through much of borneo and sumatra, pollution levels are reaching critical. this year's fires have been made worse by the dry weather, and a toxic haze is now blanketing much of malaysia, indonesia and singapore, leading to a significant drop in air quality. the american secretary of state, mike pompeo, has has again blamed iran for the attack on saudi arabia's oil facilities, calling it an act of war. and this story is getting a lot of attention on bbc.com. 16—year—old environmental campaigner greta thunberg has told us politicians that they are not doing enough to combat climate change. speaking to a congress hearing, she said, "i don't want you to listen to me. i want you to listen to the scientists." that's all, stay with bbc world news. and remember there is much

more on all our stories, with analysis from our correspondents, on our website, or you can download the bbc news app. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. the fed split over rate decision. the fed split over rate decision. the world's most important central bank cuts the cost of borrowing but policymakers disagree over future moves. raising to sell off 10,000 tons of pigmeat to help cool soaring prices. it is a thursday. good morning, asia. hello, world. glad you could join us for another action packed edition of asia business report. i'm rico hizon. we started the programme with the global economy because america's central

bank has lower the cost of borrowing for a second time since the 2008 financial crisis. the widely anticipated 0.25% cut comes as fears grow about slowing growth and trade wa i’s grow about slowing growth and trade wars around the world. but that wasn't enough for the us president. despite the federal reserve's long held independence from the white house, donald trump yet again attacked chairman jerome house, donald trump yet again attacked chairmanjerome powell, accusing him in the fed of having, quote, no guts, no sense and no vision. the bbc‘s samira hussain has the latest from washington. the federal reserve did what most people expected it to, made a small cut to us interest rates. why? well, although household spending is increasing in the unemployment rate remains low, exports and business investment have weekends. fed chair jerome powell attributes that wea kness to jerome powell attributes that weakness to trade policy. since our la st weakness to trade policy. since our last meeting we have seen additional signs of weakness abroad and a resurgence of trade policy tensions

including the imposition of additional tariffs. the fed has no role in the formulation of trade policy, but we do take into account anything that could materially affect the economy. trade policy is determined by the white house, a white house that is a very vocal critic of the federal reserve. although it decided to cut interest rates, it did very little to appease us president donald trump, who believes interest rates should be cut further, even to zero. believes interest rates should be out further, even to zero. samira hussain in washington, dc, and the fed hasn't just been hussain in washington, dc, and the fed hasn'tjust been cutting interest rates. it has also injected more than $125 billion into the us banking system to help keep credit flowing. meanwhile, brazil's central bank has lower the cost of borrowing toa bank has lower the cost of borrowing to a new record low. and, as it usually does, hong kong has followed the fed's lead by cutting its interest rate as well. also today,

we get policy decisions from the bank ofjapan, bank of indonesia and the bank of england. earlier i was joined by an economist and started by asking her about donald trump's criticisms of the fed. well, the fed studies the economy's fundamentals and act accordingly. and it also needs to maintain policy independence, so it has to look beyond the demands coming from the white house. are taking a look at the fundamentals from the us economy, could the fed have cut rates not by 0.25% but by 0.5% and get the door open for more rate cuts this year? so this provides insurance against elevated risks, so if the economy weekends then there is room for further easing, if the economy weekends then there is room forfurther easing, but if the economy weekends then there is room for further easing, but at this point this seems like a reasonable action. but of course, apart from the rate cut, pumping more than $125 billion into the markets to pull down interest rates, would that already be sufficient to pump prime the economy? so the fed wa nts to pump prime the economy? so the fed wants to ensure a smooth operation of money markets, and by pumping money into the system, it wants to

make sure that there is not another liquidity squeeze like we saw earlier this week. and of course, right after the fed's move, you already had brazil and hong kong cutting the cost of borrowing. you had the bank ofjapan and the bank of indonesia also making monetary policy decisions today. what do you think they will do? well, i think the bank of japan think they will do? well, i think the bank ofjapan will think they will do? well, i think the bank of japan will stay think they will do? well, i think the bank ofjapan will stay on think they will do? well, i think the bank of japan will stay on hold today. even though it has good reasons to cut policy, but i think it wants to wait and see how the consumption tax rate increase in 0ctober will impact economic activity. the bank of indonesia, on the other hand, will likely cut rates today and the fed decision to cut makes it even easier. in indonesia we have low inflation and economic growth is weakening. could other asian central banks make surprise moves today, or maybe even tomorrow, before their monetary policy meetings? i don't expect any surprise moves in the near term, but

i think there is room for further monetary easing across the region before the end of the year. of course, everyone is before the end of the year. of course, everyone is looking towards brexit and the bank of england. what you expect them to in terms of monetary policy? i think the bank of england will stay on hold today. they want to see more clarity on the brexit front and how that will impact the economy. ira, an economist from scotia bank. speaking of the us president, donald trump has had his administration will take further economic action against iran. earlier he had tweeted that he will substantially increase sanctions on iran. the comments come as iran continues to deny any involvement in last weekend's attacks on saudi arabian oil facilities. his cabinet —— india ‘s cabinet has banned e—cigarette saying they pose a risk to health. the finance minister said an executive order had been approved banning vaping products because of their impact on young people. china's government is taking steps

to counter the growing pork crisis in the country. beijing is releasing 10,000 metric tons of frozen pork from its central reserves today to help stabilise soaring pork prices and cope with the swine fever that has killed millions of pigs. earlier i asked our china corresponded about the seriousness of the situation. this is significant for two reasons. we are approaching the october one national holiday, and the government frankly just wants to ease national holiday, and the government franklyjust wants to ease concerns about this african swine fever epidemic that china has been dealing with for a year now. it is having increasingly worrying inflationary pressure, as well. we have seen the price per kilo of pork in this country pretty much tripled. that's why we are seeing moves from the government to try and release a fairly significant amount from its pork reserves. yes, china does have pork reserves. yes, china does have pork reserves. yes, china does have pork reserves to try and deal with those concerns about the price. look at the scale of this thing is huge. china kills and eats more pigs than anyone else in the world. about 700 million a year. and there are predictions that african swine flu, thatis predictions that african swine flu, that is now in every province of

this country, including hong kong, could see the death, the culling, of 150 million pigs. that's about 20% of the supply. so it has peaked in this country, but the concern is about eradicating it and trying to further control it, and that's where the real worry is. it is having an effect, as well, on the pork supply in other countries, korea and japan, but for those importing alternatives into this country, i was speaking to an australian beef importer recently, it is very good times for them. demand for their product in them. demand for their product in the price for their product for those who can afford it is increasing. that was robin brant on the growing pork crisis in the mainland. while much of the global airline industry is still grappling with the grounding of the 77 max jet, one major carrier managed to avoid the issue, and that is because delta never ordered any of boeing's bestselling jet. the bbc‘s aaron hazlehurst got in touch with them

and asked them whether they thought the whole episode had damaged the reputation of america's air regulator. i think we will all learn from the experience. there is certainly a lot that the faa is going through and challenging their earlier assumptions about standards and the relationships they have. they are learning from iasa, about how iasa does it which is different to how faa does it. it is going to make for a safer community for us. let's keep this in context. the us transportation industry is the safest form of transportation in the world. stop and anything that we do here, i think, world. stop and anything that we do here, ithink, is world. stop and anything that we do here, i think, is from a platform to learn to get better, as opposed to questioning the foundations of what we do. achara three, biggest airline in the world in terms of the amount of money you rake in, biggest in the world in terms of profit. and you have achieved that not by cutbacks but by investing. how have you done

that? we had to make a decision as a company a number of years ago whether we were going to compete purely as a value oriented airline, where price was the only determinant, or were we going to go after a customer segment that actually wanted a higher level of quality and higher service. at delta, we didn't have the option to go the other way. we are big, we are 95 old company, so we decided to lea n 95 old company, so we decided to lean in and out people have carried this through. china- us trade war, how much of an impact is it having on delta? it is having a modest impact. we see in respect to us industrials some of the manufacturers pulling back some of their chinese travel demands in the corporate space. you know, we are not as welcoming a country right now. with the trade tariffs and the skirmish going on, and so i think whether it is chinese consumers coming into the us or likewise returning. but you have to keep that all in context. 0ur overall traffic to china is up double digits

year—on—year. so what you said earlier is right. it is a massive market, there is a lot of interest in travel to the us. so not growing as fast as fast as we might be able to grow, but it is still an important market and still growing. and that was delta's chief executive, ed bastian, speaking there to my colleague aaron heslehurst. let's have a quick look now at the asia pacific markets. as you can see on your screens, investors in japan and you can see on your screens, investors injapan and australia a little bit excited about the us rate cut, despite comments from president trump that mr powell and the fed had no guts in basically making more aggressive rate cuts, the nikkei up by o.9%, aggressive rate cuts, the nikkei up by 0.9%, the all —— all 0rdinaries 0.6%. thank you for investing your time with us. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: as indonesia battles forest fires in borneo and sumatra, pollution is reaching critical

levels across much of the region. the government has told the bbc that it may not apply european union standards for home appliances after brexit. if that happens, it will affect our energy use helping the uk to meet its climate change targets. here is our environment analyst roger harrabin. welcome to derbyshire's vacuum cleaner museum. some machines here use lots of energy. 0thers use very little. recent eu standards on efficiency banned the energy guzzlers. this model, for instance, uses a whopping 1,800 watts of electricity. but how hard does it suck? put your arm there, and lift it on and off and you can feel the suction. can you feel the suction? quite strong, yeah. but this model gives more suction

from less electricity. that is fantastic. that's a quarter of the electricity use of the other machine, and far, far more suction. yeah, it's all about better design and better planning, rather than increasing the wattage to compensate for bad design. the bbc‘s online energy briefing, published today, shows the recent effect of eu rules — energy use going steadily down. other factors are at play, like the drive by firms such as the mining company semex to reduce their energy bills and carbon emissions. all of the electrical gear on this site has energy sensors fitted. and those sensors send readings to this gear here, which transfers information to our mobile phones and to our laptops. with the data that gives us, we've been able to make a number of energy savings at this site. taxes and grants on things like cars are another way of nudging people to use less energy.

yet another related factor is the way we behave. the fashion industry is a massive user of energy. with concern for the environment at a high, more people are reported to be buying used clothes. people are getting the message increasingly, and caring more, that fast fashion does immense harm to the environment and the world's poorest people. all these things together won't solve the uk's energy problems, but they will help a bit. roger harrabin, bbc news. lots more on our website, lots of analysis and more research there. it is also possible to get in touch with me via social media. that's it from me. mike will be here at 2am, but now mark edwards will bring us all the sports news in sport today. goodbye.

hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: a real humbling — psg crush real madrid in the champions league. guangzhou send the holders, kashima antlers, packing in the asian champions league. 0saka stars in osaka — the hometown hero into the quarters of the pan pacific 0pen. hello and thank you forjoining us. there were two heavyweight clashes in the european champions league on wednesday. one of the pre—tournament favourites juventus drew 2—2 in spain, against atletico madrid, while real madrid's bid for a 14th european cup began with a humbling 3—0 defeat at paris saint—germain. 0ur football reporterjohn bennett was impressed by psg, despite some high profile absences. without