on a plan to fire missiles near the american territory of guam. north korea's state agency has said the leader held discussions with military about a potential missile firing near the pacific island, which is home to us air and naval bases. hundreds of people are feared dead after a mudslide near sierra leone's capital, freetown. a hillside collapsed following heavy rains, engulfing many homes. and this story is trending on bbc.com: a verdict has been reached in the court case between an american dj and the us singer taylor swift. jurors agreed that david mueller had groped the singer at an event in 2013. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: plans for how britain will leave the customs union, after brexit have been outlined for the first time by the government. ministers are seeking to negotiate a temporary customs arrangement

with the eu. now on bbc news, all the latest business news live from singapore. president orders an investigation into whether china is stealing intellectual property from us companies —— president trump. and starting over is never easy for any family business, but one candy store in india has tasted sweet success. good morning, asia, hello, world. it isa good morning, asia, hello, world. it is a tuesday. glad you could join us for this edition of asia business report. i am for this edition of asia business report. iam rico for this edition of asia business report. i am rico hizon. just a few hours ago president donald trump asked for an investigation into alleged chinese theft of american

intellectual property. this order comes as us ties with china are streamed over north korea. we will combat the counterfeiting and piracy that destroys american jobs. we will enforce the rules of fair and reciprocal trade that form the foundation of responsible, so. well, according to the us government, intellectual property stolen by china is estimated at more than $300 billion. and china is said to account for between 50% to 80% of global intellectual property theft. mr trump's tough talk on trade with china has been going on for a while, but what exactly is prompting this latest decision? i spoke to a correspondent in shanghai.” latest decision? i spoke to a correspondent in shanghai. i think trump is right. he should be criticising china for the over protectionism in the country, as well as for copyright intellectual property issues. i think first off it is really unfair at this stage that a lot of american companies like general motors have to set up a joint—venture if they want to

establish a factory in china. the concern is that right now there is a lot of transfer of technology to the chinese joint—ventu re lot of transfer of technology to the chinese joint—venture partner. lot of transfer of technology to the chinesejoint—venture partner. so today you are going to be helping your partner become your competitor in five years. or you have other situations like elon musk‘s kessler, they have announced they would like to open a factory in china but they are having problems getting the permits to do so because they are not willing to have a joint—venture partner —— tesla. not willing to have a joint—venture partner -- tesla. is the right in saying american companies are being hurt to the tune of 300 billion us dollars? well, i think $300 billion might bea dollars? well, i think $300 billion might be a slight exaggeration. i think if you add up over the last 20 yea rs think if you add up over the last 20 years maybe i hitting close to that number. at the reality is that china was right to be somewhat protectionist ten, 15 years ago. their industry was in shambles. they really needed to have that infant syndrome where you protect your industries. but right now that sort of protectionism is hurting the

country. a lot of western brands that i talk to are now looking towards indonesia, or sri lanka, or even africa to invest, because they are concerned about unfair trading practices in china. in corporate america, the boss of drugs giant merck has resigned from the business panel led by donald trump over the president's response to a violent white nationalist rally which took place in virginia over the weekend. i spoke to our correspondent from new york and i asked why the drugs chief executive, ken frazier, resigned. merck's ceo use the company's resigned. merck's ceo use the compa ny‘s twitter account to resigned. merck's ceo use the company's twitter account to explain his decision to step down. it was from the president's manufacturing jobs council. he, it is worth pointing out, is one of america's most prominent african—american business executives. and he explained that as merck's boss and asa explained that as merck's boss and as a matter of personal conscience he felt a responsibility to take a stand against extremism. many people are seeing this as an apparent

criticism of donald trump, who took two days before coming out and criticising and condemning explicitly white supremacists for the violence that occurred over the weekend, and that led to the death ofa weekend, and that led to the death of a woman. what we saw, though, in the immediate aftermath of the criticism from ken frazier is donald trump then taking to twitter and criticising him, attacking the company, saying that they were in pa rt company, saying that they were in part responsible for higher drug prices. so what have other executives done, who were part of this advisory council? have they sided with ken frazier, have some of them also resigned, or have some of them also resigned, or have some of them basically stayed put?|i them also resigned, or have some of them basically stayed put? i have spent much of my day reaching out to some of those ceos, which really reads like a who's who of the corporate world in america. you are talking about the head of pepsico, the chairman of general electric. the heads of mark stone and black

rock. these are well—known global companies. —— blackstone. many responses followed a similar pattern, which was to condemn the violence we saw over the weekend. it is worth pointing out that none were prepared to go as far as ken frazier, and none were prepared to give up their place on presidential advisory councils. and we just learned minutes ago that the chief executive of under armour will also be stepping down from the trump administration's american manufacturing council. he said in his tweet i love our country and company. iam his tweet i love our country and company. i am stepping down from the council to focus on inspiring and uniting through power of sport. that was the ceo, and it follows ken frazier‘s resignation from the council of president trump. moving on to the partition of india, which triggered the largest mass movement of people ever, hindus moving to india and muslim is moving to the

newlyformed state of pakistan. among the millions affected were people with flourishing businesses they had run for decades. 0ne suites franchise eventually thrived in a new homeland, but it was a painful and challenging journey. partition was destructive for everyone. we had to start once again from zero. we had the restaurant in karachi, and due to partition we had to move

to bombay. business takes years to build and it can take minutes to destroy. 0ur base in karachi was totally destroyed. developing and bombay, it is hard work in bombay. it is not imported from karachi. well, this is the house where we had come and stayed here. it was almost like a dormitory. and all of those who came from karachi stayed with us for a number of years before we could establish alternative arrangements. the memory cannot be wiped out

entirely, and therefore the pain is still there. the mockery of the whole thing is that it was not a question of i that religion or politics or state, then what was the cause of partition? after the wannacry attack in may caused chaos and confusion around the world, cyber security is at the forefront of many minds, especially for business. as ceo spent three decades fighting cyber crime with the fbi. he told my correspondent what companies can do to defend against cyber attacks. think about this. instead of starting with the technology, start with the adversary. there are really five categories of at the street you have to consider. nationstates, multinational grimal organisations,

hacktivists, terrorists and the insider threat. think about your corporate strategy and corporate assets and ask yourself which one of those categories of adversary would be most likely to come after you to do harm? at certain times it will be a multinational grimal organisation, other times it could be hacktivists. we have seen global attacks like wannacry, even crime against states. so how bad could the situation become? what are some of the worst case scenarios? wannacry, really, if you had a mature cyber security programme, was a nonevent for most companies. the patch came out in march and the event started in may. so think about having very mainstream programmes in your company, such as patch management and how you allow access to your network, and you can explain and defend against that. you can resolve

a great deal of these problems with just routine behaviours and cyber security. and do you think companies generally are taking this threat seriously? it depends on the industry. if you go to the defence industry, the financial services sector industry, and communications, they take it very seriously. but, as you get into other industries, healthcare, retail, hospitality, they are really not as mature as they are really not as mature as they need to be to defend against these attacks. thank you so much for investing your time with us. i am rico hizon in singapore. sport today is coming up next. the top stories this hour: north korea's leader has been briefed on a plan to fire missiles near the us pacific territory of guam, but kim jong—un is said to be watching us actions before taking a decision. at least 300 people are feared dead in sierra leona after an entire hillside collapsed in heavy rains. a rise in crime in the countryside is turning farmyards

into fortresses. that is the warning from insurers, after rural crime levels rose by a fifth in the first half of the year. last year england bore the brunt of rural crime, at a cost ofjust under £34 million. 0ur midlands correspondent sima kotecha reports from a farm on the warwickshire—leicestershire border. for farmers, it is an added pressure, having to constantly think about their vehicles and animals being stolen by criminals targeting the rural community. right, so this was the dome that was stolen. three of these off each tractor. just weeks ago, will had his gps systems stolen off his tractors, worth more than £30,000. it makes you feel sick that someone's been in your shed. everything was locked up. all the tractors were locked up, but they can just get

in and take everything. and it's stolen to order, as well, i would say, because you're not going to sell it at your local car boot. today's crime report says theft in rural parts of the country has been worse this year than in the first six months of last year. we're seeing gangs of very well—organised thieves targeting tractors and equipment that's worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. it's easily transportable to europe. and they can get there in a matter of hours, and also its being transported across the globe. as this form of crime increases, there are concerns that thieves are becoming more sophisticated, and that is putting more pressure on farmers to remain one step ahead with their security measures. so now they are installing multiple cctv cameras, electronic gates, and in some cases are using dna markers on their sheep, to protect them from rustlers. david is a dairy farmer who makes cheese. last year, equipment was stolen from his workshop. do you think farmers are doing enough to keep their farms safe? well, you shouldn't have to do

so much, should you? but we're certainly doing more than we were before. i think we just need more police on the ground, really. and i know that's probably a tall order under the current climate. we can only protect ourselves to a certain extent. we've been broken into twice, and we've had a horse trailer stolen during sunday lunch. you know, how can you protect yourself against that? ask any farmer, and they will tell you life is tough. but the additional threat of theft makes that burden even heavier and more stressful. time now for all the sports news in sport today. hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: the world footballer of the year cristiano ronaldo has been given a 5—match ban for pushing a referee.

15 time grand slam winner rafael nadal will return to the world number one ranking next week. and four—time tour de france winner chris froome says he can't wait to take on the challenge of the vuelta a espana. hello and welcome to the programme where we start with football and the news that cristiano ronaldo has been suspended for five games after he was sent—off for pushing a referee, in real madrid's 3—i first leg defeat of barcelona in the spanish super cup. the 32 year—old was given a one—match ban for being shown two yellow cards at the camp nou. a further four games were added for pushing the referee in the back after he'd been sent off. so ronaldo will miss the second leg on wednesday and real‘s opening four league matches. the former english premier league referee dermot gallagher says overturning the ban would send out the wrong message