with north korea's kim jong—un as "tremendous". the two leaders held an unprecedented one—on—one meeting on tuesday, where north korea pledged to rid the korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. donald trump also said that the us would halt military exercises in south korea. this has been long been a demand of the north, but wasn't mentioned in tuesday's agreement. french president emmanuel macron has intervened in the row over a rescue boat trying to bring migrants ashore. he's accused italy of "cynicism and irresponsibility" for refusing to let the ship dock. spain said it would take the migrants. greece has reached a deal on the name of its northern neighbour, which called itself macedonia at the break—up of the former yugoslavia. after 27 years of talks, the name "republic of north macedonia" has been agreed. and the top story here in the uk: the government has narrowly avoided a damaging defeat for its brexit strategy. mps rejected an amendment to the eu withdrawal bill that would have

allowed parliament to take control of the brexit process if it rejected a deal agreed by the government. ina in a major setback for the trump administration, a judge has declared administration, a judge has declared a merger between at&t and time warner. the historic is some between kim jong—un warner. the historic is some between kimjong—un and warner. the historic is some between kim jong—un and donald trump. warner. the historic is some between kimjong—un and donald trump. will not create it tough sanctions being lifted? not create it tough sanctions being lifted ? -- not create it tough sanctions being lifted? —— historic summit. —— will north korea see tough sanctions being lifted? north korea see tough sanctions being lifted ? good north korea see tough sanctions being lifted? good morning asia. hello world! it is a wednesday. glad you could join us for this midweek edition of asia business report. it is one of the biggest anti—trust cases in a decade, a judge has

cleared telecommunications giant at&t to buy time warner, the home of the news channel cnn. is a setback for the trump administration, who argues that allowing the tie—up would harm competition. earlier i ask the bbc why it is so significant. this has the potential to fundamentally reshape the us media landscape for decades to come. that is because this is a so—called vertical merger, which is lawyer speak, but essentially what it means is that the two countries —— companies operated in relatively different arenas of. time warner creates the content that at&t carries over its network. they argue that they could not be seen as two companies that would create a him if that would harm us consumers. this is something that us judge in the case agreed with, essentially maintaining a0 years of us legal precedent, which allows these vertical mergers generally to

proceed. the idea is that now the two companies can merge, it is estimated the deal is worth something like $85 billion, other big media companies might consider doing something similar. staying with the us, the central bank in america is to kick off a two—day meeting with another —— another rate hike widely expected by the end of the session. can the us economy afford the higher cost of borrowing? we look at the case for a rate rise of. economies, like cars, have the ability to overheat. to cool down a carcoming ability to overheat. to cool down a car coming have to pull over. to cool down and economy, central banks will often raise interest rates. that could mean squeezing small businesses and one industry that could feel the pinch, car dealerships. i frown upon the fact that interest rates have to rise as the big deals that ordinarily would be made as interest rates rise, that

same customer will not be able to afford the payment. his family has been selling cars in the bronx to 65 yea rs. been selling cars in the bronx to 65 years. many of their customers have poor credit and depend on so—called sub—prime loans to finance a new set of wheels. if the cost of taking out a new loan gets too high, it could mean fewer of those customers could hop in the driver ‘s seat. mean fewer of those customers could hop in the driver 's seat. with any particular custom we are dealing with, try our best to get the deal done but there are instances where the high interest rate could pose a threat to. sub-prime loans are the clu nkers threat to. sub-prime loans are the clu n ke rs of threat to. sub-prime loans are the clunkers of the debt industry. they are risky, so bankers charge high fees. with interest rates so low in recent yea rs, fees. with interest rates so low in recent years, they have been a cash cow recent years, they have been a cash cow for lenders. but that calculation is starting to change its topic as the us economy speeds ahead, the us federal reserve has been stepping in to tap the brakes. low interest rate are a fuel for the economy and they have been purposely providing that fuelled get us out of

the debt of the recession and to get the debt of the recession and to get the economy going. now that you're more confident that the economy is doing fine on its own and not only is it time to take a fuel away that was a natural for them to is it time to take a fuel away that was a naturalfor them to provide, they are also now being concerned that there is evidence of the economy overheating. donald trump says his policies —— is policies including a max —— massive tax overhaul bill at the end of last year are putting america on the road to prosperity. but it is the federal reserve was that job to prosperity. but it is the federal reserve was thatjob to make sure everything under the bonnet is running smoothly. as we have been reporting, it was the handshake seen around the world. us president and the north korean leader kimjong on meeting in singapore and the two men appeared to have gotten along the fine. according to mr trump, sanctions against north korea will be remaining in place. desperate state of its economy is what many believed brought the north korean leader back to the negotiating table. following the summits, will

be seen not as south korea starting to do business together again? i put that question to chatto carol. the un ‘s actions that un sanctions make that pretty much impossible. but there are areas of inter— korean corporation that we could envisage, tourism for one example is not sanctioned, chinese, western tourists are allowed in and that could be significant because right now the north koreans are building a huge luxury tourist resort on their east coast, just a stone ‘s throw away from south korea and therefore that may be gun gang in the future looking to try and attract south korean tourists. president trump also mentioned during his press conference that north korea has great beaches and they could build really wonderful hotels and condos. yeah, i don't think that is a coincidence because that hotel resort is going up adjacent to the east sea. is on a peninsula by an

airport, it is in a prime location for real estate development for the tourism market. so that does seem like one area the north koreans would be interested in. stanely pyongyang, while the reunification of north and south korea is still a distant possibility, have you wondered what it would cost for these two economies to come together? the closest it example we have in recent history would be the reunification of east and west germany nearly 30 years ago. our next guest estimates that during the first decade of the two germany is becoming one, up to $3 trillion of private investment and another $2 trillion of public spending was required to modernise the east german economy, which is less than half of west germany's. 0ur german economy, which is less than half of west germany's. our next best thing is it will be even more expensive for the two careers. —— koreas. east and west germany, you had for

east and west germany, you had for east german for one western. you will have two south koreans fork one north. the burden is higher, but the bottom line is you are looking at a $6 trillion investment opportunity if you want to bring north korean per capita gdp to $5,000 of. what do you think should be the initial investment into north korea if they open up? the most likely modelto follow is the chinese one of special economic zones and allow foreign investment, foreign technology to come in to upgrade the quality and productivity of the people there are and the second big business opportunity is going to be sued because we do know that north korea has insufficient food supply. —— food. i think the multinationalfood suppliers logically from the us, thatis suppliers logically from the us, that is a big investment opportunity. in the central bank,

the governor has been —— india central bunk, the governor has been facing tough questions of. he was summoned to appear before a parliamentary panel on tuesday, what has been going wrong? what do a fla m boya nt early netcom a re has been going wrong? what do a flamboyant early netcom are a luxury jeweller and a banker having common? they are all alleged to have been linked to scandals that have hit indian banks. all part of a larger crisis ace in the banking sector in the country. years now, indian banks have been lending out money that is unlikely to be repaid. that has added up to as much as $150 billion. that is not the economy's of kenya, tanzania, mozambique and zimbabwe are worth together. is almost 7% of the value of india's own economies be what is worse is that most of that money is owed to banks run by

the government. so how do you get so bad? as it was covered earlier this year, posed some clues of. the jeweller is alleged to have defrauded the second largest lender of $1.8 billion. he is now on the run, but several of the banks staffers, including some senior executives, have been arrested. the scam has made people ask if poor governance and maybe even outright corruption are to blame for the overall low prices facing indian banks. and it is notjust state—run lenders that are in the dock. private sector is facing the heat too. one of india's largest banks is investigating whether its chief executive was wrong to sanction a bigger loan to an indian conglomerate which was in business with her husband to pick while the bank sport is expressed full faith, their image has taken a bit of a beating. that loan is bad news not

just the banks, but for the whole country. if the banks that have money to lend, then where will companies get ones from to grow their business? it could put the bra kes their business? it could put the brakes on the economy. and with state—run banks, it is clearly the governments responsibility to ensure they don't bust. it came out with a bailout plan last year, but many states is the mechanism of how these loa ns a re states is the mechanism of how these loans are given out in the first place which these to be fixed. that is what this man, india's central bank governor will need to find a solution to. thank you so much for investing your time with us. sport todayis investing your time with us. sport today is coming up next. the top stories this hour: donald trump has described his talks with north korea's kim jong—un as tremendous. north korea pledged to rid the korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. but there is little detail in the agreement, and there has been criticism of a us pledge to halt military exercises, which is seen as a concession. a man accused

of being a member of the banned far—right group national action has admitted that he planned to kill a labourmp. the old bailey heard that jack renshaw bought a machete, and also planned to take hostages and to kill a police officer. his plan, the court was told, was uncovered by an anti—fascist campaigner who had infiltrated renshaw‘s group. our home affairs correspondent daniel sandford was in court. and that is a way to spit in the establishment's face, and the youth will want that... jack renshaw, 23 years old, who today suddenly admitted to a jury that he had planned to kill a labour mp and threatened to kill a police officer who was investigating him for grooming children for sex. the prosecution say he had already bought a machete for the murder, described by its manufacturers as 19 inches of unprecedented slashing power. christopher lythgoe is accused of being the secret leader of his group — a believer in race war, who encouraged him to carry out the murder.

in world war ii, we took the wrong side. we should have been fighting the communists. this was renshaw before the group national action was banned for being virulently racist, and celebrating the murder ofjo cox mp. but he, christopher lythgoe, and four other men are on trial for remaining members after the ban. 0utlining the case against the six men, duncan atkinson qc explained that, last july, jack renshaw was planning to kill an mp himself. he laid out his idea to some of his group at this table, upstairs in a pub in warrington. the prosecution say that jack renshaw told the group that his plan was to murder his local mp, rosie cooper, take some hostages, and then kill a female detective who had been investigating him, before himself being shot by armed police. the plan to kill rosie cooper was exposed because there was a disillusioned former national action member inside the group in the pub that night, called robbie mullen, who was working undercover

for the anti—racism organisation hope not hate. according to him, jack renshaw wanted to kill rosie cooper in the name of national action, and that night, christopher lythgoe gave his approval. christopher lythgoe denies that, and all six men deny being members of national action after it was banned. daniel sandford, bbc news, at the old bailey. wage growth in the first part of this year has fallen unexpectedly, despite unemployment dropping to a record low. the office for national statistics says that, in the three months to the end of april, wage growth slipped from 2.9% to 2.8%. unemployment fell to 1.a2 million. 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: the holders, germany, arrive in russia as they look

to succefully defend the world cup title they won four years ago. and after this world cup, spain's head coach will take over at european champions real madrid. while tiger looks to roar back. woods takes to the hills in new york state ahead of the us 0pen. hello and welcome to the programme, where the clock is ticking, with the world cup officially kicking off in russia on thursday. the teams are continuing to arrive in their bid for football's greatest prize, and those touching down on tuesday included the holders, germany, who left from a wet and rainy frankfurt before arriving in moscow, where they will begin their defence against mexico on sunday. austin halewood reports. with less than a8 hours to go, it is almost time. russia is ready, and now