the process of leaving the eu. and this as scotland's first minister said she'll seek a second independence referendum. north korea's ambassador to the un has defended his country's recent missile test and accused the us. and south korea of pushing tensions in the region to the brink of nuclear war. and this story is trending on bbc.com. disney has postponed the opening of its new film beauty and the beast in malaysia. no official reason has been given. the film has courted controversy over the inclusion of a gay character. that's all from me now. stay with bbc world news. and in addition to brexit, the top story here in the uk: rail services on some of the busiest lines in england have been disrupted because of a 24—hour union strike. the walkout is part of a row over changes to the role of conductors and the introduction of more driver—only—operated trains.

now on bbc news, all the latest business news live from singapore. brexit is a reality. after a revised bill is passed in parliament, we look at what it means. and tech industry leaders compete for centre stage in one of the well‘s largest interactive festivals. —— world's. hello and welcome to asia business report, i'm sharanjit leyl. parliament in britain has given its final approval to a bill setting out plans for the country to formally start the process of leaving the european union. parliament has also voted by a clear majority to reject two amendments put forward by the upper chamber, the house of lords. the proposals would have guaranteed the rights of eu citizens in the uk.

scotland's first minister nicola sturgeon also announced plans to hold a second independence referendum by early 2019. she said the vote was necessary after british prime minister theresa may refused to search for a compromise to allow scotla nd to search for a compromise to allow scotland to remain in the single market after brexit. what scotland deserves in the light of the material change of circumstances brought about by the brexit vote is the chance to decide oui’ brexit vote is the chance to decide our future brexit vote is the chance to decide ourfuture ina brexit vote is the chance to decide ourfuture in a fair, free and democratic way and at a time when we are equipped with the fact that we need. nicola sturgeon speaking there. earlier i spoke with david quo and asked about the implications of another scottish referendum. this has surfaced again and i think there will be continual... i wouldn't say problems but unease, not only in the uk but in europe as well. i think we're beginning to seize certain parts of the union, not only in the

uk but the european union as well starting to unravel and that will cause some dismay and probably some consternation as far as asia is concerned. some people will see this as an opportunity. as we saw with brexit, the pound has fallen so therefore asian investors are saying, are there any opportunities in the uk? some have actually found those opportunities. let's take a closer look at the pound, it's going up, even going up on this news where we heard nicola sturgeon make her announcement, which is unusual, it's only a little bit, but we've only ever seen it go down, it is 2017's was performing currencies of our. where is the pound heading? —— currency so where is the pound heading? —— currency so far. i can't see it strengthening until the bank of england increases interest rates. america is in a position to do that 110w america is in a position to do that now so america is in a position to do that now so that will heap more pressure on to the bank of england. but the

bank of england can't do anything, after brexit we saw they had to cut interest rates and they also had to fire up their muggy printing machines to try and inject more sterling into the uk economy. —— money. that was just to try and keep it going. and that will continue for a while i think because they simply don't have any option. what has happened around the world now is investors have begun to believe the central banks... all that they can do really is whenever there's a problem, cut interest rates and let's start quantitative easing again andi let's start quantitative easing again and i think that will happen in the uk. if that were to carry on this year and maybe next year as well then i can only see the sterling weakening. we haven't seen markets react too negatively, we've seen all these huge gains on wall street for instance, why don't markets seem fazed by these political changes? they know there's a backstop and that is the central bank. in america, it is certainly

the better reserve and in the uk it's the bank of england and in japan it's the bank ofjapan and they know the central banks will step in because they can't take the risk of armageddon —— federal reserve. therefore it's almost like governments can do whatever they wa nt governments can do whatever they want and then you will get the central banks coming in and saying we will save the day by printing money. since that interview with david kuo earlier, the pound has changed direction and is currently slipping in asian trade. in other business news, us search making giant intel is forking out $15 billion for mobile eye, and of israeli company that develops autonomous driving systems. they've been working together along with ian w to put a0 test vehicles on the road later this year. —— an israeli. intel says the d riverless year. —— an israeli. intel says the driverless market could be worth $70 billion by 2030 —— bmw. japan has joined the list of suitors for a

huge share sale. shinzo abe has asked king salman to list shares in tokyo. hong kong, singapore, new york and toronto have been courting the saudi iran to share sale. king salman said he would consider the request from the japanese prime minister. toshiba shares injapan have fallen a% in tokyo on reports the company will extend the deadline for submitting its earning report for submitting its earning report for the second time. there's a reason for the delay, the conglomerate expects to announce losses of up to $6 billion. toshiba is likely to also have to sell off some of its business, so where did it all go wrong for one ofjapan's corporate icons? here's our asian business correspondent karishma vaswani. when you think of toshiba you probably think of televisions, computers and possibly cameras but it's no longer the giant it used to be. today toshiba runs businesses in

all sorts of sectors and that's part of the problem. toshiba started its nuclear business around ten years ago. it now runs and operates nuclear power plants in the us, uk and japan. infact, the nuclear division makes up about a third of revenues. things really started turning sour, though, after because she in japan started turning sour, though, after because she injapan when governments started asking questions about how much they should depend on nuclear energy for their power needs. and then toshiba's nuclear assets in america turned out to be worth far less than initially thought, so the company's having to ta ke thought, so the company's having to take losses of several billion dollars because of that. well, toshiba has already sold off some of its more profitable businesses after an accounting scandal back in 2015. but the real jewel in its crown is the semiconductor business. that makes chips for smart phones and computers. toshiba has already said

it will sell off a slice of that business, but it still may not be an off to plug that whole. what does that mean? well, toshiba may not sub don max abide without a japanese government bailout, which it may get because it is so important to the economy “— because it is so important to the economy —— may not survive. in other news thailand's company has turned down a bid for the owner of the golden globe tv awards. a clampdown by the chinese government on overseas investments is thought to be the main reason. elrich industries, the owner of vic clarke productions, who owns the golden globes, said they fail to honour contractual obligations —— dick clarke. the financial arm of siemens has been granted approval to operate asa has been granted approval to operate as a merchant bank in singapore. they want to operate project and financial lending. last year they provided $3 billion in funding for projects in the asia—pacific.

thousands of tech leaders, policy makers as well as celebrities are all flocking to texas and it's not just for the famous barbecue and brea kfast just for the famous barbecue and breakfast burritos. it's the southwest southwest conference festival and it's in full swing. 0ur north america technology correspondent dave lee told us about the coolest thing that he spotted at the coolest thing that he spotted at the event. the thing for google is to provide our customers access to their favourite services and information from anywhere and at any time whether they are biking, walking, hiking, when their hands are busy they should be able to access their

favourite services from the cuff of their sleeve. what is on my calf and how does it work? the interface is on the material and the other threads integrate together. —— my calf. we snapped on the tag. you can see it is bluetooth, a simple brush gives you the time. it is to 30 7pm. we have the destination in, time to destination. -- it is 2:37pm. you can also add music. it is 2:37pm. that is quite expensive. a nice jacket but it feels quite pricey, how much of that is going on, give it the? levi's commuter trucker is going to be $150 without the technology and we think this is

really useful. —— how much of that is going on conductivity? hope they come in women's sizes as well. looking at the markets, they are all flat to lower at the moment, the nikkei coming into some profit after hitting 15 month highs. there's lots of data we are awaiting from china, getting manufacturing retail sales as well as investment data. that's it for this edition of asia business report, thanks for watching. i'm babita sharma. the top stories this hour: as the uk government gets the parliamentary green light for brexit negotiations, scotland's first minister announces she'll seek a second independence referendum. north korea's ambassador to the un says military exercises carried out by south korea and the us are pushing the region to the brink of nuclear war.

hundreds of thousands of rail passengers have had theirjourneys disrupted because a 2a—hour strike on some of the busiest lines in england. members of the rmt union at merseyrail, arriva trains north and southern rail took part in the walk—out. it's part of a dispute about changes to the role of conductors. 0ur transport correspondent richard westcott has the details. the joys of the monday morning commute. announcement: welcome to the leeds train. passengers across northern england today hit by the same strike that has caused months of misery for commuters in the south. northern are only running about a0% of their trains today. this is the 8am train from keighley into leeds, busy commuter service. it's really filling up now. it's been pretty busy. i mean, i usually get the train from ilkley, but there's no way i'd have got home. i finish work at half five, and the last train is at half five. it's a 2a—hour strike with around

2,000 rail workers walking out today across three companies, northern, merseyrail and southern. three strikes, same issue — the introduction of driver—only controlled trains... announcement: please take all your belongings with you. ..where the driver takes over all of the safety critical jobs, jobs like closing the doors. which is currently done by the guard. we fundamentally believe that services operated on a driver—only, driver—controlled operation are fundamentally less safe. and every train in the uk should retain a second safety—critical person on board. we put safety at the heart of everything we do. the independent rail regulator has actually indicated that this is as safe as conductor operation of the doors. this isn't about who opens and closes the doors, this is about giving our customers what they want. southern rail ran the bulk of its trains today, but merseyrail and northern struggled, stopping most

of their services at around 7pm tonight. for many, it meant an early dash home. just panicking to get back before the last train at quarter past. if you've got a hospital appointment, it does panic you a little bit. as the last trains left a quieter than usual leeds this evening, passengers are facing more disruption in future. richard westcott, bbc news, leeds. hello. this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: chelsea book their place in the fa cup semi finals after a 1—0 win over holders manchester united. through by the skin of her teeth — angelique kerber wins in indian wells after a 3 set marathon. and the 2022 commonwealth games will no longer be held in durban

after failing to meet the criteria. hello and welcome to the programme where we start with the news that seven time winners chelsea have beaten holders manchester united 1—0 to progress to the fa cup semi finals. watching at stamford bridge was 0lly foster. manchester united fans have been coming to stamford bridge for ever four use with no joys. coming to stamford bridge for ever four use with nojoys. as coming to stamford bridge for ever four use with no joys. as they were frisked for offensive items, the united team bus was underjust as much scrutiny. anything offensive on there, a striker, just one will do. marcus off his sick bed. as a mourinho used to have a hold over chelsea's player of course. he remembers the good old days. the new man is not doing too badly either. they are lighting