sophie scimansky in new york. sophie, thank you.t is gametime this week in the german city of cologne. hundreds of thousands of gamers flocking to the world's largest event of computer and video games. are reporter dived into the crowd which was anything but sedate. reporter: bang, and you are inside the game. not just on screen. the recent megahit fortnight breaks with tradition. playing is free and has attracted 125 million people in one year. >> the community is why the game is so successful. even things like nuits -- like new emotes or skins explode. reporter: these features are what players play for. -- pay for. others every state point where they get paid -- have reached a point where they get paid. hard-core gamers were at the heart 10 years ago and is still our. but esports has bought -- brought them from the basement to the statage. >> we used to be happy to get a mousepad or hardware, anything, really. now if you plate in the national league it is up to two euros per month. you can make up the five digits. reporter: it is

fanny: sophie scimansky in new york, thank you very much.n other stories, president nicolas maduro announced from now on, venezuela's chief fuel will be available only to people in a special government card. for years the government of the economically ravaged country has heavily subsidized petrol. this has led to a flash market in neighboring countries like colombia and the caribbean. until now, any driver could fill the tank of a small suv 9000 times for the price of a cup of coffee. no kidding. venezuela'a's positions as the government's new fuel card is a tool for controlling people. the austrian capital vienna has been ranked as the world's most livable city. it is the first time a european city has led the annual survey by the magazine economist. the yes secured an almost perfect score of 99 points out of 100. each year, 140 cities are ranked by living centers, crime, stability. australia jobs to second place after being voted the most livable city for seven years in a row. is a yellow your favorite city? brent: -- is vienna your favor

ben: for more on that let's talk to sophie scimansky on wall street. w much further string will this be on transatlantic ties in your opinion? sophie: i would say a lot at the moment. other countries all face tough decisions now on whether to continue trading with iran and risk u.s. penalties or fall in line with the trump administration before sanctions on oil are due to take effect in six months. the white house's policy has faced a lot of resistance from europe. they all want to preserve the iran deal, even without the u.s. so now the eu is trying to get exemptions for domestic companies, and it is not clear yet if the white house is going to agree. the u.s. treasury said in a statement that the state department would evaluate and make determinations with respect to significant reduction exemptions. but companies seeking such exemptions were advised to -- purchases from iran during the 180 day wind down period. critics are now saying trump is escalating the situation for basically every country involved. ben: would you say it is clear what the u.s. g

helena: sophie scimansky in new york. thanks for that, sophie. amazon founder jeff bezos could be falling behind in the private sector space race. there are signs that his firm's heavy rocket set for liftoff in 2020 may be falling behind schedule. his company faces stiff competition from none other than elon musk's spacex. reporter: just a month ago, amazon founder jeff bezos' rocket company successfully pulled offff its m most importat testst to date. but reports are saying the 2020 liftoff date may be moved back. engineers are still finalizing details on the heavy launch rocket. bezos has stressed that the timing depends on perfecting vehicle safety. >> and touchdown! >> this vehicle is going to carry humans. we will make it as safe as we can mamake it. we are going to test it. we are not going to take any shortcuts. we will put humans on this vehicle when we are ready and not a second sooner. reporter: the reusable relaunch of vehicle will be used to transport satellites. it will take tourists into space and bring them back to earth again. >>

let's go straight over to our financial correspondent soulfully -- sophie scimansky on wall street. ump seemingly interfering in central bank policy. is there any sense that the fed actually listened to his concerns? sophie: i would not say so. first of all, monetary policy and anything from the fed is usually not anything for the president to comment on. the independency of the fed is high. now trump once again is breaking the world's -- rules, and investors disapprove. obama's top economic adviser said nothing of this kind has happened in the past 25 years. one concern might be the fed will now be reluctant to slow the pace of rate hikes, even if it is thinking it is the best thing to do. it will look like they are responding to political pressure. i think the fed is going to do with the fed has to do. and the thing that they did not raise these rates is just a sign that they keep doing what they were planning to do anyway. it does not imply that they actually listened to the president. helena: and let's face it, the fed has rather a lot on its plate right now. the fed warning agai

it is time to check in with our financial correspondent, sophie scimansky. it seems like investors have lost faith in elon musk. what is the latest? sophie: these have been two tough weeks. the plan was to make everything easier for tesla, to take away the pressure of being a publicly listed company, judged by quarterly earnings, short-term profits, numbers, improvements in the performance of the automaker. for musk, it is more about the future and changing it is about the vision. it is not easy to find investors who stick with you while your company is still not making any profit at all. he wanted to go private. the people started to believe that he does not have the money to do that. the saudi arabian fund seems to be looking into a competitor, as we just heard. investors are, on top of that, concerned. he tweeted something late at night this weekend. the board seems to be thinking of a number two to help them out. barry and a huffington tweet -- - arianna huffington tweeted that he should get some sleep, and he responded aggressively. helen: we are hearing

helena: sophie scimansky for us on wall street, thanks. donald trump has been raising the stakes in his country's trade clash with china as he eyes raising tariffs from 10% to 25% on $2 billion of chinese imports. atat the same time,e, leaders aa meeting of southeast asian nations in singapore say they could have the world's largest free-trade deal in place by the end of the year. speaking at the opening of the event, singapore's prime minister said that asian nations needed to stay relevant in a time of uncecertainty. thee plan free trade deal would include 16 c countries and b be backed by y china. beijing has appealed to washshington to return too reasn after trump's latest threat. burton's -- britain's central bank has raised its interest rate despite fears that the brexit could cause a shock and months time. the quarter increases only the second rate increase since 2008. it is a response to some strong job numbers. the bank is expected to be more cautious in coming months as eu departure talks continue. the bank of england chief has w

for more complex who did -- for more, let's go to wall street and sophie scimansky. do investors think he is making sense when elon musk tweeted about the secure funding? i think we are experiencing some problems with the line there. sorry about that. we cannot hear our correspondent. we will try to get back to her later. i think we're moving on. back to brent and a debate polarizing germany. brent: exactly right. we're going to talk about the muslim headscarf. press europe right now, i debate is taking place over wearing a headscarf by some muslim women. critics say it is a sign of oppression by men. supporters say that in a democracy people should be a love to dress as they please. the debate is coming to a head in westphalia. the local government is considering banning the headscarf for girls under age 14. reporter: three classmates, three muslim girls. one has been wearing a headscarf sh since she was 10. it bothers her that some politicians want to from the girls from doing so. >> a and 12, and if they say you have to remove your hats government my would say no,