plus, living the stream. spotify soars, as millions more tune in to the music service, and it heads for its first full year of profits. welcome to business today. here in the uk, a major shake—up of the post office has been announced. its new chairman nigel railton is briefing staff today on the outcome of a review launched earlier this year aimed at putting the business on a firmer financial footing. it follows a major scandal in which hundreds of sub—postmasters, who are individual business people that run branches on a franchise model, were wrongly prosecuted for stealing money. so what do we know? the bbc understands that 115 loss—making branches wholly owned by the post office could be closed. these sites in city centres, known as crown post offices, employ around a thousand

workers. in addition to this, hundreds ofjobs are under threat at the group's headquarters. the new plan involves much more involvement of independent franchisees, which includes leading retailers such as tesco and wh smith. let's speak to our business reporter, ben king. it sounds like the future is about franchisees.- about franchisees. that's ri . ht. about franchisees. that's right- the _ about franchisees. that's right. the post _ about franchisees. that's right. the post office - about franchisees. that's right. the post office is i right. the post office is reeling from the scandal that has been going on for more than a decade now where more than 900 of these individuals that run post offices were unfairly prosecuted because of problems with their it system. as well as that specific problem, it has been struggling to make money because lots of the government services that post office is used to provide are now being delivered online and we send fewer letters than we used to and there is competition in the puzzle market. this is the start of a

process where the new government, the incoming labour government, the incoming labour government, is looking to fix the business model of the post office. —— parcel market. we heard yesterday that there will be a smaller centre for the post office and more power delivered to the people that provide the services. that is why they are looking at slimming down the head office, hundreds ofjobs are at risk there and also reviewing the future of the crown offices that they themselves provide. this is the beginning of a journey and it is all balanced out by a plan to give the individual franchisees a big increase in the amount of money they made because lots of them say they cannot balance the books the way things are. they are promised a 30% increase in the amount of money they receive next year and more going ahead to 2030. anyone who uses the post _ going ahead to 2030. anyone who uses the post office _ going ahead to 2030. anyone who uses the post office knows - going ahead to 2030. anyone who uses the post office knows you - uses the post office knows you can do banking services for high street banks and they started to deal with parcels

from other delivery services, not just from other delivery services, notjust royal mail. i wonder what is in this plan about post offices of the future will do, are there additional services they think they could provide? for more than a decade the post office has been looking for ways to boost revenues of franchisees without necessarily paying more money. for instance, trying to encourage them to sell more stuff, a lot of these places are a shop as well as a post office, encouraging to sell more things who come into the post office for post office services. but as we see more and more banks shut down their branches as well, there is this new concept launch called banking hubs where you can get those banking services that you normally go to a branch for delivered elsewhere, and the post office has been delivering eyes and thatis has been delivering eyes and that is one of the things they are hoping to expand on. a lot of that detail of this plan to be worked out and we are expecting a government green plan on this, a government plan, with more detail to come out next year.—

next, to germany, because europe's biggest economy is facing uncertain times. shortly, chancellor olaf scholz will address germany's parliament, the bundestag, after the collapse of his ruling coalition last week. the country now faces a snap election in february. before he speaks, though, germany's council of economic advisers will be giving their latest forecasts for next year, and they won't be pretty. they've already warned europe's biggest economy is set to decline in 2024, for the second year in a row. an ageing workforce, high labour costs and fierce competition from china are among the problems stacking up for what was once europe's powerhouse. auto giant vw has warned workers it will have to close at least three plants in germany, they would be the first closures in its 87—year history. germany's economy has been stagnating for years, it has grown just 0.2% percent over the past five years. it has massively underperformed the eurozone as a whole, which has grown 4.6% over the same period. germany's economic

and political crises are closely connected, as our correspondent in berlin, damien mcguinness explains. german economic growth has stalled, but there's also a feeling of political crisis. here in berlin, and those two things are intrinsically linked. in fact, the political crisis sparked by the collapse of the governing coalition last week was in part caused by the slowing economy because the row which led to the governing coalition to fall apart was caused by money, and namely, the question of how much debt germany should take on to fund its spending. now, the german chancellor, olaf scholz, he wants to take on more debt. he says germany can afford to do it. and given the rising costs connected to russia's waragainst ukraine and germany's support for ukraine, which means massive spending in arms, the chancellor says this is an emergency, so more debt is needed. christian lindner, whose party is a free market, small state, low tax party.

he says that germany should not be taking on more debt. he wants instead to cut spending, in particular social welfare spending. those two positions have now become incompatible, partly because of the fact that money is tight with this slowing economy. when this rather unusual three way coalition between chancellor scholz�*s centre left social democrats, the free market liberals and the green party came together three years ago, they solved any political differences by throwing money at the problem they spent, or they wanted to spend big pleasing their voters. but of course, that's increasingly difficult now with the slowing down economy. electric vehicle sales have hit a record high, for the second month in a row, according to data from an industry observer. rho motion says that 1.7 million electric cars were sold around the world in october. china accounted for most of these, 1.2 million cars were sold

in the world's biggest car market. joining me now is adam panayi, managing directorfor rho motion. lots of observers say that ev sales are stuttering. your data says it's at a record high. but would you have expected them to be stronger? to some extent, that is true. the market is still growing and like you said we had a record high in october, that growth is driven almost entirely by china, and in europe the market has gone somewhat backwards, it is down compared to last year. in the us we are still seeing relatively strong growth around 7%, but at the moment it is a chinese story and the rest of the world is struggling to keep up. the world is struggling to keep u . _ ., ., the world is struggling to keep u l , ., ., , ., . " up. china leading the pack, it is the largest _ up. china leading the pack, it is the largest car _ up. china leading the pack, it is the largest car market, - up. china leading the pack, itj is the largest car market, but

the government has hefty subsidies for ev manufacturers, type that manufacturers in the euro and us don't like. are these high sales all down to subsidies, do you think? ida. these high sales all down to subsidies, do you think? no, i would say _ subsidies, do you think? no, i would say the _ subsidies, do you think? no, i would say the level— subsidies, do you think? no, i would say the level of - would say the level of subsidies, at least a point of consumption, is relatively low in china now. the us is seen subsidies rise there, but it has been the case that the removal of subsidies in germany has deflated the market in europe. in china, the market is standing on its own two feet at least at the point of consumption. there is government intervention earlier in the supply chain, but it is a relatively free market now. what about charging infrastructure? that holds many buyers back, who is winning and losing there? at buyers back, who is winning and losing there?— losing there? at a national scale, losing there? at a national scale. the _ losing there? at a national scale, the chinese - losing there? at a national scale, the chinese are - losing there? at a national| scale, the chinese are light years ahead on charging infrastructure. demographically, they need to put in fast chargers at an urban level because they have high population density and few people with driveways.

interestingly, in europe for example, where norway has electric vehicle penetration, there is limited charging infrastructure because most people live in single family house odds and they have hadn't not had to roll it out that way. the story is not winners and losers, an appropriate level of infrastructure for markets that the demographics dictate. ~ ., ., ~' dictate. what do you think the trump presidency _ dictate. what do you think the trump presidency will - dictate. what do you think the trump presidency will do - dictate. what do you think the trump presidency will do for l dictate. what do you think the | trump presidency will do for ev sales in the us. he is a climate sceptic but his biggest fan is elon musk and tesla. the icture fan is elon musk and tesla. the picture is _ fan is elon musk and tesla. tue: picture is relatively fan is elon musk and tesla. tte: picture is relatively new fan is elon musk and tesla. tt2 picture is relatively new ones. what is certain is the rate at which the biden administering or pushing forward, that will slow down. we expect to see growth in the us, but that growth in the us, but that growth is expected to be slower thanit growth is expected to be slower than it would have been under a democratic administration. thank you very much. more and more music fans are tuning in to spotfiy,

the streaming service. the ceo said it's on track to make a full—year profit for the first time ever and shareholders like what they're hearing. its shares climbed 7% in after hours trading, after the results were released. spotify madejust under 1.25 billion euros in the three months to september. ajump of 40% on the same time last year, and it said 640 million people were regularly using the site at the end of the quarter, up by 1a million on the previous three months. they are expecting to add another 15 million by the end of the year. analyst simon dyson was among those who are very impressed. when you read their financial results for the quarterjust finished. usually a company will tell you all the good things, and then maybe the not so good things a bit later on, but there's just nothing not to like in these results. their guidance, they were spot on with revenue just fractionally under.

but monthly active users, 640 million, which, you know, 1 million more than they expected. same for premium subscribers, 252 million where they estimated 251. so sort ofjust above, gross margins, above operating income is above. and as you said in the intro, uh, the companies never reported a full year net profit, but it's easily going to do it this year. in other news. just eat takeaway has struck a deal to sell its us unit grubhub for $650m to the wonder group. the sale comes years afterjeat eat bought the business for over $7 billion at the height of the pandemic—driven food delivery boom. shares injust eat rose 20% on the news. and now for a story that i'll struggle to read without laughing. toy industry experts say that this year's biggest selling toy could be a fart blaster. it's a spin—off from

the movie despicable me 4. it plays 15 different sounds including fog fart rings and it comes with a smell. i bet parents around the world will tell the white lie that it was out of stock. other top selling toys include a waddling mother duck and an interactive pet monkey. that is it, we will be back later for the opening bell. stay with us here on bbc news.

hello there from the bbc sport centre. i'm pippa horn. now let's kick things off with basketball where the nba cup returned for a second season following its successful addition to the regular season last year. the cup currently belongs to the la lakers who defeated the pacers to win the 2023

in—season championship. this year, lebron and co have been drawn in a group with the phoenix suns who made a winning start with an eight—point win over the utahjazz. point guard devin booker led the way for the suns with a game high 31 points. booker�*s tally included five three pointers and 15 points in the final quarter to propel the suns to a 120—112 win. elsewhere in the basketball world, there was an emotional reunion for klay thompson as he returned to the golden state warriors for the first time since joining the dallas mavericks in july. thompson won four nba titles in his 13 years with the warriors, where he enjoyed a sucessful partnership with steph curry. thompson finished the game with 22 points but his fairy tale return to the bay area was denied by curry. he stole the show with 37 points as the warriors rallied to beat the mavericks 120 to 117.