the prime minister, theresa may, said the nerve agent used was military grade, and of a type developed by russia. the united states says it agrees with britain'sjudgement. russia has ridiculed the accusation as a fairy tale and politically motivated. a leaked draft of a united nations report claims two singaporean companies have violated sanctions against north korea by providing luxury goods to pyongyang shops. and pictures from the life and career of hubert de givenchy are trending on bbc.com. the french fashion designer was 91 years old. his name is linked to some of the most classic designs, including the black dress audrey hepburn wore in breakfast at tiffany's. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: a 17—year—old boy has beenjailed for more than ten years for attacking six moped riders with acid lastjuly. derryckjohn admitted carrying out the attacks.

now on bbc news all the latest business news live from singapore. donald trump blocks takeover bid of qualcomm, citing national security concerns. the leaked report alleges north korea is believed to be evading international sanctions using asian companies. hello, everyone. and good morning. glad you could join us for this tuesday edition of asia business report. we kickoff the programme with breaking news and over the past hour, us president trump has blocked a ta keover president trump has blocked a takeover bid of computer chips maker qualcomm. he has cited national security concerns about the bid by its rival, singapore—based broadcom.

timothy mcdonald joins us. what has broadcom said about this trump blocking. broadcom has issued a brief statement that they are reviewing the order and they disagreed proposed acquisition of qualcomm raises national security concerns. qualcomm pointed back to the order itself and the order said there is credible evidence that leaves donald trump to believe this deal might take, the entity that would emerge might take action and threaten national security of the us. the concern seems to be around five g. the us sees itself in a dominant position right now and they think the tie—up between these two companies could end up with the us

losing that position. interestingly enough, broadcom has been trying to get around these national security concerns by moving to the us. it appears the committee on foreign investment in the us didn't take to that too kindly and has suggested donald trump scupper the deal entirely. it seems like they want to scupper it, a rearranged deal would not be acceptable. this may be the end of it but we will see. watch this space on what will happen next to qualcomm. timothy mcdonald. one of europe's biggest financial institutions has criticised the trump administration for its tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. the head of the european investment bank said the move would trigger a trade

war with far—reaching consequences. we are observing this not only with the threat of a trade war but a demonstrative department —— departure from multilateral as is a threat to the economic world order and if that is at stake, it's not actually something that promotes cooperation and peace and prosperity around the world. david solomon has emerged as a favourite to become the new boss of godlman sacks. and we have this exclusive story. a leaked d raft have this exclusive story. a leaked draft of a united nations report. two singaporean companies have violated sanctions against north korea. this potentially raises questions about how common this is in the rest of the region. the final report that has been submitted is

expected to be published later this week. a draft copy of the report has been seen by the bbc. this is a shop in pyongyang is selling branded watches, handbags and alcohol. items which are banned under un sanctions and singapore law as well but now a leaked un report claims there is evidence of at least one singaporean company selling luxury goods in north korea as recently as last type —— to lie. there are two companies named in the report. but share the same director and up until late last year they shared the same address here it is building. the main allegation against them in the report that we have seen is that they received funds in singapore for doing business in north korea. both singaporean companies deny any wrongdoing. according to the un, in the 1997, singapore's dae opened an account with the north korean

daedong credit bank and late to change the name to t specialist. that account was used to transfer money for goods t specialist sold in north korea to its account in singapore. between 10—— 2011 to 2014 when sanctions had already kicked m, when sanctions had already kicked in, that account continued to tra nsfer in, that account continued to transfer money into t specialist‘s singapore account, the draft says. the companies deny any knowledge, both in relation to the goods being sold in north korea and the funds coming from that account which the report alleges. the other main allegation in the report is that ocn and t specialist have long—standing close ties, including ownership ties, with a commercial bank that has been on the sanctions list since 2017. the companies have denied this. i would say that our clients do not have any financial relationship with these entities in the dprk, north korea, and they also

do not have any interest or any financial interest or relationship with this commercial bank that you have named in the dprk. and your clients ever had any financial relationship or done business in north korea? they have done business with north korean entities previously before these un sanctions came into force. but that was previously. after the sanctions came into force, they reduced their involvement, but this all formed pa rt involvement, but this all formed part of the investigations that are ongoing. many of these transactions according to the report appeared to have used singapore's financial system. the monetary authority told the bbc it is working closely with the bbc it is working closely with the un in these cases. in a

statement, it specifically warned that banks need to be aware of the increasing use of multi— jurisdiction orfront increasing use of multi— jurisdiction or front companies, shell companies, joint ventures and complex or opaque ownership structures. singapore has a reputation of being one of the most well regulated financial hubs in the world so what's troubling is it this has happened here, how widespread problem exists in the rest of asia? when it has serious issues with corruption and a lack of oversight. for many of us, the thought of senior counsel law or mental health professional, a start—up in india wa nts to professional, a start—up in india wants to change how we deal with our emotions during tough periods in our lives. we report on how a chat robot is providing some comfort. it's been less than a year this man

was laid off from hisjob in india's it sector but the experience left him feeling angry and sometimes even depressed. and he found it difficult to open up to his family. but he did find some comfort in chatting up. the difficult thing was not getting toa the difficult thing was not getting to a state where this happened to me and that's where i keep call talking to it. why do i feel like this today? the chat robot or chat bot behaves like a counsellor, focusing on what users are feeling and how to respond to them. so this is what the future of therapy looks like, an interface where people can ask questions and this chat bot will answer so if i type in question about, say, losing myjob, the codes in the software process it and give

you options. i'd like to help but can first to equip check to see how this is affecting you? ops shimon, yes, sure. option two, maybe later. the founders say the chat bot has 200,000 clients who are using this app forfree. 200,000 clients who are using this app for free. the company behind the chat bot makes money from personal and users who use the act. we also have models were psychiatrists use wysa in conjunction with their practice and they pay us. artificial intelligence —based counselling is a new field and there isn't a clear consensus on how effective it is. there are many things that are real—life therapist can actually pick up from what you are talking which an on line therapist will not be able to pick up. you are venting out you crying, feeling sad? the pitch, the tone. figures from the

world health organization show nearly 80 million indians suffer from depression and anxiety disorders and with the accessibility of mobile phones, wysa is confident about serving a market that is very much in need of counselling in the digital age. president trump has blocked a ta keover president trump has blocked a takeover bid of qualcomm, citing national security concerns. thank you for watching, see you soon. the us state department says it is outraged and agree with the uk's is set —— perception that russia was probably behind the poisoning of a russian spy distorted. a leaked d raft russian spy distorted. a leaked draft of a united nations report says to sing —— singaporean companies have violated sanctions against north korea.

plastic and the problems it causes in oceans and rivers around the world are already well known. but what's not so clear is how much damage microplastics are doing — the tiny particles of plastic — less than 5 millimetres in size. they can be found in all kinds of things from industrial pollution to cosmetics. and now researchers have discovered that a river in greater manchester has the highest levels of microplastic pollution so far recorded anywhere in the world. our science correspondent victoria gill reports. all along this river bank you can see evidence of plastic litter, plastic bags, plastic bottles, food containers. but it's when things like this break down into much smallerfragments that they're just one source of the microplastics that end up in the riverbed. to find outjust how much microplastic flows into our rivers from litter, waste water and industry, scientists need to take a piece of the riverbed back to the lab. all the mud and silt and clay

and the microplastic particles will come into the water. the team analysed silt at 40 different locations, from remote rural streams to city centre waterways. they found microplastic everywhere. where lots of people live, we found extraordinarily high levels of microplastic contamination. just a few kilometres upstream from here, we found microplastic concentrations that are the highest so far recorded anywhere in the world, over 500,000 microplastic particles per metre square of riverbed, enormously high levels of contamination. and that is just a few miles upstream from where we're standing in greater manchester? yes. this is a jar of sediment from the bed of this river, a typical suburban stretch of the river mersey. and in this 250g jar, there will be 5,000 individual pieces of microplastic.

aquatic insects, birds and fish can ingest these microscopic pieces of plastic. and this is where the problem becomes visible. this is all plastic? yes, indeed. how many fragments would you have in this? so in this sample just from a few grams, about 100 microplastic pieces. over here, we've got a couple of microbeads, hello, i'm tulsen tollett and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: david silva scores a double as manchester city beat stoke city to move 16 points clear at the top of the premier league. defending champion and world number one roger federer eases through to the last 16 of the indian wells masters. and kagiso rabada, the hero of south africa's second test win over australia, has been suspended for the last two matches of the series.

hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with the footballing news that manchester city have restored their 16 point advantage at the top of the premier league after a 2—0 win over stoke city. david silva scored both the goals and it means that with eight games of their league campaign remaining pep guardiola's side are within touching distance of the title. we are close to our we are close to our target, we are close to our target, we we are close to our target, we created enough chances. we have to try a bit in the first half to defend the long but so happy. the first time after 18 years manchester city is