you're watching bbc world news. i am babita sharma. our top story: president trump denies covering up for saudi arabia over the suspected murder of the saudi journalist jamal khashoggi. as a team of turkish investigators searched the residence of the saudi arabian consul in istanbul for evidence, mr trump said the us would not walk away from its ally. three days of mourning have been declared in crimea after a gun and bomb attack on a college left at least 19 people dead. russian investigators say the assault was carried out by an 18—year—old student at the school and this story is trending on bbc.com: the duke and duchess of sussex have arrived in melbourne for the third day of the trip to australia, fiji, tonga and new zealand. large crowds greeted the couple as they held a public walk—about in the city's royal botantic gardens. stay with us. more on that to come. and the top story in the uk: theresa may has asked eu leaders in brussels for more flexibility over brexit and the irish border. she'd been urged to come up with new proposals to break

the deadlock, but the president of the european parliament said he'd heard nothing new. more on that to come. first, here is sharanjit. america first — president trump pulls out of a global postal treaty he says gives chinese companies an unfair advantage, but stops short of calling beijing a currency manipulator. and the me too movement gains traction in india — we have a special report. hello and welcome to asia business report, i am sharanjit leyl asia business report, i am sharanjit leyl. now, we start with trade — donald trump is turning up the heat on beijing, withdrawing from a iaa—year—old un postal treaty that gives chinese companies discounted

shipping rates for small packages sent to american customers. american shoppers seeking deals online for foreign goods have benefited from the arrangement. well the trump administration is also beginning the process of negotiating three separate bilateral trade agreements with japan, the uk separate bilateral trade agreements withjapan, the uk and separate bilateral trade agreements with japan, the uk and the european union, so let's run through the numbers. among the three, us trade with the eu bloc has passed $1 trillion in 2017, in exchange for goods and services between the us and the uk was estimated at $332 billion last year. meanwhile us trade with japan came up to $283 billion in 2018 and earlier this month president trump finalised a trade deal with counterparts in canada and mexico after several months back forth negotiations. so how long will it take for washington to reach bilateral agreements with the eu, the uk and japan? well, trade expert alex capris explains

how the trump administration has pulled out of the shipping agreement and how it will impact trade.“ pulled out of the shipping agreement and how it will impact trade. if you look at what that's going to do now and the volume of e—commerce between china and the us small parcels it will raise the cost of those packages but is also going to level the playing field, so to speak, with other companies competing with chinese imports. and obviously it will impact companies like alibaba and others from china. let's move on to these bilateral trade deals that the us is trying to renegotiate. as we saw with the new nafta deal it was not easy to come about and it finally was able to get done but what is the intention of the united states in renegotiating these new trade deals, howlett benefit them? for the trump administration the idea is that if you get one partner across the table instead of many and it will negotiate as the more powerful partner at the table so it can get more of what it wants if it

is negotiating with one or fewer parties and we saw that with the us mca where the us actually negotiated separately with mexico and threaten to leave canada out entirely and then negotiated with canada. and the us really came out of that with a lot of concessions from both. and obviously they're saying that these new trade deals will benefit the us, as you say, its gonna benefit american workers, farmers, ranchers, businesses, is it actually benefiting them? it is a little more complicated than that, so for example if you look at the automotive industry, where the us lobbied for and got in the negotiations hire local content rules, that means that suppliers that are not in north america will have to start moving over to the united states which will disrupt supply chains in asia. it is not easy because these are complex supply chains which have many different moving parts. alex capri

speaking to me earlier. us president donald trump has escalated his war of words against america's central bank, calling the federal reserve his biggest threat. now, his remarks are the latest in a series of attacks on the fed, which raised rates three times this year and they suggested a fourth is on the way. currency expert peter mcguire says president trump is concerned the central bank is moving too fast. well, on a number of different fronts you'd have to say he's public got his business had on looking at the big picture as far as interest rates and what impact it has as far as possibly slowing the economy with the midterms around the corner. and a growing us economy with employment very, very strong. and a very, very strong stock market. so they're are the issues he faces. and what is the fed's point of view on this, why have they raised rates, because we know in recent weeks when we talk about us inflation, most think it is under control? we've had cheap money for

around eight or nine years since the gst, and it isjust a ratcheting process , gst, and it isjust a ratcheting process, moving up from, you know, extraordinarily low rates, and that's where the fed's looking at it, they're have a neutral stand, that's what they want to be focused on and it's just a natural cause that's what they want to be focused on and it'sjust a natural cause in any economic cycle. peter mcguire speaking from sydney. now, we live in a world that is increasingly spending time online. we have seen recently that comes with lots of privacy risks. last week google had to shut down its social media platform google plus after user data of up to 500,000 people was exposed in march. social media giant facebook has been criticised for similar data breaches and experts say that cyber threats are dangerous to the world as trade wars, so what would be the biggest risk to businesses? i have posed that question to the head of cyber security business cyber arc. right 110w security business cyber arc. right now the world is becoming more and more digital and there are is this

motivation. the hackers can get away with crime, it could be nationstates and everyone has become a target so we are seeing threats, ransomware, across all organisations and geography. what kind of attacks are we most vulnerable to?” geography. what kind of attacks are we most vulnerable to? i would say that penetration has become very easy because of social media. getting into a targeted company has become very easy. you can look on linkedin ona become very easy. you can look on linkedin on a person's profile and send them back row and e—mails and what we do our cyber arc is look at how they take over the entire network. some of the cases we have seen here in asia. your firm currently services the it needs of half of the fortune 100 companies and 30% of the global 2000 so that's and 30% of the global 2000 so that's a lot of companies using your cyber security software, so tell us how you stay ahead of hackers? at cyber arc we really decided to get ahead in this game and we decided to focus

around it and invest in this innovation and that's what we owe to customers and that's how you maintain leadership in this space, to remember it's notjust members and customers it's motivated attackers in air—conditioned rooms that can get away with cyber crime. so we focus on lot on innovation, rnd, studying their latest moves, and how to protect customers to really get a minor cold, but how can we prevent it being something fatal to the organisation? india's minister of state for external affairs has retired hall resigned amid sexual allegations by more than amid sexual allegations by more than a dozen former colleagues —— has resigned. in recent weeks india has had a spontaneous outpouring of women on social media who have accused filmmakers, comedians, journalists and authors as well sexual harassment and in some cases are sold. and while social media has been the conduit for these accusations, they come at a time when firms like facebook, whatsapp and twitter are also facing

increasing scrutiny from the government —— and in some cases are sold. for this tv producer, it has been a weight of 20 long years. as the me too movement gained momentum across india in the last week her ordeal has finally been heard ——a wait. india in the last week her ordeal has finally been heard --a wait. had social media not come up, i was done and dusted. it was over. her facebook post of describing a sexual assault has triggered massive support to the industry. something that was mrs when she first revealed —— missing when she first revealed the incident 1a years ago in the newspaper. i was weeping, tears were rolling down my eyes and i was 100% sure that i had support. i wasn't wrong. she has accused this actor, who has made a career out of playing virtuous characters in indian films. but his lawyers have denied these allegations, and filed a defamation case against vinta. india is one of

the fastest growing social media markets, and stories shared here it area markets, and stories shared here it are a galvanising women across the country. according to twitter, almost 40,000 tweets on the me too movement had been shared injust almost 40,000 tweets on the me too movement had been shared in just ten days but this movement is also coming ata days but this movement is also coming at a time when social media is grappling with the dangers of fa ke is grappling with the dangers of fake news. the legal challenges for a media trial or a twitter trial is that, a, it is not a submission in a court of law, b, it's not something given with naturaljustice, the rules of law, there is no evidence, there is no testimony, it is only he said versus she said, but to this 27—year—old who recently tweeted that a popular comedian harassed her by sending lewd photographs, the online world can't be censored. very small amount would probably use this as a chance against someone. we need to look at the bigger picture. we need to look at how many women

are still waiting to tell their story. with 250 million social media users, the me too movement is a balancing act for the companies involved at a time when the government has been threatening more regulations and interventions into how they do business in india. quick look at the markets, particularly here in asia, and how they opened, you can see the nikkei and the all 0rdinaries are flat and taking cues from wall street with continued worries about us interest rates and worries about brexit as well, and that's it for the programme. thanks for watching. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: president trump denies he's covering up for saudi arabia and says he wants answers over the disappearance of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi. three days of mourning are declared in crimea after a student killed 19 people in a gun attack on a college. network rail has said passengers

could face more disruption on journeys to and from paddington station in west london again tomorrow after overhead power lines were damaged during testing of an electric train. the manufacturer of the test train, hitachi, has promised a "full and thorough investigation". 0ur transport correspondent tom burridge has more details. a wall of passengers inching towards the few trains that ran. then, an early—morning squeeze from reading into london. it still felt like a rush—hour here mid—morning. a bit of a nightmare. i've missed my meeting. i'm still going! it's just been hell. it's just been hell, and i'mjust thinking, why on earth don't we renationalise the trains. passengers perplexed, frustrated... seeking answers. rejigging journeys took time. cashain david is currently five

minutes late for a job interview in cardiff. i've been standing here for just under an hour. with three different times, and then kept delay... oh, it's now come up as cancelled! after being delayed for the last half an hour. disruption began last night. getting home to cardiff became an ordeal. tried to get out of reading last night at 8:30pm. ended up having to stay in reading in a hotel four miles outside. £134 later... so, yeah, i'm going home! the problems started when a train similar to these hitachi models was being tested. an investigation must now work out how the high—speed train collided with and wrecked half a kilometre overhead electric cabling. that line in and out of paddington is a massively important piece of railway for everyone on great western, and also heathrow express and

transport for london, as well as freight trains. so, a huge, huge operation to get that resolved. for passengers tonight, some services are back up and running. but a warning from network rail, that there still might not be a full timetable in the morning. her majesty the queen has unveiled a new portrait of herself, which unusally includes the handbag she is rarely seen without. in the painting, commissioned by the raf club to mark its centenary, she is shown sat in an ornate chair in windsor castle's white drawing room, with the bag by her side on the floor. award—winning artist ben sullivan included the accessory to help show the person behind the head of state. that's it. now on bbc news, sport today. hello, i'm chetan pathak, and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre.

coming up on the programme: hoping to work some magic, thierry henry speaks for the first time about about his new role as monaco head coach. well on top, pakistan dominate australia in the second test in abu dhabi. and a shock for sloane stevens, as the former us open champion is knocked out of the kremlin cup by a qualifier. hello and thanks for joining us on sport today. a new chapter in the career of thierry henry has begun... he was officially introduced as the new head coach of french ligue 1 side monaco, the club he firstjoined as a 15—year—old 26 years ago. it's the first managerial role for a man who won five league titles