plan for brexit. the agreement opens the door to the next stage of talks, but theresa may still has to convince the british parliament. leaders from south—east asia will hold their final day of talks at the asean summit later, after being treated to a gala dinner in singapore. and this video is trending on bbc.com: jewellery once belonging to france's marie antoinette has fetched astonishing prices in geneva, massively over the pre—sale estimate. the star of the show, a pear shaped natural pearl pendant, had been expected to sell for up to $2 million, but after fierce bidding went for more than $36 million. not bad. that is all from me. do stay with us here on bbc news. and the top story in the uk: nhs england has said that nearly 50,000 women didn't receive information about screening for cervical cancer in the first half of this year because of a mistake

by a private contractor. now, the business news in singapore. a decisive step — britain's theresa may secures cabinet backing for a d raft may secures cabinet backing for a draft brexit agreement. the currency markets give the deal a muted reception. summits going on — world leaders gather in singapore and then papua new guinea with global trade on the agenda. good morning, asia. hello, world. it is indeed thursday. glad you could join us foran is indeed thursday. glad you could join us for an exciting edition of asia business report. i'm rico hizon. the big news out of london this morning — the british prime minister said she has backing from

the cabinet for a draft brexit agreement with the european union. the currency markets have given the statement muted reception as the preliminary deal still faces some major hurdles. let's look at the numbers in mid—morning asian trade. the pound at 1.29, the yen at 1.47, theresa may made the announcement outside number ten downing st after an "long, detailed and impassioned debate with her ministers". the eu chief negotiator michel barnier hailed the deal. first, let's listen to theresa may. it is my job as prime minister to explain the decisions the government has taken. i stand ready to do that. beginning tomorrow with a statement in parliament. if i might end byjust saying this — i believe that what i owe to this country is to take

decisions that are in the national interest. and i firmly decisions that are in the national interest. and ifirmly believe, with my head and my heart, that this is a decision which is in the best interests of our entire united kingdom. translation: this is the d raft kingdom. translation: this is the draft in my hand here. the draft agreement between the uk and the eu. there are no more colours in here, you will notice. there are no more bits in green where they were before. the white is the new green, huh? earlier, the imf warned that a no—deal brexit could cost the uk at about 6% of gdp, or about four years of economic growth. 0ne analyst told me why politics will play a crucial role in the days and weeks ahead. this probably has more to do with politics than the actual document itself. if you look at the document you might think this is something

thatis you might think this is something that is workable and satisfies lot of people. unfortunately, when you throw politics into it, you end up with a problem. the labour party will probably voted down in parliament because they want to disrupt everything. and with that uncertainty, the pound is currently muted. it is not moving against the us dollar or the euro. if they have a no—deal brexit sterling could fall against the us dollar. if they get a deal it will shoot up. david ko from the motley fool. leaders are here for the meeting of the association of these they are —— southeast asian nations, asean, and sharanjit leyl told southeast asian nations, asean, and shara njit leyl told us southeast asian nations, asean, and sharanjit leyl told us what on the agenda. these world leaders have gathered here for the asean and east asian summits, of course as you mentioned those leaders of india, china, russia, they are all meeting their south—east asian counterpart in the conference centre right behind me here. in fact,

in the conference centre right behind me here. infact, rico, we saw the chinese motorcade arriving. iand assuming saw the chinese motorcade arriving. i and assuming it contained china's literature, india's narendra modi, they are all speaking with south—east asian counterparts around a host of topics, we have security in the south china sea, the rohingya crisis, the denuclearisation of the koreas and of course the trade pacts that are out there. chief among them the comprehensive and progressive trans—pacific partnership, the comprehensive and progressive tra ns—pacific partnership, the revised tpp. we know the us pulled out. it is still set to go into effect without the us. in fact. six nations have ratified it. it accou nts nations have ratified it. it accounts for 16% of the global economy. you also have the regional comprehensive economic partnership, this one has china very much front and centre. many of the leaders are also talking about that. but of

course there is also the optics, the fa ct course there is also the optics, the fact that us president donald trump is very much absent. he sent his vice president mike pence instead. and all of this against the backdrop of the us— china trade war, which is something that a lot of small nations in this region are really concerned about. one of them of course is new zealand. and i spoke to its prime ministerjacinda ardern who said she is concerned about the trade tensions. some of those impacts i think we see are those that are being seen globally, you know, downgrading around the estimates of global growth, impacts oi'i estimates of global growth, impacts on business confidence — we feel all of that. and, as has been said in the global economy, when its sneezes, new zealand catches a cold. we can be recipients of the general environment. we haven't seen a direct effect yet. although we have had steel tariffs, aluminium and steel tariffs have affected us

directly. jacinda ardern, pm in new zealand, telling me about her concerns over the trade war. of course a lot of these leaders will wrap up today with a closing statement. many of them will make their way to papillon new guinea —— papuan new guinea, with the likes of china's xijinping papuan new guinea, with the likes of china's xi jinping attending that, and presumably trade will continue to dominate the agenda. and as sharanjit leyl mentioned, the next venue sharanjit leyl mentioned, the next venue is papua new guinea, where the apec gathering will take place in the capital of port moresby. 0ne apec gathering will take place in the capital of port moresby. one of the capital of port moresby. one of the defining features of this year's meeting is some of its venues. 0ur asia business correspondent will tell us why she will stay on a ship for this gathering. swimming pools, waterslides and the big, blue sea — not the usual backdrop for a major summit, but this is a venue for the

apec summit in port moresby, a cruise ship! papua new guinea is the poorest of all apec nations hosting this event. most of the additional money to do this has come from australia and china, to build things like venues and roads. a lot of these roads have been builtjust for this event, like this highway over here just this event, like this highway over herejust built for apec. this event, like this highway over here just built for apec. even this event, like this highway over herejust built for apec. even bus stops. but whatever couldn't be built was shipped in. i can see the boat from here. there is. this is home for the next few days. the pacific explorer. i have never stayed on a cruise ship before for a summit. part of the reason why they put us on this ship is because there are not enough hotel rooms in the city. the other reason they are holding the event here is security. port moresby is considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world and, look. they have sent in the australians, the kiwis, the american navy boats for this event.

so this is where i am going to be staying for the next couple of days. this is what it looks like. and now the hard work begins. karishma vaswani showing us the accommodation in that cruise ship. all right, jewel is a dominant player in the e—cigarette market, in 2018 the sales soared 750%, but vaping companies like it have drawn the ire of the food and drug administration, the regulatory body in the us, because papua new guinea has seen meteoric rise among teenagers. so now authorities want to put strict rules on where these products can be sold —— caused vaping has seen a meteoric rise among teenagers. samira hussein has this report. e—cigarette have exploded in popularity and one company, jewel, absolutely dominates the vaping market. it is popular with teens,

has its own social media following, and fans even make songs about it.- isaid and fans even make songs about it.- i said you grab it and you hit it and you do it again. it comes in flavours like mint and mango. and as the manager of this vape shop shows me, it is really easy to use. this p°p5 me, it is really easy to use. this pops open. you plug it in here. and you have yourselfjewel. pops open. you plug it in here. and you have yourself jewel. why do you thinkjewel is so popular? the other brands, those do the same job, jewel have done the marketing on it, it is really good. but in 2017 more than 3 million 11— 18 —year—olds said they use e—cigarettes, one third of which said flavours were a big factor. that has regulators wanting restrict convenience stores from selling flavours that appeal to young people. but it will keep tobacco and mental flavours in stores. analysts

question whether that move will have a big impact on the vaping market.|j think it's oversimplifying this issue to think it's mainly flavours that are driving this. so by leaving tobacco, meat and mentalflavours on the market, i suspect that many current users whether you for adult will switch to those other flavours —— mintand will switch to those other flavours —— mint and menthol. because it knows are the flavours are coming, juullabs say it knows are the flavours are coming, juul labs say it won't sell most of its flavoured e—cigarettes in stores. and it will take down its social media account. this might impact the compa ny‘s social media account. this might impact the company's revenue in the short term but it is not likely to diminish its appeal to teenagers. 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 british cabinet has backed prime minister theresa may's plan for britain's departure from the european union.

singapore's leader has hosted a gala dinner for the association of southeast asian nations. the government has reversed its decision to delay a cut to the maximum stake on gambling machines, known as fixed odds betting terminals. the former sports minister, tracy crouch, had resigned over the delay, which was until the autumn of next year. now the reduction of the maximum stake from £100 to £2 will happen next april. here's simon gompertz. roulette and other casino games offering a frightening scope to lose money. in just a ten—month period, more than 200,000 sessions led to losses of £1000 — hence the clamp—down. but at the beginning of this month, the sports minister, tracey crouch, resigned, saying the government wasn't moving fast enough and she's gathered support from dozens of fellow tories. they have caused endless harm, terrible damage to families.

the first indication of a climb—down came at prime minister's questions today. i know gambling addiction can devastate lives, so our priority is making sure that this change delivers the results we all want to see. we are listening to the concerns being raised by colleagues. then, this afternoon, the about—turn on the timing of the tougher regime. i hope, through my resignation, i have given a voice to many people who felt they were not being heard about the harms of these machines, and, ultimately, at the end of the day, we now have the right outcome for them. so the maximum stake will be cut from £100 to £2 every 20 seconds, as planned, but starting from april — not 0ctober — next year. the government's reason for waiting was to give bookmakers time to adjust after they warned that thousands of betting shops would close, putting 20,000 jobs under threat. but many bookmakers will tell you now it doesn't matter when this change comes in —

they'll still be affected. the association of british bookmakers said its members will comply with the new timing. labour's comment was that delaying the implementation had been a disastrous political misjudgment. simon gompertz, bbc news. the nhs says that an administrative error meant that 48,000 women in england didn't get letters with information about screening for cervical cancer in the first half of this year. some of the letters contained results from screenings, although most were appointment invitations or reminders. about 100 women with abnormal results are yet to be contacted. as always, lots more on our website. iamon as always, lots more on our website. i am on social media. now on bbc news, sport today. hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme:

novak djokovic qualifies for the last four at the atp tour finals in london, beating alexander zverev to make it two wins out of two. sri lanka have it all to do against england as they resume on day 2 of the second test in pallekele shortly, on 26 for 1 in theirfirst innings. and francesco molinari heads into the european tour's season ending event knowing only one other can catch him in the race to dubai. hello and welcome to the programme where we start with tennis news, and who would have predicted novak djokovic would be the man to beat at the season ending nitto atp tour finals? outside the world's top twenty six months ago, the now world number one beat alexander zverev to make it two wins from two at london's 02 which means he qualifies for the semi finals after marin cilic beat john isner in three sets. anneka radley was watching wednesday's action.