i'm babita sharma with bbc news. our top story: the british government has suffered two significa nt defeats in parliament over brexit. mps found the government in contempt of parliament for refusing to publish the full legal advice on the draft agreement. they then gave themselves a bigger say on what would happen in negotiations with the eu should mrs may be voted down. two senior us republican senators have expressed certainty that the saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman is guilty of the murder ofjamal khashoggi. it follows a briefing by the cia chief, gina haspel. and this story is doing well on bbc.com: a handwritten letter by albert einstein has sold at auction in new york for nearly $2.9 million. the famous scientist wrote the word god is nothing but the expression and product of human weaknesses. you are up—to—date. stay with us. and the top story in the uk: nigel farage says he's left ukip because he doesn't recognise the party anymore.

he has criticised ukip‘s current leader, gerard batten, after he appointed the right—wing activist, tommy robinson, as an adviser. wall street rout — asian stocks traded lower after the dow fell by 800 points over concerns over economic growth in the us, and america— china trade talks. the $61; billion question, takeda vote today on the takeover of shire, one of the biggest pharmaceutical buy outs in history. good morning, asia. hello, world. welcome to this edition of asia business report. i'm rico hizon. let's start off with the markets, and currently asia is following wall

street's lead in negative territory, the nikkei two 225 down by a 1% after us shares plunged overnight, the financial stocks hardest hit, coming as the closely watched indicator caused alarm bills about american growth prospects, and increasing doubts that talks between washington and beijing would lead to an easing in global trade tensions, also helping to reverse‘s monday's rally. michelle fleury has more from new york. talk about a quick sugar high - new york. talk about a quick sugar high — the sort of crash that comes after. we have seen more of the major index down 3%, it wasn'tjust banking stocks, transportation, general electric, you name it, so many were in the red. a lot of it has to do with concerns, warning

signals flashing from the bond market, suggesting that there is perhaps worries about economic growth in the future. the yield curve, you touched on that, this is the idea that the interest paid on two year bonds is the gap between that and the interest paid on 10—year bonds, which is narrowing, it is what they call flat, it has an inverted yet. this suggestion is that if it does in dirt, then the likelihood of recession is much higher and that is why it market watchers are paying so much attention to this and getting spooked to date —— invert. attention to this and getting spooked to date -- invert. and investors are also worried that this deal between the united states and china is not a sure bet —— today. yes, i mean, you saw mixed signals out of the white house today. they we re out of the white house today. they were unable to confirm whether or not china was in fact going to cut the 40% tariffs on us cars imported into china. that was something that donald trump had tweeted on monday.

confusion over that. there seems to be confusion from the white house over whether or not a trade deal could be done. donald trump saying if no deal is possible, then tariffs would come back. he called himself a tariff man. you have the treasury secretary steven mnuchin say in financial markets are trying to figure out whether or not a deal can be done. michelle fleury in new york. it is shaping up to be one of the biggest pharmaceutical takeovers in history. shareholders of japan's takeda will history. shareholders of japan's ta keda will be history. shareholders of japan's takeda will be voting whether the company can go ahead with the offer to buy the dublin —based technology firm shire. for the latest i enjoined by my colleague mariko oi. how significant is this deal if it materialises? it is massive, rico, the biggest overseas acquisition by a japanese company ever if it is confirmed. the vote will be taking place shortly and, to go ahead, the company needs support from at least two thirds of shareholders. the

company's two thirds of shareholders. the compa ny‘s founding two thirds of shareholders. the company's founding family member is against the deal, so we will see how it goes later today. let me show you how we got here. we need to go back to 201k how we got here. we need to go back to 2014 when shire's takeover by an american company fell through. ever since then, there were rumours that big drugs names have been circling shire. then, in late march this year, takeda said it was considering a possible offer. shire's shares jumped 25% in the news on that day. they have been going back and forth with various offers. in fact, five offers later, in early may, takeda struck a deal to buy shire £446 billion, so that's about $64 billion, so that's about $64 billion, and just last month the eu gave its blessing with conditions. let me show you how the two company shares have been performing since the beginning of the year, especially march, quite typical that the buyer shares were not doing well, while shire shares have been doing very well so far. takeda

shares are down some 1% ahead of the vote, we will continue to monitor what happens. 0k, vote, we will continue to monitor what happens. ok, if it happens, it will change the face of the pharmaceutical industry. thank you so much, mariko 0i. moving onto the energy market and many of the world's biggest oil producers are gathering in vienna, austria tomorrow, as opec and are gathering in vienna, austria tomorrow, as 0pec and non— are gathering in vienna, austria tomorrow, as opec and non— cartel members most notably russia attempt to agree on a deal. crude prices have been on a rollercoaster ride of late in the grips of opposing forces of supply and demand as our middle east business reporter paul blake explained. up explained. up and down, up and down, notjust oil, but in this volatile market oil prices as well. for much of the year prices as well. for much of the year prices were increasing, pumped up largely by a fear that us sanctions on iran would lead to shortages in the market. but in recent weeks prices have plummeted. no single factor is driving prices towards the

ground, but many of the reasons can be traced back to the united states and president donald trump's desire to keep prices low. the first factor pushing prices down was the surprise announcement by the us to allow certain countries waivers to continue buying oilfrom iran despite nearly reimposed sanctions on the islamic republic‘s economy. hello, folks. i could get the iran oil down immediately but it would shock the market. i don't want to lift oil prices. if you've noticed, oil prices are going down very substantially. factor two, fracking in the us. american producers have ove 1120 m e in the us. american producers have overcome shipping constraints, allowing more of their oil to enter the marketplace. as those bottlenecks have cracked, prices have been pushed down. 0urfinal factor, the face off between the us and china over trade. since the dispute kicked off in late spring, fears have mounted that global economic activity would slow, drilling down on demand for oil. but

a meeting this weekend between president trump and chinese president trump and chinese president xijinping at president trump and chinese president xi jinping at the g20 summit in argentina seems to have allayed some of those fears. around the time of an 0pec meeting in abu dhabi last month saudi arabia began pushing exporters to be seen. dhabi last month saudi arabia began pushing exporters to be seenlj would expect at best we would see an agreement on some somewhat vague and wea k agreement on some somewhat vague and weak cuts, saudi arabia will have to ta ke weak cuts, saudi arabia will have to take the burden of that because they have increased production the most in the past couple of months. they will have to cut back again. allies will have to cut back again. allies will help out. other countries are going along for the ride. as opec's share of the market shrinks relative to other producers, many are left wondering if i that will be able to drum up any stability. this week, presidents trump and xi and announced a truce in the trade war, but there is confusion over what they have agreed on. in his latest tweets the us president

threatened major tariffs if the talks failed. china seems confident to push forward with the negotiations. while the nations are locked in a trade war, beijing is trying to rely less on foreign technology. according to some observers it has overtaken the americans in areas such as artificial intelligence. shara njit leyl ca ug ht artificial intelligence. shara njit leyl caught up with one of the most foremost experts on technology in china. i think it's already happening. so we've got to separate the invention of ai, the discovery, the breakthroughs, that the us will be ahead for sometime to come, but in terms of taking the already invented invented ai technologies, china is ahead in terms of the us in terms of internet applications, speech recognition, and the world's most valuable companies in speech recognition, computer vision and

drones are already chinese company. president trump says china is stealing the us and its technologies, so if indeed the us does succeed in somehow shutting china off from its technological prowess , china off from its technological prowess, what will china do? we currently have zero dependency on american technology. so i think president trump is quite mistaken that the us can hold off a i technologies from china. chinese companies already know everything we need to know —— ai technologies. and should there be new inventions in the future to the extent that they continue to be open—source, the whole world will have access to them. so i think the policies will be ineffective as it pertains to internet and ai. let's have a quick look now on the markets, and asia is being knocked down in mid—morning wednesday trade with the nikkei 225 lower buy 1.1%,

and the hang seng hasjust opened for trading, and it and the hang seng hasjust opened fortrading, and it is and the hang seng hasjust opened for trading, and it is lower by a hefty 515 points, this after us stocks were pummelled overnight by worries over slowing us growth and trade conflict and it mounting scepticism —— ai mounting scepticism over the us — china truce. and the s&p 500 in the red overnight. thank you so much for investing your time with us. i'm rico hizon. sport today's coming up next. you're watching bbc news. a reminder of the headlines: theresa may's goverment suffers two significant defeats on her brexit agreement with the eu, just hours into the the first of five days of crucial debate on the deal. two senior us republicans senators say they're now certain the saudi crown prince is guilty of the murder ofjamal khashoggi. the rail operator, govia thameslink, has has been subjected to financial

sanctions after its botched introduction of timetable changes caused widespread disruption in may. the company will keep its franchise but won't make a profit this year and must pay £15 million towards passenger improvements. danny savage reports. seven months after the timetable debacle, things have not improved for many passengers. this northern service from bolton this morning was so crowded people couldn't get on. on a following train, there was dismay. it's already costing me about eight quid a day to get in and out manchester, and then it's going to go up, so that'll be about it. the amount of investment that goes into severn transport, and it shouldn't have to be a comparison, there should be money for everybody. people in the south should be able to have good transport, but we also deserve good transport here as well. over in doncaster, the 657 to leeds left on time, testament perhaps to the power of complaining. vanessa bremner has a pile of letters from her mp and northern rail about delays and cancellations.

it's just been the same as it was back in the summer. we haven't had a single train that's arrived on time since october, and that was only one day. you know, it'sjust still ongoing. for months now, the transport secretary chris grayling has been lampooned in the regional press in the north over rail problems. today he was also criticised by his parliamentary colleagues, and admitted mistakes. clearly, we didn't ask tough enough questions. the reality is that at no point did i get the information that i would have needed to intervene. mps are now recommending discounts for the worst affected season—ticket holders. independent oversight of timetable changes and simplifying compensation. the leader of leeds city council was also asked to investigate the problems over the summer. you're talking about passengers who still are getting to work late, unable to get home to pick their kids up from the childminders. all of these things are still happening, and it's absolutely crucial

that we put passengers at the heart of everything that we do. this was commuter chris ellerby‘s view on his way home last night. they need to understand what people actually go through. the people who are relying on this for their living each day. they need to understand it is causing problems and is causing issues with their work, with their family life at home. now on bbc news, sport today. hello, i'm marc edwards and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: peps city slickers see off the hornets to go five points clear at the top of the english premier league. it's still a no for russia. athletics' governing body demands access to drugs test samples before talk of lifting the ban. aand australia get ready for their first test on home soil — nine months after the ball tampering scandal. hello and thanks for

joining us on sport today. another day another victory for manchester city, they beat watford 2—1 at vicarage road to stretch their lead at the top of the english premier league to five points. goals from leroy sane and riyad mahrez had given the league leaders a comfortable 2—0 lead, but a scrappy abdoulaye doucoure goal with five minutes to go made for a tense finale. in the end though pep guardiola's side holding on for a win that maintains their five—point gap over second placed liverpool. my feeling is after five minutes or ten minutes later the game was really good, so aggressive, some incredible saves, but after that we forget to win the position and our buildup was not quicker than normal and our chances that we had, we missed it, and, like, we didn't score the third goal and they scored, 2—1, so in the last minute everything happened, so in the last minute if they scored 2—2 it would have been a surprise.