are breaking boundaries in 2024 and searching for new adventures across asia. hello, and welcome to business today. i'm suranjana tewari. we begin in the us — where the latest data shows inflation has fallen slightly. consumer prices rose 3.4% in the 12 months to april — that figure was down from 3.5% in the previous month. as we can see here, the news sent us markets to record highs as investors count on the federal reserve cutting interest rates. our business correspondent erin delmore has more for us from new york. a banner day on wall street with all three major indexes closing at record highs. that's

right, the dow, snp 500 and nasdaq all hit their highest levels ever. the catalyst was wednesday's consumer price index report, but showed inflation rising less rapidly inflation rising less rapidly in april then we'd seen in the first three months of the year. fed chairjerome powell said just a day earlier that fed officials were surprised by this year's higher—than—expected readouts. traders keenly watch inflation figures for clues on how the fed will move forward on interest rates. any news of price increases easing raises their hopes the fed will start cutting the benchmark interest rates sooner rather than later. now more investors expect the fed to make its first rate cut in september and a second and december. let's stay in the us — where a virus that has killed millions of birds around the world has now spread to cows in america. it's raising concerns about the impact on the dairy farming industry. bird flu has been detected in cows in nine us states, including michigan, texas, and ohio. the us food and drug administration recently tested

nearly 300 commercial dairy products from 38 states, finding remnants of the virus in 20% of samples. but the fda stressed that pasteurised milk is still safe to drink. us health officials have imposed mandatory testing of cows before they cross state borders. meanwhile, canada and colombia have implemented stricter import checks on us cattle. for more, let's bring megan waters, a senior policy adviser at the fairr initiative — that's an investor network that advises on sustainability in the food sector. she says she's carefully watching the impact of virus on the economy. i believe there are steps that have just been put in place involving greater testing. if these continue, the data—sharing continues and if we're lucky enough that they can contain this before the virus morphs, then i think we will have what they call a

close call. but we will have made it through this. that's a lot of if so there may be caused a concern moving forward. caused a concern moving forward-— caused a concern moving forward. ~ . , ., caused a concern moving forward. . , ., ., forward. what can be done at the station — forward. what can be done at the station to _ forward. what can be done at the station to contain - forward. what can be done at the station to contain it? - forward. what can be done at the station to contain it? let| the station to contain it? let me start _ the station to contain it? let me start by _ the station to contain it? let me start by saying i'm not an expert on viruses, but i am is a strategist who works for the initiative, and what we're doing is looking at the various risks and opportunities presented investors, we are 70 trillion... introduced to the agricultural sector, so livestock, dairy and agriculture. so some of the things that can be done that we've advised across time by speaking to various experts, things that you do to decrease the rapid spread of virus are really important. so you've got to have good animal husbandry, you have to have monitoring at the first sign of any kind of illness, you want to have

higher quality environments for the animals so they are less stressed and less likely to get sick, density of animals causes trouble when every animal in a big herd, and this comes up particularly with chickens, actually many different types of animals, it is all one breed so that genetics are all very similar, there is notjust genetic diversity. this is where you can see a bigger, quicker rush through. moving on to india — where officials have defended their deal to develop a port in iran after a sanction warning by the united states. earlier this week, india signed a ten—year agreement to build a port on the south—eastern tip of iran after years of negotiations. why is the iranian port of chabahar crucial to india's trade dreams? the bbc�*s archana shukla explains. building the port of chabahar is strategic for india

because... and iran and afghanistan on the other. so the iranian port offers an alternate route to boost india's trade with iran and central asia, even beyond to europe by ports in pakistan which is... —— bypassing ports. the reason why india's external affairs minister defended india post make decision and asked ally united states to not take a narrow view of the port, saying the iranian port deal will benefit the entire region. india's second largest partner hasissued india's second largest partner has issued a stern warning, saying india could face repercussions for engaging with iran, a country under economic sanctions by the us. india's minister said in the past, even the us has been very appreciative of the larger relevance the port of chabahar has. negotiations on this deal have been going on since 2018, delayed because of us sanctions on iran. for india it is also a

first managing of port overseas, investing about $120 million in developing the port and towards india's point of expanding geopolitical parlor in the region and countering chinese and pakistan influence in the region. turning to travel and tourism now — asia pacific has emerged as a top destination for global travellers, according to mastercard economics institute's latest travel trends report. japan leads the top spot, welcoming a record three million international arrivals — mainly due to a favourable exchange rate coupled with the popular cherry blossom season. ireland, romania, italy, and spain rounded off the top five. as for the rest of the top ten destinations, a number of them are in this region — including australia, south korea, and indonesia. mastercard's asia pacific chief economist, david mann, says despite the high cost of

living, customers are willing to spend high on vacation. it's one of the biggest things has been going on since the end of the covered pandemic, which is this preference for experiences, and top of the list even during the pandemic, people were always thinking about and dreaming about was to keep getting back home to travel. so we've seen this big pick—up in the amount of travel particularly to places with good value— as you mentioned, japan has been topping these lists in these regions for most popular destination, also gaining one of the highest shares of total tourism bookings of anywhere in the world, the only other place in the world getting slightly more has been munich, in germany, getting the uefa world cup that we had coming up with the champions league. so when we have big sporting events or concert events, that's been drawing lots of travellers, and it's good value injapan with the ultra weak yen against the

us dollar. for most other markets, that's been a really big control that's been allowing people to have good expenses, but also good value. the return of the japanese traveller, we are seeing it return, but they are not spending on things they used to spending on things they used to spend on pre—pandemic, is that right? in spend on pre-pandemic, is that riuht? ., �* , spend on pre-pandemic, is that riuht? . �* , ., right? in general we've seen a --ick-u right? in general we've seen a pick-up in _ right? in general we've seen a pick-up in the _ right? in general we've seen a pick-up in the spending - right? in general we've seen a pick-up in the spending on - pick—up in the spending on experiences in the early stages of recovery of travel. and you're right, we are still 20% below where we were in 2019 for outbound international travel from the chinese mainland. we think we will get there by the end of this year, it's going slowly, but interestingly the travellers see india picking up dramatically, and with the growth of the middle class, we think there will be 20 million more middle—class people in the next five years, 2 million in the upper income levels which adds to the demand and supply

sides coming with more flights available, and these are restrictions being eased that actually a lot of other markets, whether it's from all the way over in the us or from india, or making up for that. in other business news making headlines — netflix says users subscribed to its ad—suppported tier has reached a0 million, compared to five million a year earlier. the jump comes at a time when streaming companies are facing stiff competition and introducing new products to retain subscribers. netflix also says it will launch an in—house advertising platform by the end of 2025, in a bid to offer clients new ways to buy ads and better engage with users. meanwhile, the head of disney says the company "invested too much" in streaming and is making changes to tackle profitability challenges in its streaming business as it struggles to compete with netflix. bob iger also announced disney will cut its investment in programming from traditional tv networks as viewers habits change. disney shares were down more

than 2% in afternoon trading on the new york stock exchange. two brothers who studied at one of the most prestigious universities in the us have been charged with stealing $25 million in cryptocurrency in 12 seconds. the students educated at the massachusetts institute of technology are accused of wire fraud and money laundering. the us department ofjustice says the alleged heist is the first of its kind. we will be back in the next hour, stay with bbc news.

hello, and welcome to sportsday — i'm will perry. coming up... scottish premiership champions once again — celebrations for celtic after securing league title number 5a. chelsea's charge towards the europa league continues with three points at brighton. and we're closing in on fight night in riyad, as tyson fury and 0lexander usyk hope to write their name into boxing history. celtic secured a 12th scottish premiership title in 13 seasons in some style by thrashing kilmarnock 5—0 in what was quite possibly their best performance of the season. brendan rodgers' side neded

just a point from their final two games of the season.