ruled by the taliban that peace treaties are being signed with the taliban then i ask myself where the seriousness is. where is the promise that we made to the afghans there's not much left of it for you particularly. with hopes that someday they will be peace in afghanistan so that his sacrifice was not in vain. the degree of. g.'s been robbed of their soul that's what it people experiences when their heritage is taken from them. countless cultural artifacts were brutally stolen from africa by colonialists and carted off to europe.

this lift wounds that have yet to heal what should be done with the stone or from africa the stolen soul starts april 13th on d. w. . h. and m. nike adi da 3 western brands are under attack in china for their stance on forced labor and cian jobs with calls for boycotts 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. after 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 region that it says it no longer sources cotton in 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. to let him back to nigeria as chinese we must show our patriotism i don't

buy these brands and now i will ask my friends to boycott them to. keep from owning the singles foreigners making money from china but scolding it and discrediting cotton function junk i will not buy those foreign brands i will support domestic products. or. 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. and vironment social or societal and governance and of course this falls into possibly the government's pockets 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 on 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 isn't 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 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 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 him yourself yourself the number of back row by la county in africa is probably one of the i used in the war

plan doesn't the me here counts and also government reacted very quickly in many cases in order to provide i tell you made since but also to cation and that out of remarkable example the in rwanda in senegal in morocco many counties in africa so you have seen that there is you dump in another county is there is less test that are presented by coheed poor fish private sector and public sector to introduce new technology and you answer it in a quick way in a sentence sense africa is limb from being inception it is so 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 fired when you look at our children were allowed in africa and intermediary c.d.'s out of served they

out of mashed less so and then seeking 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 a core ly are they and we in my grade 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 gagetown settling itself is that capacity of digital to be applied and the syrian aiken in all the other sector and under this point of view. small firm so we don't have to be helped or not financially but we've got services that this plane that these technologies and l.

for and people we need to be out of it ties to this new technology let me give you an example when you buy them good timber their mechanics 1st when confronted with the introduction of a new medically controlled machine we went in as equation 7 as that syriza you had a new technology very good uncompetitive small of her arms but today you need it to have support in order to include use this new technology all right the big question of whether that technology can scale up to really meet that employment challenge my part 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 that 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 demick. google has signed licensing deals with italian publishers to pay for news content follow similar agreements in france news outlets have long see that google's failure to give them a cut of ad revenue from just playing their content. was only a year ago that germany was praised for its exemplary handling of the pandemic case numbers were low when the public largely adopted hygiene measures and restrictions things aren't going as well now cases 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 other developed nations after

a sluggish vaccine rollout and months of lockdowns businesses have lost their patience. well you can say in one sentence for made in germany we are no good use 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 that testing and opening that has to go hand in hand which is very

important foss this person of the state financial supports 'd less bureaucracy on these formulas 'd and certainly not a drop by drop payout to small business owners that i know desperate need of the promised funds that's a 1st. perceive and that will only be one step the survival and recovery of businesses will depend on more than just government funds the lives of their 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 bats 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 to check this out online dot com slash business i'm stephen beardsley and as always it's watching. to the point of strong opinions clear positions of international perspectives. labeling that image putting a killer accusing china of genocide against the weak or people the biden administration confronts russia and china that can the u.s. . that's our topic on to the point. to this point rebuttal to the some 60 minutes of the dollar.

and on demand. language courses. video. this is dean everybody is africa on the program today new account to stop the killings happening in ethiopia to bribe egypt government troops executing civilians this week it comes off to a stunning admission from the prime minister about how the forces involved in the context. and the growing 1st full freshly brewed coffee to nigeria will meet one company that was hoping to cash in.