:00:00. > :00:10.Those are the latest headlines from BBC World News. Now for the latest
:00:11. > :00:18.financial news with Ben in the World Business Report.
:00:19. > :00:21.With the crisis in Ukraine showing no sign of being resolved, ministers
:00:22. > :00:31.from the G7 countries meet to discuss how Europe would cope
:00:32. > :00:35.without oil and gas from Russia. And 25 years after the fall of the
:00:36. > :00:42.Berlin Wall ` we're in Poland, and the shipyards of Gdansk, where it
:00:43. > :00:47.all really started. I'm Ben Thompson. In a moment we'll get the
:00:48. > :00:52.latest on China's ban on British Cheese ` we'll be live from
:00:53. > :00:56.Singapore for that, but first... Is Europe too reliant on Russia for
:00:57. > :00:58.its energy supplies? And could it find other sources if that supply
:00:59. > :01:01.was switched off? That's what ministers from the G7 will be
:01:02. > :01:06.discussing when they meet on Monday in Rome. Half of all Europe's gas
:01:07. > :01:09.comes from Russia, and the main pipeline passes through Ukraine. But
:01:10. > :01:12.with the worsening relations between Russia and Ukraine that supply could
:01:13. > :01:21.be cut off and as Jeremy Howell reports, that's happened once
:01:22. > :01:25.before. In the winter of 2009 people living
:01:26. > :01:29.in Southeast Europe had to cut wood for fuel as Russia was in a quarrel
:01:30. > :01:37.with Ukraine over unpaid bills and cut off all gas supplies to Europe
:01:38. > :01:42.lowing pretty country. Continuing tensions mean a gas cutoff has again
:01:43. > :01:48.become a threat. Countries in Eastern Europe like Bulgaria take
:01:49. > :01:54.80% of their gas from Russia and have little in storage. The UK
:01:55. > :01:57.imports no gas from Russia directly and has substantial stocks so the
:01:58. > :02:03.immediate plan is to link up their existing ASP pipelines into a great
:02:04. > :02:10.use and gas to where it is scarce in times of crisis. It takes time and
:02:11. > :02:17.it is not something you can do overnight. At the end of the day it
:02:18. > :02:23.comes down to how to share a reduced supply if one of the main supply
:02:24. > :02:30.routes from Russia goes down. You have to ask where the supply is
:02:31. > :02:37.going to come from. Europe needs to search beyond Russia. The USA has an
:02:38. > :02:42.abundance of natural gas but it will be years before much of it can be
:02:43. > :02:46.delivered to Europe. There are no gas exports on the Atlantic Coast of
:02:47. > :02:52.the United States or the Gulf Coast. There is time for
:02:53. > :03:06.construction and we are not looking at a significant volume of American
:03:07. > :03:14.gas exports until 2020. In European country like `` country's like
:03:15. > :03:22.Britain, and there is gas, but no one knows how much it will yield or
:03:23. > :03:32.when. It will need many more years to wean itself off.
:03:33. > :03:35.Cheese from Britain has been banned by China over questions of hygiene.
:03:36. > :03:38.One British politician has said that Britain should now consider its own
:03:39. > :03:41.action, unless China drops the ban. Let's cross live to our Asia
:03:42. > :03:48.business hub in Singapore and Ali Moore. Exactly what happened? I
:03:49. > :03:56.suppose I should put some context in it. China is not immune from its own
:03:57. > :04:01.food scares and that is the reason that imported foods are so popular.
:04:02. > :04:08.For example, milk powder for babies. This turns the issue on its
:04:09. > :04:16.head. China says its British cheesemakers are the problem.
:04:17. > :04:22.Chinese officials were touring a factory in the UK and after that
:04:23. > :04:26.announced a temporary ban. I came up with a list of issues including air
:04:27. > :04:35.sanitisation I'm a raw milk transport temperatures and the
:04:36. > :04:41.storage. You mentioned that we only export roughly 11 tons of cheese to
:04:42. > :04:47.China but this certainly puts some noses out of joint. Some doubt about
:04:48. > :04:50.whether the reasons the Chinese have given for this ban are actually
:04:51. > :04:58.legitimate and this is actually all about politics. It is hard to assess
:04:59. > :05:08.that. This band has not been reported in the Chinese media or
:05:09. > :05:12.officially announced `` ban. There are also reports that the factory at
:05:13. > :05:22.the centre of this doesn't actually export to China. On the other side
:05:23. > :05:30.of the coin, they now say that all factories will be demonstrated in
:05:31. > :05:35.order to maintain high standards. UK authorities are taking it seriously
:05:36. > :05:51.and are not try to negotiate but are actually holding inspections. Thank
:05:52. > :05:54.you. Now ` it's 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was an
:05:55. > :05:58.historic moment ` one that's shaped Europe ever since. But the events
:05:59. > :06:01.that led up to that moment began not in Germany, but in neighbouring
:06:02. > :06:03.Poland. The trade union movement in the country, prompted the first
:06:04. > :06:06.democratic elections and provided the catalyst for the fall of
:06:07. > :06:09.communism. And the country has embraced the free market like no
:06:10. > :06:12.other, seeing steady economic growth for the past 25 years, it was the
:06:13. > :06:16.only EU country to avoid recession in the last financial crisis. In the
:06:17. > :06:19.second part of our special series, Tanya Beckett has been to the
:06:20. > :06:38.shipyards in Gdansk, where it all started. Eastern Europe's journey to
:06:39. > :06:41.market capitalism has its place its birthplace in northern Poland. 25
:06:42. > :06:44.years ago, ordinary shipyard workers rose up to shake free from the grip
:06:45. > :06:47.of Soviet power. It started here in the shipyards of Gdansk, Poland's
:06:48. > :06:50.transformation from Communism, in in the form of the Solidarity movement.
:06:51. > :06:52.It began with a workers strike that led ultimately to democratically
:06:53. > :06:56.held elections. The charismatic leader of the union, Lech Walesa,
:06:57. > :06:59.won a Nobel Prize for peace and was elected the country's president in
:07:00. > :07:05.1990. TRANSLATION: I led the fight and I was thinking about moving the
:07:06. > :07:11.boundaries towards freedom. We could not be certain of success, even when
:07:12. > :07:14.I was elected president. I still was not sure that we had won because I
:07:15. > :07:18.knew that there were communists among us and that they could, at any
:07:19. > :07:26.point, try to destabilise the situation. A quarter of a century
:07:27. > :07:32.on, this is the nation Lech Walesa helped build. Last year, Fiat Poland
:07:33. > :07:38.reached an important landmark, its one millionth Cinquecento rolled off
:07:39. > :07:41.the production line. During communist times, the factory was
:07:42. > :07:47.owned by the state and many of the current workers built Fiat cars
:07:48. > :07:50.under the Soviet regime. TRANSLATION: The conditions were
:07:51. > :07:54.very different then to what they are now. The floor was covered in
:07:55. > :08:00.chemicals and the factory wasn't very clean. TRANSLATION: In those
:08:01. > :08:04.days, we didn't have to look after anything because there was someone
:08:05. > :08:07.else looking after the production. Nowadays, we have to take more
:08:08. > :08:16.responsibility because this is our future. And Poland has taken care of
:08:17. > :08:19.itself. Its economy avoided recession during the financial
:08:20. > :08:23.crisis. It is one of the fastest`growing in the European
:08:24. > :08:28.Union. The market economy has created haves and have`nots. Taking
:08:29. > :08:38.care of those who lost out is one of the new divides it now needs to
:08:39. > :08:41.cross. And you can follow the series and
:08:42. > :08:46.read more on our website bbc.co.uk/europe25yearson. Next week
:08:47. > :08:49.we're off to Hungary to find out how one of Europe's most entrepreneurial
:08:50. > :08:58.nations has adjusted to life after communism.
:08:59. > :09:01.Australia's Westpac has reported an 8% jump in cash profit for the six
:09:02. > :09:04.months to March, which came in at 3.5 billion US dollars. That's a
:09:05. > :09:07.record profit for Australia's second biggest bank, thanks to robust
:09:08. > :09:12.growth in lending and a fall in bad debts. Banks in Australia are on
:09:13. > :09:15.track for another year of record earnings, as the country's low
:09:16. > :09:32.interest rates encourage more borrowers to take out loans. The
:09:33. > :09:42.Prime Minister of Portugal will not need a standby level of credit.
:09:43. > :09:49.Since their bailout that they have stuck to the tough measures and have
:09:50. > :10:07.seen improvements. Plenty more including a round`up of the day's
:10:08. > :10:10.papers. Enjoying a day off? Well a study by
:10:11. > :10:14.Leeds University in the UK says economies would benefit as a whole
:10:15. > :10:17.if we all worked a bit less, perhaps a four or even three day week.
:10:18. > :10:18.Nations such as Denmark, the Netherlands and