welcome to bbc news. i'm kasia madera. our top story: france is breathing a collective sigh of relief that notre—dame has largely survived a fire which officials believe was within minutes of totally destroying the cathedral. president macron has promised to rebuild it within five years. in a televised address, mr macron said he shared the pain and hope of the nation after the devastating fire. and he praised the firefighters who had risked their own lives to battle the blaze indonesians have begun voting in what's being called the world's most complicated election — simultaneous votes for the presidency, parliament, and local officials are taking place. and this story is trending on bbc.com. a dog found swimming more than a hundred miles off the coast of thailand has been brought back to dry land. his rescuers have named him boonrod, a thai word that roughly translates as ‘the saved one‘ or ‘survivor‘.

and the top story in the uk: nearly 300 climate change activists have been arrested after roads were blocked in central london for a second day. eye will be back shortly. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. presidential rematch. the economy tops the agenda as and indonesians had to dipol. china releases its latest growth numbers. good morning, asia, hello, world. it is a wednesday, glad you could join us for asia business report. i am rico hizon. we start off with indonesia, because nearly 200 million people

are voting today, wednesday. and it is one of the world's biggest and most complex electoral exercises. and will pit incumbentjoco widodo against prabowo subianto. we go to the capital —— joko widodo. in a polling place is karishma vaswani. how key is the economy when voters cast their votes today? well, rico, the economy is top of their minds for many indonesians as they had to polling booths across this vast archipelago to cast their votes today. you can see the administration of the election and the voting irregularities are now beginning here at the polling booth that i am that. the polls actually opened about half—an—hour ago in this part of indonesia, a bit

earlier, a few hours ago, in eastern indonesia. the administration is continuing. residents are waiting on this polling booth to cast their votes. there are some 800,000 polling booths spread out across indonesia for this election. that is twice the number we had in 2014, rico, a sign from the election commission here that they want to try to make the process of voting is efficient and trouble—free for citizens in indonesia as possible. there have already been concerns raised in overseas voting, at least, last week, that took place last week, of some irregularities. including thousands of ballots in malaysia that have drawn complaints from the opposition. so something to look out for as this election rules on today. and as we get some quick count results laid on towards the end of the day. indeed, a very complex litigant exercise. 193 million voters tripping to the polls. the economic agenda, very important in this election. what are

both candidates offering to the people to improve their welfare? well, you know, rico, indonesia's economy typically has growing at 5%. whenjoko widodo economy typically has growing at 5%. when joko widodo came economy typically has growing at 5%. whenjoko widodo came to power in 2014 he promised a 7% growth rate. that didn't happen. he did not deliver on that. he is trying to boost infrastructure spending here and has promised that in his second term, if elected, that will be a key focus of the economy. but the opposition, mr prabowo subianto, has said he would try to reduce taxes as well as corporate taxes and income taxes, but there has also been the spectre of chinese investment. prabowo subianto says he will review that if he is a lack did. attracted promises from both candidates. —— elected. thank you very much,

karishma vaswani. moving to china. inafew karishma vaswani. moving to china. in a few hours will be finding out how economy is faring when it unveils its growth numbers for the first quarter of the year. here is a little bit of size and scope. china's $13 trillion economy is the second largest in the world. but the days of double—digit percentage expansion are gone. policymakers have lowered the growth target to six or 6.5%. the slowest growth in decades. the ongoing trade war with the united states isn't helping. another reason is dead. while corporate borrowing to gdp has stabilised, household debt is rising, as you can see in this graph. earlier i asked economist iris upon what she expected from this latest data. a speccy gdp growth of china will be 6—.2%. although it is lower than the fourth

quarter, 6—.4%. it is still above the lower band of the government target. 0k. we'll china's recent still meet —— stimulus jumpstart the economy? there are lots of rebound factors in china already. example, the fiscal stimulus is pushing up infrastructure investment, so we see that in march the investments already have some increase, especially in mining and transportation. we are already seeing that in the march numbers. seeing a turnaround, but will this be sustained in this month of april? yes, i'd expect that the fiscal stimulus, the size is about 400 trillion in 2019, half is in cuts

and the other is an investment. this isa and the other is an investment. this is a massive size of infrastructure investment. to a loss for the whole of 2019. for the whole of 2019, but there will still be a lot of red flags to come up ——it will last. what could derail this economic growth? first of all, it is trade talk. of growth? first of all, it is trade talk. of course there is a lot of good news coming from the media that the trade talks are in progress. they see that there is a change of situation, it now seems that china has the upper hand. so the trade drafted deal should be more in the benefit of china. but when it is in execution, i'm quite worried that whether the china and the us will have arguments at all. iris pang there. let us look at the massive corporate divorce. tech giant apple

has decided to settle. for years apple accused them of overcharging and they said apple was avoiding to pay fees. as part of the arrangement the company said they would drop all ongoing litigation between them and around the world. with this comedy shows are surging by 20% on wall street. dave lee has more from san francisco. several multi- billion—dollar legal battles that spanned three continents have been brought to a sudden halt. what looked like becoming an incredibly messy corporate divorce has been peacefully resolved for one principal reason, these companies really need each other. qualcomm simply must retain its relationship with the world's most valuable smartphone maker. and apple who wa nts to smartphone maker. and apple who wants to hold onto that price position needs to make sure it has the best components for the job. analysts said not using qualcomm would hinder apple's ability to create a market leading 5g smartphone. so the big loser of the

day might be intel. with the apple qualcomm row in full swing, apple has started using intel components instead. qualcomm back on good terms, it is intel that could see a hit. we don't yet know any detail about the details of the apple — qualcomm settlement. we may know more next time they are the quarterly earnings in around three weeks. dave lee in silicon valley. how do you feel about a robot which can tidy up a child's bedroom? is not easy because the mess is different all the time. but a japanese company that developed the robot hopes that the software can bring robotics to other areas of industry and everyday life.

they are really state—of—the—art technologies. we have succeeded in recognising hundreds of different object in real time.

i would definitely want one of those robots in my home. let us have a quick look at the markets. asia pacific equities have open for trade. and they are edging higher. the nikkei up by 69 points. the all 0rdinaries basics. the us stocks gained due to a string of unexpected did better than expected earnings reports. bringing the stock indices closer to fresh all—time record levels. with that we end this addition of asia business report. thank you for investing your time with us. i'm rico hizon. sport today is next. just before that will bring you up—to—date with our main stories.

as the french government reveals notre dame was just 30 minutes away from being completely destroyed by fire, president macron promises to rebuild the cathedral within five years. almost 200 million indonesians are heading to the polls, in what's being called the world's most complicated election. labour says it would scrap national primary school tests in england. the tests, called sats, are taken by children at the end of primary school and are forgrammar, reading, and maths. bra nwen jeffreys reports. a useful check on your child's progress or a source of stress and tears? for 20 years, tests have been part of primary school. labour brought them in and now wants to scrap them. sats and the regime of extreme pressure testing are giving young children nightmares and leaving them in floods of tears. so, he said, the current tests would go. the next labour government will scrap primary school sats for seven and 11 years old.

cheering and applause. teachers here are pleased. they've long argued that tests put too much pressure into the school system. but labour says it wouldn't get rid of assessment completely, there still needs to be some way of measuring how children are doing through primary school. so over the next few months, they're going to be consulting with school governors, teachers and parents. so why do primary school teachers dislike tests? theyjust don't give a true reflection of a child's overall ability at that one snapshot in time. i think, in their current form, they need to go. i completely agree, they need to go. with schools on holiday, more time for play. i asked parents in liverpool about primary tests. it was very stressful. the kids in their class were emotional, because the teachers were putting pressure on them, and there's no real benefit. i think it's important

that there is some standard testing in primary school. my son, who's 11, did his last year, and he was really stressed over it. but ministers say tests drive up standards. if they abolish sats, parents will have no way of knowing how well their children's school is teaching reading, writing and maths, and these are the building blocks of a successful education for every child. a new test is due to be added in england. called baseline, it would be as children start school. similar tests in scotland have been deeply controversial and are now under review. branwen jeffreys, bbc news, liverpool. that is it from me. now it is time for all the sports news in sport today. bye—bye. what will

this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. centre. coming up on this programme. ajax are through to the last four of the champions league after the dutch side beat juventus in turin to claim a 3—2 aggregate victory. lionel messi scores twice as barcelona also make it through to the semi finals with a 4—0 aggregate win over manchester united and novak djokovic is through to the third round of the monte carlo masters, but not without difficulty. hello and welcome to the programme where we start with the news that ajax have knocked juventus out of the champions league at the quarter final stage. despite cristiano ronaldo handing the italians the advantage, two goals from the dutch side saw them through, while barcelona are also in the last four after easing past manchester united. a short time ago i spoke to our football reporter