elon musk through the courts for a decade. she tells us how she is still seeking a public apology. welcome to world business report. we start in china where the economy has been growing faster than expected in the first three months of the year. the latest gdp figures released a couple of hours ago show the economy grew 5.3% year on year injanuary to march. this will come as some relief to policy makers as the world's second—largest economy has struggled to mount a strong and sustainable post—covid bounce, burdened by an ongoing property crisis, mounting local government debts and weak private—sector spending. our asia business reporterjoao da silva has the latest. this is definitely welcome news for china's policy makers. it seems to show that the country

is on track to meet the government's target of 5% growth this year, a goal that, by the way, observers and even officials themselves admitted will not be easy to achieve. but beijing has unveiled fiscal and monetary measures to try and set the country on the recovery track. it's again focusing on infrastructure spending as well as high—tech manufacturing. and that gdp growth figure of 5.3% in the first quarter could be a hint that the strategy is starting to pay off. so, isuppose, whether that can continue. can the economy maintain that sort of growth rate in future? it's really too early to say at this stage. aside from the quarterly growth figure, the rest of the data out today has not been so positive. factory output retail sales released alongside that gdp report showed momentum is slowing. that's on top of other disappointing figures released earlier on exports,

on consumer inflation and bank lending. so again, despite those positive growth figures for the first quarter, the rest of the data really seems to continue to point to economic weakness. a reminder that china has been facing some very serious economic challenges for some time now. i'm talking about the property market downturn, local government debt problems and weak consumer and private sector spending. those are really big challenges. so overall, it's still not clear whether china is really on the mend. staying in china, the german chancellor olaf scholz has met with president xijinping in beijing on the final day of his visit to the country, designed to boost economic ties. china is germany's biggest trading partner. here's our china correspondent, laura bicker. olaf schulz came to china with a clear message — we will do business with beijing, but they want china to play fair.

now, what he means by this is there is real concern, both in europe and the united states, that china has subsidised its green technologies. now, that by that i mean solar panels, electric vehicles, wind turbines, and that has driven costs down. i mean, the cost of a solar panel has been halved in the last year. china produces more than 80% of the world's solar panels. about half of all their exports go to europe. and that's one of the reasons why european businesses are very worried, because they believe that china is driving those costs down and driving them out of business. so the clear message coming from europe is they want china to play fair. now, china's argument to this is that it's not state subsidies that are helping reduce the costs of their solar panels. it's their own innovation. they say they are good at this. this is something that people want to buy and they are providing a product.

they also say that cheap solar panels are good for the likes of africa, southeast asia, as well as their customers in europe and the united states. so what we're seeing is the edge of what some fear are new trade tensions between east and west. now, what olaf scholz didn't say is that he supported new tariffs, new curbs against chinese goods. he stopped short of that. other european leaders are calling for more measures and more tariffs to be put on chinese goods, as have the united states. so we'll have to see how things play out over the coming weeks, whether or not europe will decide that china needs to curb its production and whether china is making too much. the world is still reeling from the shock of the first demand—driven energy shock, which came about in the afermath of russia's invasion of ukraine in 2022.

that's according to the world energy council in its latest energy trilemma report. that trilemma is the challenge of decarbonising energy, maintaining energy security and doing so in an affordable way. well, we can hear now from dr angela wilkinson, secretary general & ceo of the world energy council, the organisation behind that report. thank you forjoining us, angela. i suppose sadly, when it comes to how the markets, how consumers think about the energy sector, most of us think about prices first of all. in the aftermath of that spike we saw a couple of years ago, are we overlooking the bigger picture of the energy transition?— the energy transition? we've released the _ the energy transition? we've released the 15th _ the energy transition? we've released the 15th version - the energy transition? we've released the 15th version of i the energy transition? we've i released the 15th version of our index report in advance of our 100th anniversary in rotterdam next week. we manage what we measure, and if we want to be successful in managing

global energy transitions in all regions, we have to manage the challenges of energy security, affordability and equity and sustainability. we need a measuring framework, and that is what the index provides added measures and tracks performance across 120 countries. tracks performance across 120 countries-_ tracks performance across 120 countries-— tracks performance across 120 countries. ., ., ., ., countries. how are we doing? how did the sike countries. how are we doing? how did the spike in — countries. how are we doing? how did the spike in energy — countries. how are we doing? how did the spike in energy prices _ countries. how are we doing? how did the spike in energy prices caused - countries. how are we doing? how did the spike in energy prices caused by i the spike in energy prices caused by the spike in energy prices caused by the russian invasion of ukraine throw is of course, and are you worried about the middle east conflict spilling into something bigger and throwing us even further off course? ~ ., , , bigger and throwing us even further off course? ~ . , , . ., bigger and throwing us even further offcourse? . , , . ., , off course? what is very clear is that even _ off course? what is very clear is that even as _ off course? what is very clear is that even as we _ off course? what is very clear is that even as we are _ off course? what is very clear is that even as we are measuring. off course? what is very clear is i that even as we are measuring and managing energy transition performance, what constitutes good performance, what constitutes good performance is evolving and it is evolving with new dimensions of security, it is notjust the access douaron gas, but also the ability to

access minerals to support a renewable energy revolution. it is also about managing physical and cybersecurity threats. we also seeing dimensions of equity evolving as there are new demands for justice, and as many countries across the world struggle with energy affordability. we are also seeing a change and shift in environment sustainability, notjust environment sustainability, not just challenges environment sustainability, notjust challenges of managing climate resilience, but attending to more holistic planetary well—being, the manage to manage water and food systems in many parts of the world is creating new security concerns, as well as the conventional security concerns about the geopolitics of energy. concerns about the geopolitics of ener: . ., ~ ., concerns about the geopolitics of ener: . ., ~ ~ energy. doctor angela wilkinson, thank ou energy. doctor angela wilkinson, thank you for— energy. doctor angela wilkinson, thank you forjoining _ energy. doctor angela wilkinson, thank you forjoining us _ energy. doctor angela wilkinson, thank you forjoining us today. i to tesla now — and a whistle—blower who's battled elon musk and the car—maker through the courts for a decade has spoken to the bbc.

cristina balan says she is still seeking a public apology for how she was treated after raising safety concerns about its vehicles. until 2014, ms balan was a rising star at tesla in the us. she spoke to our technology editor zoe kleinman. i was the only woman in the team, like, engineering, and in the beginning, it was great. in the early days, cristina balan was doing so well at tesla, her initials were engraved on the car's batteries. but she says it wasn't long before things took a turn for the worse. everything went south when i realised that they were hiding some critical safety issues. she claims they pretended that they didn't know. and you decided to go right to the top. you went to elon musk himself? i tried to. and what exactly was the safety concern? they realised that they make a design engineering mistake on the carpet. you know that every carpets that you have on under the adults

and in the front of the car. so what happened is those carpets, they were curling under the brake and under the acceleration. cristina further claims that she'd heard there were complaints made about this issue. so she believes tesla was aware of it. she claims that when she shared her worries, tesla's management turned hostile. she lost herjob, sued the firm and won. but then tesla did something unexpected. they dared to accuse me of serious crimes, like embezzlement. theyjust purely invented those with one scope in mind, to give a lesson to everybody who dare to speak up. tesla said in a public statement that cristina had used company resources for a secret project. she denies this, and the firm has never provided proof. what do you want to get out of this now? this long—running battle with this company? i want to clear my name. i wish elon musk had

the decency to apologise. i am battling the most aggressive type of breast cancer and elon musk and their lawyers knows that. and they were willing to allow a little boy, i'm his hero for him. you know, i'm the mummy who does aeroplanes and cars. to let my memory of me for him be shadow forever that his mum stole from tesla. and i want to do something for all the cancer patients out there and especially breast cancer patients. now you're setting me off. my goodness. bbc news put her claims to tesla, but the firm has not responded.

on its website, tesla says safety is the most important part of every tesla. "we design our vehicles to exceed safety standards." tesla would have done the right thing for so many times, for so many years, and they didn't. it'll now be up to the california courts to decide the next chapter for cristina, who's currently in remission from her cancer. but there's no court date set yet. zoe kleinman, bbc news. in other news... the administrators of the panama canal have announced an increase in the number of ships allowed to use the waterway every day from 2a to 31. it should ease congestion in one of the world's busiest trade routes, linking the atlantic ocean to the pacific. boeing has rejected claims that there are problems with its 787 jets, two days before a whistle—blower is due to testify to us lawmakers about what he describes as "catastrophic safety risks" in the way they're made. steve chisolm, boeing's chief engineer for

mechanical and structural engineering, told reporters that the carbon fibre composites used to build the jet have successfully endured stress testing that far exceeds normal operating conditions for a commercialjetliner. quick look at the markets before i 90, quick look at the markets before i go, agitate gloomy picture across much of europe. the main indices all in the red, nasa later is on the price on crude. more business news in a few hours. goodbye.

hello from the bbc sport centre. two champions league fixtures later, with german side borussia dortmund looking to oveturn a 2—1 aggregate score to atletico madrid in the second leg of their quarter final.

and paris saint—germain will need a better performance from kylian mbappe if they're to overturn the 3—2 quarter—final defeat in the uefa champions league following the first leg in paris. mbappe failed to hit the target from three shots, lost the ball 13 times and was caught offside three times. however the psg and france captain scored a hat trick on his last visit to barcelona in 2021 and will be hoping to replicate that if he is to keep alive his dream of winning the competition. borussia dortmund looking to oveturn a 2—1 aggregate score to atletico madrid in the second leg of their quarter final. dortmund will be without forward sebastien haller, who has has been ruled out with a recurrence of his left ankle injury. haller scored a late goal in dortmund s 2—1 loss at atletico in the first leg on wednesday, but got injured early in the team 5 bundesliga win at borussia monchengladbach on saturday. jadon sancho missed the trip to monchengladbach through illness, but was back with his teammates on sunday and is expected to return to the squad for atletico.