i'm kasia madera with bbc world news. our top story: police in hong kong have once again clashed with protesters in several parts of the territory. riot police fired tear gas to try to drive back the activists. it is the tenth consecutive week of unrest. donald trump has been accused of promoting unfounded conspiracy theories about the apparent suicide of the disgraced financierjeffrey epstein. he was found dead in his cell while waiting to be tried on sex trafficking charges. and this story about a celebrity break up is doing well on our website. the singer miley cyrus and her actor husband, liam hemsworth, are splitting up, less than a year after they got married. they didn't give any reason, but say they will both now focus on their careers. that's all, stay with bbc world news.

and there are lots more on all our stories on our website, bbc.co.uk/news. you can find me on twitter. i'm @bbckasiamadera. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. cathay pacific fires staff who joined their protest, as they continue for another weekend. india pushes more people to drive electric cars. hello and welcome to this monday edition of asia business report, i am sharanjit leyl. we start with hong kong, because the city has seen its 10th weekend of demonstrations in a row. 0n city has seen its 10th weekend of demonstrations in a row. on sunday night police fired tear gas into a subway station after clashes with

protesters continued. we are starting to see businesses having to choose between staff's right to protest a nd choose between staff's right to protest and not upsetting beijing, because hong kong's flagship carrier cathay pacific fired two airport employees over the weekend and suspended a pilot for conducting anti—government protests. i asked a hong kong—based lawyer what can the hong kong—based lawyer what can the hong kong—based lawyer what can the hong kong government in beijing do to ease the tensions? the hong kong government have created this mess and as it spiralled out of control beijing seemed to have stepped in with a plan. that plan seems to have two prongs. firstly very aggressively policing the protests which we saw over this past weekend, and the second prong is really pulling hong kong society into line, through for example forcing businesses like cathay pacific to ta ke very businesses like cathay pacific to take very public stands against the protests. 0ther

take very public stands against the protests. other local hong kong business leaders and tycoons have put their names to public advertisements expressing support to the government and police, and we will probably also see pressure on universities and other public bodies to ta ke universities and other public bodies to take a public stand in line behind beijing and to try and increasingly isolate the protesters and their supporters. my next guest says hong kong's problems are not political, but economic. i asked says hong kong's problems are not political, but economic. iasked him what he meant by that. if you look back at the last 20—30 years, there has been a growing level of discontent in hong kong. people, especially young people, have found they can't afford property, they can't get themselves onto the property ladder, and the gap between rich and poor has been getting broader and broader. there is a sense of discontent and unhappiness, millions are increasingly unhappy about the way the government has been running society. and that is down to the economic system, down to the way the economy has been left to run completely freely without any constraints, and that has increased

the discontent. and the hong kong government afford to change its very famous free market based economy to become, as you say, perhaps one that is as you suggest more welfare oriented? that is really the challenge. what i think is very clear is that if they carry on as they are doing now, the problems will get worse. they simply cannot carry on having a free market, com pletely carry on having a free market, completely unrestrained system. that will lead to even greater disparities. the gap between rich and poor will widen and the opportunities for young people who have already had a generation without any great hope will simply get worse. they have to do something, and if you look back at the last 20 or 30 years, one of the problems with the hong kong government is that they haven't done anything, really. the currency being pegged at the dollar, they haven't done anything to the economy, and they have to manage it. they have to bring the situation under control. they have to change their economy. so what solutions would you propose to the hong kong government? what

can they do now to help resolve the situation? lmx festival, you cannot change this quickly. this is not something that will be improved overnight. but there are things you can do, they are not terribly difficult policy options although they would be controversial to the wealthy. they could do something to drive down property prices and drive out speculation to make property more affordable. they could tax the rich, and the gap between the rich and poor in hong kong is quite extreme so they could tax the rich more heavily, and they could introduce more of a welfare state to help the elderly and unemployed. but as you say, they can't appear to do this quickly enough to try and placate protesters. so will it be enough to stop them from protesting? no, they can announce these changes and they can start to implement them, and the effects will take several years. what i think if the protesters see that there is change coming, if they can see that they can begin to afford property, if they can see that the elderly are not collecting cardboard in the streets because they can't find any

other work, if they can see the changes and the plans for change, i think that would certainly be a step in the right direction. turning to key economic events this week, later today we get a snapshot of the indian economy, with inflation numbers out. tomorrow, consumer prices data out of the us will offer some clues on whether the trade war there is pushing up the cost of living in america. on the corporate side, we have earners from chinese technology tencent on thursday, and we have results from alibaba and we will see how the slowdown in australia is impacting unemployment figures there. we look at another barometer on friday, with chinese foreign investment data. earlier i asked the chief investment strategist at a bank if we are starting to see the impact of the trade war on economic data. we have two data points that might shed some

light in terms of the cost of the trade war. they are both retail sales for china and the united states for the month ofjuly, out this week. it will be interesting to see whether or not the consumer is beginning to feel some of the heat from that dispute. up until now, at least from the united states, we can say that the consumer has been surprisingly robust. you say surprisingly robust. you say surprisingly robust. you say surprisingly robust. how do we expect that to translate to some of these corporate earnings? has there been any indication of the trade war is hitting companies like tencent, 01’ is hitting companies like tencent, or alibaba, or even walmart? not yet, to answer your question. 85% of companies in the united states have reported overall. there is still about a 5% earnings beat, so that is not bad. i think what the market is really looking for is whether or not on september one this last tranche of goods coming from china into the united states will be tariff at a punitive level. that will be in

theory a game changer, particularly for retailers in the united states, who are very nervous and concerned about that. we will have some iconic goods, smartphones, clothing, apparel, footwear, and so on, we'll all be tariffed, and that is very different from the situation we have right now. india has set ambitious targets for the adoption of electric vehicles, and in the latest budget country's finance minister has laid out a host of tax incentives for those choosing to buy battery—powered cars. as zoe reports, major challenges lie ahead. frame, interior, polish, repeat. this he owned a factory produces a petrol burning car every three seconds. —— hyundai. next door, there is a far slower pace. the first four this edition of hyundai's

electric cars is finished by hand. the company only needs to build a few each day. the indian government has ambitious plans for electric cars. they want them to make up a third of vehicle sales by 2030, but today less than 196 sales by 2030, but today less than 1% of indian customers choose to buy them. rafa and his wife are one of them. rafa and his wife are one of the few. the couple bought an electric vehicle five years ago and it changed the way they travel. we planned a 60—80 kilometre distance, and hope to charge at that point in time and start looking for charge points. we have even approached regular petrol pumps for electricity. they have a charged

point at their home, but a lack of charging stations elsewhere is one of the biggest hurdles for india's electric dreams. the biggest fear was what happens if you run out of charge, range anxiety. it is going only 100 kilometres per charge. a normal petrol car of a similar size would go 400— 800 kilometres on a full tank. it also takes a long time to charge the cars. ride hailing 0la had to scale back the programme in 2018 after drivers complained about the charging times for the cars. that is a problem for customers as well. cars like these remain out of reach for many indians and until prices come down and the government develops high—speed charging points, we might not see more electric vehicles rolling onto india's roads. before we go, let's remind you of oui’ before we go, let's remind you of our top story this morning, and that

is of course hong kong which has seen is of course hong kong which has seen its 10th weekend of demonstrations in a row. sunday night, police fired tear gas into a subway station for the first time, after clashes with protesters continued. we are starting to see businesses having to choose between staff's right to protest and not upsetting beijing. 0ne business, of course, is flagship carrier cathay pacific. they fired two airport employees and suspended a pilot for conduct linked to anti—government protests. a very quick look at those markets before we go. this is how they are doing. 0nly australian open at the moment, it is lower. most others are shut for the public holiday. that's it for this edition of asia business report. thank you for watching. this is bbc news, i'm kasia madera. downing street has announced a package of measures on law and order, saying the government is serious about fighting crime. but critics say the plans lack credibility. richard lister reports. stop—and—search —

the government says it cuts crime, and it wants more police forces to use it more often. the plan is part of a law—and—order package unveiled by a prime minister who says he wants criminals to be afraid. figures suggest black people are almost ten times more likely to be searched than white people. but the home secretary said the initialfeedback she had had from police was that stop—and—search works. from all the police forces that i've been speaking to, even in london yesterday, i have heard that crime under 25s, the age group 25 years old, has gone down by 15% because of increased use of stop—and—search, and that means taking more weaponry off our streets. so, of course, the use of stop—and—search in the right legal and professional way drives the right kind of outcomes. london's metropolitan police force is one of seven that has been running a pilot stop—and—search programme launched by the previous home secretary in march. but today, the met was unable to provide any figures on how

the programme has worked so far. i'm not aware of the pilot having been evaluated, certainly haven't seen any published evaluation of it. i'm not aware of there being an equality impact statement, so i really wonder on what basis has this decision been made, and why hasn't the information being made available publicly, why hasn't there been a transparent decision. britain's overcrowded jails were another part of today's announcement. £2.5 billion to be spent on another 10,000 prison places — a major increase in prison capacity. there are some 83,000 men and women in prison in england and wales. that is close to the total capacity, which is around 85,000 prison places. today's announcement of an additional 10,000 places represents an increase of around 12%. the government says the first new prison will be here, alongside hmp full sutton in yorkshire. that expansion was first announced more than two years ago,

and the home office has been unable to give a full timetable for implementing the latest plan. we're seeing headline—grabbing policies with absolutely no evidence or resource behind them, in the potential run—up to a general election in the autumn, and nobody should be fooled with borisjohnson. he has form for empty promises that he's not delivered on. the prime minister pledged last month to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers. he said today the most dangerous criminals they face should spend longer injail. a move which could fill many of the extra prison places he has promised. richard lister, bbc news. now on bbc news, sport today. hello, i'm still ben mundy. we are live from the bbc sport centre, with sport today. coming up on the programme: wham bam aubameyang. a super start to the new season for soljskaer‘s united. they hammer chelsea 4—0 at old trafford. the arsenal forward gives the gunners victory at newcastle with the only goal of the game.

it's all tears in toronto for serena, a back injury hands teenager bianca andreescu the canadian open title. hello and thanks forjoining us on sport today. let's start with football, and an emphatic win for manchester united in their opening game of the new season in the english premier league. 0le gunnar solskjaer‘s team thrashed chelsea 4—0 at old trafford — making it a miserable start to managing in the premier league for frank lampard. marcus rashford scored the only goal of the first half from the penalty spot. after the break there were goals for anthony martial, rashford — again, and daniel james, on his debut. it's united biggest home win against chelsea since 1965. in football you can't really