this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. france debates toughening its anti waste laws, which could see firms and individuals fined for throwing unwanted items in the bin. and further signs of the trade war beginning to bite, as china's exports fall for a fourth month in a row. and on the markets the week starts on a high following a bumperfinish on wall street on friday. it's a busy week for investors with meetings at the us and european central banks and of course the election in the uk.

we often hear it said that government's around the world should take more of a lead on tackling waste. the french authorities say they are doing just that, and are hailing their new anti—waste law as a world first. it's still being debated in the french parliament, but are the proposals ground breaking? the french government says its promoting a "circular economy", by banning the destruction of unsold non—food items. this covers cosmetics, clothing, shoes, textiles, electronics and plastics. according to the office of the french government, around $725 million worth of unsold non—food items are thrown away every year. the fashion industry, in which france is a world leader, is notoriously wasteful. a 2017 report by the boston

consulting group put the level of waste generated by the fashion industry at 92 million tons worldwide. we are going to pause on this story about french waste because we want to ta ke about french waste because we want to take you live in new zealand with the premise is telling us the latest about the volcanic eruption. good evening everyone. i have now had the opportunity to be briefed on the details of the volcanic eruption of the coast of the bay of plenty. the eruption happened at 2:11pm today. it continues to be an evolving situation. we know that there were a number of tourists on oi’ there were a number of tourists on or around the island at the time, both new zealanders and visitors from overseas. i know there will be a huge amount of concern and anxiety

for those who have loved ones on or around the island at the time, and i can assure them police are doing everything they can. the ministry of foreign affairs have also stood up their systems to assist with any response required for those further afield. i will be travelling to the area this evening alongside the minister for civil defence, our focus is to ensure that police and the national emergency management agency have all of the resources they need. the national emergency management agency is leading the bond and an active police search and rescue operation is under way at. 80 wa nt to rescue operation is under way at. 80 want to hand over now to the director of civil defence of the national emergency agency and our deputy police commissioner to give an update on the information that we have two hand. our thoughts are

affected with everyone affected by today's eruption at white island and oui’ today's eruption at white island and our immediate priority is helping those people. the new zealand police are running the search and rescue operation and can certainly speak to that, but the national emergency management agency co—ordination ce ntre management agency co—ordination centre is activated and we are working to assess the situation and co—ordinate any required government resources. the national emergency management agency is leading the response, we do not expect this event to have any significant impacts for the people on the north island at this time. if the situation changes, we will communicate this. asphalt appears to be confined to the island, and they do not expect more than a minor amount of ash to reach escape in the coming hours. iafter that amount of ash to reach escape in the coming hours. i after that the people in the bay of plenty and whakatane people in the bay of plenty and wha katane continue to people in the bay of plenty and

whakatane continue to follow all instructions from local authorities and the police. also our thoughts are with the families today. firstly, we initially believed that there were 100 people on or near the island. we now know that there is fewer than 50. some of these people have been transported to sure, however there are a number still remaining on the island that are currently unaccounted for. i can confirm there is one fatality, and based on information we have, there is likely to be more. a number of injured people have been transported to wha katane hospital, injured people have been transported to whakatane hospital, emergency services are working to ensure the safety of everyone involved including rescue staff. we are working at a pace to confirm the numbers of these involved stopping at this stage, there are two dangers for police and rescue services to go to the island. however, we continue to the island. however, we continue to assess the conditions which would allow us to go onto the island. the

island is currently covered in ash and volcanic material. we are taking expert advice with regards to the safety of any rescue attempt. we will provide more details as they come to hand. thank you. happy to ta ke come to hand. thank you. happy to take any questions? when police and rescue services might be able to reach the island 7 rescue services might be able to reach the island? we are taking advice on that, we are assessing it currently, so i can't say exactly when, but we know the urgency to go back to the island. how many people do you think are still on the island? what i can say is there have been 23 taken from the island. we are unclear about the numbers that are unclear about the numbers that are left. so there are potentially at least 27 people still on the island? potentially. how do you know

there is one fatality but not more? 0ne there is one fatality but not more? one of the persons that were rescued from the island, so i can confirm that there has been one fatality. do you have any communication with anyone on the island? no. as the deceased a new zealander or a tourist? i'm sure, but there are a numberof tourist? i'm sure, but there are a number of tourists on the island. do you normally have any way of contacting the island? from my understanding, some of the tourists are from a cruise ship, so we should have a list of people that left the cruise ship and intentionally are on the island, so there are ways for us to have that list confirmed. are you able to see where those people are on the island ? able to see where those people are on the island? there is cameras, but the ash is making it difficult to see with any clarity or distinction.

is cameras are quite some distance away from where the eruption took place, what of that say about the scale of the eruption? tns are assessing the situation but haven't had any information about whether the cameras are still operating. we actually have somebody from gns hare, ken, cannot just actually have somebody from gns hare, ken, cannotjust ask you to come up and give us a sense of the scale is make take my podium. come up and give us a sense of the scale is make take my podiumm come up and give us a sense of the scale is make take my podium. it was not a particularly big eruption as was said, it was almost a throat clearing kind of eruption, and that is why material probably won't have made it to mainland new zealand, or

won't make it to mainland new zealand. it went up about 12,000 metres into the sky, and so in the scheme of things, for volcanic eruptions, it is not large, but if you are close to that, it is not good. is there a risk of a secondary eruption? we think mainly that what white island does is clear its throat, it has showed increased activity for the last few weeks, so we raised the alert level, but it looks like mostly they will have an eruption like this and there will be a period of nothing, and that is kind of what is happening at the moment, it has heightened down, but we can't be certain there won't be another eruption in the next 44 hours. given that there had been heightened activity and the alert level had been raised, should people have been allowed to visit? again,

you will appreciate that the absolute focus needs to be the search and rescue operation and that is something that we want to allow the lease with best evidence and information available to be able to focus on that. there will be a time and place undertake further assessments. now, we have to focus on allowing the police to do their job, and focus on those who were in the vicinity of the island at the time. what other risks that are preventing emergency services from getting to the island? i'm understanding there are a range of factors, the risk of further eruption, ash, ability to access the island and of course the issue which island and of course the issue which isa island and of course the issue which is a consistent factor of gas. what type of injuries do they have who have been transported so far? most of them have some sort of burns. (reporter speaks indistinctly). i'm

not hundred % sure, there were 23 people rescued from the island. the person who died, with a deceased when they were taken off the island? i'm not sure. i want to be commenting on that anyway. —— i won't be commenting on that anyway. have you spoken to the embassies or high commissions... we are anticipating in fact to be deployed, we are waiting passenger manifest to determine information, but they are well experienced on issues like this, and we have them at the ready. i will take last last question. you are saying there are 27 people who could be dead? i cannot comment on

numbers, they have stated, we don't have for clarity at this point, and you will understand why we loathe to get into speculation. a all from the cruise ship? i don't believe so. we don't believe so. as soon as we have additional information, the police will be providing it but for now we will be providing it but for now we will let them get on with theirjob. that was jacinda ardern, the prime minister of new zealand heading up that press conference. just to brief eve ryo ne that press conference. just to brief everyone on the situation at white island. they have told us, is police and rescue services are unable to go to the island at the moment, it is far too dangerous for them to do that. they are waiting on advice to find out when rescue services can go there but there are people who are still unaccounted for and the deputy

police commissioner confirmed that there has been one fatality as well. 23 people have been taken from the island, they believe that there were around 50 people on the island so there are over 20 that are unaccounted for. they are saying there is no significant impact of this for those living on north island, the ash fall is just on white island at the moment, and one of those addressing the press conference was talking about the fa ct conference was talking about the fact that this was not a big eruption, so therefore there shouldn't be any material reaching mainland new zealand. he described it as the volcano clearing its throat. it has shown increased activity in recent weeks, and this was something that they had alerted the authorities about. but when pressed on the fact that tourists we re pressed on the fact that tourists were still able to go to white island, seen on live footage within the crater just moments island, seen on live footage within the craterjust moments before the eruption, of course jacinda ardern

was saying we don't want to talk about this kind of issues right now, the most important thing is rescue, and the police operation which is under way right now, the rest of operation, we must concentrate on that before we ask questions about the fact that tourists were there today and in recent days, following on from advice that actually there was increased activity in that volcano in recent weeks, so members of the public had been taken to hospital, those who had been injured are being treated. as we have mentioned, no significant impact for people on north island, and we have lots more detail on our website as well, so this is a situation that is unfolding right now at white island, people unaccounted for as we have mentioned. and, it sort of describes the situation, that about 50 people we re the situation, that about 50 people were in the vicinity, and so when

you look at the number of people who are unaccounted for, this is someone's tweet, a viewer's tweet that we have retweeted, i am just trying to play it now, it doesn't seem to want to play, but this person was actually on the island 20 minutes before the eruption, and as he is leaving the island he was able to film the plume of smoke. you can see there, this is the gns science, you can see some of the ash clouds that are erupting their following this volcanic eruption thatjust happened hours ago, to 11pm this volcanic eruption thatjust happened hours ago, to ”pm local time, —— 2ii happened hours ago, to ”pm local time, —— 211 pm, and there was a live feed that showed tourists in the crater just before live feed that showed tourists in the craterjust before this happened and the worry is that it is too

dangerous for police