of declaring war on his country with a tweet. the white house says the suggestion is absurd, and has condemned north korea's claim that it now has the right to shoot down us bombers, even if they are outside its air space. china has largely blocked the whatsapp messaging service, the last of facebook products to be available there. chief executive mark zuckerberg had been pushing to re—enter the chinese market. and this video is trending on bbc.com: a 13—year—old girl from wales has become the first female in europe to complete a wheelchair backflip. lily rice is raising funds to take part in the wheelchair motocross world championships. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: the labour party is planning to take over pfi contracts should it win power. it says the contracts are likely to cost the public sector more

than £200 billion over the next few decades. now on bbc news, all the latest business news live from singapore. the‘s prime minister calls for a snap election, to get a new political mandate. and the smashing success. political mandate. and the smashing success. taking out their frustrations with a baseball bat is all the rage in singapore. good morning, asia, hello, world. it is the tuesday. glad you could join us on asia business report. i'm rico hizon. it is official. japan's prime minister, shinzo abe, announcing his plan to dissolve parliament and call elections more than a year before

expected. he is currentlyjapan‘s third longest serving prime minister, he served one year from 2000 and has been prime minister since 2012. if things go way, he will be orchestrating his fourth term as prime minister. the election comes as the economy injapan is improving, and that is seen as proof that abenomics is indeed working. during his time in power, shinzo abe has used accommodation of fiscal stimulus, monetary policy and structural reforms to jumpsta rt japan's economy. then there is shinzo abe's popularity, his strong sta nce shinzo abe's popularity, his strong stance in the face of north korean threats has boosted his image. i spoke to our correspondent about why it shinzo abe decided to call for the election now. i think the main reason is that the opposition is currently very weak. the main opposition parties to a lack party in the polls has singledigit ratings, and they have just replaced

their leader, so he thought that now might bea their leader, so he thought that now might be a good time to exploit the weakness. exploit the weakness, but how could this impact the course of abenomics, which is starting to be felt by the economy?” abenomics, which is starting to be felt by the economy? i don't think it will make much of a difference. this is the second early election he called. he had won in 2014, and after that nothing much happened any more. basically most of what shinzo abe did happen in the first one or two years when he was in power, and since then we have not seen many structural reforms, and i don't think this election will change that. what about the increase in the sales tax from 8% to 10%. this move to shrink this huge mountain of debt that japan has at the to shrink this huge mountain of debt thatjapan has at the moment, could this impact voter sentiment? well, he has made this election into something of a plebiscite on this tax hike. previously he pledged to use the revenue to reduce debt. now

he has said he will use the revenue to increase spending on education and on social security, so he is asking voters from mandate to do that, and that would suggest that he actually intends to go ahead this time, after delaying it a few times. so that is basically a sweetener, about $18 billion of spending on child care and education. what else do you think he will throw into the pot to be able to jumpstart the economy even further? there has been some speculation that we might see some speculation that we might see some further corporate tax cuts, and tax rakes, to encourage firms to increase investment and increase wages. i am increase investment and increase wages. iam not increase investment and increase wages. i am not sure how popular that as with voters, but it is probably something that would help at least the economy. so what is your view, briefly? will he be able to remain as prime minister, or could the opposition spring surprise with their own economic reform agenda? well, there is only one

month left, i don't think the opposition has enough time to gather strength to beat them. i think you will get a majority, maybe not a two thirds majority, but i think you will win the elections. asian stock markets have opened for trade. will they be volatile, moving sideways? after wall street was pressured by the latest flareup between washington and north korea, let's find out how the market opens from my colleague. how was it working out in the first few minutes of trade? well, it has just opened and it is 0.3% lower. australia has been trading for a little bit, and they are actually higher cause it is a commodity heavy index and the producer is getting a boost by the fa ct producer is getting a boost by the fact that oil prices jumped overnight. but the rest of the region, when they open up, is expected to react to falls on wall street. as you can imagine, the war of words between washington and pyongyang has ramped up and as that rhetoric becomes fiercer, investors become more risk averse and turn

more cautious. if we look at the volatility index, which measures investor sentiment, many people call it the fear gauge, it has risen to its highest in two weeks, and it has had its ten biggest trading days in 2017, which just goes to show that the tensions we have had between the us and korea and other types of geopolitical concerns are taking a toll on the stock market. if we look at the us stocks, the dow and snp ended lower, dragged down by tech stocks, and the nasdaq took a heavy hit. all of them shedding quite a bit. these numbers seemed quite small, but even if it is a 1% fall or0.8% small, but even if it is a 1% fall or 0.8% fall, this wipes out the lives of dollars in market value. so when the volatility is high, where do investors put their money? do they put it in cash, or keep it in

other safe haven assets? it depends. some investors think it is safer to hold cash for a rainy day. others like to put it in traditional safe havens like gold. we saw gold prices rising by 1%, trading around $1300. another popular destination has to do with the japanese yen, as well as the swiss franc. these currencies are considered safe and stable places for people to put their money, and the yen has opened safer against the us dollar. moving on now to other business news making headlines, in the us, the latest republican attempt to overturn obamacare appears to have been derailed, with the main senator, susan collins, withdrawing support from the bill. the move came despite an attempt to change funding provisions to make the bill more appealing to a number of undecided lawmakers. what's up appears to have

been blocked in china ahead of the party congress next month —— whatsapp. whatsapp has more than1 billion users worldwide, and is the only facebook product allowed to operate in the mainland. breaking things to bits may not seem a brilliant way to turn a profit, but a new business venture right here in singapore is making money off exactly that. it is the first of its kind in southeast asia and is a smashing new wave to work off some of that stress. our correspondent gives it a whack. here at the fragment room, in

singapore, smashing things to pieces is not only allowed, it is compulsory. for 28 us dollars you get kitted up in safety gear, with a baseball bat, and have 30 minutes to work off your stress by smashing up as many of these items as possible. it gives a kind of apocalyptic feel, you can go crazy and smash like there are zombies everywhere. you can go crazy and smash like there are zombies everywherem you can go crazy and smash like there are zombies everywhere. it is something new and interesting i read about online. i have never heard of this kind of thing. it looks like fun, and it was. we need someplace to vent anger, somewhere other than the usual places that we have, like, you know, going drinking, going to do boxing. so who are your clients? we get couples, stag nights, people who just got dumped or cheated on, people who lost theirjobs, we get

all sorts of people with all different kinds of issues. thank you, i still have some time on the clock, so how about a challenge? yes, let's do it. what a whack. in q4 yes, let's do it. what a whack. in 04 that yes, let's do it. what a whack. in q4 that report. fans of the rapper eminem will soon be able to invest in royalties from his back catalogue. a new company, royalty flow, would allow anyone to buy a sta ke flow, would allow anyone to buy a stake in royalties from eminem's music and from other artists as well as the compa ny‘s music and from other artists as well as the company's catalogue expands. royalties can be extremely volatile, varying dramatically from year to year, along with the popularity of an artist's song. unilever is buying south korea's fastest skin—care

business. the company makes skin products under the ahc brand. while unilever has been on an acquisition spree, in 2015 it bought four luxury skin—care brand and last year it paid $1 billion for dollar shave club. looking briefly at the markets, it will be a mixed day for the asian equity market this tuesday. thank you so much for investing your time with us. i am rico hizon. sport today is coming up next. the top stories this hour: the white house has dismissed as absurd claims by north korea that president trump declared war on the country in a comment on twitter. fears are growing that a volcano could erupt on the island of bali. 50,000 people have been evacuated from their homes near mt agung. a surgeon who treated victims

of the manchester arena attacks has been stabbed in a suspected hate crime. nasser kurdy was attacked in greater manchester on sunday. he was taken to hospital, and has since been discharged. police are questioning two men aged 32 and 54 over the attack, as judith moritz reports. he had something in his hand. moments after he was stabbed, this is nasser kurdy inside the mosque where he had gone for prayers. mr kurdy was on his way in into the building when he became aware of another man across the road. moments later he was attacked. so i went into the hall, and ifelt threatened. today, he is recovering at home and is very thankful to be alive. i remember a heavy blow to the back of my neck. and that was after i had entered the premises. it

was a total shock. i genuinely felt he was going to run after me, into the mosque, and just carry on what he started. it felt that way. he was... the anger that was coming across was quite clear to me. greater manchester police are treating the attack as a hate crime, but have not classified it as terrorist related. they have arrested two men aged 54 and 32. this is an active muslim association. the building used as a mosque for prayer, and to hold classes for hundreds of children. and while leaders here have told me they do now intend to increase security, they also say they want to reassure pa rents security, they also say they want to reassure parents and worshippers that they should continue to come here as usual. nasser kurdy has been watching the footage of himself after the attack. an orthopaedic surgeon, after the attack. an orthopaedic surgeon, he operated on some of

those after the manchester arena explosion. last night he was operated on by colleagues, and he is aware his neck wound could have been much worse. there is a lot of vital structures in that area, and some of them can be fatal, there is no two ways about it. and some of them can be very disabling. nasser says he won't be deterred from going to mosque, and he has been comforted by the support he has received from people of all faiths. we will have more on the top stories in15 we will have more on the top stories in 15 minutes with mike embley, including the latest on the tensions between north korea and the united states, we a re between north korea and the united states, we are live in washington with all of that. i will be back with all of that. i will be back with newsday tomorrow. time now for all the sports news, in sport today. this is sport today live from the bbc sport centre.

coming up on this programme. the king backs the nfl in the war of words with the president. the coaches, the players, the owners, the bands, anybody who had any association with the nfl yesterday, was unbelievable. two goals for lacazette gives arsenal victory over west brom in the premier league. and us open champion sloane stephens — plus a host of big names, crash out of the wuhan open. first — teams from the nba have thrown their weight behind the protest movement in the nfl. players have been taking action against racial inequality in the us by demonstrating during the national anthem before their games.