couldn't caesar up? i think we can all sense the pent up the mon, full travel. we little can see and sense optimism. there are positive signs for 2020 to several places such as australia, new zealand, and the philippines are lifting bands on overseas visitors. but industry figures worn, there is a long way to go. lia harding al jazeera. ah, how fast they are here on al jazeera, and these are the headlines. germany's chancellor has met ukraine's president vladimir zalinski and give off shalt says any russian attack on ukraine will be met with a strong response. he is now off to moscow to meet president vladimir putin on tuesday . won't defraud unless done off commission. we encourage russia to use these offers of discussions. we emphasize again, in any case of military escalation, we have agreed with our allies and we are ready to undertake and implement very

serious sanctions. the territorial integrity of ukraine should not be violated. and if it does happen, we know exactly what to do. the current president meanwhile says he will continue to pursue night. her membership said it was a vital issue for his country, security and territorial integrity. my would your earliest, he said though nice for our future alliances, our ambitions, you know very well that this is our wishy, but apart from that, there is a war in the east and we believe that nato membership will ensure our security. of course, moscow wants limits to nato expansion and military operations in eastern europe. in a meeting with president putin, russia's foreign minister said there is still room for diplomacy at circle of rebels as that he was not satisfied with responses from the e. u and nato to moscow security concerns. one of them out i got, i gotta hit the pallet mean teenagers, shot dead by is ready for the occupied. westbank is in nature,

rest. 11 others were injured when troops open fire on people protesting against the demolition of a home in the city of jeanine. it belonged to a palestinian prisoners accused of killing and is ready sadly in december. and tension remains high in the flesh point suburb of checked at all and occupied east jerusalem. israeli police cleared, protest is on sunday, injuring dozens of people. the demonstrations broke out when the far right is ready and pay tried to reopen a political office. and in sudan, one person died during another day of protest to denounce military rule security forces. the 5 t again to disperse demonstrators were marching towards the presidential palace in cups. on sunday, a former member of the dissolved transitional council was arrested thousands of people at the stage in the weekly rally evidence the military take of it in october . and with that europe state, with the headlines on out of era counting, the cost is next. i

lose lose news . hello, i'm elizabeth marana, this is count on the cost on al jazeera, your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week and energy solution, or a curse. germany's pulling the plug on all its atomic plants that the european commission is moving to naval them green, so it should nuclear power be ditched safely use this week, cracking capital currency wallace un reports is most career has stolen tens of millions of dollars of the virtual currency to help finance as nuclear and

ballistic missile program. so how can visual exchanges be protected? the race to establish africa. next, unicorns tech found is launch a font thing. the findings and next $1000000000.00 african companies is the continent. a natural home for the nuclear energy has a notorious reputation for disasters and can go terribly wrong. but if that's me, the debate about reactors in the past few decades off to 3 major accident, it seems to be changing. now. industry supporters say atomic power has negligible carbon emissions, and it can be more reliable than renewables and keeping the live song. they insist for good reason. the song doesn't always shine and the one doesn't always blow. now, as the climate crisis wasn't julia's out on where the nuclear power should be, part of the energy transition plan that europe ian commission is moving to label

atomic plants and gas as green investments under certain conditions. critics consider the step green washing and it's been opposed by many countries. germany is among the nations facing out nuclear energy plans to shot well, it's reactive by the end of the year. there are around $450.00 reactors, supplying at least 10 percent of the world's electricity. and only 15 countries account for more than 90 percent of the global nuclear power production. the u. s. tops the list with more than 50 percent of the country's carbon free electricity produced by atomic plants in 202088 of the countries. 96 operating reactors have received approvals for a 20 year life extension almost 2 years ago. the wall, 2nd largest nuclear power producer, as china. and it's increasingly investing in the energy to achieve its climate goals. the nation plans to build a $150.00 new reactors by 2035 at a cost of more than $440000000000.00. and atomic power makes up 70 percent of

francis electricity mix the french president and says he wants to build new nuclear reactors. but nuclear power takes a long time to build in as being criticized for its cost overruns. the war nuclear industry status report estimates the price of nuclear energy at up to $189.00 per megawatt hour. while the cost of generating solar power can reach up to $44.00 per megawatt hour. and it's slightly cheaper for on sure. wind power and to discuss all of that on jordan. now from munich by dr. miranda sure. she's the chair of environment and climate policy at the technical university of unit dr. sure is very good to have you with us on counting the cost. so it is said to be too risky, too expensive and too slow. it's why is nuclear power back in the energy debate? i think it's back in the debate and because there are several centuries that have invested so much in the clear in the past, and they haven't taken

a large steps to ship new directions. and therefore they are in the position of problems. they really are struggling. what to do with ultimately a power plas and looking for investment in nuclear power plants. so in many ways, it's a question of which kinds of energy choices have been made in the past and how path dependent are countries. but in germany, we made a very different choice. germany was very dependent on clear, but after the nuclear crises and channel and then the decision was made to, to abandon their energy. and do you think that germany is making a brain decision right now, given the possible energy shortages that it could be facing? because of the crisis between russia and ukraine. of course, that's a terrible crisis and we certainly hope it doesn't come any worse. and then

diplomatic solution can be found, and it is true that germany imports a substantial amount of its natural gas from ger from russia. the challenge, however, is not so much this bass from russia. it's the question of the speed of the transition towards renewables. and i think that's something that we're going to see happening now. also partly pressured by this new developments on rainy and border i think we're going to see and even faster development of renewable energy as well as storage capacity. so yes, in the short term it's, it's a challenge, but in the long term it's actually additional pressure to make the energy transition. and what about, you know, that you labeling both nuclear energy and gas as green, isn't green washing as quick say what is that going to mean for the clean energy transition? well, you know, it's interesting that also within the german government there's a government. now this government is not really so on board with this

classification. we don't see any clear energy as sustainable and actually gas is just another fossil fuel. it's less commuting cold, but it's still a fossil, and we still need to face it out. so we have the decisions that were made in the past that are still influencing us today. for those who are concerned about really addressing climate change, then we really need to be investing in alternative energies that can be billed to. now luckily or power will take much too long to build. we don't have that time and it's also very centralized energy system. it means that to maintain the old structures and you don't move in the direction of citizen involvement in, in energy production. and that's one of the exciting things about renewable energy . it's, it's a, it's a chance for more energy democracy. it's

a chance for more participation and the find that, you know, there are countries mentioned france, 70 percent of its energy comes from nuclear sources. china is increasing its nuclear power to, i mean, these are 2 of the world's biggest economies. so why do you think that that is so important to them? i think they're variety of reasons. one, china growing population, growing demand for energy. they're also expanding renewables. they're the road leader and capacity on renewables. ringback francis also cutting down its share renewable, sorry, of nuclear. it had 75 percent a few years ago. it's down to 71 percent now and it has a target to reduce your share to 50 percent. but you have to remember the sentries are also nuclear powers. they have nuclear energy capacity in the civilian sector, but also in the military sector. and capacity is also technical. know,

so all of the countries that are also nuclear, military states with nuclear weapons capacity are pursuing nuclear energy and the conventional sealed. and i think it's partly because they are concerned about maintaining that technical know within the country as well. and you know, the supporters of nuclear energy, or rather the critics of wind solar that they said that just isn't enough of that to produce enough attic tricity to, you know, to, to make that transition using only renewables. what do you say to that is germany going to have to depend on coal? why that makes the transition away from nuclear? well, that is certainly a legitimate criticism. the transition and germany until now that not enough has been done to reduce that dependency on coal in the past years. but in a few years ago,

a decision westlake to face up all in addition to phasing out nuclear with a timeline of 2038 and the new government is pushing towards 2030. so coal is big problem and yes, there are still dependencies, but germany had 3 percent of its electricity from renewables in 1996 percent in 2020. and now it's over 50 percent, and on good windy days we have 7075 percent of the electricity being produced from wind and solar and geothermal the mix of alternative energies. so it's doable, it's a question of political will and the aims to become a net 0 carbon emitted by 2050. do you think that that still doable? is that realistic? how will it get there? if you get this or a combination of developments that are happening very rapidly,

we're seeing much more offshore wind, which is a more powerful and efficient form of renewables production. we're seeing rapid developments in battery storage capacities. the efficiency of the batteries is really improved. we're seeing steps to interconnect more across country so that when it's windy in one place and sunny and another can compliment ok. but there are many, many hurdles. it's still a big challenge and we really need to have a full out focus on making this transition. the other big area development is hydrogen fuels. the possibility of taking wind energy. for example, on a super windy day when you're using less wind electricity than you're producing, you take that extra and turn it into hydrogen fuel. and that a really nice addition to what we have now. dr. miranda? sure. thank you very much for your time. you're very welcome. thank you.

the now one of the world's largest crypto currency, highest was reportedly done for fun of stealing $600000000.00 and digital assets is no joke. and hackers say it was carried out for a serious reason. the heck has exposed while rehabilitation and digital wallets and no wonder virtual corns are increasingly becoming lucrative opportunities for criminals. it's estimated crypto currency theft, increased 516 percent last year from 2020 to $3200000000.00 worth of coins. and such attacks, i believe to be an important revenue source for some governance. a un reports as north korea is funding if mr. programs through stolen crypto currencies, the nation denies the allegations. north korean hackers are accused of stealing more than $50000000.00 between 2020 and last year. a separate study indicates as much as $400000000.00 may have been stolen. the amount of crypto currency sent to

addresses the known criminal associations reached a record 14000000000 dollars last year. a block chain analytics firm says it's a large part due to the rise of the centralized finance would be 5 platforms. the protocols allow users to land borrow and save crypto currencies, while bypassing traditional gatekeepers such as banks. one of the 5 main platforms says it's recently restored funds after a $320000000.00 fist. the threat of illicit activities, among other reasons, has pushed many elements to crack down on crypto currencies and at least 87 countries are exploring digital currencies, which are issued and regulated by bags. china has recently trial did use of a digital you on with foreign visitors, an act leave june the 20, 22 winter and then pick gains. it's also launched the e c. n y digital. we want apps to expand usage to get into the business of crypto

currency theft on jor now from london by david carlyle, director of policy and regulatory affairs at lipstick. block chain analysis, provided mr. carla, thank you very much for your time now. forward and money laundering aren't uncommon in the world of crypto currencies. but what does it mean when a government like north korea, is accused of stealing the coins to fund miss hall programs? you well, it certainly raises enormous concerns. i think it elevates the problem from being a mere cybersecurity issue to a matter of genuine international security. given that north korea is involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. now, you know, i think it's very easy to look at this. you like this and conclude that crypto currency to the source of the whole problem. i do think it's important to point out that while north korea has, by many estimates a mass near potentially hundreds of millions or even more encrypted currencies, that represents just a fraction of north korea's sanctions of asian activity. i'd also point out that

the fraud, money laundering are actually quite a small proportion of overall crypto currency activity or research at all the pictures that less than one percent of all big point transactions actually even involved. well, is that activity such as broad accepting cyber crime? but what sophisticated cyber criminal actors like north korea had been very good at, is dental fighting and exploiting certain security vulnerabilities on crypto currency trading platforms that enable them to conduct the tax of that which can be very lucrative. what north korea actually denies the allegations that hackers carry out the attacks, how easy it is to hold government countable. well, in the case of north korea, i do think there's overwhelming evidence that they're engaged in this activity. and there seems to be widespread consensus about this at the united nations at this point. i think when it comes to cryptic currency is one of the real challenges is that the technology is evolving very, very rapidly, while policy responses tend to be much slower and aren't always coordinated very effectively. so i think the international community will really need to find ways

to react more with lead to these types of emerging threats to keep road actors from north korea, from exploiting emerging technologies like crypto and all forensic investigations keeping up. do you think, you know, as we mentioned, the largest ever confiscation of its kind has just taken an taken place in the u. s . but the heck happened in 2016. we're definitely seeing that law enforcement agencies and in many countries are becoming much more sophisticated in their ability to use techniques like boxing and linux that we've developed at elliptic. as you mentioned earlier this week, us law enforcement agencies announced that they sees more than 2 and a half 1000000 worth of big coin from 2 individuals who are laundering crypto current these stolen from an exchange called disconnect. back in 2016, it was an extremely complex case, which is, i think, why it took some time to arrest them and, and sees the funds these money loaners undertook very complex transactions, the required sophisticated analysis to uncover and u. s. law enforcement in an incredible job to track them down. but what it would

really demonstrated is that despite the common notion that crypto currency or anonymous on traceable, they're actually very traceable criminals can't hide. when using them, investigators are able to use the public record of transactions on the block chain to follow the money and bring criminal justice. and in this case, confiscate an enormous amount of funds that had been stolen by the cyber criminal. and on the issue of transparency, i do want to segue to another issue, which is, you know, different governments and looking into many governments and now exploring starting their own digital currencies. china, they viewed the digital want at the beijing went to lympics. i mean, what do you make of central bank digital currencies, especially given that, you know, bitcoin was came along after the 2008 financial crisis to have a digital currency, which would be independent of governments and financial institutions. do these, you know, government crypto currency, do they defeat the point of crypto currencies altogether? well, no, i don't believe so. i mean, personally, i believe will eventually see

a future where you have central bank, digital currencies, disease operating and in a more complex digital ecosystem. and use alongside crypto currencies and other related innovations like stable coins. i think it's very easy to look at the sort of the emerging landscape and conclude that crypto and cdc, as must be in competition with one another. and certainly in some countries like it does appear the aim of the government. there is to. ready make crypto currency trading so that crypto currency can't compete with cbt, c's. i think it a lot of other jurisdictions, places like the u. s. u k. some other major financial sectors. it's still an open question whether retail cbc is will be widespread. but i think if we're, when they do emerge, it's not necessarily the case, but they'll sort of be a war with crypto currencies. i think we'll see, you know, the average person in their digital wallet of the future carrying around, you know, cdc's, as well as crypto currencies. and so i think it all just points to

a very different type of digitally enabled financial sector that will be emerging over the coming decade and beyond. and what about the issues of privacy when it comes to government issued digital currency is like the long, you know, can central banks, can the chinese government cut off people's access to their digital currency if they don't like their political activities or even criminal gangs? yeah, well, i mean, certainly there's been a lot of question raised about whether china deploying a cdc might use or to engage and in math surveillance of a citizen financial activity. i mean, i do think it is certainly a real concern in that particular case. but you know, i think in, you know, in other countries, so they look to develop cb disease. there are ways to put in place safeguards to ensure that individual users, financial privacy is safe, guarded, and you know, i think it's also important to point out that is cbc. like those, china's developing are effectively closed loop systems. they're very different from

the open decentralized technology that features and bitcoin and other crypto currencies. and you know, i think in the, in the law enforcement actions, like we were speaking about before, earlier demonstrate is that when it comes to crypto courtesies and it's certainly as possible to leverage the transparency of the block chain to bring criminal justice. but to do so in a way that doesn't harm the private, the privacy of legitimate courtesy users. so i think, i think we'll see different privacy concerns arise, you know, in different countries when it comes to different uses of, of this technology. they would call out in london. thank you very much for your time. thank you for having me. now, africa as home to a tech savvy and young population and it's set to become one of the most entrepreneurial environments on earth. africans to hop broke funding records last year, raising almost $5000000000.00 worth of investments. and it looks to be even more promising this year with celebrities like $10000.00 serena williams, joining a growing number of investors in the business. the founders of leading tech firms

including klein, us scarf, and delivery hero, have launched a fund aimed at finding africa next unicorns those companies worth more than a $1000000000.00 and investment bankers of targeting technology companies in the continent. african star hops of the creation of 5, so called unicorns including nigeria fluctuate last year, financial services, health care, and e commerce, or the biggest amount of investments, and number of deals among all industries. but african woman still find it harder to sign. financing deals, south africa, nigeria, kenya, and egypt secured the greatest share of the total funding. so entrepreneurship seems to be the right business in africa to discuss that on join from washington, d. c. by all re, ruby and non resident senior fellow with the african center and co founder of insider and africa, expert network. very good to have you with us on counting the cost. so why is

africa so right for start ups right now? well, i think historically the region has been under, penetrated by venture capital on a per capita basis. if you look at the u. s. u c on a per capita basis of $800.00 per person in venture is invested across the united states. whereas if you look at african market, that number, even though it has a record 5000000000 last year, is less than $5.00 per person. so there is a huge amount of value to unlock through investing in start up in the region. and we still have a long way to go before we've been reached the per capita venture penetration of even a market say india as a comparison and who is unlocking that potential. we know that the us europe, the u. k has been investing, but that's starting to change some want as it is. i mean, there's been, has they been more local investment, more recently from african investors themselves?

well, fun to mentally. this whole ecosystem is driven by african entrepreneurs and they're really and building out the business model. 2 thirds of the venture capital coming into the region has some ties the united states. so there's bill that focus. but the early stage funds that are investing in the feed around many of them are african and we can't forget the friends and family the back, the entrepreneur at the early stages in their, in their development of their business. and we've seen fintech e commerce health care as the shining stars. why is that? well, there was always a lot of value to unlock across the region through digitization. and there was a lot of friction in moving money across a region that, that's broken into 54 different countries. and so because of that fragmentation, the historical fragmentation of the continent into so many countries, you have

a need to innovate in order to move money and move capital across borders. the same goes with trade. so there's been a lot of friction and moving capital and will be good. and these start ups are addressing those issues, mainly through digitization, on the back of mobile phones, ministration in the region. and how do we get more that capital to women? you know, why do you think african woman still struggling to attract deals? well, that's not just an african challenge. globally, women in venture are highly, highly under represented one african market. less than 7 percent of the funding that, that's going into the venture. it goes to women, part of the reason for that is a lack of female fund managers. so less than one percent of, of teams that are investing in venture are all women by about 70 percent of them have a gender male team which is great. and that's increasing, but we still have

a long way to go. and again, africa is not unique and that women are under represented and venture globally. absolutely. what, you know, this countries like niger area, egypt, south africa, kenya, a mainly attract attracting the bigger investments. why would you say batches? well, those are the largest markets. nigeria and south africa are the largest economies on the continent. and kenya is the largest economy in east africa. and egypt unique in that it hasn't had a single recession, negative growth in the last 20 years. these are the largest market in the region. and it's not surprising that they have so much economic activity. they also have large diaspora that are globally connected. and so it's not surprising that they're the anchors of the african venture capital seen, but you do have new new interests. you really see an increase in investing in

francophone west africa. in particular, i was just reading that banner golf has slowly been growing but as jump to about receiving 5 percent of all venture. which that seems like a small percentage, but compared to where it was less than one percent 2 years ago. you do see reader diversification in the market. destination of venture and signing all has of course had 1st so called african unicorn aubrey ruby in washington dc. thank you very much for your time. we appreciate it. thank you. it's been my pleasure, and that is our show for this week. get in touch with us by tweeting me at the per on him and do the hash tag a j ctc. when you do drop as an email count on the costs at al jazeera dot net is our address. for the move for you online at al jazeera dot com slash ctc, that'll take you straight to our page, which has individual reports, length and time episode theme to catch up on that set for this edition of counting

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i'm making my own space that i live in forever. i ran away from not oh, but i ran away from the country. markson is my get out thing to get away. whitney award winning documentary on al jazeera ah, ukraine's president says he's country will continue its path towards joining nato. germany as chancellor urges russia to take up office of dialogue. and there are positive signs from moscow. foreign minister advised president fusion to continue along the diplomatic path. ah, and come all santa maria here in tow with the world news from al jazeera. oh, how athenians more in the death of.