to hold talks wit the main parties in northern ireland at downing street. now on bbc news all the latest business news live from singapore. she has done it — us interest rates rise to their highest levels since the 2008 financial crisis but now what? overall we continue to expect that the economy will expand at a moderate pace over the next few yea rs. moderate pace over the next few years. and it is crunch time in the bidding warfor years. and it is crunch time in the bidding war for toshiba's chip years. and it is crunch time in the bidding warfor toshiba's chip unit but wary as japan, which has traditionally stood behind its troubled companies? hello, welcome to asia business report. despite lacklustre growth the american central bank has taken steps to cool the world's largest economy, forging ahead with the second interest—rate rise this year, signalling another is on the cards in 2017. the fed reserve, led by the chair, janet yellen, had plans to shrink the bond holdings and massive debts which were built up during the financial crisis. our correspondent michelle fleury sent this report. it is steady as she goes at america's central bank. officials here are determined to stay the course of slowly but steadily raising interest rates. the fed chairjanet yellen explained that with the world's largest economy improving, this and further rate rises are needed to head off inflation. we continue to expect that the ongoing strength of the economy will warrant gradual increases in the federal funds rate to sustain healthy labour markets and stabilise inflation around the 296 and stabilise inflation around the 2% long run objective. and stabilise inflation around the 296 long run objective. and the head of the international monetary fund, speaking in germany, said that the hike was positive for america, long a driver of global growth. inflation is getting close to where it should be and notjust inflation but core inflation as well, so those are good indicators of an economy that is doing better — largest in the world, hopefully with good spillover effects elsewhere in the world. but not all signs are good — retail sales just dropped sharply. if american consumers feel upbeat it is not shown in their spending. us investors are a different matter. stock markets continued to hit all—time highs. so is it full steam ahead forfurther all—time highs. so is it full steam ahead for further rate rises?” don't think the fed is giving a massive vote of confidence. they are saying they can ease off the accommodation are bit and so really they are still looking at two aspects of the economy — what they can and can't help. with the trump administration struggling to enact the economic agenda more than ever control of the us economy lies here with the federal reserve. and today's decision to raise interest rates is an example of the fed doing what it had carefully signalled it would do but janet yellen can't control everything and come with the economic state next, future decisions may not be as clear—cut. —— mixed. well, some investors are worried about the fed's hawkish tone and that dragged down us stocks with the dow closing slightly higher at the dow closing slightly higher at the nasdaq posted its biggest slide since december and we saw apple, amazon, netflix, facebook closing lower, and we will look at the currencies now because janet yellen‘s rosy outlook helped the us dollar to bounce back after a seven—month low and this is where it is trading against the yen and the australian dollar. meanwhile, oil prices tumbled 4% to the lowest level in seven months on wednesday over ongoing concerns about a global supply glut. let's have a look at how they are going. they are not doing too differently — they continue to slide lower in asian trade. it is decision day for toshiba. the firm will name who will buy the memory chip unit today. the sale will cover massive losses from the nuclear business in the us and, interestingly, not one japanese bidder is in the running. here is rupert wingfield—hayes with the details. toshiba was the company that invented the flash memory industry backin invented the flash memory industry back in the mid—19 80s. since then it has become huge. last year it was a $17 billion us market. and to give you an idea of why, here is a trip down memory lane. remember this? you an idea of why, here is a trip down memory lane. rememberthis? it is an antique now but ten years ago that was the state—of—the—art. it contained 2 gigabytes of flash memory. a few years later it shrunk to this, 8 gigabytes of memory. and now, this is the size of a flash memory card and it has 32 gigabytes on it. that is enough to put your whole life on. and to lose. let's not forget that toshiba is not selling its flash memory division, not because it wants to but because of massive debts it has run up in the north american nuclear division so, in effect, to pay off debt in the us it is selling its most valuable asset, but who is turning up valuable asset, but who is turning up to buy them? well, you guessed it, the americans, firstly from western digitalfor it, the americans, firstly from western digital for $18 it, the americans, firstly from western digitalfor $18 billion, which was soon followed by broadcom with $23 billion, then a bit from south korea and the biggest from taiwan, $27 billion us. what is extraordinary about all of this is that not one single one has come from a japanese corporation. in the old days, japanese companies would look after each other, by each other‘s shares and they'll each other‘s shares and they'll each other out but now that has gone. and i have it on very good authority that the japanese ministry of trade and industry has been frantically trying to put together a japanese bid and they have failed. and so they have come up with their own government backed bid but even that is being led by an american company, kkr, so what we can say for certain is, in the end, whoever gets control of toshiba's flash memory business, this is the end of the japan inc that we used to know. rupert wingfield—hayes in tokyo. in other news:, the us has raised concerns about china's access to artificial intelligence —based technology developed in america. according to reuters a leaked report shows proposals from the pentagon that export controls should be updated to stop chinese firms being able to invest in some start—ups. and the rules are changing in china for football clu bs and the rules are changing in china for football clubs to help the local development of the sport. clubs that spend more than $6 million on foreign players will have to pay the same amount into a national soccer development fund. the measure follows a spending spree from teams backed by major private firms and state—owned businesses. now, the e3 gaming event in la, that is where the latest things are being unveiled, including the latest company to an veiled their wares, japanese gaming giant nintendo, slipping behind sony and microsoft recently, they are enjoying a resurgence thanks to the newest console, the nintendo switch, and here is chris fox reporting. mario, whoo—hoo! i love this crowd of people that are just super mario fans. this game isjust gonna knock their hats right fighting. now, super mario games are typically the bestselling on nintendo consoles. it is different than before. more of an open world. the difference in this game is you throw your hat by shaking your controller. oh, ijust snapped her. sorry. last year here at e3 nintendo had one game to show off. this year it has a whole raft off. this year it has a whole raft of titles. that includes super mario odyssey — quite a turnaround. we have a problem in explaining since the beginning. the video that introduced switch for the first time was about trying to make people understand, you are gonna be able to play on tv and take it to any place. you can play multiplayer locally anywhere. the switch is such an improvement on wii. it seems to have brought back nintendo's mojo. it is night and day. they have really turn things around. what do you think is the appeal of mario, why do people love at? it is a tribute to the creativity and the teams that nintendo, just the passion and the love for videogames, it never stops and it is a joy to be a part of that. whoopee! that was chris fox with that report. we know that owning a car can be expensive but how about this? a parking space in hong kong has set another property price record, selling for just another property price record, selling forjust under, wait for it, $665,000, that is according to a newspaper. if it is correct, it is more than a valley of some hong kong home is where you can pick up an apartment for $540,000. gosh, lots of money. let's have a look at the markets and you can see the nikkei is flat, following on from wall street. and that is it for this edition of asia business report — thanks for watching. you're watching bbc news. our main story this: at least twelve people are now known to have died in a huge fire which engulfed a residential tower block in west london. the number of dead is expected to rise as fire crews carry out a complex recovery operation. tim farron has resigned as leader of the liberal democrats. he'd been in charge sincejuly 2015. earlier the party's home affairs spokesman lord paddick stepped down, saying he was unhappy about views expressed by mr farron during the election campaign. our political correspondent vicky young reports. applause. thanks all of you. he's been leader of the liberal democrats for just two years. today, surrounded by colleagues, tim farron announced he was stepping down because of the focus there'd been on his christian faith. i have found myself torn between living as a faithful christian and serving as a political leader. reporter: could you tell us whether it's ok to be gay, mr farron? he said he felt guilty that questions about his religious views on gay sex and abortion had been a distraction during the general election campaign. but do you think that having gay sex or being engaged in gay sex is sinful? ok, look, i'm not going to give you an answer to that question because i believe... why not though? well, and i'll tell you why i'm not going to give you an answer to that question. that is because one's personal faith is one's personal faith. what counts is your actions and your beliefs in politics. after days of pressure, he finally clarified that he didn't believe gay sex was a sin. today, mr farron made it clear he felt he'd been forced to make an unfair choice between politics and faith. i seem to have been the subject of suspicion because of what i believe and who my faith is in. in which case, we are kidding ourselves if we think we yet live in a tolerant, liberal society. tonight, the archbishop of canterbury said mr farron was honourable and decent and if he couldn't be in politics, the media and politicians had questions to answer. this has clearly been a very difficult decision for tim farron to make. at the election he did make some progress increasing the number of lib dem mps, but some saw the campaign as a wasted opportunity and they blamed the way he handled those questions about his faith. the party will now choose a new leader over the summer. vicky young, bbc news, westminster. in some of the other news for the day, borough market in london has opened 11 days after the terror attack that killed eight people. one minute silence was held by the traders and they said that returning to their businesses marked the start ofa to their businesses marked the start of a healing process for the market community. we have got more of course coming from west london with mike embley in the studio and sarah kuchar but first he is sport today — we will see you soon. hello. this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: pakistan stun england winning by eight wickets to reach the icc champions trophy final. floyd mayweather is lured out of retirement as he agrees to take on ufc lightweight champion connor mcgregor in a bout under boxing rules. after sitting out the clay court season, roger federer slips up on the grass in stuttgart. hello, and welcome to the programme, where we start with the cricket news that tournament favourites england have been knocked out of the icc champions trophy at the semi—finals stage. pakistan were eight—wicket winners in cardiff as they raced to victory in what was an unexpected result. and our sports correspondent, joe wilson, was watching in the welsh capital. a sunny day in cardiff. football season a sunny day in cardiff. football seasonis a sunny day in cardiff. football season is finally over. if there is a gap in your sporting life, cricket. a major global occasion. the semifinals england, not, in against india. pakistan were here. anything could happen. jonny ba i rstow anything could happen. jonny bairstow open for england. he made 43 when pakistan finally held on. the strength or pakistan was bowling. joe root, a faint touch.