to become a world. did you marry me t d w. pipeline predicament in a surprise move france expresses support of a change to e.u. rules which are seen as a threat to a major gas pipeline project linking russia and germany also coming up urgency oh richard branson gears up for a summer trip to space head of his paying customers and germany's tech darling verses the financial times wire car considers a lawsuit against the paper our financial correspondent.

thanks for joining us even leaders are to decide on the future of the controversial north stream to pipeline later today and this is season could have wide ranging consequences the pipeline will run from russia under the baltic sea and supply gas directly to germany it is set to go into operation leave this year now in a surprise move by germany's ally france spoke out in favor of more european regulation on projects like this putting what some say is a key part of germany's energy strategy under threat. construction of the north stream to pipeline is a ready well underway but the face of the project life in the balance e.u. members have not yet agreed on how to proceed and germany and france in particular appear to be at odds over regulation this is what's at stake the pipeline would transport gas from russia to germany via the baltic sea the project in its current

form is operated by russian state energy company gas problem. and that's exactly what critics including the united states and seemingly france object to. the dependency from russian gas increased drastically with us near a pipeline and that's the reason why they construct that. contradicts obviously the european goals not on the of the energy union but in the future we will see less gas demand because of climate policy and there's a some reason why this pipeline is completely on a canonical on friday european lawmakers will decide whether to extend the blocks energy rules to gazprom if they do so the company would no longer be allowed to both operate the pipeline to handle sales meaning the project in its current form at least could go up in smoke. and have more of the story from brussels. this

is not my software. and we're just trying to get there there is max good to see you your leaders are meeting later today what are they going to decide. well the e.u. embassadors are getting together for a vote and they're most likely going to vote in favor of a directive that would change the way that north stream to is regulated the french foreign ministry did confirm that they will vote for this directive but they also said that they're still working with their partners on modifying the text possibly now we don't know what those modifications might be we do know that the germans are lobbying trying to soften the blow for their project nord stream to as much as possible now what regulating mean for a project like this and the future of the most important part that's always cited is that it would separate gas supply and the infrastructure of the power pipelines

so the actual pipelines so far all of this is in one hand problem the giant gas company of russia so all of this would be put under the supervision of the european union and that means that russia as the partner country here would also have to supply with e.u. regulations of that would make everything more complicated and more costly and that's why many think it would endanger the project as a whole. some people say regulating or even stopping a project like this is endangering germany's energy security how dependent is germany on north stream two in particular and on russian gas in general. well the people we're hearing here say it will not endanger energy security in germany because germany is already getting russian gas through ukraine it would make it easier for germany to get russian gas and would probably increase the part that russian gas plays in overall german energy mix at the moment i believe the numbers

are about thirty five percent russian gas and on the whole energy mix but in the gas mix and that might increase up to fifty percent of this happens but you have to keep in mind that gas is only a rather small part of the whole energy mix in germany it's about a quarter because of course germany's trying to amp up is renewable energies here so i would say germany would survive but it would be a blow to all the plans and it would make it just more more costly than plan for germany to get russian gas and max briefly any reaction from gas from all russia on these plans by the e.u. well we do know that germany russia is probably more dependent on germany for economic matters than the other way around so this is a very important project for the russians but we will see just how important this directive goes through because then the russians will have to say if they're willing for this project to comply with it regulation and that will be the real test. is next hofmann reporting from brussels max thank you.

german payment service provider buyer carter said it is considering a lawsuit against the financial times the business daily has published a series of reports accusing wire cart of fraud at the f t's latest release allege that two senior officials were aware of the so-called round tripping scheme described in its early articles that involved moving cash between asian subsidiaries to artificially the books but so far german prosecutors haven't found enough evidence to open an investigation wire card as denied the allegations of a twenty percent slide in the company's stock seems to point to a market uncertain in telling its if it's the truth. for more on this let's cross over to frankfurt and our friends our correspondent christiane brits. there's been a lot of back and forth in the story and what sticks out to me is that the

financial times is really sticking to its reporting it's really holding its ground here what do people in frankfurt make of the story. well people i've spoken to been here for years they say this is really an unprecedented situation dax companies are supposed to stand for stability and strength and this current situation is showing everything but there is a high volatility we've seen yesterday the share dropped. even more than twenty percent and that many don't seem don't find worthy of a tax kompany of course these high volatility also comes with a lot of automated trading because we have to be aware today that. there is automated trading that will respond to you know news reports like these. robots basically doing the training and that will increase the volatility when back in the days it was people judging well you know this company is doing a good job or it isn't and that would see smaller movements and companies in

general. agressor brits reporting on the latest allegations against wire car by the financial times or kristen thank you so much. if you days the celebrations to mark the fortieth anniversary of the nine hundred seventy nine iranian revolution will kick off in the country economic sanctions have been a fact of life since that new wave of here sanctions against iran came into effect last november aimed at forcing it to change its policies the effects are being felt by citizens on the ground in the country's capital tehran. on a cold saturday afternoon in downtown tehran the streets are busy. however inside bears that by a small restaurant it's a different story the latest round of economic sanctions have had a big effect on the price of chicken his men step it costs almost double what it

did a few months ago and customers are staying away as a result. and i've heard from eleven to four we were so busy we didn't even have time for lunch or tea but now the situation is like this. it's not just the price of food that has been affected. prices have been rising steadily for consumers and businesses across the country causing plenty of worry for people such as majeed house in. iraq setter. there is anxiety in the market the dollar exchange rate issue and the sanctions are putting pressure on people and people who own businesses are looking to the future with some fear. and the oh. yes while the economic effects are being felt by ordinary citizens here there is little appetite to bow to u.s. pressure. in the little created the revolution and they're standing by it and

supporting it in fact those who are suffering are the same ones who protests appeared in the revolution. here in iran the values of the revolution still come first. now a very special competition a contest between billionaires the amazon boss they had of tesla and british tycoon richard branson wants to promote private space travel then other very wealthy people can look out the window at our planet for a couple of minutes now mr branson wants to go ahead and give it a go and self he says he plans to go to space aboard his own virgin galactic spacecraft in july. the trip to outer space with a quarter of a million dollar price tag. billionaire richard branson space ship had its first

manned flight in december so when will the first customer be boarding. before i make any promises on the customers we need we need to leave these. things yet we wait wait wait i will need to wait for our children to say on their hundred percent hundred percent i'm happy and so i don't want to push them. but i think i think it's likely there will be some before that. branson wanted to start with space tourism years ago but serious accidents caused delays. still seven hundred super rich have already bought their seats. going to space should never be taken for granted at least not with the current technology. branson himself plans on going into space this summer after that other billionaires will follow. and finally the bank of england has slashed its forecast for u.k.

growth this year blaming what else but its star rate of growth from projects in one point seven percent to just one point two per cent predicting the worst performance since the financial crisis the banks governor mark carney put it down to a global economic slowdown and what he called the so called far the brics u.k. growth slowed at the end of twenty eighteen and as we can further so far during twenty night. that's it for me and the business team here in berlin thanks for watching and have a successful. it's

time to. take a closer look at modern culture from. culture. hey listen up. that's what video game music sounded like thirty years ago. today's tracks take the experience to another level. thanks to him composer.

featured in. his music expanding to. his fans he opens doors to. sounds good. oh sure that's so much more than just background music video game music starts february twenty fifth on w. . this is awash with the great and good of the movie business so you can guess what a big part of culture has in store today. yes this year's berlin international film festival is under way here in the german capital we'll find out what's happening on the ground from our very own david leavitt's. bonnets mafer inspire a foam and dresses embellished with bubble wrap the work of a dutch artist who's turns packaging into renaissance cost you.

but of course we get underway with a burger now and something which precedes the actual opening film the so-called march of the gladiators that's the introduction of the jury to the international press seventeen films are in the competition for the golden bear and this year the president of the jury is none other than the french star juliette binoche who had this to say about there being a lot of female directors in competition this year. well when i spoke with gita he said to me very happy that we have seven films of women directors this year and he said i didn't select them because they're women because they're great films so i think that's a good step forward. and now let's have a look back at the illustrious career of judy.