cyclone debbie has made landfall in the australian state of queensland. strong winds and heavy rains are battering the coast. thousands of residents have been evacuated, leaving homes sand—bagged and boarded up. hundreds of syrian rebels and their families have the anti—apartheid hero ahmed kathrada has died after a brief illness. kathrada, who was 87—years old, dedicated his life to the struggle for freedom in south africa and remained politically active until his dying days. hundreds of syrian rebels and their families have left their last stronghold in the city of homs. under an evacuation deal backed by the russians, rebel fighters boarded buses out of the city, for another rebel—held area in the north. president trump's son—in—law, jared kushner, has agreed to testify to the senate intelligence committee, as part of its investigations into alleged russian interference in the us presidential election. now for the latest financial news

with sally and world business report. president trump's expected to ditch obama's clean energy policies later today but the big question, will the move really help to boostjobs? and hit the road, jack. uber‘s self—driving cars are going back on the road after a crash in arizona. welcome to world business report. also american airlines and china's biggest airline agree a strategic partnership, rico will have all the detailfor partnership, rico will have all the detail for you partnership, rico will have all the detailfor you injust a moment.

after weeks of delay and speculation, president trump is finally expected to issue an executive order later today that will start to dismantle president obama's clean energy policies. this includes a sweeping environmental protection agency rule that mandates cuts in carbon emissions from power plants. it's also expected to quickly end the freeze on new coal mining leases on federal lands and reverse rules to curb methane emissions. during his election campaign president trump said he would run a government that allows us oil and coal producers to thrive and he said that steel and auto manufacturers will not face job—killing restrictions. but the experts say despite any moves by trump to boost coal it is facing stiff competition anyway from natural gas and renewable energy, which is already cheaper to produce and often more efficient to distribute. amrita sen is chief oil analyst at energy aspects. good morning, amrita. good morning.

nice to see you. once again he will deliver on an election promise when it comes to his energy policy as it were, give us it comes to his energy policy as it were, give us your it comes to his energy policy as it were, give us your take. a couple of things over here, he probably doesn't understand a lot of the jurisdiction and over oil, gas and coal doesn't sit with the federal government, it is at these state level. even if he does turn some of the things obama put in place, it doesn't necessarily have the sweeping fracture he talked about, like even the leases he's talking about or even a lot of the methane regulation that he wants to reverse. of course the epa side of things and the clean power plan act, he will go ahead with an executive order, but u nfortu nately ahead with an executive order, but unfortunately with a lot of those things, this is liable to be challenged in court by a lot of groups. this could take 18 months to

two years to overturn. in terms of his goal, to boostjobs, to provide jobs for those who are desperate, who wanted to vote for a president that would boost their community again, the coalmining community, that has totally been allowed to mothball as it were. will that be one of the outcomes? the problem with coal, generally at around the world there's an andy cole sentiment and coal faces a lot of stiff competition, prices have come down around the world really —— anti— coal. the biggest resource in the us 110w coal. the biggest resource in the us now is gas and the idea was to replace a lot of these coal plants with cheaper gas. if anything you could caa struggle where you seeing lots of job losses could caa struggle where you seeing lots ofjob losses in the coal sector but then if you take jobs away from the gas sector the net effect won't necessarily be positive —— you could see a. effect won't necessarily be positive -- you could see a. it will take time and he will be challenged. yes,

by people who support the cpp. will there be an outcome, any change, or will we caa situation like obamacare where he moves on because it's too difficult —— will we see a. where he moves on because it's too difficult -- will we see a. methane emissions at the wellhead level for oil and gas producers, there are things in process at the moment can reduce those small acts, but overturning the cpp will be more challenging and it will be a long drawnout process, lots of court hearings and appeals from different groups. amrita, nice to see you, see you again soon. as ever, watch this space, we will keep you up to date. uber‘s self driving cars have returned to the roads in the us after a crash in arizona left one of the vehicles on its side. the firm had initially suspended the programme but now says it believes the vehicles are safe. our north america technology reporter dave lee has the latest. according to the police, uber‘s of

driving car wasn't to blame for the collision. instead it was a human driver in another car that failed to give way —— self driving. nobody was seriously hurt in the crash but uber has halted the experiments of self driving cars as a precaution. they say they are confident now that vehicles are states of vehicles have returned to public roads. that include san francisco where the self driving experiments were cut short because of a dispute between local authorities and uber over the safety permit the company needed. uber will no doubt be relieved to have its vehicles back on the road so quickly after the crash. it can't afford any delay in testing it it's to make self driving tech and everyday reality. however, it's not safety concerns that pose the biggest threat to uber‘s autonomous ambitions. last month a self driving companies spun out of google announced it was suing uber for allegedly stealing its self driving technology. uber denies the

allegation. dave lee, bbc news, silicon valley. american airlines and china's biggest carrier by passengers, china southern, have agreed a strategic partnership. the us airline will buy $200 million worth of shares in the chinese firm and will seek to increase cooperation. rico hizon is in singapore. nice to see you. fill us in. the $200 million investment, sally, is equivalent to a 2.7% stake in china southern, the mainland's biggest carrier. if you look at the percentage, it's not a major investment but it gives american airlines a foothold in the mainland market to capture more traffic between the us and china through arrangements like codesharing. china is one of the biggest sources of tourists to the us with chinese

carriers aggressively expanding their fleets and range of overseas destinations to cater for the strong growth in traveller numbers. so this partnership is exacted to improve access to smaller cities, increasing the number of routes both groups can offer between the world's two largest travel markets. china also, sally, is the fifth biggest source market for tourism to the us and chinese visitor arrivals are forecasted to more than double by 2021. china southern is the last of china's three major airlines to bring ina china's three major airlines to bring in a strategic investor outside of china. firstly you have hong kong's cathay pacific, holding 80% in flag terrier air china, while delta airlines bought a 3.6% stake in china eastern in 2015 —— carrier. —— airchina. in china eastern in 2015 —— carrier. —— air china. disproves the mainland market is becoming important for many of the global carriers. absolutely. —— this proves. we will

see you again soon. south africa's finance minister is due to arrive home in the next few hours after he was urgently recalled from a meeting in london by president jacob zuma. the move has fuelled concerns there may be a cabinet reshuffle, which analysts say has unnerved investors, who see pravin gordhan as an emblem of stability. the eu's health commissioner says brazil needs to restore trust in its meat exports after being hit by a scandal over rotten produce. a number of countries have slapped restrictions on brazilian imports. the country has seen its daily meat exports plunge by 19%. the company that built a controversial pipeline under native american tribal land says it is now full of oil and will be in operation soon. construction of the stretch of pipeline in north dakota was delayed by protests and legal action. it was completed after president trump signed an executive order within days of taking office in january. the uk's brexit minister has

downplayed suggestions the country will pay an bill of around $60 billion dollars for leaving the eu. david davis says while britain will meet its international obligations, he doesn't think that sort of money will change hands. the cost of the divorce! that's not the last we will hear about that. in fa ct we the last we will hear about that. in fact we will talk about that in the paper review in a moment. so a change of scenery for markets in asia after falls on monday, you can see we have seen games right across—the—board. the yen has moved across—the—board. the yen has moved a little versus the dollar, and the price of oil is up around 0.5% —— gains. part of the reason for the change is people getting their nerve back on wall street the night before after serious falls on friday. the real concern was the fact trump didn't get through his changes to the healthcare reforms. that unknown people, it seems people have got

over that disappointment. i'll be back shortly for a look at the papers. i'll see you then but now, back to ben. one in six local roads in england and wales are at risk of becoming damaged beyond repair because of a growing problem of potholes, according to this year's local authority road maintenance survey. it says some roads have less than five years of use left before they have to be replaced or closed. the government says its put forward an £1 billion to help repair them. here's our transport correspondent, richard westcott. crumbling away faster than they can repair them. a local council run roads carry a third of the traffic. but this survey says decades of underfunding coupled with wetter winters and more cars have left them ina winters and more cars have left them in a sorry state all over england and wales. it found one in six roads is so bad it may need to be replaced

within the next five years. councils are already filling a pothole every 19 seconds. and it would take £12 billion to bring them all up to scratch. the government says it's chipped in an extra £1 billion recently to help fill the holes. but campaigners aren't impressed. every so campaigners aren't impressed. every so often the government gives out a pothole fund. it's kind of reacting toa pothole fund. it's kind of reacting to a crisis. but i think we need to actually plan longer term funding and have a greater proportion of what drivers actually pay in motoring taxes ring—fenced just for maintenance. because if you ask drivers, it is their number one concern. he says around £6 million is paid out every year for cars broken by potholes. while more bus passengers are also making claims, saying they've been hurt by the bus jolting about on poor roads. as councils feel the financial squeeze,

many fear our local roads are only going to get worse. richard westcott, bbc news. coming up at 6am on breakfast all the day's news, business and sport. they'll also have more on the government's plans to trigger article 50, the start of divorce proceedings from the european union. the top stories this hour: cyclone debbie has made landfall in the australian state of queensland. strong winds and heavy rains are battering the coast. thousands of residents have been evacuated, leaving homes sand—bagged and boarded up. the anti—apartheid hero ahmed kathrada has died after a brief illness. kathrada, who was 87 years old, dedicated his life to the struggle for freedom in south africa, and remained politically active until his dying days. now it is time for our new review.

what is making headlines around the world 7 our first paper is the independent, with a picture of scotland's first minister, nicola sturgeon, meeting british prime minister theresa may in glasgow. the paper, like many of the british papers, looks ahead to the triggering of article 50 tomorrow, and the start of brexit negotiations. arab news reports on saudi arabia cutting taxes for oil companies, in an effort to attract investment. it comes ahead of plans to sell shares in its energy giant aramco next year. top democrats are calling for republican devin nunes to step aside as chairman of a committee looking at potential links between president donald trump's election campaign and russia. that story is on the washington post online. staying with the us, the gulf news reports that washington is considering increasing military support for the war

in yemen, against iranian—backed houthi rebels. the paper says that this would mark would mark a significant policy shift. and finally, one of the world's biggest gold coins, worth more than $4 million, has been stolen from a museum in berlin. that is being reported in the telegraph, as well as many international news sites. it is so heavy, apparently it is the same weight as a fridge. ben and i did not do it. joining us is oliver cornock, editor—in—chief at the oxford business group. let's begin with