trouble at tesla, a former ev executives says ev executives says she was accused of stealing. oil prices are flat after iran's weekend attack on israel, but uncertainty is still plaguing the markets. hello, and welcome to asia business report. i'm steve lai. a tesla whistle—blower who has battled elon musk and tesla through the courts for a decade has told the bbc she is still seeking a public apology for how she was treated after raising a safety concern about its vehicles.

until 2014, cristina balan was a rising star within the electric car firm in the us. she spoke to our technology editor zoe kleinman. i was the only woman in the team, like engineering. and in the beginning, it was great. in the early days, cristina balan was doing so well at tesla, her initials were engraved on the car's batteries, but she says it wasn't long before things took a turn for the worse. everything went south when i realised that they were hiding some critical safety issues. she claims they pretended that they didn't know. and you decided to go right to the top. you went to elon musk himself? i tried to. and what exactly was the safety concern? they realised that they make a design engineering mistake on the carpets. you know, the carpets that you have under the adults and in the front of the car. so what happened is those

carpets, they were curling under the brake and under the acceleration. cristina further claims that she'd heard there were complaints made about this issue. so she believes tesla was aware of it. she claims that when she shared her worries, tesla's management turned hostile. she lost herjob, sued the firm and won. but then tesla did something unexpected. they dare to accuse me of serious crimes like embezzlement. theyjust purely invented those with one scope in mind, to give a lesson to everybody who dared to speak up. tesla said in a public statement that cristina had used company resources for a secret project. she denies this, and the firm has never provided proof. what do you want to get out of this now? this long—running battle with this company? i want to clear my name. i wish elon musk had the decency to apologise. i am battling the most

aggressive type of breast cancer, and elon musk and their lawyers knows that. and they were willing to allow a little boy who... i'm his hero for him. you know, i'm the mummy who does aeroplanes and cars. to let my memory of me for him be a shadow forever that his mum stole from tesla. and i want to do something for all the cancer patients out there, and especially breast cancer patients. well, you're setting me off. my goodness. bbc news put her claims to tesla, but the firm has not responded. on its website, tesla says safety is the most important part of every tesla. we design our vehicles

to exceed safety standards. they should have done the right thing for so many times, for so many years, and they didn't. it'll now be up to the california courts to decide the next chapter for christina, who's currently in remission from her cancer. but there's no court date set yet. tesla is cutting thousands ofjobs — around 10% of its global workforce — as demand slows. billionaire owner elon musk said the decision was difficult, but "must be done." the world's largest automobile maker by market value is facing stiff competition from chinese ev makers. china will unveil its growth figures for the january to march quarter in the coming hours. retail sales and industrial production figures for march are also expected. there's been some optimism that the world's second largest economy is back on track. but there are still multiple headwinds — that's according to harry murphy cruise from moody's analytics. china is in this

mismatch at the moment. parts doing well around the industrial side of the economy. manufacturers are gaining confidence, we are seeing a ramp—up in manufacturing output, and also firms starting to invest more, after a long period where they were hesitant to open their wallets. the other side is the areas not doing well, front and centre is the household sector — households are still very nervous at the moment. lots of that is coming from the state of the labour market, unemployment has risen over the last few months, youth unemployment particularly is a concern, and it's manifesting in households not spending as much as they otherwise would. also, we are seeing that with the inflation data, the lack of domestic demand is keeping prices negligible. so the 01 report rooted today, the good news

on the manufacturing front probably outweighs the bad, we expect a growth of around 4.7% over the year around 4.7% over the year to the march quarter, but then a real question mark as to what the rest of the year looks like. you cannot manufacture growth forever, we do need to see households come to the party if china wants to keep that around 5% growth target. if they don't, then there's a real risk of missing that. oil prices are flat, with iran's weekend attack on israel proving less damaging than investors thought. analysts say israel's successful defence of the attack calmed fears of a regional conflict affecting oil traffic. oil market analyst andy lipow says any retaliation from israel could cause a spike in prices.

since hamas invaded israel, there's been no oil supply disruption to speak of. just rerouting in the red sea. now there is worry tha israel might hit iranian territory and damage export capacity, which would impact supply as well. we know iran is a big supplier of oil, if there is to be an escalation of conflict, how would that disrupt oil flows as well as the oil price? i think the market's greatest fear is the strait of hormuz shutting and i would expect prices to move up to up to 130 dollars per barrel,

which is unlikely for iran to shut that route of transport especially since that is where the majority of antagonising its neighbours there. and they would be reluctant to do so. what should we be looking out for in terms of a response from israel? we are waiting to see what response israel will take, i think it would be aimed at military facilities in iran, perhaps nuclear facilities. i think it's unlikely that israel will strike the oil production facilities, so the market will look to the supply and demand balance, and to opec plus, continuing their voluntary production cuts. south korean chip—maker samsung will receive up to $6.4 billion in grants to expand its semiconductor manufacturing facilities in the us. this comes under an effort to boost chip production in the world's largest economy. us chipmaking giant intel and taiwanese rival tsmc have also been awarded grants in recent weeks. samsung has overtaken

apple as the world's top smartphone maker, according to research firm idc. the iphone maker saw a10% decline in shipments of the popular device in the january to march quarter. it comes as apple boss tim cook arrived in vietnam for a two—day visit. he is expected to meet suppliers, content creators and students in the key manufacturing hub. shares in trump media — donald trump's company which runs the social media platform truth social — have fallen by 18%. it comes as mr trump arrived at a manhattan court on the first day of a landmark criminal trial against him. the bbc�*s michelle fleury has more from new york. the company behind the truth social platform has told financial regulators that it plans to issue another 21.5 million new shares linked to warrants. these are contracts that give investors the right to buy or sell a stock at a specific price within a certain time frame. but the sale can also devalue a stock if there isn't enough

demand to absorb the increase in available shares, which appears to be what happened today. trump media is also looking for approval to potentially resell up to 146 million shares held by current investors, including the former president, who's the majority shareholder. the move paves the way for them to be able to cash in sooner. currently, these insiders are barred from any share sale until september, once the securities and exchange commission signs off on this filing, insiders, including mrtrump, can seek board approval to start selling their stock. it's worth noting so—called lock—ups such as this are fairly common, and filing this kind of paperwork doesn't necessarily mean shareholders are planning to sell. still, shares in the troubled company dropped 18%, extending a slump that has seen its stock price plunge around 60% from the peak set last month and reducing mr trump's paper windfall.

back in the next hour. bye for now.

i'm betty. and this is the catch up. tonight, some bridges for dormice, painting to show life with chronic illness, and what on earth is happening in the middle east. so let's start in the middle east, where this weekend iran attacked israel. but what actually happened? hamas, a group seen by the uk government is terrorists have been in conflict with israel since october. iran's provided hamas with weapons and training and have been in what's described as a shadow war with israel for years, where they attack each other�*s assets without admitting responsibility, until now. over the weekend, iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at israel in what it said was retaliation for a strike on one of its government buildings in syria earlier this month. israel has admitted attacking iran in the past, but haven't said that they're behind this one. israel has said that

most of the missiles were successfully intercepted, some of them by the uk and us airforces, but have promised to respond. however, israel's allies, like the us and uk, have urged it to avoid any escalation, and the uk says efforts are focused on ensuring a pause in fighting and getting aid into gaza. a really lovely story for you now. poppy cahill is 21 and has been using her artwork to communicate how it feels to live with a chronic illness. she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis after years of symptoms when she was 16 and has a stoma. she hopes that sharing her work will raise awareness. it's time now for ten seconds of dormice bridges, forestry england have set up some mini rope bridges in the forest of dean to help hazel dormice travel safely between the tree tops. now they can make it to wherever they want to go. and isn't that a relief? you are well and truly caught up. see you later.

hello and welcome to sportsday, i'm gavin ramjaun. here's what's coming up on the programme. a tremendous night for chelsea — they hammer everton, with cole palmer again at the centre of the action. nadal�*s back — the spaniard plays at barcelona as excitement builds around his return to the clay. and we meet yahya pandor — into the record books after completing a marathon first on the streets of manchester. i want people to see from this that no obstacle is too big, and it's not just about running — it's about life in general.

hello there, and welcome along to the programme.