this is the business briefing. i'm ben bland. revenues soar at the chinese tech giant huawei despite a us campaign to have the firm banned over national security fears. almost six years after 1100 people we re almost six years after 1100 people were killed at a bangladesh factory colla pse we were killed at a bangladesh factory collapse we look at safety in the garment industry. and on the markets many markets closed for the long easter weekend. the nikkei trading fairly flat. 0il oil prices rallied by more than 2.5% on monday, to levels not seen since november.

the world's biggest maker of telecommunications infrastructure, huawei, has announced bumper revenue. it had sales of more than $26 billion for the first three months of the year. that is despite a campaign by the us to convince countries to ban the chinese firm over fears it could be a security risk. karishma vaswani is our asia business correspondent in singapore. you are monitoring this from singapore. karishma vaswani, any particularly interesting figures that jumped out in particularly interesting figures thatjumped out in the latest results 7 thatjumped out in the latest results? these are not results to sneeze at. this is a 39% increase in revenue, quarterly revenue, compared to the year before and what this shows you, i think, it shows you

what huawei is saying that the campaign by the united states to get its allies and partners to stop using equipment from huawei is not really working. of course, having said that, a large portion of these reve nu es said that, a large portion of these revenues are based on the sales of things like telecom infrastructure, which is that sensitive aspect of what the united states says we need to pay more scrutiny — more attention — to whether or not the company is being used as a spy for china. that is the allegation from the united states which huawei has consistently denied. in an interview with me a couple of months ago the firm's founder was categorical when he said that they would never do anything to hurt their customers and these sorts of results, i think, underline the fact that huawei is a company that is still very widely used, at least in this part of the world. don't forget, their smart

phone business is also doing quite well. i was going to say. in terms of how much they are relying on for future growth, either relying on infrastructure or smart phones? they've been quite clear that this isa they've been quite clear that this is a two pronged strategy. they've been very successful with the smart phone business, originally the accusation was that huawei copies of phones from other more successful firms and tells them up half the price. i don't think you can naturally say that today. a lot of a nalysts naturally say that today. a lot of analysts have said to me if you look at the kinds of phones that huawei is releasing on the market, they are expensive, they are cheap anymore, and they're expensive, they are cheap anymore, and they‘ re quite expensive, they are cheap anymore, and they're quite good in comparison to their competitors. having said that, i think huawei is also very keen to keep pushing ahead with the sg telecoms infrastructure network that it sg telecoms infrastructure network thatitis sg telecoms infrastructure network that it is selling especially in this part of the world. a part of the world, then, where that scrutiny and that dear perhaps that the

united states has somewhat been successful in getting its allies like new zealand and australia —— fear, do not use huawei, but in southeast asia, huawei is the preferred supplier of telecom infrastructure networks. thank you very much karishma vaswani in singapore. this week marks and anniversary in a bangladesh garment factory collapse. it forced a rethink of the working conditions behind the demand for cheap fast fashion. so what has actually changed? fashion. so what has actually changed ? well, fashion. so what has actually changed? well, 250 companies including adidas and h&m have signed up including adidas and h&m have signed up to two initiatives designed to improve working conditions. 0ne study suggests that 17 people now

die in garment factories every year. that is far fewer than the 71 deaths before the tragedy. but one safety group says although improvements have been made, major life—threatening safety concerns remaina sanding life—threatening safety concerns remain a sanding into many factories. that's speak to monica miller who was in mumbai for us. monaco, so, in terms of the evidence of things changing, what practical difference has been made? well, in these factories different aid organisations, union representatives have gone in to see this and they say they have seen that there are better — there are better safety issues like sprinklers, for example, something that we take for granted in the west, but fire extinguishers, fire doors, even drills now that ta ke fire doors, even drills now that take place so that people know what to do in the event that something happens. 0n to do in the event that something happens. on that front, these are

the big manufacturers, the fast fashion as they are called, they actually have a say over what this doesin actually have a say over what this does in the alliance and the accord both from europe and the north american retail makers have really gone and tried to enhance the quality of these factories because, you know, after a tremendous amount of bad publicity the pressure was on in 2013 with so many people dying. it's a complex decision to weigh up for these big multinational companies, isn't it? does the garment industry is so vital to people's livelihoods in bangladesh does not because. to simply say well, if you're not going to improve standards were going to make clothes elsewhere could do a huge amount of economic harm and push people into poverty. —— if you're not going to improve standards. i read an interesting study from the university —— new york university

school of business and they looked at the amount that the stocks went up at the amount that the stocks went upfor at the amount that the stocks went up for big companies like gap for example and they didn't really take much of a hit. a company's perspective they chose not to move these factories from bangladesh, which was good for the workers, however, the problem is that this isn't something that if you don't work for one of these big, western companies, or work for one of these big, western companies, 01’ one work for one of these big, western companies, or one that is looked after by the bangladeshi government, there are these third—party contractors which aren't looked at. this is where the cheap labour has gone and they don't have those protections in place. 0k, thank you very much monica miller. let's take a moment to be if you want some of the other business stories. the price of bread—and—butter have almost doubled in zimbabwe over the past week. zimbabwe's president, emmerson mnangagwa, pledged to revive the country's economy when he toppled robert mugabe in 2017.

but prices have skyrocketed since february when the central bank introduced a new currency. tesla says it is investigating a video on chinese social media which appears to show a tesla model s car exploding. posted on weibo with the hashtag #teslaselfignites. the video has been viewed more than five million times. oil prices have risen following reports the us is about to clamp down on all remaining oil imports from iran. the washington post says the us will announce later today that all buyers of iranian oil will have to end their imports shortly or be subject to american sanctions. —— later on monday. i don't know how you start your working day, but coffee is a feature of mine. coffee is one of the world's most popular drinks, much loved by the rising number of middle class consumers around the globe. the growing market has made the trade in coffee a lucrative business as rival centres jockey

to process the beans that go into your favourite blend. now dubai wants to cash in on our caffeine addiction, as vivienne nunis reports. the arab world's love affair with coffee dates back it's hundred yea rs. coffee dates back it's hundred years. the first cup of coffee is bought to be have drunk in yemen. now, dubai is hoping to bring coffee back to its arabian roots. we can already consume 500 delian cups of coffee every year, that's set to increase with the new generation. some of that coffee is being processed here in dubai. producers from around the world pay to have their beans clean, roasted and blended, it's then exported to customers on demand speeding up the journey from crop to cup. we see potential for dubai to become a global coffee hub connecting the producing countries to the consuming

markets around the world. it's a recipe borrowed from the success of the country's t industry. dubai's de centre currently processes $100 million of tea every year. —— tea. it surprises customers. we find that in australia and the uk that it took tea up to four months to get to the consumer because they were shipped from india to kenya and then forward onto australia and new zealand. but 110w onto australia and new zealand. but now we're doing all of in here and clearly it has reduced the lead time by half stop almost all coffee processed here as re—exported, an increasing amount is sold locally in the uae. thanks to the growing love of artisanal booze, it seems that the coffee business has little sign of ending —— brews.

that's it for the business briefing this hour, but before we go, here are the markets: hundreds of holiday—makers in county down, northern ireland, have spent the night in emergency accommodation, after a large hillside fire forced them from their caravan park. more than 50 firefighters worked through the night to bring the blaze on the mourne mountains under control. it is understood at least 200 people were forced to stay in a local leisure centre over night after being evacuated to safety.

bbc northern ireland's declan harvey reports. too close to comfort. does make for comfort. at around 7pm yesterday evening smoke was spotted rising from the forest above picture is newcastle. eyewitnesses were shocked by how quickly the fire took hold. at its height, the flames were one mile wide. 0n at its height, the flames were one mile wide. on one of the busiest weekends of the year, this woman's ca rava n weekends of the year, this woman's caravan park was evacuated. many, including a pregnant woman and young children were busted to a community centre where they spent the night. children were busted to a community centre where they spent the nightlj was very frightened. there were people who were told to go into their cars, move the cars, getting your cars and then told to get out of the cars and run to the front gates?! i was thinking well, this is really serious. we have to evacuate.

sol really serious. we have to evacuate. so ijust got really scared. yeah. by so ijust got really scared. yeah. by the early hours, the fire appeared to be under control. the fire service it was expected to give details on what caused the fire in the extent of the damage lay today -- is the extent of the damage lay today —— is expected to, later today. coming up at 6:00 on breakfast — naga munchetty and rogerjohnson will have all the day's news, business and sport. including the investigation and aftermath of those deadly attacks in sri lanka. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: police in sri lanka say the death toll from the easter sunday bomb blasts has now risen to 290. 2a suspects have been arrested following the worst day of violence in the country for more

than a decade. the comedian and actor volodymyr zelensky has won a landslide victory in ukraine's presidential election. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the telegraph, which says key intelligence on a possible terrorist attack was not passed on to the sri lankan government. information concerning the threat was available days before at least 290 people were killed in the easter sunday suicide bombings that targeted christians at worship and tourists at five—star hotels. the mashable discusses how sri lanka restricted access to social media following the terror attack. social media sites such as facebook and whatsapp were disabled as officials worried the spread of misinformation and hate speech could incite further violence. 0nline magazine vox looks at how ukrainians overwhelmingly voted to make a comedian their next president. volodymyr zelensky, already a famous entertainer who portrayed ukraine's

head of state for years on a popular comedy show, defeated the incumbent president, petro poroshenko, who had been in power since 2014. in the guardian financial pages, two in five people working in british banking sector have parents who also worked in the industry, more than three times the national average for other types ofjobs. there are now calls for the industry to set targets to increase diversity. and finally in the times, are you a parent trying hard to convince a teenage to give upjunk food? well apparently its much more effective to explain how corporate companies spend billions on advertising to manipulate them into eating their products as opposed to whether the food is unhealthy and bad for you.