hello. this is business briefing. i'm david eades. the world's most powerful men versus the world's richest. president trump steps up his attacks on amazon and its $100 billion boss, jeff bezos. but does the tech giant have anything to fear? also, deja vu for air france passengers as staff walk out over pay yet again, with more strikes called for next week. as for the markets, it is quieter in asia. we've also seen the hang seng up asia. we've also seen the hang seng upa bit asia. we've also seen the hang seng up a bit on the back of improving figures coming out of the dowjones yesterday. we start in washington, where president trump has stepped up his pressure on technology

and retail giant, amazon. he took to twitter on thursday to accuse the company of dodging tax unfairly using the us postal service as its "delivery boy" and putting thousands of retailers out of business. that tweet comes after a media report claiming the president is "obsessed" with amazon and determined to rein in its growing power, possibly using competition laws. president trump may indeed be the world's most powerful man, but he is taking on the world's richest. amazon founderjeff bezos now has a net worth of $100 billion — taking him to the top of the global rich list last year — his company is worth almost $700 billion in stock market value. kim gittleson reports from new york. it was only a year ago thatjeff bezos was sitting alongside donald trump, advising the president of what he could do to help spurjob growth. and courage this

administration that you can be the innovation administration. but now, it is precisely amazon's innovative business model that has landed it in the crosshairs of donald trump. 0n thursday, america's business and president tweeted that amazon was avoiding paying taxes, which helped drive and mortar companies out of business. president trump's claims that amazon are paid little or no sales tax may have been accurate many years ago, but now many states of passed so—called amazon laws to force amazon to abe local tax laws, amazon paid taxes in many jurisdictions. amazon has paid $1.6 billion in taxes, that is much less than walmart paid but it is hard to pay tax and you are not profitable, so pay tax and you are not profitable, so it is hard to know what shareholders make of this latest resident trump thai raid. they are

still waiting for this latest package to actually be delivered. —— make of this latest president trump criticism. let's move to asia now but stay with president trump, because he has warned a revised trade deal with south korea might be put on hold until tensions with north korea are resolved. rico hizon in singapore is following the story. this is quite disappointing, especially the south korea because this was a day after he praised this renegotiated trade agreement as a victory for his get tough stance on commerce, david. but the president's remarks appear to suggest he is seeking to hold the deal as leveraged over washington's ally, south korea, head of the nuclear talks. north korea and south korea plan to hold a summit on the 27th of april and of course, donald trump

and kimjong—un april and of course, donald trump and kim jong—un that will be meeting hopefully, after that, in the month of may. if we take a look at this revised deal, us automakers will get greater access to the south korean market. at the moment, far more cars are shipped from south korea to america than in the other direction, making upa america than in the other direction, making up a big chunk of the annual trade deficit between the two countries. as the south korea, it has secured a partial exemption from president donald trump's new steel tariffs, it will be pleased that it did not have to give ground on opening up its agricultural industry the us imports. korea is america's sixth largest trading partner, totalling $145 billion worth in trade in 2016 and this deal will hopefully reduce america's trade deficit with the rear of around $26 billion. according to both sides, it isa billion. according to both sides, it is a win—win situation. billion. according to both sides, it is a win-win situation. i will see it when it happens. rico hizon,

thank you very much indeed. see you. let's go to the french capital paris now, where it's almost exactly half a century since the massive protests of may 1968. today, 50 years on, the issues may have changed, but that spirit of confrontation against the state is still very strong. president macron faces a summer of disruption and strikes over wages and his unpopular labour reforms. today, air france unions are staging another strike over pay. workers are calling for a 6% rise, the company says it can't afford that in the current climate. more strikes have been called for the 3rd and 7th of april. air france says it should still be able to operate about three quarters of its long and short haulflight schedule. it's notjust airline staff, of course. last week saw the start of what's being called a summer of protest. tens of thousands of train drivers, teachers, nurses, civil servants and others walked out over president macron‘s plans to cut back the state sector. unions oppose the plan —

that was announced last month — to offer voluntary redundancies to state workers. he's made an election promise to cut the number of public workers by some 120,000 over five years. here's what to expect from today's airline strike. 0k. we're going to give you a brief now on some other business stories. uk engineering giant gkn has lost its battle against a hostile takeover by a controversial investment firm. melrose industries, which specialises in turning round troubled manufacturing businesses and selling them on, it won the backing of 52% of gkn shareholders. 260—year—old gkn has had a hand in making everything from minis to spitfires. tesla says it's recalling thousands of model s cars built before april 2016, to replace bolts in the power steering, which can begin to corrode after contact with road salt in cold temperatures.

the electric car maker says there haven't been any accidents or injuries related to the issue, but some owners had complained about it on online forums. barclays has agreed to pay $2 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by the us government over the sale of mortgage—backed securities. the us alleged that the bank had misled investors about the quality of loans backing the securities in the runup to the financial crisis. and apple has updated its i0s, macos and tv0s operating systems to give people more information about how their personal data is collected and used. the change comes ahead of new eu data protection rules, which take effect on 23 may. apple also plans to let people download the data it has stored about them. and let's have a look now at what's trending in the business

news this morning. from quartz, nine out of ten analysts think that facebook stock is still worth buying. that's despite the fact it's lost well over $90 billion in market value over the past week or so. as for the wall streetjournal. tesla recalls 123,000 model s cars over that bolt issue. it says the carmaker discovered that certain corroding bolts in cold weather climates could lead to power—steering failure. as for bloomberg, they focus on the sportswear company under armour saying 150 million myfitnesspal accounts were hacked. itjoins a growing list of corporate victims of hacker attacks. do let us know what you are spotting online. #bbcthebriefing we have just got time for a quick

look at the markets. it is called friday, that has stopped a lot of the other asian markets and the dow jones as you can see from yesterday up jones as you can see from yesterday upa jones as you can see from yesterday up a little bit up at the end of a volatile week and a very volatile quarter. that is a good sign but overall, the main indices all down for the quarter in the us. thank you for the quarter in the us. thank you for watching, at sea when a moment. —— see you in a moment. excessive executive salaries in some england academy schools are taking money away from children's education, this is according to the public accounts committee. the mps say academies need to be more transparent with their finances. the department for education says

all academy trusts operate under a strict system of financial accountability. marc ashdown reports. school budgets are under pressure from rising costs but this report says more than 100 senior managers we re says more than 100 senior managers were paid a salary higher than £150,000. academies are free to decide for themselves how much to pay staff that mps are warning it is difficult to tell if they are getting value for money. we are really pushing for greater transparency so that parents, pupils and others, the public, can see how their money is being spent, particularly senior managers and executive heads covering a number of schools, we are seeing a really huge increase in some of those salaries with little justification or explanation, some of that not even very transparent and sometimes, pay rises that are really out of — with the kind of pay rise a classroom teacher would get. the report also raises concerns about the weak script new payments for services by academies to people or companies with a link to the senior leadership

tea m with a link to the senior leadership team or board, it is all likely to anger teacher unions, which represent classroom teachers and me today for their annual conference. here we have got them into pounds of public money going into the hands of trust and sponsors and actually, a lack of transparency. department of education has already asked trust is to explain salaries greater than £150,000 and told some their initial explanation is not good enough. this report calls for even more action. coming up at six o'clock on breakfast, charlie stayt and naga munchetty will have all the day's news, the business and the sport. do join them at 6am. you are watching the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: the us could hit russia with further sanctions, that's after the expulsion of 60 american diplomats over the spy poisoning scandal.

australia's cricketers prepare to return to the field for the first time since the ball—tampering scandal, that's cost the team its captain, vice captain and head coach. an unmanned chinese space station is about to make an uncontrolled fall to earth. experts aren't sure exactly when or where tiangong—1 will come down or even how much of it will burn up in the atmosphere. let's have a look at the stories that are making the headlines in media across the world. we are going to start today with the front page of the the independent. a positive story, yulia skripal out of danger. the daughter of a former russian spy said to be conscious and talking, after she was attacked with a nerve agent in salisbury earlier in the month. her father sergei skripal still in a critical condition. the arab news is covering malala yousafzai's return to pakistan. it's the first time the 20—year—old nobel laureate has gone home

since she was shot in the head by the taliban in 2012. 0n the guardian website, a parking problem of sorts. another great picture story, this one. reacquired volkswagen diesel cars sit in a desert graveyard in california. this is one of 37 storage facilities around the country where vw is keeping something like 300,000 us diesel vehicles, all part of its settlement buyback scheme. abc news in australia has an intriguing story. a smart watch has helped south australian police arrest and charge a woman with murder, after data from the victim's watch device contradicted the defendant's version of events. that case still going on. and finally on bbc news, a group of austrians are using an ancient tradition to turn stale bread into beer to fight food waste. the vienna shop uses brown rolls to make ale, white rolls to make lager.

they're trying to raise awareness of food waste in the eu. we will drink to that. so let's begin. with me is priya lakhani, founder and ceo of century tech. we will begin with the independent‘s story. it is a very nice picture. but a deeply frightening story. absolutely, this has rocked the world, in terms of reaction we have seen from dozens of nations, taking action against russian