discovery. subscribe to the documentary. unrest in hong kong cold spell trouble for beijing reacts angrily as washington calls for a democratic solution to the protests in the territory we'll find out what's at stake also coming up as. protesters demand payment in hard currency and it's nothing to say about businesses underwater. builders. or the program could the unrest in hong kong be the

undoing of progress towards a u.s. china trade deal beijing has responded furiously to a u.s. vote calling for democracy in hong kong. government said it would do whatever was needed to safeguard its rule over the territory this after the senate in washington unanimously passed legislation aimed at protecting human rights in hong kong and threatening to revoke the territories special trade privileges with the united states in the event of noncompliance on kong shares ended wednesday morning in the red. 7 tenths of a percent. well. hang in taipei so the turmoil in hong kong has already tipped did interest session are there any estimates to what a protracted unrest is likely to do to hong kong's economy. well

just as you mentioned the u.s. senate just passed the legislation to protect human rights in hong kong well if the bill is finally passed then it would lead to hong kong special through state has been revoked in which case u.s. would start of you hong kong more in line with mainland china so that is say that they have by opening the door to possible sanctions and tariffs and a radically different business relationship and we know like the reason protests have heard hong kong's different sectors and many companies they have warned that the protest and weakening economy have caused reputational damage to the city as one of asia's most important financial hubs and so. started more than 5 months ago members of the business community were also out on the street demonstrating now that the situation in hong kong has become much more violent are

they still on the side of the protesters well yes i would say this is the people last year on the side of the protesters of course they don't agree with the violence used by radical protests but they believe that home khan's business confidence rests on the existence of an independent judiciary that up holds the rule of law and individual rights and so on just yesterday we saw how beijing try to interfere hong kong's really intended so the business people are worried that if the one country 2 systems formula doesn't apply when it comes of course then standing up home and international business and financial center is in trouble right you mentioned independent judiciary there is certainly one of the trademarks of hong kong how important is the economy of hong kong and its special status for the government in beijing. well if we look

at china's overall g.d.p. hong kong as important as the last and in the past few years but hold close to account for more than 6 percent of all foreign direct investment foreign into mainland china and that number has grown by the month of protest and home cost doc exchange is still the 3rd largest after new york tokyo they had alfa london in addition hong kong's credit rating is higher and not only its credit rating is higher but we know it's a legal system is internationally respected in money can be freely exchanged these are all factors that while home consequently is still very important to the government in beijing. so in taipei thank you so. now washington president from war and he was prepared to escalate the trade war if no agreement could be reached after a relationship with general see what happens but i'm very happy right now if we don't make a deal with general i'll just raise the terrorist even higher thank you very much.

u.s. president trump speaking there now chinese e-commerce dry and alibaba is set to raise almost $13000000000.00 in a secondary listing this time on the hong kong stock exchange is aiming to price shares at just over 22 u.s. dollars that's a discount of about 3 percent compared to the price on the new york stock exchange is calling the i.p.o. a vote of confidence in hong kong's markets it was planned for the summer but was postponed due to the unrest in hong kong. planned arbitration darks and ending a strike have been cancelled at the last minute germany's biggest airline has been facing the largest strike in its history as a walkout by cabin crew forced thousands of flight cancellations. you full union wants better wages as well as improved conditions for temporary workers. for

more let's bring in our financial correspondent conrad who isn't in frankfurt frankfurt of course is home base and conrad the company has gone through many disputes with labor unions in recent years and one had the impression that these arguments had calmed down somewhat where is this escalation coming from now. you know chris there's a competition going on between the unions within the company the cabin staff alone have at least 3 union different unions that want to gain membership more membership and want to increase their member base that are competing against those members they all want to strike deals with the last times our management in collective bargaining agreements and this one stuff union in particular you mention it ufo is its name which in the past has been particularly uncompromising but it

also has to be said those long disputes. had with the unions for so many years have left a lot of bruises to both sides really need to learn how to respect each other again now conrad what impact could a protracted dispute in this case have all moved on them. well of course in terms of p.r. terms of customer satisfaction there is relatively high risk as of course the customers get to feel the effect of the strikes immediately but i have to say from an investor's point of view here in the financial world among investors confidence in the company has returned significantly this year lufthansa shares has been one of the strong performing shares of the german dax index so obviously investors are not too concerned they see basically as

a well positioned company in the heart of europe that has managed to stand relatively well through the competition against the no fails airlines and also competitors like ryanair have even worse problems with the union so seems to be the better choice on a bruising thank you. to south america with the violent protests in chile turmoil in bolivia and major political shifts in argentina and brazil the plight of another latin american country has somewhat shifted out of the spotlight but venezuela continues to struggle decades of political mismanagement u.s. sanctions and galloping inflation have made simply getting by a daily challenge nurses and medical staff are the latest to voice their opposition against socialist president nicolas maduro and his policies. and dozens of nurses and health care workers gathered in caracas to call for what they say is a more dignified salary as that country deals with hyper inflation. venezuela's

central bank reports the believe are fell in value by 90 percent this year as a result these nurses say they can barely afford to eat and the hospital conditions have deteriorated here one nurse shows off his broken shoes to the media and these nurses say many more feel their pain. and president nicolas maduro talks a lot defends the venice one government a lot in other countries he is massacring his own people that is why many people are not coming out to protest but i keep going out because i want to see our children healthy i also want to see the elderly healthy i want a minimum wage a minimum salary so that i can afford to eat homemade this protester is demanding to be paid in dollars to counter the following believe are that was forbidden by president maduro government up until last year new estimates show that foreign currencies are being used more and more as inflation rises. for now these health

care workers say they will continue to fight for a fair salary in a reliable currency. and as banks in europe italians simply call it. i water a doesn't sound like much but the flooding's that have been hitting venice in recent days have been anything but harm. yes the severest floodwaters in generations have devastated large parts of the unicycle protected lagoon city for example some of some parts of the famous san marks basilica have been damaged beyond repair that's according to local media among those heavily impacted are the city's famous gondola makers these craftsman working shipyards close to the water now that the the has subsided and these are back to and you know trying one team can finally reach their gondola shipyard the front is once again dry land but just

a few days ago the entrance was submerged in the worst flood in over 50 years. the water kept rising and rising and never stopped it was dark and i was a little terrified. the water here was at least 55 centimeters deep you know i didn't open the door because i was afraid that these rocks and would would be swept away by floodwater we could only stay outside in the dark and wait until the water level one down it was a scary night and we didn't know when the water would go down. there was damage but they were the lucky ones they didn't lose their entire livelihood like others did. many handicraft shops are on the ground floor and the floodwater hit them really hard we need to restore our strength and move forward i hope the craftsmen down there can get some help because they are an

important part of venice we have a tradition of protecting our skilled workers. as water levels around the globe rise skilled workers like the gondola builders of venice will have to develop strategies to adapt. and that wraps up our program as usual if you want more you can find it on. dot com slash business i'm chris cuomo and thanks.

to. the few people in stories that make you so special. because my claim is.

what secrets lie behind. discover new adventures in 360 to. explore fascinating world heritage sites. w world heritage 360 getting out now. cried. the vocal harmonies of the king singers whose previous s's founded the group off a century ago. now the current base jonathan how it is my guest here on culture in just a minute also coming up. with the winner of this is a germany talent show

a recent immigrant from indonesia. and the brand new documentary about the handmaid's tale all thought margaret atwood. never. the king sing is a vocal ensemble with a history going back over hoff a century the original members were choral scholars at king's college cambridge university back in the 1960 s. now the group in the latest incarnation of launching a new project trying to heal divisions in society through the power music it's called finding a home and let's have a listen. oh no there are.