surging as the us warns it can't be counted increasingly popular. and more female fans, luxury brands are getting in pole position. let's get cracking. as we've been reporting, in a few hours us on monday, at a summit in paris, european leaders stressed the need to take greater responsibility for their own security. the issue of how much countries across europe put aside for defence is now top of the political agenda,

on the us for defence. on other european leaders to massively ramp up defence spending. poland is the top military spender in nato at 4.7% of gross domestic product. economic output on defence. the government has committed to increase that to 2.5% are saying this isn't enough. indeed, russia increased its defence spending by 42% than ukraine and all its

western allies — including is broadly about 2% of gdp. there are calls to raise that to 4%. more like 200 billion. and that's, you know, not even accounting for another 60 billion euros or so coming from the us. but the trump administration

and the vice president has to provide better defence, more spending. on the ground in ukraine if and when a peace agreement is reached. and yet the likes of the german chancellor, olaf scholz, will not be drawn on this issue. there is so much uncertainty at all clear what the us is actually going to do. have talks on their own without including the eu or kyiv. now they are saying, oh, we might include more people. clear if this willjust providing support or if it will be sending troops onto the ground into ukraine.

there are so many questions. germany has an election coming up, it makes sense it has chosen not to do that, at the expense of its economy relax this debt break they have, which will be important for defence, also. christie, there. rising to record levels, driven mainly by defence earnings in the industry to continue to increase.

james hughes, is co—founder of the financial content i put to him that markets can be quite brutal in these the money will be next to go up so that means there will be investment, and that is exactly what we saw yesterday, and really that is exactly what we have seen since we knew donald trump was going to be president in the us. about what he will do with the russia and ukraine and europe has expected this sort of situation to happen. quite a big one and quite

a popular one over the last few elsewhere in europe. still — gold doing very well — and other safe havens. absolutely. gold has been trading at records for quite a long time now. you get this situation, you have to look at europe a little bit as to how the markets are behaving because not only do you have this defence situation to put on europe. because they have that issue. the german election, the fact that germany

dominates the eurozone for a long time. the reserve bank of australia cut its cash rate by 25 basis points to 4.1% saying progress had been made on inflation though it was still cautious about the outlook. told me this did not come as a surprise. rate because core inflation has made pretty good the end of the year last year,

the governor stood up it's in striking distance of our target band, which is 2% to 3%, and that was enough for the rba to pull i think what is weighing on their mind in particular is just how tough it has been for variable borrowers across the country. points of tightening, and unlike many other countries around the world, the majority of australians let's get some of the day's other news now. meta, facebook�*s parent company, says it plans to build

a risk to global economic growth. the australian company reported an 8% decline in revenue as a result of lower prices for commodities. acted in good faith. it could be a hoax.

still to come... around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

you are with business today. musk has described it as "scary smart". according to xai it represents a major step forward, improving reasoning, computational power and adaptability.

they have been developing it over the last year powerful than its predecessor in terms of getting, shall we say, a more objective it is quite early to say. for quite some time. back in 2015, he was one of the co—founders of open ai,

lawsuits against openai. for nearly $100 billion, along with a few other investors. is the latest development in this ai race that keeps gathering speed. some newsjust in, vietnam plans to adopt maintaining full ownership of any local subsidiary. in vietnam and follows protracted talks with its parent company spacex.

to start flying privately and their destinations of a slowdown in the us economy. correspondent, ritika gupta. this next generation of 40—something men and women did, to start flying privately. and lastly, they're going faraway places. they're going to europe and the middle east so very, very capable. so it's nine passengers, a very big baggage compartment.

could have on demand from your customers? that they travel. and more fuel—efficient, and more powerful. so that allows you to have a much more efficient propulsion system. so the traffic in augusta during masters week is really unprecedented. technicians shortage. how are you navigating

that, and what steps are you taking to ensure that you have enough staffing? we hired almost 400 pilots last year. in private aviation. what we wanted to do is attract not only competent pilots, wants to impose, and the impact that could have on global travel? well, yet to be seen, it's so early. a lot of the components of this aircraft that we're in were as to what impact those tariffs might have on anybody�*s business, specifically ours, so we'll have to wait and see.

new formula 1 season is launching in london today. and a significant reason for the success — the growing number of female fans. a piece of the action. natasha bird, founder of the consultancy tough crowd, can better cater to female audiences. timed their investment in formula one. conglomerates like lvmh

is that they don't do anything unless they know they can guarantee the significance of this growing audience have now earned media value among fashion brands in particular. you get out of advertising in that environment? the answer is a lot! i know! of aston martin last year, explaining the return from advertising at formula 1. it is really quite it absolutely is.

spectatorship to thank for this. between formula 1 and fashion is that it also opens up the bigger the spectacle, as tonight, the opening ceremonial at the 02 is being done for the first

and whistles the spectacle, the bigger the gold mine they realise they are sitting on. and you are going to go to this event tonight, i am sure it will be quite incredible. as you said, at the 02. there has been a tussle between lots of different lvmh being such a huge behemoth, with now a total partnership of ten years, i suspect they will make it very difficult for brands. they may do. it is at the top. the competition to get top. the competitiente get the in formula top. the competitiehte get the in formula i. that is all business today. 7 n business today. i 7 n iflfibuseiness today. i will n business today. i will see moment. as today. i will see let's look at some other stories. the first of up to 390

prisoners are being released early from scotland's jails in the latest attempt to ease overcrowding. emergency legislation was passed last year of their term, rather than 50%. they will be released in three tranches over a six—week period, starting on tuesday. offences are excluded. justice secretary angela constance said the prison a consultation on changes to britain's railways is being launched by the government today. a public—sector body which will manage rail infrastructure and train operations. a new independent watchdog will also be established,

now, to mark 100 years since the publication about her colourful character. i do now have a separate secretary for my 10,000 health letters i do a year. romantic novels, her love of pink and small dogs, and her but what you might not know is the part she played in local and public health. there has been a stereotype created, but actually to help other people.

and one of the things she was most proud of was could have a fixed abode so that the children could go to school. she had a lot of fan letters — she told me once it was up to 30,000 in a year. a man suggested that women could not drive as well as men. and here she is, campaigning for midwives. needed to have fair rights. well, this is the cartland pink that she was often seen in, and it became synonymous with romance because of her novels. style, but she took

it all in good fun. it's set in china. over here, the elusive earl. you know, she's sort of 19th—century dress. novels are the same — there's, you know, and what would you say to people who think that dame barbara cartland's views on women were not very progressive? she had very fixed ideas, which, you know, some of them i don't share. so, you know... as a business magnate — what she achieved? as your grandmother? it was wonderful.

an incredible sense of humour. and, you know, was very, very generous with her time, her humour and her wit. nicola haseler, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather. the february gloom has gone. we had a lot of sunshine sunday and monday — in kent through monday. for another day or two. yes, it's quite a wintry mix as well. of rain, sleet and snow — some of that rain freezing rain as well. so that wintry mix of rain, sleet and snow will linger throughout the morning across scotland, gradually starting to ease away.

cloudy skies into northern ireland. but the sunshine a little more hazy in comparison to of late, 6—12 celsius. atlantic and push across us. quite a few isobars on the chart, the winds will start to strengthen, gale—force gusts rattling that rain through at quite a pace. maybe the odd rumble of thunder as well here

and there on thursday. and east through the day. windy with it, but mild — 9—11; celsius the overall high. now, it looks likely that friday will be better day on saturday. more wet and windy weather is set to return, unfortunately, for sunday. don't forget, if you want a detailed forecast for your area, well, you can always find out

at bringing an end to the war in ukraine. but there's no seat at the

table for president zelensky. we just landed, our plane crashed. it's upside down. miraculously, all 80 people on board a delta airlines plane survive a crash landing after the aircraft flipped on arrival punishment over rehabilitation — an independent review. strategic vantage points. and facebook�*s parent company meta announces plans to build across five continents.