donald trump's nominee for the supreme court, brett kavanaugh, and the woman accusing him of sexual assault, have testified to us senators. christine blasey ford said the alleged attack, 36 years ago, had dramatically affected her life. she told senators she was 100% certain it was mr kavanaugh who assaulted her. judge kavanaugh denied the allegations and said he was the victim of a "political hit." he added that his calendar from 1982 showed he had not attended the party described by dr ford. lots more of course on our website. and this story is trending on bbc.com: researchers are warning that half of the world's killer whale populations could be wiped out within 50 years unless more is done to tackle toxic chemicals in oceans. that's all. stay with bbc world news. and the top story in the uk: the head of the london fire brigade

says she would not have changed anything about the way that her crew responded to the grenfell tower fire. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. goodbye. tesla ceo elon musk is sued by us regulators for securities fraud over a tweet about taking the company private. nafta under threat? a tweet about taking the company private. nafta underthreat? can president trump and canada's prime minister reconcile their differences to save the north american free trade agreement? it is a friday, everyone. good morning, asia. hello, world. thank you forjoining us on asia business report. we start with

tesla and its controversial chief executive elon musk is in trouble with us regulators over this tweet that he sent out last month. he said he would take the company private at $420 us he would take the company private at $420 us per share and the us securities and exchange commission is suing him for securities fraud and is trying to ban him as a director of a public company. we explain what exactly got him into trouble. it has to do with two words, those are "funding secured", elon musk said not only was he considering taking tesla private at a price of $420 per share but that he had the money to do so and in its complaint the us securities and exchanged and says he didn't actually have the funding secured and he hadn't discussed the matter with potential investors. and as a result he engaged in deliberately

misleading behaviour. this they say constitute security fraud and that's why they want to see him punished. so has elon musk responded to the securities and exchange commission? he has and he came out with a statement i will read to you. he says the action by the sec is not justified and leaves him deeply saddened and disappointed. mr elon musk says he will fight the sec‘s lawsuit. and at this point is he still planning to bring hasluck private? no, he abandoned the plan earlier this year —— bring tesla private? is set after speaking with the board he didn't think it was the best way for the company. —— he said after speaking with the board. either way we have seen that shares in tesla have plunged over 10% in trading after us market had closed. so they are paying attention to what they do when markets open on friday.

well, the future of the three nation north american free trade agreement, oi’ north american free trade agreement, or nafta, hangs in the balance with the deadline looming. after months of negotiations, talks between the us and canada haven't produced a new set of trade terms. in august mexico and the us had a preliminary bilateral deal, and president trump is threatening canada that bentiu nations will present head, leaving out canada, which means the end of the trilateral trade pacts —— that the trilateral trade pacts —— that the two nations will press ahead. but some don't think they will reach an agreement over the main sticking points by the deadline. the main points by the deadline. the main points are access to the canadian dairy market, which likely would be the compromise point i think a lot of people in canada, who generally support opening up the dairy market, lower prices for consumers in canada as well, and the other point is very

much a real sticking point, which is removing the arbitration centre and putting any arbitration issues in the hands of national courts. and that doesn't seem to be an issue that doesn't seem to be an issue that canada has any interest in compromising on. so no compromise at this point. so who would be the big loser if a deal is not done? would it be canada or the united states? long—term canada, nafta is more important to canada but because of the us political system and the fact that congressmen and senators are much more powerful parts of the process , much more powerful parts of the process, it might really affect the republicans' process, it might really affect the republica ns‘ chance of process, it might really affect the republicans' chance of re—election in the midterms in a negative way in the border states if a deal is not reached. and if you're a sports fan oi’ reached. and if you're a sports fan ora reached. and if you're a sports fan or a globetrotting concert—goer, this might sound familiar to you, the 02 this might sound familiar to you, the o2 irena in london and the

sta ples the o2 irena in london and the staples centre in la, the designer behind the complexes is aeg, putting money into asia. and bangkok in particular. the company is investing $300 million to build entertainment districts with retail and dining opportunities. the company vice—chairman says the venture into the capital of thailand is the first four a into south east asia. we've had four a into south east asia. we've ha d su ccess four a into south east asia. we've had success with a number of artists, katy perry, celine dion, justin bieber, the rolling stones, just to name a few and we've developed tremendous confidence in bangkok as a strong entertainment market through that experience but at the same time we are acutely aware that bangkok is really lacking the kind of modern venue infrastructure that it means to serve that demand —— needs to serve that a man so we see big opportunity and we are confident that if we can bring these kinds of modern venues to the market that it will not only

spur the attraction of more content, it will provide consumers in this market with experiences that a heretofore haven't had access to. market with experiences that a heretofore haven't had access tom lacks modern infrastructure as you say and over the last two decades the country has gone through some political turmoil — any worries on clampdowns or interference from the military government?” clampdowns or interference from the military government? i would say not particularly. of course we take into account all kinds of risks when we assess a project like this whether it is market risk, economic risk, terrorism, and political risk of course is a variable and that's why it was important for us to identify a strong local partner and we are very confident we have done that with this group. having a partner assess the landscape from a market standpoint and a political standpoint and a political standpoint is tremendously helpful in giving us confidence. that was

chief executive from aeg from bangkok and all this week we have looked at how technology and innovation is changing the way that people in india work and live as pa rt people in india work and live as part of a special series called reinventing india, looking at the biggest changes in the country over the past decade. better quality of life and a growing middle class connected millions of indians with the internet with almost 400 million users. india is creating a huge opportunity for e—commerce but it has also revived traditional business of silk saris in this south indian town. for the past 30 years, this woman and her husband have been operating this hand loom. but their business has been taken away by high—tech electrical looms that can produce more saris and produce them at half the cost. it will take almost two weeks to spend these threads into a

six metre long sari like this one and they will only get $25 for that which is not enough, which is why almost 50% of families in this village have left the art of hand loom weaving of the sari. but this 35—year—old is hoping to use digital technology to reach new customers a. translation: i have been making saris since childhood. now i wish to sell them online. i don't know how to do it. that's why i'm going for computer classes. four years ago this weavers cooperative society pooled their resources to take part in india's $27 billion e—commerce market, on which traditional indian wear is expected to be worth $1 billion. that meant hiring photographers, setting up an online payment system and sales delivery tea m payment system and sales delivery team to reach customers across india. although sales have doubled, profits have risen. most of the buyers have gone for the cheaper

saris with little profit margin. whatever is said and done there are people who will not buy textiles online because of the colour and the texture a nd online because of the colour and the texture and the product, you know, you feel like when you want to wear it you feel like touching it and seeing it for yourself. but as big players like amazon are now entering india more buyers are drawn to online shopping. and some don't mind paying more for the silk sari. this website was promising authentic silt from the south of india and the quality was really good. e-commerce is spinning threads of opportunities for indian artisans and with almost 400 million internet users in india it could just be the beginning. and for more on the businesses working towards reinventing india, choonin working towards reinventing india, choon in this weekend at these times on your screen. in other news making headlines, uber is paying almost

$150 million to settle legal action over a cyber attack that exposed the data 57 million customers and drivers. the massive breach happened in 2016. uber sought to hide it from regulators. the firm paid hacker is $100,000 to delete the data they grabbed from the company's cloud service and the action was brought on by the us government in 50 states over uber‘s failure to disclose details of the data loss. and with that we end this edition of asia business report. thank you so much for investing your time with us. i'm rico hizon. sport today's coming up next. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: the woman who was accusing donald trump's nominee for the supreme court of sexual assault told a senate committee that the alleged event 36 years ago changed her life dramatically. and brett kavanaugh emphatically

denies the allegations and has accused democratic senators of destroying his family and his good name for political reasons. the number of new homes being built in england is falling. in the three months tojune this year, the latest figures show it fell 4% compared with the same period last year. for younger people trying to buy their first home, getting on the property ladder is far from easy. our economics editor kamal ahmed has more. a new style of house—building. a nice three—bed for a site near london — ready, not in months, but a couple of weeks. a production line, a factory, and maybe a solution to britain's chronic inability to build enough places for people to live. basically the living room... rosie toogood used to run a factory making aircraft engines. now she's making homes — as many as 3,000 a year. can factories like this solve britain's housing crisis? absolutely. i mean, i think fundamentally this is the way forward,

and when we start to deliver our products people will see we create great places to live, high—quality homes that are absolutely affordable. a lack of house—building is not a new problem. after the war, councils and private firms built more than 300,000 houses a year in england. but as councils pulled back, the numbers fell, and then the financial crisis hit — a shock to the economy we have yet to recover from. to solve britain's affordable housing crisis, we need to build about 300,000 houses a year. we are well short of that figure. but it would only take 30 factories of this size working at capacity to solve that housing problem. the number of new houses being built is falling, despite government promises of one million new homes by 2020. so you can talk about the housing market...

the housing minister insisted the number actually finished and coming to the market was going up. i know there is more we need to do, if we are to build the homes our country needs to deal with these real pressures of affordability. that's why the prime minister announced extra funding for housing associations, long—term deals, to see that we're investing into the future. the average salary needed to buy a new home in britain's cities — £53,000. up by £8,000 in two years. this is notjust about the number of homes, but about how affordable they are. kamalahmed, bbc news, leeds. as always, it would be great to hear from you. that's it. lebo will be here at 2:00am with the news. now on bbc news sport today. hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre.

coming up on this programme: will be germany. germany beat turkey in the race to host the 2024 european football championship. in the coming hours, the 42nd ryder cup takes to the course in france, as europe look to regain the trophy from the usa. and australian ashleigh barty, the last remaining seed, moves through to the wuhan open semi—finals. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with football and the news that germany has been chosen to host the european championship finals in 2024. their bid, led by world cup winning captain philipp lahm, was chosen ahead of turkey in a meeting of uefa's executive committee in switzerland on thursday. it'll be the second time that germany has hosted the tournament, having previously held the championship in 1988.