attacks against civilians. this time as part of an offensive against kachin rebels in the north of the country. villagers say whole communities have been forced to flee — though the army insists it only targets armed forces. the american fashion designer kate spade has been found dead at her home in new york. ms spade was best known for the handbag company she founded in 1993. police believe she killed herself. and this video is trending on bbc.com: the chief executive of qatar airways has sparked a storm of protest after saying his airline had to be — i quote — "led by a man because it was a very challenging position". akbar al baker was attending a conference on diversity. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: the labour party says it will try to make the government stay in the eu's internal market by tabling amendments to brexit legislation coming before mps next week.

now on bbc news, all the latest business news live from singapore. potential progress on trade but also a warning from a former indian central bank governor. and emirates faces turbulent times as it faces higherfuel prices faces turbulent times as it faces higher fuel prices and a stronger dollar. will ticket sales keep them afloat? it is wednesday and good morning, asia, hello, world. thank you forjoining us for this edition of asia business report. to start the problem, —— programme, zte which

may have signed an agreement lifting a congress ban on the company although it will need to pay fines of over $1 billion. the fate of zte has been a key sticking point in trade negotiations between china and the us. meanwhile the wall street journal is reporting that china offered to purchase up to $70 billion worth of us goods in exchange for the removal of tariffs. evenif exchange for the removal of tariffs. even if there has been progress on some issues, a trade war between the two countries is still a major risk to the world's financial system according to india's former central bank governor. he has correctly predicted that gse um warning more than a decade ago that risky financial behaviour would lead to a meltdown. he spoke to my colleague about the impact these american spats with its trading colleagues

may have. unlike the time before the financial crisis, what we have now which we did not have then is an uncertain global environment. i don't think that the risks will come from the same place. it could come from the same place. it could come from a different place. for example, if we have a substantial trade war, that mergers between the us and china, we have a financial system that takes the pressure? from that kind of global conflagration conflagration? there are the makings ofa conflagration? there are the makings of a trade war happening right now, with the us and europe, us and its nafta partners as well as us and china. what are your warnings about that? in this day and age it is not sensible to get into a trade war. the problem right now is that some of what appears to be the beginnings of what appears to be the beginnings ofa of what appears to be the beginnings of a trade war may be seen as a bargaining ploy is. the difficulty,

of course, is when bargaining ploy is don't stay as poise and people are sucked in to actually carrying out some of their threats. famously, you predicted the gmc back in 2005. right now we are in a stage where many of the rules and regulations that came into place to prevent banks from taking such risky behaviour are now being scaled back. are you worried that something similar could happen? there is some maxxis but i don't think it is happening across the board in such a big weight that one should be overly worried. one should be more worried about the kind of leveraged taking place even without deregulation of the last few years. his former employer will make a decision on the

cost of borrowing to be. we will have the latest from our team in india later this morning. at the annual general meeting, tesla revealed it will build its first factory outside the us. it will be in shanghai and the company is expected to make an official announcement soon. the move was anticipated because building a factory in the largest car market in the world will allow the company to avoid tariffs there. it is the end ofan era. avoid tariffs there. it is the end of an era. toshiba, the first in the world to commercialise laptop computers has decided to sell its pc business. the pricetag, only $36 million. toshiba and sharp made headlines for losing billions of dollars. sharp managed to turn itself around under foreign management. asked an economist who thought this deal was surprising. i am not surprised at all. i think it is correct for toshiba to follow the

likes of nec and fujitsu and get away from these products. as you point out, $36 million is a low numberand point out, $36 million is a low number and the number, yes, i was surprised. from the looks of it, consumer electronics is not a stronghold of the japanese any longer. absolutely. there is a great misunderstanding that goes on when we hear these sort of news stating that japan is faltering we hear these sort of news stating thatjapan is faltering behind. the fa ct of thatjapan is faltering behind. the fact of the matter is that this is a newer scrap and build process. electronics, especially consumer electronics, is not a stronghold of japan. the stronghold is in the area of automobiles and machinery. i would say that this is a natural move for toshiba to make. what is sharp, which was also purchased by another company, stand to gain from this 36,000,000—dollar deal? another company, stand to gain from this 36,000,000-dollar deal? quite a lot. you can see that the new

owner's sales network has contributed greatly to the comeback of sharp's earnings. you can expect something similar to happen. i would say there is a very good synergism is not on the brand name but also on the distribution network. this is a very good purchase for sharp and its pa rent very good purchase for sharp and its parent company as far as the strategy is concerned. the uk government has paid the way for fox to bid for sky provided it follows through with a proposal to allay concerns over the influence of rupert murdoch. this paves the way for fox develop an pass to purchase skype. this position takes into account concerns of the media

concentration. that report confirms, as previously set out, that the proposed merger does pass the threshold for a relevant merger situation and provides recommendations on both public interest test. on broadcasting standards, they carried out a thorough and systematic assessment taking into consideration their approaches to broadcast and to wider regulatory compliance and governments. it was concluded that in line with interim findings that the merger may not be expected to operate that against the public interest on the grounds of genuine commitment to broadcasting standards. mr speaker, iagree commitment to broadcasting standards. mr speaker, i agree with this finding. the airline industry is faced with a double whammy of the oil prices fall as the us dollar being a. that the chief executive officer of emirate airlines hopes that a rise in tickets will buffer

that. i don't think emirates and etihad will merge, i think there will be more cooperation than there has been before. we had regular tory issues that we cannot trade in share prices but where we can consolidate in other areas, beat purchasing or back of house systems, we will do that. i think now the time is quite fertile for etihad to work closely with us and us with them. emirates is introducing premiere economy in 2020. a little late to the gate are what does that us about rats? 2020. a little late to the gate are what does that us about rat57m 2020. a little late to the gate are what does that us about rats? it is a recognition that many of our consumers, now that premium economy is more the goodison never before and we are being told that we are missing a trick and we would be prepared to paperback, were all saw loyal emirates customers because we

are used to your brand, why are you not doing this was to our problem is that we already have an higher economy offering anyway. creating a new compartment... we don't want to draw people down from business we wa nt draw people down from business we want people to upgrade from economy. getting the mass ride is important but we will do it. you have just introduced a first—class cabin in the centre of the plane with windows. how does that work? we demonstrated that with ibrox optic cameras relaying images as if you we re cameras relaying images as if you were on the window. quality of the imagery is so good it is better than with the natural light. what then do, can the later generation of aircraft be windowless, given this type of technology? in my view, there is absolutely no reason. imaginea there is absolutely no reason. imagine a fuselage with no windows but when you are inside there are windows. now you have one fuselage which has no structural weaknesses because of windows. you have to put a lot of weight into the fuselage to cope with the window line. that all goes. the aircraft is lighter.

aircraft can be faster. they will burn less fuel and fly higher. so if we get to that stage where we can persuade the manufacturers to take this seriously, and i don't see why they would not. that was tim clark from emirates speaking to our reporter at the industry annual summit in sydney. let's have a quick look now where the markets are. the japanese market is down and the australian market is gaining 21 points. thank you so much for investing time with us. sport today is dumbing up next. the top stories this hour: myanmar‘s military is facing fresh accusations of deadly attacks against civilians, this time as part of an offensive against kachin rebels in the north of the country. tributes are being paid to the american designer, kate spade, who's been found dead at her home in new york. newspapers across the north of england have joined forces

to call on theresa may to "get a grip" and deal with the delays and cancellations on the rail network. liverpool echo and yorkshire post — have urged the prime minister —— the papers — including the manchester evening news, liverpool echo and yorkshire post — have urged the prime minister to call an emergency summit at downing street to find a solution to the disruption caused by the new rail timetables. danny savage reports. commuters passing through leeds station tonight. they and their counterparts on lines in south—east england are now being told their travel woes are a government priority. the pledge came on the day collective anger in the north boiled over onto the front pages of local and regional newspapers. united with one voice, editors sent a message to the powers that be in london that the rail chaos must end. we are not willing to take this anymore. there has to be some deliverables written down on paper that people like chris grayling, and if chris grayling isn't willing to be held to account, then the prime minister,

theresa may, must be held to account. but what effect does that message have? as services rattled to and fro, the political leaders had their say. when northern rail seems surprised at their own timetable announcement, and are incapable of running services properly all across the north of england because they are unprepared for their own changes, well, that says an awful lot about the nonsense of a privatised railway and the franchise system. the prime minister agreed that the situation is absolutely unacceptable, and said it was vital for the government to get to grips with the problem. but do passengers now feel like the focus is finally on them? it really needs to be sorted out. people pay lots of money to go on trains, and you need to get to work, and yes, it needs to be on time. is your boss understanding? not very understanding, no, so i won't have a job if it carries on. with all newspapers coming together

with one voice in northern england, the message is clear that something must be done about the way that trains are managed in this part of the country. and the other message they are trying to put forward is that services around here cannot be cared for properly by people 200 miles or so down the track in london. that is a hint towards a long—held desire for more devolved power to the region. but, before any of that, the pressure is on the government to fix the train problems here, fast. don't forget you can get in touch with me and some of the team on twitter — i'm @babitabbc. 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: novak djokovic knocked out of the french open

in the quarter—finals by unseeded italian marco cecchinato. russia play out a 1—1 draw against turkey in their final match before they host the world cup starting next week. and, before the world cup gets underway, manchester united have moved to sign brazilian midfielder fred. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with the tennis news that novak djokovic is out of the french open after another eventful day in paris. the former champion was beaten by the unseeded italian marco cecchinato in their quarter—final. also out is german second seed alexander zverev, who lost in straight sets to dominic thiem. meanwhile, there was joy for a pair of americans in the women's singles. austin halewood rounds up the action. just when you thought the french open would be predictable this year, marco cecchinato had other ideas.