malaysia reported a daily average of more than 18000 new krona virus cases in the last week. but most to a mild or without symptoms. the government has indicated it's prepared to ease more restrictions over time. as the world learns to normalize life with corona virus, florence louis al jazeera cologne port. the team's home qualified for the 2022 world cup and katara will find out who they'll play in the groups they chose in a couple of hours time. the draw is taking place and so hm. later on the hottest vessel program following the world cup draws a happens life and katara coverage begins at 1545, gmc hilary, and the headlines on al jazeera, russia is accusing ukraine. if a cross border helicopter attacked to set a fuel depot on fire, video appears to show to attack helicopters flying over belgrade. early on friday

than a fire began among storage tanks, ukraine's foreign minister said he could neither confirm nor deny responsibility reported i had 3 d as at the depot in belgrade. com at middle he at then. ok, any at that 2 helicopters, reportedly flew at low altitude and targeted huge oil depos with rockets in the city of belgrade. there is a massive blaze. it's might be the biggest of its kind in this region. belgrade is about 40 kilometers away from the ukranian border. fire fighting operations are ongoing to deal with the fires. according to the available information, 8 oil containers are on fire and may spread 2 other oil storage facilities in the oil depot. local authorities have said that a decision was made to evacuate all civilians in the surrounding area. the russian emergency ministry said that 2 individuals have been injured and that the security level has been raised to maximum alert. ukraine says russian forces are continuing

to withdraw from areas north of kia. it includes hoster mil, where a troop sees the tunnel of airport in the 1st few days of the russian invasion. the red cross is leading an evacuation of civilians from area poll on friday, but it's unsure if a can be delivered around a $160000.00. people remain trapped in the besieged port city with little food, water, or shelter. the word ukraine has the front and center of talks between china and the u. brussels as prestige and for assurances that it will neither supply russia with arms, nor health moscow circumvent western sanctions. hope francis, the head of the roman catholic church is apologize for decades of abuse suffered by indigenous children and church runs schools in canada. 150000 children were forcibly separated from families and center residential institutions. more news coming up on al jazeera right after the stream. thanks for watching. bye bye. for now. mainstream coverage of big stories can sometimes deliver more heat than lights

in a water scenario. there's always a place to simplify. narratives. nuance is always called for, even in the case of an aggressive war, the listening post, delve into the news, narrative and dissect them. there's not a great deal of subtlety. we're talking about the barbaric and that is unfolding as though we somehow unique. it's not unique covering the way the news is covered on al jazeera. with i have from you. okay, welcome to the string. today we are focusing on sri lanka and the worst economic crisis. the country has been through in decades how regular people managing as prices go up and facing goods, are really hard to find. this is a conversation that you are invited to as well on the chief. the comment section is live ready for your thoughts, your comments and being part of the discussion him on that came up nam may that my

mug about of not faced such hardship before with i'm out of the last year or 2. it has been very difficult to india. i get paid a good salary, but i no longer can manage with that. yeah, no gun when we get up in the morning or the prices have doubled, you were to done. now. we only get half of what our sellers could get us before this. lot of people, the fault is not with my job or the salary. i get it. the problem is with the rising push that the merger that end on the bacon bug. i've got a gun joining the conversation to help us understand what an economic crises in sri lanka looks like to day. we have manella, he, me and harsher walk or free of you to the stream. we're now please introduce yourself to out of your audience. i assure they know who you are, just remind them there is it only for those who do i have been in journalism for something like that. he is now right out of school and little over half of that with 0. so i've been reporting on chill anchor for that time for the channel. so

glad to have you on the little heaney. welcome to the stream. please introduce yourself to our international audience. i pleasure to be in conversation with you. i'm the new fernando antoniette law, and i haven't spoke on zillow member representing the opposition yet to having. and hello hotshot. introduce yourself track global audience. i this is hi, shirley silva. i'm a member of parliament representing the opposition. i was previously in government, a non cabinet minister of economic reform, blessedly here. i said, guess what i wanted to really get from you is what does an economic crisis look look like? what does it feel like? what is the experience of that earlier? well, we supposed to cover who just did a list of what it is like in sri lanka to day half and listen me now and then come and meet me off the back with your thoughts and new experiences. tape for the short pages. you guys shortly?

yes, we have suicide here in georgia. yes. we are new port short and we, i was given short pages for needed. i really bad. and people are some of the people . some of the families me know away without the means that needs. this is maybe i've been trying to be some consent, so somebody there, the 45 surprises have been rising as you heard that list, but it's not just the fact that it's the prices that are rising. there are shortages, people essentially go to the shops, they can buy the powder. obviously the amount and the quantity of goods they can buy for the limited amount of money is getting less and less. and obviously the salaries are pretty much as, as they have been. so people are finding, finding that they're buying power has reduced. they're also having issues of so thing essential, good things like fuel cooking,

gas and more recently medicines and particular essential food items is very much difficult because, you know, average families are having to spend lots of time in hughes. you know, certain families have complained that you know, the mothers in bonds, the fathers in another sometimes it's reality that we are finding, we've seen it over the recent weeks and it's making people very, very angry because sometimes not just is the fact that you know, things shooting up in price the sometimes even if you have the money and you spend hours and hours in use, you still get what you want me can you remember when they economic crises started to bite, where you spent a big chunk of your day queuing for goods when can you say this is what it started? so this economy crises, it was something that was born prior. i would say 18 months back was born by

anybody to go potty is that true? lack of will be going into a crisis and that might lead to situation, but there might be that before, and the price of goods will rise and also be saw the government down presently printing money, which actually led to this inflation and decide what that situation that we are currently in, so this is a situation, i wouldn't say something that shocked overnight, but it was coming and the government could have taken corrective measures, but sadly, it didn't happen and he'll be out today. unfortunately, the people are struggling to manage their day to day lives. half of the day being spending on cuba struggling to feed decades. the 3 me, all this morning, media enterprise as well as more time workers, everybody middle income to low income. every 2nd i would say has come to us because the government has been unable to provide the b. it seeks for the functioning of

the country. hossa, it's interesting that he said 18 months ago, there was this prediction. could that knowledge have saved? she'll anchor from where it is right now? would you still be in exactly the same place? because of course, as a cover pandemic, 2 and a lot of the tories, it, that was $1000.00, it was coming to, she'll anchor there. isn't that money that for the government to draw from russia? well, this could have been avoided. this need not have happened. in fact, i made a long speech as the opening speaker for the opposition. when the 2021 budget was presented in november of 2020 and i urge the government to seek the support of the i m f. because what we currently have is our toxic combination of a debt on hand and a liquidity crisis. so you're right. yes,

we lost some put some dollars. but due to the mismanagement after currency and the remittances actually failed shock. people started sending money through the black market that created a discrepancy in the officially on the black market. then huh. that lee could it be crisis? cause the government to stop using that? he sells it. now that he serves have fallen door almost absolutely nothing. so it is a mismanagement of the economy. yes, the panoramic played some role. i can't deny that. but this certainly could have been avoided. when you said, i'm just going to same analogy. i know we were working on this to try and get a voice from the collection come at to come and join us and. and we tried really hard because we wanted to have their voice. it's really important conversation. we

weren't able to do that. but just thinking about how the government, the clinician coming out, is handling this crisis. a thought of saying this is mismanagement. what are you seeing? again, there are obviously a certain amount of challenges that the government has had to face. it's not something that hasn't been an easy thing, not just called the government here in chicago, but as a global phenomenon, you know, price rises, shortages potential goods, food energy is being seen across the board. and for the government here, they have over the sort of a double whammy. we will make you have to remember that you like i had this devastating terrorist attack in 2019 almost 300 people were killed in a series of coordinated boma attacks on easter sunday. 2019 and that in itself does the 1st blow on the economy in terms of affecting in

a major way tourism because for months on end, you know, people were taken back, they weren't sure what exactly was going on and that did quite a serious blow. we were just beginning as an economy also to recover that's not to say the financial houses in order that were sort of cracked and issues. but that seat of attack deal is serious low. and the government had to deal with the consequences of that job. you know, maybe 10 months or so while things were beginning to settle for slowly into place, then he got wacked with the cova as well. that is not to say that it is the kind of reason or the excuse that things are falling apart. did deal a blow, but definitely in terms of the we the manage things as she says, manage things that are quite a few people across the board that feels that things could have been had much better the they could have actually worked with a much broader people not just,

you know, gone down there or sort of solutions. we start looking at the bigger picture so that a general feeling that things could have. all right, let me show you something on my laptop. heaney. have a look at this. this is a community meal share that it's on my laptop. this is a tweet i want to share with you. and then with this tweak, goes alongside a comment that new deacon seme task because she's seeing whether you decide this is government mismanagement, or covey, or loss of taurus doors. there are people in need and she'll anchor right now, and she's trying to help them. i really want to get your take on what it is that the communities doing for themselves and the fact that they have to do for themselves. he's in a dk festival community. miyoshi was initiated by myself and my friends and family to support a very difficult time. we understand that the economic price is injury law,

the many homes right now. so what we do is take walk meals into people's homes when they request it. even if they do not request, if we send out a notification through certain community leaders and we ask them to allow us to support them during this time, he go ahead. yeah. so there are many informal informing me there are a lot of support services that are happening in the country. like for example, if you take the informal a, there are certain initiatives taken by to your organization. different to support not just by 4, but to assist in education in terms of that also in terms of covering their day to day expenses. so i would say from the government, but say there is no such is not direct initiatives, but in formal sector. there are some initiatives that are being taken to assist.

i'm going to go to you because i always had taken part in the conversation as well . hush, let me just put this one to you. i have feel fast. the new car is far seeing it, savings vanish, and purchasing power decline. this is feeling a brain drain. it could take some effect that were coming back on track your thoughts briefly. how shall act? that is absolutely true. because when there will be appreciated by almost 40 percent, and if you look at the curb market, the black market, it has to proceed and far more than that, what it means is the both savings have diminished. so sure that that is, that is what's going on. and even today i was coming out of a, as a small cafe, a cup of coffee. and 2 young men came up to me and said, huh, you know, i'm 32 years old and i'm gonna id work and i want to leave. what do you think

i should do? and i hear this all the time and it's very sad. but i want to also add something to, i mean, as said, and that is yes, the dollars not flowing in did have an impact, but it was not really that good. this crisis. what triggered the crisis, wasn't a responsible tax. got that came before the pandemic, which caused a massive hole in the treasury of about one 3rd. the revenue that was lost. and in order to fill that hole, the central band started printing money. and when people like us want the central bank, i just asked, cuz i understand they plebian, can you just print money? isn't that disastrous? it is absolutely disasters. this is what you learn in a principle,

the sofa macroeconomics, about the central bank continued to see to the b. but look, and you know this, you not cause inflation. and they have been that so much money just to give you a sense of how much i, while, while the economy for the last 2 years go by point one percent money supply. that is, all the money that is available in this economy has grown by 4 d one percent. so it is no surprise that prices are going up and when you say a prices it includes the price of you was dollars. so, so therefore, this has been a man made disaster and i wonder, also add in the middle of the pandemic, the government decided one fine day overnight. they were going to band the importation of fertilizer. and that just was

a death blow to agriculture. and what we're hearing is that with this of us, in that ice producing areas, harvest has come down perhaps by 40 to 60 percent. huh. if i knew if i made it into chat, that the banning of fertilizer wasn't going on a whim, it was, they wanted that to be organic fat life for eva, banning non organic fertilizer. as i understand, is that correct? i'm in your car in the was there is no counting the one that has a fully organic agriculture sector. nothing. no. well right. so a lot of people who know about this experts, the professors okay. all said door door. so i wasn't sure if you've put a spotlight on where you think the government is being deficient. i'm going to remind people that you are an opposition politician. so this is your job in the mean time. and now i've just been looking on twitter algebra english, have

a look here on my laptop. we have a developing story placing tra, lanka, fine, t, a gas and water cannons, dispos, huge crowds. protesting near the president's residence in colombo, you have done reporting at protest and demonstrations. i'm just going to remind our audience, some of the stories that you filed, this one in particular was a demonstration. quite recently. let's take a look. another day and another valley with thousands of angry people taking to the streets, into lanka. they came from around the country, desperate to be heard without municipal de loc, grenada. people are facing hardships, even those who have money don't have goods to buy. children, students, parents, everyone is facing problems. several of the crowds carried banners that said 70 full years of good option. enough is enough. people are crying, patients are dying, and the government is lying. oh, the government, as a father the people have had enough me and he did johnny, that there was

a big one to make a deal choice for a new government that a so we have ongoing process and demonstrations, a current protest outside the president's palace. how is the government responding manella to all of this criticism? obviously, not very happy camper at this time because this being the series of demonstrations very large show of numbers if you like. and the one that you saw was affiliated to political groups that were one or 2 sort of massive scale protest i've seen in recent years. something like 35000 people, but one by one of the main opposition parties. in fact, that is part of the g b that we saw on the 15th of march. then the project that you just seen this week, thousands of pharma congregating in the north central sort of city of polo not

which is very much a, one of the back of the agricultural part of the country. and again, it comes back to that fertilize a band that you referred to earlier. the fact that literally overnight the government brought in a ban on chemical fertilizer on we decide and pesticide. we thought as much as a, by your leave without discussing it, with farmers without, you know, testing the water, so to speak, to find out what people thought to look at, seizing it in. because that's what the goal of roger election manifesto did. talk about a green agriculture moving to hell, the grow it growing practices and things like that. so he did talk about 10 years. but having put that aside and bringing in this band overnight really took from us by surprise. they really struggled to find the proper fertilizer with decades and they can, they had all of these chemical fertilize products through them and they got used to it. in fact, one of the bombers we talked to at the valley, the other day it said look, it's like a drug addict. you can't expect

a drug the just to go cold turkey overnight after, you know, he's been used to that much of not projects in the system. it's just not going happen. so this is something that really sort of affected and hit farmers and you see that angle when they come together because they've just sort of harvest the loss of that data i talked about in the center province has harvested that crop. and the numbers that we're hearing, as partially referred to earlier as anything from of i've heard 40 percent passions that up to 60 percent. so that is evidence. even though we haven't heard the official final figures yet from the government and institutions that the harvest have fallen in a major way. and this is obviously the thing directly to the livelihoods of thousands of people in those agricultural communities. hey, i just want to get some thoughts from you about present roger pac sir, because i'm going to play a little light of him talking about asking the i m f for help box. the

whole policy economic policy was relying was we can do this alone. we're going to get financing from not just from within the region, but we've been sri lanka that didn't work out. he's back tracking a little bit. now he's back tracking a lot. what do you make of the decisions that he's been making? and then i'm going to play his voice, and his approach that he's taking right now, lena, you start? yeah. so it was, is this government came into office. they've had this whole looking approach as opposed to, you know, having an outward looking approach because they had this one point to see that everything can be done within the country. hence even also in this was a managing the did crisis. so the government wasn't quite reluctant to go to the international assistance. and also we thought we've seen that what some of the, one of the main issues was for a long time, from time to time, the people to see changes from government to government. what is the changes?

so when this particular president came into office, i mean they presented that manifesto the policies that are brought forward, somewhat different to the previous governments. so this, this particular change effect had the economy. now very large scale and how about the what they brought in those policies, they were not in a position to sustain him that leading a. 3 and then going to a good option, mismanagement or together i would say has led to the so called economy crisis. and it is something that they could have avoided, but it is she a she on plan, then lack of strategy, lack of taking advice from a professionals and not having the right people in the right place to advise. so, i mean, the guy has always been a country which has a broad chad chad maintain much shade international relations. would go to countries and not just speeding to certain nations, but the inclination to

a certain countries beach also has not acted in favor. i mean, if i, if i mean, let me put the president in the show because i'm, but he wasn't able to join us. all he spoke to people i was able to join is because this is how he is framing, how he's going to tackle the economic issue, economic crises, inter lanka, have a nice and have a look. either my obama gotten me, i'm yoga mocker. i am well aware of the shortages of essential items and the increase in prices. i'm also aware of issue such as gas shortage is fuel shortages and power cuts. i am very sensitive to the many sufferings the people have had to experience over the past 2 months. i know that this situation will continue for reasons beyond our control that we make maximum possible efforts with regards to the situation and job gander moore left out of yesterday's discussion with the international monetary fund was held for this purpose. we hope to find a way to pay off our annual loan installments, sovereign bonds,

and so on. subsequent to my discussions with the i m f. i have decided to work with them after examining the advantages and the disadvantage in santa ha, come of india. that on your chin, i sing your comment since you thank you for your comments. you're asking. so what do we do about this? i'm really glad that you asked that question. i'm going to go to natasha jeff and he, he spoke to us just a little bit earlier with a whole list of what sri lanka should be doing next. here. yes, we have to start restructuring. our unsustainable extend it. he has to significantly reduce the energy subsidies that only to city because which is his caution. going to the people sit households, we have to lead price. our policy just used to be more close to to street. we have cookies, zone controls on it. she's been version that is a mortgage and we need to get some announcements about this. the only see

link use taxes, which was one of the key lizards that these glasses texts. and most importantly, your gently noon. and i will go grab i should thank you so much for sharing your take on what is happening with the economic crisis in sri lanka, lini. we really appreciate you me now. i actually have 30 seconds left in that last 30 seconds. what do you think would happen next? the level of anger that you see on the street is something that quite powerful. we saw it. the ng, the update that you talked about, that developing story, hundreds of people gathering outside the president's house. i only for frustration, so it's going to get worse. i believe before i can get better where we're going. falling your reporting on line and on al jazeera. thank you so much, man. now la heaney hasha and all the comments on youtube. appreciate it. i see you

next time take everybody ah lou. ready with

wherever you go in the world. well, my line goes to make it feel exceptional. katara always going places together. the stage is set and it's time for a different approach. one that is going to challenge the way you think was wor, inevitable. i just want the started to please do it. they're not doing the right thing. let's leave simplicity to the headlines. join me. if i take on the lies this man with the misconceptions and debate the contradiction, do we have a real democracy here in the united states? that's not a political party. that's a radical insurgency. are mark lamarr hill, and it's time to get up front right here on out 0. these biggest schools event on the planet is coming to the middle east for the 1st find time to find out who your

scene will be find will be live from go home and across the globe, the special coverage of the fif, but well, cultural join us on april the 1st on out you say, ah, a. this is al jazeera. ah, hello, i'm sammy's a dan. this is the news. our live from dell are coming up. russia accuses ukraine of across the board, a helicopter attack in the city of belgrade, and the oil depot is set on fire, damage and deserted. moscow is seen withdrawing more of its forces from areas north of ukraine's capital.