushed forward the in-depth development of cooperation featuring good-neighborliness and friendship, and brought tangible benefits to the two countries and their people, he said.

The president also said that he highly values developing bilateral relations and stands ready to work with Battulga to achieve greater progress in pushing forward the China-Mongolia comprehensive strategic partnership.

Battulga said the partnership has achieved good development in all areas. It fully serves the interests of the two peoples and has contributed to regional peace and development, he said.

The Mongolian president said he is willing to continue to work with Xi in further consolidating and developing bilateral friendly relations as well as cooperation in all areas.

Premier Li Keqiang and Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh also exchanged congratulatory messages on Wednesday.

The first train has arrived at Vorotynsk station on 6 October. It consisted of 50 containers loaded with 150 cars. FESCO did not unveil the name of the car manufacturer that ordered the delivery. However, the published photo indicates that it could be Geely Automobile. The entire journey took 17 days. On the way from Chongqing to Vorotynsk, the train runs via Erlian (Erenhot) and Naushki railway border crossings. FESCO plans to operate the new container train two to four times per month. The company plans to transport 200-400 TEUs per month.

Russian logistics companies have been actively developing the Mongolian route for three years. In 2016, Russia and China concluded an agreement to establish the China – Mongolia – Russia economic corridor. A year later, the first container train from China to Europe via Mongolia was launched. It connected the Chinese city of Changsha with Dobra terminal in Slovakia. Besides the New Silk Road links, the Mongolian route is also used for the direct rail freight services from China to both Russia and Belarus. For instance, two new trains started to run from the Russian city of Yekaterinburg to China and Russia via Mongolia.

The Mongolian authorities stopped a suspected Turkish jet in July 2018 after Turkish officials attempted to spirit away a Turkish teacher affiliated with the Gulen Movement which Ankara considers an illegal organization.

‘Mongolian Geology – 80’, an international academic conference took place at the State House on Thursday (17 October). The event was being organized by the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry, the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority, the Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, the National University of Mongolia, and the Mongolian University of Science and Technology.

This year, Mongolia is marking the 80th anniversary of establishment of the Geological Investigation Centre.

Cutting back to the studio, Piers and his colleagues Charlotte Hawkins and Susanna Reid were seen laughing as Andi attempted to carry on with his link.

He said: "My producer over there is literally laughing so much.

"This trip, trip literally, is turning into my worst nightmare coming to Outer Mongolia with no notice, but anyway, you could be having lots of notice getting that call from us saying you’ve won £500,000."

After he explained the competition to viewers, Charlotte told producers to replay the hilarious moment.

Andi joked: "As if I'm not making Piers happy enough and then I fall over. This is a nightmare."

Andi has had many embarrassing moments live on air - from getting the location wrong to messing up the script.

One amusing moment earlier this year saw the 48-year-old left repeatedly knocking on a competition winner's door.

Despite having £5,000 to giveaway, the man couldn't open the door because he was naked.

Upon his arrival in Ulaanbaatar, Infantino was welcomed by a MFF delegation headed by President Ganbaatar Amgalanbaatar, and then paid a visit to the association’s headquarters, where he met the MFF executive committee and discussed the local context, challenges and development projects. He also met the U-19 national team and the futsal national team, who were both training at the MFF facilities.

The FIFA President then met Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga, himself a former sportsman. “Mongolian football has been making huge progress in recent years, thanks to the hard and serious work of the MFF, and we need to continue on this path by improving existing infrastructure and investing in new facilities, adapted to the local context and challenges. We are writing a beautiful story and football has a bright future here in Mongolia,” said the FIFA President after his discussions with the football and state authorities.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino in Mongolia
The MFF has indeed made great progress in recent times, taking full advantage of the support granted via FIFA’s Forward Programme to develop football infrastructure and competitions in the country, and this was further reiterated during the FIFA President’s lunch with the Speaker of Parliament, Gombojav Zandanshatar.

After the installation last year of an artificial turf pitch and floodlights at the national training centre in Tuv, providing vital football infrastructure for the national teams, today’s visit by the FIFA President was an opportunity to inaugurate yet another state-of-the-art Forward-funded pitch in Yarmag in the presence of the country’s president, the men’s national team as well as the men’s and women’s U-19 national teams.

To end the day, the FIFA delegation also played a friendly match against MFF executives and Mongolian legends prior to the official celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the association.