has denied any collusion with russia in last year's american election. in his first live televised comments in answer to the allegations, mr kushner insisted there had been nothing improper about his contacts with russian representatives. the parents of terminally ill baby charlie gard have ended their legal challenge to take him to the us for experimental treatment. doctors treating him had argued it would only prolong his suffering. and pop starjust bieber is trending on bbc.com. he's cancelled the rest of his purpose world tour because of what his publicist is calling "unforeseen circumstances". the move will affect 1a dates in asia and north america over the next three months. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: the government has announced plans to invest a quarter of a billion pounds in pioneering battery technology. business and energy secretary, greg clark, said making major changes to the way electricity is made, used and stored

could save consumers up to £40 billion by 2050. now on bbc news, all the latest business news live from singapore. the parent company of google sees its quarterly profits slump after a massive fine from the european commission. a start—up ceo, one man cashing in on the transfer business. hello. welcome to asia business report. i'm sharanjit leyl. it's a tuesday. alphabet has scored d for disappointing on its report card, falling 3% in late trading after quarter earnings missed market

expectations. it makes most of its money from google. profits slumped by 28% after it was fined a record $2.7 billion by european regulators injune for $2.7 billion by european regulators in june for alleged anti—trust behaviour. google denies the charges. alphabet also has bets in other sectors like biotech, autonomous vehicles, and their mysterious moonshot project. spending fell sharply in the quarter. i spoke to someone who said the news is not as bad as some are making it out to be. it is not as disappointing as the markets have reacted. look at alphabet. most of their money comes from advertising. 36 billion is coming from advertising. alphabet has been able to capitalise on video ads. you see many more of them coming in. another thing that is big for cost is

traffic is increasing. that acquisition has increased from 3.9 billion to 5.2 billion over this quarter. we saw that shares were down in after—hours trade. that is despite having risen 26% this year. how has the $2.7 billion fine by the european commission impacted it? they have made their own provisions for it to contradict that and will make an appeal against it. beyond the monastery amount, it is a big one, what is a bigger implications for that is the impact for other regions. —— monetary. the eu has to be able to convince people it was cannibalising other areas. the other regions will take it and there will

be litigation from other regions, including apec, which can have wider implications for google. we know that alphabet is the second most valuable us company behind apple. of course, google makes most of its profit, yet it has stiff competition with facebook when it comes to advertising revenue. who will win the contest? google has a better advantage. facebook has a bigger base, but google, in terms of overall platforms, it is stable. facebook, look at the strategy for google and facebook. facebook has a mobile strategy. facebook wins in a few regions. but google has a traditional base and a lot more happening in advertising, at least for now. staying with us earnings,

toymaker hasbro has reported a 30% bump in profits due to strong sales of transformers action figures and monopoly games. however, its revenue miss the market expectations because of wea k miss the market expectations because of weak sales in the uk and brazil. rio tinto is being investigated for possible corruption by the uk's serious fraud office. they say the probe is related to business dealings in guinea in africa. rio tinto says it will fully co—operate with the investigation. this comes several months after australian authorities looked at patents with the 20 billion iron ore project in guinea. samsung is known for making smartphones and appliances, but they are now investing in pharmaceuticals. samsung and merck

have just launched a generic version of thejohnson have just launched a generic version of the johnson & johnson have just launched a generic version of thejohnson &johnson arthritis drug which is going to be 75% cheaper. the government in the philippines has issued a deficit of $3 billion for the first half of the year, exceeding its own target by around 7%. the southeast asian country is one of the fastest—growing economies in the region. but is there spending a cause for alarm? i talked to anz research. it has overshot its monthly target. what is more important is january— june and its deficit is only 32% of the annual target for the deficit. if you are thinking about what would be the outlook for the next half of the year, there is still a lot of room to spend. room to stand. rodrigo duterte has signalled plans to have

spending move to $34 billion to usherin spending move to $34 billion to usher in what he calls a golden age of infrastructure. how might this help the economy of the country? think about it. infrastructure spending in the philippines is relatively quite low in comparison to the rest of the region. right now, the infrastructure by the plan is only 5% of gdp. his medium—term target is to raise that to 7% of gdp. if you compare that to the rest of the region, averaging around 20%, thatis of the region, averaging around 20%, that is still very low. however, infrastructure has always been the problem, and it is actually growth positive. in a speech yesterday he said he wants all mineral resources extracted from the philippines to be more ethical and responsible. what does that mean? well, there has been a lot of destruction and it has also negatively affected the local

communities. what he effectively said was that he would raise taxes in the mining sector is there are no sustainable practices. very quickly, we know the philippines is one of the fastest—growing in terms of gdp in this region, second to china. were wristed heading? we are expecting 6.5% growth in 2017, followed by 2. 5% expecting 6.5% growth in 2017, followed by 2.5% in 2018. it is one of those good performers. the next decade could bring major changes to the international monetary fund, including moving its headquarters from washington, dc to beijing. the managing director, christine lagarde, said the move is a possibility because the imf wants to increase representation of emerging markets that become more influential and get larger. it has been based in the us since it was established in 1945. being the first employee at

skype can be an oppressive thing to have on a regimen. he has since gone on to become an adviser to the prime minister of estonia. he has also build up transfer, an on line remittance service which has built up remittance service which has built up more than $1.5 billion. what led him to his latest venture? it was during skype that i realised how banks are undeserving and overcharging customers for many services, including transferring. i realised it was a problem that needed to be fixed and i found a better way of doing it. i realised hundreds of millions of people around the world would benefit. big established names in this business include western union and moneygram. how do you compete? we are based on doing something great for customers. it is the reason people use it,

because we are fast, low cost, and we are very easy to use on your mobile. looking at these parameters, it is fast and superior to any of those other businesses. the thing is that global remittances seem to be on the decline. for the past two yea rs on the decline. for the past two years globally, with the exception of the philippines, we have seen the amount being transferred on the decline. the remittance market is classically seen as money going from first world to developing world. we look at the market as slightly bigger, going from first world to first world. singapore to australia, australia to the us, the us to germany. and we look at small businesses. if we combine these three markets, we are looking at a market of between 5—10 trillion dollars a year, significantly big enough for any company to build a business. and before we go, do you

remember trying to draw shapes and pictures on microsoft paint? it looks like we may have to read a fond goodbye to the programme launched first in 1985. —— bid it. microsoft say it is no longer in active development and will be phased out. the markets have opened. the nikkei and the all 0rds index are flat at the moment. a breather in the japanese yen, giving a lift to export stocks in tokyo. and that is it for this edition of asia business report. i am sharanjit leyl in singapore. thank you for watching. the top stories this hour: president trump's son—in—law, jared kushner, insists he didn't collude with russia during the us election campaign. the parents of terminally—ill baby, charlie gard, have given up their legal fight to go to the us for experimental treatment. consumers in the uk could save up to £40 billion by 2050

through major changes to the way electricity is made, used and stored. the government plans to invest a quarter of a billion pounds in new technology — as richard westcott reports. from obvious things like our phones to london's new whispering black cab. here on secret tests in norway. to this experimental aircraft, battery power is taking off around the world. the problem is, they still run out too quickly, so today the government's promised to invest millions improving the technology. for the next generation of battery technology, there is nowhere better in the world than britain, not only to have the ideas, but to turn them into manufacturing plants to create good jobs. right now, britain is a front—runner with battery research. like here at warwick university where they're trying to solve the two biggest issues, making batteries weigh less and last longer. this room is four times drier than the centre of the sahara desert,

because it's where they physically put the batteries together and any moisture can ruin the process. taking sheets like this, containing the lithium ions, and they're sandwiching them together in this machine. here, they've welcomed this latest investment, but warned that competition from china, japan, korea and america is fierce. we are producing the cells we're producing, even our competitors are saying, it's 80, 90% better than what they've got. but we've got to keep it up, you know, because they'll catch up and they'll beat us if we don't watch it. as governments around the world scramble to cut pollution, demand for batteries is soaring. in china, they used £5 billion worth of lithium ion batteries three years ago. that would double by 2019. it's the same story across western europe. again production will nearly double from 1.2 billion to £2.3 billion.

batteries could also make wind and solar power more productive. one idea being floated is to use old electric car batteries to store energy from wind turbines. i think we'll see, and people are already working on this, in the uk, combining batteries with the production of renewable power. and if you can do that successfully at scale, you can remove the challenge that the wind doesn't blow all the time and the sun doesn't always shine. and you can have a continuous flow of energy into the grid. the future looks electric, but now the pressure's on to make batteries that can keep up. richard westcott, bbc news, coventry. hello, i'm mark edwards and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme:

city's big spending summer continues as benjamin mendy becomes the world's most expensive defender. 2013 runners up norway are out of the women's european championships, after losing to denmark. golf legend gary player says 0pen championjordan spieth could be the best putter he's ever seen. hello and thanks for joining us on sport today. the manchester city money machine just keeps on going this summer. the citizens completing the signing of full back benjamin mendy from monaco for around $68 million on monday. that's a world record for a defender. the 23—year—old france international has signed a five—year deal. that means that after the signings of kyle walker and danilo, city have spent around $160 million on fullbacks this summer. let's hear from city's newest addition.