our top story: a global group of around 11,000 scientists have endorsed research that says the world is facing a climate emergency. the study, based on a0 years of data, says governments are failing to address the crisis. without lasting changes, it says the world faces "untold human suffering". a key witness in donald trump's impeachment inquiry has said ukraine was told to investigate his democratic rivaljoe biden to get us military aid — directly contradicting claims by the president. and proving popular on our website is a video of a rail worker in san francisco rescuing a man from being hit by a train. after walking too close to the edge of a platform, he falls onto the tracks. luckily, he is pulled to safety.

more on our web site — bbc.co.uk/news — and the news app. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. feeling the pain of an expense that garbled. doesn't gamble. softbank reporting its first quarterly loss after a decade after bailing out wework. hoping to make progress on an eu— china trade deal. it's wednesday! good morning, as are, hello world. lad you could join us for this edition of asia business report. i'm regular he's on. let's kick off the programme with softbank because it is expected to report its

first quarterly loss for a decade. it bailed out wework recently. the firm, which softbank now controls has plummeted from $50 billion in value tojust $8 has plummeted from $50 billion in value to just $8 billion in 2019. vivian nunes has more from new york about softbank latest challenge. from my property to a humiliating bailout, wework faced a cash crunch last month and still softbank came to the rescue. now investors will be looking at how much damage wework has caused to softbank‘s bottom line, and what it plans to do next. there are things they might want to try to shrink the company a little bit, growa try to shrink the company a little bit, grow a little more slowly and focus on the profitability, or path to profitability. you've gone from a $47 billion valuation do something south of $8 billion. things have happened very quickly, i think softbank needs to show they can do something very quickly as well.

softbank fuelled wework‘s rapid expansion with a seemingly and less pot of cars, the ceo, adam neumann was bailed out and offered a $1.7 billion exit package. while the company took on more and more properties, it burned through cars are now softbank is going to have do find a way of dealing with $10 billion worth of leases. a noisy, often crowded co— working space isn't for everyone. jean tang runs a copywriting business in brooklyn. isn't for everyone. jean tang runs a copywriting business in brooklynlj think copywriting business in brooklyn.” think there are pros and cons, there are social and community aspects of wework which are really nice. i think we prefer our own space and we are here to work and not socialise, necessarily. shareholders will be hoping the fiasco at wework is a one off in the company's sprawling

investment portfolio. vivian nunes, bbc news, new york. dennis muilenburg says he will not take a bonus this year following two fatal crashes involving the company's 737 max aircraft. mr mullen berger recently faced us lawmakers who accused him of his firm building flying coffins. he ordinarily received a $13 million bonus on top of his $1.7 million salary. the us coats imports of chinese goods by more than a quarter according to a un study. the organisation found the feud between beijing and washington cost $35 billion in the first half of this year and drove up prices for american consumers. well, they are trying to move closer to a trade deal but beijing is also looking to make progress on a long—awaited

european union— china trade arrangement. and i could get a boost today when french president emmanuel macron meets his french counterpart xijinping. i'mjoined by monica miller. macron is going on a charm offensive? a huge part of his agenda on this trip is trade. and to give you an idea of the sins of the scope, he has brought a large business contingent with him that represent 30 companies, all of them have a strong interest in getting their products into the hands of chinese customers. now it's all a big effort to get beijing to agree to the terms of a eu—china trade deal. now, just to give you an idea, france currently has a trade deficit with almost $33 billion with the chinese, that is the largest in fact it has with any other country, followed by germany. now, china buys french dairy products and poor, especially as the country is grappling with a swine fever

outbreak that is causing a rapid rise in pork prices. now, the european union has members and it has good us basically, they are trying to get onboard, they have a 10% tax on our bus planes and 25% on wine and cheese. so at this point they are trying to get their products into the hands of the chinese as this ongoing trade war between the us and china continues. now, the one thing that president macron and premier xi jinping now, the one thing that president macron and premier xijinping to agree on is theirfight macron and premier xijinping to agree on is their fight against climate change. donald trump yesterday officially took the us out of the paris agreement, these two members want to renew their attack on climate change together. all right. but still, everyone is looking towards the chinese market of more than 1 billion looking towards the chinese market of more than1 billion people. thank you so much for the update. my colleague in business reporter,

mother camillo dash monica miller. board rooms have traditionally been dubbed as an old boys' club. a lack of diversity in these main areas: gender, age, race and nationality. 0ut gender, age, race and nationality. out of the 350 board members serve aid in this report, more than half of them said some directors should be removed because they lack expertise in areas such as sustainability or innovation. i was joined by a member of the centre of creative leadership in the asia—pacific region, and talked about why this culture hasn't changed in the region. we need new frontier boards, and that is about having diversity in terms of gender, but as well as generational diversity, arsenal diversity we see as the biggest gap, and finally, we need diversity of new frontier skills. and as new frontier skills are sustainability, innovation, but

why aren't we seeing that change happening now when it should have been done yesterday? well, there hasn't been a deliberate approach. mainly boards are recruiting from a small network of their colleagues or friends. so a very tight network, rather than doing capability based recruiting, looking at what skills we need for the future. for example, we need for the future. for example, we know we need more expertise in climate, we need more expertise in ethics, in human development stop that we need more expertise in digital, in boards. but they tend to stick to typical roles filled with lawyers, ceos, accountants. how do you rock the boat? how do you make these changes to this old boys' mentality? i think the boat is being rocked by shareholder activism. we

are seeing governance scandals in many countries and shareholders are moving faster than the board. so the organisation is starting to find the board irrelevant, sidelining them. where are we seeing these kind of changes happening in asian boardrooms? i think we're seeing them across the board somewhere, moving faster than others. of the six countries we looked out, certain glimmers of hope, for example, in singapore there are more who actually evaluate themselves. so we wa nt to actually evaluate themselves. so we want to go from conformance to evaluation. and demand for gold appears to be falling. why is the precious metal losing its lustre? that's a good question, rico. the world gold council is predicting the demand in india for 2019 good hit

its lowest level in three years, dropping as much as 8%. that is big news for global markets, considering india is the second biggest buyer of the precious metal after china. in the precious metal after china. in the biggest problem here is a lack of demand in rural areas, that is because of an extended monsoon season, the westin years, damaging a lot of crop, meaningless income. —— worst in 25 years. meaning less income. gold is generally seen as a sign of prosperity and given it is quite a good indicator of where the country's economy currently stands out, it is an indicator that the economy is slowing down. income tax has been raised from 10% to 12.5%. there is a lot of confusion here on where people should be doing their money because gold is also seen as a bit of a safe haven. and given there has been a bit of a toxic banking

nature here recently, many consumers are confused. many factors impacting the demand for the precious metal. 0ur the demand for the precious metal. our business reporter in mumbai, thank you for that update. let's ta ke thank you for that update. let's take a look at the asian pacific markets and how they are faring in mid—morning trade. basically, not much at all. the uk, virtually unchanged from yesterday —— the nikkei. thank you for investing your time with us. i am rico hizon. sport todayis time with us. i am rico hizon. sport today is coming up next. just before sport today, a reminder of our top stories. thousands of scientists from around the world have joined forces to declare a global climate emergency. they called for policies that limit population growth, meat production, and end the use of fossil fuels. a key witness in donald trump's impeachment inquiry has said ukraine

was told to investigate his democratic rivaljoe biden to get us military aid — directly contradicting claims by the president. scientists say a home test kit could revolutionise screening for cervical cancer. women could be able to carry out a urine or swab test at home and send the sample by post for analysis. 0ur health reporter michelle roberts has the details. smear tests can be lifesaving but millions of women are not going for them. women aged 25—64 in the uk are invited for checks, but the number taking up the offer has been falling. you can suggest one in four women do not attend for a smear test when invited. experts say low uptake rates could be down to embarrassment, a lack of awareness of people putting it off. now research is a new type of test carried out by women themselves at home could get more people screen.

the test measures chemical changes that are detectable in urine or the journal swabs to assess one's cancer risk. a high score suggest a bigger risk. a high score suggest a bigger risk and the woman should have further jacks. risk and the woman should have furtherjacks. —— risk and the woman should have further jacks. —— checks. risk and the woman should have furtherjacks. —— checks. this research is as diy checks could be a game changer. it's detecting 9696 of women who have a high cancer religion or precancer lesion. it is to replace another test, we need to do this in 10,000 women. campaigners say home testing is something that would be popular, but larger trials are needed before the nhs can decide whether to offer it. we are seeing coverage at an all—time low here in england, it is low in other countries as well. so we've got to find a way to offer a test that women want that is accessible. and what our sampling can offer, it is

something that has been cold for for a long time, it could be that solution, it could be a real game changer. the nhs is currently moving to testing smears for human papilloma virus or hpv. almost all forms of cervical cancer are linked to the virus. it can cause cancers in both men and women. from september in england, old boys aged 12-13 september in england, old boys aged 12—13 will be routinely offered a vaccine along with girls to help protect against cancer caused by hpv. the time now is approaching 1:45 in the morning and we cross live to the bbc sports centre. hello, i'm gavin ramjaun and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: chelsea come back in a champions league thriller at stamford bridge. eight goals they share with ajax. saracens in the dock. the european rugby champions plan

to appeal a points deduction, which threatens to scupper their season. and the world champions arrive home. south africa receive a hero's welcome, after their rugby world cup triumph injapan. hello and welcome to the programme. the european champions league delivers again, with a feast of goals, drama, and entertainment. the pick of the ties on tuesday of match day four — chelsea against ajax. it was an incredible match at stamford bridge. chelsea staging a comeback to level it four all — while the visiting side were reduced to nine men. an eventful game, as our football reporterjohn bennett explains. this game had everything, two red cards, va are decisions going against the home team, changing the atmosphere on the ground, and eight goals as well. what a comeback by chelsea. they are very unlucky to find themselves 4— wandown. ajax did

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