this is the business briefing. i'm victoria fritz. amazon, and on. another huge quarter for the online retail giant as it posts record profits. but are its days of massive growth coming to an end? plus, selling the new silk road. china pushes its trillion—dollar infrastructure plan at a summit in beijing — amid growing concern from the us and its allies. and on the markets: asian shares subdued after a mixed session on wall street — investors awaiting a key estimate of us economic growth due out later. a string of solid earnings reports from us firms giving some optimism ahead of that figure.

we start with amazon, because the world's biggest online retailer just got bigger. it has raked in another huge quarter of revenues as it rides the boom in online shopping. growth is slowing down, but importantly for its investors, amazon is starting to make more profit. let's show you some of the numbers. amazon made revenues ofjust under $60 billion in the three months to the end of march. up 17% on the same period last year and better than expected. but it's still far slower than the company has been used to of late. here's the important bit though: $3.5 billion of that was profit —

more than double the amount it made last year. that's a whole year of record profits. investors have long been concerned that amazon, vast though it is, doesn't make enough money, because margins on online retailing are too small, and it's spending too much on new ventures. but some of those ventures are really starting to pay off. for example amazon's seeing huge growth in providing cloud computing services to companies. amazon web services saw sales jump over 41%. here's michelle fleury in new york. the quarterly earnings report marks a period of change for the tech giant. sales growth is slow but it's making bigger profits than ever before. just to give you an example, revenue rose 17% in the first three months of this year, that may sound impressive and to compare it to the previous year when revenue grew less. that tax rate on the second

quarter might not have such avenues for investors. a disappointing forecast keeping the share price grounded after a blockbuster first quarter. technology analyst stephanie harejoins me now. growth seems to be slowing. does that matter? there is a between growth and profitability. for a long time, amazon was criticised for not making money. the big that that they made was putting money back, you can argue it's paid off for some of the biggest companies in the world. through the interesting is how it's diversified source of income. amazon is number three behind google and facebook in advertising revenue. it's also owning the space and web services and there's the whole retail side of it. it's got other ventures as well. it started to focus on profit and you notice that rating margins are better, they produced losses, this is a company

thatis produced losses, this is a company that is extremely well—run and the question is going to be, what they do in the next quarter? do they take some money back and reinvested? and it looks like there might be a ring vesting it. —— might be reinvested. how tragic it one day delivery gci’oss how tragic it one day delivery across the world. that is going to cost a lot of money. there are going to cost a lot of money and is going to cost a lot of money and is going to be an environmental cost. you can argue about their ‘s model in terms of how workers are treated and there's a lot to be thought about. there are this is a company that has really diversified its income stream and is going very aggressively. he knows exactly what he's doing and where he's going. it's interesting you touched on that social responsibility side of things, they we re very responsibility side of things, they were very much pushing that on the earnings call last night, is this a company that is more socially responsible than some of the other tax chance you look at? it's a very difficult question. alexa has been

criticised for people listening on the other end and the technology is not great because you can trace back listening to someone's geolocation so listening to someone's geolocation so you think about privacy violations there are quite big. this issues of packaging, can the make packaging more sustainable on the retail angle and the costs of delivery, you could say consolidating everything into one day delivery is better than having multiple deliveries every time. yes and no. room to improve. and what's interesting is that your financial officer was saying that he is hoping by decreasing delivery times it's going to stimulant my sales but does the world need more stuff? that's a point of view. wall street would love us to buy and buy until the end of time. environmentalists would like to provide a little less. and amazonas trading both aspects of that and making money on both ends of it. let's turn to the trade war between the us and china now — because president trump has raised hopes there could be a deal soon

to end the $400 billion stand—off. his top economic officials are heading to beijing for more talks next week. but in a speech to the families of white house staff on "bring your child to work day" president trump announced he would soon be hosting china's president xi. that's led to optimism a deal—signing ceremony is on the cards. they're making they‘ re making sure they're making sure the white house puts its best foot forward when we welcome foreign leaders on american soil. we have the japanese prime minister coming tomorrow, it will be a very important eating. it will soon be having president xi from china coming. many leaders, ultimately all of the great leaders come here. let's stay with china, because more than thirty world leaders are gathering in beijing for a summit on the belt and road initiative. that's a trillion—dollar plan

to link china with its export markets around the world via new ports, roads and railways — a modern version of the ancient silk road. john sudworth is our correspondent in beijingit has raised concerns from the us and its allies that china is expanding its sphere of influence — and trapping poorer countries in debt with costly infrastructure projects. there's lots of controversy is the easiest way to sum it up. as you mentioned, this is a huge dealfor china. it is intimately linked with the president himself, it's in a spat product. a lot of people see yet on the surface is packaged as a plan to enhance global prosperity and interconnectivity, all things that people would applaud. a lot of people see it as designed for more troubling motives. critics say that it essentially locks recipient

countries into unsustainable debt burdens that often the projects are to the benefit of, solid to the benefit of chinese banks and businesses and the expense of local workers in central asia and africa we re workers in central asia and africa were a lot of these projects are taking shape. another country is india, notably seasoned as an extension of chinese global strategic interest. this is essentially a trojan horse for china to exporters politics and its values. a huge amount of criticism but on the other hand, it's not going away, you can't ignore it, a lot of people are taking a very aquatic approach, seeing what's in it for them and their economies and i think that's why you have 37 global leaders here in beijing. do we have an idea as to how this product is going to be funded? do think it will be debt? essentially debt is the main driver. these are

infrastructure projects built on chinese government the ending. notably, i think what we had in the president ‘s opening address today, as well as lofty idea of the talk of men— when cooperation. this is the first, from the man himself acknowledging some of these criticisms, the need for sustainability, the need for getting other countries involved and a zero tolerance approach to corruption. now let's brief you on some other business stories. taxi app company uber could be about to announce its much—anticipated stock market listing. according to reuters, it will unveil plans later on friday for an initial public offering that would value the company at between 80 and $90 billion. shares of ford surged in after—hours trading after it revealed results that were much

better than expected — and predicted a strong 2019. it has been boosted by strong sales of pick up trucks in its core us market. tesla boss elon musk and the us financial regulator, the securities and exchange commission, have asked for more time to settle their legal battle over his use of twitter. the sec sued musk last year for making fraudulent statements after he tweeted he had funding secured to buy out tesla, sending shares soaring. it has since accused him of breaking the terms of their settlement by tweeting further market—sensitive information about tesla. and now, what's trending in the business news this morning. business insider looks at how amazon is defending itself from the haters by talking up all the worthy things it is doing. the earnings statement is full

of details of social projects it's undertaking — amid growing criticism of the company's market power and employment conditions. cnbc reports comments from an interview with ford's chief financial officer — ‘the ship is starting to turn' for the company, says bob shanks. and a worrying report on bloomberg for mobile phone makers. people are hanging onto their old phone for longer than ever. verizon in the us says the upgrade rate fell to a record low last quarter. and don't forget, let us know what you are spotting online — use #bbcthebriefing. that's it for the business briefing this hour, but before we go, here are the markets. asian markets retreating on friday thanks to strengthening us dollar and ahead of us growth figures.

crude oil prices dipping from six—month highs as supply concerns eased. japanese industrial production fell at its fastest pace in almost four years in march, according to a preliminary reading, while retail sales in the country picked up pace. citizen's advice says council tax debt in england and wales is on the rise. a single missed payment can escalate to a bill of more than two thousand pounds within weeks. colletta smith reports. unpaid council tax is a growing problem. it's the biggest issue for

people contacting citizen —— citizens advice with worries about debt. after there was more than £3 billion of outstanding bills. mps and the national audit office have criticised local councils for the way they try to get the money back, through aggressive bailiffs and external companies. citizens advice as the rules for how the debt calculated need to change to subject smiling. if someone misses a payment they become wild for the cost of the rest of the years bill within a fortnight. at this point in the financial year, an average missed payment of 106 to £7 results in a bill for the full year ‘s charge, plus court costs and other fees. within a few months people could be facing debts of more than £2000. citizens advice says that debt can be crippling. last year around £500 million of additional fees and

charges were added onto people ‘s council tax debt. for an average person that looks like about £300 of fees and charges which doesn't have the person repay the debt. it doesn't help the council because of money has to be recovered as well as... the government say they expect councils to be sympathetic to people and hardship. councils have faced huge budget cuts and anyone having trouble paying bills should get in touch with the local authority. citizens advice say that more than 2 million households facing cancelled debts are being pushed further into the red rather than helped out of it. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: cyclone kenneth makes landfall in northern mozambique — it's forecast to bring storm surges to a country already devastated by floods.

president macron outlines tax cuts and other plans to modernise the french economy and bring an end to weeks of protests. prince william has delivered a powerful message on defeating extremism as he met victims of the mosques attacks in new zealand. now it's time to look at what's making the headlines in media across the world. we begin with french paper le figaro. and a frontpage picture of president emmanuel macron's first major press conference in two years, where he responded to the yellow vest movement with promises of tax cuts and higher pensions. in the financial times — this article looks at how shareholders of royal dutch shell, which is the joint owner of brunei's biggest oil venture, might pressure the government to push for gay rights in the country. it follows the introduction of harsh new laws where gay sex and abortion