top sambas calls in the brazilian city of rio de janeiro holding some bedroom, rehearsals for the 1st time since the covey. 19 pandemic. how the don sessions are in preparation for the return of carnival celebrations, which were cancelled last year because of corona virus. this year, some bedroom parade was originally set to take place in february, but that was delayed as well because of the rising cases is now scheduled for next month. ah, hello again, i'm fully back to go with the headlines on al jazeera maria poll. officials say a $160.00 private cars have left the besieged, ukrainian city for russian held territory. the move comes after ukraine's deputy prime minister announced plans for 10 humanitarian corridors. in while at least 3 people have been killed in ukraine's capital key after multiple artillery and rocket strikes, residential areas including

a 9 story apartment block where badly damaged russia has accused ukraine of a mis. our strike that killed 20 civilians in the separatist control. the sim city of don, yet at least 20 others were wounded. ukraine denies launching. i'm attack. and the country 2nd largest city is still being heavily bombarded. emergency services in khaki. say this is a result of an asteroid on a 4 story residential building. meanwhile, the 4th round of talks between ukrainian and russian negotiators have wrapped up and go stations are expected to resume on tuesday. ukraine says it's seeking peace and a cease fire at the united nations security council rush, as ambassador, has accused the organization for security and cooperation in europe of not documenting crimes against russian speaking people. she knew those level of solidly pneumonia, the mission should not have ignored the violations of human rights and meet mass media,

freedom breaches throughout the entire ukranian turret. he no failed to notice the blatant facts that attested to the unfurling of aggressive nationalism near naziism and the numerous cases of discrimination against the russian speaking population. and the un secretary general, antonio gutierrez, has warned at the world's poorest countries face what he called a hurricane of hunger because of the war in ukraine. you could in it alone, provides more than half of the world food programs. wits supplied food fool. and fertilizer brought fertilizer prices are skyrocketing, supply chains are being disrupted. and the costs and delays of transportation of imported goods when available are at record levels. and all of these easy thing, the broadest the harvest as and use for now counting the cost is next free fall precision. these athletes are experts in the art of jumping out of planes

. more than 40 military parachuting teams have descended here to the desert of could tar to compete for the world championship titled the competitors are all active military members and have been training for years to get here. most have tens of thousands of jumps to their names. each country will compete in 3 disciplines. freefall, skydive, accuracy, landing, and 4 way formation. men and women compete separately, but under the same flag. you know, i can't do a story about parachuting and not jump out of a plane as we climb up. the teams mentally prepare for their job. i try to do the same then minutes later, once the earth is just a blur below, it's time to free fall. ah ah

. hello, i'm adrian finnegan. this is counting the coastal al 0. you'll look at the world of business at economics this week. the u. s. and u. k. bond, russian oil of the european union announced its plans to drastically shrink its reliance on guests from russia. will high prices undermine global energy security, high fuel costs and long the roots, the bypass russian aspects house sanctions against moscow. a battering the global aviation industry with ticket prices and freight rates poised to go up and sri lanka reels from food shortages and power cuts as it struggles to repay its foreign debt. and pay for in ports is the country on the verge of defaulting on its death. ah,

it is the world's largest exporter of natural gas and the 2nd largest oil exporter energy is russia's biggest source of income. but now you as president joe biden has imposed a burn on russian oil and gas in response to the invasion of ukraine. the u. k says that it will phase out russian oil by the end of the year, while the european union is aiming to cut gas in ports by 2 thirds this year. now the move will was inflation and push up fuel prices and washington scrambling to find alternative suppliers. now to 0 is priyanka group to report a major escalation of youth economic sanctions against russia. 4th invasion of ukraine. you, especially joe biden, is going off to preston. vladimir potent, most lucrative industry. we're banning all in ports of russian oil and gas in energy. that means russian oil no longer be accessible us ports. the american people will deal another powerful blow to put his war machine by to acknowledge the

latest sanctions could push up us gas prices. consumers are already paying on average more than $4.00 a gallon up from $2.77 just a year ago. due to high inflation, as the economy recovers from the pandemic. but it's europe that will feel the effect of moving away from russian energy more acutely than the us. the european union imports 27 percent of its oil and 40 percent of its gas from russia. the block plans to cut its dependency on russian gas by 2 thirds this year, todd. but it's possible if we're willing to go further and faster than we've done before. but experts say this physician will mean difficult compromises. they'll have to be additional use of nuclear, which is supposed be phased out in certain countries they'll, i'd be more coal use,

which won't help climate goals. the usaa seeking to persuade opec members to ramp up output among them. only saudi arabia, the united arab emirates, and queen half spare capacity. and washington is also turning to countries. it has shunned and imposed sanctions on it's making overtures to venezuela and attempting to see a nuclear deal with iran that could bring more oil into the market. priyanka go up there for counting the cost. joining us now from london, toby whittington lead economist at oxford economic study, great to have you with us on not counting the cost is this ban on a russian imports of oil in it into the u. s. largely symbolic. what is it? the u. s. u to something like 8 percent of russian oil. is that correct? yeah, that's, that's right. i mean, i think you ought to write it as a logic symbolic moves. and, you know, obviously you, us demand

a u. s. usage of russian oil is fairly limited and i think substituting out to, to alternative suppliers, i think probably within the north american market would be possible. there may be some sort of frictional cost in the, in the process of doing that. but those, those would be sort of temporary and, and quite moderate. and so we wouldn't expect too much of a, a price shock from this movement in terms of oil. is there anyone that who could plug the gap, the u. s. appears to be making attempts to repair relations with venezuela, which of course has as huge oil stocks, but its infrastructure isn't, isn't it in any fit shape of the mother? and of course, the iran nuclear deal talks could come to some sort of fruition and sanctions might be lifted on iran. could venezuela at iraq, perhaps help offset the shock? i think those are both too key key markets and certainly given the situation wherein there is an impetus now to try to bring those to countries back into the

the global oil market. discussions are ongoing. as you say, i think venezuela's or infrastructure is in a slightly poorer state than what it is in iran. i think i estimates put them around about 700000 barrels a day that they could start exporting on. iran is a bit higher referral about $1300000.00 barrels a day that they could put out by the end of the year and with potential to operate even further. and so, so those are important markets, but i think the key sort of produces are as ever the, the major opec produces saudi arabia and, and the u. a now as well. ok. and he talk about the europe looking to to when itself, off of fresh and gas when we're not talking about oil here. and perhaps it's plans being a little overly optimistic at the moment. who would fill the gap? there? would it be countries like kata, australia, i mean you're looking at shipping gas from the other side of the world to, to europe. i cannot be done yet. that the 3 major sort of alan g exports is of the

u. s. cats are in australia. i think australia is pretty out of the picture. they, they overwhelmingly supply the australian market. so that the asian market. and of course, getting gas from, from shipping gas from australia to europe is a huge endeavor. i think it would come primary from the us and, and cattle. ah, it's not entirely clear that's enough. export capacity exists at the moment. so as part of the planet they want to withdraw reduced dependents on russian gas by 2 thirds within 2022. so that's $91.00 centrally to, to do it. and half of that 2 3rd saving is going to come from extra allen gm ports at which, which roughly equates out about a 60 to 70 percent increase in, in ports of l n. j. i think that's highly optimistic given given current export capacities and also a you input capacity is a valid g. i think if they could reduce dependence by maybe a 3rd,

that would be very good. i think 2 thirds is it's probably pushing it too far, really. and is this, i mean, this is all about sanctioning washer, it's, it's, it's a financial penalty for rush rates. it's aimed at causing he can only calm to russia . ultimately, though, is, is russia still going to be able to sell its oil and gas? will there be buyers out there? will it be able to sell, so sell at market price? is it really going to hurt washer? well, i think i got a bill in the long run. i think, you know, if russia loses access to western markets is most access us. it was only, is access to, to europe as europe seems to be implying that you know, that will, will have an impact on russian, on demand for russian oil, which should reduce the price that they can pay. i mean that they're going to be able to sell to other countries, china and asian countries and so on. but, but that sort of reduced number of buyers will necessarily, i think, reduce the amount of price they can pay. i think that's true. also gas as europe

6th, when itself off your russian gas rusher is in the process of transiting to, to china, building you pipeline infrastructure to supply gas from, from the field down and down to china. but that's a massive infra, an effort that take some time to, to come on line. and also china will be in quite a strong bargaining position, of course. and, you know, with russia not having many other customers, china will, will be able to, to leverage that position to negotiate themselves. ability also in some way, i think it rushes, the price that they can achieve for their and jack sports will, will undoubtably go down. toby, it's been great to talk to you on counting the cost money. thanks again for being with us. thank you. ah, the surgeon oil prices as push the cost of global jet fuel to a 14 year high airlines and travelers are facing steep fair increases just as air

travel was beginning to recover after cove at 19. well adding to the burden of high prices are the circuitous flight paths needed to avoid washing airspace right now. the biggest impact is on flights between europe and asia destinations like japan, south korea, and china. longer flight times lead to higher staff costs, limited cargo carrying ability, and they raise maintenance costs. and russian airlines have also been hit by the air space bands. they won't be able to access parts and services that they'd sourced from a broad. to discuss all of this, joining us from london, peter morris, chief economist at the asian consultancy ascend by syria. peter, good to have you with us on counting the cost just as airlines were beginning to spot. a patch of clear sky is after the horrible time they've been through with the pandemic. here we have more turbulence caused by higher oil prices. i just how bad an impact is this going to have a little already suffering aviation sector?

well, it's yes, another negative, i mean if, if you look at this proportion of globalization that is linked to russia, it's of the order of 6 percent or so what she can say no could be managed without. but on the other hand, what you're talking about yet, another negative factor, and we haven't even got to the level of the increase in fuel prices, the appears to have been linked to this whole invasion. so what will higher oil prices, higher fuel prices mean for the likes of you and i, the people who use the airlines is that going to lead to higher ticket prices for us? it's never going to lead to higher ticket prices, but there will be a can differential in new fact the when you're traveling. for example, within europe, the proportion of the ticket let's feel is lower. whereas when you're traveling to australia, for example, it's a much higher proportion. so it will mean that shawl is impacted less

than long haul travel. that's more than 3 hours. not only is, is fuel going to cost more, but airlines are going to have to use more of it to fly around russian air space, a vast part of the globe that they now have to avoid. i think there's 2 fact to say 1st, yes, it will increase flight times by between one and 4 hours between europe and asia. and on the other hand, if you look at the level of closure on international services, it's taking place in japan and, and china, the moment that actually that traffic is very badly hit anyway. but again, this is yes, another negative that added in. i'm one thing it does mean is that the, the airlines that have new fleets, the term more fuel efficient saving, perhaps 20 percent of fuel on journeys will actually have a competitive benefit compared with others. they'll still be suffering in paying the high cost, but they will have something of

a competitive advantage. what does the, the ban on, on, russian aircraft flying into european space, for example. what does that mean for russia's aviation sector? well, it's been very badly hit as, as symbolized by the airflow withdrawing services internationally from the 8th of march. so as a consequence, they're not flying for fear that the planes could be intended as something like $500.00 aircraft, according to our databases that are least into russian entities from international leasing companies. and those effectively, the lease is terminated by the 28th of march. so that means that any aircraft that sent flying outside can be impacted. and also the under international law, the airlines are supposed to be handing those aircraft back if they don't have them

back, because they simply can't at the moment due to the circumstance, what does that mean for the international leasing companies? they're going to lose money. of course, because these, these aircraft are sitting on the ground in russia. they think they can't get to them. it is a major challenge, one way or another. and the thing is we can only look at the unfolding impact of the sanctions and so on. but it is clearly one of the major impacts that that will be seen in russia among russian air travelers realizing you can't fly as easily or as cheaply she did before. and it will mean that, for example, the middle east, narrow lines who do flight russia will actually have a significant captive market. we lost a lot of airlines due to the pandemic. it just wasn't survivable for, for many of the smaller airlines. all those running on on very tight operational budgets with this continuing agony now with the,

the air space restrictions around russia with the increasing fuel prices. do you think that we'd like to see other airlines going on? but it's going to increase suppression? ultimately, it's really what the impact on individual countries g d p is because it's, it's g d p and the ability of people to buy tickets effectively that drives the airline business forward. and one of the concerns is the impact in terms of g d. p growth will actually reduce aviation growth as well. but none of these things are posted. this is the basic point all looking at a little bit. please get them over to say the least. peter, but anyway, thank you really appreciate you outlining all of that for us. peter morris, that a lot of now food shortages, power cuts and long lines for expensive fuel sri lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948 international rating agencies. a warning that

it's on the verge of defaulting on its debts, but the government has refused to seek an iron f bailout, and insist that it can handle the crisis on its own. al jazeera michelle fernandez reports from colombo spending hours in queues has become the norm, a crush lanka, starting with food, rice, sugar and mid powder. now it's cooking gas and diesel that are in the play that of ivy that it all assembled. it. i haven't eaten from the morning and i can't even go drink some water line. i would lose my place. otherwise meant that have only me that not thing. after spending so many hours in cues, we can only run about 2 and a half days. we can't keep doing this, so we appeal for this problem to be solved. the shortage is a result of the government not having enough dollars to pay for inputs. this is because it's for in earnings and reserves have been rapidly declining since 2019 huge debt repayments have eaten into a big chunk of available resources. the crisis has affected all sectors,

including public transport. operator said they're struggling to survive from day to day it up that ali mama on the one hand, there's no electricity. they cut power for 7 and a half hours. the diesel stocks that come up with half is given for power generation a lot. it's only half the stock that's used for everything else. after months of coping, people protesting yet and chill out. notice colombo fishermen complain. they don't have to us for their boats. mid afternoon. my husband can't garcia, there's no diesel. i hope those responsible is struck by lightning in columbia or silent protests. enough is enough, says one bene, stop ruining my country, reads another month of skyrocketing prices and shortages of food, medicine, cooking, gas and fuel have made sri lankan, frustrated and angry. to make matters worse, they have suffered through the worse pol got to be impose in more than 25 years. 7

and a half hour interruptions, a day, a causing chaos. among all segments of the population, sri lanka, public utilities regulated says it has been pushing to solve the pile of crisis. these, these had become a national issue thought necessary. yeah. the attention has not been paid by the political hierarchy, been man now and the daughter dish. so we have been fighting in all of, with almost everyone to sort out this issue. increasing prices and shortages are not unique to shanker but people here say they're leaders of aggravated the situation through years of corruption and mismanagement. minute fernandez, ojo 0 colombo was like, has usable foreign currency reserves are plunged below $1000000000.00. now the rising cost of oil imports is shrinking, that even further leaving it vulnerable to a debt default. the tourism sector, a major foreign exchange erna was battered by the east to attacks of 2019. and of

course the corona virus pandemic. and now 2 countries vital to shall, anchors tourism market are at war. russia and ukraine had been the 1st and 3rd largest source of visitors this year of fail drive to become the world's 1st 100 percent organic farming nation hurt. food security shall anchor was forced to import rice. the t. croft, the nation's top export was devastated. she'll anchor now once china, a major lender to restructure its debt, and it's negotiating a $1000000000.00 relief package from china as geopolitical rival, india. let's talk all of this through now with the shall, the mel in colombo. he's an economist and research director verity research. he served as economic advisor to sort anchors, finance ministry 42017220. 19 dash are great to have you with us. is cheryl anchor on the verge of defaulting on its debt? so silica is tracy. a very challenge situation on its

a foreign exchange reserve was a position right now, so it usable reserves that excluding the $1500000000.00 chinese, you on small amount of to just 734 $1000000.00 at the end of february that you know that in port coverage around 2 and a half weeks now in the month of february and march silica had liabilities maturing, amounting to $1800000000.00. so the gap between usable reserves and maturity. liabilities is, is clearly betty betty hi and knocking sri lanka favor. now there was a deferment of $900000000.00 of su payment issue getting union payment that was due to be paid earlier this week that deferred by 2 months. so that does provide a little bit of a levy for the next few weeks, but overall to the very challenging, challenging situation on its external external debt. and it's for exchange reserves . and the government says that it can manage this, this situation on its own without resorting to help from the i. m f is not

a wise strategy. do you think? so i would think for sure you got the most prudent auction now, is to enter into negotiations with it. but it's pretty does. because due to restructuring, it's extended to restructure in a preemptive manner. and such a restructuring program would ideally be underpinned and supported by and i am if agreement and agreement that situation would be able to unlock some options of bridge bridge financing. that helps to build up reserves in being 30 bucks. it goes through a debt restructuring process. now, even if somehow we don't case able to meet, it's maturing that liabilities by scraping together some swaps. so come to government transactions. is to doing so at the expense of critical inputs for the economy in both such as for cooking, gas and a number of other important commodities as a result of beach citizens off the thing, a degree of hardships are really the best balance from us. we, duncan,

the comic book in the, in the long term would be to preemptively restructure external liability. but an issue that we've discussed many, many times on counting the cost. how much of this current crisis is due to the fact that so lanka is so indebted to china? so i would say that the, the current situation is not entirely because of liability to china. so if you look at the upcoming maturities over the next few years, typically around 20 percent of the mature liabilities are laboratories that to, to china. the bulk of the, the bulk of life is actually arise out of cars borrowing from commercial markets, from financial markets, particularly when bonds indicated and so on. so wife that is a component of chinese detention liability. in this question, i would not say that it is the predominant cause of the challenges we don't actually think right now. all right, what, what is the cause? we talked a few moments ago about the now scrapped policy to switch to 100 percent organic

farming. that affected exports and, and food security. we talked about the, the t industry, the biggest export on suffering is, is that one single cause or is just showing in the wrong place or the long time economically at the moment. so the, the scrapping of can because they're not replacing any foot laser that don't have evidence as yet to, to be able to, to be routed to the decline in, in p exports in january survey data, conducted by data research does suggest that farmers do expect significant decline news, so there would be some impact from, from that policy as well. but we don't, because we're problem is the fact that it lost access to build equity markets around early 2020. just before the, the panoramic pandemic it by losing access to the market. it's been not being able to raise capital to be able to refinance a maturing debt, so it has had to pay to pay back that using its reserves and to the reserves have

evident that windows down to the next level that we are at. and that's really the crux of the problem. the 3 are important, which are like us tourism industry, taking such a big hit, 1st of all from the pandemic. and now, due to that, the war in ukraine, is there anything that the government can do to, to increase it's, it's, it's foreign currency reserves, you know, to earn currency that it desperately needs. yeah, so certainly the volume the ukraine does have an impact on, on 3 tourism, because just recovering in the last few months around 25 percent of arrival in the last few months have been from either ukraine or russia. so the conflict that 30 does have an impact on, on the overall balance of payments as does of course, been on impacts seeing in global commodity prices, particularly, particularly oil, gas. we and number of other important products as well because we don't use the net

important. so 30, the current geopolitical challenges do not work into junk of feeling terms. in terms of current account. that's it. the government has taken some important positive steps in recent days. it floated, there will be the center back floated, but we're not going to be a couple of days ago. and that's certainly a step in the right direction towards encouraging more influence to form a banking channel that can hit the build up of the back of the positive. the central bank also recently raised policy interest rates by a 100 basis points. last week's march board meeting again, a positive in terms of demand management and towards building preserves. so that off steps in that direction, that's a long way to go. in terms of facilitating further the moves on the monitor side as well. if that is underpinned by and i miss program and at restructuring, i would think that is really to be a for the, for so long to really sustainably build up the reserves. and to be able to me to extend the treatments and provide the inputs that are required to sustain the m

dash i'll it's been really good to talk to you on county the cost many thanks for being with us. thank you very much. and that's all show for this week. don't forget, you can get in touch with us if you want to comment on anything that you've seen, you can treat me. i'm at a finnegan on twitter. please use the hash tag j j c t c. when you do, or you can drop us a line counting the cost of al jazeera dot, that is our email address. that is, as always, plenty more for you online at al jazeera dot com slash ctc. that takes you straight to the page, and there you'll find individual reports, links, even a tot episodes for you to catch up. but that is it for this edition of counting the cost. i'm adrian finnegan for the whole team. here though, how, thanks for being with us, the news on al jazeera is next on the alpine plains of australia, snowy mountains, a bit of battle is taking place of a whither the country's wall horses are

a nationwide corn. all pharaoh piss 11 east on elm to 0 revealing eco friendly solutions to come back. threats to our planet on al jazeera ah, a ukrainian city under siege. after several failed attempts, the 1st civilians escaped from mary a bolt through a humanitarian cordial. ah, hello, this is al jazeera live from doha. i'm for the battle with continuing a sense of coverage of the war in ukraine. russia targets, ukrainian capital, keep hitting a residential building as the 2 sides needs. again, for talks, it's time to smoke the order and.