happy holidays for walmart. the world's biggest retailer raises forecasts again — as its shares continue their best run in two decades. but could trump's tariffs spoil the party? breaking up is hard to do — at least when it comes to google. but could the tech giant be forced to sell off parts of its business to end its internet search monopoly? and the world's busiest airportjust got busier. dubai international says it's on track for a record year — as the emirate becomes a destination in its own right. we hear from the ceo. welcome to business today. we start in the us —

where it's a case of �*happy holidays�* for the world's biggest retailer. walmart has raised its full year forecasts for the third time in a row — after strong sales in store and online over the past three months. like its rivals target and amazon — walmart has kicked off the holiday season early — with discount deals on everything from toys to household goods. our north america business correspondent ritika gupta is following this for us. good news for walmart? it good news for walmart? it certainly is, you saw them beating the latest estimates of earnings and raising their outlook for the third time in a row, and the shares are going higher off the back of this, after strong demand and a strong e—commerce business, the us consumer is looking for value and that is what walmart is offering, interesting time ahead of the holidays, inflation starts to turn the corner with people buying more merchandise and people buying

more groceries and they have started their holiday shopping already, and walmart has seen growth across all income groups in sales, especially the higher income households that are looking for value as well. i spoke earlier to and an —— an analyst and she talked about walmart. i think consumers in the us, what we've seen this year is across income brackets, whether it's high, middle or low, people are seeking value. people are seeking the lowest prices possible. so we believe walmart has definitely taken market share from a variety of players in the us. broadly, retail has actually had a very challenging year across different segments, whetherapparel, grocery, home. but walmart has done great because they have always kept their prices low, their merchandising has been strong, their e—commerce really picked up, and now their delivery is really something that people can come to for same day, even for things like pharmacies. so they've really made the right investments

in the business over the past few years to give people in the us what they're looking for. ritika — some worries for walmart about the incoming trump administration? this is a cloud of uncertainty for most retailers and we know president elect donald trump would like to impose tariffs, maybe io—20%, across the board, 60% for goods coming from china, and while walmart has benefited from capturing this price conscious consumer, there is a risk that these tariffs could lead to higher prices for the consumer which the walmart ceo has commented on today in media interviews, saying that could be the case. he said they will do their best to keep prices low, diversifying their suppliers and working with their suppliers and using their own private brands to keep the prices low, and about two thirds of the items they sell

are made or grown and assembled in the us, so those goods are likely to be less impacted by tariffs, but while economists have warned that the tariffs could be inflationary, there is uncertainty about this policy if and when it will be implemented and how quickly, so there is a lot we will be waiting for in terms of guidance. waiting for in terms of guidance-— waiting for in terms of uuidance. ., ., ., ., guidance. for now, thanks for “oininu guidance. for now, thanks for joining us- — now to what could be a very important appointment to the trump administration. according to multiple reports the president elect is about to nominate howard lutnick as his commerce secretary. mr lutnick is ceo of wall street investment giant cantor fitzgerald — and a long time friend of donald trump. the commerce department oversees many functions, from regulating ocean navigation to undertaking the census. but its oversight of american export controls means it plays

a vital role in the trade war between the us and china. we will bring you confirmation of the news as soon as we can. to big tech now because the us justice department could be about to push for a breakup of google. a judge ruled in august that google was illegally monopolising the internet search market. now bloomberg is reporting that on wednesday the do] will ask the judge to compel alphabet, which owns google, to sell off its chrome internet browser. the outcome of the case though could depend on the incoming trump administration. donald trump has questioned weather breaking up the firm is a good idea. i have been speaking to tech journalist chris stokel—walker about what the arguments are in the case. ultimately, google uses chrome, its web browser, as a way to get users into the google ecosystem. it's able to understand data on how they browse the web and therefore what kind

of products to serve to them. and in the us, it has around about a 60% market share. so this is a key component really of google's business overall, which is generally generated its revenue through advertising online. and the things that they provide through the search results that many of us use. google has around about a 90% market share in the search engine world as well. so all in all, a pretty significant chunk of its business here that could be affected. and therein lies the problem, isn't it? thejustice department has looked at that and said, "you've got too much power." "one of the ways we might address that is selling it off." that straight away raises a lot of questions about not only what it means for google, but who would buy it and what it does to the market given its popularity. yeah, this is a massive business. and google is one of the biggest companies in the world. so there are very few people who could sweep in and buy what is a relatively significant part of that business.

people have been saying, well, maybe amazon could come in and buy this, although that comes with its own issues. they are, of course, very dominant in the e—commerce space. others have said openai might be a potential suitor, but then that has its own issues as well, because obviously they're leading the way when it comes to artificial intelligence. and one of the the concerns i think, of thejudge here was the way that google was using its own ai tools to try and build in loyalty to the browser here. so i think it's unlikely that we will see a sale, although there is going to be obviously a lot of tussling over this. google have said themselves, i think, this is a radical reinterpretation of the law that goes beyond what was decreed. and i guess we have to wait and see what's going to come next. now to the cop29 un climate summit which is continuing in baku in azerbaijan. delegates from around the world ar trying to strike a deal to provide funding for poorer countries to tackle climate change. they've been warned that current funding falls far short of what's needed which could be more than $1 trillion a year. and much of it will need to come from the private sector. i've been speaking

to jeremy awori, ceo of african lender ecobank, who's in london to launch a $400 million bond for climate investments. i think that's the discussion among leaders that we talk to, is there's a gap between the aspirations and actually financing this. this has been a challenge for africa, which tends to be disproportionately affected by climate, you know, whether it's floods, whether it's drought. and we haven't seen the proportional money coming through to finance the impact of that as well as to finance adaptation. and those are the discussions that are happening. we as ecobank are actually working with our partners, you know, to have green climate bonds, green bonds for sustainable or sustainable bonds, to be able to finance notjust climate related activities, but also to finance sustainable, sustainable development across the continent.

and everyone will share those ambitions about how important that is. but when we look at what's happening, for example, in the united states, trump saying "drill, drill, drill." environment is not their concern, how worried are you about that? obviously it's a concern with regards to us stance towards the paris agreement. and obviously time will tell on the direction of travel there. i think the thing we need to focus on africa is we have got a huge amount of opportunity in terms of green energy. when you think we've got 59,000gw possible in terms of wind energy, ii,ooogw possibility in terms of solar energy, and i think many countries are making good progress in terms of green clean energy. to dubai now — and what looks like a record breaking year for the world's busiest international airport. dubai international says it handled more than 68 million people in the first nine months of the year — putting it on track for an all—time high for the full year. i've been speaking to the ceo — he told us it's down to dubai becoming a destination

in its own right — rather than just a transport hub. what happened is, before the covid i9 pandemic, about 60% of our total passengers were in transit, as you say, and 40% were coming to the city. but i think because the government and the health service here did such a great job at convincing people that dubai was a great place to come and be during the pandemic and since, what's actually happened is we've now got the reversal. 60% of people getting on an aeroplane and coming to dubai are actually coming to the city, and 40% are continuing on to somewhere else. so that's had a huge economic boost for the city. but i think it's also because the city has been very progressive in promoting growth. it's added a huge number of hotel beds, additional amenities and attractions. so it's become a very attractive place to come and be as well as a great connecting hub. yeah, so that's dxb. but at the same time,

you've got that massive new airport on the other side of town, haven't you? dubai world central and al maktoum airport there. talk to me about the plans because that has even greater capacity. and your ambition about what you want to do with that site will break even these records. that's correct. back in april, we announced that dwc al maktoum international phase two is going ahead. it's going to eventually have 260 million passenger capacity, and it's going to cost around $37 billion to construct. it's going to start with 150 million capacity within about the next ten years. it's going to have five runways, be able to handle 12 million tonnes of cargo and cover an area of 70 square km. so we're already operating the world's largest international airport, and we're about to build what will then become the world's largest international airport all over again.

that is the business today. much more on the website. we will see you very soon.

the european union has condemned the sentences handed down to 45 pro—democracy activists as an �*unprecedented blow�* to freedoms. but hong kong�*s security minister maintains the sentences "reflected the severity of the crime". benny tai — a lawyer identified in the judgement as a "mastermind" of the plans — received one of the longest terms. many of those sentenced were already in prison. )our reporter in hong kong, martin yip, told us more about some of those sentenced. ten years for benny tai, almost five years forjoshua wong and seven years for gwyneth ho. today�*s sentencing confirms that a big portion of hong kong�*s pro—democracy camp will see no lights in

freedom for a long while, even if we could discount