our top story: donald trump has met japan's prime minister, shinzo abe, to discuss his upcoming summit with kim jong—un. mr trump said there was the potential to do something incredible for the world. later, his secretary said the north korean leader had suggested he was now willing to denuclearise. mr trump will now head to the g7 summit in canada, where he is expected to face opposition to his decision to impose new tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium to america. and this story is trending on bbc.com: nasa says tests on the soil and atmosphere of mars have given the strongest indication yet that there was once life on the red planet. the curiosity rover has found organic material in three billion—year—old rocks. that is all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: another big name on the high street runs into trouble. house of fraser plans to shut over half its stores. the closures could affect 6,000 jobs.

the company's ceo says it is a brutal but necessary decision. now on bbc news, all the latest business news live from singapore. us to sanctions on chinese telecommunications giant zte, but not everyone is happy about it. g7 leaders gather in quebec for their first meeting since us president trump announced tariffs. hello, welcome to asia business report. i'm sharanjit leyl. welcome to asia business report. i'm shara njit leyl. washington welcome to asia business report. i'm sharanjit leyl. washington and beijing have reached a deal which could save the troubled telecommunications firm zte. the company pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to evade us embargoes on

iran. under the deal, conspiring to evade us embargoes on iran. underthe deal, zte conspiring to evade us embargoes on iran. under the deal, zte would be struck off the sanctions list but would still have to pay a $1 billion penalty. but will the deal convince sceptical us lawmakers? 0ur report outlined the deal is —— detail of it. he was on television laying out the details of the deal and they include the fact that zte will have to pay a $1 billion fine to the us. they will have to put aside $400 million into an escrow, essentially a rainy day fund that they will use to pay for any future violations. the company will also have to replace its board and executive team within 30 days, and the us will get to install its own compliance team, a complaints team of its choosing, within the company to make sure the rules are being followed. the commerce department, wilbur ross, the commerce secretary, is saying that these are some of the strictest terms ever slapped on to a company

which has violated rules like this and that it should serve as a warning to other companies who may consider trying to violate us trade laws. and we know that the deal is facing criticism already from congress. tell us about that. certainly there has been sharp criticism from both sides of the aisle about this deal. the trump administration is justifying it under the guise of national security, and if that sounds familiar, that is because many of the tariffs that the trump administration imposed on europe, canada and mexico last week were also justified under the guise of national security. so lawmakers are coming out and saying, hang on, you are striking a deal with zte, having said that our national security threat. argentina and canada are surely less of a threat to the united states that zte. marco rubio, a republican from florida, said i am 100% confident that they are much

less of a threat than steal from argentina or europe. it is not likely that congress will try to intervene and stop this deal from going forward, at least not yet. the bbc‘s paul blake speaking to me earlier. argentina and the imf have reached a three year deal to prop up the peso. for more, i am joined by oui’ the peso. for more, i am joined by our reporter who has all the details of this. a bit of a loss of face for the new president. yes, so when macri came into power, he came in on this basis of reform. he was going to bring lower tariffs, make trade deals, and make sure that economic data was transparent and clear. it was all about encouraging foreign investment. they have learnt the ha rd investment. they have learnt the hard lesson that if you encourage free investment, that money can just

as easily fly out. so when we saw this exodus from emerging markets, we saw the peso plummet. as an attempt to stabilise the economy they increased interest rates to 40%, so a huge increase. basically what has happened is they have had to go to the imf for this bailout deal. as a result they have been protests in the streets of argentina, because argentinians have a very bad memory of the imf as a result of the economic crisis which hit that country in 2001 and 2002. there were certain conditions which occurred in terms of taking the argentine peso to the dollar which meant that basically it exacerbated the crisis. the imf themselves have said that was the case. so the government, in defence of these protests, say they need this in order to stabilise the economy. the treasury minister in a statement has said there is no magic. the imf can help argentinians need to resolve oui’ help argentinians need to resolve our own problems. now, the two major issuesis our own problems. now, the two major issues is there is a huge fiscal deficit in argentina and inflation there at the moment is in the order

of 25%. now, the government there says they want to lower this to 9% in the next four years, but that is their plan, they are hopeful this money might help. a lot of challenges ahead for argentina. thank you for that. now, the g7, once a fairly cosy club of the world's seven largest economies, is 110w world's seven largest economies, is now a house divided. it is even being called the g6—plus—one, with the one being the united states. last week, at a meeting of g7 finance ministers, the six non—us ministers made it clear they saw a america's last round of tariffs on members such as canada is undermining open trade and confidence in the global economy. earlier i spoke to the director of the economist corporate network and asked him if this will be a tense meeting. i think it will be extremely awkward given not only the policy the us has recently adopted, but what this means for this group,

which as you describe used to be a cosy clu b. which as you describe used to be a cosy club. it is really put together to bring people to consensus about things, and it looks like there is going to be a lot of squabbling. and in fact these tariffs will be first and foremost on everyone's mind and the us president has been doubling down the drive home his points. now, we know he slapped these tariffs on canada as well as the eu, some of america's huge allies. and as you heard paul, our reporter, talk about earlier, he has lifted some of these sanctions against a chinese telecoms firm also being accused of national security concerns, so critics are hugely critical about this whole thing. so will there be an even bigger backlash from the united states ? bigger backlash from the united states? there could be. it is interesting. i think the even greater story within that side note about zte is that, indeed, the us is using national security, it seems, for every conceivable purpose when it decides to impose sanctions or

ta ke it decides to impose sanctions or take action. the purported threat posed by the chinese company is very different from what they are talking about with trade and steel. the us is arguing that we need to have a domestic steel industry as a national—security interest versus what zte was doing, which was trading with iran and north korea. so it is a different type of national security threat, which i think is what congress is lashing out about. and certainly the us allies are going to seize on that as well. i think they are different in dynamic. they are having to argue against the interest of the domestic industry in the united states, versus zte, which is more related to america's enemies. how many bosses really like to put their money where their mouth is? the boss of south africa airways says he is taking up an $8,000 bet proposed by the free—market foundation that he can make the state owned airline

profitable in three years. our correspondent caught up with the ceo, and asked if he really knew what he was getting himself into.|j thought that, given the fact that it needed intervention, the board felt i was the right person to do the job, andi i was the right person to do the job, and i am quite good tackling challenges. i bring new ideas from much more retail oriented places. you are coming in with fresh eyes, possibly a new business model. different business model, fresh set of eyes, but putting the customer at the centre of the business. so can south africa airways prop itself? as we come back, what we need to do is bring commercial logic in the saa. take out costs, because our cost baseis take out costs, because our cost base is too high, build a new commercial model. of course we will break even in three years' time. we need capital to support the turnaround strategy, all we have no basis to turn it around. how much of

an impact as the political turmoil we know about south africa hindered south africa airways?” we know about south africa hindered south africa airways? i think by far, a lot of it is in the mind of the shareholder, making sure you put the shareholder, making sure you put the right people on the job, making sure you focus the airline on commercial logic, and that is where saa has led for a long period of time. good strategies but poor execution. the turnaround in leadership. so we have to bring consistency, bring skills, make sure we have stable leaders which can influence strategy. let's talk about cutting costs. where are you going to cut the costs? will the passengers feel that, will it be on board, or cutting back office? where? it is largely making sure we are buying things at the best price possible. we are not buying things at the best price today. making sure that the ratios of people employed, cost to revenue, is in line. it is all about better commercial

practices, simplifying the business so it doesn't cost too much to run the business. we cannot compromises terms of the customer experience. that is where the benefit is, that is where the choices are made. let's ta ke is where the choices are made. let's take a look at the markets which are openin take a look at the markets which are open injapan and australia. you can see they are already lower. they are pretty much tracking the losses we saw on wall street and the nasdaq and the s&p. a lot of those tensions brewing which we told you about earlier, the trade tensions being brought up ahead of the g7 talks this week. of course, the historic north korea and us summit next week as well. that's all. the top stories this hour: the us secretary of state says the north korean leader, kim jong—un, has personally indicated to him that he is ready to denuclearise his country. leaders of world economic powers are preparing to confront donald trump over the new us tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. before joining them for the g7 summit in quebec, donald trump has

complained that france and canada were also hurting the us economy. 20 premier league matches a season will be shown on amazon from next year. it is the first time an online streaming service has won the rights to show games. they will cover matches in december as part of a three—year deal. so what does it mean for fans, and for the television industry? here is our media editor amol rajan. premier league champions. in recent years, sky sports and bt have maintained a stranglehold on rights to show live premier league games. every few years the league would open an auction, with those two firms emerging victorious. but, at the last auction, something unusual happened. the price achieved by the league fell by £500 million.

so they opened the rights up and amazon have swooped. this is the first time a big us technology firm has entered the market for britain's most popular sport. it shows the distinction between tv and the internet has all but collapsed, and that streaming services are branching out from drama and entertainment into live sport. but it is also a sign of the complexity and cost that viewers have to deal with now, because they have to subscribe to multiple providers. definitely, it's too much! because now, instead of paying for sky, you have to pay for sky, for amazon, for this, and that and nobody wants to pay that kind of money. even bt was a step too far for me. ijust kept the sky sports, and i wouldn't pay any more for anything else. i'm quite lucky because i've already got amazon. i bought it for all the tv package and the free delivery. so it's actually a bit of a bonus for me. yeah, i agree, i've only got amazon prime, the problem is are they going to put amazon prime up as well with these

additional games on top of your existing fees? amazon's ambition knows few bounds. live sport is an attractive route, it arouses huge passion, has an international and committed following and offers multiple revenue streams from advertising to merchandising. that is why amazon have already moved into tennis, and facebook into baseball. 0ne former boss of both the bbc and the football association says this is a sign of things to come. this is, i suspect, just an experiment on amazon's behalf. they want to see how this does in the two — for the two chunks of rights they'll own. 0ne's going to be played — i think one's going to be played on a bank holiday and one is going to be played on a midweek day. and i think they'll see how that goes. 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: 0n course for number 11, rafael nadal books his place

in the last four of the french open in paris. drama at the diamond league meeting in oslo with the barriers in the women's steeplechase having been set to the men's height. and dustinjohnson wins shot of the day for this chip on the 12th hole at the st jude classic in memphis. i'm still trying to do that! hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with the tennis news that rafael nadal has taken another step towards an 11th french open title. the world number one beat diego schwartzman to reach the last four to set up a semi final with another argentine injuan martin del potro, plus we now know the line—up for the women's final. austin halewood wraps up thursday's action. seeing rafael nadal in trouble is something crowds at the french open aren't used to. the ten time champion lost a set