you know my grandchildren were born after the world born to be free. 3 generations one family on a journey through recent german history. starts to number 6 on d. w. . a push for closer business ties and more geopolitical sway russia is hosting his 1st african summit as it seeks greater influence on a continent where the west and china have a firm foothold also on the program despite major backers dropping out facebook insists on launching its own digital currency next year the company's c.e.o. will face questions on the matter today by u.s. lawmakers. on preschool welcome to the program russian president vladimir putin is

hosting dozens of african leaders today and such she for the 1st ever russia africa summit chief of aims to jumpstart with the continent 3 decades after the fall of the soviet union then major player in africa 54 delegates including heads of state and government are expected to attend the 2 day meeting with trade and investment high on the agenda. now russia has big plans in africa particularly in mineral resources like in the republic of congo where although multinational lukoil is involved in a natural gas development project in sudan and the central african republic a close ally of president putin has secured mining on instances for gold in guinea a russian aluminum producer is doing on back side iraq that contains high levels of aluminum and in zimbabwe russia wants to get into platinum mining by

a company called afro met while until now russia has seen relatively muted trade with african countries exports and imports to the entire continent were valued at only around 20000000000 dollars last year in comparison china had over 10 times that amount africa's largest trading partner during that time was the e.u. with nearly $340000000000.00 total in total in that period russian officials have said that in the medium term they want to triple trade with african countries it might be helpful that russia is still seen as a partner without having a colonial back. these flashes fight infections medical devices created by the russian company military generate ultraviolet light that kills dangerous bacteria in minutes. the company which was founded by doctors has

been producing these units by hand in moscow for nearly 15 years they started selling the devices in south africa 2 years ago and say they're competing with european and u.s. companies for the african market. we aren't afraid of competition our prices are more competitive and our quality is high. and we produce our own bulbs for the equipment. and we also have more experience using these devices in the medical severe than anyone else worldwide. militar is one of the handful of companies that builds machines like these the edge they could have in the african market is exceptional for a russian firm in overall trade revenue with africa russia lags far behind competitors like china india and the u.s. even if it has doubled its trade with african countries in the past 5 years.

russia doesn't have a strategy on the african market and so we see a hectic back and forth from one area to another chinese interests in africa a wide spread and there universal russia can't compete with them. but representatives that melissa are more optimistic they hope their medical equipment will shine at the russia africa summit and allow them to lock in new business on the continent. my colleague here to talk more about this what is russia focusing on in africa economically critics say it's mostly about selling weapons and increasing its geopolitical footprint well i mean you pointed out before the report of course is also focusing on mining the mining industry and the energy sector is another area that it's focusing on the defense industry obviously which has been looked into by a lot of experts and criticized

a lot but those are the 3 main areas it's focusing on and for various reasons but a lot of people point to the geo political footprint increasing its footprint on the african continent by having relations with countries where it could maybe later on have access to mineral resources and the like so there are similarities between the russian intentions and what we're seeing with a major player like china doing in africa in terms of similarities there are areas of course maybe where that could overlap when it comes to like getting more u.n. support within the un general assembly getting more support from african nations that something similar but in terms of. other intentions is not quite the same way because of course china doesn't have natural resources like russia does so a lot of mineral resources that russia is investing in in africa it also already has itself so that's not quite the same and that's slightly different because russia may just want to have a bigger share of the market on the global stage and also perhaps be able to

control access to those resources that a later date and that's something that exports keep us thinking of speaking of markets russia is not one of the top 5 economies of the world can it compete with players like the e.u. a gigantic market like russia an even bigger market it can't compete it doesn't have the deep pockets to do that and that's why it's probably going in you know providing arms to dubious governments of dubious regimes and that sort of thing that's one reason to do that another reason of course is to look into areas that it . just focus on in terms of investments like mining industry in specific areas where other countries may not necessarily always want to do business russia is hosting his 1st african summit to put into a new business given his thoughts thank you but she's gone through and now to some of the other global business stories making the news. we were announced it's accepted a rescue package from soft bank its largest investor the $9500000000.00 deal gives

the japanese tech conglomerate an 80 percent stake in we work capping a turbulent period for the co-working space rental firm that included a failed i.p.o. and billions of dollars lost in value qatar announced a major expansion of doha international airport the new construction will allow the airport to double its capacity the 1st phase will be ready by 2022 when qatar will host the fifo world cup construction is due to start next iconic us motorcycle maker harley davidson sall 2nd quarter profits dive by 20 percent year on year harley has been hit by the tariff disputes between the united states and the european union european tears on the famous motorcycles rolls from 6 percent to 31 per cent of the result was better than expected and hardly shares rose on the news . now mark zuckerberg is not giving up on the idea of

a facebook backed digital currency the internet giant says it plans to launch libera as early as next year but not without the approval of all u.s. regulators 21 companies teamed up to create the libera association the group behind the currency along with facebook they include streaming service provider spotify rights service provider but liberal suffered a setback earlier this month when some backers among them payment companies mastercard and visa with drew from the project facebook has about 2400000000 users a huge base of potential customers to make digital payments in the future but many politicians and regulators have slammed the social media platforms plan saying that would endanger global financial stability undermine user privacy and facilitate money laundering today c.e.o. mark zuckerberg is set to face critical questions from u.s. lawmakers on the issue now there are some issues to unpack here and help me do that

i'm joined by jacob coveleski he is with lisc head of educationalist is a block chain application platform jacob good to have you on the program 1st of all why did these jargon odds these payments argonauts master card visa why did they back out of the project i mean i think it's very difficult to know the real reasons behind such choices i think is quite clear about the regulatory issues are coming up now in the u.s. in france and germany plays a key part in lots. i think of the end of the day the instability that facebook's will place in one of the negative sentiment may be over scandals that are going on it's combined with the regulation that's what maybe not a good time to be associated with facebook and such a large projects. there have been countries like france and germany that have voiced opposition to. this whole project they said liberal will not

operate in europe or they're skeptical about it at least. these concerns justified i believe so i certainly think so actually i think we're seeing a sort of split now between the power of corporations and the power of states and this is really like the 1st time an actual corporation is trying to create money in a way which is a huge opposition to the power of states i don't think it's worth treating this as a completely from places like france and germany they've been quite clear. rules and regulations need to be met and abided by before they can let libor go forward so i don't think it's necessarily a nail in the coffin of libor projects i think it just shows that there are certain hoops requirements of go before labor can move forwards and i mean the project is facing pressure from u.s. lawmakers as well we got to point that out too what would the introduction of libera a so-called stable coin mean for bitcoin and the cryptocurrency i mean i think it's very important to differentiate between how libor is

a stable coing and what bitcoin is and leaders obviously backed by facebook having this money these assets and they take me as assets out of circulation and putting libor into circulation which sort of you know is replacing in a way things like the dollar the yen the pounds with these libor coins so i think it's a huge difference between what bitcoin is and what libras. in terms of. the currency landscape i think is a good way of introducing people to things like bitcoin things like lisc as well because when you start learning about the value of crypto currency is you sort of go down this rabbit hole and explore further is there the potential of a greater acceptance because this comes from facebook a name that is known around the world and would you use liberal i mean is someone who lives in berlin and sends money to view cases money to poland and arguably of what use case that leap is looking at in transferring value. i mean do i like facebook no not particularly but i think at the end of the day user experience

dictates webre product is successful so you know my mom my grandmother my friends are using libra i probably would start using it if i get discounts on things like you but by paying in libor event i think up in the day i would be time to to using it as you mentioned i think is a great way for people to stop exploring what the concierge. jacob coveleski his with lisc and gave us the lowdown on facebook liberal project take up thank you so much thank you. and that's all the time we have thanks for watching.

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we become a gateway to islamist terror. an exclusive report from a destroyed city. phillips in the sights of our guests starts october 24th on d w. greetings from berlin and a warm welcome to news from the world of arts and culture and before we get started here's a quick look at some of today's stories. vogue magazine celebrates 40 years of its german ex edition with an exhibition in and put the accent on fashion as both an artistic and a political force. and we need to libya a german comic artist whose hero's battle with zombies which has led to some of her

undead coming to life on the big screen. is one of the few artists we're just looking at his brushstrokes will tell you this is a work by vincent fun the dutch painter is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of modern art and his rise to prominence sadly after his death in 890 had largely to do with the enthusiastic reception of his work here in germany well now a new exhibition at the stedding museum in frankfurt sheds light on that relationship . is of a man who changed painting forever. as the brush strokes that sculpt this style can be done. here you really have the feeling he was in the middle of printing and just left the paint to stay.