this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. voters in one of africa's biggest economies go to the polls — but south africa faces big economic challenges including stubbornly low growth, high unemployment and one of the most unequal societies on the planet. controlling your home, or controlling you? google launches a new device to manage your smart home but what happens to all the data google collects? and on the markets, declines continue across the board as investors consider the threat of higher tariffs on chinese imports to the us.

let's focus again on south africa where voters go to the polls today for the country's six democratic elections since the end of apartheid in 1994. the immediate challenge facing the winner will be how to fix the country's floundering economy. let's have a look at some of the issues. around 27% of south africans are unemployed. among young black south africans, thejobless rate is one in two. job creation has stalled as growth has stagnated. south africa's economy expanded byjust 0.8% in 2018, after it fell into a technical

recession in the first half of the year, following two consecutive quarters of negative growth. now that compares with an average 4% expansion in the decade before the global financial crisis. another priority will be the reform of the state electricity firm eskom, as it struggles to keep the lights on. that's quite literally. it's been imposing scheduled power cuts — or "load—shedding" — to try to prevent a total collapse of the overstretched power grid. eskom's debt mountain of around $30 billion amounts to more than 8% of the country's gdp. much of that debt is guaranteed by the government, adding to what the country owes as a whole. meanwhile, national debt currently stands at 56% of total output and rising. it's going up. international banks describe eskom

as "the single biggest threat" to south africa's economy. let's get more on this story with the bbc‘s africa business editor, larry madowo. hejoins us from he joins us from johannesburg. people are getting ready to vote today, what is the biggest thing on their minds as they head to the polls? sally, as the polls open here this morning, they are hoping whoever is elected can fix the economy. there are radical economic reforms necessary to get rid of corruption and create jobs in necessary to get rid of corruption and createjobs in this necessary to get rid of corruption and create jobs in this country. those of the two figures issues. you talk about unemployment is at a senior high, 27%, because of that a lot of people have traditionally voted for the ruling anc party says many of them are not voting. more than half of those who are qualified to vote, especially those 18—30 are not registered to vote in the —— and there is a fear that that could affect it. the anc could get a

smaller margin which may not give them the mandate necessary to rule. some of these issues are very difficult to fix. example, the level of employment among black young south africans, if the % out of work, that's not a problem that is easily resolved —— 50%. work, that's not a problem that is easily resolved -- 50%. that's right. because of the ruling anc‘s ranks, the president has been forced to adopt some very populist stances to adopt some very populist stances to appeal to those voters who feel smaller parties like the eff have the voters concerns and they have a better way to deal with it —— voters' concerns. another rival campaign is "jobs, not corruption." so, the current president has to find a way to do it and do it quickly. we've spoken about about

eskom, just the logistics of living life in south africa is difficult for households and businesses. what are those running for the selections that about that —— what have those running. eskom is the major public enterprise, it's a prize possession, but over the last few months it's in its worst yet, the president has suggested splitting it into four different enterprises to be more efficient. it speaks to the crisis in government owned enterprises in south africa, so whoever, if they can fit eskom gets it working again, and delivers consistent power supply, and delivers consistent power supply, they can go step by step into fixing all of the public enterprises. that would get the south african economy back into growth territory since growth has been disappointing for many here and watches. thank you. we will talk to you again. of course, we will keep

you again. of course, we will keep you right across how this election goesin you right across how this election goes in south africa and the key issues. now let's talk about financial markets. you saw the numbers a little while ago. we saw another day of declines in asia. that's as investors continue to digest us—china trade developments that caused shares in the us to fall on tuesday. the markets are particularly concerned that the trump administration will increase tariffs on chinese imports on friday. let's go to our asia business hub where rico hizon is following the story. sally! lovely to see you. how the market is doing right now?‘ sally! lovely to see you. how the market is doing right now? a lot of concern among investors in the stock market. they are sifting their does make shifting their attempt to make shifting their attention to safe asset classes like bonds and the japanese yen. you have the likes of german bonds and japanese bonds sinking to one—month flows. as for

the dollar, it has declined for the fourth day in a row and touched a six—week low against the japanese yen. the japanese yen, sally, six—week low against the japanese yen. thejapanese yen, sally, is perceived a safe haven in times of market turmoil and political strife. while beijing insist it would still send its top negotiator, you heard that the plan thoughts on thursday and friday i'm going to say confidence has been shattered. this isa confidence has been shattered. this is a high—stakes meeting at the end of the week. an economist dressed that the impact of tariffs would be harmful on both the us and chinese economy “— harmful on both the us and chinese economy —— stressed. it's hard to say about the overall effect on asia—pacific economies. and the moves to counter global uncertainty, new zealand cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low of 1.596. interest rate to a record low of 1.5%. back to you, sally. a lot of uncertainty out there. thank you, rico, good to see you. let's talk about google.

google's annual developers' conference is taking place near its headquarters in mountain view, california. the company announced a new device, the nest hub, a small screen with a camera that people can use for video calling and to control their smart home. but how much control will users have over what data google scoops up from the device? our north america technology reporter dave lee spoke to rishi chandra, google's lead developer for smart homes. every feature you have on the camera isa every feature you have on the camera is a choice you can make. you can choose to turn it on, you can choose to turn on things like basil detection, you can choose to turn off the camera features. are they on by default? is it up to me to say i don't want this, turn it off, or is it up and it to say i want this, turnit it up and it to say i want this, turn it on? they are all off i default —— by default, and even for the video: you need to into turn it on. if i'm talking on a video, is

google taking transcripts, meta data? what google taking transcripts, meta data ? what is google taking transcripts, meta data? what is it taking from that that could be that aren't footage itself but are still important co nte nt ? itself but are still important content? in the context of video, it's encrypt it, google doesn't have access to that information. for the rishi chandra functionality, you can then to —— opt in. —— nest cam functionality. you can have it how google interprets the data. speaking of confidence, you had that issue without one device earlier, the nest device that had a microphone in it, but that wasn't part of the specifications that were made public after it was out for some time. that was a very, very bad move. what have you done to make sure that kind of stuff doesn't come out? the idea was to future proof the device, so there

was new functionality. a lot of these devices can stay in your home for a long time and we want to have technologies that can get at all the time, but the mistake was not specifying that in the tech specs. we asked you, are you into this new technology or are you wary? let's give you one sense of the responses we have had so far. keith says "i will not touch this with a pole, more tech you have like this in your house, the more vulnerable you are of being hard." i have to say, is a household, we were given one of these devices and when my kids just get getting all their homework questions answered by the device and not working it out for themselves, and nearly ordering a pizza without me knowing, that is when the thing was unplugged. it's been there ever since —— it was unplugged and put in my drawer. today, workers plan to strike

against uber‘s 25% wage cut. it plans to listed shares on the new york stock exchange on friday in what is expected to be one of the biggest stock marking listings for some time —— stock market. that's it for the business briefing this hour. i will see you in just a moment. the nhs has seen the first sustained fall in gp numbers in nearly 50 yea rs. fall in gp numbers in nearly 50 years. research by the left field trust reveals the amount of people entering the profession is in keeping up with the numbers who are leaving and the situation varies across the country as dominic hughes

reports. this doctor has just arrived at her practice in plymouth. i'm looking forward to a busy day with complex consultations and no time to reflect high demand. with more than 8000 patients on the books, her time is precious. most patients are consulted over the phone. how can i help today? i am feeling quite drowsy. i got run over by a car. only the most thin cases gets in face—to—face, people like janet who struggles with eyebrows —— high blood pressure. a growing number of people like janet with long—term conditions need to be seen. the gps can't keep up, retirements, burnout and a lack of first recruits are heading numbers. it's been bothering me for some time now. there is a crisis in general practice, it's

very real, it's the worst crisis since 1948. the future of it is in jeopardy, there is no doubt about that. extra money has been promised for general practice, and there are effo rts for general practice, and there are efforts to encourage more doctors to make a career as a gp stop still feeling ok? and at the austin medical centre, they are trying new ways of trying to ease the pressure. judy law now sees patients that once we re judy law now sees patients that once were seen judy law now sees patients that once were seen by a doctor. it's mark, the practice pharmacist. pharmacist, physios and paramedics now routinely doctor's surgeries, growing patient demands means this could be the future of general practice. dominic hughes, bbc news. this is the briefing on bbc news. the latest headlines: south africa prepares to go to the polls, but claims of corruption still dominate the campaign. liverpool enjoy one of their greatest ever nights, beating barcelona in the semi—finals of the champions league.

let's have a look at the global media today. we begin with the evening standard, and according to the uk labour party, cross—party brexit talks have again failed to reach an agreement. the news came after the government's official acceptance that it cannot get its brexit deal through parliament in time to avoid the uk participation in the european elections on may 23. in the guardian's business section, the hotel chain travelodge is aiming to recruit 3,000 students this summer with contracts that allow them to fit work around their studies. the move comes as the hospitality industry faces a looming brexit—fuelled labour shortage. meanwhile the financial times says social media giant facebook has chosen

london as the centre for a push into payments on its whatsapp messaging service. the move is seen as boosting the city's hopes of becoming a global financial tech hub. on the guardian website, georgia's republican governor brian kemp has signed legislation to ban abortion once cardiac activity can be detected. opponents say this could mean as early as six weeks, before many women even realize they are pregnant. and finally their calling it the miracle on merseyside. the mirror like every uk paper has uk premier league football team liverpool on their front pages. the paper says the reds produced the greatest night in anfield history to reach the champions league final after overcoming barcelona with a stunning second—leg fightback. we've heard some of our fans that are watching now and you are celebrating, which is great. with me is jeremy thomson—cook who's

chief economist of the payments