the stronger data comes a day after prime minister fumio kishida made a surprising announcement to step down next month. economic columnist william pesek explained how the ldp will navigate the upcoming leadership change. we've seen this interesting period the last 12 years when the liberal democratic party has been in power and promising very big reforms. prime minister shinzo abe took power in 2012, pledging to becomejapan's version of margaret thatcher and ronald reagan wrapped together, and we saw very little structural change, large military easing, the b0] doing a lot, the yen falling 30%. we did not see enough reform, in terms of increasing innovation, empowering women, and the next leader is going to have to figure out how to reinvigorate that process at a moment when china is slowing, when the us labour market is showing signs of strains. and it is not clear if the market he has an appetite for

a big risk. two women have thrown their hats in the ring for pm, among several men. is there a obvious candidate? you have a current economic security minister, who throwing her hat into the ring. and a long—time female lawmaker, and it is an interesting wrinkle. i have argued for a long time that it is past timejapan needs a female prime minister, and if you were the liberal democratic party and you are talking about empowering one half of the population, what better moment to name a female prime minister than today? and so i think the fact that we have two women who have a decent chance of becoming prime minister, certainly next year, i mean, certainly next month, but next year you have a general election as well, it is an interesting moment forjapan. turning to china now, where we'll get a slew of economic data this morning, including if consumers have been spending money, and how the property sector is faring, amid its debt crisis. analysts are calling for more stimulus measures,

after a widely expected post—pandemic recovery failed to materialise last year. still, the government is targeting economic growth of around 5% this year. economist katrina ell joined me earlier and laid out why chinese consumers are still cautious on spending. i think the main thing we are concerned about is that consumers just haven't got their groove back in this post—pandemic environment. we have seen repeatedly that household spending has disappointed. if we are looking at the consumer sentiment data, it is still incredibly weak, so the retail trade data we are expecting forjuly is expected to remain around that weak 2% year—on—year growth. there just hasn't been that post—pandemic recovery we've seen in other markets. what do you think it would take to get consumers spending again instead of saving? i think what we need to see from the government is more effective targeted stimulus to lift households out of theirfunk. i mean, if we are looking at the labour market,

labour market indicators are telling us that households are not feeling secure in their employment. they are also not getting good wage growth and they also don't have a comprehensive social safety net, so that precautionary savings is remaining elevated, so we need to really focus on those structural reforms to really help households, rather than just the more recent 20—point plan we saw from the state council, which superficially suggested let's provide households with better restaurants to spend. it really needs to come back to improving that economic backdrop for them. government policy and the third plan talked about youth unemployment but it didn't offer a new big programme for example. does china have the fiscal band with the new stimulus? i does china have the fiscal band with the new stimulus?- with the new stimulus? i think it does. what you have mentioned is the underlying problem we have seen with the government providing households with stimulus. they can recognise there

is an issue, they have highlighted, look, we see youth unemployment as a big concern but they don't take that next step to provide concrete measures on how they will address that. to be fair, addressing youth unemployment is a difficult thing but highlighting it as an issue is not enough and that is all we have seen from china at this stage. some numbers have just some numbers havejust come in as regards to all china july new home prices down 0.7% month on month. staying with china now. chinese tech giant, tencent, has announced a quarterlyjump in profits of 82%. the surge is credited to tencent�*s gaming business. the blockbuster summer release of "dungeon & fighter mobile" has helped to lift china's most valuable company out of a gaming slump. "dnf mobile", as its commonly known, has been dominating the top—grossing game charts in china. investors suggest the company could reap the benefits of its popularity for years to come. apple supplier, foxconn, reported stronger—than—expected quarterly earnings. for april tojune, the taiwanese company's net

profit rose 6% to over a billion dollars. the company attributed much of that success to the artificial intelligence wave, where it currenty controls 40% of the global ai server market. foxconn expects the technology will be a major revenue stream in the future. here in south east asia, thailand's constitutional court voted five to four to remove prime minister srettha thavisin from office. the court's ruling is final and cannot be appealed. ex—senators, appointed by the former military government, filed a complaint that mr srettha gave a cabinet post to a former lawyer, who was once jailed. parliament will now need to choose a new leader, potentially creating political and economic uncertainties, as kirida paopichit explained. no one expected the court ruling to be as it was yesterday, so the economic prospects in thailand will probably look a little

bleaker, because there is concern around who will be the new prime minister, and of course if the new prime minister comes from the current party, the pheu thai party, then the main economic policies will continue, including the digital wallet. but if the new prime minister is from a new party, then the digital wallet is up in the air and there might be other new policies by the prime minister from a new party. but in any case, i still think most of the long—term policies, that has to do with energy transition, going lower carbon, will continue regardless of who becomes prime minister. in the short term after that

budget, giving that we don't know who will be leading the country, a country's budget very much determines the focus the country will be moving towards. yes, so the indication on the budget is that other than that it is going to be delayed, i don't think there will be major changes, even if a new prime minister comes, except for, as i mentioned, the digital wallet scheme, which could be scrapped, basically, if there is a new prime minister from a new party. so that is the main implication, but i think other than that it will be the delay of the budget that will actually impact the economy, because the delay of the budget means government investments that is in the pipeline will be delayed, whereas the current expenditure for salaries, maintenance, or for utility bills, that will continue. so i think it is the delay of the budget that will actually impact the thai economy.

india's trade deficit has widened over $22 billion injuly due to weak global demand. it's the second consecutive month that the country's trade gap has risen. the bbc�*s india business correspondent arunoday mukharji gives us the larger picture behind the numbers. india's trade deficit for the last year was $19 billion in this year has gone up by nearly $4 billion. all of this means essentially that india is importing way more than it is exporting, something that is a cause for concern to officials. industry experts say there could be many reasons, one could be a sharp drop in crude metal as well as commodities prices, which could have played a role in reducing the value of exports. experts say many exporters have preferred to target domestic markets because of a sharp increase in international freight charges as well. but there are many in the industry who have also expressed optimism, saying this is just a temporary phase and they are seeing improved demand in the months ahead in countries like uk, the us, western and asian nations as well as the european union.

the same industry experts also believe that after the recent political turmoil in bangladesh, trade ties between india and its neighbouring country are likely to prove in the months ahead, which could also give a boost to india's trade, and in officials have also said they are looking to diversify and exploring new markets like africa, so they are hoping to change around their export basket to try and offset the kind of weakened demand they are seeing in many western economies. confectionery giant, mars, has struck a deal to snap up pringles and pop tart maker kellanova for nearly $36 billion. despite being the biggest snacking buyout this year, legal experts are not expecting too much regulatory scrutiny. mars says the acquisition could close in the first half of 2025. shares of kellanova popped nearly 8% after the news. an annual subscription service is now possible if you're flying european budget

carrier, wizz air. the airline is offering an "all you can fly pass" that will allow passengers to book unlimited flights in a year, at the cost of $550. and that's it for this edition of business today. thanks for watching.

hey, i'm zof with the catch up. tonight, molly—mae announces a shock split from tommy fury, ed sheeran gets saucy, and banksy finishes his drawing trail. our top story tonight, molly—mae has announced her and tommy fury have split up after five years together. she shared the news on her instagram story, saying she would be taking some time away from social media. next, adverts for nutrition

products promoted by stephen bartlett have been banned, after a watchdog said they were misleading. you will probably know him from his "diary of a ceo" podcast, and also as one of the dragons on dragons' den. he has been promoting products for huel and zoe but without making it clear he has business interests in both companies. and ed sheeran broke off from his tour to sign autographs at a supermarket on tuesday. but there is a very fine catch here. he signed them using his own hot sauce brand, called tingle ted's. hundreds of fans went to the sainsbury�*s in hertfordshire to get a bit of the tingly ted. i bet that tastes very good. good luck if you are receiving your a—level results tomorrow. there has been a spike in top grade since 2019 so hopefully that continues for you. and time now for ten seconds of banksy. safe to say he's been very busy recently, after nine days of pop—up artwork around london. he finished his animal trail with a drawing of a gorilla on the shutters of london zoo.

just look how amazing that looks. you're all caught up now. see you later. hello there. i'm olly foster. here's what's coming up for you on sportsday. one game, one goal, one trophy — kylian mbappe's real madrid career is up and running. will this be the season where the premier league finally gets it right with var? they have ambitious plans. and the best tennis players in the world are in cincinnati, although the world number one jannik sinner has a bumpy ride into the third round.

hello, there. kylian mbappe couldn't have asked for much more on his real madrid debut, scoring for the champions league winners in the uefa super cup, as they beat the europa league champions atalanta 2—0 in warsaw. the french forward, who left paris st—germain after seven seasons over the summer, led the line, flanked by viniciuanr and rodrygo, and that saw last season's stand—out starjude bellingham drop a little deeper in midfield. it was goalless at half—time, but with federico valverde opening the scoring with a tap—in on the hour mark, and mbappe's moment came soon after, bellingham picking him out inside the box and he finished in the top corner. carlo ancelotti admitted that his team didn't quite have the right balance, something that he will have to get right, as they start the defence of their la liga title on sunday, but they have won the super cup for a record sixth time.