intervention in syria. he says a strike in response to an alleged chemical attack could come very soon or "not so soon at all." meanwhile france says it has evidence the assad regime definitely used chemical weapons. mike pompeo faces a grilling by us senators at his confirmation hearing. but trump's choice to be secretary of state denies he's a war hawk. he also warns north korea not to expect rewards for holding talks with america. the international chemical weapons watchdog confirms sergei skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a ‘soviet era' nerve agent. the organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons did not name the agent as novichok but says it agreed with british findings so far. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: lawyers for sir cliff richard have told the high court his reputation was left in shreds after he suffered a gross invasion of his privacy by the bbc. now on bbc news, all

the latest business news live from singapore. it isa it is a major u—turn. president trump may be putting the trans—pacific trump may be putting the tra ns—pacific partnership back trump may be putting the trans—pacific partnership back on the negotiating table as tensions brew between the us and china. and delta earnings are up and away. with a 10%jump in profit with asian —— will asian airlines follow their lead? good morning. welcome to asia business report live from singapore. we will kick things off with trade. do you remember president trump pulling out the huge free—trade deal

known as the trans—pacific partnership. that was within days of taking office. it could be back on the negotiating table. the us president made a commitment to reconsider the deal while meeting with politicians from farming states. meanwhile, the white house is free negotiating trade deals closer to home with canada and mexico. president trump is skipping the summit of america's which starts today in peru. are south american business correspondent explains why he is surprised by trump's latest comments about the tpp. there was a meeting in the white house with president trump and a few senators from the midwest. one of the senators came out of the meeting and said that president trump now wants the us to look at options after rejoining the tpp. a lot of this has to do from what the senator said as a response to the china us trade war. not so much that the us enjoys the idea of going back to the tpp

but in the words of the senator, that maybe the us should look at doing trade with countries that believe in free trade. this could be an answer to china more than enthusiasm for the us side of joining the tpp. you spoke about the us china spat and president trump skipping the summer in baru. —— summit in peru. once the news emerged in march about the steel ta riffs emerged in march about the steel tariffs people thought that brazil, argentina and these countries would be affected. and then they had temporary exemptions and then eve ryo ne temporary exemptions and then everyone really realised that this was all about china. and now with china lifting some tariffs on us and banning some products that could emerge as an opportunity for countries such as brazil and argentina to sell more soy beans to china, for instance. so people are watching and trying to understand

what will be the trade rules from now on and will be benefit or not? at this stage it is too early to understand what is happening and that causes a lot of confusion in stock markets and government. was daniel speaking to me earlier. getting some reaction to president trump's comments about the tpp. the japanese finance minister says he would welcome a move by the united states to explore rejoining the tpp. he also said that the prime minister, shinzo abe, and president trump will meet soon to discuss the tpp next week. in the past 2a hours, the trade spat between china and the us seems to be escalating yet again after china's commerce ministry reconfirmed its stance that the country will not hesitate to fight back if the us take further protectionist measures and the director—general of the world trade

organization is the latest two warned that global trade could be undermined if governments resort to restrictive policies. it is not possible to accurately map out the effects of a major escalation but clearly they would be serious. a breakdown in trade relations among major players would derail the recovery that we have seen in recent yea rs, recovery that we have seen in recent years, threatening the ongoing economic expansion of putting jobs at risk. while president trump has a lwa ys at risk. while president trump has always justified his frequent attacks on america's biggest trading partners by claiming his policies protect american workers. but in the southern state of tennessee, which actually voted overwhelmingly for mr trump in 2016, the prospect of barriers to doing business with china is threatening to derail a booming agricultural and money is coming manufacturing economy. this

man's family have been farming since 1932. thanks to a favourable climate, that crop has remained steady. what has changed other customers. would probably export 8096 to 90% of total soya bean production and probably half of that goes to china. so those trade relations are pretty vital. the hutchinsons don't usually pay much attention to politics. but after china announced it would slap a 25% levy on soya bean imports, grain growers have been glued to the news, hoping for a thaw in relations between washington and beijing. we study the markets closely. we do not need any more pressure on us. not with commodity prices were working with. tennessee's economy has been booming thanks to international trade. unemployment is falling faster than in the rest of the us and investment is flooding in. but the state, which

voted enthusiastically for donald trump, is now in danger of being caught in the crosshairs of his trade war. this is a local success story. the specialist road laying machines are assembled entirely in chattanooga and are taught after around the world. but donald trump's steel tariffs are already throwing a spanner in the works. everything on the machine, beard he engine all the assemblies, they are made from steel. we are looking at around eight 40% increase in our cost. former industrial hub, chattanooga was once known as the dirtiest city in the us. that it fought hard to recover its manufacturing base and has attracted companies like amazon and volkswagen. the mayor hopes that decisions made in washington do not reverse the fortunes of the city. are a lot of things going right here. we have high wage growth. we do not need to fightjustified. we

need to find practical solutions that help citizens of the city. hack at the farm, the focus is on getting this year's crop in the ground. a day, along with exporters across the state, now we could be the president who will decide the fate of their harvest. let's stay with america because the country's biggest carrier, delta airlines, has reported better than expected results for the first three months of this year. profits rose by nearly 10% thanks to healthy consumer demand and an improving us economy. analysts seem to think that earnings will continue to improve this year with strong global economy. our aviation analyst says that global travel is strong, notjust in the us but across all regions, despite possible trade tension and protectionist measure. what is pleasing from a global perspective is that the demand in europe has

grown well. north america is delivering steadily and the growth thatis delivering steadily and the growth that is happening in asia with low—cost carriers and particularly the rise of chinese airlines, it is really providing a lot of momentum for the airline industry. overall it isa for the airline industry. overall it is a rosy picture, despite the fact —— the scandals that sometimes he asked. i think what everybody is keen to avoid is a situation where trade breaks down because when that happens then air cargo shipments will slow and it will also slow the amount of business that people do overseas. that would bring down business travel and therefore growth in the airline industry. that is something that i think many people are keeping a very wary eye on. particularly the airlines based in asia. much of their business is built around business travellers and aircargo. if built around business travellers and air cargo. if there is any slowing

and that, that could cause problems. staying with aviation. the younger daughter of the chairman of korean airlines has apologised for her foolish behaviour. that follows media reports that she threw a bottle of water at the face of a manager of the airline's advertising agency. the family previously made headlines after the so—called nut rage incident when her sister through a tantrum in first class on the airline. that episode caused outrage in a country whose economy is dominated by family run conglomerates and are accused of escaping punishment for bad behaviour. in other business news, fa u lts behaviour. in other business news, faults bagan has a new boss behind the wheel. the german —— vw has a new boss behind the wheel. it will now have just three groups while

preparing its truck is must for listing. the plans were announced after vw and the board of directors ousted their former ceo and discussed ways to overhaul the company which encompasses a wide variety of vehicles. would show you the markets before we go because president trump, turning down his rhetoric about a possible military strike in syria has been helping to boost shares in asia and, of course, overnight on wall street as well. that is it for this edition of asian business report. thank you for watching. the top stories this hour. tension mounts about possible us military action in syria, as jets and warships are moved into place. mike pompeo faces a grilling by us senators at his confirmation hearing. but trump's choice to be secretary of state denies he's a ‘war hawk‘ latest figures for accident

and emergency waiting times in england are the worst since records began 16 years ago. the health watchdog nhs improvement says hospitals are continuing to face a "mammoth task" coping with rising numbers of patients. it was a familiar story in hospitals this winter. the latest a&e figures for england show there's been no letup with the arrival of spring. what we're seeing is that nurses are struggling to deliver the quality and level of care that they want to deliver, patients are frustrated because they're not getting the care they want. it is just a very difficult situation. the proportion of patients treated or assessed within four hours in a&e was the lowest over a year since records began in england.

by march it was just 84.6% dealt with in that time. slightly higher was the latest figure from scotland, which was forjanuary, with 87.2% within four hours. whereas in wales and northern ireland the average waiting times for the latest months available were worse than in england and scotland. some hospitals, like this one, the royal london, have worked hard to develop new methods of managing the flow of patients, even in the face of extreme pressure over the winter. in partnership with the local ambulance service, they send consultants out to try to treat more patients in the community, and for those who are admitted, a big effort is made to get them home as quickly as possible. we have joint meetings between the doctors, nurses and therapists so patients get the therapy they need, the tests they need, the treatment they need, just slightly quicker. these marginal gains can take a day or two off the length of stay. but nobody denies it's a really demanding task.

there's still relentless pressure. it's what one senior doctor has called "eternal winter". hugh pym, bbc news. the princess royal has visited her father, the duke of edinburgh, in hospital in central london. the duke, who is 96, has been recovering from a hip operation last week at king edward vii hospital. princess anne is believed to be the first member of the royal family to visit him. don't forget you can get in touch with me and some of the team on twitter — i'm bbc kasia madera time now for all the sports news in sport today. hello, i'm tulsen tollett and this

is sport today, live from the bbc sports centre. coming up on the program: of the commonwealth games is well under way on the gold coast and australia... we had life to chris mitchell shortly. son spoke dumped lazio out of the europa league in a shock. tiger woods said he will play at the us open injune after not having featured since 2015 —— souths berg. hello and welcome to the programme, day nine of the commonwealth games is into the late morning on australia's gold coast and chris mitchell is there out and about for us. the talk is still about for us. the talk is still about the 200 metres from the men's from last night with is being disqualified.