our top story: croatia has beaten england 2—1 in the world cup semi—final. they are now through to the final, where they will play france in moscow on sunday. this is the moment croatia scored the winning second goal. earlier on, england scored in the fifth minute, and led for more than an hour until croatia equalised. rescue workers are searching for 70 people missing in floods in western japan. the death toll has reached 179 and more than 8.5 million people are being evacuated. and this video is trending on bbc.com. the first images have emerged from the hospital where 12 thai boys and their football coach are being treated after their remarkable rescue from a flooded cave. new details about the rescue operation have also been released. here in the uk, police investigating the death of a woman in wiltshire

from suspected nerve agent poisoning have spoken briefly to her partner. charlie rowley was taken ill with dawn sturgess last weekend. now on bbc news: all the latest business news, live from singapore. us stocks retreat on renewed trade war fears, us stocks retreat on renewed trade warfears, as us stocks retreat on renewed trade war fears, as the white house threatens to slap additional tariffs on chinese imports. and it is contrast versus murdoch's fox —— comcast. find out what is at stake. good morning, asia, hello, world. it isa good morning, asia, hello, world. it is a thursday. glad you could join us is a thursday. glad you could join us for another exciting addition of asia business report. i'm rico hizon. we start off with us china trade troubles, and they are dragging us markets down afterfour

sessions of games. us stocks in retreat overnight after president trump said he wanted to slap 10% ta riffs trump said he wanted to slap 10% tariffs on another $200 billion worth of chinese goods. the dow jones industrial average falling by 220 points. and this pushes the world's two biggest economies closer toa world's two biggest economies closer to a full—scale trade war, with beijing saying that it has no choice but to retaliate. despite the concerns, one analyst says the market outlook for the rest of the year is still bullish. we have to recognise that the starting point for these tensions is actually not that bad. so the us economy itself, which at the end of the day is a $20 trillion economy, is growing well above trend. we have full employment, we have rising wages. if we didn't have these trading concerns, actually, it would be very easy to be very positive about financial markets. we've got growth and a rise in corporate earnings. it is really these trade issues which

area is really these trade issues which are a sentiment problem. but the us is the number—1 consumer in the world. you have rising us interest rates plus the fact that these trade ta riffs rates plus the fact that these trade tariffs are an attack on us consumers, so tariffs are an attack on us consumers, so people basically won't spend. that's very correct, so as the trump administration has increased its tariffs on notjust chinese exports in the us but across a wide range of goods since february, they are in fact implicitly rolling back some of the fiscal stimulus that they launched at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. so that is certainly counter—productive. at the end of the day, though, in terms of interest rates, if we have this gradual increase which has been going on for a while, i really don't think that is an issue for the united states. inflation has been picking up so higher interest rates are warranted. but what about the asian investor? we saw are warranted. but what about the asian investor? we sanapan, china, hong kong fall by the wayside. are they panicking? i wouldn't say they

are panicking, but at the end of the day asia and certainly places like singapore, in particular, are very, very open economies, so they are very open economies, so they are very sensitive to international trade flows. so if we have a slowing down of trade, asia will feel it very quickly. this is notjust an issue between china and the united states. you take for example, south korea and taiwan, they export a lot of sensitive products to china which are assembled and re—exported. so it isa pan are assembled and re—exported. so it is a pan asian issue. briefly, which particular sectors are basically saved from a trade war, if any? well, i don't think anybody is fully safe, but what i want to highlight is actually the energy sector. so energy prices should remain very well supported. there is going to be a supply squeeze. the us economy and others are still growing reasonably well. energy stocks is where i think investors should be looking at. washington slapping additional ta riffs washington slapping additional tariffs on chinese goods, the trump

administration is close to doing business began with chinese smartphone manufacturer zte. but the us banned american companies doing business with zte, almost putting the company out of business. i am joined now by my colleague and business reporter monica miller. monica, what got zte into this position in the first place? back in april the us but this ban in place, and what that meant was told us companies that they do business with zte, after they admitted to having deals with iran and north korea which went against us sanctions. so what happened then is zte basically went into a tailspin. their company is so dependent on us products that are provided by texas instrument intel, for example, that they had to suspend their business because they didn't have the components to make their products like smartphones and navigation gear. this puts in

jeopardy 80,000 jobs that they have, so even jeopardy 80,000 jobs that they have, so even their trading has been suspended for two months. so zte very quickly got on board, they paid the $1 billion find that the us wanted, and they also agreed to change their leadership positions and their board and replace them. the final piece to this puzzle, the us commerce department said yesterday, is there had to put $400 million in escrow. at is that enough for such a huge company like zte, and are they now out of the clear? no, they are not out of the clear. the us commerce department says this was the strictest penalty they have ever imposed, however us lawmakers, both democrat and republican, have serious reservations. they consider zte to be a national security concern, so zte to be a national security concern, so this may not go away any time soon. not only national concern, but 4.7 billion dollars is still a small amount to pay. well, it isa still a small amount to pay. well, it is a battle royale in the media industry. both 21st century fox and

the us cable network comcast have raised their bids for the european broadcaster sky. what exactly are they after? here is our business editor. so why does everyone want to get their hands on sky? well, basically there is a global arms race going on in the media world, both for content, so you are seeing a merger between disney and 21st century fox in the pipeline, and also for distribution, because as the new pretenders, people like netflix, begin to nibble away at the distribution or home turf in places like the us, some of the established names need to get more global and get more global distribution quickly. and in sky you have the number european pay tv provider, with subscribers in germany, the uk, italy, austria, ireland, spain, basically on a plate in one go. you get massive european distribution,

and that is precisely comcast want, what 21st century fox want, and what is the want by its takeover of fox. so it is a massive land grab, and in this land grab, price becomes secondary to scale, and that is why you are seeing this intense reading warfor you are seeing this intense reading war for sky. you are seeing this intense reading warfor sky. facebook has you are seeing this intense reading war for sky. facebook has just been fined a little over 600,000 us dollars for the cambridge analytica scandal. the regulator says it is the social media giant failing to protect user information and one privacy group thinks these kinds of fines could get bigger in the future. i think what is significant here is not the amount, but the meaning of the fine. this is the watchdog showing that they have teeth, and that they are willing to use the maximum tools available to them. and what is more significant is that the goalposts have now shifted, and under the new law and the new data privacy law in the eu,

gdpr, the finds a much increased, and it could be as much as 4% of annual turnover. it is one of many regulators in the eu which have been looking at facebook, and the issues raised are not just looking at facebook, and the issues raised are notjust looking at facebook, but they show more systemic problems with facebook, cambridge analytica, and a number of other companies including data brokers operating around the world. so this isn't just brokers operating around the world. so this isn'tjust in the uk, it is a global issue. in sport, the football world cup final takes place this weekend, with france playing croatia. after the balkan state defeated england in the semi—final 2-1. defeated england in the semi—final 2—1. sporting events like the world cup had given a big boost the advertising, and according to a report, it will overtake tv advertising this year in the asia—pacific. 0ur correspondent spoke with a company which provides

technology to help companies advertise online. they started by discussing how his company has benefited from the world cup. the growth here in asia pacific has been rapid and it has been even faster in 2018 than 2017, partly because of things like the world cup, which is very high quality content and marketers want to be associated with it, so we are seeing marketers increase their budget to take advantage of that. and how do they then compete with google and facebook, who essentially have a duopoly in this? google and facebook are taking a large percentage of any dollar spent in advertising in the asia—pacific, but we are finding when you can connect the marketers directly with the publishers and give them the scale, the audiences and the content they need, then they are much more willing to buy directly from publishers. so, for example, we help power the singapore media exchange, a joint—ventu re between two of the largest publishers in singapore, and that gives the scale that the buyers need to be able to come directly to those publishers, instead of trying to go

to google or facebook. in terms of challenges ahead for your industry, what do you see as things you are worried about right now? there is a tremendous amount of opportunity as we move towards video. i think we are seeing video growth in the internet happening very, very quickly, as people move towards more 1-to-1 quickly, as people move towards more 1—to—1 media. ithink quickly, as people move towards more 1—to—1 media. i think that presents both an opportunity in terms of our ability to present high—quality advertising, but also some challenges because more and more people will get involved, and we will have to continue to be vigilant about making sure that it is appropriate. thank you so much for investing your time with us. world cup action on sport today at next. __ up cup action on sport today at next. —— up next. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: croatia have made it to the final of the football world cup for the first time after defeating england in extra time in the semi—final. rescue workers injapan are continuing their search for dozens of people missing in floods and landslides. at least 179 people have died and around 8 million

are being evacuated. for the second time, the bbc has revealed salary details of some of its presenters. but it said the figures do not yet fully reflect some pay changes, which won't filter through until next year's list. the match of the day presenter gary lineker has overtaken chris evans as the best—paid person on the list. the highest—earning woman is claudia winkleman. some prominent names are not on the list because they work for bbc studios, as our media editor amol rajan explains. equal pay for equal work! publication of last year's annual report by the bbc sparked an outcry over the issue of equal pay. when the salaries of bbc staff earning over £150,000 were disclosed, many women broadcasters were revealed to be on less than male counterparts. a year on, the bbc has made some progress, but critics argue it is not enough. while the balance between men and women is projected to improve from 75% male and 25% female to 60—40, the top 12 earners

are all white men. the highest earners were match of the day and world cup presenter gary lineker, and chris evans of radio 2. the bbc‘s director—general admits there is more to do. it's true that, at the very top, it's still a male—only game. only two women in the top 23 of these names. these things take time, especially when you're dealing with people who are the voices and the faces of the bbc to millions and millions of people. these things take time. what i'm concentrating on is also ensuring that we are seen to be making real progress, but that does mean changes in the way the top 20 people are also paid. i want to see more women there, and notjust men. for all the new detail, this list, which includes my name, represents a fuzzy picture. and that is because salaries paid by bbc studios, a commercial wing of the bbc, are not disclosed. and, like so much financial reporting, these numbers reflect an old state of affairs. changes made within the last

few months won't filter through until next year's report. a former managing editor of sky news says progress is too slow. well, it is complicated, and it does need to be sorted out, but quite quickly. and the point i'm making is that you've got so many men at the top end that that's really disproportionate. and it's all very well saying women at the lower end are coming through, or that the gender pay gap is narrowing. but they've got very fat, almost exclusively male, cats at the top of the tree. in a landscape dominated by american media giants, today's report also argued the bbc‘s current funding model was not sustainable. how the bbc evolves to compete in the global race for audiences will define its current leadership as much as gender equality. amol rajan, bbc news. now it is time for sport today. hello, i'm chetan pathak and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: croatia are through to the world cup final after coming from behind to beat

england in extra—time. a huge shock at wimbledon — as the 8 time champion roger federer goes out in the quarter—finals. but rafa nadal wins a five set thriller to set up a semi—final against novak djokovic. croatia are into their first look at final after they eat england 2—1 in their semi—final. they needed an extra time winner to ensure that they and not england, will play france in the final. croatia have done it the hard way, extra time was