this is the business briefing. i'm maryam moshiri. as south africa's government presents it's budget, will it help cure the country's economic woes or could it lead this is the briefing, to another credit rating downgrade. i'm maryam moshiri. our top stories: and pain for the poppy business. how the australian farms that supply the london teenager who ran away and joined the islamic state half of the world's legal opium are coming under pressure. group in syria will be stripped of her british citizenship. thousands take to the streets in the markets, asian stocks moved in 60 french cities, forward into positive territory this a protest against a rise wednesday as investors felt more in anti—semitic attacks. and more confident that chinese and, a hollywood star in rehab. and us trade negotiators would be we visit thailand's famous film able to thrash out a deal. location maya bay as it recovers from over—tourism. us stocks benefitted from upbeat news from retail giant walmart. and on the markets — south africa's government is about to present it's budget — will it help cure the country's economic woes or could it lead to another credit rating downgrade?

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. a report shows young people in the uk are more likely to be obese or die from asthma than those in 18 other rich countries. what is the uk getting wrong? how can we improve the health of our youth? tell us what you think — just use the hashtag #bbcthebriefing. shamima begum, the teenager who left britain to join the extremist group the so—called islamic state, is to lose her british citizenship. she was 15 when she left — now 19, she's in a refugee camp in syria, with a newborn baby. a statement from her family in london says they are "very disappointed" at the news, and will consider all legal avenues to challenge the home office decision. keith doyle has more details.

shamima begum says she was to come back to britain with her newborn baby. that now looks unlikely any time soon after her family received a letter from the time soon after her family received a letterfrom the home office, stating that the home secretary had decided to deprive her of her british citizenship. the 19—year—old left the uk at the age of 15 to join the islamic state group. now in a refugee camp in syria, she has caused outrage by equating the terror attack at a manchester concert to coalition bombings of is areas in syria. like, women and children in baghouz being killed right now, bombings, it's a thing. the home secretary sajid javid said that decision to take away her british citizenship was not taken lightly and his priority is the safety a nd lightly and his priority is the safety and security of britain and the people who live here. you'll

make it seems to be an knee—jerk reaction. some are very surprised at that. i think we have seen to have lost u p that. i think we have seen to have lost up ———— we look like we're losing of it. we have a 19—year—old woman who is traumatised, she has been brainwashed. british citizenship can be taken away as long as the person is not left stateless. the home office believes shamima begum is entitled to bangladeshi citizenship. her family say they are considering all legal avenues to challenge the home secretary's position. thousands of people have taken to the streets of paris and other french cities in protest against a rise in anti—semitic attacks. on tuesday almost a hundred gravestones were daubed with swastikas at a jewish cemetery in eastern france. french president emmanuel macron called it an act of absurd stupidity. jon ironmonger reports. france has a clear problem with anti—semitism,

but the desecration of this jewish cemetery in quatzenheim, near strasbourg, marks another low. some 96 gravestones daubed with swastikas. scrawled on one of them the name of the far—right group, black alsatian wolves. visiting the site on tuesday, the french president, emmanuel macron, told jewish leaders that he would pass new laws to punish anti—semitism. translation: the reason i am here is, first of all, to show the solidarity of the entire nation, our shame at seeing this, our determination to be together in these moments, and to pledge here my full determination to fight anti—semitism. the vandalism was discovered just hours before rallies across france in protest at the recent wave of anti—semitic attacks. thousands gathered in the place de la republique in paris. their message — it's enough. translation: it's something that strikes fear, that brings back bad memories. we want to show younger generations that there's another path

to take than this one. translation: i don't exactly know why they are angry at the jews. in 1944 to 1945, they were angry at the jews and it continues today. it's enough, that's what's written here, it's enough. politicians from many different parties joined the demonstrations, although the leader of the front national, marine le pen, said she was not planning to attend. france has the largest jewish population in europe, but recent figures suggest anti—semitic attacks increased by 74% in 2018. last week, protesters shouted abuse at the french philosopher alain finkielkraut, calling him "a dirty zionist" and telling them to go back to tel aviv. many claim the rise of the gilet jaunes has helped to galvanise a minority of anti—semitic extremists — a link the wider movement

is keen to avoid. jon ironmonger, bbc news. let's brief you on some of the other stories making the news. in the swiss alps, nearly 250 emergency workers have searched into the night for skiers feared trapped under more than two metres of snow. four people are confirmed injured in the avalanche at crans montana. pakistan's government has said it will retaliate if delhi responds to the latest militant attack in indian—administered kashmir. the islamist group jaish—e—mohammed says it carried out the attack, but the indian government believes pakistani intelligence was involved. prime minister imran khan says india should provide evidence for its allegations. joan ryan has become the eighth member of the uk parliament to leave the opposition labour party, within 48 hours. she's blamed what she calls its tolerance of a "culture of anti—jewish racism". the enfield north mp will now sit with the 7 backbenchers who resigned on monday to form an independent group.

the fashion world has been paying tribute to the legendary designer karl lagerfeld who has died in paris at the age of 85 following a short illness. donatella versace said he was a source of inspiration for her and her late brother, gianni versace. the editor in chief of vogue magazine, anna wintour, said the world had lost a giant among men. brazil's government is to deliver aid to its border with venezuela within days, at the request ofjuan guaido, the venezuelan opposition leader who's declared himself president. other aid shipments are waiting there but have been refused entry by the venezuelan military, still under the command of president nicolas maduro. katy watson has this from caracas. momentum is building ahead of the big day. february 23rd — it's the day thatjuan guaido, who declared himself interim president of

venezuela late last month, has set as a deadline for aid to come into the country. now, on the border with colombia in the city of cucuta, they've been getting the stage ready for a concert to be held the night before. it's being backed by the british entrepreneur richard branson and is bringing artists from all over the region to play on the bridge between colombia and venezuela. meanwhile, the maduro administration has announced concert plans of his own, holding a concert called hands off venezuela, on the venezuelan side of the border. now, although a lot of the focus has been on the border with colombia, venezuela also shares a border with brazil, and there, the government has said they'll be delivering food and medicine to big cities close to the border, and from there, venezuelans trucks driven by venezuelans will take that aid across the border into venezuela. now, maduro has called this campaign "a us—orchestrated show." the military has maintained its loyalty towards mr maduro, and said that they will be watching

for unauthorised movement across the border this weekend. meanwhile, here in caracas, opposition politicians once again on tuesday called for the military to allow that aid in. so, both sides are really keeping up the pressure. we have no idea how saturday is going to pan out. will they let in trucks or will they prevent them from coming over the border? but there is concern there could be violence. the race to the democratic party's presidential has got even more crowded as bernie sanders joins the field. the vermont senator is running for the white house again. in the four hours after his announcement, he raised a million dollars — but can bernie sanders prevail? this from our washington correspondent gary o'donoghue. so, it is official. there is no end to what the great people of our

nation can accomplish. and 77 years old, the independent senator from vermont is once again looking for the democratic nomination and has donald trump firmly in his sights. i think it is unacceptable and un—american, to be frank with you, that we have a president who is a pathological liar and it gives me no pleasure to say that, but it is true. we have a president who is a racist, who is a sexist, who is a xenophobe, who is doing what no president in our lifetimes has come close to doing, and that is trying to divide us up. he'll be hoping to reignite the kind of enthusiasm he generated last time around, particularly among the young and those on the left of the party. let us think big, let us transform this country! that message portion winds in more than 20 states of the hillary clinton,

pushing policies such as medicare for all, free college tuition, and a $15 minimum wage. but he will have to work harder to get himself heard this time around, with others in the race such as the massachusetts senator elizabeth warren embracing many of the same policies. he was not the only candidate to feel the wrath of the black lives matter movement, but bernie sanders did have a wider problem with african american voters, who make up around 20% of the democratic primary electorate. he performed badly with last time, picking up just 14% of the black vote in the south carolina primary. in the end, the insurgency was not strong enough to be the party establishment, but now with a whole network of donors and organises around the country, bernie sanders will enjoy a significant advantage over many in the already crowded field. president trump has said he is looking forward to a good meeting with north korea's leader kim jong—un — their second summit will be in vietnam at the end of february. mr trump said he wants pyongyang to denuclearise eventually,

but that he is in no particular hurry. the first summit was in singapore lastjune, and was the first time the two countries' serving leaders had met. our correspondent in seoul laura bicker has more. well, kim jong—un‘s butler is said to be in hanoi right now, looking at places for the north korean leader to both stay and have a look at to visit when he's at the summit next week. perhaps more substantially, the us envoy to north korea, stephen biegun, and his counterpart kim jock kim hyok—chol are also on the way to hanoi to hold discussions. it is understood that the two will be agreeing some kind of framework, some kind of deal, that donald trump and kim jong—un can discuss during their summit next week. after the summit in singapore, their first meeting lastjune, there was a lot of criticism that the agreement reached on denuclearisation neutralisation was very vague. and it has led to a kind of seven—month stalemate, but this time certainly, from speaking to those who have knowledge of these discussions, it does seem that substantial negotiations are under way.

it will be a tough task at this time for the two sides to agree something on that. it may well be that they're looking at a framework, a timeline for that kind of site to be totally dismantled and for inspectors to get in to verify that. north korea does want sanctions lifted, however, they will have to offer something substantial, as far as i understand it. and that could include the dismantlement of its nuclear processing plant before those sanctions will be lifted, and that is certainly something that the two sides will be looking to agree upon when donald trump and kim jong—un meet next week. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: democracy delayed — could the postponement of the presidential election in nigeria affect the result? we report from abuja.

nine years and 15,000 deaths after going into afghanistan, the last soviet troops were finally coming home. the withdrawal completed in good order, but the army defeated in the task it had been sent to perform. malcolm has been murdered. that has a terrible effect on the morale of the people, i'm terrified of the repercussions in the streets. one wonders who is next. as the airlift got under way, there was no let—up in the eruption itself. lava streams from a vent low in the crater flow down to the sea on the east of the island, away from the town for the time being, but it could start flowing again at any time. the russians heralded their new generation space station with a spectacular night launch. they've called it mir, russian for peace.

you're watching the briefing. our headlines: the london teenager who ran away and joined the islamic state group in syria will be stripped of her british citizenship. in france, thousands of people have taken to the streets protesting a recent rise in anti—semitic attacks. with only a few hours to go to before voting began, —— begins, the nigerian presidential elections were suddenly postponed by a week to february 23rd. the independent national electoral commission blamed logistics, bad weather and sabotage for delays in delivering the ballot papers. but will the commission be able to keep to its new deadline and will the delay influence the result? our nigeria correspondent mayenijones has been speaking to voters in abuja. i cried, seriously. it was painful.

disappointed across nigeria. sandra was hoping to vote for the first time, of repeating the nine—hour trip to southern nigeria to vote will be to emotionally and financially draining. it was a good example because we are looking up to them and they had, like, for years to prepare for this election. they had voted in every elections in nigeria's return to democracy. he says he will make the trip home to northern nigeria again. this is where we can make a change. when one is not satisfied with the one who was ruling. this is the only alternative one has. the electoral body still has a mammoth task ahead to make sure tens of millions of people are disappointed again. that is the sound voters will be hearing a lot of on election day, the sound of card readers starting up, and these now need to be reconfigured to reflect a ny these now need to be reconfigured to reflect any election date of the

23rd of february. that over 180,000 readers reconfigure and deploy. ballot papers and sheets and over a million staff will also need to find their way to the 120,000 polling stations. the centre for democracy and development says no clear evidence has surfaced that any political party instigated a delay, but it does see one side benefiting. when you look at it from a political basis, where two votes come, and people have voted in previous elections. it is in the north—west, 20 million votes and a strong hold of the party. voter apathy and a lower turnout is expected this saturday, but it is still seen as a close race between the two main parties. the winner will be whoever can re—energise those willing to go out and vote. time for our briefing

on some of the key events happening later around the world. we start in moscow, where in a few hours' time, russian president vladimir putin will give his annual state of the nation address. then we turn to washington where president trump will be hosting austrian chancellor sebastian kurz at the white house. and finally, ourfocus is on london where the cream of british pop will be heading to the brit awards, which is taking place at the o2 arena. iam not i am not one of those. now, it's time to get all the latest from the bbc sports centre. hello there. i'm tulsen tollet. and this is your wednesday sport briefing where we start with news for the champions league on tuesday that saw the two last 16 first—leg ties both finish goalless. liverpool had an array of chances at anfield, but failed to score against bayern munich and will head to germany in three weeks' time knowing their opponents have only lost two of their last 26 games at home in this competition.

deve date, the result will feel a bit better for deve date, the result will feel a bit betterfor us. it deve date, the result will feel a bit better for us. it is the best role you can get, and it will be a tough one again. to play by anne, and if you need a result, i think if we win tonight, what will have changed —— bayern. barcelona had 25 shots against lyon in france, but failed to see the ball finish in the net while the home team also had chances themselves. the catalans have now drawn four of their past five matches in all competitions. there was a shock defeat for world number one naomi osaka at the dubai tennis championships on tuesday. osaka, who had a bye in the first round, was playing herfirst match since splitting from coach sascha bajin last week, and she was beaten in straight sets by kristina mladenovic of france. she's slipped to 67 in the world rankings, but tookjust an hour to see off the us and australian open champion in straight sets, 6—3, 6—3.

later on wednesday, the final two last 16 first leg games will be played in the champions league. arguably, the toughest of all the last 16 ties sees cristiano ronaldo'sjuventus head to spain to face atletico madrid. while manchester city are in germany to play schalke with pep guardiola's side still in contention to win five trophies. in contrast, schalke are struggling in 14th place in the bundesliga. if you want to dream a lot, you want to go through the later stages, you have to be yourself, notjust every minute, every single second, you have to be incredibly focused on that competition. and after, we will see. that is what i would like to feel in this competition in the season feel in this competition in the season together. with less than 100 days until the cricket world cup, the first of five one—day internationals between west indies and england heads out later in bridgetown, barbados.

the hosts will be missing the suspended shannon gabriel who's out for four matches over his comments to england captain joe root in the third test last week, while england will look to continue their preparations as they head towards the tournament later this year as the number one ranked nation. doing the rounds on social media is a lucky escape made by a tv sports commentator. this is nhl commentator pierre mcguire, and, yes, that's a puck inches away from his face at monday's game between columbus bluejackets and tampa bay lightning. worth seeing again — mcguire said after that, "it's all part of what goes on down here." could have been nasty. you can get all the latest sports news at our website. that's bbc.com/sport. but from me, tulsen tollett, and the rest of the team, that is your wednesday sport briefing.

that looked as though that could have been very nasty indeed. something not very nasty is that beach behind me. thailand is one of the world's most popular tourist destingations. but the cost to this success is that much of the coastline has been damaged. maya bay, the setting leonardo di caprio's movie the beach is closed indefinitely, after nearly all the coral died. our south—east asia correspondent jonathan head has got access to see how it's recovering. from the air, its beauty is breathtaking. sheer limestone towers soaring out of an impossibly turquoise sea. a landscape so dazzling, it starred in a hollywood movie. but the movie brought fame and popularity, so that the famous beach began to be crushed under the weight of visitors, numbering thousands each day. before we cross the maya bay there,

sometimes there were more than 200 boats inside the bay, this small bay that you see. it didn't look like a bay, it looked like a floating market or something like that. this turf, the sand area, some of them were anchoring in the coral. so, all of them made the coral in maya bay in a very serious condition. so, what's it like now, eight months after they closed it? i took a boat ride to the islands to find out. tourists can still come to the mouth of maya bay, but their only view of the beach is a distant one. we followed a team from the national parks department who'd come to see how well the marine life is recovering. so, we're about to go into the water here at maya bay. this is one of the divers

who's checking on the health of the coral that they replanted here ever since they shut it down. mostly, we saw only dead and broken coral. this is the damage done by years of uncontrolled tourism. the new coral is embedded back in the bay floor. it will need many years to mature. but already, there are visible improvements. yeah, we have 60 sharks, a nursery, and at least three mother sharks have given birth in the bay. the sudden closure of this region's most famous tourist attraction has not been popular with local entrepreneurs. they agreed that there were too many visitors, but not with the response. translation: at the beginning, we were affected by some cancellations, and it doesn't help our image that we haven't got a consistent policy. the initial closure was forfour months.

now, it's indefinite. there is a plan for the boats to dock on the other side of the island for tourists to walk to the beach. in truth, no—one really knows how to balance the preservation of this fragile landscape with the desire of millions to see it. jonathan head, bbc news, maya bay, southern thailand. absolutely beautiful. and tell me what you think about our talking point today. a report shows young people in the uk are more likely to be obese or die from asthma than those in 18 other rich countries. we're asking you to tell us what you think the uk is getting wrong? how can we improve the health of our youth? you can find the story on our website. we have had a couple of tweets. just allergy for asthma is caused by air pollution. a clean environment will prevent it. some

types of food also can cause these things. keep those tweets coming in. stay with us here on bbc news. so much more to come. hello again. our weather has been pretty mild over recent days, but we're about to turn the heat up even further. yes, we'll be dragging up some air coming off the north—west of africa, pushing past spain, in towards the uk as we get towards the end of the week and into the weekend. that will boost temperatures and we could see highs, given a bit of sunshine, getting as high as 18. that is just about possible. it depends on how much sunshine we'll see and the next few days look cloudy even though we will be mild. this is the cloud we've got at the moment. the weather system is pushing north and east, bringing wet weather with it. over the next few hours, we have some rain around across scotland and

northern england, a few spots into the midlands, but it's largely dry in the south. some showers following to northern ireland. you'll notice a mild start to wednesday. temperatures in the range of 7—11. wednesday, a cloudy start for most with outbreaks of rain particularly across north—western areas. quite heavy at times for wales, north—west england, western scotland, but there will be some sunshine coming out in the afternoon. the best chance of that is in east anglia, south—east england and also for the north—east of scotland, slowly brightening up for northern ireland. a mild day. temperatures between 11 and 14. through wednesday evening and overnight, most of the rain will ease for a time, but there could be more spits and spots of light rain and drizzle around western coasts and hills. another mostly mild night, but with clearer skies towards the south—east and the countryside gets cooler here. for thursday, a greater prospect of seeing a few more in the way of sunshine breaking through. the best chance of that is the east of high ground, the midlands and eastern wales,

not doing too badly. east of the pennines and eastern areas of scotland, whereas in the west, a bit more cloud. it's notjust here in the uk that has the mild weather. temperatures on thursday up to 17 in paris and madrid and we could see the temperatures hit around 25 degrees celsius. pressure builds a bit further across england and that will punch a few more holes in the cloud. perhaps a bit of mist and fog for some to start but for most of us, there should be more in the way of sunshine to go around. the sunshine will boost the temperatures 14—15 degrees at least. that's your weather.