sales. china tech analyst ray ma explained how alibaba plans to turn things around. i think alibaba has, as you mentioned, is dealing with a relatively sluggish economy in china and cautious consumers. it is also faced stiff competition from pinduoduo and while it is trying to execute on its new strategy, reprioritising its core business it has struggled through the reorganisation and it is struggling to keep the cost controls under control. tell us more about these new strategies. what are the coming initiatives or projects for alibaba to try to try and get things back on track? alibaba has focused on three main things. reprioritising the core business, investing,

all in on al for the cloud business and in the commerce business, exploring and investing more in the international business. in terms of major specific initiatives i would say for investors what they need to watch is that it has been reported that alibaba will move to a fee based model charging for merchants, similar to what pinduoduo and others already do versus its current business model which is an annual fee plus service fees. it will start in september and that could really change things up. we also got earnings fromjd.com, one of alibaba's key competitors. the chinese e—commerce company saw net revenue for april tojune come in better—than—expected. profits for the period also jumped by more than 70%. the reason for the strong result has been a discounting strategy that the company has engaged in since 2022. the stock was up over 4% on wall street. democratic presidential nominee kamala harris is set

to unveil her economic plan on friday. the economy and the high cost of living have been a key issue for voters — something both harris and republican nominee donald trump have addressed in their campaigns. our north america editor sarah smith filed this report from maryland. along the shore of the chesapeake bay it costs more to eat out than it did before. maryland's famous crabs and seafood have increased in price, likejust about everything else in america. so it may look like the living is easy but people are still worried about inflation. who do you blame? i blame the democrats. the policies are hurting the working man. i get paid by the hour so to get to work every day i think you have to do that to get the american dream but it is getting harder. i spend at the grocery store $100 every time i go to the grocery store.

that gets really hard to take. donald trump �*s pitch that he is making is if you felt better off four years ago than you do now, vote for me. does that make sense? that is not a compelling argument to me. maybe for people who already decided they will vote for trump that will be something that they will repeat. most voters say the economy is the number one issue in the coming election. and despite good news about record job creation, economic growth in the lowest inflation rate in years it is still a potential liability for the democrats. while the rate of inflation may be falling, prices are still increasing. and very few voters say they feel as though the economy is improving. even in the white house economists describe their being of bad vibe around and in an election year that really matters. kamala harris plans allowed an economic policy focused on reducing the cost of living including banning excessive corporate profits on food. today she announces lower

prices for prescription drugs. and the united states of america knows senior should have to choose between paying their rent or filling their prescription. this is a little different because this is where we are talking about a thing called the economy. the economy could be a winning issue for donald trump but he just cannot stay on message. he does not think it is a most important topic and attacks the way ms harris laughs. he has an idiosyncratic take on inflation. this is a tictac and this is inflation. this is what has happened. kamala harris was beside joe biden as his vice president during a period of rapid inflation. will she be blamed for the price rises or rewarded for her promises to bring them down future? sarah smith, bbc news. walmart�*squarterly revenue grew by nearly 5% as more people

visited stores and purchased goods online. comparable sales is up by more than 4% compared to one year ago. the company also raised its outlook for the year sending shares climbing on wall street by over 6%. tapestry saw a strong quarter, amid growing demand for its popular coach handbags. for april tojune, the company saw net sales of over $1.5 billion, with sales at coach accounting for over 70% of that revenue. the solid result comes despite a slowdown in consumer spending globally. in india the prime minister addressed the nation touching on the country's goal of becoming the world's third—largest economy. our business correspondent has more in the speech. the message was that the government is - committed to economic reform, accelerating india's growth and ensuring the country becomes the world's third—largest economy in the next few years. this was an independence day speech that was all about

highlighting india's achievements and how it has the potential to become a global new factoring harbour, how several and companies are looking at india as a favourable investment destination. while some of that is true and it did help remain the case that foxcomm's chief was here in india to discuss investment opportunities, you also have other big players like google, meta and apple looking at growth opportunities in the country. on a separate note, the prime minister also highlighted the countries renewable energy ambitions as well and its efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. the glowing report card is important to highlight many of the challenges that the economy is facing. i renewable energy it is important to say that india is still heavily reliant on coal for its electricity needs and remains the world's third largest emitter. on paper, india remains one of the fastest growing economies challenges like unemployment among the educated indian youth as well as sluggish private consumption could mean challenges remain. so while

progress has been made in many sectors there are also several areas that the government still needs to focus on. the league has widened its fanbase beyond england for decades now with asian television audiences and companies helping drive revenues. just yesterday qualcomm extended its sponsorship deal. james walton goes into what makes the league dominant despite the emergence of several new leagues in the region. the premier league is the most watched sports league in the world with around 3.2 billion regular viewers and it is estimated that of those over half are in asia and over 25% of the television audience. this has been an historical thing. if you go back to the 90s, the premier league was the first league to be regularly

broadcast in asia and ever since that time the fan base has stuck with what is possibly the most exciting league in the world. , ., ., wouldn't they. how close other leagues, other leagues to matching that. the chinese league make it push, the saudi league as well. the biggest | rivals have been the spanish league, the italian league of particularfor a period in 90s and early 2000, and occasionally the german league but if you walk around the streets of asia and look at what shirts you are seeing being worn four of the top six most supported teams are from the english remi league. so beyond barcelona and real madrid, possiblyjuventus or bayern munich it is all about the premier league and has been for maybe 20 years now. and with that a lot of money has been flowing into the premier league from asia as well. talk to us about how asian companies are looking at sponsoring and getting involved in the product of the premier league.-

average year at the moment we see as many as half, sometimes ii of the 20 teams in the premier league having asian companies as their main shirt sponsor and there are more and more opportunities. a team like manchester united may have american companies on the front of the shirt but they have apollo tyres from india, and other sponsors as well. big companies like aia i should sponsors and a big development in recent years has been gambling companies. this will change from the end of 2025—26 when gambling companies are no longer be a main shirt sponsor but many asian companies have been shirt sponsors for major premier league teams as well. i we mention manchester united who kick off the start of the season playing in the first game later today against fulham who they will host. ipswich

town take on liverpool and arsenal will host wolfs and the reigning champions manchester city will visit chelsea this weekend. that is it for us, have a great weekend.

type a level grades have written for the first time since 2021. 28% of all grades marked a star or a and four or five students got to the top choice university. an update on the war in gaza where officials say the number of palestinians killed during israel's military campaign has risen to more than 40,000. israel has questioned figures which do not say how many fighters are among the dead. it comes as talks on reaching a ceasefire to end the conflict over resumed in qatar. some of the stories now. five people have been charged over the death of friend within a star matthew perry who was found unresponsive at his home in la in october. a postmortem

bounties suffered in fatal overdose of ketamine. those charged had explored the star, according to police, for financial gain. there is a warning about a rise in cases of antibiotic resistant gonorrhoea. most cases can be treated quickly but there is growing worry over strains that cannot be dealt with as easily. if left untreated maria can cause major health issues including infertility. —— if left untreated gonorrhoea can cause. time now for ten seconds of the northern lights from space. solar storms can graded the ideal conditions for aurora borealis and matthew dominika recorded this incredible timelapse of it from international space station. that looks amazing. you have all caught up now, see you

later.

hello and welcome to sportsday. i'm gavin ramjaun. here's what's coming up: it's back. the premier league is about to get under way again, with manchester city going for five in a row. tottenham suspended yves bissouma for their opening on monday, afterfootage appeared to show him inhaling laughing gas. and the australian breakdancer whose performance at the paris 0lympics was criticised says the abuse has been devastatating.

hello there, and welcome to the programme. we've not long to wait now until the return of the premier league. we've had the euros, and the olympics in the meantime but the drama is back as of friday night. whether it's manchester city going for five in a row, their rivals attempting to dethrone them, or even for the relegation—threatened a calming comfort of mid—table mediocrity. every one of those 20 clubs have something to play for in the new premier league season. it all kicks off at old trafford, where manchester united host fulham. united's new signings, mattias de ligt and noussair mazraoui, will be in the squad. manager erik ten hag is concerned his team aren't ready. the new players have onlyjust arrived and he says he has injury concerns across several key positions. it is not able to play those who are not available. last season was about the players who are available and we had a

good group and can make a strong selection and put out a