this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. a change of direction for apple — the tech giant is set to enter this is the briefing, the streaming market, i'm sally bundock. but is it too late to the party? and with brexit talks our top story: still up in the air, president trump claims victory we'll be taking a look after the mueller report says at the uk government's there's no evidence his campaign all—importa nt contingency plans. colluded with russia over the 2016 us election. and on the markets: suspicion of voting irregularities in thailand's election as preliminary results show a pro—army party taking a shock lead. day of heavy declines, especially in tokyo. japan experiencing probably its worst day of 2019. they fully back theresa may, but for how long? two senior conservatives play down talk of a coup ahead of another crucial week. it's showtime for apple — the tech giant is set to announce its new tv subscription service later today, but will it be enough to take top spot from netflix?

we will be live to california for the very latest on apple. a warm welcome to the programme, briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business and sport. also in the programme: apple's spent billions signing up stars such as oprah winfrey for its expected tv offering, so we'd like to know if you are excited, will you subscribe or do you think apple is too late to the party? tell us what you think, just use #bbcthebriefing.

a long—awaited report by the us special counsel, robert mueller, has cleared donald trump of colluding with russia in the 2016 election. but the mueller report draws no conclusion as to whether or not mr trump illegally obstructed justice. the president says the findings are a complete and total exoneration. our washington correspondent chris buckler reports. for almost two years, robert mueller scrutinised the actions of donald trump and his campaign to become president. the special counsel was asked to investigate whether russia interfered in the 2016 election, and whether they conspired with the trump campaign. while mr mueller says the russian government did try to influence the vote, he says he has found no evidence of collusion. there was no collusion with russia. there was no obstruction,

and none whatsoever. and it was a complete and total exoneration. robert mueller‘s investigation did lead to charges being brought against some of mr trump's inner circle, including his former however, those prosecutions weren't connected to the key issue of whether there was collusion with russia, and after months of speculation and allegations here in washington, what the special counsel has found is very good news for this president and this white house. but mr mueller has left one question unanswered, and that is whether the president tried to obstructjustice. mr mueller wrote... president trump is wrong. this report does not amount to a so—called "total exoneration." special counsel mueller was clear that his report, quote, "does not exonerate",

close—quote, the president. however, for now, president trump is celebrating. he returned to the nation's capital with relief, rather than rage. america is the greatest place on earth — the greatest place on earth, thank you. and he may have seen off one of the greatest threats to his presidency. there is much more to discuss about that story, we will revisit it later in the programme. a pro—military political party in thailand has performed better than predicted in the country's first election since the army took power five years ago. the palang pracharat party won about half a million more votes than the main opposition party. official results, which were postponed from sunday, are due out in the coming hours.

the bbc‘s nick beake is at the election commission in bangkok for us. when you think we might hear about the results, and who will be the winner? last night, the results were curtailed and we won't give an explanation as to why. the electoral commission said that is all for the night, and send everyone home. in truth, we have more than 90% of the votes declared and it gives this really remarkable picture, because the party which is aligned to the military, certainly a progenitor party, was expected to finish in third place in these elections. ——in favour of the junta. i think this

was very much unexpected, and has raised questions about the ability to predict the poles. has raised questions about the validity of the election and how it has been followed through? well, there are people here who have woken up this morning asking themselves what has happened here. we were told the official turnout was around 65%, which is 10% lower than the last time thai people were able to vote inafull time thai people were able to vote in a full election. this is seen as a very significant moment, people able to come to the ballot box and have their say on whether they want

a paramilitary junta dictating have their say on whether they want a paramilitaryjunta dictating their future so, it doesn't make sense that the numbers would have dropped. people are asking if there has been something dodgy. it is hard to pick up something dodgy. it is hard to pick up specific allegations but i'm sure this will be put to the powers that be later, who oversee the elections, people will want to know exactly what has happened, i think there is confusion and a sense of unease. british prime minister theresa may is expected to chair a special meeting of her cabinet today. it comes after intense speculation over the weekend that ministers are plotting to remove her. two of those rumoured to be a potential caretaker replacement, michael gove and david lidington, have insisted they back the prime minister.

richard griffiths is corporate communications director at the global pr firm ketchum. we'll be looking at the international media headlines a little later, but for now let's focus on brexit. so, they have both said, david lidington and michael gove, when questioned by various people as they come and go, that they are behind theresa may, but there is a lot going on right now and it is a very important week ahead. the 25th of march today and the clock is ticking. yes, important weeks ahead, but this really is the key week and there is a lot going on. let's get specific for a moment. this morning, mps are set to decide whether to ta ke mps are set to decide whether to take control of the parliamentary agenda, allowing them to vote really

on various ways forward, such as a soft brexit, a second referendum, and then who knows? maybe theresa may will bring back her withdrawal agreement for a third time to vote on it. there are a lot of permutations, a lot of options, and it is unclear at this point exactly where we will be in one week's time. there is a lot of uncertainty, which is not good for anyone, and the backdrop of courses that we have had a turbulent weekend, with 1 backdrop of courses that we have had a turbulent weekend, with1 million people taking to the streets of london in a march on saturday, with many of those people wanting to either revoke article 50 in its entirety or have a second referendum. the online petition to revoke article 50 has now reached 5 million. this is notjust a british issue, the whole world is watching, and it is interesting to see how it is going to play out. most of the press is going with this line that

there is a call for theresa may to 90, there is a call for theresa may to go, but the issue is, if there was some kind of caretaker leadership, the cabinet and the conservative party would come together to see a new deal or withdrawal agreement. that's right, this morning, the sun, which many people around the world are familiar with is one of the most influential tabloids in britain, they are calling for theresa may to go. there will be a lot more heat this week with regards to those calls, let's see what happens. she has been stoic, standing there for the moment, but we shall see. richard will be back, because we are going to look back at what the media is saying today about that story and others. let's brief you on some of the other stories making the news. the prime minister of new zealand, jacinda ardern, has ordered an independentjudicial inquiry into the christchurch mosque attacks, in which 50 people were killed.

she said it was important that no stone be left unturned to find out how the attack took place on march 15th, and what could have been done to prevent it. mali's president, ibrahim boubacar keita, has replaced senior army officials following the killing on saturday of more than 130 fulani villagers. the military has long been criticised for failing to protect villages from attacks by rival ethnic militias and jihadists. boeing says it has invited more than 200 airline pilots, technical experts and regulators to its factory as part of efforts to restore the grounded 737 max to commercial service. boeing said the session would give information about software and training updates for the aircraft, which has been involved in two fatal crashes since october. the prince of wales and duchess of cornwall have made history by becoming the first members of the royal family to visit

cuba in an official capacity. the royal couple attended a wreath—laying ceremony for cuba's national hero, the poet jose marti and are due to join the country's president for an official dinner. 0ur royal correspondent nicholas witchell reports. welcome to cuba, the guard of honour of the revolutionary armed forces of one of the world's last remaining single party communist states, with a greeting for the representative of perhaps the world's best—known representative monarchy, prince charles of the united kingdom. no member of the british royalfamily has ever been to cuba before to stand alongside portraits of revolutionaries like che guevara, peeking through on the left ear. but charles and his wife are in havana asa sign charles and his wife are in havana as a sign of britain's readiness to engage with cuba, and at this

memorialfor engage with cuba, and at this memorial for one engage with cuba, and at this memorialfor one of engage with cuba, and at this memorial for one of cuba's heroes from its revolutionary war, a wreath was placed and respect duly shown. it is the kind of things the royals can do — send a signal without getting enmeshed with things like cuba possible human rights record. it does something else too, sends a message to cuba's powerful northern neighbour. this does is underline the contrast between britain's approach to cuba and the us. the message from london, conveyed by this visit by the heir to the british throne is a more emollient one. it is an encouragement to cuba to move on down the road to economic and political reform. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: hopes for the return of a missing masterpiece looted by the nazis

75 years ago. let there be no more war or bloodshed between arabs and israelis. very good. applause so proud of both of you. with great regret, the committee have decided that south africa should be excluded from the 1970 competition.

streaking across the sky, the white—hot wreckage from mir drew gasps from onlookers on fiji. onlooker: wow! you're watching the briefing. 0ur headlines: the investigation into alleged links between donald trump's election campaign and russia has cleared the president and his team of colluding with moscow. lets stay with that now. steve fish is a politics professor at the university of california, berkeley. thank you for being on the programme. give us your reaction to what we know so far about the outcome of the molar investigation? we don't know much about it ——

mueller investigation. we don't know much about it, we only have about 65 words in attorney general barr's statement. as a four page singlespaced statement, barr was hired by president trump to put the best spin on this thing and we don't have the mueller report yet, we only have the mueller report yet, we only have barr's take on parts of the report. we don't have any evidence yet that it clears trump of collision with russia, it already knows that russia was encouraged to intervene on his behalf, he encouraged the —— he encouraged the russian government to hack into hillary clinton's e—mails, they did that and released the e—mails, russia released a lot of trolls and bots on social media as well, and after the campaign trump has denied these things even happened. it is already conclusion. this report focused very narrowly on several technical aspects of whether trump was aware of what was going on,

whether there was a criminal conspiracy with russia, but nobody ever really thought that trumps at down and gave putin the codes to the computers of the democratic national committee. this does not... all we have so far is a few words from the attorney general, but now we need to see the report. but those few words would argue is good news for trump, surely the president, he has been very quick to say "i am exonerated, i told you along, this is a witch—hunt". i told you along, this is a witch-hunt". the president also said he was fully accelerate —— exonerated of obstruction of justice. but the part that attorney general barr accepted from the mueller report says he is not examination. mr mueller did not exonerate him, nor did he... you don't indict a sitting president. trump was claiming exoneration but

thatis trump was claiming exoneration but that is not what we have seen so far. we need to see the report itself. i have been told we don't have any more time, i am sorry, thank you forjoining us live on the briefing. so much more detail on that story on our website, and we will look at how the global media is interpreting that. the italian government is trying to secure the return of an 18th century painting, looted from florence during the second world war. after 75 years, this work of art may finally be heading back to florence. 0ur correspondent james reynolds reports. something is missing from the uffizi galleries in florence. but it takes a while to work out what it is. the original of this, the simply titled "vase of flowers" by the 18th century dutch painterjan van huysum was looted in world war ii.

in its place, the museum has now hung a black—and—white copy. you can see the detail pretty clearly in this black—and—white copy, but it's obviously no substitute for the real thing. the original is thought to be in germany. putting up the copy of the painting in the gallery was intended as a moral appeal to the owners, but also to the country in which the owners lived to help in this situation, to help bring back this painting to where it belongs. nazi germany engaged in mass looting. after its defeat, special us units brought back as many stolen works as they could recover. but van huysum's vase of flowers and several other paintings eluded them. so who took it? it has been widely suggested that a nazi soldier stole the painting as a souvenir

for his family, which still has it. if you were the current possessor of the picture, would you be feeling the heat right now? i wouldn't like this attention. a painting like the van huysum in my opinion is on the one hand, from a cultural standpoint, priceless, and from a commercial standpoint, worthless. because there is not a legitimate auction house in the world that would take that painting an attempt to sell it. the german government has now admitted in parliament that the painting belongs to italy. a lawyer representing the german holders has told the italian media that the work was obtained "in good faith," and that its fate should be decided by an arbitrator. but italy refuses to pay to recover a work it already owns.

this country has plenty of practice at getting its stolen goods back. this warehouse, full of recovered artworks is regularly restocked by the police art squad. it expects the van huysum to be sent home. translation: diplomatic efforts are going very well. we can't really discuss it openly but we are hopeful that things are moving in a positive direction. and we hope to have good news very soon. september will mark the 75th anniversary of the theft of this work. by by then, the museum hopes that the painting will finally be back in florence. james reynolds in florence with that report. now it's time to get all the latest from the bbc sports centre. hello there. with your monday sport briefing, i'm andrew lindsay. there were ten european championship qualifiers on sunday. all the results on the bbc sport website.

the pick of the games was in amsterdam, where the netherlands played germany — and some game it proved to be. germany were 2—0 up by half—time — goals from leroy sane after only 15 minutes, and then serge gnabry with his fifth goal in six internationals. a lovely curling finish, that one. the dutch replied after the break — they were on level terms just after the hour mark. memphis depay got the equaliser — his third goal in the last two games. but, in the 90th minute, nico schultz scored the goal that won it for germany. 3—2 the final score. the top seed novak djokovic is through to the fourth round of the miami masters after beating argentina's federico delbonis in straight sets. and the defending champion john isner was also among the winners on sunday. the number seven seed beat spain's albert ramos vinolas in straight sets. isner won 7—6, 7—5 to reach the last 16, where he'll face the number 19 seed from great britain, kyle edmund.

england's paul casey won the valspar championship in florida to retain the title he claimed last year. it's the first time that he's sucessfully defended a title in his professional career — and he's the first back—to—back winner in the tournament's history. casey shot a 1—over—par 72 in sunday's final round to finish on 8—under—par for the championship. he won by one shot from jason kokrak and louis 0osthuizen. you have to feel for the phoenix suns. the second—worst team in the nba face a monday night fixture with utahjazz, just two days after "yet another bruising defeat". with utahjazz, just two days after yet another bruising defeat. to say things haven't gone their way this season is an understatement. their 112—103 loss to sacramento on saturday was their 57th. utah, by contrast, can still make the playoffs. midfielder eric dier will miss england's euro 2020 qualifier

in montenegro later — he was injured in friday's win over the czech republic. manager gareth southgate was impressed with his side's 5—0 scoreline and wants his team to build on the momemtum. we have hit a consistent level, we are the only team to backup semi—final last summer with a semi—final last summer with a semi—final in the nation ‘s leg, and there were some big teams that did that, we were in a group that was as tough or tougher than any really. and that has got to be a motivation right through, we are still a young group, there is still loads of opportunity to improve, and we have got to be hungry for that. everything i've seen from all of them this week has shown me that they are ready to do that, ready to embrace that challenge. finally you might have seen thejuventus women's team celebrating on social media — not without reason either.

39,000 saw them beat fiorentina, with a late goal from sofie junge pedersen. free entry into the allianz — the first time juve's women have played in the men's home stadium. that's an italian record; last week, more than 60,000 saw barcelona women beat atletico in madrid. all the latest on our website — that's bbc.com/sport. but from me, andrew lindsay, and all the team, bye for now. let's quickly talk you through some of the responses to our question earlier about apple. we will be live to apple's headquarters shortly to talk about what is expected to be announced today, but it was to announced today, but it was to announce a subscription tv offering, would you get on board? would you be excited? thomas says "apple should stick to producing hardware, the company's huge stick to producing hardware, the compa ny‘s huge success stick to producing hardware, the company's huge success did not come from reinventing the wheel." someone

else as" my prediction is it will be 90% more expensive, require a new device every few years and won't interface with non— apple systems. " see you in a moment. hello there. mixed fortunes of weather on sunday. northern areas windy with increasing showers, some of them heavy, very blustery. but further south we saw unbroken sunshine. the reason for the windy showery weather was this area of low pressure which skirting across scotland, or to the north of scotland, now pushing off into the near continent, allowing this big area of high to topple in across the uk, off the atlantic, so that will bring largely clear skies. early this morning, quite chilly, too. a touch of frost out of town, across many central and northern areas. so really it will be quite a chilly start to the day today but dry with lots of sunshine around, particularly across england and wales. but we'll have plenty of sunshine and across the board through the morning but then skies will tend to turn cloudier across northern ireland and scotland and that's because we'll have a weak weather front moving in off the atlantic introducing some light and patchy rain or drizzle.

but also some milder air — 10—11 degrees as compared to what we had through sunday, only mid single figures. for england and wales a lovely afternoon, same for the channel islands, widespread sunshine and feeling very mild after the chilly start. so that's how monday is looking. as we continue through the new working week, we will see this area of high pressure dominate the scene. it will still remain slap bang on top of the uk, drawing some very dry air off the near continent. so we should see quite a bit of sunshine around and not too much in the way of cloud. so it will be largely dry, very mild by day. plenty of sunshine. but at night, under clear skies and light winds, it is likely to turn quite chilly with a touch of mist and fog. tuesday starts off quite chilly, once again, but there'll be plenty of sunshine through the day. perhaps a bit of fairweather cloud jus tdevelping in places into the afternoon. perhaps a bit of fairweather cloud just developing in places into the afternoon. we could see thicker cloud again across the far north of scotland with outbreaks of light and patchy rain. 13 degrees in aberdeen. 12 for belfast.

1a degrees there for london. on wednesday, we do it all again. again a chilly start, a bit of mist and fog around, but then plenty of sunshine through the day. always a little bit more in the way of cloud cross the north—west corner of the uk. more of a breeze here. but most places staying dry. and temperatures responding even further. 1a degrees in aberdeen. 15 degrees or so across central, southern and eastern england. we end the week, it looks like it will turn even milder across the south and the east. potentially 17, 18 maybe 19 celsius. like i mentioned, nights will continue to be chilly 00:28:31,380 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 with a touch of mist and fog.