kate young dies of a sudden heart attack. the emory welcome to asia business report. we start the hour with some breaking news that has come and chinese state media has reported that li keqiang has reported that li keqiang

has died. his economic policy was aimed at staring the chinese economy towards stability but as economic leadership weakened at the time sidelined by president xi jinping. but hoffman has more on his economic policies. he was vice premier in the globalfinancial he was vice premier in the global financial crisis happened so he carried the baton through that crisis and china did very well in reacting to that crisis and then he set “p to that crisis and then he set up a reform programme that as premier he was supposed to implement more market reforms, and more innovative china, a more productive to china, and a range of reforms were put in place. i think since then, the reform programme got diverted a little bit, xijinping took the upper hand in economics and

emphasised more the stability and the national—security seven the last couple of years, horribly li keqiang has less of a influence but in his early years he was very influential. bankman—fried has testified in his own defence in court. the former chief of the now collapsed ftx faces several charges, including defrauding his customers by as much as $10 billion — charges that he has denied. my colleague erin delmore has been following the trial and has the very latest. it was a stunning beginning sam bankman—fried's testimony. this is the most eagerly awaited moment in this trial. we expected he would take their trial in front of a jury today. that was surprise number one. judge lewis kaplan dismissed the jury. he told them simply there is something we need to work out here, we will see you tomorrow morning at 9:30, and then he told the rest of us in the court room that there were topic areas that the defence wanted to introduce that the prosecution objected to. he admitted it was an unconventional way to move forward but he said his solution was to hear it for his ears only. so they did put sam

bankman—fried on the stand. he answered questions from his own defence lawyers, and through cross with prosecutors, but thejury wasn't in the room. lawyers, and through cross examination with prosecutors, but the jury wasn't in the room. a lot of what happened today focused on what advice from lawyers made mr bankman—fried think his company's actions were legal. they did get into alameda research customer funds and the loans that alameda research doled out to mr bankman—fried and other members. tomorrow, thejury is due back in, and judge kaplan said they may actually spend the first half of next week talking about the case, coming up with their own verdict. that would be an accelerated timeline. we had originally projected this could go possibly to thanksgiving but they are moving along quickly and in fact the defence even went through a couple of witnesses this morning before we had that unconventional break and finally heard from sam bankman—fried.

staying with the us, we are tracking another big story. 4.9%, that is how much american economic ruin the third quarter, marking the biggest gain for the biggest economy since the end of 2021. consumer spending was strong, contributing to much of that total gdp increase in the quarter despite increases in rates. it could give the central bank some reasons to keep policy tight to tamper inflation. i have been speaking to tiffany wilding, an economist, who explained why a consumer spending has remained strong despite higher prices and interest rates. looking at the underlying drivers of the consumption boom in the us, we think it's still to do with the fact that the us government officials had a very large response to the pandemic. in terms of the fiscal transfers, the government hand—outs, they were large relative to history as well as to our develop market peers. consumers saved up a pretty decent sized stock of savings

as a result of that. we think they are spending that down now, and that's definitely being depleted, especially on a real basis, as higher prices erode the real value of savings. that has been fuelling resilience in the economy. looking forward, we think that starts to fade but for right now consumers still have money in their pockets. we are talking at a time with the middle east conflict is playing out. any risks, in your opinion? clearly, the middle east situation, and wars in particular, just from an economic perspective, they tend to be stagflationary. really the thing we will watch for is the extent of some disruption of supply. they tend to raise inflation and lower output growth. in terms of the developed market's response to that, unfortunately, it's probably going to be tighter for longer. maybe even a couple of oil price hikes.

that spending strength is also reflected in many of the company earnings that we've been covering for you all through this week. amazon has reported a 13%jump in revenue, the quarter ending september. hammered by inflation and high interest rates in 2022, the company spent much of last year in cost—cutting mode, laying off staff but the strong quarterly report shows amazon's core e—commerce business is recovering. 0ur north america business correspondent michelle let's take you through some of the companies that have also reported earnings. us chip maker intel reported results that beat wall street expectations for the july to september quarter, despite its revenue declining about 8% the same period a year ago, shares rose about 6% in late trading. the company also said it is on track to catch up with chip—making rival tsmc in an increasingly competitive industry. american car maker ford also reported their earnings, but unlike intel, it missed

expectations and sell shares falling about 3% in after—hours trading. the us auto sector is also in a state of flux with ongoing worker strikes that have lasted six weeks, demanding fair pay and better benefits. the company said the strikes were likely to reflect and the results in the next quarter. ford yesterday said it reached a tentative deal with the united auto workers union pending approval from union leaders. in the world of sport, the rugby world cup closes this weekend with new zealand's all—black facing south africa's springboks in paris. they expect record profits from the tournament. this isn't just a story about sport, it is also about travel and strong consumer spending. nuno guerrero, the regional directorfrom booking.com, told me that many fans are willing to forfeit goods so they have money to spend to go see their favourite teams play. we have seen travellers want

to see their countries live, and one of the interesting trends is we've seen consumers telling us that they will forgo potentially buying physical goods to actually travel. that's one of the important elements. 50% say that they would prefer to go and watch their teams instead of travelling with their family, so they're replacing that travelling to make sure they are connected to sports and ensure they are in those moments that are happening around at the moment. one of the other interesting ones, and this is a remarkable statistic, 25% of our travellers are telling us also that they would go and watch their team live instead of spending their birthday with their partner or their spouse. that is an interesting one. to another huge global industry

worth billions of dollars that caters specifically to women. menopause products. it includes everything from relief supplements to lipsticks to temperature regulating vests to combat symptoms of hot flashes. but a leading doctor says not enough money is being spent on coming up with better products for women experiencing menopause. i really worry about it. i don't work with any of these companies, i don't do any paid work with pharma, just for complete transparency. i read somewhere the other day that it is $120 billion a year is spent on menopause—related products — it's $120 billion a year spent on menopause related products, but if i was a business person thinking it's 1.2 billion women worldwide menopausal, how can we get them to buy some supplement or face cream or shampoo? when i was struggling and was unable to receive treatment from the nhs, i would have spent a lot of money on anything to help me

because it would've been cheaper than a divorce, if it meant that i can keep myjob and my income. people are very desperate to feel better. advertising on some products is great. they also try and push people away from hrt. it really worries me because there's no evidence that a lot of the supplements really make a difference. they're not going to improve future health as well. the money that's been spent on this isjust awful, actually. before we go, today marks the one—year anniversary of elon musk�*s purchase of the social media platform once known as twitter. in the year since the controversial takeover, a lot has changed. it's now called x, and verified users have to pay for that blue tick mark. it's also lost nearly half of its advertising revenue as well. that's all we have for you now, you can find the updates on the

bbc news website. thank you for watching and have a great weekend. bbc news bringing you different stories from across the uk. halloween is nearly here so it is time to pick those pumpkins. and visitors to this farm can see pink ones for the first time. farmer fiona wilshaw came up with the idea after learning her father had terminal cancer. 0ur dad lived and breathed all his time here, so we are really missing him, and we have been missing him for a while because he has not been able to be on the farm for the past couple of months. how much money are you hoping to raise? because you have already raised a huge amount. we set the target of £3,000 and we surpassed that so let's go for £6,000. each year we sort of stepped it up with the pumpkins and this has been our biggest and best year yet. fiona is following in her dad's footsteps

and is running the farm. at just 2a years old, it's a big responsibility but one she is embracing. i have definitely been thrown in at the deep end but i think growing up in the farm, spending evenings and weekends here, you pick up a lot from everybody you are working with. for more stories across the uk, head to the bbc news website. hey, i'm zof with the catch up. tonight — new online safety rules, a glastonbury rumour and a whale of a time. first, though, student accommodation costs are taking up almost all of the average maintenance loan, according to charity unipol. they say people are illegally sharing rooms and working more hours to manage costs. in the last two years, student rents have gone up more than 1a%, but loans byjust over 5%. the students in exeter say it's really difficult. most of it, if not all of it. we have to work to be able to make up for the bills. it becomes much harder. to really balance that time to sort of meet the rent. it's difficult for a lot of people to afford without getting a job alongside. the government say if you're worried, you should speak to your uni for help.

some other stories now. israel says an overnight raid in gaza was preparation for the next stages of combat, with a ground invasion still expected. meanwhile, hamas says about 50 hostages have been killed, due to israeli strikes, although that number hasn't been verified. new online safety rules have become law. the government says it will make the internet safer with lots of changes, including getting tech firms like tiktok and insta to take more responsibility for content. but it's controversial with worries about privacy. and this next one is exciting — glastonbury organiser emily eavis says she's been offered a really big american artist who she hopes will headline the festival next year. i'm pretty intrigued but i guess we'll have to be patient on that one. and time now for ten seconds of scary surfing. jason breen was surfing in sydney when this huge whale crashed into him. thankfully, he was all right though. it's a whale!

kind of. you're all caught up now. see you later. hello and welcome to sportsday, i'm lizzie greenwood—hughes. 0ur headlines tonight... more misery for the

defending champions at the cricket world cup. it's a heavy loss for england against sri lanka. a ten—month ban from football for sandro tonali as the newcastle midfielder is found to have breached betting rules. and england accuse world rugby of denying tom curry a fair hearing, over his allegation of an on—field racial slur. so, welcome to sportsday, and we're starting at the cricket world cup — because it looks like the defending champions england are making an early exit. they were heavily beaten by sri lanka — theirfourth defeat in five matches so far. batting first, england were 45 without loss before dawid malan's wicket began a miserable slide,

which included joe root running himself out for just three