Discovered. Subscribe to the documentary on. The u. S. Russia efforts to digitally decouple from china new executive order targets not just social media hitech talk of chinas massive payment and messaging service we chat. Also on the show look at the economic consequences of tuesdays explosion in beirut. And tourism is critical for cape towns economy but almost nonexistent at the moment not threatening livelihoods. Flowing welcome to the show and see them. In berlin its good to have you with us is a trade dispute will moving into the Digital World u. S. President donald trump escalated tensions with china on tuesday by issuing an executive order that forces americans to stop using chinese owned apps and rather chinese to talk and we chat on the move against tech talk the worlds Fastest Growing social media site was expected then of which i was not. In just 6 weeks those uploading videos like this 2 mobile app to kill could find themselves on the wrong side of us. The u. S. Has around 100000000 uses but not for much longer. On thursday washington issued an executive order banning u. S. Transactions with tick tocks Parent Company the white house believes the app threatens National Security saying it announced Chinas Communist Party to spawn on u. S. Citizens the controversy centers around this company. Based in beijing it owns numerous apps including. Recently u. S. Software Company Microsoft expressed interest in buying to top. The white house says if a u. S. Company bought the app the bun could be avoided. The u. S. Governments executive orders also include 10 cent holdings the chinese of we chat hugely popular in china the messaging and social media app could soon be banned in the united states. Ever more on this lets go to our financial correspondent in frankfurt Conrad Conrad good to see you so the u. S. Appears to want to separate itself or at least separate more americans from chinese web based apps what does it mean for europe. This has many implications for europe steve you know our governments are somewhat caught in the middle. Because we dont have Large Companies here in europe that shape the internet no google no facebook made in europe and that means that you know europe is lacking leverage somewhat in this global Decision Making process and its also likely that this will accelerate though process towards a more localized into that here in europe as well. More and more governments and citizens are aware how valuable data is and who gets to exploit it all right conrad booze and with us from frankfurt thank you over asia now were chinese exports have seen another unexpected jump the government says customs data showed exports rising 7. 5 percent in july compared to a year earlier thats another positive sign for the worlds 2nd largest economy following junes 3 percent gain sales in the u. S. Rose despite the terrible with washington chinese exports have been rebounding from the coronavirus faster than the global total suggesting that is manufacturers are taking market share from from competitors in country still under restrictions. Over lebanon were times were already tough food prices on the rise Power Outages becoming more frequent and coronavirus case numbers climbing now the need to rebuild the countrys largest port following an explosion on tuesday threatens to expose just how threadbare the countrys economy really is. A city in ruins its a gateway to the Global Economy destroyed lebanon is scrambling to pick up the pieces of this weeks explosion. But long before the blast levanon to qana me was then a death spiral. Rampant inflation in an increasingly worthless currency plunging many lebanese into poverty hunger and despair. All now are sure to get worse. More than 250000 people have lost their homes in beirut. And countless businesses have been destroyed. Who will compensate talking to you we lost our houses all shops in the house of my grandfather. We lost my uncles wife and we took out from under the rubble is there anything bigger than this except. The explosion level of beirut support the countrys main artery for imports like food and fuel. The bulk of the country is grain and flour was stored in a silo there the United Nations warns the blast could leave lebanon with a severe shortage of both of those staples. International leaders have pledged to send the lebanese government aid but there are Strings Attached. Never you think this is the priority and theres a ton of unconditional support for the population dont want it to months and years now if you want to france has been demanding indispensable reforms inside sectors and Energy Government procurement in the fight against corruption you know if these reforms are not carried out lebanon will continue to sink and befit really will continue on some. Efforts will now turn to rebuilding beirut. But rebuilding the economy may be a longer and more difficult task. And im joined now by. Middle east expert in dubai are some welcome to the show the economy has deteriorated rapidly in lebanon over the past 6 months just how bad are things from normal lebanese. Well quite to be honest on a day to day basis i think from the beginning of the devaluation of the Lebanese Fund weve seen you know a hike in prices that its not even close to inflation piper inflation so the basically the official Officials Say that the current lebanese found is around 2770. 00 pounds per dollar however the rate is actually much worse on the black market which is actually what is recognized by vendors on the street which is closer to about 6000. 00 lebanese town per dollar. And prices are being high on a day to day basis. Price rising prices theyre making life very difficult now the port lies in ruins thats a major artery for goods coming in including food what does that mean for the economy while obviously any any interruption to supply chain will actually use a hike in prices as well but also it means a bit more than the right so i think everybodys backtracking from economics to politics because what weve seen and what the lebanese citizens are asking for right now is reform because to build a good economy we require good politics then to build this politics need a government need a Good Government so as long as you have the corruption and we have the embezzlement as part of our Economic Activity its taking away a lot of our potential in terms of g. D. P. So thats also basically pushing us to words adding more loans and in addition to defaulting on their recent euro bond thats actually going to get much worse because now you dont have access to the lot of International Law loan market and any kind of aid thats coming from the i. M. F. Or anyone else will come with a lot of Strings Attached as you have mentioned. 1011. 00 and even afford to fix this port area and the city quarter that was pretty much destroyed around it. That definitely not i dont see a sport being rebuilt and the next 510 years based on the car or the Current Situation i think one of the solutions at the moment the Short Term Solutions as basically redirecting imports through some of the other ports such as the one inside the north tripoli or the one in g. L. As well so this is where you are a basic the you will manage to maintain some sort of security and also maintaining the electricity to a certain love and through importing the fuel however in the long term i think a project similar to china Growth Initiative would be a bit more suitable despite the criticism about the chinese loans. Right a harrowing picture there in lebanon at the moment i some casa bia in dubai thank you very much thank you and lets go over to africa now where tourism is a major industry in capetown bringing in money and jobs and otherwise struggling a cock khana me thinking the pen demick south africa like much of the rest of the world is at a standstill and thats put 90000 jobs on the line the government is trying to help but some think that it might not be enough. Its been voted africas top Tourist Destination many a time but like numerous destinations around the globe cape towns Tourism Industry has been hit hard by the pandemic hotels are empty and so its cape towns most photographed street in the colorful bow carp neighborhood. Local talk guide refuge jacobs hasnt welcomed any visitors in 4 months. Though the residents enjoy the quiet the Economic Impact here has been huge. Income and a lot of people of the city and so we depend on tourism and you would find that they were in there having to sell clothes or mosques anything just so that they could generate an income. Rafique now has to tap into his savings hes one of 90000 cape town and he could lose their job in the tourism sector. And the demeaning is the c. E. O. Of cape town to resume the industry body recently compiled a report on the state of the sector. Has been devastating where we have seen significant loss in revenue Financial Support has been given by mash no government is what they call the the Emergency Relief Fund as well as a twitter somebody relief fund coming from im actually part of tourism to a Small Businesses and to have guides as well who have no form of revenue or income at the time but qualifying for those funds is difficult says traffic. I just feel that from a government perspective they are paid to do more towards to a company that has a big and not catering to the individuals the smaller operators they are the ones in this book the quiet. South africa is currently experiencing a rapid rise in coded 19 cases borders will probably stay closed until december or january 2021. To mitigate job losses the Tourism Industry wants to open business for South African travelers. Focus on the domestic market which allows us to also have all the safety protocols we have in place to make sure that not only the International Locals are in the home destinations. For rafi jacobs the way out of the crisis is Going Digital he wants to offer a virtual walking tour through the neighborhood he knows the experience wont be the same but during the Current Crisis adaptability is key to survival. For me and the business. Thats watching. This woman is defying the regime. Must move has been searching for her husband and son for years both might be victims of syrias secret service now theres a ray of hope. Suspected henchmen are on trial in germany. It was of course the subconscious always a World Without beethoven icon to begin to imagine. 68. Hello and welcome to a new edition of focus on europe we begin todays show with a conflict that might be far away from europe geographically but still has a direct impact on our continent