first one she relayed to the world famous conductor. longer than i. might. start did you read t. r t w. that is the most important place in the world to sell cars but the chinese are buying less of the car sales dropped in china for the first time in a generation a trend that could have dire consequences for western manufacturers also coming up . to germany under pressure to reduce dependence young russian oil and german companies figures out a way to expand the market for liquid natural gas from the united states and with venezuela's economy and meltdown digging for gold is providing

a growing number of fortune hunters with some much sought after hard currency. i'm krista kober good to have you with us. now is this an end of an era for years car sales in china has been rising steadily thanks to a growing middle class and government incentives but now for the first time since one nine hundred ninety fewer cars were sold in china than in the previous year sales were down four percent in twenty eighteen according to a study by professional services giant ernst and young and that could soon prove a problem for german manufacturers overall every third car they make is sold in china a false flag and is most dependent on the chinese market with forty percent of its sales happening there for a dime or its twenty percent and b.m.w. twenty six percent industry leaders all wondering whether the dip in sales is a temporary weakening of the market or the beginning of

a long term slump so which is it earlier i put the question to stop our automotive expert at warwick business school here's what he said. there might be more to it it's a good indicate if it could only slowdown in general in china and we've seen that not just in the car industry but also in retail calling me seems to be slowing down saw i'm afraid it might be more than just shorted. and so if this is an indicator of. worse times to come or even the beginning of a market saturation do you think car makers are prepared to deal with it. i'm not quite sure they are we have seen first indication is that they're starting to drop prices we see some luxury cars actually being cheaper than the used version of them dead is an indication that it might start a price war a race to the bottom and that's certainly not

a good sign for the industry not china as we have said is an enormously important market for carmakers german producers for that matter as well how do you see the growing chinese competition in that field. interesting parties the sweet showed it received ve it calls the chinese government's he said it's an opportunity to create a global champion so we could expect that state trying to push that they have done so also in the more conventional cars by forcing partnerships but that didn't quite work yes or we might see even a more aggressive stance as we switch into the vehicles for some stock car of what would business school thank you. staying with the automotive set sector nissan motor has slashed its forecast for twenty nineteen is on financial year ends in march in its first earnings report since x. chairman calls going was arrested over allegedly falsifying financial reports the

japanese carmaker reported a fifty four percent drop in bottom line profit for the first nine months in its fiscal year tuesday's figures take account of nine point two billion yen of additional expenses and salaries related to the under-reporting of mr gold's salary . shipments of u.s. crude into europe have just hit a new record generally imports were six hundred and thirty thousand barrels per day still behind russia and iraq but above other opec producers higher u.s. oil exports have been helped by lower supplies of uranium and venezuelan crude which washington has put under sanctions scaring buyers across the world last year us across europe doubled to four hundred thirty thousand barrels per day which represented six percent overall it's. for more on the story let's cross over to our financial correspondent only bartz in frankfurt only how important is this increase of us or oil shipments for european companies.

i think it's very important it's one of the most important factors and lowering the oil prices and there are other reasons also of course the economy waning worldwide being one of the biggest ones there the biggest factors there but the united states stepping in and avoiding the oil price climbing again it's important for so many industries if you think the chemical industry or shipping or airlines or any type of logistics that has to do with cars or trucks burning diesel or gasoline then with lower oil prices you have lower prices in the refineries and ultimately lower costs for business higher operating profits that remain in the bottom line so that's important and think about it too in the sense of the overall economy consumers also profit they also have more to spend on other items when they don't

drop off as much cash at the fuel pumps and only twenty eighteen has been a very good year for the oil industry as a whole tell us more of that. yeah the overall oil price in twenty eighteen was considerably higher than it was in two thousand and seventeen and reaped enormous profits for the five big ones that's royal dutch b.p. chevron and exxon mobil until tal here in europe french company together they made over eighty billion dollars in net profits and it's not just a higher price when the oil price lumped a couple of years ago they really dug down on cutting costs and they also cut investments so even with a lower oil price which may be the case this year as the oil prices come down again since last october there would still be in a position to produce pretty comfortable margins in frankfurt thank you.

and u.s. crude isn't the only come out of the that seeing an increase in overseas demand german economy. today with u.s. officials about importing more liquid natural gas which could help berlin reduce its dependency on russian oil the german company linda is helping to expand the l. and g. market. this crowd is here to see the christening of a ferry special ship the cairo us is the world's largest bunker supply vessel for liquid natural gas or l. and g. with a capacity of seventy five hundred cubic metres it's a floating gas station of sorts enabling other ships to fill up with l.n.g. anywhere even out at sea. it's a flexible approach to what some call the fuel of the future we have applied a shift if we have ships with small tanks that can certainly be supplied with by a truck before the big ships the big ferries cruise liners all container ships we

can't send one hundred trucks to fill up that tank that's why we need to supply vessel like this one does. in fact refueling from a ship is much easier than from a tank truck which can be an elaborate procedure as seen here in cooks often in germany. l. and g. mainly consists of methane that's been liquefied by cooling down to minus one hundred sixty degrees celsius critics of the fuel complain about the energy cost of cooling the gas but once tougher emission rules go into effect in twenty twenty ship operators will be obliged to use lower sulfur field than they do today which could make l.n.g. more competitive. just. that means of fuel will get considerably more expensive which will reduce the gap between the l. and g. price in the fuel oil prices secret with you so there's a lot in motion in the sector and the bottom line is we need l n g in shipping to make more progress in climate and environmental protection foods. hamburg based

shipping company happy lloyd is leading the way it's retrofitting a three hundred seventy neither long container ship to run an elegy the company plans to have it fueled in rotterdam and singapore but it is aware that a container ship is in a different league from the many ferries that are already powered by l. and g. . and if arafat from on a ferry sails from a to b. and in l.a. and maybe even be there l.n.g. filling stations so you can always be sure that you can fuel your ferry but our ships at sea for many many weeks and we dock at many different ports all around the world so if something doesn't go according to plan and you have to refuel earlier than you thought then you might have a problem because the next port where you can get l. and g. might be thousands of kilometers away and get huntington and that's where a bunker supply vessel like the kairos comes in in twenty nineteen it will remain in the baltic sea but in future it may be deployed to ports world wide.

it's to venezuela now and the country's economy has shrunk by more than half since nicolas maduro took power and twenty thirteen now mr maduro has been turning to gold calling on freelance prospectors to extract. the precious commodity. if their ramshackle operation armed with only picks and shovels these miners in southern france while are risking their lives taking for gold they're among an estimation three hundred thousand fortune hunters in the country making a go of pulling gold from makeshift mines many of them feel they have no other choice. there's a lot of malaria here it's dangerous down in the mines there are collapses things fall on you when somebody themself actually fell you could get buried god forbid there are risks but you have to keep working how else can you support your

family. that. their work is helping to prop up the government of embattled president nicolas maduro paid in the country's near worthless banknotes the amateur miners supply the government with desperately needed hard currency. work you can sell to the venezuelan central bank and to the venezuelan state development bank these are the two places you can deliver the metal they pay a good price there is a private sector but it pays a lower rate than the state. then as well as sells most of its gold to turkey its president ret of tired argue one is one of materials closest allies the proceeds are reportedly also used to buy desperately needed food from turkey opposition politicians accuse on korea of supporting an illegitimate regime. now the one nobody

knows how much gold is being produced or how much of it is sold to turkey and nobody knows how old where it's certified this is an illegal activity and i would have no hesitation in classifying it as blood gold. but with venezuela on the brink of an economic meltdown and the practice is likely to persist as long as there's a market for us amateur miners will continue to risk their lives in the hope of hitting gold. watch the boat.

take a closer look at modern culture from. a culture with. everything . a. different culture. and they're challenging. i think it was worth it for me to come to germany. to go. my license to work as

a swimming instructor. and i want to teach children often don't just read. your story take part cherish on info migrants die. hello and welcome to a new week of arts and culture robin merrill here is a quick look at what's coming up today. on the fortieth anniversary of the a rainy and revolution we're joined by filmmaker marion's are a born in iran's most infamous political prison a documentary born in if being premier. international film festival. she was a love addict and the serial cheater and wasn't afraid to write about it as part of

our series on classic german books we look at the poet as alaska's shooter and her nine hundred twelve confessional my heart. thoughts we begin with a bollywood film with a difference golly boy had its world premiere international film festival over the weekend yes it's a love story like all bollywood movies but that's where the similarity ends it's about a poverty stricken indian family whose son writes angry hip hop lyrics and smokes marijuana and he got standing ovations at the premiere. which got me boys about rap and freedom from society's expectations for everyone it would have been double shocker that it was caught up with many gaiety. nothing.