that he's stepping back from public duties over his links with a convicted us sex offender. he released a statement after an attempt to clear the air in a bbc interview was widely deemed to be a public relations disaster. he said he unequivocally regretted knowing jeffrey epstein, who killed himself injail. a top us diplomat has told the trump impeachment inquiry that he was following presidential orders when the us put pressure on ukraine to open investigations against a political rival. and this video is trending on bbc.dot.com. a woman has been reunited with a koala she saved from a bushfire in australia. toni doherty pulled the distressed animal from a tree that was on fire and treated his burns. that's all. more on our website bbc.co.uk/news and the news app.

now on bbc news live to singapore for asia business report. hong kong railcats global market shares as a fresh dispute erupts over us and china to support democracy protesters. the sweet smell of success. other us—china trade what is helping california's garlic farmers. good morning asia! hello world! glad you could join us for another exciting addition of asia business report. i'm rico hizon. let's start off with the unfolding developments in hong kong, because the us house of representatives have passed legislation intended to support

protesters in the territory and sent a warning to china about human right. it was unanimously approved by the senate on tuesday and that triggered a threat from beijing of retaliation. for more details, i'm joined now by my colleague mariko oi. whatare joined now by my colleague mariko oi. what are some of the features of this bill? there are actually two of them that will now go to president trump to sign or veto. one is to ban the export of items like teargas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets that hong kong police forces, who have been accused by protesters of excessive use of force stopping the other bill is called hong kong human rights and democracy act. let me explain. we all know that the city enjoys its status as a world financial centre stopping many multinational companies operate out of hong kong. instead of china, the city has what is called special us

trading consideration. of president trump signed the bill, washington won't be offering that condition automatically and would ask us secretary of state to certify at least once a year that hong kong retains enough autonomy to qualify for special us trading consideration. if the city loses it, it will be a huge blow. the bill will also provide for sanctions against officials responsible for human rights violations in the city. beijing hasn't been happy about this, and we saw all the asian markets reacting negatively to this potential conflict between the us and china stopping the hang seng was down yesterday, and it has just opened for trade and is down about 1.596. opened for trade and is down about i.5%. it is all because china vowed to retaliate. china is hoping president trump will veto it, but the unanimous vote in the senate where his fellow republicans hold a

majority of seats could make a veto really difficult for the president, and some people familiar with the matter have been talking to local media and america that he is expected to sign those bills. i'm sure mrtrump will expected to sign those bills. i'm sure mr trump will be watching very closely. according to the latest reports, there are still about 100 protesters inside that university. thank you so much forjoining us, my colleague and business reporter mariko oi. a legal dispute has broken out between two of the world's biggest carmaker stopping this as general motors has accused it rival chrysler and a federal court. we have the latest from new york. general motors says fiat chrysler spent millions bribing during the years of 2011 and 2015. it's accused that there were concessions to fiat chrysler that

we re concessions to fiat chrysler that were not afforded to general motors. such as hiring entry—level workers than gm was allowed to. it is tied to an ongoing federal corruption investigation that has led to 11 guilty pleas. fiat chrysler has responded by saying it is astonished by the lawsuit and it believes that this is just by the lawsuit and it believes that this isjust a by the lawsuit and it believes that this is just a way for general motors to hamper ongoing contract negotiations between fiat and the union, and also destruct the proposed merger between it and french carmaker peugeot. india is reportedly set to offer more than 300 companies such as tesla a set of factories in the south asian economy. monica millerjoins us now from them by. monica, tell us about this plan? the indian government is

asking themselves, if vietnam can benefit from the us—china trade war, why can't we? so now they are considering a proposal, according to the bloomberg that obtained a report, that says they have big proposals when it comes to land, electricity, water and road access. one of the reasons that india is overlooked for places to build factories is that they have a huge amount of regulations. to what this proposal is saying is that they may lessen the red tape so that these companies can come in and do business, and it really needs to do all it can do. they have made big promises on the economic front, but its gdp has shrunk to its lowest degree in six years, so this is the type of investment that they need in orderfor them to type of investment that they need in order for them to make their goals. indian needs more foreign investments, and you forjoining us.

as america struggles through the trade with china, garlic is winning. it rose 25% this year, showing that can be winners from this ongoing conflict. for 25 years, illegally dumped garlic is heading american shores, and is a step 25% tax on garlic stopping these tariffs are working for us. i'm standing here in gilroy, the garlic capital of the world. i make third—generation garlic some of the nation's largest garlic some of the nation's largest garlic company. before 1994, california garlic supplied nearly all the garlic consumed in the us stopping diggers to be 12 commercial garlic farmers, another is only three. they would undertake dumping

through some corporate structure and they would be discovered and sanctioned, and then they would simply set up another structure, and then that would be uncovered, and then that would be uncovered, and the fact is, they were more nimble in setting up these then us customs could be in discovering them. in setting up these then us customs could be in discovering themlj in setting up these then us customs could be in discovering them. ijust announced that we will increase tariffs on china, and we won't back down until china stops cheating workers and stealing ourjobs. what president trump has done is going to be more punitive to china, because traditional ante dumping requires a crime to be committed and then discovered and sanctioned after—the—fact, so it's a little bit... what president trump has done is apply blanket tariffs to weights weights of china's economy so that everybody is subject to it. ever

since late september when the tariff was in effect, it became harder than everfor was in effect, it became harder than ever for chinese garlic two into our country, so since that time, the price of all garlic has come up and it has really helped american garlic farmers that have struggled for yea rs farmers that have struggled for years to compete. the garlic farmers of america. food west of the big problem in the catering industry, but what can we do about it? in the uk, a survey found that restaurants produce over 900,000 tons of waste each year. in paris, a well—known culinary school is offering a solution. it is teaching students how to cooked a zero waste menu and everything is used to make a meal.

delicious and sumptuous dishes. let's have a quick look now at the markets, morning trade all in negative territory due to that us bill, the nikkei down, all ordinaries index in the red by a 4%. thank you so much for spending your time with us, i'm rico hizon, bye for now! the prime minister has vowed to raise the threshold at which people pay national insurance, in an attempt to help people with the cost of living. in the first budget of a conservative government, the starting point for national insurance would be raised to 9,500 pounds. labour has said the plans

would cut a source of revenue for public services. our deputy political editor john piennar reports. borisjohnson has a big job in this election, win round the hard hat vote, the working class support he needs on polling day. out campaigning today, promising lower taxes wasn't enough. you said low tax. do you mean low tax for people like you or low tax for people like us? i mean low tax for people, of the working people. we are going to be cutting national insurance up to 12,000. a taste, then, of tax cuts for all, including lower earners, but the £12,500 starting rate for national insurance would be phased in over years. there'd be an immediate increase to £9,500, worth £85 a year, say, from next april. if the conservatives were to raise the national insurance threshold this far, it would not leave them with much space at all, really, for additional spending increases or tax cuts elsewhere. they've said they want to balance the current budget. this would use up all of the headroom they have got.

borisjohnson‘s tax promise echoed a pledge made during his party leadership campaign. his opponents, as you would expect, were not impressed. borisjohnson is throwing around spending pledges and tax cuts like confetti. but he's not telling you how he's going to pay for it. and given that his proposals for brexit will undermine our economy and reduce growth, these pledges are completely unbelievable. well, it is a regressive tax. yes, of course some people will benefit from this but the very well—off will benefit even more than those people on low incomes. labour says the tory tax promise fails to make up for what it calls ten cruel years of cuts. let's not get over the top on this particular policy. and after ten years of austerity, if this is all the government have got to offer, they are falling way short of what they need to do. the giveaways keep coming. mrjohnson has also promised more tax cuts for higher earners as well, recently. the signs are that

will have to wait. either way, so far, this election has been about ending austerity and pleasing voters. worrying about how to pay for those promises? that comes later. the pm has been good at grabbing attention, but attention and trust aren't the same thing. borisjohnson wants and needs both. john pienaar, bbc news. that's it from me, james will be here at the top of the hour, but now it's time for sport today. hello, i'm chetan pathak and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on the programme: promising to bring passion and happiness — jose mourinho begins life as tottenham's new manager. rafa nadal wins as spain knock out the holders croatia, to reach the quarter finals of the davis cup.

and back on the same side— we hear from south africa's world cup winner, faf de klerk, and england's tom curry as they return to club duties. welcome to the programme, thanks forjoining us. he's been the special one, the successful one, now he's the spurs one. jose mourinho is back in the premier league, 11 months after leaving manchester united. he replaces mauricio pochettino, who was sacked just over 24 hours ago by tottenham. he brings trophies, but often trouble too. for almost a year, jose mourinho has been on the sidelines, but now, in a move that surprised many, one of football's most divisive figures is back. tottenham hotspur today unveiling the portuguese coach as their new manager.