this is business live from bbc news with ben thompson and sally bundock. back at the negotiating table. the us and china sit down for fresh talks — but what hope of progress to end the trade war? live from london, that's our top story on monday the seventh january. they're the first formal talks between us and chinese officials since the start of a three—month truce in a trade war that's shaken global markets and damaged business confidence. also in the programme... from super resolution tvs, intelligent toilets and bendy phones, we take a peek inside the annual tech fair, the consumer electronics show, taking place in las vegas. and markets in europe starting a fresh week like this... some central bank help in china and calming words from the us but are they enough to ease

investors fears of a slowdown? and we'll be getting the inside track on the business of new year resolutions and the january fitness boom — we find out if post—christmas regimes are a bit of turkey or real investment in our health and well being. today we want to know what's your new year resolution, have you broken yours already? let us know, just use the hashtag bbcbizlive hello and welcome to business live. my my new year resolution was to work less but we are here together on the 7th of january. let's get started with the programme because there is a lot to get through this morning. trade negotiators from the world's two biggest economies, the us and china, are holding theirfirst face—to—face talks since presidents donald trump and xijinping agreed on a 90—day

truce at the start of december. last year saw the two sides impose tit—for—tat tariffs on a total of $363 billion worth of each others‘ imports. mr trump initiated the trade war, claiming unfair chinese trade practices, concerns shared by the eu, japan and others. but there have been signs of progress in the past month. china has resumed imports of us soybeans and suspended extra tariffs on us—made cars and auto parts due to come into effect onjanuary one. it's also announced a new crackdown on intellectual property rights infringement, all moves to address us concerns. last week mr trump said he was expecting "big progress" in the negotiations after a "long and very good call" with his chinese counterpart. but today's meeting in beijing doesn't involve the key players. the us delegation is led by deputy us trade representative jeffrey gerrish. professor hong bo, at soas university of london is with me now.

good to have you on business live. how hopeful are you we will see progress this week?” how hopeful are you we will see progress this week? i think the chinese party will bring in something to the negotiation table this time. but i think it is very difficult for them to implement all the structure changes which is the focus of this meeting, i think. but i think they will make some progress because the pressure is now increasingly high for both sides, to find a solution. what has been the impact on the us economy, the chinese economy of these tariffs so far? if you look at the chinese economy, the slowdown has been there for some time. it will, we will see more negative impact of the trade

brought in the manufacturing sector, as is we can see the evidence by looking at the pmi index which has been below 50 for some time. the chinese government is now cutting tax. they are stimulating the private sector and they are trying to double consumption as well. on the american side, we see the apple announcements in the last couple of days, cutting down their profit focused because they have so much connection in china. apple is one of the examples for foreign forums in china and it will be affected by both the slowdown, natural slowdown of the chinese economy and the trade war. do you think we will see a

resolution in the 90 day period, meaning therefore there won't be an increase in tariffs on chinese goods going into the us, as president trump has threatened ? going into the us, as president trump has threatened? do you think we are at the worst point now?m trump has threatened? do you think we are at the worst point now? it is very difficult to predict, to be honest. we have seen so much volatility along the way. but there are two aspects. it is difficult for the chinese government to meet all the chinese government to meet all the demands in terms of the structure changes, but practically, asi structure changes, but practically, as i said, they are under great pressure. they need to make some compromise and they need to find a solution. as quickly as possible. thank you for coming in. we are keeping an eye on those talks another day or so ahead. much more on that online. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the son of carlos ghosn has told a french newspaper that the former nissan boss will "vigorously" defend

himself in a japanese court this week. anthony ghosn says his father has refused to sign a confession in return for his release from custody. he's due to appear before a tokyo court on tuesday. meanwhile, nissan's chief executive has told a french new agency that car maker's alliance with france's renault is not in danger. chinese authorities have approved $125 billion worth of new rail projects over the past month, as beijing continues to pour money into its economy despite a recent slowdown. china has constructed some of the world's most advanced infrastructure over the last decade including an high speed rail link covering more than 25,000 kilometers — that is the longest in the world. the most senior bankers to face criminal charges in britain, over their conduct during the 2008 financial crisis, will go on trial in london this week. former barclays chief executivejohn varley and three ex—colleagues face fraud charges over the bank's emergency refinancing deals with qatari investors. the cash injections helped barclays avoid the fate of high—street rivals bailed out by the uk taxpayer.

the four men deny the charges. hundreds of german air passengers face disruption today as security staff at berlin's two airports hold a four—hour strike over pay. around 80 flights are likely to be affected, mostly at berlin's main tegel airport. trade unions are demanding wage increasees for security staff. we said there was much more online. including this story, no brexit deal catastrophic for uk car industry which has come from our colleagues on bbc radio four. the body that represents car—makers in the uk telling as sales have fallen ahead of the crucial vote. all the uncertainty related to the economic output after the uk leaves the

european union. but its chief executive saying we are expecting a decline and that is a concern. we are facing brexit, he says, facing leaving the eu and we don't know what terms. to have no dealfor our industry would be catastrophic. billionaire elon musk is in shanghai today to lay the foundation for tesla's first factory outside the us. it took tesla four years to launch the project, but it now comes as china's economy slows down amid a trade war with the us. mariko oi is in singapore. interesting timing, four years in the making and then it couldn't be possibly launching at a worse time? the timing is definitely interesting. we only found out he is in china from his tweet about five hours ago and he just re—tweeted some pictures from the event. the added some details this plant will

start building model three electric vehicles by the end of the year. he also added that affordable cars must be made in the same continent as customers. tesla sells its us made ca rs customers. tesla sells its us made cars in china. but the trade war is an interesting factor, of course. the two countries are locked in it and china raised tariffs on imported ca rs and china raised tariffs on imported cars to the us to 40% injuly reducing them as part of the trade truce, which should last until march. it also becomes at a time when china's economy and demand for ca rs when china's economy and demand for cars is slowing as well. thank you, to talk to you. keep an eye on that story for us. lots of developments as far as elon musk is concerned. china shares ending higher at the start of a new week. after the central bank made moves to prop up economic growth by cutting the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves. alongside the comments from?the fed's jay powell on friday — that gave investors room to breathe

after a tough start to the year. in the uk it's a big week for uk retailers reporting how they fared over the crucial christmas period. ones to watch this week, the big supermarkets, sainsburys, tesco and morissons, alongside retailers including m&s and debenhams. how did they fare and will those predictions for the retail bloodbath play out in reality? lawrence gosling, editorial director at what investment? magazine is with me. hgppy happy new year. to you too. the markets are getting in the mood, last week it was all serious declines, what a change in

sentiment, starting on wall street? new year, new optimism. we still have the backdrop of the trade wars between china and the us, which is a bit negative. in the uk we are preoccupied with brexit and we will be until the mps vote. we have had pockets of good news from individual companies. next had reasonable results last week. even something like tesla moving to china. there are pockets of good news for companies. the backdrop economically, might not be so good. we think about some of the gloom that was hanging over us. apple,, brexit you have mentioned, the fact the markets ended in such a bad way at the end of 2018. is this a knee jerk blip, people buying things that look cheap or is there real optimism? there is a lot of

professional fund managers who optimism? there is a lot of professionalfund managers who had a tough last quarter, but a lot of companies like the one they really like and invested in for a long time, apple is a good example, has a huge amount of cash, not selling as many mobile phones in china, but people are still buying on the dip, which is good, old stock market philosophy. in a period where there are so many conflicting things to think about, the trade war, potential slowdown in the us and the slowdown in china, sort of related, brexit on top of that, so many issues to content with, is it unusually volatile? it is not unusually volatile? it is not unusually volatile, the markets are less volatile now. but it is more what looks like gloom. now is a perfect time to buy, don't expect

the value of your investments to go up the value of your investments to go up in the value of your investments to go upina the value of your investments to go up in a couple of weeks, but i think this year will be a better year than most people think particularly on the back of how bad last year was. the worst stock market was brazil. he would have thought that 12 months ago. we have more from you later, getting your opinion on the stories in the papers today. yes, including resolutions. still to come... the new year's a time to shed that christmas lethargy, and those extra pounds. we'll hear from the boss of a fitness app about whether the post—christmas dieting and fitness is just a january fad. you're with business live from bbc news. there were fewer stock market flotations on the london stock exchange last year, blamed on concerns over brexit. but new research suggests that london is still the top choice for international companies seeking to raise capital, outweighing all european markets combined.

let's talk this through. thank you for being on business live. so tell us more for being on business live. so tell us more about this news last year and there is a flurry in december?‘ flurry in the fourth quarter. but 2018 was a positive year for the london market. surprisingly people think it was a poor year but it ended stronger than people think. the flurry we saw in the fourth quarter was people bringing their ideals from 0118 into 0119. what is interesting, we talked about the uncertainty relating to brexit but

london is still the top choke? london is still the top choke? london is still the top choke? london is a terrific market. there are london and new york, core markets. we have the fear that people would go elsewhere to different markets, but that hasn't happened. when we look at london, what is it specifically that makes the london stock exchange that makes these firms want to list? it is the ability to get peers and get analysed and looked that compared to businesses. it is good to talk to, thank you for explaining that. london retaining its top spot as a place for firms to list despite the uncertainty of brexit. lawrence was talking about good news, dunelm saw

its shares soaring over 10%. it said like—for—like sales at its stores rose 6% in the second quarter at the end of last year. your're watching business live, our top story: talks have begun again between china and the united states. the first face—to—face talks since bigi summit in argentina when president xi jingping and president trump talked about a 90 day truce. talks are getting under way in beijing later. now, if you've been at the gym this weekend, you wont have been alone. it's the busiest time of year for the fitness industry, as people vow to get fit for the new year.

the?global fitness and health club industry makes more than $80 billion in revenue per year. in the uk alone, the market is growing steadily and set to be worth $29 billion by 2020. apps are helping drive the health boom, growing by over 330% in the last three years. our next guest is ‘tapping' into all this. daniel sobhani, is chief executive of freeletics, a fitness app founded six years ago. you have over 30 million people using this app, it has been going for six years, how have you managed to get people on board because there are so many fitness apps, but also gyms and everyone else with fitness videos, did ijust use that word?

dvds, whatever you want to call them. we were driven by a vision to inspire people to become their greatest version. we think people only need the right kind of support and that is why we created a programme that allows people, independent from their background to train their physical strength and willpower, free of the usual barriers people had to train, such as money, time, equipment or know—how. this is how we think we can help people get sustainable with their new year resolution. it is an interesting time of year because this is a time you want to sign up people would new year resolutions, 2019 will be the year they get fit. how can you ensure you will keep them. people go to the gym for a couple of months and then they stop. what we are excited about, we have a huge global campaign to be free and we talk about the barriers that normally keep people from

sustainable healthy lifestyle. we show them that with freeletics that is not the case. this is how we are getting them onto our programme. to help them stay, what we are providing them with is tailored, personalised training plans that adapt on a daily basis to their needs, to the performance, to their daily life, so we ensure everyday they have the perfect work—out. no two people on our platform have the same training programme. two people on our platform have the same training programmem two people on our platform have the same training programme. it is free and anyone can download it to their smart device but it is £10 a month to get the bus spoke training plan in the uk. it is £10 a month every month or does it go up depending on what we need? it is one subscription and doesn't go up. it is like netflix style, you have a wide array of different training programmes to choose, always and relevant. if you

wa nt to choose, always and relevant. if you want to run today, go to the gym tomorrow, you can do this on our platform all personalised to you and the price does not change. you can use, depending on time and money being two of the big things that hold people back from fitness. is there a danger people think they spend £10 and it will solve their problems, but you still have to get to the gym and do what you have to do? obviously you have to put in some work but one of the biggest m ista kes some work but one of the biggest mistakes from people when they start, they take two big changes which is not sustainable. we make sure the amount of work they put in and the amount of lifestyle change they need to put in, are small, consistent steps that can bring them towards their goal. having run for six years now, do you see a surge in january and then do you see your subscribers tail off a few months later? what is the pattern might in terms of your customers? we

definitely see a surge at the beginning of the year. this is time and people have these new year ‘s resolutions. but we don't see this big drop—off in february and march. our retention rates are better than you see in the gym industry. we are extremely dedicated, the only thing we wa nt extremely dedicated, the only thing we want to ensure is that you keep on training with us. i am told we have run out of time, but i wanted to ask, how many people are behind this company? you said you are dedicated, but if you have 30 million people wanting at the spoke plan, how do you make it work? we have 120 people working at the company and we combine this with artificial intelligence that helps us artificial intelligence that helps us to hyper personalised the training plans to our users. so the coachis training plans to our users. so the coach is a bot? it supports algorithms but it is the training

and the concept which is behind it. thank you. i am feeling guilty already. sally's new year resolution is to pay attention to the director when they say we have run out of time. the consumer electronics show show kicks off in las vegas today, with loads of new gadgets on display, including a folding phone. the bbc‘s dan simmons has tried it out, here's what he made of it. i got the chance to use the world's first flexible smartphone. it folds out into a tablet as well and that's the secret of it. it's called the flexpai and it's been five years in production from a company called royole. so what's it like to handle? well, it's quite heavy, if i'm being honest with you. and it feels a little bit bulky, putting it in your pocket, putting it anywhere basically is a little bit more bulkier than perhaps a normal, regular phone. butjust like something new in your hand that shiny and slick, you want to play with it all the time, flip it over.

that's ok because the os that runs on top of the android system uses, they call it water, automatically changes the screen. so you can have it one way and then flip it round and use of the other way. the screen flips with you. it takes a little bit of time to resolve when those changing of screens happens between the tablet and the phone when you fold it. i wonder how many times you can actually fold that screen before it breaks? they say they've done the resilience testing which are talking about tens of thousands of times about you can do it. that's what they say. we will have to see if that works in practice. we have lawrence back with us. the financial times looking at smart speakers to intelligent toilets. the folding phone, and they say they have tested it over 1000 times but you need to let the toddler loose?

my you need to let the toddler loose? my four—year—old granddaughter, she could probably break that within about 20 minutes. they are great gadgets. i like the idea of a smart lawn mower. how does it work? you programme it, you can sit back and watch your grasping cod.|j programme it, you can sit back and watch your grasping cod. i don't wa nt to watch your grasping cod. i don't want to be a cynic, they come up with the idea and it gets refined, but the idea of mowing the lawn is quite relaxing, isn't it?|j but the idea of mowing the lawn is quite relaxing, isn't it? ithink it is, i don't have any grass. but given the last segment, we need to doa given the last segment, we need to do a bit more exercise, even walking up do a bit more exercise, even walking up and down the garden taking the grass. it is all about how short it is, whether there is issues in the lawn and that kind of thing. i know the story of a smart hoover, but basically the point of it they will cover every inch of the carpet so you just set it going overnight. but

they also had the dog. like a human being wouldn't cover every inch of the carpet. but they had a dog that left a mess on the carpet and the hoover spread that all over the carpet. thank you for sharing that story. new year ‘s resolutions, any? to sort out my pension. i am quite well invested. you are so on message. giving yourjob title, aik. you would have done that years ago. there is one particular investment i should have sorted out. william says, i don't over do it at christmas but i walk everywhere. yes, good luck with that. forget the up, geta yes, good luck with that. forget the up, get a dog. yes, good luck with that. forget the up, geta dog. we will yes, good luck with that. forget the up, get a dog. we will see you soon. bye— bye. good morning. training in the

forecast today. it will move south across scotland and northern ireland through this morning. it is associated with this low quite a deep centre of a low—pressure and it will give strong winds across the northern half of the uk and northern scotla nd northern half of the uk and northern scotland in particular. it is this cold front bringing the rain by lunchtime it will have pushed out of northern ireland be patchy rain across northern england and north wales. cloudy for much of england and wales, sunny spells developing scotland, northern ireland and temperatures nine to 11 degrees. but the rain will continue across the north of scotland and that is where you will have the strongest winds gusting up to 65 to 75—macro is in our in northern areas this afternoon. blustery conditions throughout the afternoon. through tonight, that rain will eventually clear away out of northern scotland.

the winds switch to a northerly direction so it will be fairly chilly tonight with quite a bit of cloud. this temperature is perhaps staying above freezing, especially with the strong, northerly wind. temperatures about four to 6 degrees. on tuesday, varying amounts of sunshine, a few showers drifting through western scotland, perhaps northern ireland and maybe a few showers in east anglia. fairly strong winds here and i could bring large waves around the coast of eastern england, especially around norfolk and suffolk. temperatures, lower than they are today, around seven to 10 degrees. three tuesday night, winds will be lighter and there will be frost developing across scotland through north—western part of england, the west midlands. either side of back, eastern areas, there will be cloud and cloud into the west with the warm front moving in. high pressure is becoming well—established across the uk through the rest of the week. that brings in an northerly wind so

you can still see as you go through wednesday, the cold northerly is. but the cloud in the west may bring a few spots of rain throughout wednesday. but it is a weak affair so not much rain, if anything and a bit of cloud towards eastern part of england but in between, a good slice of central part of the uk, there will be some sunshine. but it will feel chilly with maximum temperature is getting to about five to seven celsius. that is all from me, have a good day. goodbye. you're watching bbc news at nine, with me, annita mcveigh. with me, rita chakrabarti. the headlines... hoping to save half a million lives over 10 years — nhs leaders say their new long—term plan will have more focus on prevention. what we're doing today is setting out what that phased improvement will look like over the next ten years, based on work that we've done with a lot of the patients groups, the charities, our frontline staff,

to say, what are some of the practical changes that we can bring about? mps will vote on the prime minister's brexit deal a week tomorrow, it has been confirmed, as more than 200 of them sign a letter urging her to rule out leaving the eu with no deal. what a no—deal brexit might look like — the government is today testing plans for handling heavy lorry traffic at ports.