the world health organization has called for concerted international action to stop its spread. the world indoor athletics championships, due to be held in the chinese city of nanjing, have been postponed for a year. senators in washington have begun two days of questionning in donald trump's impeachment trial, as the president and his allies have accused the former national security advisorjohn bolton, of betrayal. and on our website, there's more on the moment the european parliament ratified britian‘s brexit agreement. some meps burst into a rendition of auld lang syne following the vote. it was the final hurdle before the uk leaves the eu on friday. that's all. stay with bbc world news. more on our web site, bbc.co.uk/news, and the news app.

now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. revenues expand as facebook gets lagged by more users, but the growing cost of tackling privacy and security issues hits the bottom—line. taking flight. global carriers and scale back and cancel flights to china as fears grow over the coronavirus. it is thursday, good morning, asia and hello, world, glad you could join us for another action packed edition of asia business report. i'm rico hizon and we start with facebook, and the social media giant has recorded its first annual fall

in profitability in at least five yea rs in profitability in at least five years as efforts to respond to privacy and content concerns took a toll on the compa ny‘s privacy and content concerns took a toll on the company's bottom—line. the tech giant, which owns instagram and whatsapp, say profits sank 60 sentin and whatsapp, say profits sank 60 sent in 2019 to 18.1; billion us dollars and the full came despite the continued health of its advertising business and a growing user base. the bbc‘s technology reporter zoe thomas is in san francisco and she spoke to me earlier and she said responsibility isa earlier and she said responsibility is a costly business. facebook is having to spend a lock to meet requirements the that regulators and users are starting to put on it they want to more efforts around privacy and more efforts around privacy and more efforts around blocking fake content on facebook‘s platforms, facebook, instagram and whatsapp, and that's costing facebook the company muggy. is having to invest in new products and new ways of making sure that happens for its users and that means expenses are going up. that worries

investors. investors like to revenue growing and users are being added, but that is also slowing down. you have this slowdown in growth at the same time as you have facebook starting to spend more and 2020 is going to be an intense year according to mark zuckerberg, the company ceo, he said there expecting to have to deal with a lot of things around regulatory concerns, over privacy and around the 2020 election in the us. they're concerned about what regulators are going to say about the information they put on facebook, political advertising, all that means facebook is under a lot of scrutiny and it's likely to cost them money and that's why we are seeing a stop by step after the earnings were released. —— stock price dip. tessa munt's elon musk delivering growth? they are seeing expansion, higher demand —— tesla's. they met their targets for production of delivery on vehicles.

they delivered 100,000 in this quarter, that might not seem like a lot when you compared to ford and general motors, but it's a lot for them, the highest they've ever had ina single them, the highest they've ever had in a single quarter, and all of the good numbers are picking up. it is producing more and demand is growing in china. the chinese figure is problematic for tesla. it opened a new plant in shanghai and it has seen chinese customers really want a car, but the coronavirus is a problem as they start to expand. they said on their own in they expected to lose between a week and a week and a half of production because of the coronavirus and it could cost some of their earnings for the first quarter of 2020. they we re for the first quarter of 2020. they were uncertain on the effect that would have, and they didn't want to ta ke would have, and they didn't want to take too much of a prediction until they know more. they were trying to be very cautious because they like the results they are seeing so far and they want to remain optimistic. a tale of two earnings between

facebook and tesla, zoe thomas in silicon valley. airlines across asia, europe and north america are suspending or slashing their flights to and from china due to the deadly coronavirus that has killed 170 and infected over 7000. the chinese city of wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, has seen the virus spread across the mainland and to at least 16 countries globally, including thailand, france, the us and australia. for more i'm joined by my colleague and business reporter monica miller. there's also a lot of reports saying that this coronavirus is even worse than the sars epidemic in terms of spreading? if you're heading to china, definitely call your carrier ahead of time because we've heard a lot about the suspension or reductions in flights. this morning deltas said they are going to begin to reduce theirflights. they are going to begin to reduce their flights. they have 42 weekly that head to china and this follows a day after you you and i followed a

similar announcement. lufthansa, british airways are also suspending flights and this has to do with safety for passengers and staff. there's been a spike in cancellations and a dramatic decrease in buying flights right now. a lot of airlines are saying they are going to waive fees so people can change them. things you grow accustomed to with international travel, your hot towel and your blanket and your magazines, all of this is going to be on hold for the time being on many airlines and even the staff have been highly encouraged to wear masks and gloves to contain the virus. china is the second gayest economy in the world, hard to ignore, a lot of trade and business is taking place and i'm sure travel plans have been put on hold and nobody knows for sure when these major carriers will be lifting their suspensions. indeed, a lot of these airlines are taking their cues from health

officials and the who is expected to meet later today to discuss whether they should escalate this in their own language. at this point we've heard everything from british airways, they are assessing whether the suspension should last until friday and really they are going to ta ke friday and really they are going to take their cues to see what happens. we've heard of some delays possibly until april. again, all of this is preventative on their behalf and they are hoping this will be contained sooner rather than later, not just people but contained sooner rather than later, notjust people but for their business to sustain. a fluid situation with more cases reported everyday. thanks for the update, my colleague and business reporter monica miller. 0n reporter monica miller. on saturday, the indian government will be tabling its annual budget in parliament since prime minister narendra modi came to power seven yea rs narendra modi came to power seven years ago. the indian economy has slowed down significantly and is facing record unemployment and low demand, so the indian government will be walking a tightrope with what it can offer. our reporter

reports from uttar pradesh. the holy city of varnasi, where millions congregate in prayer every day. it's also the city represented by prime minister narendra modi in parliament. but less than 100 kilometres south of mr modi's constituency in the rural farmlands lies stories of india's economic slowdown. translation: when we asked for our money, they said they can only pay when the government sends the money. we arejust only pay when the government sends the money. we are just waiting and working in the hope that our money will come soon. like several others in this village, this 45—year—old is building roads funded by the government. under the government scheme, these workers are entitled to a little less tha n workers are entitled to a little less than $3 a day and they are paid at the end of every week but for the last months, all these workers have

not been paid. despite that, they continue to come here every day to work in the hope that one day they will get what is due to them. it is no secret that the government is strapped for cash, and so people here are worried funds will be allocated to different areas in this yea r‘s allocated to different areas in this year's budget. rural india makes up two—thirds of the country but with consumer demand dipping to record lows, urban india is also suffering. translation: at the situation is terrible here. the entire world is looking to india to do business. we really need some relief, perhaps in the form of income tax rebates. mrsingh has the form of income tax rebates. mr singh has seen a fall in sales by 30% over the last years. he has not benefited from already announced government measures, corporate tax cuts and injecting funds into the retail sector. prime minister modi recently retail sector. prime minister modi rece ntly m et retail sector. prime minister modi recently met top industrialists, but mrsingh says

recently met top industrialists, but mr singh says delhi is prioritising big business to lead small and medium—sized businesses whether the storm on their own. translation: we work hard and do so much work, why don't we get the same concessions as big as nurse? in india, the towns and villages are bearing the weight of a sluggish economy but the real burden will be on the shoulders of the finance minister to announce a budget that will kickstart a flagging economy. in other business news making headlines, aerospace giant boeing has warned the 737 max crisis will cost it more than 18 billion us dollars. the plane manufacturer made the announcement as it reported its first annual lost in more than two decades of 636 million us dollars. samsung, the well‘s biggest smartphone and memory chip maker, saw profitability for in the third quarter to $6.1 billion as cloud computing demand slumped. profits at

the smartphone division rose six to 7% but this was wiped out by profitability being cut by half. samsung's main chip division —— 67%. president trump has formally signed a new trade pact with mexico and canada, bringing his campaign promise to replace the existing nafta deal closer to fruition. let's look and how the asia—pacific markets are doing at the moment. the nikkei 225 down by 4% and the all ordinaries gaining a third of a percent. thank you so much for investing your time with us. i'm rico hizon. sport today is coming up next. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: the world health organization has warned the entire world needs to take action to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, which began in the chinese city of wuhan. the white house has warned president trump's former national security advisor that his controversial new book can't be published unless he deletes

classified information. more than 4,000 calls a week for ambulances in england involve waits of more than an hour for a crew to arrive. nhs bosses say there's rising demand and delays handing over patients at a&e, as our health editor, hugh pym, reports. on the trolley, while you were a bit unconscious at the time... dave relives his lengthy ordeal after suffering a heart attack. he was stuck on a trolley in the hospital but, before that, there was a 2—hour delay waiting for an ambulance to arrive. i thought i was going to die. i had massive chest pain and then i got a dreadful pain right across my left shoulder, right to the spine. this is when she explained to me the difficulties they were having to have ambulances free to send out. my daughter and i were both getting very worried. he could have sat there and just died in the chair. we didn't know. the most urgent category

1 calls in england — for example, when a patient isn't breathing — require an ambulance to arrive within 7 minutes, on average. category 2 calls, classed as emergencies that are not immediately life—threatening, including strokes and some heart attacks, have an average response—time target of 18 minutes. but the bbc‘s figures reveal that 1 in 16 people across england were waiting over triple that target, more than an hour. it's certainly not easy to reach everyone as quickly as we would all like, but let's be very clear, all of our staff are working flat out, first and foremost, to keep all of our patients and everybody as safe as possible and to respond to as many patients within the response time targets. categories are slightly different in wales. there are 1,000 calls per week with waits longer than an hour. there are no comparable figures for scotland and northern ireland. he was a genuine, kind person.

mark remembers his partner, darren. he died alone from internal bleeding, waiting for an ambulance. it took nearly an hour and a half, including a delay mark understands was caused by incorrect categorisation of the call. the fact is they told somebody who was dying that no ambulance was available. i don't think, but i don't know, that darren knew he was dying, but the fact is that is the result of what they did. dave and ruth think they were let down by an under—resourced system. the situation, for our personal level, was a nightmare, but it wasn't the people's fault. it wasn't the staff's fault. long waits like that are often symptoms of wider problems, when ambulances are delayed handing over patients at crowded hospitals, so crews can't get quickly back on the road. hugh pym, bbc news. now on bbc news, sport today. much more on the website. i'm on social media. hello, i'm gavin ramjaun and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: rafa nadal, the top seed, is out of the australian open, losing in a a—set thriller to dominic thiem.

simona halep takes no prisoners on her march to the semifinals where she'll take on garbine muguruza. and who can stop liverpool? no—one, it seems — they go 19 points clear in the english premier league, after victory over strugglers west ham. hello, and welcome to the programme. let's start with that stunning upset in the men's quarter finals at the australian open. the top seed rafa nadal is out — beaten by dominic thiem, in four sets. the austrian reaching a first semifinal in melbourne and gaining revenge somewhat for defeat to nadal, in last year's french open final. nadal‘s chase for that record—equalling 20th grand slam goes on — as austin halewood reports. it's been 11 years since raphel found a dull one here. traditionally a clay—court player, never