concern and preparation reaches as far north as taiwan this comes as many are certainly mindful of the recent hit from typhoon job by which killed eleven in japan and close the consulate international airport a major regional hub for days on the other side of our twiddly warming world hurricane florence has not yet made landfall on the east coast of united states but she is already influencing energy markets worldwide and is expected to push gasoline prices up in the united states the american automobile association in by a storm like this typically causes an increase in fuel purchases in the market motorist can expect spikes in prices and they could be dramatic meanwhile aaa also reports that their latest figures show domestic stocks of gasoline including on the east coast were higher last week than in the same time last year let's hope those stocks can help to tamp down regional market bottlenecks and potential price

gouging in florence's wake and for more on hurricane florence we go to our chief correspondent sara montoya's to oka sara what's the latest on the storm. hi bar i'm here in alexandria virginia just outside of d.c. where it typically floods for now d.c. is out of harm's way but millions of people aren't now given that the winds from hurricane florence went down from one hundred forty miles per hour to one hundred ten mph the storm weekend overnight to a category two but it's still a lethal storm now given that the lightning storm is that to flood the coasts for days of the carolinas it could cause some very catastrophic flooding now the i started is expected to hit early friday morning and could cause anywhere from twenty thirty up to forty inches of rain now the governor of north carolina roy cooper says catastrophic effects will be fell outside the center of the storm due to storm surge. as high as nine to thirteen feet now that's a second story of

a house tens of thousands of structures are expected to be flooded and many more by rising rivers and creeks airlines have canceled already almost a thousand flights and counting home depot and lowes are serving as emergency response centers with trash bags supplies like water bottles and generators and they really sent over a thousand trucks carrying some of these supplies now if you have not not yet evacuated you might want to check with your local authorities to see where you can go many gas stations are being emptied so far as of this morning early wednesday morning there were only a few near myrtle beach that still had some supplies but you might want to check your your gasoline now called gas buddy to see what the most accurate information is for the very helpful information although you know sarah when we see people suggesting things it's like leave when they tell you to leave don't wait till the end and we all care about the impact on people of course but oh how are businesses

dealing with this sara. well a lot of businesses have closed myrtle beach and south carolina is a huge tourist town as well so not only have residents but tourists have cleared out restaurants businesses insurers are already looking at what the claims will look like and it looks like there will still be over thirty billion dollars in damages florence could be one of the biggest hurricane to hit in over sixty years two nuclear plants are also on the path and as you reported yesterday far we can forget about the agriculture and the hog producers that could be affected like they were back in one thousand nine hundred nine yet we don't want all those rising levels to make those lagoons with the manure seep into water structure our key correspondents are among the oco thanks ira. thank you very much. and to dig a little deeper we are pleased to be joined by debbie boyd the c.e.o. of deal b. financial services who joins us from austin texas and the c.e.o. a strong market we're forward which a thanks to both of you for being with us debbie we speak with you

a lot about housing when we have a natural disaster like a hurricane like this housing is probably the most personal of the things that can be impacted what should those people in the path of florence expect well they're going to take their insurance policies with them they're going to have to lock up and take everything of value with them when they leave and also take cash they're not going to have the normal dealings with business that they have if they stay home they also have to be prepared that they're not going to be getting any insurance at this point when so storms are announced no one can sell flood in so insurance in any of those states so you had to have plan for this that's what insurance is all about that's one of the biggest problems with these storms is people are not taken off guard they just never thought they would need flood insurance yeah and it's unfortunate there's not a product that you can just buy even at the last minute at some exorbitant fee but we're look at today and didn't find that how do the local housing markets react to

these sorts of things that. well the housing market is going to be substantially different once the hurricane goes through after the flooding you've got insurance companies trying to settle claims you've got sema and their people are going to have to restructure their entire homes a lot of homes have to be ripped out and started over that's going to change the market where the flooding occurs so the market prices are going to go down my suggestion is that the rebuild if it's financially possible with the insurance money if not you just may have to give that property up and start over somewhere else it's unfortunate and i know from personal experience the small business administration makes loan guarantees it's bureaucratic but it is there and hillary you know a lot of businesses are being impacted people get a lot of plywood probably from lowe's or home depot but how our business is usually impacted by these sorts of natural disasters yes first of all thank you for having me and our thoughts definitely have to be with all those families that are bracing for this but in terms of the companies it impacts yes some companies very well and

others badly on the impact of on the hurricane season which is of course june to november in two thousand and seventeen was over two hundred fifty billion and this is expected to be about one hundred seventy billion in damages so that's a lot and that's going to affect like you mentioned bought a lot of businesses lowe's and home depot their stocks are up i do want to point out though all that business is due to help people both lowe's and home depot give money to read the red cross over a million from home depot for five hundred thousand from lowe's and they also sent in truckloads from home depot of just goods and products to help people but yes people go to the stores the businesses that benefit of those like generac they provide generators and then beacon roofing this stock is up so a lot of companies will benefit and then there are of course and celery industries and they benefit as well now and thank you for saying about people's hopes and prayers were appropriate for the people because you know what we're business joe so

we look at these things and i know it may sound crass to some peace. well for me to even ask this question but are these investing opportunities for folks or should they not do anything now well yes i mean bought i mean like you say it's very sad but it's really the reality there are some stocks that actually suffer that no pun intended a buffered by this and that those are stocks that are really battered i mean battered are those of insurance companies progressive all state and travelers they all stuff suffered during two thousand and seventeen those stocks which op of those of hotels of course a lot of people need to go to the hotels hilton and hyatt were up in two thousand and seventeen cars especially rental car companies like avis and budget cars they were budget cars were up in two thousand and seventeen also you can look at anything that's related like i mentioned generac and generators and any kind of industry that has some kind of product that people are going to use afterwards you met we mentioned home depot lowe's but also woman and

a lot of the kind of stores that provide home products i know bed bath and beyond and some of the other shows stores online and of course amazon will benefit from this greatly and debbie i mean again as horrific as it is once a natural disaster occurs then there is usually a lot of reconstruction people may have lost their jobs with that is jobs that are created and it does at least somehow help the economy is right. yes it does you're going to have all the construction businesses the roofers the contractors the insulation everything that it takes to create a house as well as clean up as well as furniture stores paint stores anything it takes to make those homes get put back together and help people to back their lives as clothing stores that's just natural goods and services that it takes to exist they'll all do ballots that are super information we again will hope and pray were appropriate for those people down in the path not only this but over the typhoons best path to the philippines debbie boyd the c.e.o. of deal b. financial services and our friend henry ford which the founder and c.e.o.

of strong mark we thank you both for your time thank you welcome. and turning to central america the president of guatemala recently expelled the expelled the head of the united nations commission tasked with rooting out corruption after the arrest of members of his get this members of his family here to explain is our own daniel brito daniel thank you for being here i know you've been following this story sort of set the table for our viewers sure bart this requires a brief explanation of what corruption want to all of its historic roots and its unique nature one amala had a. brief democracy in it for ten years leading to the one nine hundred fifty four coup and after that decades of military rule in which the term corruption you almost can't even use it because there really was no rule of law to be corrupted so

essentially men with guns the military and their allies amassed enormous amounts of economic power and there was a formal transition to democracy in the ninety's but they kept a lot of vatican economic power that they had and experts and n.g.o.s identified these networks of economic power linked with the military as hidden powers and this isn't a conspiracy there it is well known in with in guatemala and so this leads us to the two thousand and i visited in two thousand and four as a congressional staffer and at the time there was a similar body called sissy acts that had just been abolished by the supreme court in two thousand and six and two thousand and seven a similar body was created and this was essentially an organ transplant onto the guatemalan justice system recognizing the profound ups of this corruption and that really no domestic organization or figure really could take on this whole problem and this is the body that the president jimmy morality just expelled effectively

expelled from guatemala by denying the reentry of the head of why would he do that is it just because he. they had a problem with his family members are bored too it was short. we got to learn about jimmy mr sneed they mashed on truck to stop the president and please introduce more to come soon. as we have two shows to go to look for to snoop to come up with new of those the girls who would swear this approach to your. book door for one who's doing. what politicians do. they put themselves on the line they get accepted or rejected . so when you want to be president. or some want to.

have to go right to be for us this is like them up for free in the morning can't be good. i'm interested always in the waters about how. this should. end twenty forty you know bloody revolution to correct the demonstrations going from being relatively peaceful political protests to be creasing the violent revolution is always spontaneous or is it your style or hiccough would have put him in your list put video and put him in the new bill is that i mean you split needle the former ukrainian president recalls the events of twenty fourteen. of those who took the stage invested over five billion dollars to assist ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic. welcome

back turkish president erda one has chosen a new chairman for the nation's sovereign wealth fund his name is president heir to one showing no concern for charges of autocracy or nepotism mr heir to one also dame his son in law as deputy chairman this is a second job for the close relative to the relative who is also big finance minister the fund has an estimated value of fifty billion dollars it holds a major assets including the state's forty nine percent stake in turkish airlines meanwhile the turkish central bank today raised interest rates by a lot six point two five percent to twenty four percent the increase was almost twice market expectations and is also notable because it closely followed mr heir to want to call for a cut in rates the lyric was up sharply on the news. and there is

more news related to an apparent problem with information security at equifax the u.s. credit rating company the wall street journal reports that in twenty fifteen equifax began to suspect that former employees had taken large amounts of propriety and proprietary information to china the chinese government has recently called for private sector help in building a national credit reporting system stoking equifax suspicions which they reportedly shared with the u.s. bureau federal bureau of investigation and even the central intelligence agencies now and financial the subsidiary of chinese online commerce burn ali baba has denied equifax is suggestions that a former employee gave aunt proprietary information and general counsel said of the alleged behavior quote this would be a violation of financials code of business conduct and we would take a media action against any employee is found engaging in this behavior and now we

move to wearable technology if you wear those things they have myriad funk. everything from counting your steps to detailing when you may fall asleep and way you menu way when you may wake up yesterday apple had an event which touted their newest wearable the apple watch and their famous i phone well one of the other large competitors in this space that took a terrible tumble as their stock dropped by seven percent yesterday what's going on in the highly competitive wearable world alan cook technology bust buffett and host of the big picture right here at r.t. america joins us hollen thank you for being here with us we sure appreciate it. tell us what's going to hell great is this cool watch that apple's unveiled that a bunch of investors had to bail from fit that and the stock dropped so much well this is going to be a do or die moment for the apple watch because as you have reported results so far

have been disappointing enough that they buried the apple watch revenue in a great big number so this apple watch series four is going to be watched very closely apple head honcho temp cook made the point at the beginning of his presentation that the existing apple watch is not only the number one smart watch in the world he says it is the number one watch in the world which sounds impressive at first blush but who is a watch anymore if i have the time on my phone that said what i found clever about this new watch is demographic it seems to be playing to folks our age baby boomers none of us are getting any younger so these health apps are conspicuous the apple watch series four is the first smart watch ever to have f d a approved a fear of sensors this is big how about i've fallen and i can't get up they've got a sensor that if you don't get up soon it'll make an s.o.s.

call for you and you mentioned sleep tracking before one analyst who attended the big event yesterday said. well they haven't improved the battery life so let's see if the watch goes to sleep before you wake up but this wearables industry is a big deal well how big is it which is the natural question you teed up for me and how competitive is this market place we know about apple and fit big but others are going to die so young corning to the consumer technology association six point four b. billion dollars this year in the usa alone and we tend to think of it as fitness thing that goes on your wrist but sensors are everywhere now and none of us are getting younger so digital therapeutics is big two billion dollars this year they forecast nine point four billion by two thousand and twenty five l'oreal has a little sensor that you could mistake for nail polish and it will talk to your smartphone and warn you about u.v. rays and exposure and there's

a smart mouth guard athletes wear that tax fatigue by tracking via lactate in your saliva so sensors are everywhere and we no longer think of consumer technology as having a keyboard it will become increasingly invisible and before we go we are running out of time my old school watch tell me what about this new i phone what are the key things with that going to be different you're ready to pay fifteen hundred bucks because no unless you buy in delaware the fourteen forty nine new. ten s has a laptop size five twelve gig of memory it's got two twelve megapixel or killer cameras and the quote a twelve buy on a chip now the i phone prices have been climbing and they also introduced a less expensive one seven hundred forty nine dollars it's an aluminum box it's only got one camera it's affordable but with a lot of the same features so watch apple watch and i phone probably could close to

the big picture thank you holiday better to mash. and the digital divide is an important but underreported story and there is recent news on two major neglected populations in the u.s. those are native americans and residents of rural areas last month the u.s. district court of appeals for washington d.c. blocked the federal communications commission from a limited aiding a subsidy for internet access in tribal areas the lifeline program as they call it provides twenty five dollars each month that can be used to pay telecom costs for internet or basic telephone service the court issued a stay against the f.c.c. finding that the plaintiffs from first nations group were likely to prove and win their case and this week a report from the broadband commission for the sustainable development and initiative of the united nations reminded the world that internet access is more

important than ever the commission co-chair said in a statement quote broadband infrastructure is vital country infrastructure and essential as water and electricity networks and related to that there's a new report out from the economist magazine which looks at digital disruption around the world and ranks nations based upon a three tiered criteria here to take a look at help us looking at the digital disruption and more is conservative t.v. and radio commentator steve malls bird steve thank you for being with us we sure appreciate it tell us well you know what first you have a comment on that f.c.c. story i know you've been following that sort of stuff chairman pie in the f.c.c. what's happening with that lifeline program well lifeline was started at the ronald reagan it was just for a landline subsidies obviously it's morphed to online and now to. broadband subsidies as you mention and you know i grew up in a rural area he grew up in an area that he says did not have the necessary connect

connections and and broadband on a widespread basis so he said that would be one of the top priority. days of his reign at the f.c.c. the reason for going after this program he says waste and fraud dead people are getting these subsidies in many cases so it'll be interesting to see where he takes this to keep good on his pledge to increase broadband and not make it harder to get you know we were all opposed to fraud but we don't want the access to these important services particularly in some of the the poorest among us we want those people served so back to this economist report which was so interesting i just read a little bit about it but one of the criteria they're looking at when they they look at these nations stephen which are the best nations where they want to see that a country is ready to adapt to technological changes they added that as you mentioned earlier the first one is internet access that's probably the most important then there's digital infrastructure there's a country of e-commerce ego government cyber security is that all up to speed and

the third criteria is the willingness to develop the willingness to spend that's what it comes down to what you will are they spending on research and development are they spending on developing infrastructure and are they willing to you know to put their money where their mouth is so to speak and be ready because without that kind of thing and also patents international patents how many of those does the country have so those of the three current criteria they use and some of the countries in the top ten are as follows you've got finland the netherlands sweden australia austria germany japan korea singapore and those are the top most of the top ten if not all of the countries that the magazine deems to be the best prepared and steve you know i noticed in the list you know that china and the u.s. were missing at least from that top ten why so. well you know it's not all about

you would think that they're the best wired up and they have the best internet access but as i mentioned that's only one of the three criteria so there's always a lot of politics involved and there's always a lot of you know geo political factors involved but interestingly in the next five years as a separate list they do predict the united states to be fourth on the new top ten list for best prepared going forward if that's not too confusing also italy well france rather will join that top ten list china though is that on it now and it's not on the new top ten going forward either so that is interesting steve we're out of time but i know we've talked about drones helping to deliver internet to people and we're going to hopefully talk about that with you in the near future coming up steve malzberg conservative t.v. and radio commentator thanks to if thank you bar. and speaking of drones how would you feel if your next cup of coffee wasn't given to you by a person but delivered by a drone well that's the future according to

a patent from i.b.m. international business machines the company has created at least on paper a drone that scans you and uses biometrics biometrics which knows when you want more coffee it's an interesting thought that someday a machine may be able to know what you want before you even know you want to but maybe in this case we might welcome our new robot overlords with open arms and that's it for this time thanks for being with us we'll see you again.