i'm kasia madera with bbc world news. our top story. china is to suspend public transport in the city of wuhan as it tries to control a new virus that's killed 17 people and infected 500. the who welcomed what it called china's ‘very strong measure‘ but said the outbreak didn't amount to an international public health emergency yet. the democrats have begun presenting their arguments at the trump impeachment trial. their team leader said the president had clearly abused his powers and obstructed justice in his dealings with ukraine. and this video is trending on bbc.com. this isn't snow, this is sea foam flooding the streets of the town of tossa del mar in spain. it's caused by storm gloria, which is hitting the mediterranean coast. and the top story in the uk:

the government's plans to tax the uk profits of big tech companies cause more tension between britain and the usa. downing street said the new tax would go ahead despite a threat of retaliation from washington. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. the death toll rises as china's coronavirus spreads and concerns are starting to impact market sentiment. united nations demands an investigation into the alleged saudi hacking of jeff bezos's investigation into the alleged saudi hacking ofjeff bezos's phone stop good morning, asia. hello, world. welcome to asia business report. 17 people are now confirmed to have died from coronavirus and 571 have been infected. the debts are from

provinces around wuhan which is now shut down all transportation links. wuhan is home to 11 million people and nearly half of the well‘s 500 biggest companies have investments in the area. following the outbreak, we sure shares in chinese drug manufacturers rising sharp while airline and hotel stocks took a dive. it's because vast numbers of people are travelling for the lunar new year holidays. close to 7 million chinese tourists travel overseas for the celebrations in 2019. and it reminds us of the outbreak of sars in 2003 which had a major impact on the global economy. the virus has been confirmed in japan, thailand, south korea and the united states but over the past hours, the world health organization announced it will not yet declare an international public health emergency over the outbreak. the

decision about whether or not to declare a public health emergency of international concern is one i take extremely seriously and one i am only prepared to make with appropriate consideration of all the evidence. our team is on the ground in china as we speak, working with local experts and officials to investigate the outbreak and get more information. earlierl asked economist alex holmes whether he expects an impact on growth figures. these academics are unpredictable by nature but we're not at the point where we going to adjust any of our gdp forecasts. certain factors will determine the economic impact of this current virus out break. the first, how severe the virus is. second, how quickly it spreads and third, the responsible authorities.

authority response has been better compared to 17 years ago? the difference is quite stark. chinese authorities have been quite quick to acknowledge the virus and have taken quite decisive action. decisive indeed because days before the lunar new year holidays, they've shut down the transportation links in wuhan. if china's new coronavirus turns into a prolonged out rate, this could surely impact the travel and leisure industry? travel and leisure and retail and hospitality will be most affected. but lessons from past up most affected. but lessons from past up takes shows although the impact can be quite severe, once the virus is under control we usually see quite a big rebound. overall the trend level of gdp tends not to be affected. let's talk about the alleged hacking of the phone of

amazon experts jeff alleged hacking of the phone of amazon expertsjeff bezos because un experts say they have information implicating the saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman. jeff bezos is known as the founder of amazon and the owner of the washington post and the owner of the washington post and the saudi journalist who was murdered, jamal khashoggi, worked for the post. it's absurd. the idea the current prince would have to jeff bezos's phone is silly and my understanding of the un report, it isa understanding of the un report, it is a statement based on a report by a private company that has not been vetted and that has in its own conclusions no hard evidence to substantiate the claims it's making. let's hear more from our security correspondent frank gardner. so the allegation which the saudi authorities strongly deny but the allegation is that in may 2018 a

phone belonging to saudi arabia's crown prince sent a whatsapp message with an mp4 video and that contained spywa re, with an mp4 video and that contained spyware, malware which infected jeff bezos's phone allowing the saudis to download huge quantities of data from that. why do they think that? because a very detailed forensic analysis was done in the last year 01’ so over analysis was done in the last year or so over this alleged attack and its founder details, intimate details that were not known to anybody in the public other than jeff bezos himself had been leaked, had got out and they think that's why his phone must‘ve been leaked and some of those details refer to wa nt to and some of those details refer to want to occasions by the saudi crown prince in conversations or messages he had withjeff bezos. jeff bezos, most people know him as the ceo of amazon but is also the owner of the washington post and the washington post employed jamal khashoggi who

was murdered in the saudi consulate in istanbul. prior to his murder he was writing opinion pieces for the washington post increasingly critical of saudi arabia's crown prince and his policies and that was annoying the saudi crown prince. he had someone who orchestrated a clandestine on line campaign vilifying anyone who opposed the crown prince and they were to allegedly hack into two other phones and he would allegedly and wanted to know what was being said by the very owner of the paper. subsequently the friendship between the crown prince and jeff bezos soured and they are not friends today, to put it mildly. let's talk about trade. the head of the world trade organisation told us it's facing significant changes. president trump is called for dramatic reform in the us has blocked new judges being dramatic reform in the us has blocked newjudges being appointed to its decision—making structure.

changes will be necessary and may ta ke changes will be necessary and may take a bit of time but i'm quite hope will that we will fix it. can you elaborate on what the president is suggesting in terms of change and what you can agree on in terms of change? i cannot because he didn't say. he mentioned generally the fact that he feels the wto has not been working the way it should, that the us in his words has not been treated fairly and that he wants to see changes but he didn't specify which. one suggestion is something he might like to see is reclassification of china and india so they are no longer seen as developing countries. this conversation is ongoing. it's not the first time to hear about it. the us delegation made the case. it raised the issue at the general counsel level and other members are reacting to that. getting women into

leadership roles is another topic. the chairperson of booking .com gave her assessment of what needs to be done. a lot needs to happen. the latest report shows that it's almost going to take another hundred years to accomplish this inequality and i think the agency gave a report, $12 trillion from the economy by 2025 if we would accomplish equality. if companies don't invest in their values, i don't think it will be picked up through the whole business. if you think about promotional processes, you see they are not working and you need to change that training, specifically, you need to help. what obstacles have you experienced? there are obstacles have you experienced? there are o bsta cles in have you experienced? there are obstacles in recruitment, for a example. obstacles in recruitment, for a exa m ple. o bsta cles obstacles in recruitment, for a example. obstacles and promotional processes you need to think about. sally has been very busy at the

world economic forum talking to many leaders but what does it take to feed 53 heads of state and almost 1700 business leaders in a small ski resort. she went behind the scenes to find out it's all about sustainability in the kitchen. it is future of food day here at the world economic forum in doubles. it's the first time they've ever done this and it's in line with the theme this year of climate change and sustainability so that today, there is no meat on the menu whatsoever. we have got lots of light —based foods here. let's give you a look. we have plant —based sausage, you a look. we have plant —based sausage, plant —based meat balls and this is what the delegates here will be eating. there are 75 ships, 6000— 8000 meals served every day to the delegates which do include, let's not forget, 114 billionaires are estimated to be here this year so i think they've got some expensive

taste. let me try some of this to just see what it's like. a plant —based meatball. mm, delicious. absolutely delicious. i envy you sally. i love meatballs, save some for me. that was sally bundock at the world economic forum. theindexin bundock at the world economic forum. the index in hong kong is lower. thank you for investing your time with us. see you in the next hour with us. see you in the next hour with asia business report. goodbye for now. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: a city in lockdown — chinese officials say the people of wuhan cannot travel as they try to contain the spread of a deadly virus. at the trump impeachment trial the us senate hears the opening arguments as the prosecution makes

the case against the president. no it looks as if written in the us are on a collision course over taxing tech companies. the virtual business giants of the tech world have a very physical presence on the streets of davos at the world economic forum, where they need to keep the world's powerbrokers on side. taxing them has been tricky and is now a global diplomatic incident, with britain committed, in april, to a 2% tax on the uk sales of the likes of facebook, google and amazon. as we leave... here, the chancellor under pressure internationally, in particularfrom president trump's treasury secretary. can they get a trade deal with you if they insist on introducing a digital tax in april?

well, we will be having some private conversations about that. i'm sure the president and boris will be speaking on it as well. you know, if people want to just arbitrarily put taxes on our digital companies, we will consider arbitrarily putting taxes on car companies. another trade power play from the us. the chancellor, for now, sticking to his guns. we plan to go ahead with our digital services tax in april. it will fall away once there is an international solution. brexit next week means freedom to do international trade deals. what we are seeing here is that freedom is constrained. it requires trade—offs and choices to get those deals. the americans, in particular, piling on the pressure for a u—turn on the digital sales tax. the united kingdom dropping hints that it will prioritise an eu deal before a us one. that was welcomed by the eu commission president who said a quick deal needed quick choices. do you think a real deal can be done

by the end of the year? we'll see. it's a question, of course, of what the uk chooses for itself. so how close it wants to be to the single market — this is better for good access to the single market — or they do not want a line, do not want to to have a level playing field, then of course they will be more distant and it will be more difficult. everyone here says they want to trade deals, but it's trade barriers on the rise at a time when the uk now needs to make fundamental trade choices. hello, i'm tulsen tollett and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme:

iamjohn i am john watson live at the australian open where we have an unusual reason for a stop in play today. manchester united lose at home to burnley, hurting their chances of a top four finish. and injust under two hours, zion williamson is set to make his nba debut for the new orleans pelicans. hello and welcome to the programme where we start with tennis at the year's first grand slam in melbourne. the australian open has moved into day four and there for us as always isjohn watson. there's been a bit of an issue with the outside courts in the morning, john, what's the situation? what has happened? organisers and many people are saying this could be the first time this has happened in grand slam history. essentially, play on the outside courts has been delayed here for three hours because of dust and mud and a lot