one family on a journey through a recent german history. course emily. starts nov 6th on d. w. . a push for closer business ties and more geopolitical sway russia is hosting its 1st african summit as it seeks to greater influence in a continent where the west and china has a firm foothold also coming up despite major backer stropping out facebook insists on launching its own digital currency next year the company c.e.o. will face questions on the matter today by u.s. lawmakers. i'm chris cuomo welcome to the program it's a premier aimed at making

a big impact russian president vladimir putin is hosting dozens of african leaders in such a this week for the 1st ever russia africa summit chief of his aims is to jumpstart relations with the continent 3 decades after the fall of the soviet union then a major player in africa. now russia has big plans in africa particularly in mineral resources like in the republic of congo where oil multinational oil is involved in a natural gas development project and so that and the central african republic a close ally of president putin has secured mining licenses for gold in guinea russian aluminum producer ross through saul is the thing about sidon and zimbabwe russia wants to get into platinum mining until now russia has seen relatively muted trade with africa exports and imports to the entire continent or evolve you were valued at only 20000000000 dollars last year not to put that into perspective china

had over 10 times that amount africa's largest trading partner during that time was the european union with nearly $340000000000.00 in total russian officials have said that in the medium term they want to triple trade with african countries now it might be helpful that russia is still seen as a partner without heavy colonial baggage. 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 price is a more competitive and our quality is high. and we produce our own bulbs for the equipment. we also have more experience using these devices in the medical severe than anyone else worldwide. militar is one of a 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 at my little mistake they had medical equipment to shine at the russian africa's summit and allow them to locate new business on the continent. my colleague here to talk more about. what is russia focusing on in africa in 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 is 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. that's why it's probably going in you know providing arms to dubious governments regimes and that sort of thing that's one reason to do that another reason of course is to look into areas that it could 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 all saying is 1st africa summit. from the business giving his thoughts thank you sean. and now to some of the other global business stories making headlines mechanical and design issues led to the crash of a lion air 737 last october in indonesia that's according to a briefing given to families of the victims plane maker boeing has been under fire since that accident and another one in ethiopia as a result of the company's head of commercial planes resigned on tuesday night he is changing its leadership a long time c.e.o. mark parker is handing over the reins to former

e bay chief john donahoe while sales were rising during part time at the helm nike was recently dogged by scandals including the end of the oregon project which was plagued by accusations of doping against its chief coach. now mark zuckerberg is not giving up on the idea of a facebook backed digital currency the in a giant says it plans to launch libera as early as next year but not without the approval of all u.s. regulators $21.00 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 now 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 global would endanger global financial stability undermine user privacy and facilitate money laundering today see omar's october 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 education their list is a block chain application platform jacob good to have you on the program 1st of all why did these jargon ods 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 it's instability that face because we're facing one of negative sentiment maybe with over scandals 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. through 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 or 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 and requirements of go before labor can move forwards and i mean the project is facing pressure from u.s. lawmakers as well we've got to point that out too what would the introduction of libera a so-called stable coin mean for bitcoin and the cryptocurrency last i mean i think it's very important to differentiate between how libor is a stable coin and what bitcoin is 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 list as well because when you start learning about the value of crypto currencies 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 caissons money to poland i'll give us what use case that labor 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 of things like paying in libor event i think up in that i would be tempted to using it but as you mentioned i think it's a great way for people to start exploring the concierge. and gave us the lowdown on facebook liberal project thank you so much. and now for your chocoholics out there it's time to start saving the world's most expensive chocolates have just been launched in india at around get this 5 and

a half 1000 euros for the truffles from indian company. bell brand have been accorded a place in the guinness book of world records trinity truffles extraordinaire are designed in collaboration with a french michelin star chef and contain. like to be. blue mountain coffee. yummy. thanks for watching.

i'm secure that the they work that hard and in the end there's a me you're not allowed to stay here any more we wasn't that. are you familiar with this. with the smugglers we're alliance of. what's your story. 'd 'd on what numbers of women especially a victims of violence. take part and send us your story we are trying in all

weathers to understand this new culture. another villa turn other years you want to become a citizen. in for migrants your platform for a while information. from . the. 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 delhi and 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. well he is one of the few artists we're just looking at his brush strokes will tell you this is a work by vincent fund 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 $890.00 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. the eyes of a man who changed painting forever. the brushstrokes that sculpt this style can be done. here you really have the feeling he was in the middle of painting just left the paint.