westpac also in focus this morning.aussie and kiwi dollars coming under pressure at the start of the week that sees both australia and new zealand deciding policy. to ratebeating the rba cuts. the yen earlier jumping to a five-week high, now trading at 162, while the offshore yuan is back above at 6.81 level about the dollar. wti falling more than 2%. brent also under pressure as well amid trade concerns and after saudi cut crude pricing to the u.s.. gold trading higher this morning. paul: let's get back to our top story today, president trump ramping up pressure on china to finalize a trade deal. he is threatening to more than double tariffs on more than 200 billion in chinese imports to the u.s. and new taxes on imports. a real shift in tone, here. what is behind this threat? >> certainly a shift in tone. he and his administration have been something as well they could be close to a deal with china, and have been saying a lot of progress has been made, including talks administration officials had in china just recentl

it looks like westpac was hit hard by those misconduct costs. >> it wasn't pretty for westpac, a $617on charge. that is more than what national australia bank had flagged before they reported. as you said, 22% drop in cash profit for westpac because of weaker business conditions, the remediation costs, and the reset of their wealth business following the royal commission findings handed down earlier this year. >> baric gold earnings beat estimates for the first quarter, the first since the merger. the big headline was the asset sales, $1.5 billion next year. what are you selling? >> non-core assets, assets we feel are better in other people's hands. a solid quarter, apart from those going to closure. those assets performed in line with plan. we had no assets that did not make a contribution to the bottom line. as we said, we want to focus on tier one and tier two assets. those assets don't particularly fit in our strategic focus. we will put them in other people's hands. francine: bmw's first-quarter profit slumped as the carmaker's setting aside more money for potential fines. last m

it looks like westpac was hit hard by those misconduct costs. >> it wasn't pretty for westpac, announcingllion charge. that is more than what national australia bank had flagged before they reported as well. as you said, 22% drop in cash profit for westpac because of weaker business conditions, the remediation costs, and the reset of their wealth business following the royal commission findings handed down earlier this year. >> baric gold reporting earnings beat estimates for the first quarter, the first since the merger. the big headline was the asset sales, $1.5 billion next year. what are you selling? >> non-core assets, assets we feel are better in other people's hands. i think, as you say, a solid quarter, and all of our assets, apart from those, are going to closure. those assets performed in line with plan. we had no assets that did not make a contribution to the bottom line. as we said, we want to focus on tier one and tier two assets. those assets don't particularly fit in our strategic focus. we are going to look to put them in other people's hands. francine: bmw's first-quarter

disappointing set of numbers from westpac. let's get the word news -- first word news.n we start with the latest brexit. u.k. by mr. theresa may is set minister theresa may is said to be withdrawing her brexit bill. the new clause would keep the u.k. in the e.u. customs union, guaranteeing no checks on goods crossing the border. that is a key labor demand. weekend whenthis she had blown the confidentiality she had. she has jeopardized negotiations for her own personal potential. su: in australia the countdown to the election is well underway with 12 days to go. changecare and climate dominate the manifesto. they will take australia with vision and purpose. and the former prime minister tony abbott could lose his seat. the survey for the activist group get up shows him trailing by 56 points to 44. more than 40 people are feared dead after a passenger plane landed in flames in moscow. jet made an emergency landing after the engine caught fire, forcing it to return to the airport soon after takeoff. there were 76 passengers and five crew aboard. russian news agency interfa

general, you've got a guess the first f-35s embarked on westpac. what are the challenges out there and what you need? >> well, we've embarked f-35s three times now. they went off the west coast. they went into central command. 31st have been embarked on the also went down to exercise in the philippines. airplane is very capable. the readiness was really good if you get you higher lot of number planes, upgraded to the most recent type of software in them, their readiness has been between 5%.70 older planes, we're trying to upgrade those. so the capabilities there and i'm not going to talk about what they did or didn't do or how they did or didn't do it because i think we need to get back in a space where he don't, we talk about, we need to be a little more guarded what we talk about in what we do and how we do it. because i think our adversaries are paying attention to that and it matters. so i would just share that with this audience. that's my personal opinion. so what we actually talk about i think needs to be -- because they are paying attention

new york westpac intermediate, a wild ride but it managed to post gains, very interesting to see if thisld affect uncertainty or the support for the rollover of current policy. let's listen to what the nigerian minister said about what it takes to keep it in place. unfortunately we have technical difficulty but i believe what he was saying was what it takes to support the rollover will be a group decisions they want to keep prices where they are. very interesting to look at the price of oil, west texas intermediate to date and it is -- year to date and it is still up 38%. what the saudi and esther said was they need to stay the course not just for weeks but months to come and are not buying the fact the $71 oil price in brent, crude in london reflects the current market. they believe the market is fragile. west texas is up 38%. there is continuing to be support. unravel,is were to russia may have the cards on this which would change the direction of oil for the short term. paul: let's take a look at what themes may dominate the headlines, president trump, trade, latest earnings, give us

general, you've got a guess the first f-35s embarked on westpac. what are the challenges out there and what you need? >> well, we've embarked f-35s three times now. >> is that right? >> they went off the west coast. they went into central command. 31st have been embarked on the also went down to exercise in the philippines. airplane is very capable. the readiness was really good if you get you higher lot of number planes, upgraded come most recent type of software in them, their readiness has been between 70-75%. older planes we're trying to upgrade those. so the capabilities there and i'm not going to talk about what they did or didn't do or how they did or didn't do it because i think we need to get back in a space where he don't, we talk about, we need to be a little more guarded what we talk about in what we do and how we do it. because i think our adversaries are paying attention to that and it matters. so i would just share that with his audience. that's my personal opinion. so what we actually talk about i think needs to be -- because they'r