this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. like it or not — facebook earnings surge despite a year of scandals, as users and advertisers shrug off concerns about privacy and fake news. plus, britain and the european onion. why brexit‘s an eye watering problem for dutch produce exporters. and on the markets: the fed gives stocks a major boost as it leaves rates on hold and signals further rises are off the agenda for now. wall street closes at its highest since early december, and asian markets are around a four—month high. we start with facebook. shares in the world's biggest social network have jumped in after hours trading after its revenues came in much better than expected.

the numbers show for now there's been little impact on the business from a storm of negative publicity, from fake news to privacy to toxic content, and the threat of tougher regulation let's show you the details. in the three months to december, facebook made revenues of almost $17 billion. that's up just over 30% on the same period last year. $6.8 billion of that was profit, a record for the firm. unbelievably, the network is still growing. almost 2.3 billion people log onto facebook at least once a month — 1.5 billion of those every single day. and that total figure is up 9% on last year. the results will be a welcome relief for facebook‘s investors. it's had a tough year, including, injuly, the biggest one—day loss in stock market value for a us company — after it warned of

the impact of issues like "data privacy initiatives". here's our north america technology correspondent, dave lee. since march 2000 810, facebook has faced scandal after scandal. it started with cambridge analytica and moved on to concerns about how the company in is doing market research on teenagers. —— 2018. profit up by 39% that year. it seems users are for the most part turning a blind eye. more than 2.7 billion people use facebook products every single month. but the same cannot be said

for regulators. huge fines coming up for regulators. huge fines coming up for facebook the question is how damaging will that be? david hodari is a reporter at the wall streetjournal. talking about the fines likely could be pretty hefty in the us for facebook. what is your reaction to those results? the biggest quarterly profit they have seen in traded history, he cannot argue with that. they may well face fines and regulations in coming years but you get the sense those concerns will be priced into shares in the second and third quarters. those record daily sell office. we do not know which bit of facebook that growth is coming from? is it spread evenly gci’oss coming from? is it spread evenly across the border? the user growth

is still going upwards however that has been flat for different parts of this year. instagram is incredibly profitable, 5% of the global advertising market during 2019 is dead. massinger, instagram and others bringing together 2.5 billion users during a calendar year. investors are users during a calendar year. investors a re pretty users during a calendar year. investors are pretty optimistic. going forward, this issue about trust is still as prevalent as ever. i went to the facebook party and the ceo was apologetic. she knew the media had been good and reporting how bad a year they had but then we had news about the research

application questioning whether it is changing its behaviour or not. what they do and say may be two different things. they brought in a global head of public affairs and on the other hand breaking news that facebook research is paying teams of young adults $20 a month to track their darter et cetera and you need to ask if leadership is listening, however, with these results. investors seem to be giving them quite a wide berth. they are for 110w. quite a wide berth. they are for now. so much to discuss with regards to facebook. do get involved in the conversation. let's go from silicon valley now to washington, where the us federal reserve has given financial markets a boost by leaving interest rates on hold and hinting further rises are off the agenda for a while. michelle fleury reports from the fed. patient, that was the word of the

day as fed officials said they would ta ke day as fed officials said they would take a wait and see approach to policy. by unanimous decision officials decided to leave key interest rate unchanged. to 2.5%. they also indicated their balance sheets, which grew considerably in the wake of the financial crisis, would remain sizeable. after the decision was announced, jerome powell said the us economy remains strong but he also learned of crosscu rre nts, strong but he also learned of crosscurrents, citing slow in growth in china and the eu as well as brexit and trade talks and he seemed to have a warning for politicians in washington about the damage should there be a second us government shutdown. if there was going to be a permanent or lasting effect it would

be from a longer shut down or perhaps a second shutdown and that would be through the channels of lack of confidence and the ability of making policy in the us. the reaction was instant. part of the reason is that it caught many people by surprise. after all, for the past two years, the federal reserve had in raising interest rates. now it is taking a pause. it's two months to go until britain is due to leave the european union — all today we are looking at the impact brexit could have on businesses and the economy on both sides. there have been warnings of empty shelves in supermarkets if britain leaves without a deal — but would that really happen? anna holligan reports now from the netherlands, which exports fruit and vegetables worth 1.2 billion euro to the uk every year. fresh dutch onions ordered this

morning will be arriving in the uk tonight. birmingham, manchester, liverpool. they reach market same day. if that process is going to be in pack that, it will be that the speed we can deliver goods is going to love. —— becomes slower. speed we can deliver goods is going to love. -- becomes slower. the producers want a rational brexit does not disrupt this just in time supplying change. an hour away, they wa nt to supplying change. an hour away, they want to keep traffic moving as well. they are looking at green lane concept, suggested by dutch growers to fast track perishable products at ports which would in theory allow customs procedures to be conducted before the trucks enter the terminal and a uk customs officials could

ta ke and a uk customs officials could take loads remotely before they disembark. greenland is all fast lanes would be a good idea to speed up lanes would be a good idea to speed up the process. are you able to implement them now? not at the moment. we will not be able to do that before the 29th of march. they are in the process of building extra capacity here. pro brexit politicians have said warnings of delays are exaggerated but, of course, you have to tackle any tariff avoidance and maintain security. a spokesperson for the uk customs authority told the bbc we will continue to work closely... and now — what's trending in the business news this morning. on business insider — tesla's revenue has hit a critical

milestone. 0n wsj: new york 0pens investigation into apple facetime bug. we were talking about that these weak. and why the apology tour has not fixed facebook. interesting to see how it is being discussed. he has been on to for over one year. and of course, get in touch with us tojoin the and of course, get in touch with us to join the conversation. we want to hear from you. positive sentiment continuing in asia. japan has 20 minutes to go. i will see you soon. police could soon be able

to impose curfews and limit the social media use of individuals to crack down on knife crime. that's according to plans announced by the home secretary, sajid javid. dominic casciani reports. police rushing to a young man ‘s eight. this was the scene on tuesday. neither they nor paramedics could save the 17—year—old, stabbed to death in the streets. his father said his wonderful son had gone out on his bicycle and never came home. detectives are interviewing teenage suspects and now ministers are asking parliament to new powers to

ta ke asking parliament to new powers to take more knives off the street. the proposed prevention is the target suspects involved in knife crime. they will be able to impose curfews and bar meetings with other suspects and bar meetings with other suspects and the suspect could be asked to sit courses to change their behaviour. meeting police in south london last night, sajid javid said he listened to their concerns. london last night, sajid javid said he listened to their concernslj wa nt to he listened to their concernslj want to make sure i do everything we can to stop this virus, traumatising communities and ending too many young lives and that means making sure that police have resources, make sure they have the powers they need and this is a new power. this confrontation with a so—called zombie knife led to the attack had been jailed zombie knife led to the attack had beenjailed for 3.5 zombie knife led to the attack had been jailed for 3.5 years. one of

the crimes that led to a rise in violent crimes last year. if ministers want to stop crimes like this, critics say they need to go back to basics and find cash for more police on patrol. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: temperatures in the united states are again falling, with temperatures forecast to drop to minus a0 celsius in the midwest overnight. there've been at least seven deaths related to the extreme cold. britain's prime minister has held what's been described as ?an "open and frank" discussion with the president of the european council, donald tusk over her plans to renegotiate a key part of her brexit deal and there have been more street protests in venezuela as president maduro refuses new elections but says he will talk to the opposition. now it's time to look at the stories that are making

the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the irish times, who report officials from the european commission are due in dublin next week to discuss preparations for a no—deal brexit, as preparations for a british crash—out intensify across the eu. the gulf news says us stocks have jumped, as apple led a rally in technology shares combined with an upbeat forecast ahead of the federal reserve's monetary policy decision. you know the decision was no change in rates. the telegraph leads with a launch of a campaign against technology giants who the paper says should face a statutory duty of care to protect children from online harm due to the "lawless wild west" of the internet. 0n the bbc news website, fashion retailers such as amazon, tk maxx and missguided have been described by the environmental audit committee as being among the "least engaged" in sustainable fashion

and labour market initiatives. and finally the french may find little to celebrate on hearing the news that there may be evidence that champagne was invented by the english. pierre—emmanuel taittinger, the boss of taittinger champagne, said the drink originally came about accidentally when still english wines were left in cold conditions on london docks that became so cold so they started undergoing a second fermentation causing bubbles to form inside the bottles. if you're watching in chicago put your wine on the driver.