government to go as well. anger and uncertainty as 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 to us first quarter economic growth beats all expectations but 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 and one sector some leverage to challenge those expectations to keep the details. i'm stephen beers or berlin thanks for joining us german chemical multinational buyer faces shareholders at the group's annual meeting friday in bun 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 talk 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 when 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 of i have my doubts whether mr pollin can do it and to do something like that he's in comprehensible buyer's chief executive than about money who spearheaded the purchase of u.s. biotech for a month 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 a safe have weighed heavily on our company and there unsettling many people. are feeling mentioned 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 concludes that guy for sage 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 economy expanded

three point two percent far exceeding expectations and bucking a 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 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 a headline number of 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 day year obviously 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 celebration of inventory build in that we too will be challenging to repeat viewing the current quarter such as the surprise in a spike in government spending also consumption growth that two thirds of the u.s. economy came out at one point two percent of the 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 good tippers quarter they headlined g.d.p. growth rate suggest day economy it's not in danger in their office tally and any time 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 belton right initiative has opened up new space for global economic growth platforms for international trade and investment and it's all for 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 bell to marry 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 . volumes of traffic interesting exchanges and the best thing is to sit at a table with officials from all over the world you 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 to 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 the carrier cancelled more than six hundred seventy flights today affecting around seventy two thousand people assist pilots walked out after pay in contract talks collapsed thousands more passengers are expected to be hit by

further cancellations over the weekend. german automaker dialer 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 of bach 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 a sheep matsumoto 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 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.

it's all happening the. news from africa. or links to exceptional stories and discussions continue in the comfy debut suffocating program and from foreign journalists from easy to our website to the depths of africa join us on facebook. africa. zero.

zero. thank. you. this is steve news africa coming up in the next fifteen minutes south africa commemorates twenty five years since the country's first democratically election on saturday but a quarter of a century on. trouble with the idea of coexistence and those who august black or white say they've been excluded as the country tries to redress the last three.