a statement condemning north korea after it fired a medium—range missile overjapan. pyongyang confirmed that it carried out the missile test on tuesday, describing it as a prelude to containing the us territory of guam. president trump has been visiting texas, where rescue teams are continuing to deal with the effects of widespread flooding. large parts of houston are underwater. and this story is trending on bbc.com. new data suggests that the spectacular rings of saturn may be just 100 million or so years old. the information comes from the spacecraft cassini, which has been orbiting the planet. that is all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: kezia dugdale has resigned as leader of the scottish labour party, with immediate effect. she says the party needs a new leader to prepare for the next holyrood elections.

now on bbc news, all the latest business news live from singapore. japan's prime minister, shinzo abe, welcomes theresa may to tokyo. will north korea overshadow trade negotiations? from bicycles to football, we look at where —— whether the sharing economy has gone too far. it is wednesday, everyone. glad you could join us for this edition of asia business report. i am rico hizon. as we mentioned in the headlines, uk prime minister theresa may is injapan from today for a three—day visit. before we get to that story, let's check out the

state of the world's third—largest economy. here is our asia business correspondent. about a year ago, the economic news coming out ofjapan was still pretty gloomy. after all, this was a country which struggled with falling prices and slower growth since the stock—market collapsed company bubble in the 19905. but collapsed company bubble in the 1990s. but now things might be looking up. what has givenjapan's economy this bounce? low unemployment is helping wages to grow just unemployment is helping wages to growjust a unemployment is helping wages to grow just a little unemployment is helping wages to growjust a little bit more quickly, and that means more cash in people's pockets to spend. consumer spending makes up more than half ofjapan's economy. and there is more. the tokyo 2020 olympics are just around the corner. the government is spending billions on new stadiums and it has already seen a rise in tourist numbers. and then there is exports. while they did fall recently, they are going strong so the stuff that japan is well known for making like smartphones, cars and memory chips is in demand all

over the world. but alarm bells ahead. the japanese currency, the yen, is getting stronger, making japan's stuff more expensive to buy. so does this all mean that abenomics, the economic policies of shinzo abe to jumpstart japan, abenomics, the economic policies of shinzo abe to jumpstartjapan, are actually working? well, to a point. japan might be having its best run for a decade but that level of growth is not that impressive when compared to other developed economies. 0ne compared to other developed economies. one of its biggest names, toshiba, is at risk of becoming a zombie company propped up either state and the ageing population and shrinking workforce are fundamental problems forjapan shrinking workforce are fundamental problems for japan that shrinking workforce are fundamental problems forjapan that economics alone will not be able to fix. as she mentioned about shinzo abe, he will be hosting his uk counterpart, theresa may, who will be injapan starting today for a three—day visit. tensions surrounding north korea could rank high on the agenda and both sides could also be looking at ways to boost trade post brexit.

last year the uk exported 50 billion us dollars to japan —— 15 billion us dollars, while imports amounted to $14 billion us. dollars, while imports amounted to $14 billion us. japanese investors have invested $52 billion in the uk, across various industries including banking and autos. britain is home to 1000 japanese companies, employing 140,000 people. earlier i spoke to senior economist martin schulz about the importance of their relationship. the uk is clearly the most important country in many ways for the japanese economy and for japanese investors. most headquarters of companies are sitting in london. finances really... the international finance hub for really... the international finance hubforjapan, as really... the international finance hub forjapan, as well. an overall, the idea in japan hub forjapan, as well. an overall, the idea injapan is that the domestic economy is booming, a growing beyond potential. they want to invest in the euro and the uk is still an important hub forjapan.

to invest in the euro and the uk is still an important hub forjapanm is important, but we now have the brexit negotiations. will the japanese agreed to discuss a free trade agreement with the uk sooner rather than later? well, this is really the most important point. mrs may will have to explain to japan, to investors and the government, what is the future plan? how will she support businesses in the uk? how can the uk actually do better outside the eu? this is very hard to grasp for japanese businesses because japan has just negotiated an eujapan fda, because japan has just negotiated an eu japan fda, so they are joining the market while japan is leaving a very difficult situation. mrs may will have a great deal to do. the mood is calm but the big question is how to move on. you deal with a lot of japanese businesses on the ground, martin. what are these businesses sceptical about? by joining a free trade agreement with the uk? well, it is legally

impossible. that is a problem for the japanese government, because, well, the uk is still technically pa rt well, the uk is still technically part of the eu, so they can't negotiate outside. but more importantly, there will be indirect talks. there will be talks about future plans. but overalljapan is now focusing on the all—important eu japan fda, is not to disturb anything on that side, and it is moving on businesses. they want an internal plans, they want to know the future plans of the government in the uk, as an investment hard in europe. martin schulz in tokyo. shifting our attention to the aviation industry and chinese carriers are having to way politics over profitability. the big three, china southern, china eastern and airchina, are out china southern, china eastern and air china, are out soon. will events in the world cause a dent in that online? as they pressure south korea

over its deployment of a missile defence system. joining me is my colleague. will the south korean tourism industry really have an impact on the bottomline of these chinese carriers? yes, it will, because it is a case of politics over profits. essentially china's big three allied is a china southern, china eastern and air china. let's take a look at a graphic illustrating the size of each. they are asia's three largest airlines in terms of their fleet size and the sheer number of passengers they carry. china southern is the largest, carrying over 70 million passengers this year as ofjuly, with over 500 veins in the f. china eastern follows with 63 million passengers. —— 500 planes in the air. finally air china, which flew 57 million people with just a fleet size of 400 planes. you can

imagine, with the sheer size of these airlines, you would think they would report fairly good profits. actually they have reported a fairly mixed bag. yesterday we saw decent earnings from china eastern, which saw its first half profit rise. that was really on the fact that they had a 1—off sale of a logistics unit. a stronger chinese currency, as well, the yuan. china southern recorded an 1196 the yuan. china southern recorded an 11% fall in first half profit, due to higherfuel 11% fall in first half profit, due to higher fuel prices and 11% fall in first half profit, due to higherfuel prices and lower returns on its international flights. that is where we get to south korea. they had to cut their flights to south korea after beijing banned tour groups from visiting there. the cuts came as china began to pressure south korea over seoul's deployment of a missile defence system, the thaad, designed to thwart north korean attacks. china seesit thwart north korean attacks. china sees it as a threat to its own security. that is what i meant what isaid security. that is what i meant what i said politics over profits for these guys. many headaches for these

chinese carriers, massive fleets but not many passengers. thank you for joining us. moving on to other business news making headlines, uber says it is cooperating with a preliminary investigation by the us department ofjustice into possible allegations of bribing foreign officials. it is unclear whether authorities are focused on one country or multiple countries where the carrier operates. it is the latest legal problem right hailing giant faces as they await their new chief executive taking over the reins. and what is yours could also be ours, that is the thinking of the sharing economy taking off in various parts of the world, including china. how far would businesses go to push the sharing concept? 0ur correspondent looked around the chinese city of beijing. but what about ball sharing? the

company behind this venture planned to make 20 million footballs and basketball is available for hire across china. —— basketballs. that is very unique, exercising on a treadmill in the middle of the street. that is the sharing economy in china. that is it for this edition of asia business report. thank you so much for investing your time with us. i'm rico hizon in singapore. sport today is coming up next. theresa may has been accused of watering down plans to tackle excessive executive pay. from nextjune, britain's biggest firms will have to reveal how much more their chief executives are paid compared with the average worker. but critics have called the government's attempt to make boardrooms more transparent and accountable feeble, and not as radical as originally planned. here is our business editor simonjack. a leadership and an election pitch,

to a party and a public that had lost faith in big business. we all know that, in recent years, the reputation of business as a whole has been bruised. that when a minority of businesses and business figures appear to game the system, and work to a different set of rules. i'm putting you on warning. this can't go on anymore. a change has got to come, and this party is going to make it. applause since then, promises have been gradually shelved. a pledge to put workers on company boards was dropped, as was a plan to give shareholders a binding annual vote on executive pay. however, by forcing companies to publish the difference between its top earner and its average earner, this government has gone further than previous ones. when boards are setting pay, and when they're disclosing pay,

they shouldn't do it with an eye on pay in the board, but they should look at pay across the company, and be prepared to set out publicly how they can justify boardroom pay, in the context of the pay that the rest of the workforce get. those numbers could prove embarrassing. last year, the average boss of a top—100 company made £4.5 million in total pay. that is 129 times as much as his or her average employee and that is compared to 20 years ago, when the boss earned only 47 times as much as the average worker. this is an important development. we haven't been able to track the gap between top pay and the rest without these pay ratios based on good data. no government has put this through before. and the truth is, if you want to know how much a fat cat weighs, you do have to put them on the scales every now and again.

there is already some evidence that the pay gap between the top floor and the shop floor is beginning to narrow, and this extra transparency can only help that. but, for many, today's package of reforms falls a long way short of the big business shake—up that was promised by a leader trying to portray the conservatives as the party of the worker, notjust of the boss. the prime minister has broken repeated promises to tackle boardroom greed, to put workers on the board, and shake up corporate culture. and instead, she's delivered a feeble package of proposals. business groups were generally supportive of today's proposals, perhaps glad that promises made in the bubble of campaigning can often be hard to deliver in the real world. simon jack, bbc news. hello, this is sport today live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: at the us open defending women's

champion angelique kerber is out after being beaten in the first round byjapan's naomi 0saka. arsenal reject a bid of $65 million from manchester city for chile forward alexis sanchez. and west indies batsman shai hope breaks records as his side beat england in a thrilling second test in leeds. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with tennis news from day two at the us open and the shocks keep on coming. defending women's champion angelique kerber has been beaten in the opening round by japan's new york raised naomi 0saka. the german's serve was broken with blistering returns like this from 0saka, who then went on to again break on match point and claim a 6—3, 6—1win and a first