several top us officials have denied that they're the author of a damning anonymous attack on president trump. mr trump described the writer as "gutless". there's fierce speculation over who's responsible, with the vice—president among those to deny any involvement. celebrations in india, after the supreme court ruled that gay sex is no longer a criminal offence. one judge said that she believed "history owes an apology" to lg bt people. and this story is being viewed many times on bbc.com. once again, there has been an outpouring of love online for the cranberries‘ lead singer, dolores o'riordan, after a coroner released details of the 46—year—old's death. according to the inquest, o'riordan died by drowning due to alcohol intoxication. that's all from me. stay with us on bbc world news. out top story in the uk: the inquest into the death of kayden bancroft — who waited days for emergency surgery — found "gross failure" at the royal manchester children's hospital.

the hospital has apologised to his family. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. it isa it is a race against time for the white house to resolve several trade negotiations before november's mid—term elections, but will they start to bite into america's booming economy? and can the world's biggest pork producer be tamed? the economic impact ofa pork producer be tamed? the economic impact of a deadly pig virus. hello and welcome to asia business report. i am sharanjit leyl and hey, it is friday and the first friday of the month is when we will getjobs data from the us, giving us another indicator of the strengths of the world's biggest economy, which is of

course currently engaged in a tale as war with china, the world's second largest economy. according to oxford economics research and calculations, president trump's trade war could destroy up to 100,000 americanjobs trade war could destroy up to 100,000 american jobs in trade war could destroy up to 100,000 americanjobs in 2019 if he places a tariff on europe's auto sector. in a worst—case scenario, us ta riffs sector. in a worst—case scenario, us tariffs would shave off about 0.1% of us gdp next year. but what would it take to end the trade war? the former undersecretary of commerce former undersecretary of commerce for international trade and chief executive for export now, says the negotiations are disrupted the businesses. there are two things businesses. there are two things businesses do not like, extra cost and uncertainty, and these tariffs give us both. so yes, businesses have to adjust. don't forget a lot of what us manufacturers produce requires foreign imports. when you raise the price of those imports through tariffs, you are making us

exports less competitive, you actually hurting us exports. is going to make a lot of businesses less competitive as well, which is why am keen to find out your business which is all about helping businesses with their retail strategy in china. you are absolutely right. are they going to become more cautious?” absolutely right. are they going to become more cautious? i think you get a sense that people are not as interested in going into new markets and china is front and centre. what we're seeing is one on the one hand is that the good news is that chinese consumers remain hungry for these us products in france, on the other hand, us merchants arejust these us products in france, on the other hand, us merchants are just a little more cautious in international activity. people are pulling back. —— and brands. international activity. people are pulling back. -- and brands. you are telling as well that are spending a lot of time reassuring these businesses as well. if you are currently in the chinese market, you are having a good year. the chinese

economy is performing well and consumer spending is outperforming nicely. if you are in the market, you are doing well. if you are not in the market, you need to have some extra trepidation. i think it is like brexit, regardless of where brexit goes, we would tell any uk business you need to have a brexit strategy. we are expecting this data is today, currently the us economy is today, currently the us economy is in is today, currently the us economy isina is today, currently the us economy is in a sweet spot when it comes to jobs. what are you expecting? the numbers can bounce run a little bit but i think if you look at the you will see the economic growth is very on track. it is not slowing down, and it is really kind of impressive what the economy has done this year. at the other side of that coin is i think that is part of what bolsters the white house view to say that we, the white house view to say that we, the white house view to say that we, the white house, it can be tough on theseissues the white house, it can be tough on these issues because the world economy has a lot of strength in it. now, remember this woman? well, economy has a lot of strength in it. now, rememberthis woman? well, it is meg whitman of course and she

used to run the global tech firm hewlett—packa rd. used to run the global tech firm hewlett—packard. she used to run the global tech firm hewlett—packa rd. she is used to run the global tech firm hewlett—packard. she is one of the most recognisable women, notjust in tech part in us businesses. she presided over a really rocky period, which saw the firm split its business and sell off parts to save the core. well, she stepped down earlier this year and antonio mary stepped into the role of chief executive, tasked with taking the company to a new europe. currently, hpe hold significant marketshare in data cloud storage, but the likes of google and amazon on all looking to expand aggressively in that area too. in an exclusive interview with us too. in an exclusive interview with us here on bbc news, chief executive says most of the data is stored online unit cloud storage. the majority is actually created outside of the data centre, or what we call the cloud. this is where we live and work, think about the studio, think

about the hospital, that is a big opportunity because that has to be analysed in real—time to make, to ta ke analysed in real—time to make, to take actions. that is the challenge for us, how we bring that cloud computing closer to where the data is generated because it is more economical and enables businesses to ta ke economical and enables businesses to take decisions in real—time, so sta rts take decisions in real—time, so starts with security. and moving onto the trade tariffs, which had dominated headlines, you are a business, obviously you run a huge global business. you have got manufacturing in the us, mexico and china. have you seen any impact on your business thus far from what has been going on? well, the global ta riffs been going on? well, the global tariffs are very complex topic and obviously, we are participating and have given our opinion and to provide constructive feedback. as you know, two phases of the global ta riffs have you know, two phases of the global tariffs have taken place and we have actually dealt with those very well because we have a very flexible and

large—scale supply chain, so so far we have not seen impact. however, as we have not seen impact. however, as we think about the next phases of this conversation, we want to make sure that these decisions are taking place that do not only take care of the business but also what is right for the country. so our idea is that this is a complex topic, we will provide our input and then we will ta ke provide our input and then we will take actions as those decisions are made. writes, in fact, as the trade war drags made. writes, in fact, as the trade wardrags on, made. writes, in fact, as the trade war drags on, what are some of the contingency plans? we always look at how important other components, where we manufacture, how we can serve customers better. so for us, it is important to find the right balance between locations and cost, and the customer services we need to provide to our customers. and that was hpe‘s chief executive officer. we return to one china ‘s favourite dishes, pork. the country is the world's is producer but state media is reporting that since august,

nearly 1000 pigs have been culled or killed since they discovered cases of african swine fever. that is a disease currently sweeping through south east asia and europe. it is not the first time china's pig industry has seen a large—scale cull of pigs. it will cost more if the disease continues to spread. we have already seen the europeans banning imports from china and other countries, we will follow suit. imports, of course, the china from other countries are likely to benefit because of this disruption, china will have two supplement some of its domestic production with increased imports around the world, which will benefit particularly the european union, where a lot of those imports come from. how might this impact the chinese economy though? because as we know, they are the world's biggest pork producer, they

already mired in this trade war with the us as well. so i do not think it will have a big impact because the agricultural sector is a very small section of the economy, but the previous disease outbreaks that we have seen, as you mentioned the outbreak in 2000 seven, also ped in 2011, both caused pork prices to jump by 2011, both caused pork prices to jump by over 260%, which had a big impact on price inflation, of two percentage points. it increased inflation beyond what policymakers we re inflation beyond what policymakers were comfortable with, resulting in monetary tightening which then had a negative impact on the economy. monetary tightening which then had a negative impact on the economym other business news making headlines, british airways is investigating a customer data breach from its website and mobile app. the airline says personal and financial details of customers making bookings have been compromised by 280,000

transactions were affected. the stolen data did not include travel passport details, but officials say the incident happened on the 21st of august and asking anyone who believe they might have been affected to contact their bank or credit card provider. the value of pet coin and other digital currencies has tumbled, following media reports that goldman sachs is shelving plans to set up a cryptocurrency trading desk. —— bitcoin. most traders have largely kept their distance from them. bitcoin traded above 19,000 in mid—december, and its falls continue. it puts this year's low at $5,887. rabri says will stop the practice of burning unsold goods immediately. british luxury goods —— the british luxury goods maker destroyed unsold goods, luxury

clothes, and perfume to protect its brand. the news had led to an angry response from environmental campaigners. the fashion label also said it would stop using real fur campaigners. the fashion label also said it would stop using realfur in its products and would phase out existing fur items. a quick look at the markets now here in asia. as you can see, they are falling, near 1a month lows in fact and that is really as investors continued to fear the fallout from the us china trade war and of course, the emerging currency market sell—off as well worrying lots of investors here. and that is it for this edition of asia business report. our top stories this hour: president trump is under attack from inside the white house, but close aides have denied writing an anonymous article in the new york times that slammed his presidency. there have been joyful scenes in india, after the supreme court ruled that gay sex is no longer a criminal offence. members of the northern ireland

assembly will have their pay cut by about a third, because they're not carrying out theirfull duties. there has been no devolved government since power—sharing collapsed in january last year. our ireland correspondent emma vardy reports. sightseeing. free stormont tour until 3pm. stormont still draws the crowds, even if the political parties stay away. there's been no sitting assembly here for more than a year and a half. but mlas have continued to receive their salaries. today, the secretary of state at westminster decided the time had come for that to change. people should only be remunerated for the work that they're doing. they quite clearly cannot be doing any work while we have the situation we do in stormont, although they are working for their constituents. so, how much has been paid out while stormont has been suspended? for the last financial year, more than £4.5 million was paid in salaries to members of the northern ireland assembly. their basic salary

isjust under £50,000. today's announcement would bring that figure down tojust under £36,000. northern ireland's two largest parties, the dup and sinn fein, have failed to restore power—sharing despite many rounds of talks. every mla has been punished as a result of the failure of one party, sinn fein, to actually enter the assembly without preconditions is, i think, a tragedy. hitting politicians in the hip pocket, says sinn fein, is long overdue. we argued for a mla pay cut a long time back. it wasn't our responsibility she'd refused to act on that. today, karen bradley also ruled out calling another snap assembly election. so, for many voters, it's that cut in pay they hope will focus the politicians‘ minds,

because the longer this impasse continues, the more public services and people are suffering. i think it might give them an idea of, just a doublethink of what's going on. will it encourage them to get back into government? probably not. why's that? ijust think there's too much bad blood between them. sightseeing, folks. it's likely to take more than today's intervention if stormont is to be anything other than a tourist attraction. emma vardy, bbc news, belfast. a leaked treasury paper has revealed that the government expects whitehall departments to make cuts in the event of the uk not reaching a deal with the european union over brexit. hello, i'm tulsen tollett and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: france's third string goalkeeper puts on a show as he helps the world champions to a goalless draw against germany in the uefa nations league. surreally serena williams goes

towards a record 24th grand slam title with a victory over sevastova in the us open semi—final. and tiger woods along with rory mcilroy equals the course record at the bmw championship in pensylvannia. hello and welcome and in tennis, in the past few minutes serena williams is into the us open final with a straight sets 6—3, 6—0 win over latvian sevastova, which tookjust over an hour. the 36—year—old, a six time winner at flushing meadows, when the 2—0 down before she exploded into action and made a real