our top story: a landmark trial related to the opioid crisis opens in the us. the state of oklahoma is suing the pharmaceutical companyjohnson & johnson, alleging it carried out deceptive marketing campaigns for painkillers. it denies any wrongdoing. malaysian authorities are warning the country isn't a dumping ground. they have ordered thousands of tons of imported plastic waste to be retrurned to the countries of origin. —— returned to the countries of origin. and this video is trending on bbc.com. there's expensive coffee, and then there's this. klatch coffee in san francisco is offering its finest blend for $75 a cup. the beans come from panama and sell for more than $1,600 a kilo. that's all. stay with bbc world news.

and the top story in the uk: the conservative politician james cleverly has officially entered the race to become party leader and british prime minister. he is the 11th candidate to confirm they are running. china digs in. how basing's global dominance of the rare earths market could impact the trade war. groundbreaking technology. we look at the new tools which could revolutionise the construction industry. good morning, asia. hello, world. it's wednesday, glad you could join us for another action packed mid week edition of asia business report, i'm rico hizon.

let's start off with the business report, i'm rico hizon. let‘s start off with the us— business report, i'm rico hizon. let's start off with the us— china trade war, with asian stocks falling in early trade, the nikkei and the all ordinaries in early trade, the nikkei and the allordinaries in in early trade, the nikkei and the all ordinaries in the red following a slide in us stocks on increased concerns about the fate of trade negotiations between washington and beijing. china has signalled that it could use its dominance in rare earths in the ongoing dispute. the chinese official has said that the country will give priority to domestic demand for the minerals. samira hussin has the details from new york. us president donald trump has made the trade deficit a big pa rt has made the trade deficit a big part of what he wants to see changed in the relationship between the two countries, but the imports of rare earths are only really a small part of america's trade deficit with beijing. so why is this move being seen as beijing. so why is this move being seen as so beijing. so why is this move being seen as so significant? well, these rare minerals are a critical component in making things like iphones, electric vehicles and advanced precision weapons. and this is being seen as a veiled threat against the us and its technology companies. china is upping the anti

in the trade war with the united states by saying it would make supplying domestic chinese companies with these minerals before fulfilling demands by other countries —— ante. technology is increasingly being seen as another industry in which the two countries are waging the trade battle. in 2018, china produced about 78% of rare earths. it owns about 40% of global resources. and staying with the ongoing trade war, the us has declined to identify any of its major trading partners as currency manipulators. however, it did find that nine countries including china require close attention as washington presses tariffs and negotiations to address trade deficits. president trump has repeatedly accused beijing of manipulating its currency. as for chinese tech giant huawei, it will

give everyone an update on the legal action it will take against the us government. the company is fighting a decision by the trump administration to ban it from doing business with american companies u nless business with american companies unless they have a license. us officials say huawei could be used by the chinese government for spying, something the company has repeatedly denied. for more, i am joined by my colleague and business reporter monica miller. so what is the story here? the chinese are lashing out at the us over this block of huawei, and now they are even asking if it is constitutional. just how did this situation reach a

fever pitch? let's take a look. you have to go back to late last year when huawei made headlines when its chief financial officer, who is also the founder's eldest daughter, was arrested in canada while she was on arrested in canada while she was on a flight. now, us officials had asked for her extradition and accused her of fraud. just a few weeks later we saw that the us justice department had charged huawei with 13 crimes including doing business with iran and intellectual property theft. huawei has denied all of these charges all along. now, on 16 may, president trump enacted an executive order setting the groundwork for basically a unilateral ban on huawei's businesses in the united states. however, there was later about a 90 day reprieve because there was the argument that there would be a disruption in customer service. now, despite this ongoing trade war between the united states and china, huawei has still held on to its spot as the world's second biggest smartphone vendor in the first quarter. thank you very much for that update, and everyone will indeed be listening to that press conference they will be holding later today. one country in asia is benefiting from the trade war

between the us and china, and that is vietnam. official data showed us imports from vietnam jumped by more than 40% in the first three months of the year. and it is part of a wider pattern, as businesses move some of theirfactories wider pattern, as businesses move some of their factories outside of the mainland. earlier i spoke with a representative from the london school of economics and he explained how it is affecting global trade. festival, it is cold war, not trade war, this is a strategic rivalry which has taken multiple dimensions. these are two powers which are intertwined economically —— first of all. it is true that some supply chains have been shifting out, and it is not just chains have been shifting out, and it is notjust vietnam, it is south korea and mexico that have seen some of that displacement. for multinational supply chains in multiple countries, it doesn't mean uprooting in china, but having an extra factory in vietnam and bangladesh, so that adds to costs and adjustment and pain for a lot of those. if this ongoing, as you call it, cold war between the us and china continues, could this be a

permanent move, 01’ china continues, could this be a permanent move, or could manufacturers return to china once the trade war is over?|j manufacturers return to china once the trade war is over? i think it's gotta be permanent. we've got keep a presence in multiple places as a diversification strategy. because this will continue. the degree of tension will get dialled up or down depending on political expediency and so on and so forth. at the moment we can see escalation happening already, but this is a state of play that will remain for yea rs state of play that will remain for years to come, and so you will need to keep still in both spheres. and over the past decades, china has a lwa ys over the past decades, china has always been labelled the factory of the world. are they going to be losing their title? it will not be the only factory in the world. i think we run the risk of seeing de— globalisation at quite a pace, we are used to having a standard around the world, but in the digital world and the physical world we will need to see at least two different spheres operate. and apart from these tariffs of course hitting many

countries, companies in china, is the mainland also becoming more pricey on the labour cost front? it's true, costs are going up, so china would not have remained the low—cost factory of the world regardless of the trade war or the cold war. but it does add to complications. in other business news making headlines, johnson & johnson has gone on trial in a multibillion dollar lawsuit from the us state of oklahoma. prosecutors accused one of the world's largest drug manufacturers of deceptively marketing painkillers and downplaying addiction risks, fuelling a so—called opioid epidemic. the company denies any wrongdoing and says it marketed the products responsibly. it is the first of 2000 cases brought by state and local governments against pharmaceutical firms in america. before you put up a building, you have to dig up the ground, but where

and how? well, satellite guided survey drones and diggers can make the messy business of moving earth more precise, and that is making the construction business more efficient and helping to compensate for a shortage of skilled workers.

the drone is there to enable us to understand every day how the terrain has changed, so how much material has changed, so how much material has been moved. the availability of that data means that we can now help the customer to manage the job site more efficiently. construction and

technology, working hand—in—hand. before we go, mckenzie bezos, the ex—wife of amazon founderjeff bezos, has said she will give half of her money to charity. she is estimated to be worth 37 billion us dollars after the divorce. she follows microsoft founder bill gates in the giving pledge, which calls for the richest to give away half or more of their fortunes. doing the maths, $37 billion is 18.5 billion us dollars being given to charity. very generous. thank you for investing your time with us. i am rico hizon. goodbye for now. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: a landmark trial opens in oklahoma, as the state takes on a major drugs company over the epidemic killing nearly 1,000 americans every week. malaysian authorities are warning the country isn't a dumping ground.

they have ordered thousands of tons of imported plastic waste to be returned to the countries of origin. students across the country are sitting exams this week, as record numbers attend university. but many could find themselves getting distracted. research suggests many are glued to their phones for much of the day. our media editor amol rajan has been speaking to students in reading. it's exam season. across the country, hundreds of thousands of young people have been imbibing knowledge and honing skills. but, compared to a generation ago, they have a challenge to contend with. smartphones are the most convenient and sophisticated consumer technology ever invented, reaching billions of people every day. but boy, are they addictive, as these students at the university of reading have been telling me. would you say you're addicted to your phone? i think i would, yeah, because without thinking about it,

ijust pick up my phone to check instagram, or snapchat, or facebook, or anything. it's a bit of an issue with studying because, if i have it on my desk while i'm revising, i tend to get very, very tempted to just look at my phone. i'll be like, ooh, i see a notification, and i'll be tempted tojust open it. and then ten, 15 minutes will go by, and ijust haven't done any work. is that a bit of a problem in exam season? like, i have to have my phone out of sight if i'm, like, trying to concentrate. because otherwise, i'm just so tempted to just, like, pick it up and go on instagram. and just, like, i will literally be sitting there just scrolling for, like, ages. smartphones have been rightly called a species—level environmental shock. while the science about their effect on young minds is contested and evolving, what is not in doubt is that in the space ofjust a few years, they've created a totalising environment, relentless information overload, and irresistible distraction. we live in an attention economy. this former google designer wrote an influential book about how big technology companies manipulate us.

you have this entire persuasion industry that is dedicated to capturing, exploiting our attention. facebook is a persuasion machine. twitter is a persuasion machine. you know, instagram is a persuasion machine. and i think when we call these things social media, you know, that's not actually what they're selling, that's not their business. they're essentially advertising companies, persuasion companies. study requires concentration, and distraction is the enemy of concentration. it mayjust be that the attention economy and academic education don't really mix. amol rajan, bbc news. 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: it took three sets but defending women's champion, simona halep, moves through to the second round of the french open. hats off as chelsea head coach, maurizio sarri, gets upset his team can't

practice free kicks ahead of the europa league final against arsenal. and guilio ciccone overcomes the rain to take victory in stage 16 of the giro d'italia, as richard carapaz retains the race leader's pinkjersey. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with tennis news from day three at the french open, in paris. after monday saw former australian open champion, caroline wozniacki, eliminated, it didn't get any easier for the big names at roland garros on tuesday. defending women's champion, simona halep, scraped through, as austin halewood reports. she may have been to the final three times before in paris but simona halep found it tough against australian, tomljanovic. after winning the opening set she lost her

rhythm and