less than a week before the club holds presidential elections. and with that now you're up to date on t.w. news coming up next facebook brings its new service to germany but is everyone on board stephen bears we will have all that and more coming up in a bit of business news i'm sarah kelly and berlin from all of us here on t w thank you so much for watching take care and stacy. different. women

are in charge. archipelago has a matriarchal system for centuries of. the rare form of society. women differently. what to do with words. and how sustainable this culture. means of the. starts more changes on. the phone. facebook brings its news service to germany but not all media outlets are on board big tax complicated and increasingly conflict filled relationship with journalists . also on the show businesses support diversity what does that actually mean what concrete steps are companies here in germany doing to better reflect society. and

students and parents are feeling the pandemic isolation and worrying their best years are being spent socially distance with me several of the. globe welcome to the show i'm seeing beardsley in berlin it's good to have you with us facebook will launch its news platform in germany from may providing articles from around 100 existing german media outlets however one of the law country's largest media groups axel springer says it will not participate in facebook news launch in the u.s. and 2019 and in the u.k. this year gives users curated news content which it has bought from traditional publishers last month facebook bowed to pressure from the australian government to allow the news publishers to negotiate the reimbursement from facebook. right with that let's bring in christine plots and my colleague from business and bought and bonnie good morning 1st of all christy axel springer here to cry on what

they say is basically a 2 paltry of a reimbursement does that mean that germany could become the next battleground when it comes to media compensation from tech companies. right well it certainly is interesting to axel springer has chosen to hold out they are the largest publisher in germany and in europe so that is significant that they are not willing to play ball thus far now there are some key differences when it comes to the german media landscape versus the australian one australia has one of the most concentrated media landscapes in the world with a very large share of their publishers being owned by rupert murdoch's company and news corps and that's just not the case in germany i mean we already have several big players here signing on very excited about about the cooperation so while watching spring and seeing what they do will be interesting it's unlikely to turn into the same kind about it we saw in australia christine help us understand this complicated relationship between news organizations on the one side and tech companies on the other side yeah sure so you can imagine before the internet before

we had platforms like facebook publishing and news and reporting with it was funded a large part by advertisement in in magazines and newspapers and in print now these companies have really struggled with the transition online largely because a lot of the advertising revenue has gone to platforms like facebook who is making money from clicks from sponsored posts so they're really looking for a new funding model on how how do we how do we fund news how do we fund publications so these this new this new set up is an attempt to bring some of the advertising revenue from facebook and put it back in the pockets of the publishers so it could be it could be a fundamental change going forward all right be worth watching kristie plots and business and bond thank you very much thank you. and shifting gears a little bit diversity it's an increasingly crucial focus for businesses with many management teams and executive boards still failing to reflect the diverse world of

the customers they're courting now in 2010 a group of german employers set up the diversity charter to promote diversity in the workplace it's since been signed by $3800.00 companies and the group is holding its online conference tuesday the diversity charge most recent survey found that only 60 percent of those who signed belief that diversity is essential for successful business development 83 percent of member businesses believe diversity is key to greater innovation and creativity and 63 percent of respondents said that they have witnessed discrimination in the workplace relating to social origin for example with job applications. now for more on this i'm joined by ana christina groener she's chairperson of the diversity charter and she joins me now from hamburg and christine it's good to have you on the show diversity it strikes me as one of those words that's very easy for everyone to embrace everyone wants to be more diverse like comes to businesses but when it comes to putting it into practice

what point is the rubber meet the road what concrete steps are german business is taking to become more diverse there are a lot of instruments to be embedded in the process of any customer. so it's not an easy task to say you can talk about it but you have to really in that hugo's. you quote you know work for is unconscious bias training everything has to be in place and that of course that top management and really has to embrace diversity of behavior are you seeing that so far in german businesses are they lacking. oh both we have a group of companies giantess years ago and we were working hard on flexibility so that right now we are able to switch into a home office early and lead virtually but there is a group lacking so we still have

a way to go is it not fair to say that diversity is probably a giant blind spot for a lot of german companies where executive boards are white and male it is fair to say because we still as i said we have to work on that task to have equal representation on the boards we can see that the pipeline is growing so there's no way to say there's no availability of woman in the workforce for this specific growth they're there just to be selected and that takes a long time so we're standing up and to remind companies to move forward one of the hardest things seems like finding statistics on diversity in the workplace is there enough polling is there enough doubt even across germany there doesn't seem to be the sufficient data to know about minority workforce in the economy for example yeah that has to do with the data privacy roads because we can only we can only

show nailon female data so when and able to look directly in the workforce and make people say you know what do i believe then whom do i love what's my background so there's a way to go it's all on a voluntary basis. we tend to talk about male and female issues briefly on a course you know do you believe that there's a role for something like a diversity quota for people of color for example on executive boards and positions if that data law were somehow tweaked or modified that there could be a role for that. there could be a row for that in the future right now we're working on the representation of 50 percent of the work 1st woman so this is the 1st step i think we were discussing. right ana cristina grown it is chairperson of the diversity charter thank you so much for joining us thank you all right let's go now to some of the other global

business stories making headlines eve citizens have a right to repair as of march a new law requiring sellers of refrigerators washers hair dryers t.v.'s and other places to ensure that those devices can be repaired for up to 10 years the law aims to reduce the vast mountain of global electrical waste. tweet us has won the title of car of the year hybrid car beating the fia $500.00 and say outs cooper a 4 mentor folks wagons id 3 came in 4th in a competition dominated by electric and hybrid models for. staying in the auto world ford hopes that it could become a global pay player as the industry goes further electric if not fully electric its 1st act begins in the german city of cologne where it already has a history take a look at the name ford cologne was once more associated with crisis but the new investment program changes all that inside 2 years the company hopes its 1st purely

electric cars will be rolling off the production lines here after a $1000000000.00 plant conversion. the 1st and foremost a 1000000000 means a gigantic commitment to 14 europe to ford in germany and to ford here in cologne. the 1st people electrically driven cars are set to roll out here in 2023. primarily at european buyers what's highly unusual about the program though is that ford's will be driven by folks fog and electric motors. both sides benefit to large companies teaming up means volume economies of scale good purchasing leverage and good conditions for development. and it will certainly lower costs but sector analysts are critical of the notion that of all companies major competitor folks is supplying the electric motors. over the long term i have to ask

if it's not better to develop its own platform and. its own construction kit for purely electric cars can generate its own competitive edge. many automatic has already produced dozens of different battery powered models but ford has not joined the pack there's cause for optimism in the workforce. means we have work and new jobs. i was i'm so happy about the changes and i'm really excited and curious about the new model. and cologne is just the start the company plans to pump billions more into electrically driven cars and autonomous driving worldwide. well student days are supposed to be among the most carefree social times in a young person's life but the pandemic has dramatically changed that to forcing many in higher education into isolation and even worse poverty l. food even procured it programs in france are trying to help those in need. of your

kind over this period your mother to turn over the phone of course standing in line for groceries many of the students at the paris known terry university are here to pick up donations. their situation is dire. if you're. really getting right or noodles. is also a student the 24 year old volunteers to distribute food in her area to the others baked beans oranges and canned goods on offer. hot foods to transferring stew distributing groceries i get out and meet a few people and helping others gives me strength it keeps me going. she also depends on food donations she's in a rears with her rent and lost her job at a movie theater now she only has 170 year olds a month to live on her family can't help or. without the assistance of aid

organizations she would be lost no more normally your twenty's are the best time of your life but it's the opposite now. walking around campus is strange the complex says over a 1000 apartments but looks like a ghost town common rooms have been barricaded. today she's working for the aid organization s.o.s. . and is getting donations ready. she's always shocked that there are students who are worse off than she is. poli neal only has $150.00 euros to live on each month here she can get some of the bare necessities but only to the toilet paper if you don't stop it i lost my job to save you a bomb and now i only have my stipend. if you don't get in groceries really helps. otherwise it would be a total disaster story jeff over never there are so many needy students and

if you are still waiting in line for help there is much to do. right that's it for me and the d.w. business team as always you can find out more about these and other business stories online d.w. dot com slash business checks out on facebook and twitter as well i'm seeing there's a soloist joining us. from hong kong they couldn't be more different yet these 4 activists have one thing in common to. become enemies of the state in china and they currently live in exile in london. and from there they continue their fight against political repression in

their homeland. close up. next on d w. what secrets lie behind these walls. discover new adventures in 360 degree. and explore fascinating world heritage sites good d.w. world heritage 363 get the maps now. my price tag was 100 thousands upon if they cost me all maybe kidnap me all killed me then but some people could get paid 410-0000. been allowed became a chinese enemy of the state overnight he is one of

a growing number of hong kong r.'s who are currently flaming to britain. the trend has been sparked by draconian laws in.