take the experience to another level. to him talk composer nobuo uematsu. featured in many. his music is bound to keep you stops sounds good. video game music starts february twenty fifth on g.w. . pipeline predicaments in a surprise move to france expressing support of a change to iraq which are seen as a threat to a major gas pipeline project linking russia and germany also coming up frictions in global trade may have increased last year but german exports stayed strong rising to record highs will get more from our financial correspondent and virgin c.e.o. richard branson gears up for a summer trip to space head of his pain. thanks

for joining. e.u. leaders are to decide on the future of the controversial north stream two pipeline project later today it will run next to an already existing pipeline from russia under the belting sea and supply gas directly to germany now it is set to go into operation later this year critics say the pipeline will make germany dependent on moscow and undermine european security and in a surprise move germany's ally france has spoken out in favor of more european regulation on projects like this threatening what some say is a key part of germany's energy strategy. for more insight on the story let's bring in terry boss he is a senior research fellow of the oxford institute for energy studies and he joins me from paris via skype good steady good to have you on the program now e.u.

leaders are likely to agree on tougher rules for projects like north stream two under which circumstances and how would this regulation impact this project its reputation within this project if it comes to the project being in operation as you state the project is supposed to arrive at the end of the yeah so now days a race between sis regulation and this fight this regulations this new year would be grace and we did not in fact that are already in operation i mean one now let's say the ear legislation is fast enough and comes into effect by the end of the year how will it impact norseman to. it impacted in one way first which is that a guy from which his is the owner of the money printer in russia it is not under e.u. rule allowed to operate and to all in time so that when the if there would have to

be a need of some and the looting as we say europe is just splitting off the pipes and new ones molecule it is possible but it will take a little bit of time and we need it to abate or twisting in and gas from and again if we need to be under the e.u. us and make the project worthwhile for gas from to operated to run it well this projects will be profitable if it runs out hundred percent id on the base to that level as more streamlined and you've seen these not seem on the ready we have that debate of of a difficult history at least gas from in this and we allow the north one to operate at less than fifty percent and this food whether these are scared kind of think that that happened to break the pipe lines is that less than fifty percent then it's going to be much less profitable east. now obviously this is a politically sensitive topic as some say germany's energy security is

under threat if north stream through shouldn't come to pass how dependent is germany on gas coming through this very pipeline out of russia. let's make it very simple germany is the biggest us market at the level eight consumes as something like ninety nine zero billion cubic meter of just stadia. it's fifty five b.c.f. to east fifty five b.c. and so if you were to say whether those same one and two greats just split germany germany becomes the five to one hundred percent and in the bathroom this is a very simplistic view but again this gives you the kind of extreme that we can see i mean two days level germany is ready fifty five percent dependent on russian gas if you look at just from export numbers jerry buss a senior research fellow at the oxford institute of energy thank you so much for

your time this morning. thank you trade disputes may have increased significantly in twenty eight team but german exports are stayed strong new statistics are reporting the fifth record year in a row exports of products made in germany increased by three percent still the increase was only half that of the previous year overall german exports reached volume of almost one point of about one point three trillion euros imports rose even faster than exports narrowing germany's international trade surplus which has been a constant source of criticism from some of the country's trading partners. for more on the story let's bring in our financial correspondent paul christine brits in frankfurt paris and record exports for germany in twenty eighteen but it seems like last year stumbling blocks only are only getting bigger. yeah the numbers came as a bit of a surprise considering all of these worries about the u.s.

china trade relations and breck so it really and that's because in the first half of the year exporters in germany were doing really really well it was only in the second half when the when the trade conflict. became more strong that they started to to worry and specially november and december were pretty bad and that was one of the reasons why yesterday just yesterday the e.u. revised its growth forecast for both the e.u. in general and for germany specifically because things are going to get worse here and that's especially bad for germany because one out of four jobs depends on exports so not a very rosy outlook and we see the dax trading flat at best this morning is there nothing to get investors excited. they're very very careful this morning specially after news from the us that donald trump isn't planning to meet his counterpart g m painting before that march one deadline that would see us tariffs

on chinese products increase up to twenty five percent two hundred billion dollars worth of exports which would be more trouble for a german exporters and as well we're also producing in the us paul for some brits reporting from the frankfurt stock exchange thank you. in a few days some of the reasons to mark the fortieth anniversary of the nine hundred seventy nine iranian revolution will kick off in iran that is of course economic sanctions have been a fact of life there since the revolution with heavy impacts to the economy and people's lives meaning that in the country with some of the world's largest proven deposits of oil and natural gas people waiting in long lines for food or a common sight. on a cold february afternoon in downtown tehran the streets are busy.

however inside baghdad but by a small restaurant it's a different story the latest trend of economic sanctions have had a big effect on the price of chicken his main staple it costs almost double what it did a few months ago and customers are staying away as a result. and i've heard you on 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 saying. a rogue setter. so we had resided 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 figure.

you know they go. yes well the economic effects are being felt by ordinary citizens here there is little appetite to bow to u.s. pressure. then 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 to a very exclusive competition a contest between billionaires the amazon boss jeff bezos the head of tesla you know musk and british business tycoon richard branson they all want to promote private space travel so that other wealthy people can look out the window of our planet for a few minutes now mr branson says he plans to go to space himself 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. their hundred percent hundred percent. happy and so i don't want to push them. i think i think it's likely there will be some before the end 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 a list with the current technology. branson himself plans on going into space this

summer after that other billionaires will follow. the government of finland has revealed their first findings from a two year basic income trial researchers say that providing a basic income did not spur the unemployment the unemployed to find work and jerry twenty seven thousand two thousand unemployed finn's became the first european citizens to be given a guaranteed basic income wage that would be paid regardless of whether they worked or not it was also no requirement that they see work last year the french government said that they would not expend the trial to the wider public and the first findings from the highly publicized trial seem to back up this decision. german payment provide our service provider wire car to said it is considering a lawsuit against the financial times the business daily has published a series of reports accusing the company of fraud the f t's latest. released

thursday alleged that senior officials were aware of the so-called round tripping scheme described in earlier that involved moving cash between asian subsidiaries to artificially books so far german prosecutors haven't found enough to open an investigation wire karr has denied the allegations but a twenty percent slide in the company's stock seems to point to a mark on certainty if it is true. that's your business update here on the. face for watching and have a successful. take

a closer look at modern culture from. an extravagant. really know their stuff.

with a good book. and definition. thirty inches with visions from around the world. like roofs every week double. and well this city berlin 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 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 made for inspire a foam and dresses and baelish with bubble wrap the work of a dutch artist who's turns packaging into renaissance course through.

but of course we get underway with the brother and something which precedes the actual opening film the so-called mouse 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 juliette binoche who had this to say about there being a lot of female directors in competition this year. well when i spoke with the taf he said to me and very happy that we have seven films 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.