complete. darkness to use to a. t w. cut. anger and uncertainty at buyers 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 but investors were mixed in their response to 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 and glenn thanks for joining us. german chemical multinational buyer faces shareholders at the group's annual meeting friday and that's 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 monsanto and in particular after two american court cases linked that company's popular weed killer round up to cancer cases that's put buyer in the crosshairs of not just environmentalist and lawyers but its own shareholders. the atmosphere was talks even before the shareholder meeting began environmentalist's were right to protest against buyers policy but many small shareholders also came along to let the board know what they think. they 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 bollen can do us. to do something like that he's in comprehensible buyers chief executive then about money

who spearheaded the purchase of us biotech firm monsanto last year was defiant defending the takeover 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 are 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 in one that glyphosate is a potential concert risk while other scientists concludes that guy for ses is not carcinogenic one thing is certain the destruction of buyers market caps and the monsanto acquisition as its stock price collapses there's deep mistrust of the company both inside and outside of the pond missing. right neither 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 the global trends 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 to haro for more on this. sort of a mixed response there what's going on what are investors seeing while looking 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. it will a slow down more towards the two percent mark as we go through the year obviously the recession in the medium term is out of the question about the hike in exports between january and march we'll 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 a celebration of inventory build in that we too will be challenging to repeat doing the current quarter such as the surprise in a spike in government spending also consumption growth two thirds of the u.s. economy came out at one point two percent obvious celebration from two point five percent 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 is not in danger in their office 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 of 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 of the 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. to belton rights initiative has opened up new space for global economic growth new platforms for international trade and investment and itself in 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 is confident the chinese funding will boost the economy.

my dream is to mean we have more investment much the greater capacity for action why are 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 because the important thing is to always have respect for the territories in which we work. even neighbors remain skeptical fairing it to be 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 s.a.'s 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. founder jack ma

recently made headlines by endorsing a seventy two hour workweek 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 and the un comes the u.s. rather comes in at thirty seven hours a week followed by germany at thirty seven. now 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 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 me to sheep matsumoto began closing his store between one am and six am leaving the company to threaten him with a one hundred fifty thousand dollars fine he went public about it and the people backed him in the past the concept of work till you drop it 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 entire point i as cameron jurors are dealing with i mean at that i killed many civilians i mean the irish coming committing my father while. i was a student i wanted to build a life for myself. but suddenly life became alledge kind of song. providing insights global news that matters d. w. made for minds. people here love life. they love their

country but not the current conditions. iran a journey through a land full of contradictions close joy and sadness. confidence and doubt. our documentary depicts the contrasts of everyday life. and help people cope with. iran bittersweet. starts may second fun d.w. . when the water starts rising people fight for survival plenty case on a budget the budget budget when there's a flood the water comes up to our waste by your clothes fast to everyone but. the lack of water these equally dangerous. people move south

so they can plant crops and find food. floods and droughts will climate change become the main driver of mass migration you couldn't write any kind of not if you want and probably most of them to come to. the clinic exodus starts thirtieth's on t w. welcome to news from the weld of culture i'm coming up on the show today. europe's most comprehensive exhibition of passers blue rose periods is currently on show switzerland. less is more is used by designers urging simplicity but literally means more when it comes to this design trend maximalist.

but first off we are constantly confronted in the media by the ideal figure of a woman but there is no such thing of course as we all know now some very witty instagram as have been addressing this subject with their own versions of famous posts all perhaps undressing the subject will be a better way of explaining it i colleague melissa holroyd will be here to explain all of this. just an average day at the beach with britney spears on instagram. and he is serious fathers fish and. new strain is hailed as one of the funniest women on the net with her parodies she holds up a mirror to the glittering illusory world of social media. she's not alone melody mitchell from hamburg also wants to see me.