this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. going nowhere fast. can this man reverse boeing's fortunes after the 10—month and counting grounding of the 737 max aircraft? india's telco wars. big changes in the industry are leaving some customers high and dry. we'll find out why. and on financial markets a new trading week is under way. no action in japan, where there is a public holiday. geopolitics remaining on the radar of investors this week.

it's a big day for the us plane maker boeing as it continues to try to get on top of the 737 max crisis. it's dave calhoun‘s first day as the big boss and he has an overloaded in—tray. he got the job after the previous chief executive dennis muilenburg was forced outjust before christmas over his handling of the crisis. so who is dave calhoun? well, he's a 62—year—old veteran of the american boardroom. he's been a director at boeing for more than ten years and has also had major roles at general electric and the data firm nielsen. top of his agenda is the 737 max crisis. 371 of the aircraft have been grounded around the world since march because of two fatal crashes that killed 346 people and production has now been suspended. 400 more have been made but not

delivered to airlines. this best—selling aircraft has already cost the plane maker at least $9.2 billion and the longer it takes to get them in the sky the bigger the bill for compensating airlines, maintenance and idle factories grows. mr calhoun has to do all that while keeping shareholders happy but at the same time restore trust with regulators and the flying public. no surprise that the boeing share price has fallen quite a bit since the grounding in march. and to further add to mr calhoun‘s problems, us treasury secretary steven mnuchin yesterday said in an interview that the boeing crisis could knock half a percentage point of us gdp. john strickland, airline expert from jls consulting, joins me now. good morning, john. they wouldn't

wa nt to good morning, john. they wouldn't want to be in dave calhoun‘s shoes this morning. what do you make of his credentials, even the task ahead of him? it is interesting, really, he has been with boeing for ten yea rs he has been with boeing for ten years but a lot of people are saying he isa years but a lot of people are saying he is a new face, but is he a sufficiently new phase there was replacing a boeing life and an engineer. boeing has always shown as prowess in engineering which feeds through to safety. will he be close enough to the technical aspects of business? that aside, he has to start an enormous campaign of rebuilding trust overall in boeing. he has got to restore credibility internally, we have seen a constant newsletter about bits of toxic dialogue coming out, the cultural issue to adjust —— address there, the relationship with the regulator, not only the faa and usa, but the safety agency in europe, that has to be rebuilt if they are to get recertification. and building confidence to the flying public and

the flight crew and cabin crew who will work on this aircraft. is resolving the issues resolving the 737 max if possible getting back in the air, as it were? it has to be. those aircraft are sitting there, they have altered production, it is disruption for airlines and they are already racking up big compensation claims from airlines. now with the supply chain disruption as well, that has implications forjobs and it means, ultimately, to restart productions quite complicated. it means, ultimately, to restart productions quite complicatedm sounds like there are multiple issues with regard to this new plane, as it were, not least public confidence in it. will anyone want to climb on board a 737 max in the future? that's the biggest question. it is really intangible. boeing knows it. i was in seattle last month, they invite a small group of people from the industry, and they made it clear they wanted help all round they couldn't to it all on

their own, they have to rebuild confidence. ahead of that they have to get re— certificated. it is not clear when that will happen. originally it was thought it could happen before somerset plains was not moved by now, but it hasn't happened yet. we are moving into the first quarter. these planes in the majority at least are likely to be out of service for the whole of the summer, which is a big impact. the question of confidence will take time to build, because it is a very individual issue. even before we as customers get on a pilots have to be confident, they have to have the right training, cabin crew have to feel they are on a safe aircraft and can reassure customers. john, thank you very much indeed, john strickland with thoughts on dave calhoun. we will keep an eye on how he gets along a boeing. fly me to the moon? well, there is someone who actually could. a japanese billionaire, who is set to become the first civilian passenger to fly around the moon, is looking for a female "life partner" to accompany him. let's go to our asia business hub where rico hizon is following the story. rico, how do i apply?

sally! it's simple, sally. there is a website for this application and it features a list of conditions and a schedule for the three month long application process. the applicants must be, listen to this, single, over the age of 20, always positive, and have an interest in going to space. the deadline is on the 17th of january and the final decision will be made at the end of march. yusaku maezawa will be made at the end of march. yusa ku maezawa is will be made at the end of march. yusaku maezawa is a billionaire and is well known injapan as the founder of the online clothing retailers ozone. he is believed to have a personal wealth of close to $3 billion, a lot of which she spends on art. he became popular late last year after he was named as the first private passenger due to be flown around the moon by spacex, the company owned by fellow billionaire elon musk. the price yusaku maezawa

billionaire elon musk. the price yusa ku maezawa agreed billionaire elon musk. the price yusaku maezawa agreed to pay for his basic it is not known, but according to elon musk it was a lot of money. what do you think, sally? i am not going to put my hat in the ring but i know plenty who might... # fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars... you have a beautifulvoice, rico. we shall see you very soon. i have tweeted that story as well, if you want to apply. now let's brief you on some other business stories. german engineering group siemens says it is committed to a controversial coal mining project in australia's outback. this comes amid mounting criticism by climate activists, following recent wildfires in the country. siemens was awarded a contract last year to provide signalling technology for a railway line connecting the outback to an australian seaport. ford has a problem in china. its vehicle sales there fell 26.1% in 2019 as the us automaker continues to battle a prolonged sales decline in its second—biggest market. it delivered 567,854 units. and in the fourth quarter the dearborn, michigan—based company delivered i4.7% fewer

cars than a year before, india's bharti airtel is trying to build up its war chest as competition heats up in the country's telecoms sector. bharti airtel wants to raise $3 billion, partly for taxes it was ordered to pay in a court decision two months ago. but also partly to strengthen its financial position so that it can take on the likes of reliance'sjio service, which has disrupted the country's telecoms industry by offering extremely cheap data. despite all the hype, customers are now facing are sharp rise in prices. the bbc‘s monica miller explains. india is the well‘s second largest

telecom market and has some of the cheapest mobile plans on the planet. 1 cheapest mobile plans on the planet. i gigabyte costs just 26 cents, that is compared to more than $12 in the united states, $16 and south korea, and 75 bucks in zimbabwe. but two of the market leaders, vodafone and bharti airtel are facing a mountain of debt. they had to pay a lot to gain 3g and sport —— 4g spectrum. and they haven't actually made a sufficient return on investment on those large investments. these companies also owe the indian government a whopping $13 billion in licensing fees and taxes. the indian head of vodafone ‘s as the situation is crucial and they may have to shut down, if the indian government doesn't help. these two companies are struggling due to one disrupt

the — reliancejio which came on the scene in 2016, ed offered free voice calls and supercheap data. they could afford to offer those services for free for could afford to offer those services forfree for six months could afford to offer those services for free for six months and it was just impossible to compete. this is a critical time in the sector as the rest of the world moves towards the next generation of mobile networks. china's one away is the world leader in 5g and it is blocked from doing business in the united states —— while way. indian telecom companies lack a properfibre infrastructure. and in our view, fibre infrastructure is critical to provide 5g services. looking at the current state of the telecom industry it could be a long time before india comes calling for 5g. interesting. that was monica mueller. that is your business

briefing. —— monica miller. tehran has summoned the british envoy, rob macaire, after accusing him of attending an illegal rally. he was also briefly detained on saturday after attending a vigil for people who died when a ukrainian plane was shot down by an iranian missile last week. mr macaire said he'd left when it turned into a protest. our diplomatic correspondent james landale has this assessment. i think it has turned into a bigger incident than it would in normal times because of the tense situation there is across the middle east but also in tehran. you have got to remember that the government there is reeling from the tragic downing of the ukrainian airliner. there are different bits of the iranian

government looking over their shoulders trying to work out who will get the blame for all of this and amid that uncertainty there are growing numbers of people on the streets of tehran expressing their anger at the way the government has handled this. and so if you place into that a british ambassador going around doing his job, into that a british ambassador going around doing hisjob, attending a visual, not just for the iranian dad, but also the handful of british national ‘s who died in the tragedy, that incident then becomes a more political, people start chancing, he leaves, and he is detained. the question is was it a mistake by the police who just saw a westerner behaving in a way they thought was inappropriate, or was it a deliberate intimidation of a foreign diplomat, that remains unclear. but i think what is clear is that while the british have been mounting a very robust defence of the ambassador and that has been backed by the french and the germans who haveissued by the french and the germans who have issued formal statements backing the british ambassador, there is also, think, a sense here

in london and other european capitals that they do not want to allow this incident to become a further source of inflaming tensions with iran in an already tense situation. james landale there, our diplomatic correspondence. more on the story and the other top stories are six o'clock on breakfast. that is with louise minchin and dan walker. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: queen elizabeth and other senior royals are to hold talks over prince harry and meghan‘s future role. there've been further protests in iran over the authorities' delay in accepting responsibility for the shooting down of a passenger plane. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. many in the uk are still very much dominated by the news that broke

last week from prince harry and meghan. this is the mirror, and a story that is unsuprisingly all over the uk papers today — those "crunch talks" between harry, the queen and other senior royals over the duke and duchess of sussex's decision to step back from the royal family. in particular they focus on the posibility of the pair taking part in a "tell all" interview — the so—called nuclear option. meanwhile the french paper le figaro has an exclusive early publication of extracts from a new book by the former pope benedict xvi. in what some are calling an unprecedented intervention, the former pontiff has clashed with his replacement pope francis over the possiblity the latter might break with millennia of catholic tradition and allow married men to enter the priesthood. the financial times has run with reassurances from the head of m15 over the threat posed by chinese 5g giant huawei to uk intelligence sharing. he says there is no reason

to suspect the company involvement in uk 5g would harm the intelligence relationship between london and washington. the i newspaper leads with a study from oxford university which says the uk's news sugar tax has "revolutionised" the industry — cutting the amount of sugar in soft drinks byjust over a quarter. charities are subsequently calling for the levy to be extended to other products. and finally in forbes, a report on a very ambitious billionaire from japan. ambitious for a few reasons — one, he wants to go to the moon in a spacex rocket. two, he wants a ‘single woman‘ to go with him, and has put out an advert to find his dream space travel companion. with me is kulveer ranger, vice—president of strategy and communication at atos. we will get to the moon at the end of this. we have talked about this before, you said you were up to

going to