as the u.s. and china sit down to new trade talks the us criminal charges against chinese telecoms giant weiwei the company is accused of violating sanctions against iran and industrial espionage. u.s. sanctions on venezuela's oil price of oil prices drives up prices of the blocks all over the world china and russia. also is global corruption helping to fuel a global crisis in democracy they will work out a new ranking. and find out why so little progress is varied in particular. and in berlin welcome to your business update for us justice department has charged chinese telecom giant wall way with violating sanctions against iran and industrial espionage the charges are connected to the arrest in canada of wall ways chief

financial officer of. this as a chinese delegation arrived in washington for talks to diffuse the simmering trade conflict between the two biggest economies in the world. the brand in beijing is probably as common as apple is in new york city huawei is china's leading to the communications group that's why journalists were eagerly awaiting a statement from the beijing foreign ministry on tuesday from the tone it would seem that the trade conflict is just going to get worse. it's been some time since the us started to use its state power to smear and suppress certain chinese enterprises in an attempt to throttle the other gentleman operations their intentions are strongly political and manipulative we suddenly urge the us to stop ill founded suppression of qual way and other chinese enterprises you know we've got yaar. washington brought charges against huawei at the beginning of the week

the u.s. accuses weiwei of subverting sanctions on iran as well as money laundering and fraud china describes washington's move as unfair and immoral you know i suppose the american authorities probably have been collecting. go after these on a couple of tiny center prices abroad and now this kind of evidence is being used to exert pressure on china in a sign of american trade negotiations if the world's two largest economies can't agree on a compromise during negotiations on wednesday the u.s. has announced another increase in its tariffs on chinese goods at the start of march. joining me now is our financial correspondent yens quiete ans it's good to see you know u.s. authorities seem keen to sell the while wage charges and the upcoming u.s. china trade talks a separate issues china of course is not having it how will this influence the

trade talks in the end well at least the white house claims there will be no effect at all the secretary of the threads are we as the evolution and there secretary of commerce wilbur ross both are claiming that the trade talks will not be affected by the charges if the chinese delegation shares this feeling remains to be seen it is really hard to imagine that china won't mention it at all because if i'm not mistaken your way is the biggest technology company in china so we will see what happens when the trade talks continue on wednesday and thursday and uncertain outcome there as you say but do you see a way out here for a while way at all. well at this point it looks like you away will have

to face the courts here in the u.s. if they don't show as far as i understand i mean i'm not a lawyer but as far as i understand if they're not going to this possible trial then they could be banned from doing business in the united states and in general there is a lot at stake because your way want to fight the the impression that was their devices they could spy on companies for instance or in foreign nations and they want to make sure that nobody gets this impression so there is a lot in stake and probably at this point it looks like the courts in the u.s. will have to decide. is carter there on wall street for us thank you yes apple has now disabled a controversial group chat function and face time following the discovery of a bug that allowed callers to eavesdrop on whatever is happening on the other end

of the line all you had to do was call a contact number then add yourself to a group chat while the callers dialing the called party's microphone would be remotely activated allowing the caller to listen in the month coms as an embarrassment for apple which positions itself as a champion of customer privacy or its promise to fix the bugs to be released later this week he's talking. now the latest u.s. sanctions against famous whalers notch and national oil company that claudio the venezuela raised world oil prices and triggered a drop in venezuela's exports of heavy crude a staple of global industry and transfer to the trunk administration sanctions triggered angry responses from china and russia. the united states hope that by striking at the country's main income source they can drive more duro out of office and clear the way for opposition leader and interim president why ido to take power

by dürer claims that washington is trying to steal the u.s. subsidiary of the state oil concern on state television here announced he would take action to defend venezuelan assets. that we are going to have through the state oil company is already studying the actions and we will take all the legal political operative technical and commercial measures to defend the interests of venezuela in the united states and in our homeland we will give the necessary and forceful response to defend the interests of venezuela at the right time in the coming hours. informing. possible for. there is a strong chance that trumps move will backfire and also hurt the u.s. economy u.s. refineries in the gulf of mexico have a lot to lose since they specialize in mixing heavy even as well and crude with lighter oil produced in the united states russia has condemned the sanctions as

illegal interference while china said they would lead to suffering for which washington would bear responsibility both countries have led to billions of dollars to venezuela and are concerned about new stress on debt payments. the failure to control corruption is contributing to a crisis of democracy across the world that's the verdict of the latest corruption perception index published by the nonprofit group transparency international the annual report ranks countries according to perceptions of public sector corruption largely by the business community the top and bottom of the list might not be surprising but there is a bit of movement in between. despite its dreary weather denmark regularly features in the top five on the world happiness index and maybe that's partly because the danes feel they can trust their public officials in recent years denmark and new zealand have consistently top transparency international's list and

twenty eighteen was no different denmark once again landed the top spot on the corruption perceptions index scoring eighty eight points one and a head of new zealand in second place on eighty seven finland singapore sweden and switzerland all tied for third norway the netherlands canada luxembourg germany and britain make up the rest of the top ten at the other end of the scale reclusive north korea and war torn yemen tided a lowly fourteen points were trailed by a war zone south sudan and syria both thirteen and conflict ravaged somalia bringing up last place with just ten points. more than two thirds of country score below fifty the global average was just forty three in recent years only twenty countries have significantly improved their scores including a still media and ivory coast sixteen have significantly worse and including australia chile and malta. the biggest free trade zone in west

africa opened its doors today at least partially only fifty kilometers away from the nigerian capital lagos the lucky free zone has its own deep sea fort and a sizable airport three universities and schools are set to follow the area is meant to service the whole of the west african market but as three hundred million consumers. this is west africa's biggest construction site the leckie free zone there's not much to see yet but when it's finished it's supposed to be as big as washington d.c. countless production facilities storage buildings a fertilizer factory and of the biggest oil refinery in africa that means nigeria would be able to export oil products like gas diesel and synthetic materials instead of just roll crude as it does now the freezone is divided into quadrants one city has just been inaugurated it's reserved for the residences for the one

million or so people set to live and work here in the future. systems. it's. just. the free zone is a joint project sixty percent belongs to chinese investors the nigerian government holds the rest the lucky free zone has managed to win one hundred sixteen major finance years most of them from china but national investment is flowing to. the fasts the will of the area is developed then rapidly so that is with. this is. with nearly a fourth of the population unemployed much hope is riding on the lucky free zone project. and that fit for me and the business team here in berlin for more you can

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