our top story: queen elizabeth has joined world leaders to begin commemorations marking 75 years since d—day. hundreds of veterans gathered in portsmouth to remember the 191m normandy landings, which were the largest combined land, sea and air operation in history. further events will take place in northern france on thursday. police in australia have raided the offices of the national broadcaster abc over allegations it published classified material. it came just one day after police raided the home of a newspaper journalist over another unrelated story. and this video is trending on bbc.com: an injured hiker taken for a dizzying ride in arizona when the basket of a rescue helicopter began spinning wildly as she was airlifted. as helicopter crews attempted to lift her, the stretcher began to spin faster and faster. she was treated for nausea, but otherwise wasn't injured.

and the top story in the uk: ford executives have summoned union leaders to a meeting on thursday, sparking fears for workers at the car giant's engine plant in south wales. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. best of friends. china's xi jinping piles on the diplomacy as he hails his strong relationship with russia's vladimir putin. the $455 million hit —— russia's vladimir putin. the $455 million hit -- $455 billion hit, russia's vladimir putin. the $455 million hit —— $455 billion hit, how much the trade war will cost the global economy in lost output. good morning, asia. hello, world. it is a thursday. glad you could join us for this exciting addition of asia business report, i'm rico hizon. we start off with closer relations

between beijing and moscow, because xijinping has started a between beijing and moscow, because xi jinping has started a three—day state visit to russia by describing vladimir putin as his best friend. it is their second meeting since april, and this underscores their strengthening relationship. on the sidelines of the meeting, huawei considered a security threat in the us signed a deal with telecommunications company mts to develop a 5g network in the country. russia has expressed support for china's elton road initiative, $1 trillion infrastructure project connecting 65 countries. trade between the two sides rose to a record high last year, surpassing $100 billion —— belt and road initiative. russia is aiming to become china's biggest energy supplier. later this year a new pipeline is scheduled to start delivering natural gas from eastern siberia to north—eastern china. well, earlier i asked a correspondent from the economist in

beijing whether the us— china trade war had helped push beijing and moscow closer together. war had helped push beijing and moscow closer togetherlj war had helped push beijing and moscow closer together. i think that definitely the trigger, but i think it probably goes back further. you could think of what is going on between xi and putin at the moment asa between xi and putin at the moment as a bromance, but it is a bromance with geopolitical implications, because russia and china are two signal taking political cultures that really look to the top to see what is going on. and so yes, this is the us pushing xi and putin into each other‘s arms, against a background of two cultures that are still quite deeply suspicious of one another. so with xi and putin best friends, could this impactjump, do you think? i think anyone who tries to pretend to know what is in the mind of donald trump, you know, is onto a losing game there. but i think that, over the long run, this isn't really about trade, and it's

more about the geopolitical, the military alliances, and just the signals. i mean, these are two leaders who have an authoritarian style. xi has declared himself, we could say, president for life. he has removed the term limits. putin has removed the term limits. putin has already done that, so he is very much following in prison‘s footsteps. i think it is the feeling of not being isolated. certainly the economic side of things is much more important for russia than it is for china. when all is said and done, rachel, the united states is still the largest economy in the world, and russia is just the largest economy in the world, and russia isjust the 12th biggest. china has to eventually get a trade deal done with the americans. china has to eventually get a trade deal done with the americanslj deal done with the americans.” think that a trade deal with the americans, we may well see something before the election. but let's not get too excited about that. the bottom line is that the entire us establishment, from democrats to the republicans to the pentagon is now very much anti— china. so i think we can expect this friendship between china and russia to endure, because

regardless of whether trump stays in the white house or not, we are not going to see a pro—china mood take over washington again. the international monetary fund has sent a sobering message about the sluggish global economy in its latest report. its chief, christine lagard, said the tit—for—tat tariffs imposed by the us and china were self—inflicted wounds that would hit the already precarious global recovery, and called on both countries to immediately remove these levies —— christine lagarde. for more i am joined by monica miller. monica, how much is this trade war costing the global economy? it is costing it a whopping $450 billion. it isjust a staggering amount. a whopping amount. this is bigger than the

south african economy, to put this in perspective. they are also concerned about potential tariffs that the us may impose on mexico, about 5%. if they can't reach a deal on immigration. they had talked this morning, these two countries, broke down. but hopefully something will be resolved when they meet again tomorrow. but if this ongoing trade war between china and the us becomes protracted, and we see no end, what is the outlook? well, what they are looking at, if you take into consideration the tariffs from last year and this year, they are projecting a 0.5% decrease in the global gdp by 2020. this is having an impact on notjust when you are looking at, you know, potential oil prices, the volatility of that on the market. you are looking atjobs, and you are also looking at the price of consumer goods. this is what trade is all about, and they are making them less affordable, which is going to have a huge impact on low income families. so there is a tremendous concerned, and as you mentioned, christine lagarde has said that this is a self—inflicted wound, but she also says it is one

that can be stopped. more losses than gains for this ongoing trade dispute between two of the world's biggest economies. thank you so much, my colleague in business reporter monica miller. well, those concerns about a global slowdown which monica mentioned kept the pressure on oil prices. a slide in the cost of energy has been compounded by fears of a supply glut. the bbc‘s michelle fleury has all the details from new york. if you want to know what a bear market looks like, ask oil traders. that is when an individual stock or commodity drops by 20% or more over a sustained period of time, and that's what has happened to the price of west texas intermediate crude oil, which sank 3.4% on wednesday to 51.68 dollars a barrel, its lowest close since january. prices for oil came under pressure after data showed surging stockpiles of crude and fuels. the us energy

administration reported that crude inventory is jumped by 6.8 administration reported that crude inventory isjumped by 6.8 million barrels in the week ending may 31. a surge in imports and an increase in domestic production boosted those inventory is, and with more than enough supply to satisfy demand, there was only one way for prices to go there was only one way for prices to 9° -- there was only one way for prices to go —— inventories. and the conditions driving the price of the black stuff lower don't look set to improve anytime soon, that's because crude prices were already under pressure from fears of slowing global growth due to the us trade conflicts. now, news on inventories comes as opec, that is the oil producing countries, and its allies, agreed to meet in the coming weeks. the group has been withholding supply since the start of the year in order to supply since the start of the year in orderto drain supply since the start of the year in order to drain oversupply and propped up prices. michelle fleury in new york. in other news making headlines, in the auto business,

fear chrysler has withdrawn its offer for fear chrysler has withdrawn its offerfor carmaker fear chrysler has withdrawn its offer for carmaker renault. it is after they failed to reach an agreement on the proposal —— fiat—chrysler. and a proposed closure of ford's bridgend facility is set to continue ford has said it won't comment on the closure of the factory, which employs 1700 workers. breaking the glass ceiling in business leadership is something women worldwide continue to struggle with, and the challenges go beyond the corporate world. impacting other crucial areas of business such as supply chains. to look at these issues, we caught up with elizabeth vasquez, from a company which is aiming to bring together a global network of suppliers run by women. the corporations we work with, these are the largest corporations in the world, out of all of their spend on products and services, only 1% of us is with women—owned businesses, so

we have an opportunity to find these women—owned businesses around the world, in 115 countries, offering every type of product and service you can possibly imagine. and to make the invisible visible, to make it easierfor buyers make the invisible visible, to make it easier for buyers to go into a database it easier for buyers to go into a data base and find it easier for buyers to go into a database and find the products and services they need to be more competitive. we know there's a huge glass ceiling, and lots of challenges in trying to get women in senior leadership positions alone. a new study has found you need 30% of women in senior leadership to actually make a company much more profitable. so why isn't that being done? because some 60% of companies around the world do not that deal. it is challenging, but i do think focusing on the role of small and medium enterprises in their hiring practices. and women, generally speaking, tend to hire more women and other underutilised community members. and the corporations we are working with are starting to make progress, whether it is procter & gamble, johnson & johnson, marriot

and others. they have significant opportunities within their labour pool opportunities within their labour pool, within their talent pool, to make improvements, but they are also looking at how they are spending their money. so it is a holistic picture of inclusion. and that was elizabeth vasquez speaking to my colleague. let's have a quick look at the markets. well entrenched in positive territory, the nikkei up by 20 and the all ordinaries index higher by 23 after us stocks gained overnight as investors bet the us federal reserve would cut interest rates sooner rather than later. thank you so much for investing your time with us. i am rico hizon. sportsday is coming up next. —— sportsday is coming up next. —— sport today is coming up next. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: queen elizabeth hasjoined world leaders to begin commemorations marking 75 years since d—day. an outcry in australia after police raid the headquarters of the public broadcaster abc.

official reviews into the brutal murders of two toddlers have severely criticised social workers at northamptonshire county council. evelyn—rose muggleton, who was one, died at the hands of her mother's partner last year, while dylan tiffin—brown, who was two years old, was killed by his father in 2017. here is our social affairs correspondent michael buchanan. see his little smile, and that would be it. he was the most adoring, loving, typical little boy you could possibly meet. dylan tiffin—brown was brutally murdered by his father in 2017. he had 39 separate injuries, as well as heroin and crack cocaine in his system. his father, a drug dealer, cared for dylan alone for two days a week. in the two months before he killed his son, children's social services received eight separate reports that raphael kennedy was an unsuitable parent. they didn't act. dylan's grandfather says the family are furious.

if there was reasons to believe that there was concerns to do with the father, then why wasn't my daughter informed? why wasn't there and knock at the door? and if nothing at all, or my daughter would have phoned up, and he wouldn't have been with his father. it's as simple as that. so i feel let down basically by social services. northampton children's services have had significant problems since 2013. today's serious case review says excessive workloads and problems recruiting and retaining staff and poor management contributed to the failure to protect dylan tiffin—brown. a new leadership team today accepted mistakes had been made. we had failings in our system and in the way that we delivered our services, which did not help to protect these children. and that is in part why they're dead? we played a part in not being able to protect them. social workers were also criticised over their failure to protect evelyn—rose muggleton. herfamily had a long history with children's services, but they failed to spot

she was being neglected, or that her mum had a new partner, ryan coleman, who had a history of violence. he inflicted 31 injuries on the one—year—old in the process of killing her. officials insist children's services are slowly improving, but they are trying to do so under extreme pressure. despite the problems in children's services, £10 million is due to be taken from its budget in this financial year, because the council is virtually bankrupt. dylan and evelyn—rose were killed by two violent men, but today's reports made clear they were also failed by a child protection system that had effectively broken. michael buchanan, bbc news, northampton. 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: rohit sharma leads india to a comfortable six—wicket win oversouth africa in their opening match of the cricket world cup. cristiano ronaldo's 53rd career hat—trick helped portugal beat switzerland 3—1 and move through to the uefa nations league final. and game three of the nba finals heads out in california later, as the golden state warriors host the toronto raptors level at 1—1 hello and welcome to the programme where we start with the cricketing news that india have got their world cup campaign off to a winning start after a six—wicket win over south africa. rohit sharma was the star of the show in southampton with an unbeaten century and patrick gearey was watching. like all true stars, india turned up fashionably late. the world's most watched team finally rocked up, almost a week into the tournament. but their opponent, south africa,

hadn't got started either.