hello, and welcome to business today — i'm suranjana tewari. let's begin in the us — where wall street has been on a record high this week. on thursday, the the dowjones reached an intra—day fresh record of 40,000, before shedding earlier gains. retail giant walmart raised its full—year forecast after reporting better—that—expected quarterly earnings. but this positive outlook isn't shared by everyone. the bbc�*s erin delmore explains. traders on wall street finally had reason to don their dow 40,000 baseball caps. the dow crossed the symbolic threshold writing hi from an encouraging

inflation report that's in all three major indexes to record closes on wednesday. —— riding high. what are the good vibes making their way to main street? in a way, yes — many people are exposed to the stock market through their retirement funds, so stock market gains like the ones we've been seeing this week beget real money for real people. but consumers aren't feeling so rosy — a survey out last week show there are significantly more worried about the economic outlook than they were even last month. those feelings are a boon for some retailers, like walmart, which reported quarterly earnings that beat estimates. shoppers have been flocking to the discount retailer as inflation has been taking a bite out of budgets. now much of what mark's gains are coming from high income shoppers who are making up a greater portion of the company's business. they are still spending on big ticket items like electronics — but low income shoppers are

feeling more of the strain, especially amid elevated housing and gasoline costs. how they feel about the economy is sure to become a central issue when voters take to the polls in november's presidential election. carl tannenbaum, chief economist at northern trust, the stock market is still doing very well, ample opportunities, wages that are rising faster which improves real purchasing power, so shoppers are very active in their shopping. we saw those _ active in their shopping. we saw those stock market gains, or investors only looking at the potential interest rate cuts? i the potential interest rate cuts? ., ., , the potential interest rate cuts? ., ., ., cuts? i would hope not, and it certainly quite _ cuts? i would hope not, and it certainly quite a _ cuts? i would hope not, and it certainly quite a mild - cuts? i would hope not, and it certainly quite a mild strap . cuts? i would hope not, and it certainly quite a mild strap --j certainly quite a mild strap —— milestone, we all remember when the dowjones average was bumping along at less than 700, but it's also the fundamental

strength of the american economy which has grown faster than its developed market counterparts. part of that is many countries spent freely during the pandemic, the american economy kept on going. so while the anticipation of fed cuts helps, is not the only thing. fed cuts helps, is not the only thin. ~ . ., ., thing. we are hearing that the economy is — thing. we are hearing that the economy is seeming _ thing. we are hearing that the economy is seeming to - thing. we are hearing that the economy is seeming to pick i thing. we are hearing that the l economy is seeming to pick up, but the fed is still very cautious about bringing down those interest rates. strength of demand — those interest rates. strength of demand has _ those interest rates. strength of demand has surprised - those interest rates. strength of demand has surprised us . those interest rates. strengthl of demand has surprised us for another quarter in a row, and because the federal reserve wants to be very sure that inflation is sustainably towards the 2% target, they waited to wait —— decided to waited to wait —— decided to wait longer. in waited to wait -- decided to wait longer-— waited to wait -- decided to wait loner. ., _, , wait longer. in china continues to be concerned, _ wait longer. in china continues to be concerned, second - wait longer. in china continues. to be concerned, second largest economy, that slow down doesn't seem to be abating — what do you think will happen with the chinese economy going forward? they are facing a list of challenges that range from local government debt to their property markets, to shrinking exports, etc, the government will have to wrestle with all

theseif will have to wrestle with all these if they are to bring in their growth targets which will not only be important, but also for world markets. turning to asia now — a strong show of unity has been on display between china's xi jinping and russia's vladimir putin. the two leaders have been meeting in beijing max hess is a fellow at the foreign policy research institute, an american think—tank. vladimir putin for the last two years has wanted three things from china. a deal on a gas pipeline, it looks like nothing on that is happening, and even the head of gazprom is not this on trip. secondly, it wants additional material and defence aid particularly on the technology side for its military. we do have the potential for more progress, putin has brought along his new defence minister, an economist of training, as well as his deputy prime minister, so he's

brought them along. but what they are talking about is about remaining behind closed doors, and the thing he really wants is china's help on breaking dollar hegemony, building this new brick system, and we've seen no material announcements there either, but within the context of these trade wars and the trip that president xi just had to europe, putin will be impressed at this point. you mentioned _ impressed at this point. you mentioned the _ impressed at this point. you mentioned the pipeline, the head of gazprom was conspicuously absent from this visit — is there a trust issue for beijing? visit - is there a trust issue for beijing?— for bei'ing? bei'ing has all the for beijing? bei'ing has all the power _ for beijing? beijing has all the power here, _ for beijing? beijing has all the power here, so - for beijing? beijing has all the power here, so putin i for beijing? beijing has all i the power here, so putin has for beijing? beijing has all - the power here, so putin has to give china heavily discounted prices if it wants to get the pipeline. beijing is getting gas from central asia where it pays low prices, and myanmar. russia is currently heavily dependent on china for all its exports, half of hydrocarbons

go to china, they are down from $16 billion a month to $1 billion a month. so china holds all the cards there and it can wait and see, and so far it looks like it's not willing to make a deal there. one of the world's largest exporters of spices, india, has been facing heat on contamination allegations against two indian spice brands. it has sparked concerns among regulators around the world. the uk foods standards agency has told the bbc it has tightened scrutiny of all indian spice imports. the bbc�*s archana shukla reports. at the heart of this crackdown is a cancer—causing pesticide which is used to avoid microbial contamination on spices. higher levels of this pesticide are being investigated. the uk food regulator has told the bbc has been issuing early warning alerts in various spices from india since january 2023, and

since the start of this year, it's ramped up scrutiny to cover all spice imports from india. now this is a stringent action. rememberso india. now this is a stringent action. remember so far, two popular indian brands were under the scanner, singapore and hong kong have banned their spice mixes for high levels of this pesticide. and now the us fda of australia and new zealand are all investigating products from these two countries. 0n products from these two countries. on their part, both in and everest have maintained their test spice mixes or face their test spice mixes or face the say. this also because the indian food regulator does to spring into action. india is the largest consumer of spices and one of the largest exporters of spices, and the indian spice board which controls these exports has now issued guidelines to check for the use of pesticides. but experts say may be these checks are coming in a bit too late. india exports $4 billion worth of spices, and quality concerns

are leading —— could have cascading effects on export markets. during the pandemic thousands of truck drivers stopped work and many have never come back. on this week's talking business, my colleague aaron heslehurst asked the president of truck making giant scania about the problem and whether building new infrastructure for electric vehicles might be an opportunity to make truck driving more attractive to younger people. this is a problem, and you might think it's a problem in the uk or europe, but it's a global problem. wherever i go, whether that's brazil or china, we hear the same thing. young people simply don't want to become truck drivers — and this could be a huge problem for the global logistical system. trucks are some kind of blood stream of society. if trucks are not moving, we will not have food on the shelves in our stores in just a have food on the shelves in our stores injust a number of hours or days. so we need to

address this, and we are doing our best as a vehicle manufacturer to create an attractive... economic worth debacle workspace, so it can remain attractive. but we need to move beyond that, this is a systems issue, we need to look at drive times, need to be able to give younger people the opportunity to return to base, sleep in their own bed when they come home. not many people think about that, but land transport is dominating global trade. so it depends on the country again, but typically you have about 60—70% of all transport being on that, and usually it's the flexible part up usually it's the flexible part up till the last pile. but you have markets where 90%— japan is a good example, 90% of all transport is done on trucks. if this doesn't work, if there's

shortage of truck hauling capacity, the entire global trade will be put in danger. so this is tremendously important. in other business news making headlines — reddit has announced a new partnership with 0penai to bring its content to popular chatbot chatgpt. the deal underscores the social news website's attempt to diversify beyond its advertising business. reddit also recently teamed up with alphabet to make its content available for training google's ai models. and that's it for this edition of business today. thanks for watching.

hello, and welcome to sportsday with me, will perry. here's what's coming up... 48 hours from the bigest heavyweight bout in decades, both boxers face the world's media in riyad. leeds united are one win away from a premier league returns at the first time of asking. and xander schauffele shoots the lowest round in major history to make an electric start to the 106th pga championship, in valhallas.

we're just two days away from the heavyweight unification super—fight in saudi arabia. tyson fury, the wbc champion, taking on 0lexander usyk, who is putting his wbo, wba and ibf world titles on the line. the winner would become the first four belt heavyweight world champion. the fighters have been rolled out for a news conference, and both men were surprisingly reserved. i'll make this short and simple — i want to thank god for the victory i've received already, and i want to thank everybody involved in putting this massive event on. i want to thank usyk for turning up and challenging me — and that's about it. thanks to all the fans who travelled to support me, because i know it's tough times at the moment and money's hard, so i aim to put on a show. thank you very much, god bless.

hi everybody, people.