just the ha, an explosion, not an informal gold mine in southwest burkina. faso has reportedly killed nearly 60 people. regional authorities say dozens of others were injured. there are hundreds of unregulated minds in burkina faso and they operate without safety checks, accidents, and the use of child labor are common. the latest wave of cobra 19 could push the german economy into a recession that's according to its central bank. it says g, d p could shrink further this quarter before picking up again later this year. germany economy is the largest in europe. the buddhist bank says pandemic restrictions were mostly to blame for drop. ah, i have a picture of a headlines, a on al jazeera, the un security council, as hell and emergency meeting on the deepening ukraine crisis. it was called just hours after russian president vladimir putin recognized to breaker a regions and east of ukraine,

and ordered troops to be deployed there. a criminal describe them as peacekeepers. the european union and united states denounced the move as illegal and announced sanctions against the rebel regent. president putin siber to create long side rebel leaders from the self proclaimed don't yet come to hand people's republics. rushes un ambassador blamed kids for the escalation intentions. but the u. s. rejected pollutants claims that russian forces would act as peacekeepers. oh, he calls them peacekeepers. this is nonsense. we know what they really are in doing so he is put before the world a choice. we must meet the moment and we must not look away. history tells us that looking the other way in the face of such hostility will be a far more costly pat. ukrainian president vladimir zalinski has accused russia of wrecking peace talks and rule that making any territorial concessions addressed to the nation on tuesday. columns of military vehicles have been seen in one of the 2

breaker regions of eastern ukraine, hours after russia recognize them as independent. china has called for all parties to exercise restraint. while japan says it's ready to join international sanctions . if moscow launches a full scale invasion, iran's foreign ministry says significant progress has been made at talks to revive the 2015 iran nuclear deal. to run, want sanctions relief and exchange for limits on its nuclear program. negotiations between european underwriting and delegations have been held in vienna since april, with the u. s. indirectly involved and england is lifting all remaining corona virus restrictions. the legal requirement to self isolate will be removed from thursday. prime minister barak johnson said, britain must now learn to live with the virus. but those are the headlines and he's continues here now. does your out account in the cost state? your thanks, daughter abbas is to in washington dc with

making a painting for unity for people who are struggling out is the world meets a palestinian seeking inspiration for striking you in the heart of the american capital. the benefit of the art is a kind of conference you will, his plan for universal artwork, succeed. we're getting the colors on al jazeera ah flow on fully back to bo, this is counting the cost on al jazeera. look at the world of business and economics. this week, marching closer to a $100.00 a bow. oil prices have had an 8 year high on us warnings of a war in ukraine. so with the prices keep going up and how are consumers feeling

the pain? oh, so this week, russia and china assigned a gas and oil deal as tension escalated over. you. great. so why is present vladimir putin looking east and could be energy pivot to asia, post challenges for europe, and a stocks plates in silicon valley. the move by google's parent company alphabet aims to make shares cheaper and more affordable for investors. but is it really a good buying opportunity? ah, thank you for joining as the price of oil has hit its highest level since 2014. and that could raise the prices of almost everything. consumers have already felt the pain of the petrol, pompous talk of a rush. an invasion of ukraine grew louder. the price of brent crude futures, the global benchmark, rose to above $96.00 for bow last week. and it might become even more expensive, and an oil market is tight and traders are worried. the geopolitical tension over ukraine could cause disruption to moscow's fuel exports. russia plays an important

role in the global commodity markets, is the world's number 2 producer of oil. second, only to the united states, the nation exports about 5000000000 barrels a day of crude, roughly 12 percent of global trade. and around 2500000 barrels a day of petroleum products. about 10 percent of global trade. about 60 percent of russia's oil exports go to europe and another 30 percent to china. but other factors play an important role to demand for energy soaring as corona's. eyes restrictions are being lifted, while inventories are stretched thin. there's been pressure on the organisation of the petroleum exporting countries and its allies, including russia, to increase supply by the group known as opec plus is failing to live up to its supply pledges. and the u. s. has released 50000000 bows of oil from its strategic reserves in an attempt to ease the pressure on consumers or fears of a russian invasion. having just roiled the oil market,

global stalks dropped to the sell off was sharpest in europe, and asian markets took ahead as well. russia's main stock market has also been dragged down. and it's karen, see the rubel was weaker against c. u. s. dollar european, natural gas and power prices went up past tensions rose. well, markets rallied in prices cooled off slightly after russia said some troops near the ukrainian border will return to their basis. but they remain volatile to every twist and turn in the ukraine. stand off a lot to discuss with our guests. first we go to robin mills, whose chief executive officer of commerce energy. he's joining us from dubai. very good to have you with us on counting the cost. every one robin seems to be worried about oil prices crossing the $100.00 mark. do you see this happening? i think it says it's very likely that prices have been pretty close to that. but bach of food for several weeks now on the global $95.00 my be $6.00. so getting

very close to laundry walk, it remains significantly tight and you have the geopolitical concerns on top of but so i think you do without some significant, reversed them. the situation is very likely we will, cassandra, in the near future. i will talk about the geopolitical tensions in a bit. what other factors have been driving these faces up? well, primarily, what we've been seeing is simply a very strong economic recovery from the current of ours. pandemic economies, reopening travel, restarting and particular, lot of industrial activity have the energy consumption and others run into constrained supply. supply of course collapsed during during 2020 and they are plus group was very successful, cutting back production to, to meet the lower demand. it has not been so successful bringing up about production back online. yes. let's talk a bit more about opec plus. what can i do? what really do you think? what it's a bit tricky because you already have a situation our passcode, you have only 23 members maybe which are significant spec capacity,

which is the right that the you, i some of the rock. so every time that i announced, i would increase production monthly by 400000 barrels today, which is their, their schedule demand. in fact, the actual increase is $2150.00 or less. because many of the members actually physically can't increase production any more. so what could ok, while still what he could say, we have to revise targets alive. the members with spec capacity to produce more. but of course the members who are running out expect the resist. yeah. but as you say, you ravia and the you a, have a lot of spare capacity. do you think they'll be helping show up production? well, they're producing a target, it's not a problem with them, but they can't. and that the company won't produce over their targets for that one to, to break the deal. they put together such difficulty. now later this year by september in principal the, those production cuts should have been worked off. you know, then there's a room for another discussion about about where target should go prop side the

right way and a few others get allocated higher match political. so september's a long wealth. all right, it is a long way off. well, let's talk about what's happening now. and those geopolitical tensions with ukraine . what is at stake here? do you see the prices calling off coming down a bit? if the tensions do ease in the coming days or coming weeks? well the ukraine issue has put some pressure prices. i think not that much. perhaps a funny way, not as much as you should have been. i think you're rushing constant unit situation . the war has been much more about gas about oil. you know? yes, if there was a serious conflict, you could see that i could effect all supplies. but the moment i think it's on the adding a few dollars per barrel to the price. i mean, certainly it's a treasure relaxes that will take off a few dollars just and robin. there's also the iran nuclear deal market for keeping a close eye on this deal. how critical is it? 2 oil traders? what is effect prices?

yes, it's pretty important. it's not a complete game changer, but if there was a deal, iran might over the next 6 to 9 months, bring back a 1000000 barrels a day or. busy so of it's which production of bell sell freely to the consumers other than china, which is on the market at the moment that might drop the price by now $6.00 to $8.00 per barrel. busy at a guess. so certainly makes a difference, but it's not know that the game. all right robin males, chief executive of come our energy. thank you very much for the moment. we'll be talking to you a bit more in just a few minutes like you. but what does all that means for consumers and the wider economy? to discuss this, i'm joined by our 2nd guest, tim hawk. it was professor and chief economists at the institute for public policy and governance at the university of technology. sydney came, thank you so much for being on counting the cost. so high prices we know effect consumers. what is the impact on everyday life? well of course they price paying the highest, it's been since 2014 when they had the. ready dish and the crimea means that the

balance is going to be a lot higher. we've already noticed that here in australia, even though we produce to cross cells. so it's going to directly affect people. so in what about the global economy, what, what impact will it have on growth? does, does any country at this stage risk or face a threat of recession like conditions as a result of these high oil prices? well, not, not yet. but what's important is that russia itself is a major producer of oil, natural gas, white palladium. copper nichol itself would be a major supply shock from russia that would have a big impact on the global economy. then there would be, of course, a reaction to the higher oil prices that, that you mentioned in your preference side, a supply show from russia. and then any impact you'd have from ohio oil prices.

given that russia is a major producer export of oil globally in time. right. right. and what about the impact on government policies seem to bring down? do you know the cost of living? well ultimately if you're an oil producer, ohio approx means that you will have a cheese base to you, your revenue. so a lot of the. busy fuel rich nations will find they've got more money to come prime into the economy, so that could be a benefit. but the economies that have right, dependent on, on oil want imports, energy, countries that need energy, security like korea be quite difficult. now what about emerging emerging markets? how are they going well, benefit from from these rise in prices? well, the emerging markets that oil projected patrolling producers? yes, i said i'd say they would buy the ones that are importing or. ready competing or

don't have reserves, be quite quite tough on emerging markets and, and what important to, i think there are lines that germany has on natural gas from russia. if you take european union speaking of russia, do you see russia benefiting from the increasing prices? could that help it perhaps soften or the impact of sanctions if there were sanctions or thought they would open the short term, but ultimately would probably hurt russia. but my suit not be your crime. oh, they might have sanctions imposed but it would actually cause supply side difficulties. ready basically as i have to foreigners the war, so they would be very, very bad for russia and very bad, especially poor. ready the ukraine and probably a risk, so right might be economically to roy. i interesting. thank you so much tim, for talking to us in giving us your views on this. tim harker, professor in chief economy, said institute for public policy and governance at the university of technology sidney. we appreciate your time. thank you. thank you. was now the crisis in

ukraine has push russia closer to his giant neighbor. china presents vladimir putin and changing, paying amounts of friendship with no forbidden areas of corporation as they met at the 2022 beijing winter olympics. and energy is at the heart of corporation between the 2 countries. hootin wants to diversify supplies away from europe, his nation is the largest gas supply to the continent. russia and china assigned gas in oil deals, valued at an estimated a $117.00 point. $5000000000.00 was never russia's largest oil producer assigned a 10 year deal with china. cnbc to supply a 100000000 tons of oil through cassock, sun and gas. brom agreed to ship 10000000000 cubic meters of gas a year through a new pipeline. increasing surprise to china to 48000000000 cubic meters put in a visit to bay. jane was compared to his may 2014 trip when he signed a deal to deliver gaster china as tensions were high over moscow's annexation of

crimea. so russia is china's 3rd largest gas supplier and delivers it mainly through the power of siberia pipeline. the 3000 kilometer pipeline began pumping supplies in 2019 and links east siberian feels. to ne, china and russia plans to build the power of siberia to which would double gas exports from russia to china crossing through mongolia. the pipeline connects china with the same gas fields that supply europe, and would put the continent in competition with beijing. china also imported almost $3000000000.00 worth of liquefied natural gas from russia last year, and invests in russia's your mile, n g, an arctic ellen g 2 projects. russia is china's 2nd biggest oil supplier after saudi arabia. and about 40 percent of supplies flow through the east siberia pacific pipeline. that was financed by chinese loans. and the economic ties go

beyond the energy supply. russia and china is by natural trade. hit a record on your high of more than a $146000000000.00 in 2021. that's far higher than moscow's overall trade with the united states. but still less than with the e. u rushes trade with the block reached more than $220000000000.00 in 2021, almost $1.00 times the size of russian chinese trade or back to robin mills, chief executive officer of commerce, energy in dubai. robin, what do you make of this deal? is this a sign that beijing is willing to support russia as economy against possible sanctions? from the west? i sit in a more limited way than this. you know, chinese guest amount has been growing by strongly. china needs to secure new supplies, liquefied natural gas prices among the high, the markets quite tight. so this is something of a challenge for china. this is a more limit to deals and the very grand plants, this is gas coming from offshore island in russia. it's not connected to the rest

of the russian system. this is gas doesn't really have a whole otherwise. it's quite a nice still trying to get access to gas. but without fundamentally changing the relationship with rusty yet. right brush has always been pushing for much granted there, you know, we have to see if that will come. right. you see a limited deal, but the 2 countries say it for mutually beneficial energy partnership. how, how important is russia in securing? china is energy security. where russia is very important as a gas exporter and an export of a particular gas export to china. china doesn't want to be solely reliance on, on the 5 natural gas coming out of the sea, which is maybe vulnerable to interruption at once on shore land base routes both and central asia. and i'm from russia to bring in gas as well. but i think russia, china is always into just men personally, leveraging the relationship quite well and getting good prices from the russians. and secondly, never being to dependent on a never giving into the new grand schemes of the russians have. yes, i talk about

a convention, then you ship of course the country's work closely, but it's not yet the kind of grand laws who energy so that the russians might seem to be discussing to you would say that aging has the upper hand in this energy partnership. with moscow, yes, i think very, very much so, i mean, russia has really nowhere else to turn. it has the pit market of course, which has its geopolitical and environmental complexities right now. and then it has a chinese market which is called big fast growing, but which is very remote main sources and russian gas production high. that's one reason for this deal. this, this, this gas food supplies coming from one of the few filters is relatively close. china, right? before we talk about what impact they'll be on the european gas market, i want to find out more about russia. china's demand for gas is expected to increase as it moves away from coal. do you think this will make it a more lucrative market than europe for the russians?

i think price is chandra is paying the same for what we can tell them that asked the actually significantly below what the pins pay and particularly when we include the, the long transport distances from the main gas producing areas. russia means expensive pipelines. so the that have to be financed by, by the russian side. nicole gas in china. yes, john is trying to call, but still call is cheap. so gas has to be not too expensive to be able to compete. so price is really key. now, how will this energy deal affect european gas supplies? do you think, especially as russia is in talks with china over the power of siberia to gas price? so the moment this still, it's connecting an isolated bales of china. so i can different the open market. as you mentioned, the past 2 pipeline is the real game charge, because that would connect the west side there and sales, which supply europe to china and russia of the bill of people switch gas from europe to china. depending on the price, depending on the politics,

that that would be the guy and check to unfold. the chinese held off on, on doing that. perhaps i don't want to compete to, to, to move your plans. perhaps i don't want to be exposed to higher classes, but at any rate that the power of southern pines is not yet gone through that. that's something that would really change the major scale. and then robin does the north stream got to gas pipeline, and there's been quite a lot of pressure in europe in the u. s. to block this project. can germany, which is, you know, at the helm of this north stream to gas pipeline projects can, can germany for dismissing the project all together. and how about russia the project brings money to his conference president? yeah, i spoke problematic. i mean, look in principal, russia could continue guster through ukraine, which is still there and that would be sufficient. so maintenance commitments that would be sufficient to supply germany for those rates which are been used cars for the decades. but russia has a policy of trying to bypass you, cried. germany is, as so far, been paid to go along with the current situation may change that germany doesn't

approve the pipeline, nor street to pipeline doesn't prove its operation. that the sanctions, all that then the 2 sides want to think again, you know, is russia prepared to return to using a lot more ukrainian transit or. busy would that mean severe shortages in germany and other parts of europe and have been finally coming back to the russia, china, economic ties? how big of a role does energy play in these ties between the, the 2 countries and what are the other areas of corporation between them? well then decide is, is really crucial. i mean, the energy suppliers dropped from roster to china and those primarily gas but, but sir, all is important to us so that that's really the, the, the, the case applies, rushed to china plus throws color minerals. the smokes has been over a one sided relationship because in the other direction, a go chinese manufactured goods. so i think russians of, or has been somewhat sir wary of just becoming a kind of

a junior resource part the to, to china. but that is, that is the situation that there is about. so it's a, it's a bit of a, i think for russia will be a bit of long balance though, trading relationship, but unfortunately out, so that's with them as resources that they have sold china. robin mills, thank you very much for talking to us about this. thank you for your insight. robin mills, his chief executive of come our energy into by thank you for your time. thank you. now investing in san marcos can be a very profitable business, but many people don't have thousands of dollars on hand to buy them. while google's parent company alphabet says it wants to make it socks cheaper for investors. the company has announced the 241 stock split, getting shareholders 19 more shares for every one they own. now this effectively means the cost of a single share has drops from around $3000.00 to less than a couple of 100. the company has published a massive earnings report with a revenue growth of 32 percent over the year that has sent the stock up 7.5 percent

earlier this month. alphabets, recent decision comes almost 2 years after apple splendid stock reviving a practice that almost disappeared. from u. s. markets, alphabet in apple or among the few technology companies that have seen their market capitalization stretched into trillions of dollars. but facebook is in decline for the 1st time in its history. its parent company metaphors has fed the social media platform last uses for the 1st time since it was established 18 years ago. falling by around half a 1000000 uses in the last 3 months of 2021. metters talk price plants more than 26 percent earlier this month, wiping out more than $200000000000.00 in its market value. knowledge find out more about house talk splits affect investors. joining me is neil wilson, whose chief markets analysts at markets dot com. joining us from london, neil, very good to have you with us on counting the cost. so why did alphabet split it

stocks? is it just about attracting more investors? yeah there's, there's several reasons i can revise my folks, but i think one of the name one more retail investors becomes pretty affordable when they're stocked dollars. and by splitting it use existing carol, those other factors are holding a grow. you can have interest in, in salt lockers generally in a big retailer activity. and while there is the option of good income shares, it still remains more appealing on individual share. i right 11 percent. that's a bit more potential investor base, but also you can encrypt the credit case number as you can and

also back it up one i or at least half an eye on, on to be included in the index and the value of each individual stock from $350.00. you become much more in the, in the range that can be everything. so is it a good buying opportunity because we so companies like tesla and apple see their share prices, serge after this stock splits in towards the 20 it, is it a good buying opportunity? well, the thing is that it shouldn't make no difference whatsoever to, to the price, because you are increasing the number of potential shareholders increases your world demand. so it could be potentially times by i think, you know, there's a lot of retail frenzy around some of the stock. so i think apple and i don't quite sure alphabet this in back me we have seen grew up

because of the apple. the stocks go up because it stops. and therefore, and you can see it takes the institutional investors from running some of that movement already restrict you on the call. i say that your bet stick to the theory . they should not interesting. the practice had disappeared in the us all but disappeared in the us. why? why is it back now? neil? is it related to the fed decision you think to, to increase interest rate? well, i think it's probably a lot of these companies, you know, the very low as, you know, rapid acceleration in so prices so companies aging, you will not long ago, the apple that we made a big companies retail. that's a huge capital. and therefore, the stock price is going up, right,

massive in the number the company, you know, they were taking in a couple $100.00 region not that long ago and suddenly thousands of dollars. and i think that is a big increase and, and companies don't like the stock city to, to, to expensive. so let's talk about facebook schools now. neil, i mean, the number of uses down why, why are people increasingly leaving facebook? is it about, you know, younger people not being, being interested in it or they other factors. ok. yeah. i think people just the next thing i think based company brands, you're always trying to appeal to the next big thing on the young people. generally i think a local competition. the state street. well, you talk, you talks about tech talk as a competition. so you get

a composition with the law thinks what, what about facebook's or troubles? i mean the, you know, the user of private use a data in accusations or, or facebook being a breeding ground or for hate speech. how, how did that effect use the numbers? yeah, i think, i think most of the time people, i think there's general a general sense that facebook is no longer necessarily the good guy is it pushed people who might and been stickier. m, workspace, the insurgents. other platforms are, isn't it all together? i think you just sort of scenic cove saturation point globally as well. now, wilson, thank you very much for talking to us. neil wilson is chief markets analyst set markets dot com. thank you. and that is our show for this week. get in touch with us by 20 me at, followed by a j e and do use ashley agency to see when you do or drop us an email. counting the cost that al jazeera dot net is our address. that is more for you online. at al

jazeera dot com slash ctc, they'll take you straight to our page, which as individual reports, links, any tie episodes for you to catch up on. and that is it for this edition of counting the cost some fully bateau from me and the whole team hearing doha, thank you for watching. the news on al jazeera is next ah dictatorships to democracy's act of his to corporations. control of the message is crucial. the for public opinion or profit, the listening close examines the vested interest behind the content can consume, on al jazeera, there is no channel that covers world news like we do, we revisit places, mistake, i'll deserve really invest in that. and that's a privilege. as a journalist, their forefathers for the soviets 25 years after

independence. they too must become men defenders of lithuania, preparing for the possibility of war. waiting for invasion, a witness documentary on al jazeera. ah. hello, i'm diamond jordan and go how the quick reminder, the top stories here on al jazeera, the un security council, held an emergency meeting on the deepening crisis in ukraine. it was called just aus after russian president vladimir putin recognized to break away regions in easton, ukraine, and ordered troops to be deployed there. the kremlin, describe them as peacekeepers. european union and the united states denounced the move as illegal and amount sanctions against the rebel regions of done yet under the hands. washington's ambassador to the un has dismissed president putin's claim,

but his forces would have.