with the prime minister of luxembourg, xavier bettel, making a stinging attack on the british government and describing the brexit process as a nightmare. president trump says it looks as though iran was behind the attack on two major saudi oilfacilities. he said washington was seeking more proof but stressed he hoped to avoid war. and this story is getting a lot of attention on bbc.com. american scientists say they have found a way to stop the common cold. rather than attacking the virus itself, they used gene editing to turn off a protein inside human cells which the cold virus needs to replicate. that's all. stay with bbc world news.

as always, much more on our website with lots of analysis and back round detailed to all our major stories. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. donald trump says it's likely iran was behind the attacks on saudi arabia, but downplays talks of going to war. crisis hit city tried to get public relations firms to fix its reputation. —— how the crisis— hit. good morning asia, hello, world. it's tuesday, glad you could join us for another exciting addition of asia business report. i'm rico hizon and with the local energy markets, it's been a tumultuous 2a hours for

markets in the wake of the attack on saudi facilities on the weekend. after soaring into double digits yesterday, the cost of crude has risen in asia this morning and donald trump said it looked like iran was behind the attacks but added he didn't want war with anyone. that was a very large attack, and it could be met with an attack many, many times larger very easily by our country, but we're going to find out who definitely did it first. this region is heavily reliant on oilfrom the middle this region is heavily reliant on oil from the middle east. this region is heavily reliant on oilfrom the middle east. some this region is heavily reliant on oil from the middle east. some 80% of crude that passes through the strait of hormuz is heading to asia. the top for markets in the region are south korea, china, japan and india. earlier i asked jeff hayley, a market analyst, what he sees as the biggest concern. my the biggest concern. my biggest concern right now, refineries and pipelines can be fixed and ships can reach starts,

other production can come online but shots fired across borders would be a dangerous escalation and it would ta ke a dangerous escalation and it would take the middle east and indeed the world into an unknown realm. take the middle east and indeed the world into an unknown realmm escalating conflict is your biggest concern, and that has led basically to crude prices soaring by about 1596, to crude prices soaring by about 15%, if we see a continued rise going forward? rico, i think there's going to be an ongoing risk premium built into oil right now. what's been shown up and co ntroverted right now. what's been shown up and controverted lee —— incontrovertibly is saudi infrastructure is extremely vulnerable and has a number of strategic trade points that were clearly identified by whoever perpetrated this attack. given that all of that swing is removed from the market, which is saudi arabia's, there will be a price premium in oil going forward. i see than oil will continue to track a bit higher but will really depend on the military response to any miscreants.

so, jeff, if the price of crude continues to rise or remains where it's at, could this impact inflation in asia, monetary policy, could it like interest rates? we've seen many asian economies cutting the cost of borrowing. i think the world is definitely on an easing cycle now annual seymour of that after the fomc, swiss national bank and the bank ofjapan is further this week —— and you'll see more. i don't foresee any hikes in monetary policy oi’ foresee any hikes in monetary policy or huge spikes in inflation because of this at this stage. markets a nalyst of this at this stage. markets a na lyst jeff of this at this stage. markets a nalyst jeff halley of this at this stage. markets analystjeff halley joining us earlierfrom jakarta. in other business news, donald trump has said the us and japan have reached an initial trade deal and in a letter to congress mr trumps said

he will enter into agreements in the coming weeks stop in hong kong, months of protests are taking their toll on the city's reputation as a world financial hub —— coming weeks. they contacted public relations companies. what's been the response from the pr industry? zero when. when contacted by the bbc, they said they did a... it says it has no plans to conduct another similar exercise. earlier i asked a pr expert why there was no takers for thejob. well, rico, ithink thejob. well, rico, i think that an assignment of this nature would appear to many pr agencies to be more trouble than it's worth. many of these pr agencies have workforces that are largely comprised of young

hong kongers so this kind of assignment will not sit that well with them. it might attract unwanted attention from an agency's other clients. fundamentally the agency has had some pretty serious misgivings about what they are being asked to accomplish, addressing negative perceptions and underscore the strength of one country, two systems. it is difficult to spin a positive global story about these issues if the fundamental problems in hong kong are not being addressed. so no single local or international public relations company is interested in helping the hong kong government, so in your view, how well is the government right now handling the communications and public relations of the unrest in the city? u nfortu nately, of the unrest in the city? unfortunately, i would have to say the hong kong government's communications throughout this process leaves a lot to be desired. it has been listless and it has been

littered with missteps. if you look at carrie lam's strategy, she has routinely and relentlessly demonised protesters. it appears the only stakeholders she is answerable to it is the business elite and beijing. arun, what must the government do now to help themselves when no pr companies will help them? what advice would you give them?” companies will help them? what advice would you give them? i would suggest they listen to all their stakeholders in hong kong and try to rebuild trust across all communities. they need to stop making silly mistakes. if you look at carrie lam's media appearances so far, it would suggest she cares more for broken turnstiles than broken people. i think there's some really easy steps she can take to demonstrate she really does care about the people of hong kong rather than routinely condemning them. pr expert arun sudhaman joining than routinely condemning them. pr expert arun sudhamanjoining us earlierfrom hong kong and as expert arun sudhamanjoining us earlier from hong kong and as the indian economy faces a slowdown, the

big online companies investing in the country are in a bind. some are moving away from big cities to find new customers and others like amazon are hoping for positive change to help them cope with tough times. the bbc‘s the no gupta as the details. london based online retailer goobves is preparing to launch a new collection. after a disappointing year, it desperately wants to turn around its fortunes in its single biggest market, india. but the timing is tricky. the indian economy is facing a slowdown and everything from demand to spending has been affected. so the fashion house has started building a customer base beyond the big cities. 65% started building a customer base beyond the big cities. 6596 of the population is under 35. it is tech savvy, it is very aspirational. in terms of the growth profile, what is quite telling, 50% of ourjoe business comes from the metros,

delhi, hyderabad, chennai, so for, but the other 25% comes from tier two, tier three cities. even big firms like amazon who have been operating in india for around six years are yet to turn profitable here. that said, it hasjust invested $5 billion in india. much of it has been used to create a global centre in hyderabad. spread over 9.5 acres, this is amazon's largest campers across the world where it plans to employ 15,000 people in software development and operations. while international players believe india has a huge potential as a market, for amazon, expanding here hasn't been an easy task. the government has recently relaxed rules for single brand retail foregrounds like ikea and uniqlo, making it easierfor them to sell their products online. —— for

brands. so amazon still can't hold an inventory to sell products here. there's a great deal of enthusiasm and alignment in what amazon can do for india and how india can have policies that a are more stable and predictable and allow us to invest longer. when i look atjob growth, job creation, skilling, parliament, amazon's investments are so directly aligned with indian priorities. e—commerce only makes up about 5% of the retail here with india in the midst of a downturn. it could be a while before online players see returns on their investments. devina gupta, bbc news, hyderabad. before we go, netflix has announced seinfeld, one of the most popular sitcoms in television history, is heading to the streaming service from 2021. the deal comes after

netflix suffered the loss of two popular licensed tv shows, friends and the office in recent months. let's look at the markets. as you can see, asia—pacific bourses have open for trading. japan was closed yesterday due to a public holiday but it has open and lacklustre trade today, not much going on in the nikkei 225, down by a 10th of a percent and the all 0rdinaries giving back 0.3%. in about 50 minutes we will see the latest from the hong kong stock exchange and the hang seng index. thank you so much for investing your time with us. i'm rico hizon. sport today is coming up next. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: luxembourg's prime minister has launched a furious attack on the british government and its approach to brexit. president trump has pointed the finger for the attack on saudi arabia's oil facilities, saying, "it looks like it was iran".

the supermarket chain aldi says it plans to open an average of one new store in the uk every week for the next two years. the chief executive giles hurley said they would invest £1 billion to achieve their aim. here's our business correspondent, emma simpson. a new aldi has come to town, and so have the shoppers. this time, north wales. have you switched, then? switched a long time ago, girl! and i think if you asked anybody else, they would say the same, that's why we're here. aldi added another £1 billion in sales last year, fuelled by new stores like this one, and in the middle aisles, it is clearly not all about the food. what have you got in your trolley? an ironing board, four plant pots and two footballs. the middle two aisles is all you come here for, isn't it? if you say so! it is! the big, established grocers are opening few,

if any, new stores. aldi is opening on average a new supermarket every week. there are now three in this borough, and they're planning another one. but all this investment has taken a big chunk out of its profits and it has had to cut prices to stay competitive. these days, rivals are piling on the pressure. of course, retail has always been challenging and it is no different today. so, is this strategy sustainable? the focus is very much on our sales, oui’ customers and oui’ store numbers and not on a short—term profit ability. over the next two two years, we're going to invest another £1 billion in the uk, around 50% of the population of the uk don't currently shop with us and we know that the main reason for that is that they don't have an aldi store nearby. a no—deal brexit won't affect their plans, he says, but what about prices? what can't do is, it commit that prices will not go up but i don't think i am alone

in the industry on that. smaller shops to reach more city centre customers. aldi is evolving, but can it keep its edge as it pursues all this new space? emma simpson, bbc news. as always, lots more on our website. lots of back ground and detail and analysis on all our stories. i'm on social media, @bbckasiamadera. now on bbc news, sport today. goodbye. hello, and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: we look ahead to the return of the champions league, as the holders liverpool begin the defence of their trophy

at napoli. in italy, lecce shock torino to get their first win of the serie a season. and ahead of the world cup, we'll tell you why thousands of japanese rugby fans turned out to welcome wales. welcome to the programme, thank you forjoining us. it's the biggest club football competition in the world and it returns for the start of the group stages on tuesday. 32 teams from across europe will battle it out to win the uefa champions league. liverpool won the trophy for a sixth time last season, and begin their defence away at napoli. and it's not the only mouth watering tie to look forward to this week. richard mcelvanney reports. the champions league is back, and so, for the first time this season, could be leonel messi. the barcelona star has been missing with injury but is included in the squad that goes to borussia dortmund. without him, bassa have struggled, winning two of therefore league