the owner of facebook gears up to launch its rival platform to twitter, as the social media giant battles its latest controversy. plus china sees its auto exports jump in the first five months of this year! and it's partly due to the war in ukraine. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm mariko oi. it's being described as twitter�*s biggest threat. meta's new app called "threads" will launch on thursday. it's already available for pre—order on apple's app store. screengrabs show a dashboard that looks very similar to twitter�*s. meta, which owns facebook, say threads will be part of its instagram platform, so it will be connected to hundreds

of millions of accounts. ray wang is a principal analyst of constellation research, explains why "threads" could be a serious challenge to twitter. this is a massive threat. if you think about twitter, it only has about 150 million active users. if you see what is going on with facebook and instagram, we are talking the 2.96 billion users. let's put this in simple terms. 50 million is the number we use to say mass adoption of technology has occurred. facebook live dated 2a hours. mark zuckerberg can get to 50 million users and probably less than 2a hours. i can pick it to 150 million euros in less than two months. it's a direct threat to delay or stop light at the same time, some of the users are not happy with the recent restrictions like the number of tweets that

you can look at. why is elon musk doing this is yet? you don't normally _ musk doing this is yet? you don't normally have - musk doing this is yet? 7m. don't normally have that musk doing this is yet? 7m, don't normally have that login to be able to access twitter. that ended about 48 hours ago. what that meant was that everybody was scraping twitter data to bring social feeds, to get to things that could train artificial intelligence and machine language models, and he wanted to put an end to that. so there were two things that were going on, which is about keeping a eye out of its public domain, the second one was different, there is an internal problem that is creating the cursive loop, basically something is impacting the performance of their software that they had to limit the number of users. simple things were happening at the same time from what source is a, and that is why there are some limits that where going in, but that lead people to click the blue sky, and there is a lot of interest of folks going into these new facebook product threads. part of the reason for thatis threads. part of the reason for that is it's got to blue sky, and there is a lot of interest of folks going into these new

facebook product threads. part of the reason for that is it's got similar architecture, which is what is being used to power things like twitter and other social networks. i remember speaking _ social networks. i remember speaking to _ social networks. i remember speaking to you _ social networks. i remember speaking to you just - social networks. i remember speaking to you just after. speaking to you just after linda took over as the boss of twitter, and you were quite optimistic about her leadership. do these latest moves, do they show that there might be some internal tensions between the two?— between the two? actually, not reall . it between the two? actually, not really. it looks _ between the two? actually, not really. it looks like _ between the two? actually, not really. it looks like on - between the two? actually, not really. it looks like on the - really. it looks like on the surface there may be tension, but these are things that have to be done keep twitter out in the forefront because they don't want their information publicly available and used, but at the same time, then is working on advertising and advertising capabilities, bringing the appetisers back to trying to get twitter to be a much more safe community, and, of course, trying to figure out where they sit in the world between free speech and of course an advertising network. so these things are still happening. i would say that threads is the biggest threat to twitter. threads is the biggest threat to twitter-— to twitter. how will it bring back those _ to twitter. how will it bring back those advertisers? - to twitter. how will it bring | back those advertisers? was to twitter. how will it bring - back those advertisers? was on the number fall. back those advertisers? was on the numberfall. are they starting to come back? the number fall. are they starting to come back? there is

a lona starting to come back? there is a long road _ starting to come back? there is a long road ahead _ starting to come back? there is a long road ahead for _ a long road ahead for advertisers to come back. part of it is getting more users on board. and with threads popping up, for example, let's get to 150 million users in less than 60 days. people will want to advertise directly on facebook and instagram. at least corporations would prefer to do that over twitter, and that will be the challenge linda faces. ray and i were speaking about twitter�*s new temporary treat cap the company's new chief executive linda yaccarino has defended it. she tweeted that with a "mission like twitter, you need to make big moves to keep strengthening the platform". twitter said only a small percentage of users have been affected by the new limits with minimal impact on advertising. let's turn to china now because it's overtaken japan as the world's top car exporter. their numbers surged 80% year—on—year in the first five months of 2023. that's thanks to a jump in sales to russia, following its invasion of

ukraine. combustion engines represent the majority of these exports, but there's also growing global momentum behind china's electric vehicles. earlier i spoke with bill russo of consulting firm automobility and he gave his take on the numbers. fax a made chair good guy for this year in terms of the tailwind for china. but it's been on the rise for the last three years since 2020, china's experts have more than tripled, quadruple to come if you look at the full year this year. a lot of what is driving it is frankly the slowdown in demand in china, which creates a whole lot of excess capacity in china while producing cars, which the pressure than is really by exporting to other countries. you talked about weakening domestic demand, and we have been getting quite a lot of weak economic data from china. how worried are you with that especially things like high

unemployment rate among youth, that could affect car sales going forward step bill that is certainly a drag on demand. last year we had supply—chain restrictions, which constrained the growth in the market, but frankly, since 2017, the market for automobiles has not been a growth market, it peaked that year at 28.9 million units, and last year 26.9 million. so the demand has gone down, in particular the shift to electrification has caused the gasoline powered vehicles to decline significantly. that puts a lot of pressure on the factories that are geared up to sell those types of vehicles, and if he cancel them to china,... you mention a shift towards electric cars. does that mean that meant the majority of those cars exported are still combustion engines? more than three quarters. the world is kind of waiting for the affordable chinese cars to arrive, but it before that

happens, you are going to get a lot of affordable gasoline powered vehicles in fact, seven at the top ten chinese exporters state owned enterprises, these are not ev disruptors. the lady, who is arguably the most powerfully ev company and about didn't even come in the top ten list year, they were ninth so far this year, so they haven't prioritised experts yet because they have enough domestic demand. that is likely to change as this market saturates. companies will be looking for other places to sell. bill russo speaking to me a little earlier. _ sell. bill russo speaking to me a little earlier. speaking - sell. bill russo speaking to me a little earlier. speaking of - a little earlier. speaking of that were in ukraine, the maker of cornetto ice cream and dove soap has defended its decision to keep operating in russia more than a year after moscow invaded ukraine. unilever said an exit was "not straightforward" because its operations would be taken over by russia if it left. this is after a campaign group called the moral rating agency estimated the company contributes some $730 million dollars to the russian

economy annually. in the uk — the country's largest water supplier thames water has been fined $4.2 million dollars for polluting rivers. this was after it discharged millions of litres of sewage back in 2017 killing over 1,000 fish. the fine heaps more pressure on the company as it struggles with debts of over $17 billion dollars. jonah fisher with the story. stretch of river near gatwick airport once popular with local anglers full of dead fish. this was the aftermath of the sewage spill and october 2017. investigators counted more than 1400. the realfigure is likely to have been much higher. the fish died when raw sewage was pumped out of this water

treatment facility. it was a mistake, but in court, the environment agency listed a catalogue of errors tends water had made both before and after the spell. warning signs were ignored, infrastructure was inadequate, and in the days after the incident, britton's biggest water company deliberately misled investigators. —— thames river. they told us seven times that nothing had happened at the sewage works. when they did except responsibility, they suddenly took a formal challenge, asking us to remove the incident from our records. having been fined £35 million, thames river says it's now cleaned up its act.- thames river says it's now cleaned up its act. this has happened _ cleaned up its act. this has happened six _ cleaned up its act. this has happened six years - cleaned up its act. this has happened six years ago, i cleaned up its act. this has i happened six years ago, that was then committed is now. == was then committed is now. -- thames water. _ was then committed is now. —— thames water. democratic new chief executive committee and spent three years devising a turnaround plan. that chief

executive left last week as the extent of thames water's problems became clear. anyone in a statement apologised for what she said where the errors and poorjudgment that led to the misleading the environment agency. ifind a £35 million is a tiny amount when compared to the £14 billion of debt that tends water has accumulated since privatisation. servicing that debt remains a huge headache, and today, the head of the water regulator said too much money had been borrowed and that efforts are still continuing to try to find the money to shore up the finances of britain's biggest water company. and that's it for this edition of asia business report. thanks for watching.

bringing you different stories from across the uk. in amongst these professional musicians from the orchestra of opera north are students from the royal northern college of music here in manchester. it's a spectacularform of learning on thejob. the college became the royal northern college of music in 1973. it was founded by sir charles hal 80 years earlier. today, 900 students study each year from 60 countries studying in schools dedicated to disciplines like strings, percussion, popular music. musical history is important here, too. back to the modern day, though, and playing with opera will be lizzie, who wants to work as a music therapist with young people, and marcus, who's from brazil. really exciting opportunity for us all to be able to perform alongside

industry professionals. i told people i'm moving to the uk and everyone will be like, oh, you're going to london? they'll say, no, no, i'm going to manchester. across the hall we've also got things like the manchester collective as well. it's a really buzzing classical scene. the royal colleges 50th anniversary celebrations culminate with a collaboration with manchester international festival on the 8th ofjuly. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. hey, i'm zof with the catch up. tonight — arrival to twitter, rental nightmares and a trip down memory lane, but we start with another new social media app. if you have any space left on your phone that is this is threads. it's due to go live thursday described as a text based conversation app. these screenshots show a dashboard that looks a bit similar to another huge social giant, twitter. threads is owned by meta, which you might know

as the company behind facebook and instagram. meta says the threads app will be linked to insta. it appears the app will be free. the new app follows another dramatic week for twitter after billionaire owner elon musk announced a cap on how many posts people could see each day. the popular user dashboard tweetdeck will also go behind a paywall in 30 days' time. if you're a renter, you probably know how tough things are right now from rent things are right now from rent increases to difficulty increases to difficulty finding a place. finding a place. the bbc has found that the bbc has found that thousands of rental ads say thousands of rental ads say children and pets aren't welcome. it's not illegal, but it can make things harder for certain groups. 0ne homelessness charity, shelter, say one in five families are barred because of their children. this includes many single parents. mps are considering more protections for renters in england. they would be part of a bill that's currently in the house of commons called

the renters reform bill. now for 10 seconds of a pretty sight in the sky, it's called a full book, supermoon. it looks a bit bigger and brighter than normal because it's closer to earth than usual, 21,000 4 in chaotic circumstances. kilometres, that is. in fact, you're all caught up now. see you later. hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm marc edwards coming to you from the bbc sport centre here's what we've got coming up in our show. defending champion elena rybakina survives a scare to start her wimbledon campaign with a win. world number1 carlos alcaraz is up and running seeing off veteran jeremy chardy. there's carnage on the track at the tour de france

butjasper philipsen wins stage