in his typically unpredictable mana u.s. president donald trump surprised the world again on thursday as u.s. import tariffs on steel and aluminum were about to take effect against a range of countries he announced they wouldn't be levied against several including new european union instead he wants to come to an agreement with the e.u. by may the five percent. are just starting a negotiation with the european union because they really shut out our country to a large extent they have barriers that they can trade with us but we can't trade with them they're very strong barriers they're very high tariffs we don't it's just not fair then with the stroke of a pen he sent shock waves through global markets levying penalty import tariffs on as many as thirteen hundred chinese products set to total sixty billion dollars

exactly which products will be affected and by how much is not yet decided. china says it will respond with its own tariffs on u.s. products for years are now stalking markets but a global trade war is getting underway indices in the u.s. asia and europe tumble sharply the uncertainty surrounding america's policies and their effects are undermining confidence there's a sense of a finely balanced system of trade beginning to fall apart. even in germany steel industry which was exempted from the u.s. tariffs the mood is anything but upbeat as the early shift arrived to. plant six on friday morning the only topic of conversation was thursday's temporary reprieve. we don't really believe it we know donald trump always goes back and forth with things. it's not a real agreement because the largest steel producers have been excluded and of

course it's only valid until the beginning of may so nothing. but. the german steel federation has welcomed the agreement with the us government but it says the e.u. is far from being in the clear the us will still be sealed off from any other steel exporting nations from eastern europe and asia. their exports might well end up on you markets. we believe that around thirteen million tons being diverted to us that's an important crease of forty percent which would completely swamp european steel markets and place considerable pressure on companies to adapt. that donald trump still dispute has already done a lot of damage though at least as far as trust is concerned. facebook was gripped by a major scandal this week after it emerged the company had pilfered masses of user

data c.e.o. mark zuckerberg enjoys the limelight as much as the next guy but at the beginning of the. week he was keeping a low profile more than two years ago his company discovered the data research company cambridge analytics spied on fifty million of facebook's users much of the information gleaned was said to have been used to try and influence the u.s. presidential election facebook failed to inform those affected and merely told cambridge analytic to delete the data which reportedly never happened instead facebook opted to delete the accounts of those who brought the scandal to light people like chris wiley former research director at cambridge analytics. a magic in i go and ask you i say hey if i give you a dollar two dollars could you fill out the survey for me just do it on the up you think fine right i don't just capture what your responses are i capture all of the information about you from facebook but also this app then crawls through your

social network and captures all about data also. users facebook friends were also spied on without their consent their likes their gender their sexual orientation and political leanings everything was trolled up users are appalled and calling on others to abandon their facebook accounts some analysts have even been forecasting facebook's demise. this scandal has plunged facebook into its deepest crisis since its founding and the effects have been dramatic over the course of the week the company's shares lost almost eleven percent were the total of around sixty billion dollars the massive public pressure eventually forced facebook's founder and chief executive mark zuckerberg into a public response. succored apologized for the scandal admitted mistakes and promised to improve security but is that enough. one of the things that we have to remember is that this isn't really a person all issue you know

a personal apology it's really about public policy consumer harm consumer protection and we don't none of us have a personal relationship necessarily with these two individuals what we're looking for are policy recommendations and protections rather than kind of to feel emotionally about there are contrition and in san francisco shareholders have filed lawsuits against the company the days when it seemed like facebook could do what it wanted with the data that users provided without taking any responsibility seem to be numbered u.s. and u.k. authorities have now launched investigations into what was stolen how and how it was used. german conglomerate buyer's takeover of u.s. competitor monsanto got the go ahead on wednesday it follows a brussels investigation into the fifty six billion euro deal which would create the world's largest integrated herbicides and seed company. our in-depth

investigation it raised concerns that the transaction as it was to fight would have significantly reduced competition in a number of markets in europe and globally. it would also significantly have reduced innovation which is very important to develop seats with a high yield or pests that acts that are less toxic and less damaging to the environment as such. at the time the european commission which serves as the antitrust regulator for the twenty eight nation e.u. cited concerns the merger could reduce competition in key products for farmers brussels imposed several conditions on buyer they included selling part of its business to german rival b. . the deal announced in october would see buyers sell the bulk of its crop seed units and its glyphosate herbicide business to be a s.f.

brussels gave the go ahead to the deal despite opposition by environmentalists who fear it gives too much power to the world's leading agree chemicals and seed manufacturers they're now pinning their hopes on a no from us or therapies who also have yet to give a green light to the bio monsanto deal. the european commission has put forward proposals to close tax loopholes for global tech giants like apple google and amazon tech companies like google headquartered their businesses in places where they get a tax advantage facebook for example has its international headquarters in ireland . the e.u. commission wants them to pay taxes where they sell their products not in the low tax regimes where they're registered. prosecutors rated b.m.w.'s company headquarters on tuesday as they search for evidence in the ongoing diesel scandal b.m.w. c.e.o. harold kluger said the company's diesel vehicles were not manipulated the just released twenty seventeen financial results contrast starkly with the company's

legal woes b.m.w. posted record profits of over ten billion euros last year despite spending big research it expects twenty eighteen to be its ninth record year in a row. has suspended itself driving car program after one of its vehicle struck and killed a woman pushing a bike in arizona the vehicle was an autonomous mode at the time of the accident with an operator in the driver's seat the accident occurred in tempe one of four north american cities where the right helen giant was testing the cars it's invested heavily in autonomous technology which it considers key to its future business model the accident marks the first time a pedestrian has been killed by a vehicle in autonomous mode. the us federal reserve has once again raised short term interest rates the quarter point uptick is the fourth such a rise in the span of a year an indication of the recent economic growth in the u.s. is expected to continue the latest meeting of fed governors is the first under new

chairman jerome powell and it was nominated by trump last year fed members projected they would raise rates twice more this year in an effort to control inflation. africa offers a potentially gigantic market of up to one point two billion people many of them desperately poor it's hoped a new free trade agreement signed this week will tackle poverty there. their promise of free trade and free movement is prosperity for africans because we are proud of the production of. goods and services that. enough. by boosting enter african trade the forty four participating countries hope to reduce their dependence on raw materials exports right now africa's countries only

do about sixteen percent of their total trade with each other the new agreement is expected to come into effect in one hundred eighty days time though it first has to be ratified by each country's parliament. we need. to some. that acquired political weed. for. free. to finally become reality but to really boost trade african countries will first have to invest in their infrastructure things like roads which connect the countries with each other so their products can actually move around freely. japanese company care sara has built a new solar plant floating in the middle of a reservoir it's an answer to the country's perpetual problem of land scarcity the solar array comprising more than fifty thousand panels covers eighteen hectares of

a dam in chiba prefecture. sara spokesman hint of the plant could be the first of many like it. there are so many reservoirs here. we hope that this project will let us expand our business throughout japan by making use of them . the operator claims it's the biggest solar power plant on water in japan manual output is projected at more than sixteen million kilowatt hours that's enough to power around five thousand households for a year. french multinational sealy which developed the technology says the cooling effect of water on the solar panels increases their energy production and makes them more efficient than land based systems of similar size as the panels also shield the water from the sun and reduce evaporation.

climate change. pollution says. isn't it time for. africa people and projects that are changing our environment for the better it's up to us to make a difference let's. do it the farming magazine. w. you know the banks. the language of the bank. speaking the truth global news that matters g.w. made for mines.

climate change is affecting us all. rising sea levels and one of the. streets. in change is. through entire community. the good news is our own choices in energy conservation. recycling. and transport can help redraw the line find out what you can do today at redraw the lines on all.