girls she was told don't become kind. but this girl you're right and obsessive. and one day she really did become a world famous conductor brimming over with virtuosity inspection. of the. lamaist stuff. starts feb eighteenth on t.w. . alfabet posts strong profits but at what cost as the google parent company beats expectations on revenue and earnings investors are concerned over sharply higher

spending we ask an expert why investment shouldn't be applauded also coming up we show you how the lunar new year celebrations provide a boon to vietnam's insense villages and as nigeria braces itself for a general election concern is growing rather the two aging presidential candidates are the right leadership material for africa's biggest. and christopher. parent company alphabet both stood strong profits in the fourth quarter but still saw shares slip in after market trading in the united states the firm's eight point nine billion dollars in profit beat analyst expectations revenue was up twenty two percent from the same period a year ago but the glowing earnings report was overshadowed by concerns that the company is spending too much too fast in research and development among others

shares an alphabet slid more than three percent after the announcement. so let's take a closer look at that story with a he's a digital strategist shallower and partner consultancy and he joins me from our studio in frankfurt welcome to the program roland now for a growth company like alphabet investment should be applauded one analyst said why are costs a reason to worry here especially since its core business is highly profitable. well i don't think there's no need to worry at all because alpha bit is a highly diversified enterprise and they're investing in the right place i mean. other official intelligence machine learning that's where the way to go right. so you don't share the concerns of investors that it's too much in too many areas to be spent here. i mean they have been investing a lot in they have been diversifying for many many years everybody's waiting for

the big next boom for the next big thing may be you know you tube netflix kind of business model for you tube all the areas everybody is expecting for the next big thing and this requires some investments of course now one of the next big things possibly the next big things might be driving cars now an alphabet has no indication has given no indication so far when it's self driving car company ramo will generate noticeable revenue when do you think it's time for this segment to show some real growth. i think we will see something happening within the next five years it's a long term investment a long term decision and but the interesting thing is that they are investing into a machine learning throughout all their business ventures so they are profiting from these investment on the advertising part of their business but of course also on other parts so i think we just have to wait

a couple more months or years but they will definitely see the next big thing coming. i want to talk about the data protection here for a second. alphabets cash cow google was hit with a fifty million euros fine in france for violating european data protection laws just last last month and now the pressure on these digital giants is on when it comes to data protection and the reining in of this information do you feel that these companies are responding in the right way well i think they just don't care i mean and to trust regulation and fines and privacy privacy especially in europe you know very concerning and governments within europe you know trying to find a way to regulate. google and other into the giants this way i think this let's say for these fines are already priced in and they know that they will pay here and

there but this will not you know cause to any interruption in the stumbling digital strategist told on figure thank you for time this morning. thank you. german budget carrier grandmama grounded all its flights after filing bankruptcy monday night to the ailing airlines struggles became clear when it couldn't pay workers last last month is just the latest carrier to declare bankruptcy in germany after a berlin did so more than a year ago particularly low cost operators are facing headwinds at the moment europe's biggest budget airline ryanair reasons we announced plans to slash spending cough slash spending costs in the twenty nineteen outlook isn't rosy at all rising fuel expenses and falling ticket prices could hurt the airlines bottom line. germany's biggest bank has said that it may cut bonuses if its revenue doesn't grow efforts by dodge bank c.e.o.

to cut costs have failed to reassure investors and analysts the vendor has seen falling revenues for eight consecutive quarters of bank posted its first annual profit in four years and twenty teen it also booked a bigger than expected loss for school. but i way to question that's been occupying philosophers for hundreds if not thousands of years what makes assume one answer that's cropped up again is self awareness now a group of scientists have created a robot they say is capable of displaying what was previously thought of as a uniquely human trait this is no ordinary robotic arm at least not according to the scientists behind it who say it's acquired the holy grail of artificial intelligence self awareness. how well it's

a little complication the team at columbia university in new york developed a so-called self model to help the robot learn through trial and error much like a child learning to take its first steps. or first it kind of had no idea what was going on because it had no gathered no information about itself or about anything so it moved at first completely ran away with no coherent motion at all and no knowledge about itself at all after it's collected a sufficient amount of information and we've trained its first mission a sufficient amount of time it was able to create a model of itself from the information that it's gathered from all its around emotion from all its babble and it was able to produce something that allowed it that was useful in a lot of to do any number of tasks training and it's this that sets it apart most robots are designed for one job to be performed under a specific set of conditions and if the circumstances change it's generally

impossible for them to adapt to this sets them apart from humans who sell for awareness helps them adopt to an ever changing environment something we take for granted is that we have an image of ourselves inside of us we can imagine ourselves in the future doing things we can see ourselves we can picture ourselves in new situations but that's that that self image that we take for granted is not all of us leave therefore machines while questions may be asked about whether this robotic arm truly does possess a human level of self-awareness the development is likely to reignite the debate about what it means to be a machine. one sixth of the world is celebrating the lunar new year today helping people celebrate in the traditional way can be big business not least for the incense makers of vietnam as demand for the scent of

steak spikes wages of workers are also going up. welcome to just one of several famous incense villages dotted around. here on the outskirts of hanoi dozens of workers have been whistling trying dying to meet the booming demand that comes ahead in the new year workers part of this cottage industry can earn up to four hundred thirty dollars a month in the run up to the holiday that's more than double vietnam's average monthly income. in a co-op is the word you know journalists job for so long it's raised to me as well as many generations to be in the past people who are poor. thanks to this job many have gone on to study at university i've also raised two of my children to go on to further study. most households around

village are involved in the incentives trade and the sense of every patch they make is tailored to match the tastes of their destination over the new year people crowd into temples all over vietnam and light incense sticks during their worship. others burn them at ancestral altars in their homes. but hold it incenses an indispensable thing for worship and for me i usually use incense which has a traditional sense such as something herbal or a girl would i don't use in senses that have a smell of perfume or chemicals. that. the lunar new year provides a regular and reliable boom in trade for the incense villages meaning their centuries old business shows little sign burning out. it's to nigeria now and the country's upcoming election is a race between two aging rivals and questions arise whether any of the two is the

right pick to steer the country and its youthful population into a better future investors see numerous risks and africa's largest economy that has led the world bank to rank nigeria position one hundred seventy out of one hundred eighty nine nations in its doing business report. nigeria is an attractive market for foreign investors the anglo phone country has a population of more than one hundred ninety million and the largest share of internet users in africa in twenty six thousand more than one hundred million dollars in venture capital flowed into africa's biggest economy much of it too young. but there are stumbling blocks many investors are scared off by the security situation massive red tape and the ever present corruption. budget complains losing them the big issue is is a huge one at that it's. the police able when you do want to give them money like

the bus driver has to do it as it is is their rights president mohamed was elected in twenty fifteen on vows to combat graft a number of politicians and officials have been arrested by the country's anti graft agency but business experts still see corruption as one of the biggest hindrances to investment nigeria and then there are the problems with infrastructure and power supplies only half of nigerian households are on the electricity grid and blackouts are a daily occurrence many of the existing major infrastructure projects are being financed by the chinese government others have been put on ice as the heavily indebted nigerian government has no money for them. and that despite the country's rich oil and gas reserves but nigeria has few oil refineries so it exports its crude oil cheaply and imports expensive gasoline

a huge refined and watching. the from. let's talk. to take a closer look at modern culture from. a. culture of.

hey listen up. video game music sounded like thirty years ago. today's tracks take the experience to another level a sense to him talk composer or a monster. featured in. his music is bound to come for his fans he opens doors to see sounds good. oh sure that's so much more than just background music video game music stores february twenty fifth. hello welcome to news from the world of arts and culture i'm robyn merrill and here's a look at what's coming up today. we find out how you successfully combine eighteenth

century opera and contemporary dumb. we take a literary dive into the underbelly of the weimar republic in our latest installment of one hundred german must reads. and we visit an exhibition of christiane dior's iconic fashion in london. bots we begin with a production that's new to the hamburg opera it's the baroque opera office and your idiocy directed by the legendary choreographer. who has been bad a director there for over forty five years so is this an opera or is it a ballet well actually it's a bit of both a choreographed opera if you like bending the genre a little which noir is celebrated for. with his tragic opera ofis and you really see christoph look at one time revolutionize the world of music

director and choreographer john knew maya continues this revolution with his production in. the version is done as a synergy of music and dance a good sound const barack will simply says of the arts. this is right it was you couldn't get into.