and "work till you drop". a huge backlash over china's overwork culture, as one boss tells staff, "keep your phone on 2a hours a day." welcome to business today. lam i am michelle fleury. shares on wall street are opening lower this thursday — led by chip designer arm holdings — which is tumbling after its forecast for the year disappointed investors. that has hit the wider technology sector. markets have had a boost this week from growing hopes that interest rates could soon be coming down. in the uk we've had a strong hint from the bank of england that could start happening next month — more on that in a moment. martin baccardax is bureau chief at the financial news service thestreet — he's in rhode island. ifi if i could start with you with those

results from arm holdings. they were hardly bad, so why the sharp drop in its stock price?— its stock price? yes, i think you're absolutely — its stock price? yes, i think you're absolutely right. _ its stock price? yes, i think you're absolutely right. they _ its stock price? yes, i think you're absolutely right. they were - its stock price? yes, i think you're absolutely right. they were not i absolutely right. they were not terrible... inaudible it wasn't fantastic, but was lower case conservative in nature and that is what investors keyed up on and ultimately this stock has had a meteoric rise since its listing in september that investors were calling it the price of perfection, in other words, anything less than something really good was going to elicit a bit of a pull back and i think now we are asking some questions about the ai landscape in general and whether or not this forecast suggests that some of the hypeis forecast suggests that some of the hype is going to be overhyped. at present a lot of people are spending money on al, but not a lot of... inaudible 0h, matt, we are having a few problems with this sound. oh, how is that _ problems with this sound. oh, how is that now? _ problems with this sound. oh, how is that now? are _ problems with this sound. oh, how is that now? are you - problems with this sound. oh, how is that now? are you able - problems with this sound. oh, how is that now? are you able to | how is that now? are you able to hear me? we how is that now? are you able to hear me? ~ u, how is that now? are you able to hear me? ~ u, ., how is that now? are you able to hear me?— how is that now? are you able to hear me? ~ ., ,, _, ., hear me? we can hear you, you are 'ust hear me? we can hear you, you are just coming — hear me? we can hear you, you are just coming in _ hear me? we can hear you, you are just coming in and _ hear me? we can hear you, you are just coming in and out. _ hear me? we can hear you, you are just coming in and out. another- just coming in and out. another question i wanted to ask about the number of americans filing for new

claims on unemployment benefits, that increased more than expected last week. is that a sign that cracks are perhaps starting to appear in america's strong labour market? , , , ., ., market? this is the second of two cracks we have _ market? this is the second of two cracks we have seen _ market? this is the second of two cracks we have seen appearing i cracks we have seen appearing recently and i think it is very interesting. the number of applications is quite... inaudible last year and inaudible last yearand it inaudible last year and it does seem that may be some of that resilience that we have seen for the past few months is starting to wane a little bit. matt, thank you, we are going to have to leave it there. we had a few problems of the line, so thank you for bearing with us. to boeing now, because a former employee of the firm's biggest supplier has claimed that sections of 737 max aircraft regularly left its factory with "serious defects". spirit aerosystems builds the fuselage for the 737 max. that's the main body of the plane. they are then shipped to boeing's own plant for final assembly. speaking publicly for the first time, the former quality inspector told the bbc that some managers

actively tried to discourage him from flagging up flaws in half—finished planes. our reporter theo leggett asked him just how many problems he would typically find on aircraft reaching the end of the production line. anywhere from 50 to 100, 200. you were regularly finding more than 100 faults on a plane that was being shipped? yeah. and that's because ijust inspect certain areas. so in totality, with all the inspectors, the total amount, yeah, you'll be over 100. now, you were picking up on these faults. you were highlighting them. you were flagging them up to be repaired. what kind of response did you get from your managers? did they support you? my managers weren't always there. the production managers always made a fuss about why i was finding it, why i was looking at it. and they made a big fuss about everything that i ever found. and it was because of the stage of where the plane was. if i'm looking at a plane that's supposed to be getting shipped and i'm

the last person to see it, i shouldn't be finding missing fasteners, missing parts and things like that. so why were they not thanking you for picking up on these things? theyjust wanted the product out. they weren't focused on the consequences of shipping bad fuselages. they were just focused on meeting the quotas, meeting the schedule, meeting the budget, meeting the numbers. if the numbers looked good, the state of the fuselages didn't really matter. and that's how i think the culture was driven in spirit. throughout all this, you're picking up problems on fuselages that are being sent to boeing. are fuselages getting through to boeing that still have flaws that have not been fixed? the whole time we were there, boeing knowingly knew that spirit was sending fuselages with many defects — many of them bad. they knew that, they were aware of it. and spirit was wrong for sending defective fuselages, but at the same time, boeing was also wrong

for accepting them. boeing has been criticised a lot for allegedly having a culture of putting profits and speed of production over passenger safety. would you say that the same mentality, then, applied at spirit, which is boeing's number one contractor? well, spirit was part of boeing at one point, and i think the culture wasn't something thatjust they became a new factory and the culture over time became bad. i think when they deviated from boeing, a lot of the leadership was still there and a lot of the culture was still prolonged after they became their own company. and it wasn't something that the culture all of a sudden just became bad. i think the culture was bad already, that over time just became worse. let's turn to the uk now, where the bank of england has kept the cost of borrowing on hold at 5.25% — but is inching towards a cut.

the bank has revealed that two out of nine committee members are now voting to cut interest rates. it needs needs a majority decision of five. bank of england governor andrew bailey says they need to see "more evidence" that inflation has eased further, but is "optimistic" things are moving in the right direction. and he said he didn't rule out a rate cut as early as next month. i slightly want to be clear. you know, june is not a fatal complete, but each meeting is a new decision, each meeting is genuinely a new decision, we are generally evidenced —based, but you have to put that evidence into context and that is what we will of course do. let's speak to sarah hewin — head of research for europe and americas at standard chartered bank. we have heard their to members voted for a rate cut. — we have heard their to members voted for a rate cut, andrew— we have heard their to members voted for a rate cut, andrew bailey _ for a rate cut, andrew bailey opening the tourfor a for a rate cut, andrew bailey opening the tour for a potential rate cut injune. are they waiting too long? is there a riskier that the cure is potentially worse than the cure is potentially worse than the disease and that they are

holding rates high for too long? interestingly, the bank of england raised their growth forecasts this month, so they obviously are feeling more confident that the economy is holding up, that we are not going to turn back down again into recession, as we had at the end of last year. so while there is always the risk of holding rates too high for too long, as this was certainly discussed amongst policy members and amongst policy and in the press conference, the view seems to be that they need to have more confidence that inflation is coming down. so inflation is coming down. so inflation is coming down. so inflation is very much the focus. interestingly, they seemed to see inflation moving towards the target, there are another couple of months of the readings before the next policy meeting, and so essentially it is all about what does inflation

say over the next couple of readings? are they going to be able to cut rates at that point without risking inflation picking up again? you said inflation very much in focus. that is certainly true on this side of the atlantic, but the outcome seem to be moving in different directions. if you look at the uk and european central bank, they appear to be heading towards a potential rate cut injune will stop in the united states that seems further off. are you surprised about this kind of decoupling? there further off. are you surprised about this kind of decoupling?— this kind of decoupling? there are derry different _ this kind of decoupling? there are derry different sets _ this kind of decoupling? there are derry different sets of _ derry different sets of circumstances for the euro area economy, for the uk economy and for the us, so we are seeing much stronger demand in the us and this was reflected in the comments from jerome powell when the fed last met, that actually the level of confidence over inflation returning to target had become less in recent months. by contrast, for the european central bank, they have

clearly indicated thatjune is highly likely to be the point at which rates start to be cut. for the bank of england, somewhere in between. a little bit more caution. you still don't have enough policymakers who support a rate cut. possibly they could move injune. the market view, interestingly, which aligns with our own view, is that the first rate cut is most likely to come in august in the uk. sojune for the european central bank, august for the bank of england. bank, august for the bank of encland. ., bank, august for the bank of en. land. ., ., bank, august for the bank of encland. ., ., ., england. sarah hewin, head of research for _ england. sarah hewin, head of research for you _ england. sarah hewin, head of research for you europe - england. sarah hewin, head of research for you europe and i england. sarah hewin, head of- research for you europe and americas at standard chartered bank, thank you very much. finally to china, as the head of public relations at the search engine giant baidu has been caught up in a social media storm over work work—life comments made online. qu jing apologised after her comments glorifying a work—till—you—drop culture sparked a public outcry. the bbc�*s china media analyst, kerry allen, has been following the story.

qujing, as she is known in china, posted a series of videos on china's version of tiktok. i suspect they were meant to be edgy, they were talking about work culture, being a woman in the workplace, general work ethics. but yes, she was advocating the idea of working until you drop, so saying things like, keep your phone on 2a hours a day and try not to show your emotions at work. she was saying that, she used the phrase, i'm not your mother to talk about hearing colleagues' work problems and such. and very much promoted an idea that many people in china have been critical about, the idea of working excessive overtime. in china there is a phrase a lot of people use online to describe this, which is 9—9— six, which is basically working from 9am to 9pm six days a week, so she seemed to be advocating this 9—9— 6 culture, so

this has had serious repercussions in china. in other news.... china's exports and imports returned to growth in april, after contracting in the previous month. analysts say a range of policy measures may be helping to stabilise fragile investor and consumer confidence. walt disney and warner brothers discovery say they will start to offer a bundle of the disney+, hulu and max streaming services to customers in the us this summer. the new package will be available to customers on all three streaming platforms. the move comes as disney and warner bros face competition from rivals, including netflix and amazon prime video. let's take a look at the markets. of course, we have to look at europe after that uk rate decision. the ftse has been at record high for the past two days. will this be another european stocks or higher here in the united states, well, we can see the united states, well, we can see the dowel, all of it a sea of red.

that is it from us. thank you very much for watching, stay with us here on bbc news, goodbye!

hello from the bbc sport centre. i'm hugh ferris. avoid defeat later on thursday and bayer leverkusen�*s perfect season will have yielded a title and two finals so far. xabi alonso's team have won the bundesliga and reached the final of the german cup, and are in a healthy position to do the same in the europa league. leverkusen have a 2—0 lead in their semifinal heading into the second leg against roma after a victory in italy last week. finishing the job with a draw or better later will not only deliver a trip to dublin, but also extend their unbeaten run from the beginning of the season in all competitions to 49 games, breaking a european football record. there's only a handful of games left for leverkusen to go the whole

season without defeat. but roma have made a european final in each of the last two seasons while in the other semifinal atalanta and marseille are level at 1—1. their second match is in bergamo. the europa conference league already has one finalist after fiorentina got there for the second year in a row, beating club bruges 11—3 on aggregate. aston villa face what their manager unai emery has called the biggest game of their season as they attempt tojoin fiorentina by overturning a 11—2 first leg deficit against 0lympiakos in greece. keeper emi martinez, whose penalty saves got them this far, could be back from injury for the match in piraeus. of course it is going to be very difficult here in a way because always, with the, they have the most fans, supporting the home team, it could be more difficult. here their support pushes a lot, helping them. the biggest challenge we are going to face this year, playing in the

semifinal. naomi 0saka is attempting to claim another scalp