shares of both check giants rise. china kicks off its biggest showcase of cars as electric vehicles take centre stage at the beijing auto show. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm mariko oi. we begin in the us, where two tech giants, microsoft and google parent alphabet, have reported strong first quarter results, with the artificial intelligence boom at the center of it all. erin delmore has the details. among the dozens of companies reporting first—quarter took centre stage.

—— earnings on thursday, alphabet and microsoft took centre stage. both beat expectations on earnings and revenue, thanks in no small part to investments in artificial intelligence, one stand out spot for alphabet was google cloud revenue whichjumped 28% in 01. a lot of generative ai tools that rely on the cloud to reach customers. alphabet announced some good news for investors, its first—ever dividend of 20 cents per share, and an additional $70 billion buy—back. that sent shares into double digits after the bill. for microsoft's part, it's intelligent cloud division delivered greater revenue than expected thanks to microsoft partnership but with openai, the creator of chat gbd. -- chatg pt. and together, they should go some way through restoring confidence in the tech sector which was shaken wednesday after meta's stock fell after its own earnings report and the market was rattled by slowing

us gdp and stubborn inflation. intel also announced its results but it was its outlook for the second quarter of the year that sent should shares lower. intel says weak demand for its traditional datacentre and pc chips is what led to the lower forecast. let's stay in the us where the latest data show its economy grew at its slowest pace in nearly two years in the first three months of the year. the personal consumption expenditures price index — which is a key indication of inflation — rose 3.4% for the quarter. investors are now trimming their expectations that the federal reserve will cut rates before september. let's turn to china now, where the country's biggest auto show has kicked off in beijing, with car makers showing off their latest electric vehicles. china is currently the world's biggest car market and the world's biggest car exporter, and has seen stiff competition over the past year especially amongst domestic players.

i spoke to auto analyst bill russo who gave us his outlook for the chinese car market. there is a focus on electrification with the dominance of the chinese companies who now have almost 80% share of the electric segment. that's eaten significantly into the gasoline powered vehicles which are down significantly from a few years ago by more than ten million units. the other important trend is the emergence of these smart device companies that are now present on the landscape. shaomei. big attention given to their product are shown at the show which by far attracted the biggest crowds. and the emergence of a company as both a supplier and manufacturer through contract manufacturers through its own brand

called ito. chinese have really embraced tvs. —— evs. at the same time the market almost feels saturated and the economy not doing so well so in terms of sales of those ev�*s, what kind of numbers are we seeing? the ev share of the market is for passenger vehicles 35%. more than every three individually owned vehicles that are purchased right now in china are electric vehicles. that is coming in a market that is not growing, the market overall has been negative since 2017. in terms of domestic sales. so for every ev that sold, its at least one fewer gasoline powered vehicles so it's basically cannibalising the gasoline powered segment which is creating a bit of a structural problem for china with far too many factories configured to build the wrong types of products. as you mentioned, china has been accused of producing way too many cars, we seen

factories cutting production or even closing, so will that continue? china is guilty of obsoleting its own manufacturing industry when it comes to gasoline powered vehicles being less popular now. by eroding, by successfully getting consumers to consider and purchase evs, it's actually created a structural problem for its own market with fewer demand in china before gasoline powered vehicles but with theirfinding is there is demand for good value for the money everywhere in the world, and that's caused china to be the largest export country in the world for all types of vehicles. 4.9 million vehicles were exported from china last year, and three out of every four of those vehicles were gasoline powered. there's plenty of demand in the world for affordability. as we have been reporting, us secretary of state has —— is meeting us officials on a three—day trip. —— chinese officials. economic ties been a

flashpoint. antony blinken has called for a level playing field for american companies doing business in china. let's bring in our business reporter monica miller who has been following the story for us. tell us what secretary blink and had to say when it comes to trade. , , ., , trade. this is the latest high level meeting _ trade. this is the latest high level meeting between - trade. this is the latest high i level meeting between officials from washington and beijing. janet yellen was in the country last month and now mr blink and has echoed some of her concerns. —— antony blinken. one of them is about nonmarket activities as well as production capacities. the one thing the us has been hinting at is the possibility of opposing tariffs on things like electric vehicles. we just heard analyst will russo explain how the chinese have dominated this market —— bill russo. they not only have plenty of ev is that they are creating, they are also cheap. if they flood the us market, there is concern that will have an impact on us automakers.

also antony blinken met with business leaders in shanghai while he was there and they have really been pushing for what he has called a level playing field. what they are fighting against is highly subsidised industries especially in the green space. companies that make solar panels as well as tvs and lithium ion batteries. they are site —— evs. they are highly subsidised which makes it difficult to play on the global market. anthony global said this is what the chinese officials are responding with. translation: we hope that the us side _ translation: we hope that the us side earnestly respect the principle of fair competition, observe _ principle of fair competition, observe the rules and work with china _ observe the rules and work with china to — observe the rules and work with china to create favourable conditions for the sound and steady— conditions for the sound and steady development of china us economic and trade relations. this_ economic and trade relations.

thisjust — economic and trade relations. thisjust happened hours after this just happened hours after president biden had signed into law legislation that would ban the chinese parent company of tiktok from working in the united states if they don't divest of their portion of the company. the company has said it is already looking into legal actions within the us court system.— legal actions within the us court system. thank you for that update. _ court system. thank you for that update. of _ court system. thank you for that update. of course - court system. thank you for that update. of course a - court system. thank you for that update. of course a lot| that update. of course a lot more on a website about secretary blinken�*s trip to china. core inflation in the capital city tokyo injapan has slowed to 1.6 in the month of april. this comesjust slowed to 1.6 in the month of april. this comes just ahead slowed to 1.6 in the month of april. this comesjust ahead of the country's central bank's latest review of its monetary policy due out later today. no changes expected even though the currency, the yen, has seen further weakening recently. i spoke to william pesek who explained what is going on in japan. the economy is about, nikkei is going gangbusters,

this year. japan is experiencing a big influx of tourism, then you have the japanese yen which we are beginning to call the japanese peso in passing. again, it's quite a split screen. in many ways, global investors are looking at the eerie silence from tokyo. we are seeing the ministry of finance, we're seeing the bank ofjapan make some noises about how we don't like the yen weakening so much, but there's been no official action, and there's been this kind of balancing act i think. on the one hand japanese officials are keeping their heads down, saying, well, you know, the yen is weak but the trade numbers are improving because of that but at the same time we don't want the yen to go too far which might spook global markets and create a diplomatic problem if you will. what can the authorities do about it? we all know that when they intervene, the impact doesn't last very long and it's hugely expensive. i think one of the reasons

why you have not seen action, as you just mentioned, is because intervention often doesn't work. in recent years, it's unilateral intervention. you basically have to have the federal reserve, the ec, you have to have the g7 involved for intervention to matter. one of the reasons why japan isn't acting is they're worried it will backfire and fail, they are worried they will step in and the young will fall anyway. that happened basically in 2022, and in many ways you see this steering match between japanese officials and traders wondering where things are heading in the days ahead. before we go, showing you how japan's market has been flat to hire. a lot of attention, as we were saying, on the weakness of the japanese yen as well as the central bank's meeting today. of central bank's meeting today. of course we had a bit of a flat to low ending on wall street that was before the strong earnings from alphabet. that is it for the show, thank you for watching.

hello i am suffered to catch up. tonight, schoolkids are smoking. gigs getting cancelled and a dog with a robot. we start with something that might shock you. england has the highest rate of schoolkids drinking alcohol out of more than a0 countries, that is according to the world health organization. they looked at 280,00011-15 organization. they looked at 280,00011—15 —year—olds and found by the age of 13, just over half of girls and half of boys had drunk alcohol. the study also found teenaged girls are more likely to smoke than boys and two in five girls than boys and two in five girls than boysin boys and two in five girls than boys in england have tried vaping by the time they were 15. numbers of children drinking in the uk has been falling but experts want more to be done to stop it. a

13—year—old girl has been charged with three counts of attempted murder after two teachers and a pupil was stabbed at a school in southwest wales stop police say the three victims have all been released from hospitals. next, rebel wilson's autobiography has finally been released in the uk but certain sections have been covered up here and thatis have been covered up here and that is because of allegations against borat star session baron cohen which he denies. its about him have been hidden. —— sahca. and kid cudi has cancelled his appearance at coachella. and kim cattrall has had to pull out of her appearances because of health issues. and a guide dog becoming friends with a robot after a specially arranged date. amelia reacted badly to the. when they first met but now as you can see, it is all fun and games. —— amelia reacted badly to the bot. when

they first met. hello and welcome to sportsday with me, lizzie greenwood—hughes. here's what's coming up: manchester city close—in on arsenal at the top of the premier league. shock in f1 as the man behind red bull's success says he's leaving the team. and seven—time world champion ronnie o'sullivan powers past his opponent at the crucible, proving age is just a number. what is possible in this game, how long can you keep going for? can you win a world championship at 50, who knows? i'm probably the only player who is able to do that.