now it's time to look at some of the stories that are making the headlines in the news media across the world. we start with the financial times, which leads on the economic fallout from the ongoing coronavirus crisis. the ft says businesses are evacuating staff and closing down operations in china, with concerns the situation will hurt the global economy. next, the daily telegraph, and a photo of british mep nigel farage, waving a unionjack to say goodbye to the european parliament in brussels. britain leaves the eu tomorrow and the paper says prime minister boris johnson will accept post—brexit border checks rather than allow the uk to align with european regulations. on the bbc news website, we're asking the question will the bank of england cut interest rates? a decision is due later today.

the base rate is currently 0.75%. if there is a cut it'll be the first nearly four years. the new york times reports on some good news for the electric car—maker tesla. it made profits of more than a $100 million in the fourth quarter last year. the company suffered heavy losses during the early part of 2019, but it seems to be rebounding. and finally, some news about the bbc, which has announced big job cuts and a major reorganisation of how its news operation works. the guardian says the corporation will have "an increased emphasis on its online output", rather than its television and radio stations. so, let's begin with the coronavirus situation. with me is jane foley, head of foreign exchange strategy at rabobank. jane, jane, let's look at the financial times. talking about all the different companies globally having to make difficult decisions about how

they are grappling with this. it's absolutely right. economists are working out how much this would impact the global economy. what we have had from company so far, the likes of apple, saying that supply chains could be cut. we've seen mcdonald's, starbucks, disney all have to close down operations. looking at how much impact it will have it will depend on how long it lasts. we look back to 2003 and the sales virus, in hindsight you could argue there was a strong bounce back in the following quarter and overall there was not a lot of impact. however, in 2003 china was not the size it is now. and in terms of the amounts of trade that it does with countries such as australia, germany, south africa, a huge amount of countries, russia, the amount of trade has gone up by huge proportions. so the potential impact of this could certainly be very significant and we have

got to bear in mind that, of course, china's growth was already slowing. it was just recovering way, perhaps, from the trade pact being signed with the us, but still slowing. so this clearly could have a significant global impact. so much so that the head of the us federal reserve, the central bank in america, mentioned it in his speech, jerome powell, after they decided on interest rates. he is quite concerned, as is everyone. as is everyone. precisely. he left interest rates in the us unchanged yesterday but the market took what he said as a signal that perhaps there was good card interest rates later on in the year. that's something that a lot of people were not necessarily expecting, but certainly if this virus were to carry on any chances of not just the us but other central banks around the globe cutting interest rates increases. that it is another unpredictable thing. something that is very ha rd to thing. something that is very hard to see where it might go. and you really get a sense that

globalfinancial and you really get a sense that global financial markets have been grappling with lots of uncertainty, to use a cliche, for such a long time, this is a new element. absolutely. a new element and very difficult to predict stop by the daily telegraph has a picture of nigel farage waving a union jackin nigel farage waving a union jack in the european parliament as, of course, it was the last session. there was an overwhelming vote in favour of the withdrawal agreement. so this is it. this is it. and it was a very emotional time, wasn't it, both good, bad, and ugly. an emotional time and what it means now as we move into february, the talks can stop between the uk and the eu on the future arrangement. and we have had of the last few weeks both sides positioning, laying out their stall, if you like, and what is interesting about this article in the telegraph is does appear to clarify the government's position that sovereignty of the uk is really important. it won't be a

role taker. it suggests that the government, because of its importance and sovereignty, it will mean that there will be extra paperwork and physical checks at borders. the uk wants to have a right to divert from the standards, the government says that with the whole point of brexit, but what that probably means is the talks between the uk and the eu, which will start as soon as we have left the eu, could be quite clunky, could be quite tough. and that is what jean—claude juncker was saying would be quite difficult, the negotiations will be hard. from your perspective, what are you factoring in in yourjob, are you factoring in the fact that it will not be a done deal by the end of this year, what are your thoughts? what it means, really, for the market is there has been quite a lot of optimism that the withdrawal agreement was signed and got pushed through, and as we move into this period of the new talks the fact that a hard brexit com a no—deal brexit is still a possibility of the year means that actually there's still a lot of

downside risk, certainly forsterling and potentially other uk assets. the bank of england is going to rates today or not, what you reckon? is a close call. if they don't cut today they certainly could cut in may. why in may in particular? four times a year the bank of england announces its new forecasts. so we have new forecasts. so we have new forecasts for the quarter today in the next set of new forecasts will be made. so the four meetings when they release what used to be the inflation report become much more in focus for the markets is a possibility for a possible —— will see move. so it could happen. if we look at why they may not do it, we haven't had it since we had a majority market. , there has been a balance. the purchasers and managers indices, the forward—looking indicators, they are better than expected. there is a sense of a fresh

confidence. but will it last? we could go into difficult talks with the eu about arrangements. that could impact confidence. but also the bank of england have an inflation target. they are targeted to keep inflation at about 2%. it is weak at1.3%. keep inflation at about 2%. it is weak at 1.3%. if you look at that indicate alone, you can say if that is what they are supposed to do, maybe they should cut. today or may, it could happen. we shall definitely see. tesla posting 105 million dollar profit. that's a small bear when you look at facebook or apple's earnings yesterday. nothing in comparison. it shows up quite strongly. there is a real sense, they feel, that tesla is here to stay. because it wasn't making profits for such a long time. in the first half of last year lost about $1 billion. this is a very significant turnaround. they have made profits for the last two quarters. there are many naysayers out there with

respect to tesla, there has been a loss of, of course, social media talks about the crashes that have happened, and this article actually suggests that some of the short sellers, people who expect the stock to go down then go short on them, that they have been amplifying the stories about the crashes have been on social media, so thatis have been on social media, so that is an interesting take. there have been crashes. the regulator has been interested in that. and therefore there is still a lot of talk about is there a current move up in prices, in share prices, is a justified or overblown? 0ne statistic you mentioned earlier on is how the market of tesla is now bigger than volkswagen, one of the two biggest auto manufacturers in the world. so there is some concern that this spike in shares could be overdone. and a lot of the established car companies are selling electric cars now as well. just quickly, your

comment on the bbc. a50 jobs going. this on the front page of the guardian. it needs to cut £80 million in costs. this is the bbc having to rethink how it does news in order to save money. the interesting thing about this is there is the license fee in the uk that you have to buy. in the statistics show that very few people under the age of 35 and also people down on the income scale have a lot of access to bbc news service, so it is about realigning it, perhaps, with demand. and the plan is to get more digital stuff there and also to try and get more into the audience of the younger people. the under 35 ‘s. absolutely. i don't know how many are about this time in the morning in uk. but thank you, jane. great to have you on the briefing. and thank you for your company. do remember that your company. do remember that you can get in touch with us, hashtag bbc the briefing. we love to hear your comments and

whatever you're up to today i hope you have a good one. eye will see you soon. —— eye will see you soon. hello there. we started off this week with a wintry flavour, cold for all of us. but wednesday brought a day of contrast. it was a glorious afternoon across much of england and wales with some sunshine coming through, as you can see in bedford, and a little milder with it. different story, though, further north as we saw some heavy, persistent rain. some areas of scotland seeing over a couple of inches in a 2a—hour period. now that weather front continues to drift its way steadily north. we've got a weaker area of low pressure pushing its way in from the south—west. but one unifying factor as we move into thursday and friday is a south—westerly flow will drive mild air right across the country. so wednesday morning we saw temperatures hovering around the freezing mark. but thursday morning, and it really looks as though it will be a different story. we're going to start of mild, 7—8 degrees widely across the country. so, yes, it's a mild

start, but it's a rather cloudy, grey, drab one, unfortunately. wednesday morning temperatures we re wednesday morning temperatures were hovering around freezing. we will start off mild. there'll be some rain, some of it heavy and persistent, moving its way up through western scotland to the north. and then behind it we've got quite a lot of cloud, thick enough for the odd spot or two drizzle, light patchy rain, misty, murky weather conditions, maybe some dense fog lingering in the far south—west. lighter winds to the south, but always strongest the further north and west with that rain. but look at this. those temperatures widely double digits. 10—1a degrees our afternoon highs. as we move out of thursday into friday, unfortunately, yet again, there's another frontal system that's going to push in from the west and that's going to bring more wet weather with it. now, the heaviest of the rain is likely to be through western areas for a time on wednesday. and as it pushes its way steadily eastwards it'll weaken, fragment to showers into the afternoon. but we're likely to see more persistent rain just clinging on to the north—west

of the great glen. however, the wind direction's still a south—westerly, still mild for all, 8—1a the high. now, as we move out of friday for the start of the weekend, unfortunately it looks as though we're stuck in repeat. low pressure never too far away, but weather fronts crossing the uk, they ease away, a brief respite before the next weather front which is in. so it does look likely that it's going to stay pretty u nsettled. so this is our city forecast for both saturday and sunday. it's going to be a case showers or longer spells of rain, but it's still on the mild side for this time of year, with temperatures widely into double figures. take care.

good morning. welcome to breakfast, with naga munchetty and charlie stayt. 0ur headlines today: still stranded — plans to evacuate 200 britons from the virus—hit chinese city of wuhan won't go ahead today as planned. a boost for hs2 — the chancellor gives his backing to the scheme ahead of a key meeting with borisjohnson today. a cut in the cost of borrowing? the bank of england meets later to decide whether to cut interest rates.

i'll be looking at the case for and against reducing rates. tributes are paid to wing commander paul farnes, the last of the battle of britain fighter aces, who's died aged 101. manchester city lose the match, but they win the tie. they're through to the league cup final, beating manchester united on aggregate despite defeat on the night. good morning. much milder start to the day—to—day across—the—board, and milder generally. also cloudy but true rain moving across southern counties and heavier rain moving across the north. more throughout the programme. it's thursday the 30th of january. our top story: 200 british citizens who are trapped in wuhan, the city at the heart of the coronavirus, won't be flown home today as planned. british officials are still waiting for permission to fly from the chinese authorities. the foreign office says it's trying to re—organise the flight

as soon as possible.