the southeast creator of mounds at now sent ash and lava rocks flying up to 10000 meters into the air at night is the largest of iliza 3 active volcanoes no injuries or serious damage have been reported after the recent blasts. stick around did a bit of business is up next with stephen bradley allow talk about an r.c. at the top of the hour. i'm secure in the volume or not hard and in the end this is a me you're not a lot of the year and more we will send you back. are you familiar with this. with the smugglers were alliance of the what's your story. 'd on the numbers of women especially of victims of violence in rooms of take part and

send us your story we are trying always to understand this new culture. another visitor another yet you want to become a citizen. in for migrants your platform for reliable information. h. and m. nike audi does 3 western brands are under attack in china for their stance on forced labor in. which calls for boycott spreading what is the anger mean for western companies increasingly caught between china and markets elsewhere. also on the show experts warn the pandemic is widening the digital divide in africa look at what needs to be done for business owners and workers on the continent. and germany was supposed to be the model of pandemic management that's changed and businesses

are especially frustrated. walking to the show in berlin good to have you with us a furious china is lashing out against global fashion brands u.s. sports apparel maker nike is facing a backlash on social media in china after saying it was concerned about reports of forced labor of weekers in the sheen john region a region that it says it no longer sources cotton in and the fallout comes after the e.u. and the u.s. imposed sanctions on chinese officials for legit human rights violations and change on. nike is trending on social media in china but not in a good way it's facing a backlash after a statement on china's policies in the change young province saying it won't use cotton from the region. and it's not alone it's an m.o. singled out this week for issuing a statement last year in which it said it was concerned about allegations of forced labor engine john both annika statements haven't been received well by people in china. who don't like him back to nigeria's chinese we must show our patriotism i

don't buy these brands and now i will ask my friends to boycott them too. amounting to seen those foreigners making money from china but scolding it and discrediting cotton frontin junk i will not buy those foreign brands i will support domestic products. western brands are caught in the middle of a feud between china and western countries which have imposed sanctions on chinese officials because of the allegations of forced labor but while taking a stance on change young cotton is potentially a human rights issue it could hit their bottom lines in the world 2nd largest economy. all right alison stewart allen is chief executive of international marketing partners in london she joins me for more on this topic alison good to see you again is this what we're seeing right now what's taking place in china is this a passing concern for these brands or is it a critical issue. well i think it's

a critical issue i think these brands are now quite concerned because of course all of them have an agenda around e.a.'s g.e. and environment social or societal and governance and of course this falls into possibly the governance bucket and these companies don't want to appear to be caught out from a moral point of view and again alienates their customers around the world in every other market but for china. to what extent will consumers in these other markets punish them to the extent that consumers in china are punishing them right now are we seeing that kind of demands about these abuses which are well documented in change wrong i think. that we have time still ahead of us to see consumers mobilize and we know that consumers can do this because of social media platforms it's been made incredibly easy now we have means for

transparency to scrutinize companies and what they do so yes those brands and no doubt others will feel the heat and will need to maybe reconsider their sourcing around cotton and look at everything else in the supply chain what they pay their stitchers what they pay people in other parts of the supply chain so yes this is quite a big deal and an indicator of things to come to what extent is the chinese market becoming less predictable these are big brands they have savvy public relations departments this is their 1st time in a very big market that's very sensitive but it seems like politically tensions are hardening or positions are hardening between the west and china to some say is that going to make life more difficult for businesses. i think it will certainly mean that companies will need to understand the chinese business culture understand how

to navigate the chinese political landscape and you know there are some lessons no doubt that every brand can learn from the experience of adidas nike h. and m. and no doubt many others in terms of do we change our approach in the chinese market or do we leave china altogether for the time being or invest less but it is certainly important that companies appreciate that you can't just go into an overseas market be it china the u.s. other places without doing your homework and really understanding the implications and these are playing out right now in real time and they will have a very serious consequence for these brands outside of china as well unless they do something all right fascinating to watch develop. c.e.o. of international marketing partners in london thank you as always thank you

and we're going to shift gears and go into africa one year into the pen demick experts continue to warn that the coronavirus is deepening the digital divide around the globe while developed countries have hastened the shift to the digital economy and they bring more and more high speed internet connections 40 percent of the world's population is still offline and most of them live in africa now for more on this i'm joined by mario pezzini he's director of the o.e.c.d. development center and special advisor to the o.e.c.d. secretary general on development mario it's great to have you on the show 1st i want to ask you when we look at africa oftentimes we see that there is a lot of amazing digital entrepreneurship for example with mobile markets mobile payment money this kind of stuff have we seen some clever digital responses to the pandemic i'm thinking maybe contact with payment things like that we've seen in other regions around the world. oh of course we have seen your save yourself the number of backup by la county in africa is probably one of the i used in the war

plan didn't the media counts and also government reacted very quickly many cases in order to provide i tell you made since but also to cation and out of remarkable example the who and in senegal in morocco many countries in africa so you have seen that there's the dow up and now the county is the is the last test that i presented by coheed poor fish private said and public sector to introduce new technology and you answer it in a quick way in a sentence sense africa is living from being inception that is what is the key issue here when we talk about the digital divide are we talking about the spread of broadband here essentially. this is one point in fire when you look at our mileage sure a lot is in africa and intermediary c.d.'s out of served they out of mashed less so

than the secret is that big city in africa and other areas around the ward so he had that he is a major divide and it matters because the amount of pollution they will appear in these ideas is going to be you so if they will not be connected they really have one lie or they were in my gig so that's a crucial point but a start the only one the other one is is digital coupled to create jobs and now for to demand that these your own young people entering in society we just put as well yes but not the ditched unsettling itself is that capacity of digital to be applied and the syrian 18 in all the are that sector and under this point of view. of all of them so we don't have to be helped or not financially but we have services that this plane that these technologies and l.

for and people we need to be out public ties to this new technology let me give you an example when you buy the good timber the mechanic 1st when confronted with the introduction of a new medically controlled machine we went in a situation 7 as that syriza you had a new technology very good uncompetitive small of her arms but today you needed to have support in order to include use this new technology all right the big question of whether that technology can scale up to meet that employment challenge my open seanie director of the e.c. development center thank you so much you're welcome or let's go now to some of the other global business stories making headlines. the japanese cunt company which owns a cargo ship blocking the suez canal says it's facing extremely difficult extreme difficulty rather refloating the freighter it has been stuck since wednesday after being hit by strong winds causing a traffic jam at one of the world's most important trade orders the international

monetary fund has approved another tranche of a $1500000000.00 loan to pakistan payments were suspended in $29000.00 after pakistan failed to reform its economic policies 1 now reinstating the funding to help the country amid the coven 1000 pandemic. google has signed licensing deals with italian publishers to pay for news content it follows similar agreements in france news outlets have long see that google's failure to give them a cut of ad revenue and displaying their content. was only a year ago that germany was praised for its exemplary handling of the pandemic case numbers were low in the public largely adopted hygiene measures and restrictions things aren't going as well now he says are quickly rising again the country is still in lockdown and vaccinations are moving sluggishly germans and their businesses are losing patients once the poster child for managing the pandemic germany has now fallen behind the developed nations after

a sluggish vaccine rollout and months of lockdowns businesses have lost their patients. well you can say that one sentence from made in germany we are now a producer of a tragedy you see that israel the united states and the u.k. and other countries are leading in the vaccination process how well they have organized so meadows and how badly we have organized it. earlier this week the number of doses administered every day in germany fell below 250000 meanwhile the u.k. hit a new record of more than 840000 daily doses on saturday business representatives say germany's lackluster rollout is just one of the many things that angle america's government has to fix. well changing that is the big scene procurement certainly improving the banks in nations strategy and the logistics the testing and opening it has to go hand in hand which is very important

afonso this person 'd of the state financial supports less bureaucracy on these formulas 'd and certainly not a drop by drop payout to small business owners that i and desperate need of the promised funds that's a 1st step. pretty even that will only be one step the survival and recovery of businesses will depend on more than just government funds the life of that customers will have to get back on track. well if you're anywhere with a mass requirement you know the problem every time you want to take you want to eat or take a sip of your drink you have to remove the mask potentially putting yourself and others at risk oh here's a possible solution the nose only mask it allows you to take a bite while maintaining at least some level of protection it's been invented by researchers in mexico where street food is particularly popular although it's better than nothing the w.h.o.

points out that a mask that covers the nose mouth and chin is best. and looks a little strange so that's it for me and the business team here below to check this out online dot com slash business i'm stephen beardsley and the lead as always is watching. what secrets lie behind the wall. discover new adventures in 360 degree. and explore fascinating world heritage sites. the w world heritage $360.00 get the maps now. they've been robbed of their soul that's what a people experiences when their heritage is taken from them. countless cultural artifacts were brutally stolen from africa by colonialists and carted off to europe

. to lift wounds that have yet to heal what should be done with the stone or from africa. stolen soul starts april 13th on t w. this is. coming up to the north korean missiles start up tensions once again. all the country long just to show besides in violation of un resolutions so what is the best route for the arsonist of mission and to whom blast. off escaping slavery under this north korean defector who is now running for political office in the u.k. . and the olympics torch relay kicks off in japan under the shadow of the from direct when it's fog.