is behind a series of crude pipe bombs is committing terrorism. the authorities in the us have now intercepted ten explosive devices, all sent to prominent democrats and critics of president trump. the fbi has stepped up its hunt for whoever is responsible. japan's prime minister shinzo abe is in beijing, the first such visit for seven years. relations between the two nations, the world's second and third—largest economies, have been strained in recent years. and this video is trending on bbc.com: the philippines is re—opening the resort island of boracay. it was shut for six months to clean up the damage after years of mass tourism. it will now limit the number of visitors. that's all. stay with bbc world news. and the top story in the uk: for the first time, women can apply for any british military role. the defence secretary says all combat roles are now open to both sexes. now on bbc news, live to singapore

for asia business report. asian markets are following wall street's rally after tech giants twitter, microsoft reported strong results. and from an awkward and check to a friendship. president trump oss trade war with beijing might be pushing china and japan closer together. good morning and welcome to asia business report live from singapore. tokyo stocks have open higher after having a massive sell—off yesterday. now by 1% and that is after us

shares about to buy after suffering massive losses on wednesday. as he can see here, the snp is now back in positive territory for the year and the nasdaq has actually experienced its best will in the performance since march. it is partly because strong tag earnings from twitter and microsoft. but amazon and half of its shares tumble after disappointing results. technology expert mark i scheduled a earlier andi expert mark i scheduled a earlier and i began by asking him about why twitter shares are doing so well when they're in user numbers were down. i think we have seen is twitter has purged a lot of fake accou nts twitter has purged a lot of fake accounts and bots which caused user numbers to decline but they are seeing an increase in daily advertising users and the revenue they are getting a stronger wittily posted good results this quarter. and among all these tech companies and we will report, many thought amazon would do well but visible in forecasts for the christmas season. what is happening? yeah, so amazon

did beat their profit expectations. revenue was a bit lower than what was expected in the market but i think the real story there is that walmart and target are getting very aggressive with their e—commerce offerings, offering two—day shipping for free and in—store offerings, offering two—day shipping forfree and in—store pick—up offerings, offering two—day shipping for free and in—store pick—up and things like that. so amazon is getting stronger competitors and i think that is what is behind the hyperfocus on revenue. 0k, think that is what is behind the hyperfocus on revenue. ok, so alphabetic, the parent of google, slower revenue growth as well. what is going on there? profit very strong but there are concerns about regulation, data privacy laws in europe and things like this. the current administration has even suggested some of these companies might need to be split up into anti—monopolies. i think that there are some long—term concerns about their business. anderson to be released in the winners and losers

in the tech sector right now. also set reported as well. who are doing well and who are not doing well and what is really the broader picture here? if i had what is really the broader picture here? ifi had to pick what is really the broader picture here? if i had to pick the top two i would say what would be microsoft. i think the us economy is doing very well and i think companies are going to be reinvesting in id services like cloud computing and data centres and all sorts of enterprise software. i think the other one is still google and the reason being is that the eu fight against them is actually forcing them to now charge for google android and some other apps and ironically i think this will push earnings up going forward. mark talking about google there in the company has actually fired almost 50 people, including 13 senior almost 50 people, including 13 senior managers almost 50 people, including 13 senior managers of her sexual harassment claims since 2016. the company's harassment claims since 2016. the compa ny‘s chief executive harassment claims since 2016. the company's chief executive says the tech giant is taking a hard line on inappropriate conduct. his comments are in response to a new york times report that android creator andy

rubin received a $90 million exit package despite facing misconduct allegations. mr rubin left the company in 2014. shares enough about which owns google fell to a new york times report that android creator andy rubin received a $90 million exit package despite facing misconduct allegations. mr rubin left the company in 2014. shares enough about which owns google felt delivered pursuant —— 3% after it reported revenues of almost $34 billion for the three months to september, less than analysts had expected. as we told you on the ticket with the leaders of asia's dubious economies, china and japan, are holding their first bilateral meeting in seven years. the last timea meeting in seven years. the last time a president she and her minister on a met, there relationship was arrived at the least. there were issues such as territorial disputes. but they both seem territorial disputes. but they both seem eager territorial disputes. but they both seem eager to improve their ties and president trump plays a major role here. corporate consultant and says the two countries need to protect themselves amid the us trade tensions. forjapan, china is the largest trade partner of forever dollars. and for china, japan is the

third—largest export nation after the us and hong kong. and on top of that, i thinkjohn i would have two objectives. 0ne that, i thinkjohn i would have two objectives. one is to ensure access to japanese advanced technologies into to have a japan upon observation and endorsement in its belair road initiative. japan is interested in capitalising china's enormous growth as a market and its appetite for investing in the overseas market. so the recent bitterness put aside, the two nations short—term interests are aligned to come closer together. with president 0bama was pushing for the tpp, john was excluded from it but you mention the bell road initiative as well as their club was to ships, do you think there'll be some major deals being during this visit? i the itself is more symbolic and has a vacant symbolic value rather than being to content rich.

that said, the deliverables are multi fold. for instance, resuming currency swap multi fold. for instance, resuming currency swap agreement multi fold. for instance, resuming currency swap agreement under crisis situations or the commitment to collaborate in infrastructure investment in third countries such as in smart cities case in thailand. the cbp java as in smart cities case in thailand. the cbpjava is rejoining tpp may be afar the cbpjava is rejoining tpp may be a far stretch at this moment, but i do not think it is not to say that it will never happen. what a talent forjapan here is to set the stage, to steerjava upon the request in a way that will be ultimately aligned with the western world discipline and values, that in the area of innovation as well as in bell and road. now we are all aware of asia's love affair with food and faces technology, the last two years we have seen this spill over into meal delivery apps. a revolution in its

own rock or the services are changing how millions of us can it is consumed food and the space is definitely credited with tough competition from the likes of properties and delivery. food panda's chief executive says his company grew by 50% in the first half of this year. singapore honestly always been a powerhouse for us, but so are other with emerging economies like pakistan or bangladesh, doing very well for us at foodpanda. you mentioned singapore because there are so many players, is competition not quite tough? wi to really embrace competition. for us, ever since tough? wi to really embrace competition. for us, eversince 2014 or 15 when composition started to rise that we have seen our gross propelled to the next level. the day, have a competitors in your industry assuming very normal and if we did not have them, we probably

would have so enrol the industry in the first place. do you find anything different operating in europe as opposed asia though? yes, absolutely. i believe one thing which is definitely true for asia is it is is a diverse playground. if you compare countries like thailand toa you compare countries like thailand to a taiwan or going further to west asia to bangladesh or pakistan. you cannot really put it all in the same group. it is really a very diverse region. and the key is to understand into those markets in it very much detail. that is also why we rely so much on a very strong presence in each of those markets and a very strong local team. other business days but he had lied to her british airways says more than 185,000 people may have had their credit ca rd people may have had their credit card data stolen in a second hack attack on their website. the issue had gone undetected for noticed an

official only notice the breach while investigating an attack on this website in september with affected 380,000 this website in september with affected 380 , 000 transactions. british airways owner said that both attacks seemed to have been carried out by the same group. and british airways is not alone. get the pacific also reported personal information of more than 9 million passengers have been accessed in a security breach. passport number, e—mail addresses an expired credit ca rd e—mail addresses an expired credit card details were among the dead elite. it is to be executive apologised and said there was no evidence the information had been misused. british media giant wpp solace shares dived 40% after it warned the business's growth is slowing down. the world— biggest advertising company is overhauling its business amid mounting competition from google and facebook. it's a new boss called for radical thinking to turn the company

around. the british firm which owns big agencies such as 0gilvy andj wt said it would sell off more access —— assets and hold off for making new acquisitions. let's forget the market before we go. asian markets are following wall street's leave in opening higher after that sharp sell—off that we saw yesterday. japan's market now by almost 1% and allup by japan's market now by almost 1% and all up by zero wall street also had all up by zero wall street also had a present day. all in positive territory. that is it for this edition of asia business report. for watching. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: the fbi steps up its hunt for whoever is behind a series of crude bombs sent to leading democrats and critics of president trump. japan's prime minister shinzo abe is in beijing for the first bilateral talks between the two countries in seven years. 4000 jobs are at risk after the department store debenhams

said it wants to close 50 shops over the next five years. our business correspondent emma simpson reports. this is debenhams' glossy vision of the future, pulling people in by making shopping fun, from blow—dries and beauty treatments... to make—up tutorials and gin bars, but there's sobering news today. it wants to close 50 stores in a radical restructuring. our plan is very simple. we want to have fewer, but better stores. we want to improve our shopping experience. we want to grow our online business, and we're doing that in a way that makes debenhams a more profitable business. right now, property is debenhams' biggest headache. these shops aren't cheap to run, and its costs are rising faster than its sales, partly because we're shopping more online. that means stores like this one are becoming less profitable. debenhams just doesn't need as much

space as it once did, and it's certainly not alone. 0ver there, that used to be a marks and spencer, until it closed over the summer. debenhams hasn't said which stores it wants to shut, but it's the last thing they need here in slough. like many high streets this year, it's been one closure after another. we lost marks and spencer, we lost british home stores, and if you go in along of the town, you'll see so many empty shops. if it wasn't there, i'm not sure what i would do or where i would go to get that stuff. but you do most of your shopping online? i do, i know! guilty, i do, i do. business rates and tax on property isn't helping either. debenhams now pays nearly three times more in rates than it makes in profits. the cost of business rates have just become too high for many retail businesses in deciding to keep a store open. we need the chancellor to take

the opportunity of next week's budget to look at the burden of business rates, bring that cost down, and reform the whole system. debenhams needs a helping hand from its landlords as well. they will have costly leases to get out of, and on top of that, they will have less money to invest in their stores in the future. and that's one of the key things that they need to do to survive. that's what it's done here at this new shop, but debenhams is now making a big retreat from high streets elsewhere. a business under real pressure to adapt. emma simpson, bbc news. don't forget you can get in touch with me and some of the team on twitter — i'm @benmbland. now on bbc news, sport today. hello, this is sport today,

live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme... caroline wozniacki reveals she has rheumatoid arthritis after being knocked out of the wta tour finals. chelsea extend their unbeaten run to 12 with a big win in the europa league. and the 2019 tour de france is set to be the highest one yet as organisers reveal the route. thanks forjoining us. the defending champion has been knocked out of the wta finals. caroline wozniacki was beaten by ukraine's elina svitolina, who's now through to the last four in singapore. and after her defeat, wozniacki revealed that she's been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. adam wild reports. to stand any chance of staying in the finals only a