anger and uncertainty had buyer's annual meeting putting the german chemical giant on the defensive the legal troubles of its recent acquisition monsanto have shareholders up in arms. and u.s. first quarter economic growth beats all expectations investors were missed in their response the financial correspondent tells us why. also on the show japan has a notorious work till you drop business culture the country's labor shortage is now giving workers in one sector some leverage to challenge those expectations to keep the details. i'm stephen beers in berlin thanks for joining us german chemical multinational buyer faces shareholders at the group's annual meeting friday in bonn and as expected it was a tense affair the company's share price has lost nearly half its value following last year's takeover of u.s. agra tech for months and in particular after two american court cases linked that

company's popular weed killer round up to cancer cases and that's put buyer in the crosshairs of not just environmentalist and lawyers but its own shareholders. the atmosphere was talked sick even before the shareholder meeting began environmentalist's right to protest against buyers policy but many small shareholders also came along to let the board know what they think yemen is and he should just have to say i'm a bit shaken by this and you know if i buy shares in a company that i know the risks i have my doubts whether mr pollin can do us. to do something like that he's in comprehensible buyers chief executive than about money who spearheaded the purchase of u.s. biotech for a month santo last year was defiant defending to take over as the right move. however the company currently faces thousands of lawsuits in the u.s. over possible cancer risks. there's no way to gloss this over the lawsuits and the initial verdicts on life

a safe have weighed heavily on our company and there unsettling many people the four winds of freedom and. they're also unsettled by a number of studies the world health organization says and one that glyphosate is a potential concert risk while other scientists conclude sic like to say it is not carcinogenic one thing is certain the destruction of buyer's market cap since the monsanto acquisition as its stock price collapses there's deep mistrust of the company both inside and outside of the pond masing right now the value of what was once germany's most valuable listed chemical company is only around fifty seven billion euros which is pretty much exactly what buyer paid for months on tow over to the u.s. which has posted its strongest first quarter growth in four years the economy expanded three point two percent far exceeding expectations and bucking a global trend of negative economic indicators the growth was driven largely by an

increase in exports declining were imports and consumer demand numbers were largely welcome news to investors concerned about the threat of a looming recession that's and p. five hundred nasdaq index is hit record record highs on the news but bond yields also fell typically a sign of investor wariness. and let's go now to our financial correspondent in new york jose luis de haro for more on this jose sort of a mixed response there what's going on what are investors seeing. while looking at beyond the headline number is stephen there are also some calls out for concern and we will probably see how the economic growth here in the u.s. that will a slow down more towards the two percent mark as we go through day year obviously rescission in the medium term is out of the question about the hike in exports between january and march will probably won't continue global trade is a still weak and trade tensions are far from over also in the first quarter there

was a significant celebration of inventory build in a week you will be challenging to repeat viewing the current quarter such as this surprising the spike in government spending also consumption growth two thirds of the u.s. economy came out at one point two percent the celebration from two point five percent india lots of quarter of two thousand and eighteen so it seems that old will be economy may not have been as a strong quarter as their headline g.d.p. growth rate suggest they economy it's not in danger of either office telling anytime soon so a mixed bag there jose luis de haro there for us in new york thank you jose now over to china the country's belt and road initiative aims to link the asian power to markets around the world through massive infrastructure purchases and projects and scale of the initiative and the debt it's already created for host countries have drawn criticism china is now holding

a summit to pitch the belt roads advantages although some countries don't need much convincing. in a two day maker event beijing is proudly welcoming representatives from over one hundred countries to market its gigantic belt and road infrastructure project. the belgian right initiative has opened up new space for global economic growth new platforms for international trade and investment and it's offered new ways of improving global economic governance the new initiative has helped improve people's lives in the countries involved and it's created more opportunities for prosperity . the new multi-billion dollar project will connect asia africa and europe to china's trade network but there's a lot of criticism because china is financing the project with enormous loans countries that participate in making themselves financially dependent on china and china will make money for decades. countries like germany france and britain aren't

officially part of the project however italy has signed a memorandum of understanding that it will join the new silk road angering some e.u. allies. but chinese money has been flowing into italy since before belton right days involved in industrial imports city in northern italy a new container terminal is under construction creating four hundred new jobs. men monica giuliano is confident the chinese funding will boost the economy. my dream is to mean we have more investment watch that greater capacity for action than volumes of traffic interesting exchanges and the best thing is to sit at a table with officials from all over the world to speak about the near future in terms of employment trade and the need for specialized work because. i believe that it's a great opportunity the important thing is to always have respect for the territories

in which we work. even neighbors remain skeptical fairing italy too could become financially dependent on china opportunities risks in favor of chinese suprema see all big topics at the summit in beijing around sixty five countries have already signed up to the project. and let's take a look at some of the other business stories making headlines around the world a pilot strike at scandinavian airline and say yes it has stranded tens of thousands of passengers a carrier canceled more than six hundred seventy flights today affecting around seventy two thousand people assist pilots walked out of their pay and contract talks collapsed thousands more passengers are expected to be hit by further cancellations over the weekend. german automaker dime lawyer has said it has no idea where kim jong un obtained the dime little branded arm or limousines used by

the north korean dictator at international summits north korea has been hit by economic sanctions because of its nuclear program or insists it has no business dealings with the north. shares and deutsche about fell friday after disappointing first quarter results germany's largest lender saw revenue drop nine percent from the previous year on weaker trade earnings the bank also lowered its overall revenue forecast for the year the numbers come one day after georgia bank and comments bank abandoned merger talks. as. a founder jack ma recently made headlines by endorsing a seventy two hour work week something more chinese tech firms are pushing despite opposition from many workers now the debate over work life balance and how much work time really translates to productivity is not unusual among the world's biggest economies so how do those economies compare and working hours sick look china works the longest week of major economies with forty seven with workers

clocking an average of forty seven hours south korea also remains a nation of workaholics coming in at forty three hours on average per week followed by japan which has been trying to fight a cultural expectation of long work hours with mixed success of the u.n. comes the u.s. rather comes in at thirty seven hours a week followed by germany at thirty seven. well take a look at this the difference in working hours between men and women in japan and germany are quite substantial forty four thirty three in japan thirty nine to thirty one in germany now as mentioned japan has been trying to overcome its workaholic reputation now a labor shortage in the country just might be giving workers new leverage a look. can be knees are a mainstay of communities all over japan where there are fifty six thousand of them and until recently all of them were open twenty four hours a day they're run on a franchise model by various chains the biggest of them is seven eleven since march

some of it's can be nice have been allowed to close for a few hours each day and customers don't seem to mind too much. but it's strange to me that convenience stores are trying to operate as normal even though they don't have enough stuff and it's not just the case here the situation is the same all over the city. and. i would be happier if they didn't close but if i go a bit further i'll find one that's open but if they all start closing that would be a problem. for some it's perhaps an inconvenience but for the company it's a revolution at the start of the month the seven eleventh's president resigned for unrevealed reasons but it's thought to have related to a shopkeeper who refused to continue working shifts of up to thirty eight hours meter she began closing his store between one am and six am leading the company to threaten him with a one hundred fifty thousand dollars fine he went public about it and the people

back to him in the past the concept of work till you drop has been seen as nothing special but now more japanese are seeing the value in a good rest. and that's it for us as always thanks for watching.

but the campaigns for the europeans are in full swing and we are standing near to that of the last minute session of this particular european parliament because we'll have a new one coming and the result of that election is going to be closely monitored in africa because the continent took all the chance years of a complex relationship with europe you allege so why they matter to africa next d.w. . showing up today don't miss our highlights w. program online w dot com highlights. he creates a sex phone operator to work her master's thesis on the potato. to free.

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