in the trump administration. his departure had been anticipated in parts of the us media after president trump decided to withdraw us troops from syria, despite opposition from international allies and members of the us military. one of the uk's busiest airports, london gatwick, is shut down, as the army and police hunt the drone operators who have disrupted hundreds of commercial flights. and this video is trending on bbc.com. it's santa obama. the former us president paid a surprise visit to a children's hospital in washington, with a sack full of presents. he spoke to children and their families and thanked the staff for looking after all of them over the christmas holidays. that's all. stay with bbc world news. and the top story in the uk: there has been a sharp rise in the number of homeless people who have died in england and wales over the past five years. almost 600 died in the last 12 months alone, most in london and north—west england.

now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. drop the charges. beijing officials oppose us accusations that two chinese hackers stole intellectual property for the government. former nissan chairman carlos ghosn could be released from custody as early as today. good morning and welcome to asia business report, live from singapore, with me, mariko oi. china has rejected accusations by the united states and the uk that it is involved in cyber hacking in at least a dozen countries. overnight, the us department ofjustice has indicted two chinese men who are

accused of hacking into the computer networks of companies and government agencies in the us. the pair are allegedly part of a hacking group known as advanced persistent threat can, affiliated with china's main security service. they have been at this for quite sometime. thejustice department came out, had a big press conference and they announced the two defendants engaged in what they described as a ten year effort to acquire and access information from numerous us corporate targets, including the auto and banking is. they also said these hackers targeted the military and us government in a number of countries. thursday's indictments draw direct links between the alleged hackers and the chinese ministry of state security, and they also allege the chinese authorities approved of and directed the campaign. by indicting

them right now, what is the us trying to achieve? well, i think you can look at this as the latest salvo from the united states. the authorities here do not expect to be able to get these guys but what they are trying to do is put pressure on china. americans have come to expect the degree of regular espionage, if we can call it that, but in this particular instance what they are focused on is trying to stop economic espionage. now, the fbi director, christopher ray, in the press c0 nfe re nce director, christopher ray, in the press conference did not mince his words. he used strong language on the hacking charges, saying china's dolph andy goode is to replace the us as the world's leading superpower —— wray. and they are using illegal methods to get there. it is not the first time an administration has been concerned about this. president obama had an agreement with president xi to try and stop this corporate espionage. there were reports that that seemed to be working, but after a few months they saw this escalating again. the

administration now is very much focused on trying to stop this, but ina focused on trying to stop this, but in a bigger ascent it is part of a wider thing. they are worried about china becoming a superpower and they fear they are already too late in their actions. the trump administration's decision to challenge china on cyber attacks comes at a time when the two countries are of course also locked ina countries are of course also locked in a trade war which is arguably the biggest is the story of the year. after going back and forth on tariffs, the outcome is still unclear. there is a new date, though, one march. that is when the 90 day truce that presidents trump and xi agreed on at the 620 ends. our asia trade expert says the relationship between the two biggest economies in the world will remain tense and the months to come. in fa ct, tense and the months to come. in fact, i would argue for the us, what they are hoping for out of the anniversary speeches for more goodies to be handed over. because the negotiations between the two sides are meant to start injanuary and the hope is that china would be

more conciliatory early so that they could really show signs of delivering things, and that didn't happen. so i think this is not likely to result in good things. as you see with the us continuing to mmp you see with the us continuing to ramp up pressure, on huawei, et cetera. as i mentioned, the first of march as the new date. what will happen then? if they don't have a resolution, then on two march, ta riffs resolution, then on two march, tariffs on the united states on $200 billion worth of us goods jumped from 10% to 20% and interestingly the united states trade representative's office, the trade ministry, had an announcement out that they were prepared to do that and that announcement just that they were prepared to do that and that announcementjust got pulled from the us site. so it was up pulled from the us site. so it was up last week and it has mysteriously disappeared. so they are already prepared to do so, obviously, and they had just pulled that announcement. as we told you on newsday, the former boss of nissan and a titan of industry, carlos 6hosn, could be out ofjail as early as today. in a surprise move, a

tokyo court rejected prosecutors' request to extend his detention, and according to japanese media, carlos 6hosn has told the media he has vowed to restore his good name in court. carlos 6hosn was arrested last month and charged with financial misconduct, accused of underreporting his pay package between 2010 and 2015. if convicted he faces up to ten years in jail, but mr 6hosn's defends team say the allegations are invalid because the payment that they are talking about is what is known as deferred income, so is what is known as deferred income, so he would have receded after retirement. mr 6hosn was the linchpin of the global nissan renault and mitsubishi auto alliance, and both nissan and mitsubishi have removed him as chairman, but renault has held off, instead of pointing a temporary executive. we will have the latest developments as they happen on bbc world news. us military bases in okinawa have long been controversial

and a petition to halt construction ofa and a petition to halt construction of a new site has collected over 140,000 signatures in just over ten days, which means the white house is 110w days, which means the white house is now required to guarantee a response. the small island hosts nearly three quarters of the us military bases in japan, nearly three quarters of the us military bases injapan, but those who oppose calls to reduce this burden have often said the island prefecture is dependent on the bases for its economy. our guest is a resident of okinawa who lives in hawaii, and he says it is a commonly held belief that a false argument. the military bases at okinawa take up the military bases at okinawa take up 20% of okinawa's land at 40% of its arable land yet it only makes up 1596 its arable land yet it only makes up 15% of okinawa's economy, so the idea that the bases are an essential pa rt idea that the bases are an essential part of the okinawan economy is not true, the bases actually damage the okinawan economy, and okinawa's ocean resellers is are estimated to

be over y300 trillion. so if we are talking about doing what is best for the economy, we really should not be destroying these ocean resources, including the natural coral reef. you mention the environment and your petition has now collect that over 100,000 signatures, which means that the white house does need to respond, but president trump isn't exactly known to care about the environment, and also, from the american point of view, the us bases in okinawa are very strategically important. so what do you hope to get out of the white house? well, sure, the bases in okinawa have been deemed strategically important from the american point of view in previous administrations, but trump has often talked about reducing the military burden on america, in terms of being overseas, and he has often talked about returning the troops home and having peaceful relations with both china and north korea. so

i believe that president trump is someone i believe that president trump is someone who is not afraid to go against the grain. asian cruises and resources giant 6enting in hong kong says it is still counting on consumers to drive growth. it plans to launch two new megaships to capitalise on the booming cruise market in the region. the chairman told my colleague that us china trade tensions will not impact spending for now. it is not like it has been in the past, where you are talking about 20 to 30% growth, but there is still healthy growth, despite maybe this setback that they may be facing. now, in terms of the casino business, do you think the macau model of entertainment centred around casinos, is the macau model and outdated model? they have to adapt when the market matures. and

in this instance, any slowdown in china is going to impact them more so than let's say the cruise line business. in other business news, nike's quarterly earnings have surpassed estimates, boosted by strength in north america where a new launches lead to higher sales of full priced footwear and apparel online. its shares were up by as much as 7% in the news on wednesday. and let's show the markets in asia, because japan's in uk and australia are sharply lower, about 0.5%, and hong kong is also down as well. worries about a possible us government shut down as well as a slowing global economy are having an impact. also weak inflation data out of japan is having impact. also weak inflation data out ofjapan is having an impact on the nikkei, but also a higher yen after the us dollar weakened after the us rate hike, that is weighing on the japanese market as well. overnight

on wall street, they all fell sharply as well, down 1.5% to 2%, following the rate hike from the fed, and the nasdaq is in better territory, having the —— bear territory, having the —— bear territory, having the —— bear territory, having their worst december in a while. in the dollar fell to a three month low against the yen, having an impact on the nikkei. in commodities, i wanted to mention oil prices falling some 5% on thursday. that's it for this edition of asia business report. thank you so much for watching. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: us defense secretary jim mattis is to quit hisjob after president trump decided to withdraw us troops from syria. one of the uk's busiest airports, london 6atwick, is shut down as the army and police hunt the drone operators who have disrupted hundreds of commercial flights. let's stay with that now, and the problems at 6atwick have had

a severe knock—on effect on other major transport facilities. london's st pancras station, the home of eurostar train services in the uk, has been heavily congested. rail services in the uk and in paris have been badly affected. our correspondentjon donnison has the latest. they'd arrived, but at the wrong airport. this is paris charles de 6aulle, where many 6atwick flights were diverted — much to the surprise of paige 6arcia, flying home for christmas from the states. i was asleep, and i woke up and found out we were in paris. and then, we were just pretty much left sitting there for five hours. i mean, it's not the pilot's fault. the staff didn't know what was going on either. but, i mean, we had no food, no water, they turned the ac off for a while. very upset that anyone would want to do this just to disrupt everyone trying to go away for christmas. i'm just trying to get

home for christmas. paige managed to get on a bus, and then the eurostar to get home. others, though, weren't so lucky. after a 16—hour flight from buenos aires, these passengers had a long wait in paris, but finally got a coach. it's been a pretty long day, very chaotic, no—one there to help us. yeah, and in the airport itself, we were there for nine hours. we were supposed to be taking a ferry now. we don't know our final destination, whether it's 6atwick or anywhere else in london, but hopefully we'll get home before tomorrow. stephanie marinette's christmas plans also went pear—shaped, but she was trying to see the bright side. so we had an interesting journey from toronto pearson airport. we're on our way to visit my sister in london, and we actually have a birthday dinner tonight, so it looks like we'll be spending that in glasgow — my first in scotland. at least now i have the scotland stamp on my passport. that's something, but passengers might be lucky to get much else. the civil aviation authority said it considered this event to be an extraordinary circumstance, and said... and this evening, another long

queue, but this time to get on the eurostar at st pancras. tonight, every eurostar train to paris or brussels has been sold out. eurostar have told us 6atwick passengers have been turning up desperate to get away for the christmas holidays, and tickets for tomorrow and the weekend are selling out fast. jon donnison, bbc news, at st pancras station. and absolutely miserable situation. lots more on our website. now on bbc news, sport today. hello, i'm tulsen tollett, and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: sophia floersch tells the bbc she remembers every bit of her almost 300km an hour crash at the macau grand prix.

ole 6unnar solskjaer has offically taken charge as manchester united's caretaker manager. and marcel hirscher claims world cup win number 63, to extend his lead in the slalom and overall standings. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with that terrifying formula 3 crash last month. driver sophia floersch says she didn't realise just how bad her more than 270km an hour crash was at the macau grand prix until she saw it back. the 18—year—old suffered a fractured spine when her carflew through the air before smashing into a fence. but she told the bbc it didn't feel as scary as it looked. i remember everything from the crash.