troops out of syria is a negative developement. prince turki al—faisal made the comments as the us secretary of state mike pompeo arrived in riyadh to discuss the pullout as part of a tour of middle east allies. exceptionally heavy snowy in central europe is expected to continue causing severe disruption. in austria, an avalanche killed three german tourists, and a fourth person is missing. and this story is trending on bbc.com. the singer robbie williams has reportedly been accused of blasting his next door neighbour — led zeppelin‘sjimmy page — with heavy metal music, including black sabbath and deep purple. the two fell out over williams‘ plans to build a basement swimming pool at his home. and the top story in the uk: 48 hours before the parliamentary vote that could define brexit — the prime minister has told mps not to play games. now on bbc news live to singapore

for asia business report. billion may‘s exit plead. the uk prime minister makes a last—minute call for mps to support her plan to leave the european union are prior toa leave the european union are prior to a crucial vote on tuesday. driving change. the latest from the north american auto show as carmakers adapt to shift in consumer tastes. hello and welcome to this monday edition of asian business reports. this week sees a crucial brexit vote in the uk parliament alongside a snapshot of the impact of the us china trade war as well as a suite of corporate earnings will

be one. at begins with china releasing its latest trade figures today and the uk prime minister has made a plea for ministers to back her brexit plan ahead of the key vote on tuesday. on wednesday, goldman sachs will be the focus of the big us bank releasing their earnings today and on thursday we have the tv and film awards season and we will see if it helped netflix. here is a view of the week ahead. the problem with brexit in the wider concert —— context is that there is no plan for this. we are heading into uncharted territory in terms of what fx may be in of simple things such as importing and exporting of goods. the other aspect, particularly for financial markets is that there is a continued sense of not actually being able to make a decision. so to bring it back to the referendum, if you get a

sense that maybe the politician in some ways you have abdicated your duty to entrust a link is important for referendum as opposed to taking it as for referendum as opposed to taking itasa for referendum as opposed to taking it as a position of the government, and then you do nothing for two yea rs, and then you do nothing for two years, the market places... there is no way to say which way the vote will go other than this sort of uncertainty always bring something bad. obviously we have the world 's two largest economies as well, the us still in a partial government shutdown and the chinese are coming out with trade numbers. can we get any more indication of how damaging the trade row between these two economies has been over the last few months? risk their is exported either to china is worse than expected and there is a possibility that will be the case. if that is followed up with particularly bad consumption data or followed followed up with particularly bad consumption data orfollowed up... you will see people in the world economy in the market is looking at china and saying that maybe this slowdown is something that is starting to cripple the economy and

with the lack of any sort of rigour on the part of the us for negotiations to get a solution from this, the expectation from the market is that it willjust continue to worsen and that is dangerous. and the earnings. we have big banks and we have netflix. what do you anticipate there? in terms of netflix, the market has been happy to have these big tech companies. if there is a stumble that could hurt equity markets. to the banks, position is important and estimates have been beaten down so much recently that it is probably not possible to reach the depths that the market is looking for. is a good chance the bank earnings will be a little better than expected. of course, in these uncertain times, some investors are looking to save havens. analysts at goldman sachs havens. analysts at goldman sachs have raised their forecast for gold prices, predicting that the precious metal will climb to 1425 an ounce, a

level not seen for five years. i was told wired gold is being bought.” am always a proponent of gold is a balance in the portfolio. we are looking for gold to move higher this year because of risk in the market but also because of the federal reserve appears to pause interest rates which suggests the us dollar could weaken. looking at the trade relationship between the us and china, it seems to be improving so we believe it could be a withdrawal of safe dollars which has been driving sentiment over the last few months. and will also play positively. and let's face it, the world is now less stable than i was at any world is now less stable than i was atany time world is now less stable than i was at any time in the last ten years so i think this is why gold has such significant appeal. you also look at other markets such as oil and there was a great line about oil markets going from the out how and how after extending the best winning streak in a decade. widdy think oil prices

will be? it is a difficult call because getting a directional plan for willis challenging. we know opec is cutting production which provides support. we know the trade war will be quite positive for commodity prices however we are still dealing with a global growth weak data coming out of china, coming out of europe, andi coming out of china, coming out of europe, and i think that oil prices will struggle to reach the topside ambition this year. and there are other things such as currency, for example. the japanese yen is seen as a safe haven that if you were to look at a safe haven to hedge 1's bets during these uncertain times, what would it be? like gold, i think gold will start to detract from the lure of winning —— the track from the attraction of the us dollar. secondly, i think

there will be more hedging. us dollar hedging, that is selling, by japanese life insurance companies to protect the us dollar portfolios. in other news making business headlines, donald trump has it that headlines, donald trump has it that he has, quote, no idea if he can strike a deal with the democrats for his border wall and end the partial us government shutdown. those common —— comments come as the shutdown entered its fourth week, the longest on record. the chinese central bank has declined to knowledge of these and mastercard ‘s applications to process in chinese payments according to the financial times, citing unidentified people familiar with the process. no—one else has made comment on the story. emirates plans to reduce the number of flights by 25% during the closure of the dubai international airport southern runway for 45 days. the

world ‘s largest long walk carrier says the closure, scheduled between april 16 and may 30 four maintenance will result in a 248 of its planes are not being used. now, the north american auto show opens in detroit today. it is a platform for debuting new vehicles to the us market. however carmakers are facing transition as consumer taste our business correspondent is in detroit to find out what to expect event this year. in a few hours the 2019 detroit auto show gets under way. a key event for america's car industry. at a time of substantial change. what can we expect? to discuss this i am joined by phoebe, a business writer. what can we expect will be some of the big things that we will hear this year? this year you will hear about transformation and technology, they. you are looking at more autonomy to

running vehicles with your islet or your fingerprint. running vehicles with your islet or yourfingerprint. more running vehicles with your islet or your fingerprint. more security to prevent your car being stolen. we also hear that america is a big market that china is not an even bigger market. china is a top priority for the entire auto industry global league. is a priority because it is the largest, a priority because it is adventurous. he wants new creative interesting product. the companies are deciding for more space, more luxury. you will see that in the ford explorer, second seat, more hip room, more knee i’oott‘i. ford explorer, second seat, more hip room, more knee room. why is this a priority, why are we doing little square sippy cups for children? they said that china reshaping how we think about everything. a sense of family, a sense of space. last thing, we heard recent months that ford and jaguar land rover are

closing factories, cutting growth forecast. where are we in the industry growth? the situation now is about forecasting. the ordo industry has had three years in a i’ow industry has had three years in a row of 17 million cars. that is huge and it is healthy. that the industry is concerned about what could happen and is expressing extreme caution in moving forward. they want to alleviate potential pain. will have deleted here. in a slimmed down the droid auto show, the last time the show is happening injanuary. many german car makers except for vw are staying away but we will keep across any announcement from the big three american car makers. all the ordo industry, one of nissan's top executives has resigned. he was widely considered to be a close ally

of the ousted chairman and a possible is the lead the company renault. it is a load to the management team is abroad and is its investigation into financial misconduct. and before we go, a quick look at the markets and how they are trading in asia. the tokyo market is shut from public holiday but the hong kong market has opened lower, due to some caution ahead of the crucial chinese trade numbers due out later this morning. this is bbc news the top stories this hour: as us secretary of state mike pompeo arrives in riyadh, a saudi prince tells the bbc — america's decision to pull troops out of syria is "very negative". and an avalanche kills three people in the austrian alps — as the region struggles with perilous conditions almost a fifth of councils in england have introduced a ban on begging.

a new system that allows people to donate to the homeless via a contactless payment is being piloted in peterborough to try and deter beggers. jo taylor reports. 28—year—old macca's he has been homeless and has no choice but to back his standing metres away from a sign saying he's not allowed to bed. the amount of money he makes varies from day to day. it is notjust money that people donate. while filming, a passerby gave him a jumperand filming, a passerby gave him a jumper and food. around the corner i meet andy. that is not his real name. he says he is homeless. g20 circumstances we protected his identity. i'lljanuary circumstances we protected his identity. i'll january because circumstances we protected his identity. i'lljanuary because of the pressure of the job. my mental health went downhill.

across england, 54 out of 302 councils told the bbc they have introduced a public spaces protection order prohibiting begging. but only 244 fines have been issued over four years, and only ten of those have been paid. some spare change, please, ma'am? home office advice is to only use the power against genuine antisocial behaviour, and not target the vulnerable. peterborough council banned begging last year, but have not issued a single fine, as they want to give those that beg the opportunity to get off the street first. now they are trying something new. a contactless donation point. you just put your card up to the screen and it will immediately take £3, which goes into a charitable donation. right. we want to make sure the money goes to the right place so we can provide support to get them off the streets, so they don't have to beg in the first place. the money goes into this and it will fund a number of different initiatives.

is it actually going to work in stopping people holding their hand out? this is about making inroads. begging will go on, but it's about to what extent. over three months, almost £1000 has been donated through the contactless point. that is helping to fund a new day centre which offers homeless people services. the main aim is to get people off the streets for good. now on bbc news, sport today: hello. this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on the programme, six as manchester united win against tottenham to continue the caretaker manager's perfect start to his reign. the 2019

australian open is under way as rafael nadal as for his men's title in melbourne. and qatar's maintained his lead at the stage six of the dakar rally. hello there, and welcome to the programme. all that and more to come. we begin with footballing news, match as united goalkeeper david hale was immense, making it 11 saves in his second side at wembley. —— de gea. ole gunnar solskjaer maintained his unbeaten start to his reign as ca reta ker unbeaten start to his reign as caretaker manager, with their sixth consecutive win since taking charge. marcus rashford scored the only goal of the game, just before the half—time interval, after a perfect retimed pol pot are passed. but it was de gea who was the star, as the spaniard made history of saves which helped take his side are level on points with that pace arsenal. first half, i thought we were