this is the briefing. i'm maryam moshri. our top story: the us house of representatives passes legislation that would re—open the federal government without paying for president trump's wall with mexico, but it's likely to be vetoed by the president. doctors here in the uk say parents should worry less about how much time their children spend using smartphones and computers, as long as that does not replace healthy activities. north korea's ambassador to italy disappears, amid reports that he's seeking asylum in the west. a big clean—up operation is underway in the netherlands, after nearly 300 shipping containers fell off a cargo ship in a storm. in business, new year nosedive. wall street slumps as fears grow for the health of the world economy. plus, back to the table — the us and china will resume trade talks next week, providing a bit of relief for investors. we'll have all the details for you. a warm welcome to the programme,

briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business and sport. and you can be part of the conversation. today we're talking about screen—time. new guidance from doctors in the uk says there isn't enough evidence to confirm that screen—time is harmful to kids. do you limit their access to mobiles and computers? are you worried about the impact on their lives? tell us what you think. tust use the hashtag #bbcthebriefing. the us house of representatives, now under democratic control, has passed legislation that would re—open the federal government without paying for president trump's wall with mexico. it happened soon after the democrats took control of the house and reinstated veteran democrat, nancy pelosi, as speaker.

but the legislation will be rejected by the republican—controlled senate and by president trump hismelf. david willis reports from washington. et is, in her words, et is, in herwords, a new et is, in her words, a new dawn in american politics. 12 years ago nancy pelosi made history as the first woman elected speaker of the house of representatives. now she has staged an equally historic comeback to lead the first democratic majority there since 2010. two months ago the american people spoke and demanded a new dawn. they cold up on the beauty of oui’ dawn. they cold up on the beauty of our constitution, that our system of checks and balances that protects oui’ checks and balances that protects our democracy, remembering that the legislators branch is article one,

the first branch of government, coequal to the presidency, and to thejudicial. coequal to the presidency, and to the judicial. but the smiles belied a bitterly divided political landscape, and two parties who cannot even agree on the funding needed to keep the federal government open. museums are closed. rubbish is piling up around the white house and the national more. and 800,000 government workers are going without pay. at the heart of the stand—off is president trump's demand forfive the stand—off is president trump's demand for five early in dollars for a wall along the mexican border. —— $5 billion. his signature issue on the campaign trail. he took to the white house briefing room for the first time, flanked by border patrol agents and having congratulated nancy pelosi, vowed there would you no backing down over the wall. you can call it a barrier, you can call it whatever you want, but essentially we need protection in oui’ essentially we need protection in our country. we are going to make it

good. the people of our country want it. i have never had so much support asi it. i have never had so much support as i have in the last week. 0ver my stands for border security, for border control, and four, frankly, the wall or the barrier. i have never had anything like it, in terms of calls coming in, in terms of people writing in and tweeting and doing whatever they have to do. i have never had this much support. and we have done some things that, as you know, have been very popular. 0ne as you know, have been very popular. one of the first things the democratic controlled house voted on was funding that would reopen those government departments which are currently embroiled in the shop down. but then measures included no funding for the wall, which democrats see as a repudiation of the very principles on which this country was built. a wall is an immorality. it is not who we are as a nation. and this is not a war

between mexico and the united states that the president is creating here. —— wall. it is a wall between reality and his constituents. with over 100 women sworn in, this is the most diverse congress in history. it includes the first muslim and nate —— native american lawmakers, and the youngest woman to be elected to the youngest woman to be elected to the house, 29—year—old alexandra 0casio—c0rtez. but the shutdown is its first highly pressing challenge. another meeting is due later today at the white house, involving the president and congressional leaders. but there is a resolution in sight, some two weeks after the shutdown began. for the first time, doctors in the uk have published guidance on how much screen—time children should be allowed. they're saying that parents should worry less about how much time their children spend using smartphones and computers, and there's little evidence that it's harmful in itself. but experts say it's important that the use of devices does not replace healthy activities, such as sleep, exercise

and time with family. here's our medical correspondent, fergus walsh. young people today grow up surrounded by digital entertainment and information on multiple screens. whether via computer, smart or television. in its guidance to pa rents, television. in its guidance to parents, the royal college says the popular view that time in front of a screen is toxic to help is essentially no evidence to support it. many things are harmful to us. crossing the road is harmful. even reading, which we think of as a really important thing, actually, is a bit ofa really important thing, actually, is a bit of a sedentary occupation that can keep you up at night. so we think there is a balance to be struck. there are harms from screens, struck. there are harms from screens, but actually, screens bring us screens, but actually, screens bring us great opportunities and we have to balance those. it says there are some associations between higher screen use and obesity and depression, but noted that the reported rise in mental health problems among young people was

apparent before the advent of social media and digital technologies. it recommends families ask themselves four questions. is screen time in your household controlled 7 four questions. is screen time in your household controlled? does it interfere with what your family wa nts to interfere with what your family wants to do? does it interfere with sleep? and are you able to control snacking during screen time? the guidance says parents with healthy, active children shouldn't worry greatly about computer and smartphone use, although it recommends no screens for an hour before bed, in part because the light can slow the release of the sleep inducing hormone melatonin. the royal college says families should negotiate screen time limits with their children based on individual needs, and how much they impact on sleep, physical and social activities. let's brief you on some of the other stories making the news. britain has deployed a royal navy ship to the channel in response to a rise in the number of migrants crossing from mainland europe in small boats. the government says nearly five hundred and forty migrants attempted such crossings last year about half

of them in the last few months. brazil's new president, jair bolsonaro, says he would consider allowing the united states to build a military base on brazilian soil if russia increased its presence in neighbouring venezuela. he made the remarks in his first television interview since his inauguration. the un security council will hold a closed door meeting later today on the presidential election in the democratic republic of congo. results from last sunday's vote are still awaited. the roman catholic church, which fielded thousands of election observers across the country, said that, based on results it had seen, there was a clear winner. south korea's spy agency has confirmed that north korea's ambassador to italy has disappeared. jo song—gil and his wife are reportedly seeking asylum in a third country, but their whereabouts are unknown. let's get the latest

from our correspondent, laura bicker in seoul. what more do we know about this story? 24 hours on from the announcement of his disappearance here in seoul, we actually do not know where jo song—gil here in seoul, we actually do not know wherejo song—gil might be. this 4080 robin boyd from pyongyang. he was last seen leaving the north korean ambassador‘s residents in rome in late november with his wife. that is what officials here in seoul have been told. they have also been told that he asked the italian authorities for protection beaches he was seeking asylum. that is certainly the report that was mentioned in the newspaper here in seoul. that is why many are wondering exactly where he might be. although the italian authorities say they have no record of a north

korean diplomat asking for asylum. if this is indeed the case, if he is seeking to defect to a third country, it could be potentially embarrassing for kim jong—un, as country, it could be potentially embarrassing for kimjong—un, as he pursues a diplomatic course between seoul and washington. defectors are seen as seoul and washington. defectors are seen as traitors in north korea, both to the people and the country, and the consequences for the families left behind can be severe. it also appears jo families left behind can be severe. it also appearsjo song—gil may have been more than simplyjust an ambassador. both his father and his father—in—law are thought to be well—connected within the party, and former diplomats themselves. it is also thought that jo former diplomats themselves. it is also thought thatjo song—gil was pa rt also thought thatjo song—gil was part of a kind of way of trying to get a luxury goods into north korea. from italy. and according to thae yong—ho, who is the last north korean defector to leave, the highest diplomat to leave, he was the deputy ambassador in london,

thae yong—ho told south korean reporters that it may well be that jo song—gil has some knowledge of pyongyang's nuclear plans. as you can imagine, intelligence services around the world would be very keen to have that information. around the world would be very keen to have that informationlj around the world would be very keen to have that information. i imagine s0. to have that information. i imagine so. laura bicker, thank you. let's turn to our top business story now, because after a brief respite over the holiday period, fear has returned to wall street. apple's warning about its business in china helped to trigger steep falls in the main stock market indices, the dow closing down 2.8% and the tech—heavy nasdaq off 3.1%. it's another piece of evidence pointing to a looming slowdown in the world economy, some even say a recession. iain anderson, founder of the international communications agency, cicero group, joins me now. the r—word is not good for global communications? it isn't. it will

all come in, where you get peaks and troughs you get lots to do. watch out, apple has had to explain in some detail what is going on with the global economy and what is going on in china right now. absolutely fascinating. and indeed their results, how they have managed those results, how they have managed those results, has kind of said some of that market sentiment in the last couple of days. the fear, isn't it, is that this is another indication that china's economy is slowing down? and it isn'tjust about apple, it is about these suppliers that supply apple, and other companies that do business in china. the worry is that if china slows down, demand in china slows down, that has a knock—on effect globally. in china slows down, that has a knock-on effect globally. apple in itself is a huge supply chain story. you know, the intellectual property might be in california, but so much of what is made in these apple sheens is actually in china itself. now, we have seen the expectations

for chinese growth slipping this year. there is a little bit of good news, just in the past 34 hours, in that the us — china trade talks appear to be back on. —— 24 hours. but even donald trump's chief economic adviser says that the trade war is going to have an effect on us corporates, on multinationals generally, which will have an effect on all of us. it is strange, because president trump often uses the stock market as a barometer of how well the president is doing, and if you are going to use this as a barometer, it doesn't bode well. well, that is coming a bit unstuck for him at the minute. rollercoaster markets will create rollercoaster politics. in terms of apple, and notice you have one, one of the problems is not just notice you have one, one of the problems is notjust china, it is about people motlop trading. that's right. everybody who has got one of these things, you are being entreated to go into an apple story the christmas and upgrade for still pretty a large amount of money. ——

store over christmas. that is one of the things being unpacked now, the cost for the average consumer, the cost for the average consumer, the cost for the average consumer, the cost for a ny cost for the average consumer, the cost for any of us, is really quite huge. we are talking about £500 is the sort of entry price. i hope not too many kids have been asking their pa rents for too many kids have been asking their parents for that over the christmas period. we will be covering screen time and kids and smartphones shortly. thank you very much indeed. we will be talking to you shortly for the papers. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: manchester city puts an end to liverpool's undefeated run, at the top of the english premier league — only four points separate them now. the japanese people are in mourning following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead. good grief. after half a century delighting

fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer, paul simon, starts his tour of south africa tomorrow, in spite of protests and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established. teams were trying to scoop up lumps of oil as france recognises it faces an ecological crisis. three weeks ago, the authorities confidently assured these areas that oilfrom the broken tanker, erika, would head out to sea. it didn't. the world's tallest skyscraper opens today. the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. you're watching the briefing. 0ur headlines: the us house of representatives has passed legislation that would reopen the federal government

without paying for president trump's wall with mexico, but it's likely to be vetoed by the president. doctors here in the uk say parents should worry less about how much time their children spend using smartphones and computers, as long as that does not replace healthy activities. a major clean—up is underway on islands off the north coast of the netherlands, where a cargo ship has shed 270 containers into the sea, spilling furniture, tvs, toys and toxic chemicals. kim gittleson has the story. this is exactly what you don't want to see if you're the owner of msc zoe, one of the world's largest cargo vessels. on tuesday night, rough waters caused hundreds of containers to tip like dominoes into the north sea. although the cargo fell off the ship near the german island of borgen, the tide carried many

of the containers south—west including here, off dutch island of terschelling, where they have spilt their contents ashore, containing everything from flatscreen tvs tissues, to most troubling of all, potentially dangerous chemicals. translation: what worries us most is the plastic and styrofoam. styrofoam crumbles, so i'm afraid that will bother us for some time. it mixes with the sand and gets under the sand, it gets into the environment. it may be impossible to get rid of. now it's a race to clean up the mess, with hundreds of volunteers joining the effort. the company that owns the ship has said that it takes the incident very seriously, and that it's looking into what happened, as well as working with authorities to contain the damage. now it's time to get all the latest from the bbc sports centre. hello, i'm chetan pathak with friday's sport briefing. our top story: things have just got a lot closer in the english premier league title race, after manchester city beat

leaders liverpool 2—1 to close the gap to just four points at the top of the table. pep guardiola's side are the first team to beat liverpool in the league this season, and the result takes them back up to second in the table, two points ahead of tottenham. sergio aguero fired city in front five minutes before half—time. roberto firmino equalised for liverpool mid—way through the second—half, with his fourth goal in two games. but eight minutes later, leroy sane won it for the champions when his shot went in off the post. it was a final today. in —— if we won we had a chance to lose. if we lost, it was over. from the first minute we played like it was a final. so i had the same opinion. always you are trembling because of

the quality in front. they were so aggressive to win the duels. maybe thatis aggressive to win the duels. maybe that is going to help us to learn the way we have to play this kind of game, especially in champions league. so i'm so proud. all my credit again to this incredible crowd. in tennis, roger federer and switzerland are through to the final of the hopman cup in perth, despite losing to greece in theirfinal tie of the group stage. the greeks had to win 3—0 to qualify for the final, but federer‘s victory over stefanos tsitsipas in the opening men's singles rubber ended their hopes. federer winning 7—6, 7—6 to put the swiss 1—0 up in the tie, and send the holders through to their fifth hopman cup final. as the premier league teams enter the english fa cup third—round stage, there are some intriguing ties to look forward to, as some of the big sides find themselves taking on lower league opposition. on friday, tottenham travel to tranmere rovers,

who play three divisions below. spurs are also targetting success in the premier league, the league cup and the champions league, but their manager insists they'll be taking the fa cup seriously and won't be underestimating the oppostion. the different level that we are in, in different leagues, but in the competition always if you are not right and you are taking away the competition, you can struggle. and cristiano ronaldo has taken to social media to celebrate yet another award coming his way. the juventus forward was named player of the year at the globe soccer awards at a star—studded event in dubai on thursday night and has since tweeted: "what better way to start the new year." you can get all the latest sports

news at our website, that's bbc.com/sport. that's it from us, there's more at our website bbc.com/sport, but from me chetan pathak and the rest of the team, that is your friday sport briefing. with the arrival of the new year, the stage is set for more technological innovation and growth, but challenges loom. our technology correspondent rory cellan—jones looks at the road ahead and predicts what's next for driverless technology, electric cars, ai, and more. 2019, the year the driverless car becomes a reality, or maybe it's a bump in the row. it was once just a science—fiction dream but in the last five years rapid advances in artificial intelligence have brought autonomous vehicles lot closer. the

tech giant google has led the way, investing billions in teaching cars to censor their surroundings. by traditional carmakers like general motors and mercedes—benz are catching up, wary of the threat autonomy pose at their business model. after years of testing 2019 will see the first commercial services, albeit on a very small, local scale. google's division in phoenix, arizona is leading the way. general motors is planning a robot taxi service with its chevy bolt self driving car sometime this year. tesla, hooper and others are among the contenders, though maybe 2020 is a more realistic target for their commercial services —— uber. but uber‘s test fleet was taken off the road after a fatal collision with a pedestrian. a reminder about why we

should be cautious about the speed of this revolution. but if autonomous ca rs of this revolution. but if autonomous cars are far away, the electric motoring era is arriving fast. hasluck‘s model three, the cheaper car, is seen in numbers on the world's roads. in 2019 volvo will end the petrol fuelled cars to focus on electric. but it is in china that more electric cars may be built and bought than anywhere else. and it's this market which could shape the future of motoring. that's partly because most of the batteries which are a key component of the electric cars are built in china, and manufacturers are clustering for suppliers. companies like dyson wa nts to suppliers. companies like dyson wants to open an electric car factory in singapore, has decided to head east for the future of motoring. that may be true too when it comes to research into artificial intelligence. we are used to hearing about the likes of google, microsoft

and amazon pouring billions into ai. indeed for many of us it is amazon's alexa voice assistant which has been the first practical use of the technology, but chinese giants like ali babar, technology, but chinese giants like ali ba bar, tencent technology, but chinese giants like ali babar, tencent and badu are investing vast sums in artificial intelligence and they are advancing on many fronts including healthcare and robotics, but it is facial recognition where china already has the lead. in many countries the deployment of surveillance technology and the gathering of large amounts of personal data promises to be the subject of anguished ethical debate for years to come. not so in china, which may give itan to come. not so in china, which may give it an edge in the vital race to dominate ai. we asked you to talk to us about screen we asked you to talk to us about screen time. uk doctors are saying it's impossible to advise parents on how much screen time they should or shouldn't give their children. i wa nt to shouldn't give their children. i want to know whether you believe screen want to know whether you believe screen time should be limited and

whether you think it is harmful. we've had a lot of tweets on programme. lloyd says i have been blessed, my children might watch for a bit, play with friends, come in, eat, her work and check you. and we have a tweet from chuck, he says i'm worried about screen time however i feel it is about maintaining a balance with outdoor activities. more advanced screens will definitely part of the new generation in future. mary disagrees, she says common sense tells me i don't need evidence. of course it is harmful. more on our website on that story of course if you go to bbc.com/news. thank you for watching. stay with us. the business news coming up, mourned the us government shutdown and the impact on the wider us economy. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there.

many parts of the uk spent today plagued by cloud. pretty grey skies overhead and many places holding the cloud through the night. the cloud has been trapped under this very slow—moving area of high pressure. this is in no mood to move whatsoever. areas of cloud circulating around it and that is what we continue to see through the rest of the night. that cloud feeding its way in across northern ireland, scotland and northern england. further south i think there isa england. further south i think there is a greater chance we will see the skies squaring a little bit, and whether cloud does clear, those places will see some frost and fog. so potentially some dense fog patches forming for the midlands, east wales, central and southern england through the early hours of friday. north and west, cloud around the area of high pressure. something a little milderfor the north—western corner. for eastern scotland, central and eastern wales and central and southern england,

here quite a widespread frost to greet us friday morning. so through the morning, dense fog to start off, some could be slow to clear. then these southern areas should see sunshine, also the midlands, wales, north—east england and eastern scotland. western scotland, north—west england, northern ireland, more cloud likely to spill in and those temperatures in single digits. mildest in the north—west scotland. through friday night many places with light winds and clearing skies overhead, again, we could see patches of fog and it will turn cold. still, high pressure in charge as we get into the start of the weekend. this little frontal system will try to have more of an influence. it won't really make its presence known early on saturday. starting off dry with some fog and sunshine. cloud tending to roll west. here is the front at the end of the day, likely to start to bring some patchy rain perhaps into northern ireland. and as we go into sunday, that front slides further

south. not much more than a banner cloud at this stage stretching its way across england and wales, back into northern ireland and for scotla nd into northern ireland and for scotland we should see some sunny skies —— band of cloud. still chilly in northern areas, to the south, something more mild, ten in cardiff, 11 in plymouth. into the start of next week, the potentialfor a little bit of rain and it will be a bit less cold. this is the business briefing. i'm maryam moshiri. new year nosedive — wall street slumps as fears grow for the health of the world economy. plus, capitol spending freeze — the budget stalemate in washington continues, but how much damage is it doing? taking a look at those markets. the nikkei plunges on its first trading day after the holidays following that 660—point slump on the dow. but news that trade talks

will resume between china and the us is lightening the mood a little. we'll have the details for you in a moment.