with our top story: hawaii's kilauea volcano has erupted during the night, sending an ash cloud 9,000 metres into the air. scientists say this could be the first of a violent string of explosions from the crater. residents are warned to take shelter as toxic gas levels spike. president trump seeks to reassure kim jong—un that the us is not seeking to copy the libyan model to end the north korean nuclear programme. and the royal wedding is our main story on bbc.com. with just one day to go before the royal wedding, meghan markle‘s mother will meet the queen at windsor castle on friday. doria ragland will be accompanied by her daughter and prince harry. but will she walk ms markle down the aisle? do stay with the bbc for all the royal coverage. i will be back soon. and the top story here in the uk: almost a year after the grenfell tower fire, which left 72 people dead, ministers are considering a ban on flammable cladding

for high—rise buildings. now on bbc news all the latest business news live from singapore. economic rivals china and the us seek common ground as the chinese vice premier attends high—level meetings in washington, dc. and it is the wedding of the season. find out how the we can's royal wedding stacks up against other high profile weddings. it's a friday, everyone, almost the weekend. good morning, asia. hello, world. glad you could join us for this edition of asia

business report. i am rico hizon. they are meeting for the second time as they wrestle over tariffs, centres, and trade deficits. this time tainah's top trade representative is in washington, dc. it seems both sides have a long way to go to find any middle ground —— china. 0n to go to find any middle ground —— china. on thursday, president trump said he doubts much will come out of the meetings. the reason doubt it is because china has become very spoilt. the european union has become very spoilt other countries have become very spoilt because they a lwa ys have become very spoilt because they always got 100% of whatever they wa nted always got 100% of whatever they wanted from the united states. so have the chinese really very spoilt on trade issues, alex kapri said there is some truth to the statement. when you talk about the behaviour of chinese trade over the last decade or two decades and the quirk that have come out from donald trump about being spoiled, —— and

the words that have come out. most would agree that china's state centric economy, its protectionism, it's subsidies, has been kind of a gaming of the system. as donald trump use these quotes to gain more leveraged, more concessions, now in dc? you can never get inside mr trump's mind entirely, of course. it would seem to me that it is a very broad agenda that the united states has, and very confusing to the chinese. because of the diversity of views, even within donald trump's trade team. can donald trump really have his own mind? the chinese delegation is saying they are frustrated over criticism from the white house trade advisor, peter navarro, and then you have other advisers, is he getting confused on how they should tackle chinese trade? i think so. you have peter

navarro who is a fierce economic nationalist and then you have larry kudlow and wilbur ross, for example, who are more moderate. wilbur ross is probably a little bit more to navarro's side. what exactly does the united states want? that is what is to be worked out. what do they really wa nt ? is to be worked out. what do they really want? if you were in the middle of these negotiations, alex, between the united states and china, how can they really meet halfway to a burst a global trade war? -- to avert. to come in as the american delegation did in beijing and say we wa nt delegation did in beijing and say we want beijing to make structural changes, with would you stop state subsidies, technology transfer acquires, we want to do everything, thatis acquires, we want to do everything, that is not going to happen. alex kapri from nus business school. back in beijing, toshiba says chinese regulators have given the green light to sell to the us firm. the

deal had been hanging in the balance ofan deal had been hanging in the balance of an antimonopoly review. toshiba is the world's second—largest producer of memory chips. they will continue to own a 40% stake in the business. walmart‘s profit margins during the first quarter remain under pressure due to price cuts and higherfreight under pressure due to price cuts and higher freight costs. the weak margins overshadowed strong first—quarter numbers and progress in efforts to keep pace with rivals such as amazon in efforts to keep pace with rivals such as amazon .com. in efforts to keep pace with rivals such as amazon .com. the news of sending shares for the world's biggest retailer de .6%. the stock has fallen around 20% from an all—time high in january. has fallen around 20% from an all—time high injanuary. palm oil isa all—time high injanuary. palm oil is a hot topic at the moment. a uk supermarket has recently said they will stop using palm oil —— house products by 2019. it is a bold set against deforestation. 0thers fear

this kind of beer meat —— ban may be making things worse. simon lloyd is a key sustainability officer. he said his company were to be hit hard by such actions. but small farmers will suffer. i think when you boycott you don't protect or indeed restore forests. and by substituting palm oilfor something else you have to make sure that that other crop is sustainable. for the small farmers it would be difficult for them to abide by these sustainability rules from the global organisations. abide by these sustainability rules from the global organisationsm abide by these sustainability rules from the global organisations. it is not impossible to abide by the sustainability rules, it is the scope and the scale of the small farmers. they are very extensive, not actually organised often, they need to have some means in order to ta ke need to have some means in order to take the roundtable on sustainable palm oil standards into their actual farms themselves. be nuts and bolts in the forest than the farms, like here in singapore, everyone fears

that in a few months we will have the haze from indonesia and from malaysia. how can we end all of this, the slash and burn methods? malaysia. how can we end all of this, the slash and burn method57e long leg —— strong legislation and enforcement. is it there? it is still legal for small farmers to burnin still legal for small farmers to burn in indonesia. we as a company have not burnt for 30 odd years. we, along with many others, arejoining the fire free alliance, going ten kilometres beyond our boundaries in order to help communities realise there are other means for them to farm their lands. japanese scientists in a recent article suggested that the palm oil industry should chop down trees and not slash and burn and maybe turn all of this into green energy. what is the possibility that this could happen? all the trees in most of the responsible growers are pushed down,

not actually chopped down, and they are sliced. no burning is used. to actually convert all of that biomass into energy is going to be a difficult one to do. when you say difficult, will it be expensive?m will be expensive, but it is also the logistics. you don't chop down huge areas, but portions of your plantation. simon lord blair. let us turn from plantations to weddings. from the photographer to the dress, it is all one big business machine. prince harry and meghan markle, if you haven't heard, are tying the knot this saturday. for more on preparation, planning, and experts is that rna royal wedding, we have the de silva. how has this compare to other royal weddings? this wedding is going to be an absolute extravaganza. they expected to cost around 43 million us dollars. most of that, about a0 million, around a3 million us dollars. most of that, about a0 million, is going to go to security. about 135,000 on

the dress, about 150,000 on flowers. and what is a royal wedding without 20 silverplated trumpets? $125,000 will be spent on that. exactly. this wedding will be scrutinised inside and out. it will be. the cost of this to other royal weddings, well, seven this to other royal weddings, well, seve n years this to other royal weddings, well, seven years ago when the duke and duchess of cambridge, when they tied the knot, that came to 3a million us dollars. it was the third most expensive wedding in history at the time. the second most expensive wedding in history was $66 million in 2005. that was in india. that was the daughter of an indian steel magnate who married a businessman. the most extensive wedding of all time, that was charles and diana. their wedding cost $a8 million in 1981, when we adjusted for inflation it is $110 million today. 1981, when we adjusted for inflation it is $110 million todaylj

1981, when we adjusted for inflation it is $110 million today. i was 15 then. i watched that royal wedding. it was really very special. tell us about the expensive wedding is taking place here in asia. at there been? there have been. i mentioned the wind in india. the daughter of the wind in india. the daughter of the sultan ofjohor got married last year. she married a dutch convert to islam. they met in a malaysian cafe and dated for three years. 135,000 people were invited to their very opulent wedding. it is an incredible wedding. we don't know how much that wedding. we don't know how much that wedding cost but there were flags throughout the land and what we do know is the dowry. guess how much that cost? millions? $6. per tradition. asics dollar dowry. i know. —— asics dollar. all eyes will be at windsor this weekend. and i will be at home watching bbc news

coverage of that. from the royal wedding this weekend to the markets. let us have a quick look down at how asia will be faring this friday. it could be quite depressed after wall street's main stock indices ended in the red overnight on the heels of newly inflamed trade war fears and disappointing earnings. thank you so much for investing your time with us right here on asia business report. i am rico hizon. see you in the the top stories this hour: hawaii's mount kilauea volcano erupts during the night, sending ash soaring into the sky. president trump seeks to reassure the north korean leader that the us is not seeking a libyan model to end his nuclear programme. police forces are warning

that they are struggling to recruit specialist firearms officers, because of the intense scrutiny they face if they use their weapons. our home affairs correspondent leila nathoo reports. in december 2015, jermaine baker was part of a group trying to break out an inmate from a prison van. armed police were sent to stop them and during an operation he was shot dead. it turned out he didn't have a weapon but an imitation gun was found in the back of the car he was in. he shouts his death stokes tensions in a community already wary of police. after an independent investigation, no criminal charges were brought against the officer who fired the fatal shot, and the met refused to discipline him, but today the police watchdog has directed the force to begin gross misconduct proceedings against the officer involved. once again the police have been forced to bring gross misconduct proceedings.

this family have waited two and a half years to get answers on howjermaine died, and where the police use fatal force, there must be the highest level accountability and scrutiny. this is where the police moved in on jermaine baker and his two accomplices. they were parked here. 0ne officer took the decision to open fire. he will have to explain himself and may lose his job. but the union representing the met police says the fear of going through that sort of process is putting people off the role. for these offices in birmingham, this is just a routine training exercise. two years ago, in light of the terror threat, the home office provided extra money for hundreds more like them across england and wales. but today police revealed that the target of 1000 new recruits by this year has been missed, and senior officers are clear why. many worry about the level of scrutiny and the nature

of post—incident investigations on the very rare occasions where a police firearm is discharged. they worry whether they will be treated as professional witnesses or some sort of suspect of wrongdoing. this is one of the most demanding jobs in policing. they know any wrong move could have fatal consequences. the us senate has confirmed gina haspel as the first woman director of the cia, with 5a senators voting for her and a5 against. ms haspel, a veteran at the agency, faced stiff opposition during her confirmation hearings over her links to the cia's past use of brutal interrogation techniques. time now for all the sports news in sport today. hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme:

rafael nadal moves through to the rome masters quarter—finals, where he'll face local favourite fabio fognini. gianluigi buffon will bring down the curtain on hisjuventus career this weekend after 17 years in turin. and ireland's sam bennett wins stage 12 of the giro d'italia but simon yates still leads heading into friday's stage 13. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with tennis and most of the big names have booked their spots in the last eight of the italian 0pen. rafael nadal looked unstoppable against denis shapovalov as he bids for a first title in rome since 2013. defending champion alexander zverev also made it through. nick parrott reports. the first time rafael nadal met denis shapovalov he lost and with it went the chance to climb back to number one in the world. nine months on from that upset