a historic visit — the us presidentjoins the picket line of auto workers on strike in michigan and declares his support for their struggle. plus — amazon in the crosshairs. regulators take aim at the tech giant, accusing it of adopting anti—competitive strategies. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm arunoday mukharji. we begin in michigan, where the us president has made a historic visit to a picket line of auto industry workers. while us lawmakers 7 and presidential candidates 7 frequently appear at strikes to express solidarity with american workers, it is considered unprecedented for a sitting president to do so. biden�*s visit comes a day before his would?be challenger, donald trump, is due to arrive. there's concern that the strike targeting three major us car companies could dent growth in the world's largest economy. still, the us president backed the striking workers�* call for a 40% pay raise, telling them they deserve a "lot more" than they are getting.

you deserve the significant raise you need, and other benefits. get back what we lost, 0k? it's about time they step up for us. wall street didn't build the country. the middle class built the country. unions built the middle class. that's a fact! so let's keep going. you deserve what you've earned, and you've earned a hell of a lot more than you're getting paid now. thank you very much. now, the biden administration has also been taking aim at the us tech sector. the competition regulator, the federal trade commission, has filed a lawsuit against amazon accusing it of protecting its market dominance in online retail at the expense of consumers and third 7 party sellers. our north american business correspondent erin delmore has more from new york. it's a case that has been in the works for years under the watchful eye of ftc chair lina khan, who made her name in the anti—trust world with a blockbuster 2017 legal paper detailing amazon's monopoly footing.

on thursday, khan's ftc struck its widest blow against amazon yet, a sweeping lawsuit alleging the company stifled competition in its online marketplace. 17 statesjoined in. the lawsuit challenges a bunch of amazon's business practices, including prioritising its own products and search results ahead of ones by third party sellers and anti—discounting measures that ensured sellers list their lowest prices on amazon and requiring sellers to use amazon's network of delivery services as a condition of being included in its popular prime subscription service. rivals, according to the ftc, just couldn't compete. but amazon rejected those accusations, saying that the low prices and fast delivery that customers enjoy are thanks to those very practices. amazon's share price fell on the news, but is still up year to date. the case is the latest in a wide ranging effort in washington to rein in the power of big tech and the fourth targeting amazon directly. this new case is expected to take years to work its way

through the courts. and while the ftc says it's seeking an injunction blocking amazon's, quote, unlawful conduct, it also raised the spectre of a restructuring. now, it's notjust in the us that tech giants are facing increased scrutiny. a european commission study has found that x, formerly known as twitter, has the biggest proportion of disinformation of six big social networks. it examined over 6,000 unique social media posts across facebook, instagram, linkedin, tiktok, x, and youtube. the content came from three countries. spain, poland and slovakia. deemed particularly at risk to disinformation due to elections or proximity to the war in ukraine. staying with us tech giants, let's zoom in on a company nearly everyone uses to search the web. google is marking its 25th anniversary at a time when the tech sector is being disrupted by the widespread roll? out of artificial intelligence. earlier i spoke to google�*s president for the asia pacific region and he told me how

google is performing in the race to develop ai applications. i think we are placed well, it has certainly fuelled the whole company with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. we have looked at al as being pretty pivotal to the future of technology for a number of years. we announced in 2016 that we were aspiring to be an ai first company. and we've organisations like deep mind, the extraordinary work that goes on within an organisation like the google research function, we hope that what consumers and our partners will see in the field of ai will feed them with lots of excitement going forward in terms of what is possible. well, one labour dispute that's been in the news for a few months now is a step closer to being resolved. a hollywood writers�* union said its members could return to work on wednesday. it comes after the writers guild of america reached a contract agreement with hollywood studio bosses. the deal includes pay raises, protections around the use

of artificial intelligence and other gains. the wga's 11,500 members writers still have to vote to ratify the contract themselves. let's turn to china's property market, because troubles keep piling up for property giant evergrande. 0ur asia business correspondent nick marsh has the latest. more bad news for evergrande. even though their shares are practically worthless at the moment, they have still managed to lose over 25% of their value just this week. on monday, a very complicated debt restructuring plan collapsed after evergrande revealed that a regulatory probe was under way into its main domestic unit, henda real estate group. and now they've confirmed that they've defaulted on more than half a billion dollars�* worth of money which is owed to their overseas creditors. plus we are hearing reports in china, unconfirmed by the bbc, that several former and current executives,

including the former chief executive, have been detained by the chinese authorities. this has all the hallmarks of a slow managed decline of a company that, let�*s not forget, that owes more than $300 billion, most of which is owed to people in china still waiting for their unfinished homes to be built. but it�*s this overseas debt which is putting their survival in doubt — these foreign creditors have managed to force a hearing in hong kong at the end of october and if an agreement isn�*t reached before then, liquidation is a real possibility. earlier i spoke to eveline danubrate from redd intelligence and she told me the latest news is yet another blow to investor confidence in evergrande and china�*s property sector. i think the latest news will likely damage confidence even more. if the confidence of key

stakeholders like the lenders and home—buyers and contractors is set, there is a question over the company�*s ability to generate new cash and to repay existing obligations. if there is no new cash coming in, essentially everyone is fighting for a piece of a shrinking pie. the issue of how do you slice and dice it, how do you slice and dice it, how do you slice and dice it, how do you decide what to give different people. so i think this is the key challenge going forward, trying to restore confidence.— forward, trying to restore confidence. �* , confidence. bei'ing has been clear that _ confidence. bei'ing has been clear that their— confidence. beijing has been clear that their priority - confidence. beijing has been clear that their priority is - confidence. beijing has been clear that their priority is to l clear that their priority is to ensure housing projects are completed, but is that easier said than done? i completed, but is that easier said than done?— said than done? i think it's a tricky situation _ said than done? i think it's a tricky situation ultimately i tricky situation ultimately because there is a huge imbalance in the sector where you have massive oversupply, just not enough demand. so this imbalance has to be rectified and confidence is such a tricky thing. 0nce and confidence is such a tricky thing. once it has diminished, you have to fight to get it

back. ~ . ~ ., ., , back. what kind of initiatives need to be — back. what kind of initiatives need to be seen _ back. what kind of initiatives need to be seen to _ back. what kind of initiatives need to be seen to restore i need to be seen to restore confidence in the property sector? i confidence in the property sector? ~' ., confidence in the property sector? ~ ., ., , sector? i think for one, people need to step — sector? i think for one, people need to stop seeing _ sector? i think for one, people need to stop seeing all - sector? i think for one, people need to stop seeing all these l need to stop seeing all these negative headlines about developers. we have seenjust negative headlines about developers. we have seen just a slew of negative headlines in the past few weeks, whether it is country garden or evergrande. the consumers think that even before the latest news from evergrande, they were already facing thousands of lawsuits onshore, from creditors including banks, home—buyers, suppliers, everyone is basically trying to get their money back and they want tojump the get their money back and they want to jump the queue. so get their money back and they want tojump the queue. so i think the first thing to do is to assure people that there is enough cash. we need more female role models in the workplace. that�*s according to vivien wong, the co7founder of little moons, the ice cream snack maker. the entrepreneur spoke to the bbc for the latest of our paths to success series.

the one thing i wish i knew before i started running my business is just how all—consuming it can be — in the most wonderful way. because this is your baby, you live and breathe it. so some of the hurdles specific to little moons that we faced is growing too quickly. and so when we went viral on tiktok, we weren�*t ready to meet the demand that suddenly came away. and so you just have to be ready to pivot and do everything you can to adjust your strategy, pull on your team and and just be agile in how you respond to unexpected events. i feel like there�*s a huge amount of responsibility to try and effect change, seeing how difficult it is for women in a corporate structure where it�*s quite structured. i�*ve tried to be a bit more human about allowing people time off for work, for children, family, just life. and i ask everyone to ask for pay rises. i didn�*t have the confidence to ask for a pay rise

when i worked for a corporation. it�*s really important for me to set an example. and i saw it with my mum. my mum started her bakery because back in the �*70s there were no labour laws to support women when they had children. and so she was forced out of herjob and she had no choice but to start her own business. and i think women starting their own businesses is such a force for good. women�*s confidence is definitely something that limits us, and we need to build our own self confidence, our own self belief. i think we also need role models from a diverse background, age, ethnicity, because if you can�*t see it, you can�*t be it. and so we really need more female role models so that women can see that you can do it. and that�*s it for this edition of asia business report. thanks for watching. bringing you different

stories from across the uk. a lot�*s changed since rod lurie started his apprenticeship in 1963. harold macmillan was the prime minister, and the beatles had onlyjust released their debut album. getting the lights back on. that's what it's all about, putting the lights back on, because we're all we all rely on it nowadays, don't we? he�*s 75 now and has been working on the overhead power lines across kent and sussex for 60 years. i thought i'd be long gone by now. i mean, i thought the grim reaper would have come calling by now, but there we are. i'm still here. he�*s absolutely incredible. and to think that he still does thejob he does, we haven�*t seen anybody else older and still going, working up high like he does, still keeping the youngsters in check. the biggest moments of his career was the great storm in 1987, which took almost three weeks to completely restore the power. devastating for the network.

you know, just it put three like that bring in the lines down and poles snapped off transformers on the ground. it was a major, majorjob to get it all rebuilt. it�*s clear that nothing will be stopping him any time soon. i've no plans for retirement at the moment, so i'll keep plodding on. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. hey, i�*m dylan with the catch up. first up, a top doctor says telling people vapes are 95% safer than smoking caused chaos and encouraged the under—18s to take up vaping. government experts put out the message in 2015 to try to get people to quit cigarettes. doctors say even though vaping is safer than smoking, more research is needed on the long term effects. more than one in ten 16 to 2a—year—olds vaped last year, although it�*s illegal

for the under—18s. this expert says it�*s an epidemic. absolutely shocking that we�*ve allowed that to happen. we�*ve got it wrong. and that means we have to change and the liberal democrats have been outlining their plans for if they win the next election. party leader sir ed davey told their annual conference that voting reform, economic growth and ending delays in cancer treatment would be top priorities. the racing driver jessica hawkins has become the first woman to test a formula one car in almost five years. she completed 26 laps in an aston martin f1 car last week. a woman hasn�*t started in a grand prix since 1976. and spotify�*s ceo says he has no plans to ban content created by artificial intelligence. the platform previously deleted a song that used ai cloned voices of drake and the weeknd. and finally, here�*s ten viral seconds. taylor swift was spotted leaving the kansas city chiefs game at the weekend with

her new rumoured love interest, the american footballer travis kelce. she was also seen sitting with his mum during the game — that set the internet alight. that�*s it from me. you�*re all caught up.

hello and welcome to sportsday. i�*m betty glover. here�*s what�*s coming up in the show. england were beaten 2—1 by the netherlands in the women�*s nations league. europe look to use home advantage to recapture the ryder cup. and we meet the test driver looking to insipre the next female formula one star. we start with football and the women�*s nations league, where england were up against the netherlands in utrecht. a match which, for england boss sarina wiegman, held extra significance — as she returned to her home nation and former employer. but it ended up a night to forget, as england lost 2—1. the netherlands opened the scoring

through a controversial lieke mertens goal