i'm kasia madera with bbc news. our top story: officials in london and brussels have finalised a draft agreement on brexit. with just four months to go before the uk leaves the european union, ministers were called to downing street to read the draft deal. there's no guarantee it will be approved by the uk parliament or by the other 27 eu member countries. around 100 people are still missing in california after the worst wildfires in the state's history. 44 people are now known to have died. more than 7,000 homes and other buildings have been destroyed. and this story is trending on bbc.com. a man has been taken into custody after a police appealfor a ross from friends lookalike went viral. the image of the suspected thief was taken in blackpool in the north—west of england. that's all. stay with bbc world news. 0ur

our top story in the uk coal on a 50—year—old man has appeared in court in essex accused of a heavily pregnant woman —— oui’ court in essex accused of a heavily pregnant woman —— our top story in the uk:. trumping oil. crude prices are still ina slump trumping oil. crude prices are still in a slump after the us president piles more pressure on 0pec. and how a company in south australia has built a business around helping to preserve native wildlife. good morning, asia. hello, world. yes, it's asia business report. glad you could join us, i'm rico hizon. let's start with oil prices, and they've been on a slippery slope, suffering one of their worst days in three years, but in asian and, we're seeing some flatness, some kind of recovery for prices. light crude up

a fraction. brent crude up. 0verall, the us futures lost more than 7% overnight in new york after record 12th straight decline. crude prices have seen big swings in the last few weeks and they are down almost 30% after peaking last month. to tell us more about this is monica miller. we are seeing some kind of recovery, but still it's been a downward slope? it was amazing what happened yesterday, and why it is happening is expectations are changing. not long ago we were talking about oil shortages, but now we're hearing there's a glut and a lot of 0pec and non—opec members are worried if there's going to be enough demand for that. in terms of the market is what happened is a lot of analysts are saying it's a response that is a spill over effect since monday when

president trump weighed in on this, and he said hopefully saudi arabia and he said hopefully saudi arabia and 0pec will not be cutting oil production. 0il and 0pec will not be cutting oil production. oil prices should be much lower on supply. his tweet had markets in a stir, but also on tuesday, 0pec was saying they do need to look at cutting production, and potentially that could be about 1 production, and potentially that could be about1 million barrels per day starting in 2019. we've come a really long way. crude oil was about $86 per barrel back in october. now it is down more than 20%. we're definitely going to keep an eye on markets in asia. bad news for investors but good news for consumers who have cars. thank you for that update. my colleague and business reporter monica miller. from oil to summits. it's the season right now in asia and a number of world leaders are in singapore and

then in papua new guinea this week. the ten leaders of the association of south—east and nations, asean, meeting with representatives from countries including the us, china and russia in what's known as the east asia summit and later in the week at the apec meetings, leaders from the americasjoin week at the apec meetings, leaders from the americas join in and week at the apec meetings, leaders from the americasjoin in and high on the agenda is trade. the largest trade grouping is one backed by china, it's called the regional comprehensive economic partnership, 01’ macro comprehensive economic partnership, or macro rcep, and it covers an area with a gdp of $25 trillion. you also have the cptpp. that is a long title! it takes effect at the end of this year after seven of the 11 member countries ratified the deal. this is key because neither one of these alphabet soup trade groupings include the united states. debra

allens, an expert in trade issues in the region, told me which of these pacts is most important. tpp does because it comes into force on december the 30th. that is finished. it's coming into force on december the 30th and the entire agreement starts on that first day. there's a double bonus for people who produce goods. 0n there's a double bonus for people who produce goods. on december 30, the first tariff cuts happen and on january the first, the second round of tariff cuts happen for many in the member countries. what about rcep, when will that take affect? that's more exciting, it was meant to have a substantial conclusion announced now for later this year, and the 16 countries involved in rcep were unable to get their. they're going to announce substantial progress. what is the difference? probably not much but it means we will negotiate through next year as well on rcep and it will ta ke affect year as well on rcep and it will take affect 2020 ? year as well on rcep and it will take affect 2020? you don't even

know. they don't even know. depends when they finish. you have the december the 31st for the cptpp, rcep ina december the 31st for the cptpp, rcep in a couple of years, can they coexist? they do. there's seven members in common between the two and what it does is transforms asia asa and what it does is transforms asia as a place where business is getting done at a time of global turbulence. it says leaders in this part of the world recognise an open trade arrangement benefits their firms and citizens, that is super important. with overlapping countries, are they binding or non—binding? with overlapping countries, are they binding or non-binding? both will be binding, one more than the other. the tpp countries have much more ambitious, deeper, broader commitments that are more binding. rcep, because it's a more diverse, and diverse group of countries, it's more flexible and that means it is harder to say they are firm, so softer, more like gazey and. with

overlapping countries, if i was a member of both rcep and cptpp, where would i put my new factories in the near to medium term? ideally, if you could be in a place that's in both, that's fantastic because you get the benefits of both agreements but it depends on what you're doing and where you want to send it. if a country is only in one agreement, like india, you can't use tpp because they're not in it. you have to think about how you use rcep to work with india. they country is in both, tpp works better. in other business news, the pound has risen against the us dollar and the euro amid growing optimism a brexit deal is close to being agreed. it came after a significant breakthrough in talks between the uk and eu officials with a draft text ofa and eu officials with a draft text of a divorce deal agreed. 0thers and eu officials with a draft text of a divorce deal agreed. others are warning the sterling's rally could be short lived. from baby kangaroos to tiny possums,

vets in australia regularly see injured native wildlife that need help to survive. what started as a desire to have —— how those animals has created a business idea. we have been to adelaide to find out more. a1 in, if you don't like cute animals, look away now. —— a warning. it is baby formula for specialised animals. at the time, there was really no suitable products for these animals. these animals are effectively were being fed cow's milk and because

they're particularly being fed cow's milk and because they‘ re particularly intolerant being fed cow's milk and because they're particularly intolerant of lactose, it may be caring for these animals very difficult and not many of these animals were getting through. -- it made the. with human infant formulas, they're based on human milk, not based on cow's milk so we shouldn't be using cow's milk so we shouldn't be using cow's milk so we shouldn't be using cow's milk as a basis for other species. we need to formulate them on the species's own milk composition, and in that way we can get the right nutrients for the species we're dealing with. i think the big difference it's made is we can be much more successful at hand rearing. we assess every animal on its merits as it comes in and we decide whether its injuries are too bad and whether it can be successfully hand reared and ideally sent back into the wild. with the supplement feeding with the

milk, it gets them off to a good start and they thrive after that and often we'll keep them on the melt a bit longer to give them a good start in life that they wouldn't have otherwise got. —— the milk. the echidna, one of the most unusual mammals in the world, an egg laying mammals in the world, an egg laying mammal but they still nourish their young with milk. in australia there may only be ten or so young ones that come into care per year, so we can doa that come into care per year, so we can do a specific formula, and we have one, but it's not really a great commercials excess, as you have one, but it's not really a great commercials excess, as you can great commercials excess, as you can imagine. we have products for pet birds as well and milk formulas for things like puppies and kittens, so these are more commercial products that help to finance the more crazy formulas we can come up with —— commercial success. all of them are really very cute

animals, but not necessarily cuddly! from there we move onto the markets. as you can see on your board, it is a mixed bag with the nikkei up by 85 points and the all 0rdinaries losing 35. the south korean index is in negative territory but the hang seng up negative territory but the hang seng up as investors battle a range of factors from a loss on wall street, lower oil prices, brexit and us/ china trade. thanks for investing your time with us. i'm rico hizon. sport today is coming up next. before sport today, let's bring you up before sport today, let's bring you up to date with the main headlines: terms for a draft brexit agreement between britain and other members of the eu have been agreed, but already some members of the uk parliament have said it would be acceptable. 44 people are now known to have died in the worst wildfires in the history

of california. firefighters say they're making of california. firefighters say they‘ re making progress of california. firefighters say they're making progress in tackling two of the worst blazes —— won't be an acceptable. turning to badger culling, because an independent review has found it only has a modest effect in reducing the spread of tb to cattle. the report suggests cattle play a bigger role in passing it on. jon kay reports. they seem fine, but look closely. the small green ear tags show that these cattle have tb. so these cows here are tested positive. 2a of rob harrison's dairy herd have just been diagnosed. it is the worst outbreak he's ever known. this disease is devastating. to have a healthy, functioning dairy and beef industry we need to control this disease like we do any other disease, and it's just got out of control over the last 30 or a0 years. many farmers blame badgers for spreading tb, so a cull began in 2013 in gloucestershire and somerset. it's now been widened

to 32 different zones. 0verall it's estimated more than 311,000 badgers have been killed. today's independent review says badger culls can have a modest effect in reducing tb in cattle but says killing more wild animals will cost millions and may not be acceptable to the public. a large sector of people believe that one should just not do that, and another sector feel equally passionately that one should do. science, unfortunately, cannot distinguish between those two options and, inevitably, this is a decision that has to be made by ministers. so what happens now? well, the government is due to give its response next summer. in the meantime, the various badger culls will continue as planned and it's worth pointing out that today's review is based on trials that were carried out more than ten years ago. it's not based on the current badger cull programme.

today's report says we also need to look at vaccinations, testing, and how farms are managed, as well as how tb can be passed between cattle. rob's infected cows have now been isolated and will be destroyed. john kay, bbc news, gloucestershire. as always, lots more on our website. mike will be here at the top of the hour with all the day's news. now time for sport today. hello. this is sport today live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: day three at the nitto atp tour finals — and roger federer keeps his dream alive by beating dominic thiem. after five formula 1 world titles — lewis hamilton tells us he's still seeking perfection. and england will be unchanged

for the second test against sri lanka in kandy that gets under way in the coming hours. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with the tennis news that roger federer has kept his hopes of a seventh nitto atp tour finals title alive, and a first since 2011, after a straight sets victory over austria's dominic thiem. and kevin anderson is in a strong position to qualify for the last four after beating kei nishikori in the first match of the day. nick parrott was watching. after his defeat to kei nishikori, all eyes were on a roger federer and whether he could bounce back against dominic thiem. the swiss had lost its last two encounters against the austrian, as he made a good start, breaking injust austrian, as he made a good start, breaking in just the third game.