a coup in venezuela. he reacted to washington's support for the opposition by breaking all diplomatic links with america. the us says mr maduro is corrupt and illegitimate and called on him to step down peacefully. donald trump says he would consider any ‘reasonable‘ deal drawn up by the republicans and democrats to bring the shutdown to an end. earlier, the senate rejected two new proposals. mr trump is still insisting on funding for his mexican border wall. and this story is trending on bbc.com: the doomsday clock — which suggests how close the world is to catastrophic disaster — remains at two minutes to midnight. the committee that runs it have kept it at the most perilous position on record for more than a year. that's all. stay with bbc news. and the top story in the uk. scotland's former first minister — alex salmond — has appeared in court in edinburgh, charged with attempted rape and sexual assault. he faced fourteen charges in total.

now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report go from renault. the french carmaker turns a new page as its long—term leader quits. knissan welcomes the move. “— leader quits. knissan welcomes the move. —— nissan. sanctions threatened for the oil—rich nation of venezuelan. nissan and renault have pledged to continue their reliance is architect, carlos ghosn

resigns from the french carmaker. he has now been ousted from all three major carmakers who once headed. the resignation comes as he remains in a japanese prison over allegations of financial misconduct at nissan. translation: in the big picture this isa translation: in the big picture this is a big milestone we are reaching. we are starting a new chapter so i welcome the new leadership of renault. i would have to propose a governance for the group renault. i will listen a loss. i will discuss and thenl will listen a loss. i will discuss and then i will propose. of course, the second major priority is to ensure that the link mixed —— link between nissan, renault and mitsubishi remains

strong and will go forward positively in the future. our reporter in london has details of how nissan and renault plan to move forward after the exit of the once powerful leader. carlos ghosn was one of the most powerful executives in the car industry. the downfall has been rapid. he was already dismissed as the chairman of nissan and mitsubishi, now he has been dismissed from renault was well. is languishing injail waiting dismissed from renault was well. is languishing in jail waiting for trial and could be in custody for months. renault have decided they will no longer go for the sort of super chief executive body by mr ghosn. the new chief executive is a renault insider, the former chief operating officer and the chief executive on an interim basis in recent months. he will be joined by a pillar of the french business

establishment who has worked at other major companies and is currently the chief executive at michelin. is perfect, particularly as far as the french government is concerned. he will have a job on his hand because it will also take charge of the alliance, the global car charge of the alliance, the global u charge of the alliance, the global cargroup in that charge of the alliance, the global car group in that includes renault, nissan and within that, feathers have been ruffled and it is a there. he will need to bring the companies together. they have strong links between them. three car companies that effectively act as one. he will need to make sure that at a management level it can operate smoothly. it will not be easy. the us national security adviser has said that trump administration is trying to block access to cash for the venezuelan president. the venezuelan president was angry after

washington recognised the opposition leader as president. russia, washington recognised the opposition leaderas president. russia, on washington recognised the opposition leader as president. russia, on the other hand has condemned foreign powers. it has been a day where all sides are trying to get more allegiances and mr maduro did get strong support not just allegiances and mr maduro did get strong support notjust from russia, as you mentioned, but also from china. also with the same line that there should be no international meddling with venezuelan affairs. turkey, china and russia still have ties with maduro and he got a pledge of allegiance with those countries. he also got a signal from the head of the army in venezuela that the army stands with maduro as well. analyst say that this is the crucial pa rt analyst say that this is the crucial part because they do not believe the opposition can overthrow maduro, the army is more likely to be a key player in all of this. the united states is still pushing for more sanctions and more anxious and they

called a meeting of the security council to be held on saturday to discuss these matters with the international community. presumably there may be a little more clarity. tell us about the state of the economy of this royal which nation. we note that sanctions are in place and so this will add two more uncertainty for the people living there, won't it? the people of venezuela have grown accustomed to all these serious economic troubles. a shortage of food and medicine, 3 million people have left the country due to the crisis. hyperinflation has made the currency virtually worthless. so the venezuelan economy and the people there are used to this scenario. what happens now is how will politics affect the future of venezuelan? the country trying to get support from abroad. it is trying to implement a crypto

currency scheme to avoid a total ba n kru ptcy currency scheme to avoid a total ba nkru ptcy of currency scheme to avoid a total bankruptcy of the country. there are still many questions to see how the political crisis will affect the economy which is already in a bad state. weakening global growth and donald trump's trade row with china have dominated the world economic forum ‘s annual gathering in davos. the chief executive of micron has warned about the ongoing trade tensions. china is an important partner to us in terms of our technology, in terms of our products and customers. of course we absolutely do respect that there should be a level playing field. and there should be free trade between the countries. there should be respect for intellectual property. is our important. we certainly hope that trade tensions between the us and china do get resolved because these are large

global economies and the consumers of electronic goods including the products that we make. let's talk now about this woman. this is japan's naomi ozark who has reached the australian open final for the first time. you may remember her from her shock win at the us open. that victory received a lot of media attention for the way ms williams reacted. once again, much of the coverage around ms osaka has been away from the tennis court. this time, japanese noodle company nissin has been accused of whitewashing the character in a mungo drawing. i asked how much controversy this has caused. do you mean internationally or domestically? internationally it

is extremely controversial and has been reported by a lot of major media extensively. people are shocked. it is an animation of her and the actual woman, the is com pletely and the actual woman, the is completely different and as you well know, people in the west and are extremely sensitive to these portray all. domestically, it is not much of all. domestically, it is not much of a controversy at all. or of a scandal. the two biggest newspapers in the country have reported it was about a half inch column, simply reporting the fact that the ad was pulled. it is no longer being used because of, you know, concerns about the depiction. so you say within japan. really, very little has changed in japanese japan. really, very little has changed injapanese attitudes towards diversity. could this damage nissin isa towards diversity. could this damage nissin is a brand? are people looking at all to boycott its noodles? it is possible that it could damage nissin of the brand although that has not happened yet.

their raf youth curious aspects of the case that make nissin looked worse and worse. originally they said that this was the design that we received from the manga artist. that artist creates a series of mungo —— at fremantle prince of tennis that has many characters including black characters who are portrayed as black. in this case, naomi came out is quite white looking. but the artist has distanced himself via twitter saying that was not his original design. nissin also said in the beginning that they had the approval of osaka for the depiction and she has announced that and said they should have consulted with me. clearly they did not have her approval. and in other news, huawei says it is on track to become the biggest selling smartphone maker in the world, even without the us market. its sales

exceeded $52 billion in 2018, that is 50% up on the year prior. having a quick look now at the markets because we can season gained here in the market. despite wall street ‘s flat close, the japanese market is making gains, propelled by how well technology stocks are doing. the all ordinaries in australia are boosted by mining stocks with iron ore prices rising and that is it for this edition of asia business report. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour. venezuela's president nicolas maduro has accused the us of trying to stage a coup in his country. donald trump says he would consider any ‘reasonable' deal drawn up by the republicans and democrats to bring the shutdown to an end. the mother ofjames bulger —

the toddler who was murdered by two 10—year—olds in liverpool in 1993 — says she is disgusted by a new oscar—nominated film about the boys who killed her son. she wants its director to withdraw from the oscars after the film ‘detainment‘ was nominated for best live action short film. colin paterson reports. do you know why we want to talk to you, jon? detainment is a 30—minute drama about the murder of the two—year—old james bulger in liverpool in 1993. it uses the actual transcripts of the police interviews with the two boys who killed him — ten—year—olds robert thompson and jon venables. this week, it was nominated for an oscar. the film's irish director believes it's an important work. the public opinion at the moment now is that those two boys were simply evil and anybody who says anything different, or gives an alternate reason as to why they did it, or tries to understand why they did it, they get criticised for it. i think we've got a responsibility

to try and make sense of what happened. why didn't you tell the bulger family you are making the film? i mean, it's something that we did think long and hard about, and i wanted to meet with them to try to explain, you know, why we made it... this is afterwards? afterwards, yeah, and also why we didn't get in touch. this was long after it was at screenings and film festivals? yeah, yeah... was that a mistake? so, i do regret not telling them about it sooner. more than 130,000 people have signed a petition calling for the film to be withdrawn from the oscars. james bulger‘s mother, denise, says the nomination has left her family distraught. seeing the images of actors playing, especially james, it's just... it's horrendous. ijust can't get that image out of my head again of him being led away.

i think it shouldn't get the oscar. and if he feels that strong about hurting the family, then i think he should pull it himself. the director says that won't be happening. i wouldn't withdraw it from the oscars. it's like saying, you know, should we burn every copy of it, you know? i think it would defeat the purpose of making the film. and whose idea was it to take him? the controversy has now even started to make headlines in hollywood, where in exactly a month's time it could be named an oscar winner. colin paterson, bbc news, dublin. we have a lot more on all of our stories on our website and you can get in touch with me and the team via social media. now on bbc news, sport today. hello, i'm will perry, and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre.

coming up on the programme: the comeback queen petra kivitova storms into the australian open final — she'll face naomi osaka on saturday. rafa nadal‘s into the men's final as he closes in on an open era record. vietnam's fairytale run in the asian cup comes to an end as they fall to four—time champions japan. monaco sack manager thiery henry afterjust 20 games in charge, with his predessesor set to replace him. and it's a dramatic second day in barbados. we'll have the latest from opening test between the west indies and england. hello, and welcome to the programme. we start in melbourne, where petra kvitova and naomi osaka will play for the australian open title this weekend after both won their semifinals on thursday in scorching conditions. the czech was the first to reach the final, beating danielle collins.