this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. ‘liked' by wall street again, facebook shrugs off privacy concerns as earnings surge despite a multi—billion dollar hit from us regulators. plus, fears grow for sri lanka's tourism industry — vital to its fragile economy — we hear from one of the country's top hotel bosses. and on the markets, asian markets slip on concerns about a slowing global economy. wall street drifts lower at the close, but still around record highs on strong corporate earnings. we will also be live to tokyo in a moment to hear about ghosn.

we start with facebook. it's continuing to grow — to make more money — and to attract more users despite ongoing concerns about privacy on its platforms. facebook says revenues were just over $15 billion in the three months to march, that's a jump of 26% on this time last year and better than wall street was expecting. it's benefiting from a surge in advertising spending on the platform, and a growth in instagram. but it's warning it could face a hit of up to $5 billion as it settles us investigations into its handling of users‘ data after the cambridge analytica scandal.

it's already spent $3 billion in legal expenses this quarter. those privacy concerns clearly aren't putting people off facebook, the number of people using it at least once a month is 2.38 billion, up 8% on this time last year. more than 1.5 billion people log on every day. facebook shares slumped lastjuly when it reported disappointing revenue numbers and warned user growth was slowing. investors wiped $120 billion off its market value. but look how their confidence in the company has been returning. since december, shares are up almost a0%. this month the company introduced a ‘why am i seeing this?‘ feature, which allows people to see why they've been targeted for certain adverts. it's all part of the company's push towards transparency. it's also been changing its algorithms to try and ‘re—personalise‘ the experience,

prioritising posts from friends and family over politics and commercial messages. here's samira hussain in new york. there are two big segways from these earnings. one, facebook seems to be taking privacy much more seriously thanit taking privacy much more seriously than it had before. and two, despite all of those privacy issues, facebook is still able to get more people to sign up onto the platform and continue to engage people on the side. —— facebook seems to be taking privacy more seriously. mark zuckerberg said the future of the company will be in private in group did services. it's a recognition that social media companies, a lot of them, not just that social media companies, a lot of them, notjust facebook, have eroded the public‘s confidence that they are able to keep people's information safe. facebook has says it was mike —— legal battles haven't been resolved and it is unclear how long it will take. right. fergus hay is chief executive

of the advertising agency leagas delaney. welcome. we outline the numbers. samira hussain talked about some of the key issues, the fine was a big one, we don't know what it looks like yet. give us your take on facebook‘s numbers. what a cracking business at the core of it. at the heart of it, it looks like a strong business, but the question is their immediate business. they are relying on the confidence of advertisers in the immediate term. when they face reputational damage, for example the mental health impact on the younger generation, social impact, and the roles in corrupting the integrity of the democratic process, they have some challenges. ever since the cambridge analytical scandal erupted, there was more and more bad news about facebook —— analytica,

but advertising revenue is going up every month. we talk about users leaving facebook, and there is a lot of negativity out there, but we haven't seen an impact on their performance. there is always a consumer lie, we also have to think about the next generation of consumers, are they going to choose consumers, are they going to choose consumers does make a consumer lag. commitments zuckerberg has made are reassuring to everyone and quite dramatic, i think a —— for the 2020 elections, with facebook be allowed to be manipulated again? i think they will try to show that they are greater. and for the european elections, what's happening on facebook in relation to those, but what you think the authorities will decide? we are waiting for this fine but there are also regards to zuckerberg, as chairman and i kind of thing. that is a big risk for them, they have to have the in the leadership team, they've lost a few

senior leaders recently, that raises a question of depth and clearly, any business that has a big figurehead relies on that reputation of that figurehead. it is interesting to see how they will innovate products for the future. as they implement payment platforms into instagram, they move out of being media and more of a tech is the system does make technology ecosystem like tencent did in china. more on our website as well if you are interested for more detail. let's go to sri lanka now, where fears are growing for the country's vital tourism industry after the bombings on easter sunday, now known to have killed 359 people. tourism is one of the country's main sources of foreign currency, vital for servicing its debts and it supports the livelihoods of around a million people.

the chairman of hotel chainjetwing says the impact on his business has been immediate. we have had cancellations immediately and we have given the money back as that is the best thing we can do. the best thing we can do is treat our customers well and understand their feelings, we understand their feelings, we understand they don't want to come right now, but please consider coming back in a month's right now, but please consider coming back in a months time, twomonth's time. i remember talking toa twomonth's time. i remember talking to a decade ago after the indian ocean soon army and you said that blanket would bounce back from that —— tsunami. blanket would bounce back from that -- tsunami. how has progress been from that? fantastic. after 2009 we we re from that? fantastic. after 2009 we were a very safe, solid that the nation to travel to. tourism employs close to i nation to travel to. tourism employs close toi million people, and so

far in the short term, it will be painful, but we are room resilient people —— we are our resilient people. we will bounce back. how can you be so confident that it will bounce back, though? what steps will the tourism authority, some of the boards you have sat on in the past, what kind of steps are they going to have to take? first and foremost, we need to make sure that people who passed away are handled with grace and dignity and that they are — that is the most important thing at the moment. after everything settles down, then we can start a programme of marketing and promoting the destination again. the chairman of jetwing there speaking in sri lanka. let's go to tokyo now where the former boss of nissan and renault, carlos ghosn, could be out ofjail again soon after he was granted bailfor a second time.

mr ghosn is facing a series of charges of financial misconduct, all of which he denies. our correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes is following the story. rupert, out for a second time, but ata rupert, out for a second time, but at a price. $4.5 million this time? that is right. it looks like mr ghosn could come out of the tokyo house of detention may be in the next few hours. i understand that his legal team has already posted that 4.5 million us dollars with the tokyo district court, so it is possible that the tokyo prosecutors will appeal against his release. it's also possible that they could of course rearrest him and file new charges, but i think it is most likely, the greatest likelihood now that we will see carlos ghosn walk out of the tokyo has a detention again for out of the tokyo has a detention againfora out of the tokyo has a detention again for a second time sometime in the coming hours. and this is becoming ever more complicated, isn't it? with layer upon layer of charges? yeah, i think we should

look at this legal close sort of as a warof look at this legal close sort of as a war of attrition does my case, between mr ghosn‘s legal team and the tokyo prosecutors office. they started his arrest in november last year on fairly late charges, not terribly serious criminal offences according to lawyers and ex— prosecutors i spoke to. while he's beenin prosecutors i spoke to. while he's been in detention, while this investigation is carried on, the prosecutors have gradually come up with more and more allegations against him and they have filed charges against him but i more serious each time. the latest ones filed on monday —— but they are more serious each time. the latest case, thatis serious each time. the latest case, that is certainly the most serious yet filed against him. thank you rupert. now let's brief you on some other business stories. tesla says it lostjust over $700 million in the first three months of the year. the electric car maker burnt

through $1.5 billion of its cash reserves in the period, leaving it with $2.2 billion at the end of march, rekindling concerns it will have to go to investors to raise more money. the stock market value of microsoft briefly topped a trillion dollars for the first time, overtaking apple, after profits beat wall street expectations and bosses predicted continuing growth for its cloud computing business. and that is your is in this briefing. —— and that is your business briefing. cornelia will be back shortly to talk to some of the

stories that the global media is grappling with today. labour is pledging to reverse cuts to thousands of bus services across england and wales at a cost of £1.3 billion pounds a year. the party says the policy would be paid for by vehicle excise duty but the conservatives claim labour's plans would slash funding for road repairs. here's our political correspondent nick eardley. buses of the most popular form of public transport, accounting for nearly 60% of ourjourneys. campaigners say cuts in funding have hit local services hard. if you live ina town, hit local services hard. if you live in a town, it might not make much of a difference, but if you live in the suburbs, you will have seen a few does make fewer buses going to fewer places, if you live in the country, you might not see any bosses at all. more than 3000 groups in england and wales might have in cutback are withdrawn can legally —— roots. —— roots cut back or withdrawn

completely. the idea is that the £1.3 billion cut could find new services and provide a boost were new towns and cities does make for. it's up to politicians to follow suit. westminster would distribute money from a central part. the conservatives say they already spend £1 billion per year providing the bus travel, but the greens think more cash is needed and the lid dams look to bus companies to make money. buses are a crucial public service and there is a big debate on how to make it work for a sole, nick ea rd ley, make it work for a sole, nick eardley, bbc news does not work for us eardley, bbc news does not work for us all. they will talk you through all the stories in breakfast, including the number of children who

have not been vaccinated against the measles, which is seeing cases rise. the headlines. a guard of honourfor the north korean leader as he arrives in russia. the first ever summit between kim jong—un and vladimir putin is about to begin. top sri lankan officials lose theirjobs over the intelligence failures before sunday's attacks, as new details emerge about the bombers. hey now it's time to look what's hey making headlines around the world. we begin with the washington post and the meeting of two. looking at the front page of the scottish times, this headline says the head of the scottish government, nicola sturgeon, is plotting course for a second referendum to break away from the united kingdom.

but the scottish daily mail is putting this bid behind a long list of what is says are bigger priorities. buzzfeed.com is looking at the power of facebook advertising in the european elections. the article says nigel farage's brexit party is spending almost twice as much as rivals on campaigning on the social media platform. meantime on the continent, groups are lobbing facebook to relax advertising rules which currently make advertising in the 28 members states complicated. in the wall streetjournal, as the may 1st deadline for new sanctions on buyers of iranian oil looms — tehran is warning the us of consequences for blocking its future oil sales. the story says iran's foreign minister has also suggested prisoner exchanges, which could lead to the freeing of british—iranian nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe.