the eu's trade chief tells the bbc he's open to a reset of a crucial condition of the uk's brexit deal. and as president trump escalates his campaign against diversity, we take stock of his impact on business so far. hello and welcome to business today. i'm steve lai. the new european union trade chief has told the bbc that a pan—europe customs area is something he could consider as part of brexit "reset" discussions with the uk. some businesses say it will help britain rejoin complex supply chains that have been hit by customs barriers. faisal islam has more from the world economic forum in davos.

ready to work on the offer of cooperation and we hope this message will be well received in washington, dc. but message will be well received in washington, dc.— in washington, dc. but if the americans — in washington, dc. but if the americans were _ in washington, dc. but if the americans were to _ in washington, dc. but if the americans were to levy - in washington, dc. but if the| americans were to levy tariffs on the eu, is europe, are you prepared to retaliate?- prepared to retaliate? first and foremost, _ prepared to retaliate? first and foremost, let's - prepared to retaliate? first and foremost, let's see - prepared to retaliate? first i and foremost, let's see what prepared to retaliate? f "st and foremost, let's see what is really happening. would like to go to a hypothetical response right now... go to a hypothetical response right nova - -— right now... this is very hypothetical, _ right now... this is very hypothetical, this - right now... this is very hypothetical, this is - hypothetical, this is plausible.— hypothetical, this is lausible. ,, ., ., plausible. this is what we hear from the campaign. _ plausible. this is what we hear from the campaign. first - plausible. this is what we hear from the campaign. first we i from the campaign. first we would like to discuss it with american partners to check the facts and figures and then consider a response. of course we will see that our legitimate interests are under pressure, of course we are ready to take a position. of course we are ready to take a position-— a position. you retain the brief for _ a position. you retain the brief for relations - a position. you retain the brief for relations with i a position. you retain the| brief for relations with the uk. other in a better place right now?— uk. other in a better place riahtnow? , ,, , right now? definitely yes, we are also waiting _ right now? definitely yes, we are also waiting for _ right now? definitely yes, we are also waiting for ideas - right now? definitely yes, wel are also waiting for ideas from our british friends about how

they would like to do it. is they would like to do it. is there scope for a much better relationship perhaps not totally frictionless trade, but far fewer frictions than have existed with a good deal? and particularly in terms of food and farm exports, fire, veterinary agreement? i and farm exports, fire, veterinary agreement? i think we discuss — veterinary agreement? i think we discuss a _ veterinary agreement? i think we discuss a lot _ veterinary agreement? i think we discuss a lot with - veterinary agreement? i think we discuss a lot with a - veterinary agreement? i think we discuss a lot with a uk - we discuss a lot with a uk friends, absolutely. i would say this moment in the uk court. , ., say this moment in the uk court. , . ., court. they have ruled out applying — court. they have ruled out applying to _ court. they have ruled out applying to rejoin - court. they have ruled out applying to rejoin a - court. they have ruled out i applying to rejoin a customs union but there are other steps on the way, things like the pan—european mediterranean accumulation area. with the eu, could your site envisage that as a stepping stone towards fewer customs regulations? i think it might be one of the ideas at the same time and as we concluded also after this very strenuous negotiations of the free agreements that even the free agreements that even

the best free trade agreement cannot simply replace that in the single market, but we respect the choice, we respect our the uk government approaches this and this is something we could consider, but i haven't heard it so precisely from our uk counterparts. us president donald trump has escalated his campaign against diversity programmes — he is now pressuring the private sector to join the initiative. he's also told government employees in offices administering these types of programmes that they would be placed on paid leave. civil rights advocates have argued the programmes are necessary to address inequities and structural racism, but trump and his supporters say they discriminate against other americans. as donald trump pushes ahead with his plans to transform the us economy, one of the issues investors will be watching closely is the efforts to slash the federal budget. led by multibillionaire elon musk, the department of

government efficiency — which is known as doge — has been tasked with finding ways to cut costs. musk has said he would like to follow the example of argentina. under presidentjavier milei, the south american nation has reduced government spending by an estimated 30% — roughly in line with the level of cuts doge is aiming for in the us. the milei administration has laid off thousands of federal workers, eliminated government agencies, scrapped subsidies and halted public works projects. last year, the government brought in more money than it spent — the first time argentina has achieved this in 14 years. so, can the same be done in the united states? steve hanke from johns hopkins university advised argentina's economic officials in the 19905 and he told me more about these types of cuts. we are talking about argentina, a country that for 60 years has built up a very tangled, fascist economic system where the government is involved deeply in all economic decisions

and activity. that's one aspect of argentina. the other aspect is that the size of the government relative to gdp is not that great, it's15.5% of gdp. in the us, for example, it is at the all—time high in the us right now of 23% of the gdp. the regulatory wave is not as great as in argentina. they have been very successful at getting this fascist economic control and web, these regulations out of the system. that's has been his big success

and his popularity has gone up since he was elected a year ago, so the light of the land is quite different now. if you look at the us and what they are trying to do with this doge commission, i think it would be great if they control government spending, and i think if they got it down to about 15% of gdp, about where it was before the second world war, in the united states that would be great. however, the experience with these efficiency commissions and so forth in the united states has not been very good. we had a commission, hoover commission, in 1947, hoover commission 21953, and all they did was reorganise the government. president donald trump has stepped up pressure on russia to negotiate an end to the war in ukraine. he threatened financial penalties on the country if it did not reach a settlement to end the fighting. ritika gupta has

more from new york. donald trump's warning made in a social media post call by name. he said he should make a deal soon or else he would have to put tariffs and sanctions on russian imports to participating countries. it is not clear what good the penalties or what nations would be included. the trump administration could potentially target russia's oil producers, scott bessant producers, scott bessa nt endorsed producers, scott bessant endorsed that last week. the us has a ready imposed extensive sanctions on russia struggled to persuade some of the key trading partners such as india to scale back its purchases. if you look at how much russia actually sells to the us, it is very little. in the first 11 months of last year, us little less than $3 billion of russian goods, about one tenth of i% of total us imports, and it is a

reduction of about 90% from what the us imported from russia in 2021. the year before the invasion of ukraine. trump campaign promises to end the conflict that began with russia's invasion on ukraine, which has killed towns of thousands and reduce cities to rubble. well, as we just heard, india will be watching trump's proposed sanctions and tariffs very closely. foreign minister sjaishankar met his counterpart, marco rubio in washington dc in what was the newly appointed secretary of state's first bilateral meet. the bbc�*s arunoday mukharji has been monitoring developments from delhi. hejoins us now. tell us more about how india is preparing. there is a fair bit of anxiety about what donald trump and the new administration might do when it comes to this, but officially we are waiting to hear any comments on that. it has been widely reported both in the international and local media, there is a foreign ministry weekly briefing that will take waste today and i

suspect a lot of these targeted questions will be put to the spokesperson and we could get a comment out of him. in the run—up to the conversations and the counter by in the us, geopolitics figure top of the agenda, but also a lot about a deepening economic relations as well. we are learning that talks about illegal immigration was something that came up, to which the foreign minister replied that india is always open to the idea of anyone who has crossed over to the us illegally to be brought back home as well. at some of the aspects india is considering in case the tariff issue does become blind to a larger controversy, one of causes try to reduce some import tariffs which are sensitive to the and has been sensitive to donald trumppolitical campaign as well. also work out a trade deal, something india tried to walk towards in the first administration of donald trump and and reduce imports from other countries and increase imports to the us to balance

that trade serpents that india currently enjoys with the us. so many different factors to this from presidency, are there? thank you very much. south korea's economy barely grew in the last three months of last year. it comes as a result of a hit to domestic demand in part by the country's worst political crisis in decades. earlier, president yoon suk yeol was impeached in december andsuspended from duties over his short—lived bid to impose martiallaw. before we go, a quick check on us markets and wall street's main indexes were all up with the benchmark s&p 500 hitting an all—time high. investors seemed to be cheering streaming giant netflix�*s strong quarterly performance and president donald trump's multi—billion dollar support to bolster ai infrastructure. thank you forjoining me here on this additional business today. i will be back at the top of the hour with more news on new state where we will be

looking at donald trump's first two days in office and what that impact is having on various different aspects.

i am here with the catch up.

we start with prince harry is the owner of the sun gives him a full and unequivocal apology for what they called serious intrusion into his private life. news group newspapers also admitted incidence of unlawful activity by private investigators working for the newspaper. they say there are some controls so that can't happen now. they are also paying damages, likely millions of pounds to settle years of legal battles with the prince. his lawyer says it is good for other alleged victims also. this represents a vindication for the hundreds of other claimants who were strong—armed into settling without being able to get to the truth of what was done to them. some other stories now. tributes are being paid to a 12—year—old boy stabbed

to death in birmingham. leo ross was attacked whilst walking home from school. his head teacher said leo was funny and sweet. a 14—year—old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder. next, netflix is putting up prices for some users after adding nearly 19 million new subscribers in the final months of last year. there are increasing costs in the us, canada, argentina and portugal. when asked about the uk, netflix said there is nothing to share right now. time now for ten seconds of a jet—lagged cat. mittens made three between new zealand and australia just 2a hours after being forgotten on a plane. thankfully, she is now back on solid ground and thankfully reunited with her owner. that is adorable. you all caught up now. see you later. hello and welcome to sportsday

with me, gavin ramjaun. drama in paris: manchester city drop a 2—goal lead to lose against psg. their champions league hopes hang in the balance. ruben amorim said he made a mistake by ripping into his manchester united players immediately after their defeat against brighton. and chelsea have smashed the women's transfer record again. naomi girma is heading to the wsl. hello there, and welcome along to the programme, and another exciting, enthralling and exhilarating night to bring you in the champions league on wednesday, and an incredible turn of events in paris as psg came from two goals down to beat manchester city — a result that leaves the premier league champions in the elimination spots ahead of the final round of group phase games. city were two goals up

in quick succession in the second half,