by internationally famous k—pop stars from south korea. the concert is being seen as another sign of the improving relations on the korea peninsula. later this month the two korean leaders will meet, and a meeting between kimjong—un and president trump could take place after that. they are returning to ruins. thousands of residents of the battle—scarred philippine city of marawi have been allowed home for the first time. and this story is trending on bbc.com: falling back to earth. china's defunct space station is expected to re—enter the atmosphere in the next few hours. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: britain's biggest teaching union says thousands of children with special needs are being denied suitable school places. ministers say local authorities now have more money for every pupil

in every school. now on bbc news, all the latest business news live from singapore. it is the first dip in over a year. find out why business confidence has worsened slightly for japan's find out why business confidence has worsened slightly forjapan‘s dig manufacturers. initially it was aluminium and steel. now pork and wine. the game of tit—for—tat over ta riffs rolls wine. the game of tit—for—tat over tariffs rolls on between the us and china. welcome to asia business report. i am china. welcome to asia business report. iam karishma china. welcome to asia business report. i am karishma vaswani. we will start with japan, where confidence amongst the country's biggest manufacturers has slipped for the first time in 1.5 years. the

bank of japan's quarterly cheque of around 10,000 companies has shown a dip in sentiment —— check. this is mainly due to the strength of the yen and fears of a trade war. it will put the spotlight on prime minister shinzo abe's policies, and he has been subject to cronyism scandal, with his approval ratings falling to the lowest since he returned office since 2012. i asked oui’ returned office since 2012. i asked our correspondent if the scandal has any impact on the world's third—largest economy? any impact on the world's third-largest economy? from an economic perspective it is actually quite important. not because... most people will believe mr r they will be out of the office and then abenomics will be gone, but because japan isa abenomics will be gone, but because japan is a long business cycle. so sentiment is not picking up any more, it has basically peaked and 110w more, it has basically peaked and now we need additional reforms and driving forces for the economy to go

ahead. that is not really on the radar screen right now with the government a sickly being stuck in the scandals. absolutely, because of course he was one of the main drivers of those reforms, and coming up drivers of those reforms, and coming up with new policies in the form of abenomics. what happens to abenomics 110w abenomics. what happens to abenomics now that he has been caught up in the scandal? well, so far the low hanging fruit of abenomics, monetary expansion, fiscal expansion, boosting and pushing the economy, that has basically been done and now the nitty—gritty productivity enhancement reforms, for this year, work style reforms were planned, making companies focus on productivity within the labour force, to get everyone a clear focus on where is the new value added, and the government is now very slow on following up. that of course doesn't help business sentiment. it is also affected by trade wars overseas and the very strong yen right now. and

briefly, this trade war taking place between china and the us, how much of the spillover will be seen in japan? we have a spillover already. companies are earning money. in terms of their balance sheet they are very strong but it affects the business already, and with china being the biggest market and a lot of production in china, we are seeing a strong impact here. tourism is very positive, and the overall economy is ok in asia but we don't wa nt to economy is ok in asia but we don't want to see things getting worse on that side. now, moving on to china. it is slapping new tariffs on some products from the united states which go into effect this monday. the move is a retaliatory measure against taxes approved by president donald trump on aluminium and steel. for more on this story i am joined by my colleague. i know you have been watching this all morning, monica. where are we right now?

well, the chinese are imposing additional duties on 128 us imports, and one of the interesting ones happens to be us pork. combined, china and hong kong make up the second biggest market which exports us pork. so this will really have an impact on rural american pig farmers. they are slapping a 25% tariff on this. there are some lower taxes on wine, fruit as well as some nuts, but all of this, as you just mentioned, is in retaliation to president trump who last month said he will hit on aluminium and steel, which was very much targeted towards china. now, this all comes back to trump on the campaign trail, where he said there were unfair trade ca ctuses he said there were unfair trade cactuses with respect to china, especially regarding intellectual property. china has fought back and

said we will be hit hard by this so we need to impose our own tariffs. they are also looking at legal action with the world trade organization, going after the us. action with the world trade organization, going after the usw looks like it is just back and forth, the does something, china does something else. is there any end in sight for all of this? well, the us is expected to be giving a list. the us trade representative has until april the sixth when he is expected to list additional products. so we will see if the chinese want to get whacked after that. it seems like this tit—for—tat game doesn't seem to be ending any time soon —— chinese want to hit back. in other business news, and staying with trade, donald trump has threatened to terminate the north american free trade agreement if mexico doesn't do more to help secure its border with the united states. in a series of tweets, the us president accused mexico of doing

very little or nothing to stop the flow of immigrants into the us from latin american countries, and said the us mexico border is becoming more dangerous. the arab kingdom of bahrain says it has discovered its largest oilfield in more than 80 yea rs. largest oilfield in more than 80 years. the government reported that the new resource is understood to dwarf bahrain‘s current reserves. more details about the initial findings are due to be released later in the week. in a series we have been bringing to you on the bbc across the channel as well as the website, mindful chef has caught on toa website, mindful chef has caught on to a new trend in eating. rest of the boxes contain all the ingredients for a meal which customers cook at home. nowadays the company delivers 20,000 meals a week across the uk but as it was growing, the founder found the greatest challenge was fending off pressure from financial backers to diversify the business and sell a host of other things. did not get distracted in the early days. focus on your

core proposition. don't try to be everything to everyone. we are the healthy recipe box company. so we deliver fresh ingredients and healthy recipe box company. so we deliverfresh ingredients and recipe cards to people's doors. people are essentially opening the cook every evening with different meals, just being able to knock things up in 20, 25 minutes. what we are seeing is companies like just eat 25 minutes. what we are seeing is companies likejust eat tapping into the convenience, but a lot of customers care what they are putting into their bodies and it seems to be absolutely booming. a lot of these investors are very successful individuals in their own right, and they have seen success with other companies and obviously they are trying to help you with quite strong opinions regarding

whether business should go and additional revenue streams. in the past we have looked at adding on smoothies, protein bars, protein balls, but when you are small, you have to understand that you have to remain very focused on your core product, otherwise that core product becomes they looted. people are then asking what is mindful chef, what is this business? you need to stay very focused on a core proposition, otherwise it is very easy to get distracted. onto other news, three air france unions have called for a two day strike on april ten and 11th. air france personnel are demanding a 6% salary increase from the national flag carrier. demanding a 6% salary increase from the nationalflag carrier. the airline's management insists that cannot offer higher salaries without jeopardising growth in such a competitive sector. here is a look ata competitive sector. here is a look at a few items we are watching on the business calendar this week. there is lots coming up and lots that we will be reporting on for you

across the week right here in asia. japanese conglomerate toshiba welcomes its new chief executive. we have been talking about this on the channel and across business programmes for sometime now, as the scandal has been going on for several months. the former banker has a major task ahead of him. turning around toshiba's fortunes after massive losses and an accounting scandal. meanwhile, right here in singapore, on tuesday, this city—state plays home to finance ministers and central bank governors of asean. that is the association of southeast asian nations. there is a lot to talk about, as you can imagine, with an impending trade war between the united states and china, and what kind of impact that will have on countries out here in the region. the summit is scheduled to last four days. meanwhile, in new york on tuesday, music streaming service spotify will make its

trading debut in a rather unusual share sale. the company will list its shares directly on the new york stock exchange without relying on underwriters and investment banks to help assess demand and set a debut price. and just before we go, a lot of the markets in the region are shut today for easter monday, including new zealand, australia and hong kong. the markets in london will also be closed today. japan's markets, as you can see, will be openin markets, as you can see, will be open in the next hour. and thank you very much for watching, from singapore. the top stories this hour: more signs of a diplomatic thaw. north korea's leader attends a pop concert in pyongyang featuring some of south korea's brightest stars. thousands of residents have been allowed back in to the philippine city of marawi, nearly a year after it became a battleground for the army and jihadists

two people have been arrested after the death of a nine—year—old boy from northern ireland in tenerife last week. carter carson, from newtownabbey, was leaving a shopping centre with his family in the south of the island when he was struck by a car. the royal air force has been celebrating 100 years since its formation, with a series of events across the country. it was created by merging the army's royal flying corps and the royal naval air service. in a message of congratulation, the queen paid tribute to the men and women who, she said, had gallantly defended freedom. our correspondent robert hall reports from essex. on the runway at europe's last intact first world war aerodrome, echoes from the day the raf became a reality. this tiny biplane would have been familiar to the men who pioneered military aviation. today, stow maries airfield has

turned back the clock, remembering squadrons who defended london against the zeppelin airships and who helped convince sceptics that air power could survive and expand. we're very proud to say that of the operational aerodromes, active on operations on the day of formation, we're the only one left. we're the only one that you can still fly from, and the only one where you can see these aircraft doing what they did then. in london, serving personnel and veterans gathered for a service which marked the start of the centenary commemorations, the raf family looking back to events which provide inspiration for the future. oh, it's a wonderful service. it's a service of commemoration, but i think also celebration, of what the royal air force has done throughout its history, and what the royal air force is today, what we achieve, and who we are as an organisation. parade, parade, 'shun!

in 1918, the airmen of stow maries watched the raf standard hoisted for the first time — a moment replayed to hundreds of local air cadets, drawn into distant events. it was just spectacular, to be honest. to be where we effectively are now, like where they all were 100 years ago, is just absolutely fantastic. part of the air cadets is to grow, and i think one of them is to become more brave, and to become more courageous, and i think one of those comes into today. the raf is still evolving, but without the courage of those young men long ago, its history might have been very different. the years following the birth of the raf weren't always easy. the army and navy resented losing their pilots and air planes. the new service needed a great deal of determination, perhaps summed up in its motto — "through adversity to the stars." time now for all the sports news in sport today. welcome to sport today. i'm gavin.

coming up. spurstamps welcome to sport today. i'm gavin. coming up. spur stamps their mark on the top four in the epl. a place at the top four in the epl. a place at the masters for ian poulter. and isner gets the biggest win of his career after a match at the miami open. we start with the football. totte n ha m open. we start with the football. tottenham has beaten chelsea, beating them for the first time in 28 years to strengthen a grip on the champions league places. dele alli scored twice. richard potts ekene's men