this is business briefing. i'm david eades. trading threats — raising tensions. fears of a global trade war set to dominate as 620 finance chiefs gather this weekend. plus — what could be in store for the commuter of the future. and why there soon won't be any excuse for being late into the office. as the markets, let's bring them up for you. the japanese market is down quite a bit as is the hong kong market. it has been like this for most of the week over fears of the possibility of more trade tension to come although the dowjones had a slightly better day. we start with those growing global tensions over trade. president trump's moves to protect us industry have led to threats of retaliation from around the world — raising fears of a trade war that

could seriously damage the global economy. the issue will top the agenda when finance chiefs from the world's biggest economies meet in the argentine capital buenos aires tomorrow. this week the trump administration raised the temperature with china again — demanding a $100bn cut in beijing's trade surplus with the us. it also turned its attention to india — complaining to the world trade organization about export subsidies to indian exporters worth an estimated $7 billion a year and there's just a week to go until us tariffs of 25% on imported steel and 10% on imported aluminium come into force — potentially hitting suppliers across asia and europe. since they were first announced at the beginning of the month — global stock markets have been rattled as investors try to assess the potential damage —

despite the eu and china trying to play down fears of a trade war in recent days. translation: we believe that china and the united states can use friendly consultations to resolve our disputes. we have the good faith to do it this way. however, history shows trade wars are in nobody‘s interests, but china is willing to protect its legitimate rights if something happens we don't want to see. i think there are good reasons why both sides will, at the end of the day, accept that we don't need, we don't want a trade war. instead we should concentrate on improving our trading conditions between the two trading blocs, like—minded continents. with me is professor rajneesh narula, who is thejohn h dunning chair of international business at henley business school. of course we don't want a trade war.

that is of course what they will say. but overcoming the tensions will be a challenge. one might be charitable and say that donald trump does what he says even though he has not thought it through. he seems to thought it through. he seems to thought it through quite clearly. it does not like a deficit likes a surplus. indeed. he seems to have confused what international trade is about. he thinks he is running a business and not a country. surplus is not equal to profit. losses and deficit are not the same thing. he thinks it can balance things and have a profit by increasing surpluses and reducing deficit. this is not how business works. plus he is not how business works. plus he is treating countries as if they

we re is treating countries as if they were suppliers, he is reassuring suppliers to reduce prices. everyone knows if you squeeze your supply is too much they go out of business as well. and certainly in regard to china, talking about the $100 billion deficit. and ordered you cannot remove that, can you? when you talk about squeezing suppliers, the language there is sort of emollient still. you think there is still room for manoeuvring?” emollient still. you think there is still room for manoeuvring? i think it is ironic that the chinese are 110w it is ironic that the chinese are now championing free—trade. what i think the chinese will do is to try not to start a war. no—one wants one. apart from donald trump, it seems. i think they will do their best to calm down. and how many soy beans, how much beef can be purchased? you beans, how much beef can be purchased ? you will beans, how much beef can be purchased? you will not make a 100 billion dollar gap reduced. cars are built in china already, american

cars, so built in china already, american cars, so you are not built in china already, american cars, so you are not going to increase that. it is quite difficult to make 100 billion back. that you are talking of a way that suggests they are looking at possibilities of ways they may manoeuvre this. i wonder how much that goodwill shall diminish come the introduction of the tariffs, still, aluminium, who that hit the worst. that is curious because the excuse to introducing the tariffs is national—security. but the country must be a will be brazil, korea which are not enemies and the countries that are u naffected and the countries that are unaffected by this tariff is china and russia. it does not make sense why australia has an exemption and germany does not. i think it will raise temperature and uncertainty. the uncertainty is the big problem. thank you very much forjoining us.

let's go to asia now — and singapore—based chip maker broadcom has been updating investors on the latest quarter. it was of course trying to take over us rival qualcomm in a $100 billion deal until it was blocked by president trump. mariko 0i is following the story for us. suddenly in the spotlight, this company is, but interestingly in the conference call with investors the chief executive did not comment about that blocked deal by president trump who, of course, cited an national—security concern temperatures the company said there should not be any concerns. he also said that the company continues to look at the us as a potential market, prompting speculation that broadcom may be looking at smaller, lower profile targets in the market. in terms of earnings they came in stronger than analysts expected. the company did warn that they are seeing a slowing demand from us

customers which many believe is apple, and growing demand from south korea. some speculating that is probably samsung ramping up their production. thank you very much indeed they now in singapore. —— let's stay in singapore where rico hizon has been out and about for the first in our series about the future of work. the daily journey into work can be a pain. but advances in technology, automation and artificial intelligence are set to change the way we commute, as rico has been finding out. people have long dream of taking a jet pack or a flying car to work. that reality is close to than most of you think. the last mile challenge means moving people from transportation hubs to their final destination. for urban planners it isa destination. for urban planners it is a complex problem that involves congestion, runtimes and population

density. and this is a driverless bus. the latest step that some cities are taking to get you where you need to go. humid nature is that the last mile is inconvenient and uncomfortable. unmanned passenger drones are being tested the widespread use is yet to come. for now, battery—powered electric vehicles are moving people in new ways. for many commuters this is the last mile solution. when their offices there and the train only ta kes offices there and the train only takes here. so how does that work? the electric scooters are battery—operated and you can use an app to activate it. we see a popular demand in all the places we have launched, especially in places where they need connection from a train

station to the office or schools. there will be a transport revolution in the coming years. an explosion of ability for commuters because of new technology and lifestyle trends. jet packs and hover boards were once only used by the likes of james bond and marty mcfly. however a number of companies are turning science fiction into science fact. this former us pilots is learning to fly this1—man former us pilots is learning to fly this 1—man aircraft is easier than riding a bicycle. we are at the stage where i think we can get into really exploring the dream and the idea and the concept behind true human flight and achieve of —— many of those things we have been dreaming about for some time. one thing is for sure, the way we get to work is constantly changing and will be lastly different in the future.

—— lastly different. —— vastly. this weekend click will be devoting their entire programme to the future of work — here on bbc world news. and you can see more on our website at bbc.com/futureofwork. now let's brief you some other business stories. hsbc has revealed a big gap between the amount it pays men over women. it says the median gender pay gap for its uk banking operations is 29% — more than double that of barclays — but lower than rivals rbs and lloyds. however hsbc says when it comes to bonus payments the gap rises to 61%. shares of snapchat owner snap have fallen sharply after singer rihanna urged her fans to delete the app. she spoke out after snapchat carried an advertisement which joked about her beating by former boyfriend chris brown — who was convicted of the assault in 2009. snapchat later took the ad down saying it was "disgusting and never should have appeared on our service." let's leave you now with the

markets. it has been a shaky week across the board. thank you for watching. egypt is sending a delegation of mps to the uk, to monitor investigations into the death of a female student in nottingham. mariam moustafa died three weeks after being attacked by a group of young women outside a shopping centre. jeremy ball reports. a teenager whose future looked so bright, whose family is now in morning. they'd brought her to

britain for an education but she is gone. she was amazing. i feel like i have lost my other half. she was so kind. she will wanted to help people. i don't know why people would do that to her. she was attacked outside this shopping centre on february 20. people saw a group of women punching her and then following her onto a bus. she died in hospital on wednesday. the egyptian embassy says it has expressed the need for those responsible to be swiftly brought to justice. that the concern of the egyptian public is evident and they support the grieving family. at nottingham college where she was studying engineering they describe her death as shocking and say she was keen, able and well liked. she was keen, able and well liked. she was a hard worker. she always put all her effort into being an engineer. the police say her death has been treated very seriously as

17—year—old girl has been questioned on suspicion of assault and they are keeping an open mind about whether it was a hate crime. coming up at 6am on breakfast — the team will have all the day's news, business and sport. they'll also have a special report with tim muffett on the 80% rise in the use of opiod pain killers in england over the past decade. he's been to manchester's integrated drug and alcohol service to find out why. that's all coming up in the next 15 minutes. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: as the tension over the nerve agent attack intensifies, the uk prepares for what moscow says will be a fitting and symmetrical reaction to the expulsion of 23 diplomats. a pedestrian bridge has collapsed onto a busy motorway in the american

city of miami, killing four people. emergency crews are working to reach those still trapped under the rubble. now it is time look at the stories that are making the headlines in media across the world. we begin with the telegraph, who report the nerve agent that poisoned the russian spy sergei skripal was planted in his daughter's suitcase before she left moscow. the gulf news also leads with the russia spy poisoning affair and the show of support from the us, germany and france who have jointly called on russia yesterday to explain a military grade nerve toxin attack in the uk. the middle east eye looks at the latest in a string of high—profile white house departures as national security advisor h. r mcmaster is to be removed. according to reports, us president donald trump is taking his time in announcing the decision so as to not humiliate the army lieutenant general and ensure a smooth transition. and in the guardian,

england rugby head coach eddiejones may have compromised his british lions future with his ill—judged, recent controversial remarks about ireland and wales according to an opinion writer. and finally on australia's channel 9 website, nasa has drawn up plans for a huge nuclear spacecraft capable of shunting or blowing up an asteroid if it was on course to wipe out life on earth. the us space agency published details of its hypervelocity asteroid mitigation mission for emergency response — also known as the "hammer" which will be