this is business briefing. i'm sally bundock. here are the headlines: new rules to make the financial system safer and more transparent come into force across europe — it's the biggest shake up to the industry since the ‘big bang' in 1986. asian ambitions: britain's trade chief arrives in china to secure a brexit deal, but has the uk set its sights on a bigger pacific trade pact? asian sharemarket is riding high after a rally in technology companies are boosting us stocks to record highs. as many of you are aware, the financial crisis resulted in a raft

of new rules. to make our banking system more robust, one of the most significant changes takes effect across the eu today. with the unweildy name of mifid two, it aims to protect investors, giving them better value for money and make europe's financial services industry more competitive. one of the biggest changes relates to the research investors use to decide which shares to buy and sell. it will now have to be charged separately rather than bundled with other financial services. to improve transparency, any party engaged in financial trades must now have a unique number known as a legal entity identifier. 368,000 of these were issued between october and december. but it will be expensive — the industry is believed to be spending more than $2 billion implementing new rules. michael ingram is chief market strategist at wh ireland — a firm that will be impacted by the new rules. good morning. as i was reading that

out, you were nodding away. what is the most important part of mifid two 7 the most important part of mifid two? it runs over 7000 pages and it is five times the length of war and peace except a lot less readable. it inta kes peace except a lot less readable. it intakes financial services. pension funds, broker, investment bank or retailer, investor. the amount of data firm has to hold and capture in order to transact. you need enormous volume of data captured by the system and have enormous investment in it, personnel and processes and many has not been tested by the city before. you are saying you are not convinced it will do what it is

supposed to do which is supposed to rebuild our confidence as investors? we are in uncharted waters warren buffett legendary said, when the tide goes out you find out who is swimming naked, well, the tide is going out this morning. we know there are number of firms that perhaps have not had that same level of preparation as we have had. some firms may be caught out. this piece of legislation and does not guarantee there will not be a financial crisis. and we have had other pieces of legislation to ensure banks and insurance companies hold much more capital and would not require a bailout. it is possible it will make the financial services safer for investors and that the public will not have to bail out any

of these institutions. you may also have some adverse side—effects, one of which is it might cause many smaller firms of which is it might cause many smallerfirms airing of which is it might cause many smaller firms airing these increased regulatory costs could not succeed in the future and lower consumer choice going forward. we will certainly watch this space. thank you for getting up so early to explain this rather complicated legislation. there is more on the website. britain's international trade secretary liam fox arrives in china, keen to secure a brexit trade deal. and there's talk the uk may have bigger ambitions, tojoin a flagaship pacific trade pact. let's go to our asia business hub where rico hizon is following the story hgppy happy new year, sally! tell us what liam fox is after. he is willing china but there is talk of a broader deal? mr fox is indeed a busy on many trade fronts. it is his first

work trip this year and it is a rather tricky job work trip this year and it is a rather trickyjob because nothing formal can be agreed before the uk leads the eu next year but he is keen to put a trade arrangement in place and is talking to china, the largest export market and trade between the countries is estimated at 80 billion us dollars. the secretary will be meeting with the chinese vice minister of congress as well as the chairman of a funding company. they tried to arrange a free trade arrangement for next year. self—driving cars seemed like science fiction not that long ago. but global auto giants are now racing ahead developing the technology. theo leggett hitched a ride on renault‘s concept car. if you have never done this before it really does feel quite strange.

we are doing 150 kilometres right now on the motorway and i not touching anything. my colleague has set upjust in touching anything. my colleague has set up just in case things go wrong but the car is driving itself. i am going to do something i have never done before, 103 kilometres on the motorway and i will put a virtual reality set on. now, at the moment, i know i am driving a long motorway but, because i have the virtual reality set on, i am actually flying over the valley. i concede lakes beneath me, birds are around me, a large lunar landscape up in front so it isa large lunar landscape up in front so it is a completely different world and what renault are trying to do here is envisaged a world, you're doing a long journey, you do not need to drive a car so you can turn

your mind to other things, relax, sit back and enjoy the show. i do not know if i could do that! now let's brief you some other business stories: drinks giant diageo is suspending all its adverts on snapchat globally after the british ad watchdog ruled its captain morgan campaign, which let users alter selfies to look like the brand's pirate, was inappropriately targeted and was likely to appeal to under 18s. spotify is being sued for allegedly using thousands of songs, including those by tom petty and the doors, without a license and paying the music publisher. californian firm wixen music publishing is seeking damages of at least $1.6 billion. music sales in the uk have risen at the fastest rate since the turn of the century, driven by streaming services like spotify, apple music and deeze and artists such as ed sheeran.

just over 68 billion songs were streamed in 2017. and now, what's trending in the business news this morning: wall streetjournal reports on unilever‘s new tact, mimicking its smaller rivals' to get millenialls to buy its products. forget dove soap, it's now selling turmeric face cream. in business insider, silicon valley billionaire peter thiel made a fortune from investing in firms like facebook. now he's set to make millions from bitcoin. and on bloomberg, uk health chiefs have approved the most expensive medicine ever — a $700,000 gene therapy drug called strimvelis made by glaxosmithkline. it treats a rare inherited illness that leaves babies unable to fight infections. and don't forget — let's us know what you are spotting

online — use the hashtag bbc—the—briefing looking at the markets... japan is still closed for a public holiday in tokyo but as you can see hong kong is up and also australia. a real surge in the valley of tech stocks in the us. it is making the newspaper headlines. that has really driven at the markets but also the price of oil in focus. 0r you'll spiking as we start a brand—new year. stay with us, the news briefing coming up injust a couple of minutes.

hospitals in england have been told to postpone tens of thousands of non—urgent operations and outpatient appointments until the end of this month. nhs chiefs say it's to ease pressure on services after a busy christmas period.0ur health editor hugh pym reports. ambulance sirens. there is always great pressure on the nhs in the new year. some patients have held off until after the seasonal holiday. but the strains seem even bigger this year. two ambulance services in england, covering the north—east and east, are on the highest state of operational alert, asking families to use their own transport to bring patients into hospital where possible. here in the north—east,

they say they've prepared as much as they possibly could. it's unprecedented levels of demand that we're dealing with — you know, if i take just the period from the 23rd of december until the first of january, we've seen 30% more calls. now, you know, we do plan for winter. we start planning in the summer, so we are predicting and forecasting activity from historic periods, but we didn't anticipate a 30% increase. nhs england has told hospitals to postpone all nonurgent operations and outpatient appointments til the end of january, an escalation of temporary measures announced just before christmas. in that time hospitals won't be penalised for putting patients in mixed—sex wards. have you got pain at the moment? the authorities in scotland, wales and northern ireland are saying they are facing higher demand from patients and more pressure on front line services. with flu cases on the increase, the worry now is that a predicted outbreak may become a reality. hugh pym, bbc news.

that will be discussed in detail at six o'clock. coming up at 6 o'clock on breakfast the team will have more on storm eleanor, after the west coast of ireland bore the brunt of storm eleanor — 80 mile per hour gusts that battered the uk overnight has left 10,000 homes in northern ireland northern ireland without power. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: the us praises demonstrators in iran, but ridicules claims by iran's supreme leader that the protests are being orchestrated by outside forces. president trump has threatens to withhold financial aid to the palestinians because, he said, they are "no longer willing to talk peace." tragedy in peru — at least 48 people have died after their coach fell off a cliff near the capital, lima. now it is time look at the stories that are making the headlines in media across the world. we begin with the gulf news and iran

where the death toll continues to rise due to unrest. france, britain, canada and the european union have called on tehran to respect the iranian peoples right to demonstrate. the japan times leads with the offer from south korea to hold high—level talks with pyongyang injanuary after north korean leader kim jong un called for a breakthrough in relations. the financial times says financial services is one of the worst areas in the uk in terms of it's gender pay gap. the paper adds that the sector comes a close second to the construction industry. the guardian business pages announce the race is on for the creation of the world's first trillion dollar company, with all eyes fixed on technology groups such as apple, amazon and alphabet. and finally the independent asks is it the beginning of the end for uk tennis champion andy murray?

the former world number one withdrew at the last minute from the australian open and then cast serious doubt on his immediate future when he revealed he is considering surgery to mend his troublesome right hip. we have the principal social specialist at an investment bank based in beijing with us. welcome back. let's get cracking. west tells to run to respect right to protest —— tehran. this has been going on for nearly seven days now and the death toll is going up. as ever it is very complicated. it is very complicated. you've got what's going on in tehran and there were protesters, it started with protest against the economy and people not

feeling as well off as they ought to 01’ feeling as well off as they ought to or they were led to believe they would be and now maybe others have