this is business briefing. europe steers towards a driverless future, but are the public on board? plus: braced for a us—china trade war. we report from dongguan, once called the ‘workshop of the world'. and on the markets, asian shares holding steady after wall street closed higher, with brent crude edging towards $80 a barrel. we start with driverless cars. they are on their way, whether we like it or not, and today the eu will unveil its plans to catch up with the us and china in this fast—developing technology. it will include investments in infrastructure as well as co—operation between member states on rules and ethics. the eu's flagship programme only got underway last year. l3pilot is operated by a consortium of car companies, led by volkswagen,

which will test vehicles across ten countries. compare that to the us, where nevada became the first state to permit testing back in 2011. now, 21 states have laws governing driverless car testing. china is also investing heavily, with plans to launch 30 million vehicles with some degree of autonomy within the next decade. it is set to be the world's biggest market for autonomous vehicles by 2030. the area is not without its controversy, of course. in the last few hours, us regulators have said they are looking into what could be another crash involving driverless technology. as kim gittleson in new york explains. the national highway traffic safety administration has confirmed that it sent a team of investigators to south jordan, utah, to sent a team of investigators to southjordan, utah, to investigate the crash between a tesla model as in the fire mechanic truck which happened earlier in the week. a

20—year—old woman behind wheel of the tesla said she had the car's autopilot engaged when she slammed into the side of the truck had nearly 60 mph. while this is the third such incident for tesla this year, the electric car maker isn't alone when it comes to struggling with its driverless technology. in march, and uber with its autopilot hit and killed a pedestrian in arizona. all of these incidents combined to give an ordinary americans a sense of concern when it comes to driverless technology. a study by the pew research centre found that while the majority of americans think that driverless cars will be the norm in the next 50 yea rs, will be the norm in the next 50 years, when it comes to getting into one today, most were declined the opportunity. this suggests that the car industry has a lot more research to do and publicity when it comes to convincing americans to take their hands off the wheel. anna—marie baisden is head of autos at bmi research. we have been hearing about another

incident they are, and the problem is, with the technology being rolled out like this, every incident like thatis out like this, every incident like that is potentially a big setback, certainly in a pr sense, with the public who have got to buy into it. absolutely, but i think we have to strike a balance because, at the same time, the kind of regulations the eu is talking about ringing in is exactly what we need to try and improve safety is exactly what we need to try and im prove safety a nd is exactly what we need to try and improve safety and have these regulations in place. so what do you wa nt to regulations in place. so what do you want to see from those regulations? well, what we really want to see is a safe environment to have these vehicles tested. you want to be able to convince people that while they are on the road driving, these things can be tested without being a danger to them. and i think they have to prove that if they get widespread adoption that they will be safe to use as well. and this idea of ethics, people appointed to consider the ethics of all this. that is a fantastic idea. what are you expecting from it? it is very

interesting. it could cover so many things, whether it is data usage or responsibility for crashes, there are so many responsibility for crashes, there are so many legal aspect is to autonomy. because this has a follow for things like insurance and responsibility, and i suppose that is where the ethical guidelines will have to end up making pretty big decision is one way or another, who is responsible. absolutely, for the insurance industry it could be massive disruption. even just knowing who your customers are going to be, and the whole path of responsibility in terms of an accident. so these are the things that we really need to start addressing. so it is good to see a package that looks at these things all at once. so you are pleased that europe is finally catching up with the stakes for this. absolutely, it isa the stakes for this. absolutely, it is a race to get this technology in place. thank you very much for being with us. who will take over from mark carney as governor of the bank of england when his term ends next year?

well, the list of runners and riders may have got a little shorter. raghuram rajan, former chief of india's central bank and now a professor at the university of chicago, has been widely tipped to possibly replace the canadian. but, speaking to our economics editor kamal ahmed on wednesday, he appeared to rule out a move to london. can you imagine any circumstances where you would be the next governor of the bank of england? no, i am very happy with myjob in chicago. i love academia. no plans to consider coming here? i have no plans. but you are not ruling it out. look, all ican you are not ruling it out. look, all i can say is i am very happy with my currentjob. later today president trump's business team, led by us treasury secretary steven mnuchin, will host the vice premier of china, liu he, for trade talks in washington. it is the second round of talks aimed at heading off a damaging trade war between the two sides following their meetings in beijing two weeks ago. the us has threatened to impose punitive tariffs on up to $150 billion in chinese goods,

demanding a rebalancing of their trading relationship. the bbc‘s robin brant reports from dongguan, in southern china, which could be hit hard. if the trade war comes, this is where china will feel it — really feel it. dongguan is near the south coast, a place once dubbed the workshop of the world. in this factory, oil, lubrication, is everywhere. the smell of it is in the air, the feel of it under your feet. they make precision metal parts here, and they reckon up to 300 could be hit by the new us tariffs. this tiny punched—out metal disc will eventually end up in a car

engine, maybe yours if you buy a turbocharger. now, it is one of dozens and dozens of components they make here that on america's hit list. it could be about to become more expensive if this trade war takes off. like legions of workers across china, they march out for lunch at 12:00pm. automation has cut the number of people working here. some think donald trump's tariffs could be about to do the same again. much of the manufacturing in dongguan has moved abroad.

but it is uniquely vulnerable. 93% of its economy comes from exports. this firm sends about 35% of its products to the us. china is trying to become less of an export—dependent economy. but it is everywhere. across town, leather hides draped over hangers. along with timber, they feature, one way way or another, on the us hit list. let's stay in asia, where online giant tencent has unveiled record profits thanks to a boom in mobile phone gaming. revenues from social media have also been soaring, helping make tencent one of asia's most valuable companies, worth around $500 billion. rico hizon is crunching the numbers for us. well, the stock prices soaring on

the hong kong stock exchange at this hour after reported record quarterly products of $3.7 billion in the three months until march, beating a nalyst three months until march, beating analyst estimates. the stock price... well, investors are really very excited as the company's bottom line was boosted mainly by their mobile gaming business. its messaging service, which has been compared to whatsapp, has passed 1 billion active user accounts for the first time, which is significant given the app is an increasingly important source of revenues for tencent. before the earnings report, shares had been under pressure and we re shares had been under pressure and were down around 70% from record highs ends january. earnings reported in the fourth quarter of last year underwhelmed investors, and concerns were rising that spending increases could hit profitability. analysts hope that this upward trend for the tech firm can be maintained this quarter and

beyond, but they also forecast challenges as the games and social media company faces stiff competition. thank you for that. now let's brief you on some other business stories: french energy giant total is preparing to pull out of $1 billion gas project in iran, in the face of renewed us sanctions. total said it will unwind operations by november unless sanctions are waived. washington is reimposing strict sanctions on iran, which were lifted under the 2015 deal to curb the country's nuclear ambitions. french rail workers will begin two more days of strikes against planned reforms by president macron. the shake—up is aimed at making sncf, france's heavily indebted state rail operator, more efficient. there have been 18 days of walkouts since early april, the last on monday, which sncf bosses described as very difficult day with heavy disruption. up next: news briefing.

we will take you through the stories making headlines in the global media modern life can make it difficult to get a proper night's sleep, but disruption to the body's internal clock could be linked to an increased risk of mood disorders. researchers have urged people to become more attuned to the body's natural rhythm. here is our health correspondent james gallagher. inside every one of us is a biological clock keeping time. it drives huge changes in the way our body works. it is why you want to sleep at night and be active during the day. mood, strength, hormone levels, body temperature, metabolism,

and even the risk of a heart attack all fluctuate in a daily rhythm. but we're getting very good at disrupting our body clocks. how many of us are guilty of this — being up late at night checking our phones? thers is always something else to tweet, an article to read, another message to send. we know messing with our body clocks is bad for our health. ask someone how they feel after a night shift, or when they're jet—lagged. but there are concerns now it could also be bad for our mental health. the study looked at 91,000 people. it showed that those with disrupted body clocks were more likely to have depression and bipolar disorder, and they were more lonely and less happy. i think the big concern is that these devices that people use during the night time have blue light exposure, which can affect your sleep rhythm. so that needs more research,

but i think people should be vigilant, and i think a good general piece of advice would be for people to turn off their mobile phones in the evening and not look at them until the morning. this study on our bodies' timepiece is not perfect. it cannot say for certain that disrupting our natural sleeping pattern is damaging our mental health. but the findings do add to a growing recognition of the importance of the body clock on both our health and well—being. james gallagher, bbc news. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: the ebola outbreak in the democratic republic of congo has spread to a large city. the authorities fear it will become difficult to contain. president trump has admitted he has reimbursed his personal lawyer more than $100,000 — money that is understood to have been used to buy the silence of the porn star stormy daniels. media from around the globe have transformed the tranquil town of windsor, ahead of saturday's royal wedding.

the eu is to unveil its plans for driverless cars, including investments in infrastructure and co—operation between member states on rules and ethics. now it is time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in media across the world. we begin with the new york times, which looks at the treatment of meghan markle and her family by the british press. it says her life is treated almost as a reality show, and that her father has been "a favourite punching bag of the british tabloids." next we have the south china morning post, with an article saying observers believe that north korea's threat to cancel next month's planned summit with donald trump is part of the country's efforts to maximise its bargaining power. and the telegraph reports that britain will tell brussels it's prepared to stay in the european union's customs union beyond 2021. it comes as uk ministers remain deadlocked over a future deal with the eu. and from brexit to another possible exit —

the financial times says that a french energy giant is threatening to pull out of iran unless it can be protected from us sanctions, following washington's withdrawal from an international nuclear deal with the islamic republic. and finally, a story on the guardian website about the pope issuing guidelines for nuns about how they engage with social media apps, saying they should use such apps "with sobriety and discretion". as we all should. with me is rolake akin—kugbe filani, who's head of energy at fbn merchant bank. ok, so let's start with the new york times and a story