weapons arsenal to pressure russia and china. it comes as mr trump is threatening to pull out of a 30—year—old nuclear missile treaty with russia. he said the us would build up the arsenal until people "come to their senses". the us treasury secretary, steven mnuchin, has held private talks in riyadh with the saudi crown prince, mohammed bin salman, amid continuing controversy over the murder of the journalist, jamal khashoggi. and this story is trending on bbc.com... the world's longest sea bridge is about to open, linking hong kong and macau to mainland china. it cost $20 billion, and took almost a decade to build. you are up to date. stay with us, there will be more from our team on bbc news. and the top story in the uk... theresa may has told mps a deal to leave the eu is 95% agreed, but the issue of the northern ireland border remains unresolved more from me later. but first here

is marie kem. chinese stocks have the best day in two years after beijing moved in to reassure i nvesto i’s . two years after beijing moved in to reassure investors. how do you feel about investing in a virtual country which only does good things to the world 7 we which only does good things to the world? we speak to the founders. good morning and welcome to asia business report live from singapore. let's start with the markets because chinese shares kicked off the week posting their biggest one—day gain in two years. the shanghai composite closed higher by over 4% on monday

and that is after policymakers stepped in with a slew of new measures to shore up investors confidence. it follows a steep cell of last week after the latest growth figures showed the slowest pace of growth since the crisis. beijing leaders are realised reassuring investors needed to be a top priority. until you had investors needed to be a top priority. untilyou had a combination of a concerted effort from the vice premier, you have the head of the central bank and the securities watchdog, all coming out and saying we're not going to let this thing continue, we're not to the private sector firms blow away in the wind, combined with concrete policy measures and tax cuts worth a p pa re ntly policy measures and tax cuts worth apparently somewhere around 1% of gdp will be supporting this and also hence there could even be some active buying in the stock market, altogether very supportive. there

was a steep sell—off we saw last week, could this affect the sustainability? it needs to be because we are beginning to worry that some of the pledges of collateral, we will be called in because the equity will start losing value so it needs to be maintained so people see the policymakers and politicians coming out and continuing to provide verbal and policy support as the weeks go on. those challenges that china's economy faces, most notably the trade war with the us, that is very much an external factor that the authorities cannot control if that worsens, is there anything else that the authorities can do? they can indeed worsen because if the us administration as they key to find a deal anytime soon so the same sort of things they are doing now, providing fiscal support and subsidies to exporters to offset the tariffs, but they all cost money.

they all cost progress in terms of the reform efforts that they are previously making, they are still measures that can be taken. what about the nuclear option of selling the nuclear reserves? they are in the nuclear reserves? they are in the background but they are such a nuclear option they are not likely to be used. at the margin that notion may be looking to other currencies to be reserved, maybe having more euro and more yang in the mix is one way forward which could provide a less nuclear version for them. now i am told very recently it was the hottest ticket in business and who's whose list of attendees. we are talking about the future investment initiative conference which kicks off later today. over the past ten days, chief executives from high companies have cancelled their attendance. the

risk advisement consultant says the saudis have a reason to be concerned. they are concerned about the appearance of the conference's success , the appearance of the conference's success, the fii is a critical part of the strategy that he has devised to drag saudi arabia into a new modern economy of the 21st century so they need to make sure it is successful and i think they will do all they can to make sure it is. was ita all they can to make sure it is. was it a possibility for them to cancel the event altogether? not in my view, that will be and —— a problem. so much credibility has been vested in this entire strategy that i think to be seen to

be climbing down a counselling, because of western pressure would have caused him significant fiscal problems. there are those who are still attending and whipping stopped banks are still attending, what does it say about those who have i guess ignored the criticism, pressure and are still going? you probably need to ask them in terms of how they see the incident with khashoggi but it demonstrates pragmatism, i am sure jp morgan ceo will not be there but iam sure jp morgan ceo will not be there but i am sure some of their colleagues will be, it is a great place to network. that business will continue, it is sad but the reality is there is too much vested in saudi arabia for this to come to a halt. do think there could be an impact on the saudi economy? no, honestlyl really do think so. the americans need oil and the saudis by their

weapons not just from america need oil and the saudis by their weapons notjust from america but so many other western countries, long—term book sides want to do is find a quick and acceptable solution as fast as possible to move on. richard branson was one of the first executives to pull out of the saudi conference and has revealed that he is stepping down as the chairman of version hyper loop one and the plans to build a supersonic transport system in the united arab emirates needs a more actively involved leaders. saudi arabia terminated a deal with the company after he cancelled talks over the jamal khashoggi affair but that was not mentioned in the company's statement on monday. the $20 billion bridge connecting hong kong, macau and

mainland china will open after nine yea rs of mainland china will open after nine years of construction and it is the longest archer of its kind and comes ata time longest archer of its kind and comes at a time when beijing is tightening its grip on the semi autonomous territories. president xijinping is expected to attend the opening ceremony. it is the second major infrastructure tying hong kong to mainland china launched in a matter of weeks after the opening of a high—speed rail last week. would you be willing to hand over your heart earned cash tojoin be willing to hand over your heart earned cash to join a virtual company dunn country, 20,000 people have paid $5 tojoin company dunn country, 20,000 people have paid $5 to join a company dunn country, 20,000 people have paid $5 tojoin a group called the good country. they like to think of themselves as a country and say they will use the money which they call tax to solve some of the world's problems like poverty and terrorism. could the idea of a

virtual country take off or is this just a romantic daydream? migration, terrorism, poverty, climate change, women's rights, minority rights, language rights... the two things people most commonly associate with a country is a passport in a territory and we happen to think that territory is a nuisance, once you have territory in need an army to defend it but by definition all our citizens have somewhere to live and we do not need to provide them with anywhere else and as faras to provide them with anywhere else and as far as a passport is concerned we will issue passports and one date it may well be

something you can actually travel on. the goal of the good country is to change the culture of governance worldwide. each citizen of the good country pays $5 in annual tax and that means we will have economic ha rd that means we will have economic hard power and that means in certain instances we may choose to use the economic hard power to drive other negotiators to the table. i think the good country project is a really valuable initiative however i also think it is a very romantic and even utopian project and it is not clear to me how policies will be decided and it is not clear to me how policies will be inactive the and acted. we have seen the creation of dozens of new countries so if anything it would be odd not to see new countries form in the 21st—century. this is a new kind of country and that is really important because we have a different and

goals. this is a new kind of country and that is really important because we have a different is a project based on hope. very interesting project in deed and before we go, japan's market is opening lower by about one and half present and we told you about chinese which gained 496 told you about chinese which gained 4% and we had very choppy trading sessions all this because of the concerns about the trade war and higher rates by the federal staff. that is all for this report, thank you for watching. you are watching bbc news. 29 nobel prize—winning scientists are appealing to theresa may and jean—claude juncker, the president of the european commssion, to reach a brexit deal, for the sake of science, both in this country and across the european union. at the crick institute in london, which is europe's largest biomedical research centre, a staff survey showed about three quarters of eu scientists are likely to leave the uk if there's no

deal our science editor david shukman reports. our science editor david shukman reports. sweden. croatia. scotland. germany. france. england. here at the francis crick institute in london, scientists from many different countries are investigating cancer and other diseases. but brexit is creating uncertainty over future funding and who will be free to live here. that's why 29 nobel prize winners have written to theresa may and the european commission saying that all parties must ensure that as little harm as possible is done to research. one issue is money. professor steven west has attracted millions in european grants — fivejobs depend on him. the government says it will keep the funding going till 2020. do you know what's going to happen when the grant runs out in 2020? we have absolutely no idea

at the present time. this is the largest biomedical research centre under one roof anywhere in europe. and of the thousand scientists working here, 40% are from the european union. so, a big concern is whether any of them might want to leave after brexit. an internal survey here at the institute has produced some striking results. 78% of its eu scientists say they are less likely to stay in the uk after brexit. of all the scientists, including those from britain, 51% say they are less likely to stay. and 97% think a no—deal brexit would be bad for british science. i'm currently funded by the eu, and i was for my phd, which i also did here in the uk. and i know that lots of this money will not arrive in the uk anymore, and of course that's a big concern. i think that definitely makes me thinking of other places than the uk. i'm thinking about other

options in europe. in central europe, or even maybe going back to lithuania. the government says it wants a deal that would continue britain's close relationship in science. there's a lot at stake. we will, of course, survive. but at the moment, britain is at the top of the tree, we are considered widely around the world to be the best. and we are in danger of losing that top position if we don't get this right. one argument for brexit is that british science can forge more useful connections with giants like america and china. however that works out, these are uncertain times. david shukman, bbc news. time for sport today, see you soon. hello. this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme... cristiano ronaldo returns

to manchester as hisjuventus side prepare to face his former club united in the champions league. sloane stephens beats naomi osaka in their opening match of the season ending wta finals in singapore. and sergio garcia keeps his cool in the spanish sunshine to win the andalucia valderrama masters for a third time. hello and weclome to the programme where we start with the news that cristiano ronaldo returns to old trafford later on tuesday as hisjuventus side face manchester united in the champions league. the 33 year old portuguese won this competition with united in 2008 and then went on to win it four more times at real madrid before his almost $130 million transfer to the italian champions.