as firefighters struggle to control blazes, prime minister scott morrison has acknowledged a link between global warming and extreme weather. he's apologised for being on holiday during the crisis. india's prime minister has accused his political opponents of spreading lies about the new citizenship law which has led to deadly protests across the country. at least 20 people have been killed. and the premier league match between tottenham and chelsea has been marred by allegations of racist behaviour. chelsea defender antonio rudiger said he was targeted by monkey chanting. tottenham have said they will conduct a thorough investigation. that's all. stay with bbc world news. there's more on our website — bbc.co.uk/news — and the news app.

now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. the supermarket giant halts production at a chinese factory over claim prisoners were full to to work against their will will. why india is becoming a stop off for major artists like u2 when they go on tour. good morning and welcome to this monday edition of asia business report, live from singapore with me, mariko oi. let's begin with allegations of falsely labour because british supermarket chain, tesco, has decided to suspend production at a

factory in china after a six—year—old girl from south london found a message inside a christmas card, allegedly written by prisoners in shanghai. the message said, "please help us and notify human rights organisation" dobbie katie preston has more. it was 6—year—old school girl florence widdicombe who'd sat down at home to write christmas cards to her friends and family when she discovered that one of the cards had already been written in. we were writing in them and about on my sixth or eighth card there was... somebody had already written in it. there was a message which read: the first thought was it must be some kind of prank, but on reflection we realised it was actually potentially quite a serious thing. and so i felt very shocked but i also felt a responsibility to pass it on to peter humphrey,

as the author asked me to do. the family did just that and got in touch with the human rights journalist peter humphrey, who the message in the card suggested they contact. he himself had spent time in the qing pu prison for his part in an alleged corruption scandal. i spent two years in captivity in shanghai between 2013 and 2015, and my final nine months of that captivity was in this very prison in this very cell block where this message has come from, and these prisoners are living a very bleak daily life. there are 12 prisoners per cell. they sleep in very rusty iron bunk beds with a mattress which is not more than about icm thick. a tesco spokeswoman said the company was shocked and that it would never allow prison labour in its supply chain. it has now launched an investigation and production at the factory

has been suspended. katie prescott, bbc news. let's bring you up to date with other business news making headlines, because in the past hour china has announced it will cut ta riffs china has announced it will cut tariffs on some imports from the first of january. the country's finance ministry said levies on over 850 products, including frozen pork and frozen avocado, will also lower ta riffs and frozen avocado, will also lower tariffs on some tech equipment from the first ofjuly as well. it comes as trade tensions are easing with the us. as trade tensions will be on the agenda as a major summit takes place in asia between china, japan and south korea. they are, of course, as isaid, south korea. they are, of course, as i said, having to battle with bitter disputes over trade as well as north korea. these three men, from the left, chinese premier li keqiang, japanese prime minister shinzo abe and south korean president moon

jae—in, they will be meeting in beijing and chengdu this christmas week but historical tensions over issues dating back to the second world war have repeatedly prevented any major breakthroughs on the economic and political fronts, any major breakthroughs on the economic and politicalfronts, but from the‘s trade war with china may have changed the dynamics. —— president trump's. the rest of the week... later today japan's central bank releases the details of its monetary policy decision from november. then on tuesday, christmas eve, the bank of korea's financial stability board will have its meeting and then christmas day is not a public holiday injapan or china, with the bank of japan's governor speaking at an event. on thursday, japan reports its retail sales for the month of november and this is important because this is the data that could see the impact from the governor raising the country's sales tax from 8—10% in

october —— government. to the philippines, where president duterte has recently banned vaping in public and the import of vapour products, calling them toxic. it follows a tightening of controls on u2 the sale of nicotine capsules by the country's department of health earlier in the year. howard johnson has more from manila. smoking is dangerous, so vaping is also dangerous, so vaping is also dangerous and i am banning it, and if you are smoking now, you will be arrested. president duterte‘s directive comes after a spate of their thing related deaths and illnesses in the united states. there mother food and drug administration believe the deaths we re administration believe the deaths were caused by marijuana related products but authorities are concerned about the rise in vaping with teenagers attracted to sleek —looking dispensers like the brand, dual. in december the philippine department of health said a

16—year—old girl suffered a vaping related drug injury but advocates say the ban goes against other medical advice, like that of public health england, e—cigarettes are 95% safer than smoking and a good alternative for those wanting to quit cigarettes. the vice president of the philippine e—cigarette association fears 3000 jobs and 1000 businesses could be at risk because of the ban. it would be a devastating effect on the businesses. without products to sell, we will not survive and we won't be able to pay rent, hence we will not renew our business permits and we won't be able to pay taxes. it's the end of the world for our businesses. so what do vaping consumers a of the band? i'm worried because i already saw on the news that there are some being arrested or vape products confiscated by the

police stop in the government wants more tax. since vaping has less tax than cigarettes. but some in the philippines are questioning the legality of the ban and also what signal it sends to investors. the directive of the president doesn't seem to have any legal basis, and the reason is the law is being cited like the clean air act, executive order 26, cigarette authority act, are not related to vaping and there could because for business owners because what was legal today could because what was legal today could be illegal tomorrow suddenly, and that would not be good, especially ina that would not be good, especially in a business environment. lawmakers are scrambling to make the president's order legally binding but it appears the unchallenged directive has set a precedent and one that has caused uncertainty in the philippine business community. howard johnson, bbc news, manila. now, india isn't a traditional stop

off for big touring bands but people are flocking to stadiums to see their favourite artists play live. we went to a u2 concert to find out more. i message my friend, we are going to break the bank for this! more and more artists are about coming here to perform, and so there's no question there are going to be more shows coming. india cannot be ignored any more. we

are a very young population, one of the world's largest youth populations. it's one of the last bastions, you have done europe and north america, if you want to build your next base of hundreds of millions of consumers and you want to tour the market and get your music to these consumers, this is where the market is. look at the past decade, the average household income has grown by 1.5 times and if i look at the decade that comes, the average household income will grow by another 1.5 times, and these people are willing to consume not just times, and these people are willing to consume notjust ducks, they're also willing to consume experiences. —— notjust also willing to consume experiences. —— not just products. also willing to consume experiences. -- notjust products. ithink it's really the taxation and infrastructure. we tend to overspend on infrastructure, building infrastructure, building infrastructure for each event. they taxation for either thence in this country is extremely high, 28%. if we address these two issues, this is

a viable business and this will become a rocksolid, high—growth, high frequency, high margin contribution business in the years to come. let show you the market before we go because the nikkei injapan is open higher and the hang seng index opening higher. they were taking a cue from wall street, which closed at records on friday, but now we have china announcing it will cut ta riffs have china announcing it will cut tariffs on some imports from the first of january, so we will see how that announcement might affect markets later this morning. that's it for this edition, thank you so much. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: firefighters in australia are struggling to control raging bushfires. more than 100 are still burning in new south wales. the premier league match between chelsea and tottenham has been marred by alleged racist behaviour.

chelsea defender antonio rudiger says he was targeted by monkey chanting. the home secretary has met the father of harry dunn, the 19—year—old who died in a car crash outside an raf base in northamptonshire in august. priti patel said she wanted to reassure the family, who want to see the driver charged over the crash, anne sacoolas, to be extradited from the united states. duncan kennedy reports the home secretary arrived in harry dunn's home village to brief his family in person. hello, nice to meet you. thank you. inside, harry's dad, tim, said he welcomed the gesture. this is a good opportunity and thank you for coming to listen to what we need to say, and hopefully we can move forward and up and help other people if they ever get into this situation. priti has come to try and hearfrom all of you... the fact that priti patel and andrea leadsom, the local mp, came here is a sign of how much impact the case is having.

harry dunn was killed last august when his motorbike collided with a car. anne sacoolas, here on her wedding day, was charged this week with causing harry's death by dangerous driving, but she left britain, claiming diplomatic immunity. the home secretary said she would do all she could. it was a nice opportunity to hearfrom them obviously about what they have been experiencing, what they have been going through, and to reassure them during what has obviously been a difficult and traumatic time for them. at the crash scene today, harry dunn's best friends arrived to put up a christmas tree in his honour, and they say they all miss him terribly at what was his favourite time of year. lawyers for anne sacoolas say she too is devastated by the tragedy but say she won't return to the uk voluntarily. harry dunn's family say that is unacceptable. they're concerned that they have one of the finest lawyers in america seeking to undermine our very fair,

mature and well—developed legal system, which has fairness at its heart. this will be a difficult christmas for everybody involved. ajudge will now look at the merits of extradition, and then the home secretary will make a final decision. duncan kennedy, bbc news, northamptonshire. don't forget you can reach me on twitter, i'm @benmbland. now on bbc news, sport today. hello, i'm connie mclaughlin and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on the programme: chelsea's premier league win over tottenham is marred by an allegation of racist abuse from spurs fans. pakistan are on the verge of a first test win in front of their home supporters

in more than a decade. and the drought is over — adam scott wins in australia for his first title in almost four years. hello. we should be starting the programme by talking about a brilliant away 2—0 win for chelsea over tottenham in the english premier league, but instead all the headlines will be about racism, after an allegation of abuse by some spurs fans. our sports correspondent andy swiss explained what happened. this all happened around one hour into the match, after tottenham had a player sent off for a challenge on chelsea's antonio rudiger. shortly afterwards rudiger gestured he had been the subject of racist abuse from the crowd. he told his captain, who then told the referee, anthony taylor. an object was also thrown onto the pitch. the referee then spoke to both of the managers after that, and there was an announcement over the public address system, saying that racist behaviour from spectators was interfering with the game. that announcement over the public address system was repeated