but kim jong—un must take irreversible steps to get rid of his nuclear weapons. speaking on us tv, national security advisorjohn bolton sounded a note of caution, saying the trump administration was not naive or starry—eyed about the meeting. a key british minister has resigned amid claims she misled parliament over targets for removing illegal immigrants. home secretary amber rudd had faced increasing calls to quit, over the so—called windrush scandal. and this story is trending on bbc.com: it's the mystery disappearance of a tree given to president trump by france's president and planted by the two leaders last week. some reports suggest it might be in quarantine. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: it's emerged that a fraud case involving the sale of diesel had to be halted because vital documents from tax officials weren't shared with the defence. now on bbc news all the latest

business news live from singapore. the uk's second biggest supermarket chain, sainsbury‘s, is looking to buy its smaller rival, asda. under the trump administration, many americans are being sent to jail because of unpaid debts, some coming from minor traffic violations. hello and welcome to asia business report, i'm sharanjit leyl. two big mergers to tell you about this monday morning. after years of courtship, america's third and four the biggest wireless providers are finally walking down the aisle. t—mobile is my goal might buy in

sprint $46.5 billion t—mobile is my goal might buy in sprint $16.5 billion in stock and it's a victory forjapan‘s of bank, a majority owner in sprint, it's been trying to buy the two telcos for a while but the deal is likely to face heavy scrutiny from regulators —— softbank. sainsbury‘s is hungry for a deal so it's gone shopping for its smaller rival, asda, owned by walmart. they are in an advanced stage of merger talks and should the multibillion—dollar deal go through it would transform britain's supermarket business. the bbc‘s joe lynam britain's supermarket business. the bbc‘sjoe lynam has more. this whopper of a deal could shake up this whopper of a deal could shake up the british sugar market sector. at the moment tesco is the biggest grocer in the uk with 28% of the market. asda and sainsbury‘s have almost 16% each —— supermarket. put them together and their combined stores would hop over tesco into the top spot. details of the multibillion—dollar merger are expected to be released late on monday, but the uk

competition watchdog is being urged by politicians to examine the deal. you can track the latest developments on our website. in other news, australia's government backed investigation into the country's financial sector has claimed another scalp. the chairwoman of australian wealth manager amp has resigned after the firm admitted to serious misconduct. last week amp's chief executive resigned over the scandal. the australian royal commission found they repeatedly misled the legislator over customer service fees. —— regulator. this week is expected to be important for investors, we've got lots of earnings due from several technology giants. on wednesday we start with snap, the company behind snapchat, it will announce its first—quarter earnings and the company has struggled since its ipo last year.

snapchat warned employees it could be cutting more than 100 jobs in the wa ke be cutting more than 100 jobs in the wake of declining ad revenue. meanwhile, we'll find out how the world's most valuable company did in the first three months of this year. apple has already warned that earnings in that quarter could be potentially lower than expected because of a weaker set of iphone sales. on friday, all eyes will be on china's top e—commerce firm, none other than aliba ba, it's on china's top e—commerce firm, none other than alibaba, it's announcing its first—quarter earnings. earlier i asked an expert what his focus this week will be. it's going to be an interesting week for sure, everyone's eyes will be on apple, they are expecting slowing demand for iphones. last quarter was a decline compared to the previous quarter and they have announced it is still declining, notjust from developed economies but in emerging economies there's been a weakening and declining growth, like china and

india. overall smartphone sales, we are expecting a decline for apple, but in terms of profitability, the iphone x has been priced higher so the profitability of apple might be relatively stable. moving away from apple, looking at the technology sector overall, there's been fears of heightened regulation, more government measures being placed on them after the facebook cambridge analytica scandal, what can we expect going forward for these companies, not just the expect going forward for these companies, notjust the like of apple, but snap and alibaba in e—commerce? apple, but snap and alibaba in e-commerce? one of the implications of the facebook scandal is data privacy and that will make things different. from a social media platform viewpoint, it will affect the data you send and share with third parties. but with e—commerce, amazon and ala ba third parties. but with e—commerce, amazon and alaba bar, there is data privacy laws. in indonesia and other

countries like thailand, they are strengthening their laws. —— alibaba. when strengthening their laws. —— aliba ba. when people strengthening their laws. —— alibaba. when people are transacting, how much data is shared with the third—party and what privacy is relevant? that will become more common and there will be more scrutiny the region. china's technology sector is a key pa rt china's technology sector is a key part of beijing's longer term made in china 2025 strategy, as the country attempt to move away from making cheap goods. aside from investing in artificial intelligence, the government has been looking into using blockchain technology to revolutionise how business is conducted in sectors like logistics and agriculture. we spoke to the man helping to create that blockchain economy. the china situation is quite complicated but in general i would say the chinese government is very

supportive about blockchain itself. by supportive about blockchain itself. by the end of 2016, chinese government released five—year national plan, every five years it is released, the five—year national plan, and in this five—year national plan, and in this five—year national plan there were only two technologies highlighted, one is artificial intelligence and the other is blockchain. blockchain has been around for a while now, why hasn't it been adopted before? many reasons. firstly the blockchain technology is still in the early stage of development, still we have many things to improve, not only with the technology itself but also integrating with the real business environment and also in terms of regulation and compliance, there's many things to be improved. how can the chinese government be supportive of blockchain initiatives like this but completely ban something initial calling offerings? i think it is a good thing honestly to do because at

that time the market was quite a mess “— that time the market was quite a mess —— cloyne offerings. more than half the bad people were doing scams. it messed up the title of blockchain and that has affected the technology itself so it is good to stop, take a break, and see how we can support the good projects and the good business cases. jailing people for unpaid debts has been made illegal in countries around the world, yet today in 2018 many americans are now being sent to prisons for debts. it's a trend that started in the wake of the financial crisis when local and state governments try to make up for tax revenue shortfalls by issuing more and largerfines revenue shortfalls by issuing more and larger fines for things like traffic violations. kim gittleson

reports from the us state of south carolina, where some of the poorest americans continue to have their lives are appended by their inability to pay. last year, this woman spent nearly two months injail afterfalling behind on payments for a $2000 traffic violation. after seven days in jail i lost a family member, i had my 40th birthday, my sam had a birthday, his 17th birthday, it was easter and i missed my granddaughter‘s first easter —— son. she knew she couldn't pay the fine while supporting six children, grandchildren and children but she didn't think the outcome to be so severe. two months in jail for a ticket, ridiculous. she's not alone. here in lexington county if you can't pay the traffic ticket, an increasing number of citizens are being sentenced to jail time and rights groups have called it a

modern day debtors' prison. it's not just happening here. in fact, the american civil unions union said it exists in 15 states. all over the country people are being jailed because they don't have money. why would you lock someone up because you can't pay? there's an incentive. local governments rely on these fines and fees and such is part of their municipal expenses. we asked officials in lexington county if that's why they were jailing people but they declined to comment because it is illegal to jail people who can't afford to pay, that's why people like amy have filed a lawsuit. amy spent 21 days injail away from her two daughters after she couldn't pay a ticket for $650. i feel she couldn't pay a ticket for $650. ifeel bad... unfairly she couldn't pay a ticket for $650. i feel bad... unfairly treated and

the main outcome is i don't want anotherfamily the main outcome is i don't want another family member to go through what i went through. for now, though, many americans continue to be punished just for being poor. before we go we will show you some pictures from the marvel superhero franchise that's been generating out of the world profits, avengers infinity walk $630 million in ticket sales over the last weekend, the highest global opening of all—time. —— avengers infinity war. that's it for asia business report, thanks for watching. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: the us says there's a real opportunity for a deal with north korea's leader but he must take irreversible steps to get rid of his nuclear weapons. a key british minister resigns amid claims she misled parliament over targets for removing illegal immigrants. gaming is increasingly big business,

creating celebrity players and even tipped to become a new olympic sport. well, now a 13—year—old from kent, has become one of the world's youngest professional gamers. kyle jackson is so good he's on course to earn serious money. joe lynam has been to meet him. for many of us, fortnite is the length of time you spend on your holidays. but for millions of young people, it's the hottest video game on the planet right now, and for this 13—year—old, it's potentially a lucrative future career. kyle has been signed to play with a team of professional gamers. so how did he start? i started playing competitively when i was around nine or ten. i got into halo, call of duty, games like that.

i realised that i could probably go to a pro—level if i kept playing at that scale. gaming is nojoke, it's a big business. thousands of people pay to watch experts at play around the world. there are even celebrities. it's becoming a multibillion—dollar industry. just games, production of games, publishing and the e—sports scene. it's notjust one thing, it is a whole industry that is wrapped in a bow. kyle has not been paid anything yet, and can't of course have a job until he is 16. for those parents who suspect his schoolwork may be suffering, kyle is reassuring. i'm doing well in every subject at school. they are not worried about me playing as much as i do. for now, kyle is doing something millions of teenagers dream of, pursuing a career by playing games. joe lynam, bbc news. the former speaker of the house of commons, lord martin of springburn, has died at the age of 72.

he was speaker from 2000 until being forced to step down following his handling of the mps expenses scandal in 2009. lord martin was a labour mp for 25 years and held the role of speaker for nine. but he was criticised for his handling of the mps expenses scandal and was eventually forced to resign as speaker in 2009. the former prime minister gordon brown said michael martin would be sorely missed. lots more on the website. 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 mark edwards and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: more messi magic sees barcelona win the la liga title in manager ernesto valverde's

first season in charge. and lewis hamilton grabs his first victory of the season after red bull cause chaos at the azerbaijan grand prix. another day another win for nadal. rafa at his unstoppable best he takes the barcelona open for an 11th time. hello and thanks forjoining us on sport today. barcelona are la liga champions after they beat deportivo la coruna 11—2 on sunday in a lionel messi masterclass in finishing delivering a 25th la liga title while ensuring deportivo's relegation from the spanish top flight. philippe coutinho opened the scoring for the catalan giants who only needed a point to clinch the title, before — surprise, surprise — it turned into the lionel messi