shem's the people renting old order. modern cars and of the people. the start of an era that defines our message today. 970 the big. today's most expensive december 23rd double. the talks have been long and intense but now russia ukraine and the european union have reached a tentative gas field meaning russian gas can continue to flow through your cranium territory into europe also coming up tis the season for shopping we'll be looking at trends in the callers in europe and we take you to a town in mexico where it's christmas all year at least when it comes to the conduct of the town's world famous decorations. i'm chris cuomo welcome to

the program it's a deal in principle and one that will have many people feel really after hours of discussions russia ukraine and the european union have reached a tentative gas deal that go into effect on the 1st of january the deal was brokered right here in berlin. these pipes are front and center of a geopolitical crisis natural gas is supposed to be sent from russia to germany to supply the e.u. with one of its major energy sources the north stream and nordstrom to pipelines. bypass ukraine and safe on billions in transit fees that are currently a major source of income for the neighboring country not to rely entirely on the north rim delivery system russia still wants to send some gas through ukraine asked for ukraine the country depends on gas from russia but must call has weaponized its supply in the past cutting it off repeatedly in the 1990 s.

russian president putin says similar action is no longer planned. we are not going to sign any kind of contract with ukraine in order to stop gas translator no we are interested in this gas transit we are ukraine we want it it's a convenient route incidentally the ukrainian route is longer than the route along the baltic sea and. it's longer and more expensive for us but nevertheless this route is worked out to central and to southern europe it's good and we're ready to keep it. going it. talks in berlin half an hour later stood deal between russia and its neighbor. to this very intensive talk i'm very glad to say that we reached agreement in principle. on all key elements which i believe it's very good and very positive news for europe for russia for a crane for gas markets and for citizens in.

moscow and here to go over some details of the deal before signing. let's get the latest on this from david stern in kiev. david do people in ukraine believe the word of the russian president when he says russian gas will continue to flow through ukraine. well i guess you could say they don't really trust them very much but if the deal is signed it obviously will be a positive step forward in the relations between these 2 countries we are now in the 6 year more than 5 years russia and ukraine have been at odds. russia annexed crimea back in 2014 and then russian supported forces have been fighting

ukrainian forces in the east of the country and more than 13000 people have died there the relations between the 2 countries obviously because of that and has further worsened we also have the case that gazprom some $3000000000.00 to ukraine over odets according to the stockholm arbitration court so you could say that trust in the russians isn't great at the moment but obviously if this deal is in is confirmed we're waiting you know they say they've reached it in principle then this will be something that can be possibly built on to improve them in the future david you mentioned the financial aspect there ukraine is collecting transit fees for the russian gas flowing through its territory how reliant is your crane on this money. well ukraine you can see every little bit helps that's $3000000000.00 in transit fees now the relations the

economic relations have decreased and ukraine has managed to decrease its dependence on russian gas but obviously what they're looking towards is what will happen when north north stream 2 goes on on stream in 2020 and both sides are jockeying here now we also have in the background sanctions that the u.s. congress has said that they will impose on companies doing were working on north stream so there's a lot of moving parts here at the moment david stern reporting david thank you. and u.s. president trump is expected to sign the bill imposing u.s. sanctions against companies associated with the north stream 2 pipeline later today . tis the season you know the most important one for retailers the days leading up to christmas are still the ones when people spend more but the way they're doing it has changed thanks to e-commerce almost 90 percent of customers believe that 10

years from now most businesses will provide digital services that's the result of a survey on the future of shopping carried out and 6 european countries now in personalized offers on smartphones about such products and prices are popular in italy take a look at that in britain about half the people found out attractive in germany it was much lower and about 34 percent in general younger people are more open to online shopping the survey also showed that consumers are loyal to traditional retail in the case of clothing for example almost half of them valued the chance to try it on and buy the product in-store when it comes to electronic devices about a 3rd found important to get in-store advice and support for a closer look at the holiday shopping season we're crossing over to our financial correspondent conrad booze and frankford conrad what are the trends in germany for

this year's christmas shopping. well chris electronics is a big trend again and not only hardware but computer games you know they are going to be given as gifts very very often here in germany things like fortnight or thief 20 another thing that's trending personalized gifts you know calendars picture books as it's become so much easier to design them yourself and i read about another trend this year where one might call it the greater burger effect is playing into more and more people in germany are trying to make more climate friendly gifts for example produce a little greeting video send it via e-mail along with some money that then can be spent on a nice family dinner for example or a night out at the cinema all right conrad de gea of key in suggest kaye institute just came out with its latest consumer confidence index and it fell slightly i can

retailers be sure that their revenues will increase again this year. yes they can you know this decline in consumer confidence has a lot to do with all this talk about negative interest rates lately that's made a few people here in germany notice and moody but it's exactly the reason why the retailers can relax many people here in germany with all this talk about negative interest rates might be inclined to spend even more on christmas gifts instead of you know put it get on the bank as savings on reducing frankfurt thank you. every day is christmas in the small town of tal challah located in the south of mexico it has a reputation for making high quality handmade glass ornaments for the christmas tree of course the decorations have become so popular buyers all over the world

want to get their hands on them hence production keeps running all year. it's starting to look a lot like christmas and poor hawa the town in central mexico is known for its christmas tree ornaments especially glass balls. each sphere is blown after being heated up to $750.00 degrees celsius. then comes the color it's all done by hand in contrast to the cheaper chinese competition. but just look at that here and. these bubbles are very important to us in that way that you know i think that about 6070 percent of the population works in this sector. and you could say it's the basis of the economy for the people you love us a liquid on the other. the handicraft began to take off in the 1960 s.

on a small scale at 1st now the business of boggles provides around 10000 jobs and has made this town wealthy and widely known. quantity only that it must have their beautiful. trees and they come at a good price considering that they're handmade by an artisan and. you won't find them in just any old shopping center. right and the variety is really impressive you'll never get tired of all that beauty and you know what that meant and there you have. $50000000.00 christmas tree ornaments are produced and cloud to follow every year according to the mexican economy in the story half of the balls are exported many of them adorn. with the famous face that of mexican painter for the. let's take a look now at some of the other business stories making the news. german workers have more money in their pockets according to the german statistics office in the

3rd quarter of this year gross income rose by about $3.00 and a half percent compared to the same period last year prices and consumer goods have gone up only one and a half percent leaving workers with more cash the federal court of australia has upheld a record breaking $77400000.00 euro fine imposed on german carmaker false flag and australian authorities say v.w. decide to cvs customers and breached emissions standards in a case linked to the diesel emissions scandal. the world bank says a wave of debts in developing nations has grown faster than at any time in the last 5 decades said if interest rates rise again that could make tens of trillions of debt hard to repay causing a new crisis a german court ruled that u.s. based riding servers cannot offer rides using rented cars started using rental cars as a way of getting around

a prohibition on private car owners taking fares and passengers the verdict is a victory for taxi drivers in germany who brought up the case. and that's all from me and the business team here in berlin of course there's much more on our website that's t w dot com and also on our social media feeds i'm chris cobra roland thanks for watching.

1st girl. i'm sure going to. vote in support. of. the real. go to the girl makes you jump. the final story.

with exclusive. the must see consuming part. you should. do it yourself networkers. subscribing don't miss. many of you will recognize this little ting melody greensleeves a traditional english folk song. that dates back to the 16th century song here by german countertenor and. it was accompanied on piano by his wife pianist tom petty in today's guests on arts and culture.

and with bad to welcome to the program twilight people is the new album by soil and tom petty in a collection of songs a range for countertenor and piano a very introspective atmospheric listening experience so let's learn just a little bit more. counter-tenor voice is haunting against his wife tomorrow elegant piano work on the couple's new album twilight people. on the title track are from a poem.