i don't know if the top story that we're following at this hour twin suicide bombers have killed at least thirty eight people in central baghdad police say the attack took place during rush hour in the city saltire square no claims of responsibility yet but the bombings bear hallmarks of a so-called islamic state. now the biggest and brightest from the detroit motor show benefits on this year we'll give you a sneak peek coming up in this in one minute. we speak different languages we fight for different things that's fine but we all stick up for freedom freedom of speech and freedom of press. giving freedom of choice global news that matters d. w. made for minds. of freedom of expression. a value that in

ways has to be defended and new. all over the world. of freedom freedom of arch. a multimedia project about artists and their right to express their views freely. d.w. dot com the freedom. of the. caribbean collapses one of the biggest construction and services companies in the u.k. this could impact millions of people across britain and abroad the gas guzzlers face off against their small eco friendly cousins at the detroit motor show and how lithium can lift an economy it's known as the gold of the twenty first century.

the business british construction group has announced it's immediately quotation. company failing to secure a lifeline from the government bank's enlarged if last ditch talks shares in the firm are suspended jobs are on the line as well as hundreds of government projects in the u.k. . in july twenty seventeen was valued at more than one billion dollars as one of britain's largest construction companies it was known for prestigious projects such as the tate modern in london manchester is be some tower and heathrow airports terminal five but things took a bad turn when the company issued a profit warning last july its share price tumbled and by august it was demoted from the ford c. one hundred index for the u.k.'s one hundred largest companies. more than one billion dollars to several lenders who now face the prospect of losing their money . the shareholders the creditors the banks are going to have to say we cannot have

a situation where privatized. private profits when they project so successful the government nationalizing the losses when they fail that would not be acceptable are chameleons demise will leave more than forty thousand people uncertain about their jobs and small subcontractors fear that they are invoices may go unpaid it is now worth a meager eighty million dollars that's less than a tenth of what it was worth a few months ago its financial problems are blamed on unprofitable contracts and delayed payments from projects in the middle east. we asked our correspondent to tell us more about what got karelian into this mess. well basically a lot of criticism about its management practices and the fact that they were bidding also for some deals where the profit margins were simply not high enough so basically unsustainable and a lot of criticism for the british government because we've had profit warnings

already last july and yet the government kept investing and it was said by several figures mainly labor figures the opposition in party that the government was simply too blind with directed that they were too busy with directed in order to to really see what was happening with this company it's not about being. at the detroit motor show bigger is better full size pickup trucks brawny looking new models hot market segment the us based or of makers have dominated for years still that's not stopping the germans from trying to muscle in on the action. yes to the new. the end of the new mercedes s.u.v. . thank you. dan the c.e.o. needed such invited famous actor and former california state governor arnold schwarzenegger to the presentation of the new g class on friend and t.v. . with so many carmakers vying for attention against the cantor.

us try makers are also a shell casing large vehicles like ford which present a new pickup trucks and wreck it as see these are generating fat profits for american manufacturers spurred by low gasoline prices american consumers are snapping them up for it may have to promise to invest eleven billion dollars to the electric cars in the coming years but here in detroit the new team ability is barely to be seen instead power in performance or the name and thinking. let's pull in now correspondents cost and for a nominee who's in detroit daniel cope a financial correspondent in frankfurt kasten starting with you here stealing the show a vehicle the driverless cars or the usual gas guzzlers in the spotlight. definitely the traditional gas guzzling or combustion engine basically this is

a very traditional all to show where all the big companies are showing off their latest and most shining model it's of course all the companies these days have to talk about emo billet you detail who we just saw has said yesterday that the plan of the us benz is to really electrified the whole fleet the complete fleet including the new g klaus over time b.m.w. appointed ology and they are the market leaders at least in the luxury segment for cars but the truth is. here the focus clearly is on traditional cars and that makes sense because only one percent of cars here in the united states are electric cars these days and if you look at the large vehicles and trucks it's clear two thirds of all cars are s.u.v.s these days only one third. traditional sedans custom

do you know why that is why emo believe it isn't electrifying the american. well this is a vast country have to be fair i mean there are enormous distances between places here and there simply not the infrastructure and also technology is not as far as advanced the most batteries in the electric cars these days have a range of less than one hundred miles and then if you don't have a place where you can recharge your battery you're in trouble and also it would take a lot of money to have plug in stations all over the country so we can expect mostly in the big cities there will be change over time but it will take time would this be a boon for the german automakers daniel they've been pretty slow in the mobility race . yet even though band we are seeing that numbers here sales numbers off billet t. cars and also hit cars are going out there are still not at

a level where they're supposed to be remote when i'm going to america was saying at some time she really wants to make germany number one here in europe when it comes to immobility this is certainly not the case and gas sales numbers are also going up here in germany with a good old petrol car and even the diesel evil baluchi here in germany is still a big problem also carson also just mentioned when it comes to the infrastructure just in berlin where you are right now ben you need up to six different context to go all around the city in order to charge your car here in germany right now is to promoting their ego but still. with very little success another reason why all of this is happening at the moment gas prices still already. change at the moment we are seeing a very strong euro a weak dollar and oil the oil price is being traded in dollars so that's another reason and really briefly danielle while i've got you there the u.s. tax cuts as well could boost european manufacturers i've read. the other saying

that because of their u.s. tax cuts we are actually might be getting an uplift off for poor sam here happening in europe as well but frankly speaking of course the u.s. market its investors it's important for investors but also they are looking to china and russia are those markets also growing very fast thank you daniel and thank you very much phenomena. but we catch on elsewhere demand for lithium is said to increase some say it will be the gold of the twenty first century it's an essential component of batteries the largest deposits in south america and australia and the race for reserves is on in germany. where of involvement in saxony. plots knows his way around these disused shafts like no other. the former miner knows where mere of stone or common market can be found it

contains lithium is sensual from modern batteries and fundamental to the mobility. and the market is trapped here we call it's involved. and it's what contains the elements lithium. drilling has shown that lithium or deposits with an estimated market value of some five billion euros lie beneath its involved mine together with a canadian company mean miller wants to recover the mineral extraction is slated to start in four years when the financing is firmly in place the. deposit can be exploited competitively if besides lithium carbonate use the mineral to also make more developed products such as lithium fluoride and lithium chloride those products can be put directly into batteries without any further processing. europe's largest living in deposit is in austria eighteen million tons of it are buried beneath the alpine slopes. in the federal state of carinthia. extraction

there is expected to begin in a bit over two years. in berlin schmidt of the german mineral resources agency keenly follows developments concerning the global deposits and availability of lithium. we don't anticipate lithium supply bottlenecks before twenty twenty five which we've researched and because we can see a very large expansion of already existing companies and many new projects in australia because well as south america we feel. german battery producers obtain their battery cells and the lithium they contain directly from asia. there are no european suppliers. before the cells are finally assembled the lithium in them has traveled halfway around the world. along transportation routes when the carbon dioxide footprint of lithium batteries is extremely high. the cells

which are batteries main components have to be shipped thousands of kilometers to europe is not an acceptable state of affairs it's not ecological or economical as such we have to take up cell production in germany in europe. but until things reach that stage europe's prospect of lithium producers will have to become economically viable as already established south american and australian mines no easy task. and just updating our top stories for you caribbean collapse is one of the biggest construction and services company in the u.k. there are a lot of jobs on the line not just in britain but also abroad also gas guzzlers face off against the eco friendly cousins at the detroit auto show clustering business with.

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