the british—based company accused of misusing facebook information for political gain, has suspended its chief executive alexander nix. cambridge analytica has been accused of harvesting the personal data of from fifty million users without their consent. the us, british and european parliaments have all asked for explanations. there's been another explosion in the city of austin, following a series of recent blasts in the state. police say one man has suffered potentially serious injuries. and this video is trending on bbc.com: for the first time in history french people have bought more american—style hamburgers than their own classic jambon—beurre sandwich. almost 1.5 billion burgers were sold last year. that's certainly got people talking. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk. bbc news understands

that the government is poised to announce a significant pay rise for almost all nhs staff apart from doctors. it's thought around a million people will benefit. now on bbc news, all the latest business news live from singapore. because of ongoing concerns about the use of data by the social networking giant. and please reconsider tariffs against china. that is the message from america's retail giants to president trump. good morning, welcomed asia business report live from singapore with me, marika oi. social media companies are in the spotlight once again with facebook shares falling for a second day following reports us authorities

are looking into facebook‘s handling of personal data and the scandal involving the consultancy, cambridge analytica, is affecting and other social media firm, twitter, whose shares closed down 10% in us trade. let's bring in our business reporter. cambridge analytica has suspended its boss, alexander nix, over these allegations of data harvesting and meddling in elections. cambridge analytica has denied all wrongdoing, as has facebook. we saw it to the share price though. $60 billion wiped out over two days, the size of a small economy. investors are worried about the implications of the scandal. will this deter investors and advertisers? will they face more regulatory restrictions? 0n advertisers? will they face more regulatory restrictions? on tuesday, we saw shareholders sue facebook in

a class—action lawsuit saying that they have suffered losses because of this and this could be the first of several lawsuits. again, we are at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the scandal and we don't know how deep this rabbit hole goes. we also heard from facebook, but not the ceo. investors are wondering why mark zuckerberg or cheryl sandberg have not said anything. the teams are working around the clock to get all the facts and take the appropriate action moving forward. the entire company is outraged that we we re the entire company is outraged that we were deceived. again, people are very worried. whether facebook is going to do something about that.

and cambridge analytica has worked in asia as well. cambridge analytica, in that secret video recording, we saw some of the bosses talking about shell companies to disguise some of that activity. they have been involved allegedly in mexico, brazil and other countries and in asia, malaysia and india but i want to talk about malaysia because it's a very sensitive time politically for the country. they are set to hold another of elections this year and so the malaysians government came out with a statement saying they had never hired cambridge analytica to help them in the last round of elections in 2013. the fallout continues. in other business news, at japanese the fallout continues. in other business news, atjapanese carmaker toyota is hitting the brakes on tests of self driving cars on american roads after a woman in arizona was killed at the weekend after being hit by an uber vehicle

in autonomous mode. that accident is under investigation. american retail giants are asking president trump to reconsider in posing trade tariffs on china. the likes of walmart and target say any tariffs will increase the price of everyday goods for consumers at president trump is reportedly announcing further ta riffs reportedly announcing further tariffs against china worth $60 billion this week. debra elms is the executive director of the asian trade centre and as tensions rise between the world's two biggest economies, she explained why even more tariffs against china could be announced. the original number was around $30 billion. as designed by his trade team. it was not seen as big enough by donald trump himself. in the last few days, there have been scrambling to double that numberand we been scrambling to double that number and we expect those to be announced potentially this friday, possibly slipping into early next

week but in the coming days. do you think this warning from the likes of walmart and target have any impact? probably not because this is a long—held desire of donald trump to raise tariffs on china and do it now soi raise tariffs on china and do it now so i don't think he cares one way or the other what these retailers say. his desire is to have higher tariffs and he's saying he will do so. does he have a point? does he have a point about intellectual property and so on? there are two issues. the us has a trade deficit. is that damaging? no. does the united states have a long—standing issue? yes. is it is significant as it used to be? no. 0ur tariffs, the way to address

that, is unilateral action the way to address that? no. what those are, thatis to address that? no. what those are, that is the tricky part. i's growth forecast has been downgraded by goldman sacks. from 8% down to 7.6% for the year to march 2019. what happened? for the year to march 2019. what happened ? the world's for the year to march 2019. what happened? the world's fastest growing economy hit by this but not good news. it's all to do with the recent banking scandal that has happened in india. 0ne recent banking scandal that has happened in india. one of 1's largest national banks, it was discovered that $2 billion worth of credit was swindled. this is when you open pandora ‘s box. following this news, other smaller public sector banks which have come forward and registered complaints alleging

that they have also been defrauded. it's led to this sort of crisis within india, in a public sector bank, the lot of rich companies and billionaires have been able to swindled money at different periods of time is over the last 7—8 years ata time of time is over the last 7—8 years at a time and 1's banking sector is struggling because of high amounts of bad debt which has led to lower credit growth and banks are not in a position to lend too much money which goldman sacks says will affect growth because if companies can't borrow, how will they expand? you talked about this crisis. how is it going to change because of the scandal? it's quite significant. i's central bank's head said the indian central bank's head said the indian central bank's head said the indian central bank needs more power. not

able to regulate i's public sector banks. public sector banks dominate the space here and if they start to crack up, it affects the economy. thank you for the update. were the work, the public sector, manufacturing or services, the big focus is usually on boosting productivity. in a factory, as simple as buying more machines. can you technology help us work more effectively. we try out some of them. could a study of my brainwaves make the more productive? this company, mindplay, certainly thinks so. even

when i go to get my lunch. we will find out later what the results are. here is another trend. we are producing vast amounts of communications data. telephone calls, emails, chat of all kinds what if we could analyse that they learn lessons about productivity? that is email dater. behavox monitors communications by bank workers mainly to spot any unlawful or unethical activity. but now is using artificial intelligence to assess whether your communications are productive. it all sounds a bit big brother. in our personal lives, we are giving away this part of a freezer when it comes to the workplace, all of a sudden everybody is upset about the fact that companies are going to use that dart to make more money. let's find out what the brain monitor says about

me. for the first 7- ten minutes of the meetings, you are very highly engaged. there was a slow tapering off. that's because you become less involved in the meeting. what were you saying? exactly. we can all train ourselves to be more productive in the office. perhaps fewer, better meetings could be one answer. that's it for this edition. thank you for watching. the top stories this hour. politicians in europe and the us are calling executives at facebook to answer questions about allegations that data was misused to influence elections. another explosion has been reported in the city of austin in the american state of texas. it's the sixth in a month. there's been a bigger than expected

fall in the rate of inflation — the latest figures show that prices rose by 2.7% last month compared with 3% injanuary. a small drop in petrol prices and a slower rise in the cost of food were some of the factors cited as our economics editor, kamal ahmed, explains. mixing in a new ingredient, after over a year of rising inflation, today better news — the rate is falling, as food costs ease and fuel costs drop. inflation can often start here, firms that make the stuff we buy. if their costs are cut, then prices for us often go the same way. there's not many costs that are coming down, but the two things we have identified are distribution costs for us. we've definitely seen those ease off, but also in digital and technology. for millions of people, today's fall in inflation brings into sharp focus one of the most important issues facing the uk economy — that income squeeze. prices rising faster than wages, leaving people worse

off month by month. today, a glimmer of hope. with inflation easing and wage rises strengthening, could that income squeeze be coming to an end this year? before 2017, wages were rising faster than prices, meaning that people were slightly better off each month. then last year that reversed, inflation rose quickly following the brexit referendum, which saw a fall in the value of the pound and an increase in the price of imports. now the pound is stronger, the rate of inflation is falling and wages are catching up. could those lines cross in 2018? the impact of the fall in the pound, of course, meant that imported inflation was quite high. that effect is fading. increasingly now we're

seeing inflation coming from domestic sources. so higher wage growth in particular is driving up costs. inflation risk has not drained away and wage growth will keep minds focused at the bank of england. it's signalled that it will raise interest rates in the next few months to control any future price rises. kamal ahmed, bbc news. you can get in touch with us on facebook. time now for all the sports news in sport today. hello, i'm tulsen tollett, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: no end in sight for chris froome's salbutamol case with the giro d'italia looming. as wales prepare to play in the china cup, bale—mania comes to town. and we catch up with world heavyweight champion joseph parker

11 days before his showdown with anthonyjoshua. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with the news that the head of world cycling says there's unlikely to be a resolution over chris froome's salbutamol case before the start of the giro d'italia in may. froome, who's seeking his third successive grand tour title, returned a positive test for elevated levels of the drug ahead of winning la vuelta a espana last september. the investigation has been ongoing for over six months with uci president david lappartient stating his inclusion in the race which begins injerusalem would be a disaster for the sport while the case remains open. froome continues to deny wrongdoing over the adverse drugs test. meanwhile, over the adverse drugs test. doctor richard mclars the meanwhile, doctor richard mclaren, the author of the key