Of a century, while also cutting pollution and keeping a lid on soaring debt levels. Its a difficult balancing act. So what are we expecting . According to surveys by reuters and afp, chinas economy probably grew 6. 8 last year. That would be slightly better than 2016, which saw the weakest growth in 25 years, and better than the governments target of 6. 5 you can see the slowdown since 2010. 0n reason is china has been trying to rely less on exports, being the low cost factory of the world, and more on its domestic Economy Consumer spending by its own people. This is the years of double digit growth. In other words, its moving from a developing to a developed economy. But with that has come a surge in debt. A decade ago, Chinese Companies and households owed some 6 trillion. That was the level of debt. Today, despite government attempts to limit credit, that has ballooned to 27 trillion. Thats prompted dire warnings of a looming crisis. We hope to go to shanghai shortly to speak to our correspondence. We will do that in 80 minutes. A few minutes. Lets move to the us now where facebook, twitter, and youtube owner google have once again been facing criticism. Policy makers for the social media platforms were in front of a Senate Committee to explain what they are doing to tackle extremist content, propaganda and fake news. 0ur north American Technology reporter dave lee was following the proceedings. We have seen Tech Companies face the senate as recently as last november, but this time the cast has changed about the lawyers and instead the companies have sent their policy bosses. But besides getting access to some real decision makers, senators achieve little with their questioning. It seems this session was simply about keeping up pressure on the companies while making waegemans to do more to stop extremist content and propaganda. The basic questions that we want to ask is what have we learnt, what are we correcting, what is going to happen in the future, and how can we get ahead of it before it does . Recently missing a separate committees deadline for providing more information on its efforts, twitter, like the other firms, more information on its efforts, twitter, like the otherfirms, did its best to explain how it was stamping out undesirable content. We spot more than 90 of terrorist account before anyone else does, and we sub 75 before they can spread any of their deplorable ideology. 0nce any of their deplorable ideology. Once again, silicon valleys dont have the drag to washington to face frustrated politicians who say the cubbies must do more to face this problem. The tech firms are united in their goal to make sure more regulation isnt passed in order to force them to stamp out the problem. But could they be doing more . Force them to stamp out the problem. But could they be doing more7m force them to stamp out the problem. But could they be doing more . It is easy to identify the worst of the job news, those that are clearly spreading lies and misinformation. They should be taken offsite. It should be tougher to share news that is obviously full of lies. Later this year, americans will again go to the polls for the imported mid term elections, scrutiny of these companies and the role they play in democracy will be more intense than ever imported. This saturday marks a year since us President Donald Trump took office. When he became president a year ago, mr trump promised three things related to asia to get rid of unfair trade deals, make trade more quote reciprocal and bring jobs back to america. So did he make good on these promises . 0ur Asia Business correspondent Karishma Vaswani looks at whats fact and whats fiction. We can no longer tolerate these chronic trade abuses and we will not tolerate them. One of the things donald trump always said he was going to kill off were big multilateral trade deals, specifically the tra ns Pacific Partnership agreement, or the tdp, as it is known, he did pull the us out, and given the fact that america was the biggest economy in the deal, many thought it would die, it didnt. The 11 other countries in the agreement decided to push ahead without the us in it. In fact, the us looks like it could be the one losing out, geopolitically at least, as the rest of the world carries on. The us still buys more from asia thanit the us still buys more from asia than it sells, and Donald Trumps and this has been to renegotiate or initiate bilateral trade deals with individual asian countries. It is in the process of renegotiating one deal and that is the us and south korea agreement, but that is of an hour china is another big target. He said he was going to call china a currency manipulator on his first day in office and slap tariffs on chinese goods coming into the us. He didnt. But we have seen moves from the us to keep Chinese Companies out of the united states. And he has made some headway in getting us Financial Firms more access to the chinese market. They have taken our money, they have taken ourjobs. Japans bank said it would create 50,000 jobs in the us, alibaba said it will create a million newjobs. No concrete action on either front so no concrete action on either front so far. Trump did put enough pressure on japanese carmaker so far. Trump did put enough pressure onjapanese carmaker toyota at tim aker promise it would build one factory in the us which would create more jobs one factory in the us which would create morejobs tim aker promise. Donald trump has not been as tough on trade in asia as he promised to be. What it has done is drastically change the direction of americas trade policy, very obviously putting America First. While there has been a lot of rhetoric, there has not been much in the way of concrete deals or action. It is still quite doubtful whether his strategy will push America First oi his strategy will push America First or end up leaving america behind. Let us get more on our top story from our corresponded in shanghai, robin brant. In a few hours we will get the number from the chinese government. Your thoughts . get the number from the chinese government. Your thoughts . I think we may see a surprising bump up. If chinas premier is a man to be believed, and most people believe he is, then the gdp figures for last year, 2017, they should come in at about 6. 9 . That is higher than the target of 6. 5, higher than the before as well, that was 6. 7. That could be the first evidence of acceleration in the growth of chinas economy for seven years. The economy is growing, growing at a rate that many other economies around the world would be hugely ambitious of. Nonetheless, the trend. We could see evidence that last year was different. That is probably down to the fact that early on in 2017 heavy investment from the Chinese State government continued, a traditional source of stimulus in this country, a traditional source of growth as well. Something they are trying to get away from. The help of the global economy, that continues to improve. China continued to benefit from that. At the end of the year we saw a squeeze on credit. There are worries about debt and credit as well. They pulling in the housing market. That isa pulling in the housing market. That is a key driver of gdp in china. Towards the end of the year the story might be slightly different. All right, thank you very much indeed. That is robin brant in shanghai. As soon as we get the figure we will let you know. Will it be 6. 8 or 6. 9 . We will let you know on the bbc. Now lets brief you some other business stories. Apple is to pay about 38 billion in tax on the cash it holds outside the us, roughly 250 billion, following recent changes to american tax rules. Its likely to be the biggest payment under president trumps reforms, which slash the us Corporate Tax rate. The tech giant also plans to build a new campus and create 20,000 newjobs in the us. Goldman sachs has posted its first quarterly loss in six years. The Us Investment bank lost 1. 9bn in the last three months of 2017, sending full year profits down more than a0 . Goldman blames unusually calm markets for a slide in revenues in currency, commodity and bond trading. It also reported a one time tax charge of a. 4bn, making it the latest major bank to take a hit from changes in the us code. And now, whats trending in the Business News this morning in the wall streetjournal, facebook widens probe into alleged russian interference in brexit. That is what they are discussing. From reuters business, more bad news for bitcoin and its rivals. Us Financial Crime fighters are aggressively pursuing Virtual Currency platforms. And from bloomberg, mays date to make up with trump in davos is on ice. It says theresa mays hopes of thawing frosty relations with trump at a meeting at davos could be fading. Iam heading i am heading there on sunday so i will keep you in touch with what is happening there next week. And dont forget, let us know what you are spotting online use the hashtag bbcthebriefing. The markets very quickly. In asia, things are changing. At the beginning of the day they were all higherfry will beginning of the day they were all higher fry will following the lead from wall street. Sentiments have changed. I will see you soon. A leading charity is claiming that thousands of parents in england are struggling to pay nursery fees because of problems accessing a government website. The Pre School Learning Alliance says glitches on the hmrc site have meant some parents are missing out on their right to 30 hours Free Childcare or tax breaks. 0ur education correspondent, elaine dunkley, reports. How many off the pink deep cover got . At a sparkling stars pre school, the numbers do not add up. It is struggling financially provide children with 30 hours free week and says the government has not provided enough funding for the scheme. The only person that this policy is free to is the government. It is not free to providers. We are subsidising this policy. It is not free to parents or their children, because we are having to ask for additional contributions to cover pa rt additional contributions to cover part of what we offer that the funding does not cover. We would love the word fees to be replaced by funded or subsidised. The scheme two double Free Childcare portbury and four year olds from 15 hours per week to 30 was introduced last september, but with nurseries now struggling, families are being asked to pick up additional costs. The report from the Pre School Learning Alliance suggests only 35 of childcare providers are delivering 30 hours per week completely free. 37 have introduced or increased charges for things such as meals and snacks to make up the shortfall, betty 8 to providers are uncertain whether they will be offering 30 hour places in one years time. When they go on to bigger schools, you are not expected to make donations. It should be free for everybody. Department for education said it has a lwa ys department for education said it has always been clear that the government funding is not intended to cover the cost of meals or Additional Services and while providers can charge parents for additional extras, this cannot be a condition of eachs place. Childs place. This is the briefing with the bbc. The latest headlines. Britain is to boost its contribution towards border controls in france by £1145 million, and take more migrants, especially unaccompanied minors. The deal will be announced at a summit between theresa may and president Emmanuel Macron later today. North and south korea have agreed to march under the same flag at next months Winter Olympics in south korea. Therell also be a joint womens ice hockey team. Despite the apparently thawing relations, south korea has stressed the importance of sanctions to deal with the nuclear threat. Police in portugal and spain have broken up an International Drug smuggling ring that used boxes of fruit to bring in cocaine from south america. Authorities found more than 700 kilogrammes of the drug hidden in pineapples. Nine people have been arrested. In business, china faces the weakest growth rate in decades, but are its soaring levels of debt a bigger worry for the World Economy . Also, look at the latest idea from nintendo. Their latest technology is diy cardboard, apparently. It has been dubbed labo. It goes with the switch. They are all made of cardboard. I love that idea. I have plenty of cardboard in my home. That is on the bbc news app. Now its time look at the stories that are making the headlines