the jungle and returned to the concrete and glass jungle. the result reverse culture shock. prize winning documentary from the forest. first w. . china's premier qian painting is in paris to meet e.u. leaders and he can expect an ear fold over his latest attempts to push his belgium growth initiatives into europe the chinese trying to drive away into the european union. also coming up rag gadget free product launch reveals a company boldly go and. indeed house go in full. on spreads it is going to create problems at the irish border. brings back

a long cross. comes with business i'm god as in ballen. chinese president xi jinping is in paris today to meet with e.u. leaders on top of the agenda beijing's of bush's belton road initiative the infrastructure push has raised concerns euro views beijing's latest investment in the italian port of france for example it's a little too close for comfort for many in the u.s. and some see rome's tight embrace of china as proof of italy's populist governments i'm going to suggest you to the e.u. well here is china's master plan the country is building the just sickle corridors that extend from jiang across central asia via tehran to turkey then to moscow west to the port of and through europe to venice fair market polo first set out on the medieval silk road to chinatown from venice the new silk road leads back to china through this so as come out these are just the western routes the initiative also

includes infrastructure projects like bridges well lines and ports and africa and south america beijing wants to use these corridors to export goods from chinese factories to markets all over the world but is about road just a trade projects or is it rather a tool to globally project china's par. china's ruling communist party is the most powerful in the world and it maintains absolute control over where when and how much foreign companies can invest in china despite some recent reforms foreign firms doing business in china continue to face major restrictions. outside of china the party has launched an ambitious expansion of global trade routes for chinese products. to belton road initiative involves hundreds of infrastructure projects around the world but they're rarely put out to tender there's little transparency in how they're decided and competing foreign companies

say they do not encounter a level playing field. still when the chinese leadership comes bearing billions in investments it's tempting for a financially cash strapped country to take part last week if he signed an agreement with the chinese government endorsing belton road. rome solo run met with disapproval from other european union member states in particular because they had already agreed to approach china and its powerful ruling party with a single voice. on expect liverpool and joins me in the studio now as well as all corresponded sohan so in time i welcome to you both with a let's start with you italy signed a protocol with china's non-binding to take part in beijing's new silk road project this was criticized by all the european leaders and will probably be criticized

today as a way to split the european union is china really trying to drive a wedge into the u. i think china's over always been happy to play at the u.s. against your for example and and take countries or organizations in bite size pieces so i think we're seeing a little bit of that happening now to europe i think that there's a focus on the eastern europe former eastern european countries from china's side and now we see it with this really as well that there is an attempt to maybe saw a kind of division in there let's bring in someone from taipei so how is that viewed in china. well china tend to ignore most of the quizzes and it's because it is italy who long voice desired war closely with china and when people said that while china's project let some countries less reluctant malaysia into debt traps there was a those are fake news and turn to sound good examples like what happened in greece

which is similar to italy and it is true that greece did transform most indebted country to up revitalize the economy but we also have to be aware that china now owns the majority of greece crucial passport so for china's partner they found the initiative to be both a blessing and a curse but the chinese government tend to tell you the price side of the story could we expect more. trying to make more inroads into euro but will be them the next move or the next that for china definitely to look for more countries to endorse the initiative which is the political wing and the total diplomatic push each for president xi jinping and is very crucial it's achieved the chief reason but china is to show the political significance of the project sixty at its launch we know now the figure is around two hundred billion dollars and it will go up to

a trillion dollars in twenty twenty five so it is truly a sweeping vision. cliff a is this all just a big plan of power projection for beijing i think it is because the initiative is so central to issue jim ping's policy at the same time it is also some ways part of. much more of a political kind of game that it's trying to sort of establish itself as a superpower and so that it's trying to basically implement these policies within that kind of context do you do you think they will stop at some stage will can we see this whole expand. i can see well there's obviously geographical limits but who knows i mean there's been so that it's been so successful in certain parts of the world then another part has been less successful but if they continue to expand as i'm with the success of countries like italy which is after all a g. ten country so this is

a big big achievement for the belgian road initiative for need to take part so possibly the where are the limits the sky's the limit. here in the studio and our correspondents who in taipei thank you very much. apple has held one of its flashy product launches in california but this time there haven't been any clever new gadgets and steady raft of new services including video streaming it's a sign of the i phone makers change of focus as it aims to compete with fostering rivals like netflix or. we partner with a was the usual big show dark theater music and a modestly clad c.e.o. but the stars of apple's latest product launch were not sleeker phones or larger tablets but real stars. hollywood royalty like steven spielberg and oprah winfrey they have signed on to produce

exclusive content for apple t.v. plus the company's new offering a subscription based streaming service and a challenge to netflix amazon and other media platforms apple is facing a crowded field and by no means certain success and people are going to be willing to add another streaming service apple is going to have a lot of work cut out for it and. then again apple has a lot of cash to throw at the new service and that makes some analysts optimistic. i've never seen this much star power in one place at a tech advance so that was a first and again these were a listers these were some of the top to be steal were j.j. abrams oprah winfrey i mean they were here to basically commit to an apple platform and that kind of commitment says a lot about them believing that apple is significant in the future. and then there's apple news plus also subscription based offering users access to newspapers

and magazines for under ten dollars a month. not to forget apple arcade to satisfy the growing gaming community and a new credit card backed by goldman sachs and master card for apple it's a new focus on what makes money when the market for hardware is saturated content and services. franks it will have a bigger impact on the republic of ireland than on any of the e.u. countries especially if a hard border is real stuff between it and the british province of northern ireland would bring back memories on the island of a more violent era and is practically guaranteed to revitalize a long forgotten economic crime. if you want to go to three hundred fifty three. mike has plenty of tales of smuggling and he lives in northern ireland right next

to the border the former truck driver says lots of shady stuff went on in the area in the past much of it involving customs control between the british province and the e.u. member state to the cells i see going into a shed said laurie so with a win to the state she has. made a very through that through that door let's share that shit are also not in the safe environment so he thought that if it's impossible i getting rid of controls didn't get rid of smuggling completely fireworks which are banned in the republic of ireland still cross regularly they're legal in the north and sales of them are brisk in the border region. and farm diesel subsidized by the e.u. war vet free heating oil from northern ireland also often cross the border illegally because there are no controls. conor patterson remembers

a very different time into the one nine hundred ninety s. thousands of trucks were checked by customs officials in the sheds they disappeared with the advent of the e.u. single market here but breaks it could bring it all back along with a return of more professional organized smuggling have faith and the irish republic and lying with base prices across eight years at waller a at and cheap beef is being ordered not that france or could be significant enough corage widespread smuggling the issue for also is that smuggling. captured on exploited by crying. new really in northern ireland has benefited from its position at the border it's developed into a major shopping for the region a rise in crime would certainly hurt businesses here but could post bret's its smuggling be kept in check. people here are rubbing their hands with with flair

anticipation with which is that was i was to them given the price of a source inside found those people wouldn't see it as not true they make a lot of money however you cannot be any reinstalling border infrastructure because i was in somalia challenge on our threat which is a return to our darker it is of our very own cost mike is also against bringing back the checkpoints and watchtowers like many others here it reminds him too much of a more violent era lee. and that's it from me and the business scene thank you for . the food.

ruins. a. symbol of a long conflict in the philippines between the muslims and the christian population last may astrologers occupied the city center until now seventeen president and church's response was. generous but he may have again.

the reconquest turned into tragedy this is not the kind of freedom that we want. how did we become a gateway to islamist terror. an exclusive report from a destroyed city. similar in the sights of fire starts april eleventh on d. w. . welcome to news from the world of arts and culture i'll be joined by the office gym today whose arts you can see behind me also coming up. we'll be right up in the arctic circle in swedish lapland the most extraordinary ice hotel in the world. and in our series one hundred most reads a book called runaway horses by the controversial german. teen violence.

but first as i mentioned earlier jim i mean you know as my guests in just a minute is a painter and illustrator who is possibly the most prolific painter in the world his style is very recognizable and i was a lot of street art. and his influence in my humble opinion biasses from picasso to keith haring and beyond that sea is very individual. big bryants and fun fun fun jim avignon paintings grab your attention but he's entertaining pop patients also deal with serious topics capitalism and gentrification avignon averages about four works per day he gets some in the way and of those he simply tazz out. avignon is self sorts and his art career began in the early nine hundred ninety s. when he built stage sense for a eves and twenty third saying he was asked.