for more i am joint by my colleague karishma vaswani.e were talking about the negotiations taking place on thursday. the 13th round. what is your sense and how will it come along? it would be fair to say these negotiations will be tense, at the very least. in the last couple of days you have really seen those tensions ratchet up between the two sides, what with the united states earlier in the week placing 28 chinese entities and eight of the most prominent artificial intelligence firms in china on an entity list, meaning they cannot get access without approval from the us government first. the united states has tied the staying —— sanctions to human rights. it is also put human rights officials on a visa restriction was because of these alleged allegations. beijing has lashed out and says this is not true and has said stay tuned when it comes to retaliation on the trade front. when they sit down together for this 13th round of talks there will be a lot of stuff to get makoto uchida through before they get to the meat of the two issues b

karishma vaswani in singapore. let's checkin karishma vaswani in singapore.with the markets quickly. it has been a mixed picture in asia. there has been some dampened sentiment and optimism coming out from copper earnings, with the likes of amazon is not doing as well as people thought, their first fall in profits for two years. the ftse opened a little bit flatter. it had a stronger session yesterday, rising off the likes of astrazeneca. back to david. it's not looking like a very merry christmas for amazon. it says it's going to make less money than expected over the festive season. it's facing intense competition and greater costs as it tries to speed up delivery times. vivienne nunis has more from new york. amazon's push to offer prime subscribers next day delivery has meant increased shipping costs. the company spent nearly $10 billion on postage over the past three months. and extra spending means lower profits. in fact, compared to last year, amazon's quarterly profits have dropped by 25%, and that has caused shares to fall in aftermarket trading. but

let's go to our asia business hub where karishma vaswani is following the story. been briefed by investigators that these were mechanical and design issues with the aircraft but some of the factors here, do we know any more at this stage? i think more will become clear when the final report comes out later today, in just a few hours' time, in a press briefing in ja ka rta hours' time, in a press briefing in jakarta but what families of the victims that were briefed on wednesday have said to the bbc is that some of the main factors indonesian investigators told the cause the crash of that flight 610, of things like problems with the flight of things like problems with the flight control system, which they say pilots were not aware of or how to respond to in the event of a malfunction and other aspects like things revealed in the report later today but you will remember that following the lion air crash, there was another 737 max operated by ethiopian airlines and that was survived that deadly accident either and that led to a global grounding of this boeing model of

our asia business correspondent karishma vaswani joins me now from our singapore bureau.ay, monday, once again, it is very unclear what lies ahead so the pound is losing some of that value. yes, losing some of that value but not all of it. i think that is the main message that we saw from currency markets this morning when they opened up in asia. the first chance for investors to react to what happened in the uk over the weekend. i have to say, trading is usually slow and volumes are feena out in asia so i think we will get a better reaction later in the day as currency markets wake up around the world and in london and elsewhere. what we have seen is a measured, contained reaction from investors out here to the weekend's developments. what traders are saying to me is that it is a positive and in some respect, there isa positive and in some respect, there is a possibility of some deal on the table. that is what the investors are taking from this. the delay is why we are seeing a slight slippage in the value of the pound. of course, all of this have to have the big caveat,

the bbc‘s asia business correspondent, karishma vaswani, is looking at this for us.ut relative —— relative to what china has had in previous years, the significant hit and they‘re attributing it to the us china trade well. they themselves aren't attributing it to the us china trade well, but they do recognise and have acknowledged chinese officials that external, the external situation has become a lot more difficult and any conversation as you and i know about the chinese economic figures has to come with caveat. this of the government wants you to know, wanted to believe. the economy is going out, —— independent economists believe it‘s much less on that but what is important for us to pay attention to is a direction of growth. as you point out it is the slowest level on 27 years. but beyond china‘s economy has been slowing down, the government has planned for it to move in that direction, now however ben, the economy is being hit on three major fronts. the treadmill, as you pointed out, domestic consumption, people back at home in china, are not spending as much mo

at that event, our asia business corresponded karishma vaswani caught up with the chief executive ofe largest conglomerates in taiwan and started by asking what he thought of the deal. this isjust a token. the major, big issues have not been addressed. in the major, big issues, i think, will affect china internally, by the system, which the us would like china to be more democratised, not having central government in control with so many industries. you have said that china should thank president trump for starting this trade war. why do you think that? what does china have to be thankfulfor? it think that? what does china have to be thankful for? it will make china to be less dependent on the us. the us wanted to be less dependent on china, on 5g and all this advancement, that china would grow quicker, more faster, this period. turning now to brexit, as talks continue in brussels, the pound has risen on hopes a deal can be agreed on. with the sterling hitting its highest level in five months. this is prime minister borisjohnson is under pressure to get a fresh agreement by thursday'

karishma vaswani is in singapore. so, the big question, why is china's economy slowing?ons has been the impact of the us—china trade war. that has affected business sentiment in china and it has also meant that factories are not able to produce the things that they have in the past and sell as much to their us customers, because they are being hit by these tariffs. a lot of companies are also moving out of china to other places to try and escape the effect of those tariffs. but there is also the fa ct those tariffs. but there is also the fact that the domestic economy is slowing down, because it has been hit by higher prices and consumers aren't spending as much as they used to, asa aren't spending as much as they used to, as a result of the fact that prices have gone up, because of the impact of high prices on spending in general. all of that means that china's policymakers are under pressure to try and boost growth at a time when the things they've done in the past to help boost growth aren't working as well as they used to. thank you very much. on the markets, asian s

the latest gdp figures show that the economy has our asia business correspondent karishma vaswani ishese numbers were widely signalled by the administration in hong kong. earlier in the week we heard from carrie lam who pointed out the data would be pretty gloomy. that's what we've seen and the figures that have come out in the last few minutes. the hong kong economy is highly dependent on china. but after five months of political protest that you we re months of political protest that you were talking about, that has led to things like retailer shutting shops, hoteliers facing low occupancy rates, and tourists, many of them from the mainland, shunning hong kong. also images of increasingly violent clashes on some occasions between protesters and police have also led to a drop in visitor numbers, which are expected to plunge nearly 50% in october compared to last year. all of that along with the slower trade volumes because of the us— china trade war is really putting hong kong under increasing pressure. an interesting story, it has been widely signalled that that is the situation in

our asia business correspondent karishma vaswani is in singapore.led that we would see some pretty bad numbers today when these figures were released, ahead of them being released, ishould figures were released, ahead of them being released, i should say, figures were released, ahead of them being released, ishould say, but what we have seen is a much sharper downturn than many economists expected. that is a reflection of just how much hong kong's economy is dependent, and depends on china's. we've seen five months of political protests. that has led in some cases to retailers shutting shops in those areas, hoteliers facing low occupancy areas, hoteliers facing low occu pa ncy rates areas, hoteliers facing low occupancy rates because people are just simply not coming to hong kong. remember the airport was shut down for a couple of days and many tourists, amongst them a significant portion from the mainland, are effectively shunning hong kong. all of that is putting pressure on hong kong at a time when it is also suffering from the us— china trade wa

our asia business correspondent karishma vaswani has been explaining what's behind the downturn.hink it would be fair to say, has taken many economists by surprise. they were not expecting to see the numbers, in as negative as they have come in. i think this reflects how dependent hong kong's economy is on china's, and we have had almost five months of political protest, they have definitely had a pa rt protest, they have definitely had a part to play in the economic downturn because it has led to things like retailers shutting shops in some areas, because they have not been able to sell their goods, simply because there are people on the streets protesting, nobody can get to those shops. hoteliers are facing low occupancy rates, and tourists, many from the mainland, effectively shunning the city because of the political situation there. combining that with the us china trade war, and it is really not painting a pretty picture for hong kong. it is a critical difficult time for the economy there. —— pretty difficult time. and other fears that this could be something of a more perm