this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. flexible thinking — samsung unfolds its secret weapon in the battle to revive the smartphone market. plus, eight days and counting — the us and china return to the table to try to head off an escalation of their trade war with steep new tariffs planned for march 1. and on the markets, wall street gets a boost from minutes of the last federal reserve meeting that confirmed the us central bank will be patient on further interest rate hikes. as you can see, asia is following suit.

we start in san francisco where south korean tech giant samsung has unveiled what it hopes could revolutionise the smartphone industry. it's called the galaxy fold, a smartphone that opens up into a tablet. as you can see behind me here. we'll take a closer look at it in a moment. first, let's show you why samsung and its rivals need to come up with something. samsung is still the world's largest smartphone maker — just about! late last year, its share of the market slipped to 18.6% where you can see behind me here, from more than 20% earlier in the year. the rise of cheaper chinese rivals has taken sales from both samsung and from apple.

you can seek huawei has a big stake there. but the overall market has stopped growing too. in fact, smartphone sales had their first ever annual decline in 2018 after hitting a record in 2017. the fear is most people who can afford a smartphone already have one and nothing's driving them to upgrade as often. will this phone change that? as our tech reporter dave lee reports, there's a big problem — the price. the global smart phone industry is in decline, so can a foldable smart phone reverse that trend? it is properly unlikely, but it is certainly interesting. samsung has shown off the galaxy galaxy fold that "a book to reveal at 7.3 inch screen. it is idealfor video, laying games multitasking. you can watch a video, text your friends

about it and browse travel options at the same time. it impressed those in the hall, but there is a lot we do not know as the company were not yet get our hands on it. —— as the company will not yet let us get. it could be pretty heavy as well. there is the price. $1980. surely too expensive to make it a mainstream product, but at least we are finally seeing some innovation in the smart phone sector. who knows come into three years it might be something we all have in our pocket. chris hall is editor at pocketlint.com. good morning. good to have you on the programme. i had to say that all the programme. i had to say that all the viewers have have been in touch with me, there has been quite a few, are saying it is too much money, $2000. that is a lot of money. are saying it is too much money, $2000. that is a lot of moneym is, and you could buy a flagship

phone and a tablet for that kind of money. there is no avoiding the price. what do you make of this new technology? is it where most smart devices are headed in the future? technology? is it where most smart devices are headed in the future7m a lot of companies are looking at this type of device, they are all working on foldable technologies. it has also showcased what they can do and samsung is a major display provider so they will be looking to sell that to other people who want to create those devices. samsun needs something to give it a boost. as does the other big smart phone sellers around the world. but samsun in particular has had a really tough time, its share price has been hit. samsun have updated a wide range of phones, and while they have the fold at the top end of the market which is trying to do something new, who would buy a laptop or tablet before,

it isa would buy a laptop or tablet before, it is a cheaper device, and this has surprised people. they announced the s10 which mirrored their devices last year, then they had the other device which is the s10e. it cuts away on some of the technology they put into it, but at its heart, it is still just as put into it, but at its heart, it is stilljust as powerful put into it, but at its heart, it is still just as powerful and just as good as the more expensive devices. all the smart phone providers are struggling with the fact that many of us upgraded in 2017 around the time, and we don't need to four yea rs time, and we don't need to four years to come, especially as these phones thing to be getting more expensive. the samsung, releasing a foldable phone, is that a reason for people to change? it certainly creates buzz, it creates buzz around samsung and will draw attention to them because they managed to do that. but it may be shortly because within a week we might see two or three of these come to the market and they will be coming from rival chinese companies. thank you for your time this morning. as they

mentioned, many of you have been in touch. 0ne viewer, £2000 per phone? i would rather spend that money on a decent laptop and a decent phone as well. it is a good idea, but the price is insane. it is not £2000. it is almost $2000, but still pretty pricey. let's turn to the federal reserve now, because three weeks ago, the us central bank sent shockwaves around the markets when it decided not to hike interest rates and threw its whole plan for further rate rises into doubt. the minutes of that last fed meeting were released on wednesday, and they give an insight into what caused the rethink, as michelle fleury explains. federal reserve officials are increasingly cautious and we got some insight into what led them to pause the cycle of rate hikes that had gun last year. going through, it you look at the reasons they talk about, words that come up, brexit is

one of them, trade concerns of another, slowing growth in china and europe is another. there was also the government shut down with all here in the us that had a knock—on impact on the amount of economic data available to officials within the federal reserve. it also left them flying slightly blind. example, one thing they were looking at was the credit conditions in america. they thought consumers were perhaps doing better spending more. they thought consumers were perhaps doing betterspending more. if they thought consumers were perhaps doing better spending more. if you look at retail sales figures, they actually were a bit the month of december. there was a bit of that all playing to this mood music in the federal reserve, which is that the federal reserve, which is that the economy was looking a bit shaken than they previously thought. the us and china return to the negotiating table today to try and avoid a major escalation in their trade war. washington has threatened to ramp up import taxes on chinese goods if a deal isn't struck by march 1 with tariffs rising from 10% to 25%.

stephen mcdonell is in beijing. more talks are due to take place today. what is the hope? well, there is some talk about a sort of progress i guess you could call it. there is a story in reuters but basically a series of mous are drawn up, memorandums of understanding, i guess. forced technology and cyber theft. intellectual property protection. services. currency manipulation. agriculture. and nontariff barriers. apparently these six documents are being drawn up and that both sides, it is a way of

moving from not only the general picture in terms of unfair trade practices, to get to the nitty—gritty of what they see as the problems on either side. now, this deadline is looming, though, and six documents, these are the areas and very complicated, especially when you are talking about commitments to, i don't know, protecting intellectual property and the like. you imagine you could spend months and more —— months and months talking about that one subject. i think many pundits expected that march one deadline could in fact be pushed out to give negotiators are more time on both sides. we had to leave it there, but being given an hour. today's talks follow on from the talks that happened at the end of last week in paging. today's talks are taking place in washington in the us —— in beijing. now, let's brief you on some

other business stories. brazil's president—elect, jair bolsonaro, has put forward a plan to revamp the country's pension system. the proposal would set a minimum retirement age of 65 for men and 62 for women, among other changes. the government says the overhaul would save more than 1 trillion reais, or $270 billion, over the next decade. but opposition parties argue the changes would penalise the poorest. the food giant nestle and several other big companies have pulled their adverts from youtube following claims they appeared next to offensive content. it comes after a vlogger accused youtube of failing to stop a "soft—core paedophilia ring" on its platform with sexual comments made about videos of young girls. youtube said it took "immediate action" to delete the offending accounts. ratings agency fitch says it may downgrade the uk's aa credit rating because of growing uncertainty over brexit. in a statement, fitch warns that

leaving the eu without a deal would "lead to substantial disruption to uk economic and trade prospects, at least in the near term." a quick look at financial markets. two elements boosting trade for wall street the night before, that is what michelle was discussing. for asia today, it is about the trade talks continuing this week in washington between the us and china and the lead there may be a breakthrough. that is the business briefing.

uk government advisers say he greenhouse gases from people's homes are going up when they should be going down. the committee on climate change says all homes in future will have to virtually eliminate emissions from their heating and it wants the government to make insulating homes a priority. roger harrabin reports. cars, planes and industry normally get the blame for greenhouse gases. at 14% of the uk's emissions come from our homes, mostly from gas boilers. the report says the uk cannot get climate target of emissions from homes are reduced to almost zero through much better installation. this robot for insta nce installation. this robot for instance intellect floors from below. but last year, emissions from homes actually rose. the committee said the current generation of home owners is cheating its children by bequeathing buildings that get too cold in winter and will increasingly

get too hot in summer as the climate heats. it said many poorly built new houses would need to be re— insulated at vast cost in ten to 15 yea rs. insulated at vast cost in ten to 15 years. we risk saving at the problem for the next generation if we don't make actions and put bans in place 110w. make actions and put bans in place now. we know spending a small amount of money now to address climate change says they've the cost in the future. that is the cost that will fall on the young generation today, and we know that the houses we see around us will be around for a very long time, so we should be acting. this is a matter of intergenerational concern. the treasury has typically been relu cta nt to treasury has typically been reluctant to invest public money into improving people's right lines. but the committee says the transformation needed will not happen unless it does. more on that in breakfast at 6:00am, along with all the news, business and sport. keep it here with the bbc.

this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: emmanuel macron has issued a warnning that anti—semitic offences are taking place in france on a scale unseen since the second world war. the french president promished central and local govenment would provide the resources necessary to fight against the hatred of jews more effectively. a huge fire in a densely populated area of the bangladeshi capital, dhaka, has killed almost 70 people. many others have been injured. fire chiefs fire say it broke out in a multi—storey residential building in the old town where the ground floor was used to store chemicals. for the first time in the history of the catholic church, bishops from around the globe are meeting at the vatican to confront the sexual abuse of children by the clergy. the 4—day summit will address the recent scandals, as well as accusations

that crimes have been covered up. so let's look at some of the stories the media are discussing today. the front page of the daily telegraph, and the story that's dominating the uk's front pages — the defection of three mps from prime minister theresa may's conservative party to join a new independent group in parliament. the international edition of the financial times reports that ubs has been hit with a record $5 billion penalty after a french court found it had helped clients evade french taxs. ubs says it strongly disagrees with the verdict and will appeal. staying with business, the times says the uk supermarket group sainsbury‘s planned $9 billion takeover of one of its competitors, asda, is on the brink of collapse after the regulator