i'm rico hizon in singapore, the headlines: a new warning about the global economy — could slowing growth in china squeeze the outlook for the whole world? the risk remains. it will depend a lot on what happens with the trade talks. theresa may outlines her plan b for brexit but critics say it doesn't go far enough. i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme. the diplomatic standoff between china and canada — dozens of former diplomats call on xi jinping to release two canadian citizens. live from our studios in singapore and london, - is live from our studios in singapore and london, is news. good morning — it's 8am

here in singapore and 1am in the swiss alps where the world's rich and powerful are gathering in davos to set their financial priorities for the year ahead. but uncertainty plagues this year's world economic forum because of news out of china. the world's second largest economy has grown at its slowest rate since 1990 and the imf is now warning of a fall in global economic growth. our business editor simon jack reports from davos. china's rapid economic growth, its expanding role in global trade, and the increased spending power of its consumers, have helped create jobs around the world. it picked up a lot of slack after the financial crisis. but that is changing. it is now the world's second biggest economy but in the last decade, its growth rate has slowed from a high of 14% to less

than half that rate now. and today, there was a warning that rising trade tensions between china and the us could see another dent in global growth. the risks remain. it is going to depend a lot on what happens with the trade talks. that is ongoing at this point. in the event that there is an escalation in the trade conflict, then we would see a bigger revision. the news that china's economy is growing at its slowest rate in nearly 30 years sent a bit of an icy blast through here ahead of the world economic forum in davos. it wasn't entirely unexpected, but china is now such a big part of the global economy that what happens there affects countries all around the world. the demand for raw materials like steel and oil is very sensitive to the chinese economy and affects the fortunes of workers from south wales to saudi arabia. so what do chinese business leaders make of the slowdown and the dangers of an escalating trade war? if the world's two largest

economies are not seeing eye to eye, everybody suffers. the psychology of the trade war is something which business is very uncomfortable with. but i am quite hopeful that there will be a deal in the next few weeks, because both sides need a deal because of domestic challenges. in their absence, top of the world agenda. simonjack, bbc news, davos. well, in the past hour president trump has tweeted. he says: "china posts slowest economic numbers since 1990 due to us trade tensions and new policies. makes so much sense for china to finally do a real deal, and stop playing around!" so, rico — that's not going to appease the chinese is it? it will put more pressure on the

chinese to cut a deal. the deadline between america and the chinese is on march one and if there is no resolution than more tariffs on chinese goods will be imposed and that will impact the economy. china's economic slowdown has been predicted for quite some time. beijing has been saying that its focus is more on quality not quantity of growth. less reliant on exports and focus more on domestic demand. but slower growth in china means slower growth for the rest of the world. we will have more details on the chinese economy coming up next on asia business report. our other top stories this hour. the british prime minister, theresa may, has outlined her next steps towards resolving the deadlock over britain's exit from the eu. mrs may said she would seek changes from brussels over the so—called "backstop" to avoid a hard border between ireland and northern ireland. she told politicians here that securing a withdrawal deal was still her aim.

opposition labour leader, jeremy corbyn, urged her to take a ‘no deal‘ scenario off the table. let's hear from both. when people say rule out no deal, the consequences of what they are actually saying either if we in parliament can prove the deal we should revoke article 50. i believe this would go against the referendum results and i do not believe that as a course of action we should take or which this house should support. what makes her think that what she tried to renegotiate in december will succeed in january? mr speaker, this really does feel a bit like groundhog day. so the first thing she must do is recognise the clear majority in this house against leaving without a deal and rule out no deal. also making news today, a car bomb attack in afghanistan has killed at least twenty members of the security forces.

officials said about thirty others were wounded in the attack on a military base in maidan wardak province. the taliban in afghanistan said they carried out the attack. russian authorities say two ships have caught fire in the kerch strait off the coast of crimea. at least ten of the crew have died and a rescue operation is under way to find sailors who jumped overboard. it's thought the blaze started when fuel was being transferred between the two vessels. another prominent democrat has entered the race for the us presidential election next year. kamala harris was attorney general for california before she became a senator in 2016. she has one of the most liberal voting records in the us senate — and drew attention for her tough questioning of supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. the opposition in zimbabwe is accusing the security forces of brutally suppressing its members, in response to last week's protests against a sharp rise in the price of fuel. the country's president is on his way back home

after cutting short a foreign tour aimed at shoring up support for zimbabwe. from harare, our correspondent andrew harding reports. another funeral here in zimbabwe. this one for a young footballer, shot in the head by police. there's grief, for sure, but a deep sense of shock, too. after all, this country was supposed to have left the bad old days behind. instead, for over a week now, the security forces have been on the rampage. beating, torturing, using live ammunition against angry but unarmed protesters. and the crackdown is not over yet. this morning, we found more wounded, hiding in a private clinic. these two both said they had been shot by the police. in a car outside, another new casualty. yes, the police, they were beating me. this man, as you can see, does not

want to be identified by anybody. he is, like so many people here in harare today, scared. it's over a week now since the protests began here, in the price of fuel. with petrol queues, inflation and deep disillusionment. if anythingfthe mask—hase been removed, you know, fii§:}§k§3§j‘§£5§fl}r§§«~ —— — —

old habits are hard to kick. and so a question looms. will fear now keep the protesters off the streets, or are zimbabwe poised for deeper turmoil? andrew harding, bbc news, harare. the diplomatic stand off between china and canada has intensified: more than 140 former diplomats and academics are calling on president xijinping to release two canadian citizens detained last month. in an open letter, former envoys to china from seven different countries say the arrest of diplomat michael kovrig and businessman michael spavor, on charges of "endangering national security", will leave both china and canada worse off. a short while ago i spoke to one

of the people who signed that letter, guy saint—jacques. he served as canada's ambassador to china between 2012 and 2016. we are experiencing a problem that other countries have experienced as well and i feel it is important to underline to china that what they are doing is contrary to international rules and therefore they should refrain from taking such action. i am glad to see the number of people who have signed the letter and there are some foreign affairs ministers from australia and the uk and as faras ministers from australia and the uk and as far as i know there was no big effort to try and rally support,

andi big effort to try and rally support, and i suspect that more people would like to add their name to the ladder in coming days. i would like to remind our viewers, if i can, that the sequence of events that led to these two arrest that have led to these two arrest that have led to the deterioration in relations. firstly, the canadian authorities arrested an executive, a chinese executive last week and the canadian was sentenced to death after a sudden retrial. have you ever seen such a deep in relations between the two countries? i would say that we are probably going through the worst pa rt are probably going through the worst part of our history since we establish diplomatic relations in 1970. what we have seen with the retaliation that took place after

the arrest of the executive at the request of the united states is something similar to what i saw when i was ambassador back in 2014 when two canadian citizens were arrested after the arrest of a chinese citizen in vancouver. at the time we saw similar pressure to do the same playbook is the one we are seeing this time. and the canadian ambassador to china between 2012 and 2014. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme... the nobel prize winning scientist who predicts a nano revolution, including surgical robots so tiny they can be injected into a vein. also on the programme... the pig who's charming china. we'll take a look at how peppa is making it big in beijing. donald trump is now the 45th president of the united states.

demonstrators waiting for mike gatting and his rebel cricket team were attacked with tear gas and set upon by police dogs. anti—apartheid campaigners say they will carry on the protests throughout the tour. they called him 'the butcher of lyon'. klaus altmann is being held here on a fraud charge in bolivia, but the west germans want to extradite him for crimes committed in wartime france. there, he was the gestapo chief klaus barbie. millions came to bathe as close as possible to this spot, a tide of humanity that's believed by officials to have broken all records. this is newsday on the bbc.

i'm rico hizon in singapore. thanks forjoining us. i'm babita sharma in london. our top stories: the international monetary fund has cut its prediction for economic growth in the coming year, after china reported its slowest increase for nearly three decades. theresa may has refused to rule out a no deal brexit for the uk, and has warned that holding a second referendum the broadcaster and environmentalist sir david attenborough has told the world economic forum in davos that civilisation will collapse if we do not take urgent action on climate change. on tuesday, he'll take part in a panel discussion with britain's prince william. you can catch in—depth coverage from davos here on bbc world news and on our website, bbc.com/news. let's take a look

at some front pages from around the world. the business times warns that top bosses in southeast asian countries are much more pessimistic about the future than their global counterparts. a survey reveals 46% of asean ceos think that global economic growth is set to decline — compared to just 29% of business leaders in other parts of the world. there's more number—crunching in thejapan times — focusing on the ultra—wealthy, whom the times nicknames, 'davos man'. there's more number—crunching in thejapan times — focusing on the ultra—wealthy, whom the times nicknames, 'davos man'. it says that despite ten years of political upheaval, the fortunes of a dozen 2009 davos attendees have soared by a combined $175 billion. the philippine daily inquirier reports on a referendum

which could put an end to decades of violence in mindanao. if ratified, the new law would give the muslim minority greater autonomy. messaging service whatsapp is limiting all its members to forwarding any single message up to five times. the company announced the expansion of the forwarding limit — which had previously been trialled in india — in indonesia, ahead of elections in april. it's part of an effort to tackle the spread of false information on the platform. our business reporter kim gittlesonjoins me on set. what sparked this change for whatsapp? it has to do with the spread of misinformation in india which led to dozens of lynchings over the summer, the company came under attack for not doing more to combat the spread of fake news celek instituted forwarding limits in july. for most users you could forward up to 20 times and in india,

limited to five. the company six months later says it will institute those limits for users around the world and it will go into effect today. when you update your app on your android phone and then rolled out for iphones on the i0s platform. there were scrutiny about india but also business reasons, because of their facebook deal. what's back is —— whatsapp is owned by facebook, they paid billy evans, but it hasn't done much to generate revenue from whatsapp. it's different to facebook. the reason it's so hard to stop the spread of this information is there is and to end encryption, you don't know is receiving messages. it makes it hard to track the spread of these messages so whatsapp is partially institution in these forwarding limits to appease regulators in india and indonesia,

some of its biggest markets because it wants to trial other services which could make revenue, micro— payments like another message services, so it's important to make a way to fix this problem but even though the forwarding limit is just up though the forwarding limit is just up to five, that doesn't mean you only need to forward a message to five people. groups can have up to 256 people so some have said, how much will this do, because you can still forward a message to little over 1000 people, so it's not doing what it might have wanted. it can gain traction. yes. thank you to talking us through that, we will watch it with interest and see how it develops. imagine a world of tiny surgical submarines, self—repairing cars and light—activated antibiotics. sounds like science fiction? well, not according to professor ben feringa, who won the 2016 nobel prize in chemistry for designing and making the "world's smallest machines".

he's already working with technology that creates medical micro—robots and other materials that can repair themselves without human intervention. professor feringa is in singapore for the global young scientists summit, and is with me now in the studio. creating the world's smallest machines, called nano machines. what are they? they are really small. we can't see them ? are they? they are really small. we can't see them? a million times smaller. i can't bring them because you can't see them. why are they so important? in daily life, we use machines for everything, factories, aeroplanes. 0ur body is full of tiny machines, nano—machines machines, a billion times smaller than a metre soap to be able to speak, of your

hand, move your body, so we build tiny machines come one ——, 1 billion ofa tiny machines come one ——, 1 billion of a metre inside. so many zeros. what other health benefits of these nano—machines? what other health benefits of these nano-machines? what we build is the first rotary motor, nano motor, and when you have a moto, you can move objects, so the material on this table does not move but now we have things that can move, that can make tiny robots. think about something that can change, making a smart window which can clean itself. but te: about ' ’ window which can clean itself. but efstesiaboutour ' ’ window which can clean itself. but £35 about our bodies? i window which can clean itself. but £35 about our bodies? what are the 14h; raw promising 14h; raw ”romisin — cancer, ’ " ' ”"" most promising applications? cancer, diabetes? we all know the problems with drugs for instance, pharmaceuticals, precise surgical delivery, recognising and affecting

your body. if you can make these tiny robots which can go into your blood and go to a spot, tumours ——at tumour cell and deliver that, it looks like science fiction. like in the movies. but what are the biggest challenges in working with nanotechnology? first you have to design it, designers materials and control motion and movement and make machine functions and then you have to do something with it like precise surgery. how far are we from using nanotechnology for precision surgery? that might take another 25, 30 years. the time that the surgeon is injected like a tiny robot in your blood vein and go to find a defect, that might take another 40, 50 yea rs defect, that might take another 40, 50 years but self repair mechanisms, such as materials. imagine you have a scratching your car, you have to

go to the raj. ten years from now, you wipe it and it will repair itself. professor, you started it all, you are the catalyst. thank you so much forjoining us right here on newsday. the 2016 nobel prize winner for chemistry for designing and making the world's smallest machines. thank you, my pleasure. now, many world leaders consider tea with the queen a high point in any visit to the uk. so when an episode of the popular children's tv programme peppa pig featured just such a visit, it thrilled twins in china, who then posted a video asking if they too could visit the queen. john sudworth has more. she is a pig with a little snout and huge global cloud. you can't walk around a muddy puddle. this episode in which peppa pig meets the queen made a splash a long way from britain. after watching it, these

chinese twins posted this message to the queen, asking if they could also visit her palace. the video has been viewed almost 4 million times. and it worked, sort of. hello, i'm the british ambassador, signed the british ambassador, signed the british queen's representative in china. i'd like you to come and visit me in my house in beijing and we can perhaps have tea and scorns ina we can perhaps have tea and scorns in a british style and talk about making your dream come true. it's not quite the same as tea with the queen perhaps but the twins were also given the promise of a trip to the uk. all of this is a sign that brand britain sees the little ink pig shaped icon is a huge opportunity and that the british government keen to promote industries like tourism, the hope is that peppa pig can bring home the bacon. peppa pig is a huge british

success story in china, with 18 billion, yes, billion downloads and views. she even has her subversive side, with peppa tattooed is now used as a symbol of an underground cou ntercultu re. used as a symbol of an underground counterculture. we seen the success of premier league football here, paddington bear, downton abbey, sherlock and peppa pig is another manifestation of the power of uk culture around the world and that's great for creativity, it's great for the uk and it's great for tourism as well. our plane! with the twins preparing tojet off well. our plane! with the twins preparing to jet off to britain, diplomats must be wishing all uk — china diplomacy could and so happily. what's that, they say, about pigs and flying? john saad worth, bbc news, beijing. we love

peppa pig, don't we? ithought worth, bbc news, beijing. we love peppa pig, don't we? i thought you might be having tea with the queen very soon given your rise in stature and popularity and celebrity. very soon given your rise in stature and popularity and celebritym would be certainly and not to have tea with the queen but i would like to have tea again with the queen of new state and that is babita sharma. you are always welcome. my mum will probably throw in a samosa or two if you like that. you have been watching newsday. i'm babita sharma in london. and i'm rico hizon in singapore. stay with us. and before we go, we'd like to leave you with these pictures: what is next for australia's culinary queen, donna hay, who is moving on from magazines? these are pictures of the super wolf blood moon. see you soon. hello there. it looks set to be

quite treacherously icy out and about the thing this morning. we have the overnight rain, sleet and snow giving way to wintry showers which could well wash off some of the salt of the roads so slippery certainly out there this morning. this is the huge swathe of cloud tied in with a weather front bringing that rain and hill snow and it will bring substantial snow and problems to your once again. behind it, cold death coming in so wintry showers. a few centimetres of snow on northern hills, courtesy of this weather front with snow on lower levels as it clears and these showers behind turning to sleet and snow possibly at lower levels with heavier showers and these towns and city temperatures and out on the end pavements, temperatures at freezing and the risk of treacherously icy.

that cold weather front brings in colder air behind it, with significant snow across parts of europe. for ourselves, a bitter north—westerly wind. a lot of showers through the day ahead. possibly snow through the central lowla nds possibly snow through the central lowlands in the morning rush, through the antrim hills affecting populated parts of northern ireland with that intranets are progressively moving into north—western parts of england and wales. at the same time, clearing oui’ wales. at the same time, clearing our weather front and turning into snow readily not too far away so there is potential for wet snow as it clears from east anglia and the south—east is the ice risk of being south. the showers through the day progressed further east turning to snow. sam hale, some thunder, gusty winds near them as we've seen on the weather front and with only 3—6d temperature—wise, potentialfor weather front and with only 3—6d temperature—wise, potential for snow to lower levels across the midlands in the afternoon and those wins will make it feel even more bitter than it has recently but through the evening, there is a potentialfor a few centimetres of snow even at lower levels across the

south—eastern east anglia before the showers he's a little through night and a widespread frost will follow, even colder in the coming night, —10 potentially across the snowfields of scotland but wednesday should be drier, he was showers, lighter winds, perhaps that wintry shall whisk for the east and south—east and later in the day of clouds over in the west but it still bitterly cold despite lighter winds despite the sunshine. is there anything milder on the horizon? possibly on friday temporarily but the cold air is not too far away. as ever, you can get all the warning information from our website. i'm babita sharma with bbc news. our top story: the international monetary fund has cut its economic forecast for 2019 — after a slowdown in chinese output. beijing put its economic growth last year at 6.6%, the lowest for three decades. the imf says the slowdown,

combined with trade disputes and brexit, could affect the whole world. theresa may says a second vote on brexit could damage british social cohesion. she also refused to rule out letting the uk leave the eu without a deal in place. and this story is trending on bbc.com. an episode where peppa visited the queen has inspired to chinese twins to request to meet the queen as well. now on bbc news, stephen sackur talks to the tanzanian opposition mp tundu lissu on hardtalk.