despite the high cost of living, travelers 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 percent 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 reports. a banner day on wall street with all three major indexes closing at record highs. that's right — the dow, the s&p 500

and the nasdaq all hit their highest levels ever. the catalyst — wednesday's consumer price index report which showed inflation rising less rapidly inflation rising less rapidly in april than we'd seen in the first three months of the year. fed chairjerome powell has said 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 interest rates will be cut sooner rather than later. now more investors expect the fed to make its first rate cut in september and a second in december. as we have been reporting on news day, russia're president has arrived in china for a two day—visit. it comes as moscow has become more dependent on barnabyjoyce following its barnaby joyce following its invasion barnabyjoyce following its invasion of ukraine more than two years ago. trade numbers hit record highs last year as china bought discounted russian oil in the face of sanctions.

in the us where a virus that has killed millions of birds around the world has now spread to cows. it's raising concerns about the impact on the dairy farming industry. bird flu has been detected in cows in 9 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 percent 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. megan waters is a senior policy advisor at the fairr initiative, an investor network that advises on sustainability in the food sector. she says she's carefully watching the impact of the virus on the economy.

i believe that there are some steps that have just begun to be put in place involving greater testing. be put in place involving greatertesting. if be put in place involving greater testing. if these continue, if the data—sharing continues, and if we're lucky enough they can contain this before the virus morphs, then i think we will have had what they call a close call but we will have — made it through this. there's a lot of ifs, so watch this space. there may be cause for concern moving forward. cause for concern moving forward-— cause for concern moving forward. ~ . , ., cause for concern moving forward. . , ., ., forward. what can be done at this stage _ forward. what can be done at this stage to _ forward. what can be done at this stage to try _ forward. what can be done at this stage to try to _ forward. what can be done at this stage to try to contain i this stage to try to contain it? , ., this stage to try to contain it? , a, , , this stage to try to contain it? , ., _ _ this stage to try to contain it? _ �* it? let me start by saying i'm not an expert _ it? let me start by saying i'm not an expert on _ it? let me start by saying i'm not an expert on viruses. - it? let me start by saying i'm. not an expert on viruses. what i am is a strategist who works for the fairr initiative. what we're doing is looking an at the various risks and opportunities presented to investors, where $70 trillion investors, where $70 trillion investor network looking at the risks and opportunities that are presented by the animal agricultural sector. so livestock, dairy and aquaculture. so some of the

things that can be done that we advise aid cross time by speaking to various experts, things that you do to decrease the rapid spread of virus a really important. so you have got to have kind of good animal husbandry, you have to have monitoring at the first time of any kind of illness, you want to have higher quality environments for the animals, so they're less environments for the animals, so they�* re less stress, less likely to get sick. density ofams causes some trouble also. whenever animal in a big herd and this comes up particularly, say, with chickens, you have — we, comes up with actually many different types of animals, if it's all one breed so the genetics are all very similar, there's not genetic diversity, this is where you can see sort of a bigger, this is where you can see sort ofa bigger, quicker this is where you can see sort of a bigger, quicker rush through. of a bigger, quicker rush through-— of a bigger, quicker rush throu:h.~ �* ~ ,., . of a bigger, quicker rush throu~h. �* ~ . , through. we'll keep a close eye on that story- — 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 10—year agreement to build a port on the south—eastern tip of iran after years of negotiations. why is this port crucial to india's trade dreams? the bbc�*s archana shukla explains. building the port in iran is strategic for india. why? because pakistan shares a land border with india on one side and iran and afghanistan on the other. so the iranian port offers an alternatate route to bolster india's trade with iran and central asia and even beyond to europe by passing ports in pakistan especially the one port which is operated by china. now, for delhi, this provides a counter—balance to china's belt and road initiative. reason why india's external affairsman defended india's 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 trade partner, remember, has issued a

stern warning saying india could face repercussions for engaging with iran, a country thatis engaging with iran, a country that is under economic sanctions by the us. but india's minister says in the past even the us has been very appreciative of the larger relevance the iranian port has. negotiations on this port deal were on since 2018. they were getting delayed because of the us sanctions on iran. for india, it is also a first managing of port overseas. it will be investing about $120 million in developing the port and towards india's point of expanding geopolitical power in the region and countering chinese and pakistan influence in the region. the bbc�*s correspondent. 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. 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 3 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 5. as for the rest of the top 10 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 money on holidays. i think it is one of the big things that's been going on ever since the end of the covid pandemic which is been this preference for experiences and the of the list, even during the of the list, even during the pandemic where people were always thinking about and dreaming of, was to keep getting back on to travel and so we have seen this big pick—up in travel particularly to the places with good value and as you mentioned japan has been topping these lists in this region, the most popular destination. also been gaining one of the highest shares of total tourism bookings of anywhere in the world, even

with the flying kangaroo looking elements the other place in the world that's gained slightly more has been munich, in germany, given the uefa cup we have, the champions league. so when we have big sporting events or concert events as we saw that's been drawing in lots of travellers and where it's good value, for example, injapan with the weak yen against the dollar, for most other markets that has been a big draw people in to have good experiences and good value. ., value. the return of the chinese _ value. the return of the chinese traveller, - value. the return of the chinese traveller, we i value. the return of the | chinese traveller, we are seeing it happen slowly, aren't we? but they're not spending on things they used to spent on pre—pandemic, right? we things they used to spent on pre-pandemic, right? we have seen a pick-un— pre-pandemic, right? we have seen a pick-up in _ pre-pandemic, right? we have seen a pick-up in the - pre-pandemic, right? we have seen a pick-up in the spendingj seen a pick—up in the spending on experiences in these stages or the early stages of recovery about travel. you're right, we're still about 20% below where we were in 2019 for international travellers from the chinese mainland. we think we'll get there by tend of this

year. it's relatively slowly. what's interesting though is that actually the travellers from india are picking up quite dramatically and with the growth in the middle class, for example, we think there'll be 20 million more people middle classjust in the 20 million more people middle class just in the next five years, two million in the upper income levels, that adds to the amount of demand side and also we know the supply side is coming in with more flights availability and the quality of the airports that's gone up so much and visa restrictions being eased, actually a lot of other markets whether it's from the us or indeed from india are making up for that.— making up for that. that's it for this edition _ making up for that. that's it for this edition of _ making up for that. that's it for this edition of business. for this edition of business today. we'll be back in an hour with more business headlines. thanks for watching.

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 3 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 2 games of the season. they'll now lift the trophy in front of their own fans after the game against st mirren on saturday. jane dougall was at rugby park. the statium has cleared now, but celtic have left knowing that they have the league title. this has been a tough

ground to come to — twice this