in the novichok nerve agent attack. the british prime minister theresa may says the attempted murder of a former russian spy and his daughter was almost certainly approved by the russian state. thousands of members of the religious minority, the yazidis, are still missing four years after so—called islamic state attacked them in their ancestral home in iraq. and this video is trending on bbc.com. researchers are calling it a "major medical threat", after discovering a new superbug is spreading undetected in hospitals. the bacteria are resistant to all known antibiotics and may be increasing the risk of severe infections and even death. stay with bbc world news. and the top story in the uk — britain and france have agreed on the principles of a deal that would end a dispute over scallop fishing in the english channel. no uk vessels will fish for scallops in the bay of seine

during the period when the french are not allowed to catch. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. shares of social media giants tumble after hearings take place in washington overforeign after hearings take place in washington over foreign election interference. and it is down to the wire for the public to weigh in on whether the us should slap tariffs on $200 billion worth of chinese goods. good morning asia. hello world. it is thursday. glad you could join us. we start off with washington, dc and the bosses of facebook and twitter have racked up a day of questioning on capitol hill

about their inability to stop foreign interference in us elections. it is the third time they have been grilled by lawmakers and criticise being unaware of the problems investors are not happy with with what they heard. twitter shares dropping by more than 6% and facebook stocks falling bike 2.3% at the end of the trading day. —— by. dave lee says there was a noticeable absence on the panel. the absentee was google. the panel said its intelligence committee had invited either the chief executive of google or alternatively they also invited the chief executive of alphabet, being the parent company. neither of those people turned up. google had hoped to send their top lawyer to the panel, the senate said no, he was a senior enough so we were left with the situation where we have —— had twitter represented by jack

dorsey, facebook represented by cheryl sandberg but google was just an empty chair with a google nametag on the table. not a very good look from google and senators almost immediately came out and admonished google for not being there. they said they were disappointed in the company and said it was a sign their leadership was in taking this issue seriously. not a good day. —— wasn't. where does the investigation go from here? a lot of people don't think these hearings and out too much, although this is the fourth hearing they have had in just under a year. i think where we have gone from the first hearing a year ago to where we are today is that there is now a bit more concrete talk about regulation and what that might look like, particularly when it comes to transparency, senators from both sides of the aisle saying that these company ‘s need to be more transparent in how they operate on a particularly when it comes to servicing things in search results

or on news feeds in facebook‘s case. that is where i think the progress is being made has been pretty slow, it is fairto is being made has been pretty slow, it is fair to say. certainly too slow to have much of an impact on the us mid—term elections on the up in november, many people worried that they will be manipulated online in the same way we saw in the 2016 elections. it is d—day for companies and members of the public to share their views on president trump's plans to slap tariffs on another $200 billion worth of chinese imports. the deadline for public consultation on these new rounds of parrots ends on wednesday. —— tarriffs. the ongoing rift has impacted several companies, including ford motors to have cancelled plans to importa motors to have cancelled plans to import a new model from china to the us market. do these really matter to the trump administration? alex says

the trump administration? alex says the markets have spoken. business associations do not like these tariffs, trade associations do not like them. but is he listening to what they are saying? like them. but is he listening to what they are saying ?|j like them. but is he listening to what they are saying? i don't think so. what they are saying? i don't think so. at the demonstration will go ahead anyway and slap these $200 billion not whether incrementally, probably, not all 200 billion at once, but we will see an increase in tarriffs overtime. what about these $50 billion worth of tarriffs which have already been imposed by china and the united dates on each other, is it already having economic damage? in terms of gdp for both of these two economies, no, not really. if you look at the impact of these tarriffs, the numbers are starting to trickle in, we know that that anecdotally there are companies that are affected in terms of supply chain, but if you look at the gdp numbers is probably two tenths of one percentage point for the us and

for china it is underfive one percentage point for the us and for china it is under five tenths. china have just released their numbers and the deficit between them and the us continues to widen. the us is continuing to import more from china and the rest of the world. will $200 billion worth of tarriffs impact? absolutely. i think consumers will really feel it and also anybody who is incorporating imports in their supply chain in materials and components, that will feel —— they will feel it as well stop it —— as well. feel —— they will feel it as well stop it -- as well. currencies continue to fall this week, with many hitting record lows about instability in places like turkey and argentina will spread to other emerging economies. be lira has went

down in three months. closer to home, the falls have been to a smaller degree that in places like india, where the accurate to has fallen 5% against the us dollar. among the worst hit is indonesia's rupiah, which fell to a two decade low, bringing its decline to 8% against the greenback. 0ur analyst says there are two reasons for its depreciation. the first is that globally investors are paring down holdings in emerging markets on the back of developments in turkey and argentina and domestically, indonesia does share some similar characteristics with these emerging markets in terms of its twin deficit as well as its reliance on external financing. and the president has already spoken out about the depreciation of the rupiah against the us dollar, is this serious, will

the us dollar, is this serious, will the fallout persist in the medium to long—term? the fallout persist in the medium to long-term? we cannot say whether it will be prolonged, but if it is, the negative spillover effects will be terrible. 0n the fiscal, economy accou nts terrible. 0n the fiscal, economy accounts where you are seeing differences of eight widening account deficit. to try to stem the fall of the indonesian accurate to, we have seen the central bank increased interest rates four times since may. but if that doesn't work and the rupiah continues to fall, could capital controls be an option? i think capital controls would probably be a last resort option for any central bank or government as they are quite punitive and long—lasting, difficult to reverse. they might even be counter—productive in the sense that investors, in terms of investor reaction, given that indonesia is reliant on foreign currency financing, it will in fact work against them. this week we are

looking at some of the biggest start—ups emerging in latin america's. agrosmart was invented by a 22—year—old is best student who wa nted a 22—year—old is best student who wanted to change how farmers operate. it is considered one of the most successful start—ups, we caught up most successful start—ups, we caught up with its co—founder. most successful start—ups, we caught up with its co—founderlj most successful start—ups, we caught up with its co-founder. i am the daughter of a farmer, either up looking at the challenges in the field, farmers usually trust intuition to see how they respond and also they follow up with what their neighbours are doing. we help farmers to make decisions

all over the season, so went to see how much to derogate, at which time should we enterfour how much to derogate, at which time should we enter four sheen work or when to harvest. and if the disease is coming up. so what we read the environment, the soil, the crop, the climate and we have them respond daily to those decision processes. we install sensors in the field, not in each part of the field, and then we start monitoring in real—time. the aggregate that data with public and private data bases. the aggregate that data with public and private databases. it then allows us in order to learn how crops behave and generate recommendations. i think farmers love the technology and they need it because the world is changing. the whole industry

revolution in agriculture, we have to help farmers to learn how to use information. i think it is a process thatis information. i think it is a process that is growing fast and breeding a lot of opportunities to different parts of the business, from the seeds to the equivalent industry, to the food industry and everybody is growing together with a. bashed with it. and that was -- with it. that was mariano with agrosmart. let's look at the markets, in asia they are under pressure. thank you so much for investing your time with us, iam much for investing your time with us, i am rico much for investing your time with us, iam rico hizon, sport much for investing your time with us, i am rico hizon, sport today is up us, i am rico hizon, sport today is up next. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: britain has named two russian intelligence officers as suspects in the novichok nerve agent attack and said moscow must be held to account. thousands of members of the religious minority, the yazidis, are still missing four years after so—called islamic state attacked them in iraq. britain and france have agreed

the principles of a deal a week after violent clashes between scallop fishermen from the two countries. 0ur environment correspondent claire marshall reports from brixham in devon. heading out from brixham today, a very different boat from the huge dredgers that left from this same harbour last week and clashed with french fishermen. we were taken to a secret location with divers that gather scallops by hand. they showed us their technique. there's no large machinery involved. they select the right ones and leave the rest. there is another way to get scallops that leaves the sea bed intact, and the growing success of businesses like this shows that more and more people are caring about how their scallops are fished. if you take too much, there's going to be nothing left. if you don't leave enough breeding stock to breed, then you can't keep fishing. and this so—called scallop

war is about dredging, industrial boats that catch huge amounts. the british were fishing legally, but french fishermen say they'll leave them with no catch in the bay de seine this year. this blue boat is a 200 ton british trawler crashing into a french boat. british fishermen say these smaller vessels deliberately got in their way. it took four hours of negotiations, but a deal of sorts was done. no uk vessels will be allowed into the bay until the first of october. there will be compensation, though, for smaller ships. i'm very pleased that we've negotiated a deal that satisfies the honour of both sides, that our fishermen will be fishing where they want to fish, the larger vessels and the smaller vessels. and from the first of october,

that bay de seine fishery is going to be open. this is brixham harbour tonight. locally caught scallops are being sorted. there's scepticism about the plan. the level of compensation wasn't decided. that's down to a summit in paris on friday. it's down to the amount. it's down to the amount, yeah. do they think the french will pay a lot of money? nope! all british scallop boats have been asked to voluntarily stay away from the contested area until a formal deal is signed. so at the moment, it's up to the skippers whether or not to comply. claire marshall, bbc news, brixham. stay with us, mike and we will be with you to update you on the headlines in 50 minutes time. —— 15. now on bbc news, sport today. hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: naomi 0saka becomes the first

japanese woman to make a grand slam semi—final in 22 years, as she beats lesia tsurenko at the us open. and it is japan's day, as kei nishikori beats marin cilic in five sets, to gain revenge for his loss against the croatian in the final four years ago. and the world surf league take the lead and announce they will be paying equally across both men's and women's events from next year. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with the tennis news that naomi 0saka is through to the semi—finals of the us open at flushing meadows in new york. the number 20 seed from japan, who was playing in the quarter—finals of a grand slam for the first time in her career, came through in straight sets against the ukrainian lesia tsurenko. 0saka won 6—1, 6—1, injust 58 minutes, to become the first japanese woman to reach the last four of a major since kimiko date 22 years ago.