both here and abroad, he was convicted of facts, evasion, his family's multi $1000000.00 as the tax to remains unpaid. and he is facing the largest ever contempt case filed by a u. s. court. alger 0 requested an interview with the marcus campaign team. but we didn't get a response. the candidate has also missed other media interviews. and most of the presidential debates, but bongo marcus junior says, all he ever wants is to return the country to its former glory. for many filipinos here. all they see is the son desperate to leave the country that others accuses parents of ransacking jamal alan dog and al jazeera manila. ah, this is al jazeera, these you top stories. ukrainian president allows him, is lansky, says russia has begun

a full scale offensive to seize control of these 2 regions. these include areas for a russian back separatists have fought the ukranian army for 8 years. zamora cook, now we can already state that russian troops had begun the battle for the dumbass to which they had been preparing for a long time that a significant part of the entire russian army is now concentrated on this offensive . no matter how many russian troops are driven there, and we will fight, we will defend ourselves. and we will do it every day. tomorrow, we won't keep up anything ukrainian and we don't need anything foreign. these 7 people have died off to russian missiles hit the ukrainian city of live, and the 1st civilians killed in the western city which had previously been considered relatively safe. russia's president vladimir putin as told as economic officials that western sanctions on backfiring with the measures causing a surgeon, inflation and unemployment in europe in the us,

most goes may as wound around 200000 jobs in the russian capital on breasts because foreign companies of either left or suspended operations yet, but as riley, as strikes of hit camps used by huh. soft rock. it was fired to add southern israel from the gaza strip. i'm a cit early, a wound of retaliation, all to confrontations between israeli forces and palestinians in occupied east jerusalem. a 17 year old palestinian girl who was shocked by israeli forces during the raid in the occupied westbank has died. anon co door was injured on saturday. her momma says she was on a way to an english class in the city of janine 21 people have been killed during is ready operations across the west bank over the past 3 weeks. those are you headlines and he's continues here now to their i was counting the cost we know what's happening in our region. we know how to get to places that others cannon. i

want to don't fear god by that. put it on purpose and fires. and then i'm going on with the way that you held the thought is what can make a difference. ah, [000:00:00;00] i hello, i'm getting obligated. this is counting the cost on al jazeera, your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week. and inflation nightmare returns to haunt latin america once again. central banks throughout the continents have increased interest rates sharply to tame prices, but are the financial measures working. also this week struggling with a full blown financial meltdown. lebanon reaches

a preliminary deal with the international monetary funds, but are politicians ready to implement? economic reforms and west africa is facing the worst food crisis. in a decades docs, while more than a quarter of africa's population is facing hunger. so what can be done to feed the continents vulnerable people? ah, so inflation is dipping into people's pockets almost everywhere, but latin americans are among those most severely hits. central banks throughout the continent were quick to take action, implementing aggressive interest rate increases. but the measures have done little to bring down the cost of living. if anything, consumer prices, sword, and many nations last month, the situation could get worse as the war and ukraine drives the prices of commodities up. while the surgeon fuel and fuel prices the sparking discontent among many latin americans. thousands peruvians have taken to the streets to

protest. the rising cost of living. inflation hit its highest level in a quarter for century in peru, and the central bank has raised interest rates to a 13 year high to take the prices. the president petro castillo was facing cost to resign, has cut fuel taxes, and increase the minimum wage in an attempt to calm the protesters. prices are not only going up in peru, inflation has surpassed expectations right across different latin american countries in march. take a look at chili's consumer prices which posted the biggest monthly gain and almost 3 decades as bread served by around 6 percent. and energy rose by just under 3 percent, brazil, monthly inflation sort the most since 2003 as gasoline skyrocketed by almost 7 percent. the annual figure had a 20 year high in mexico, driven mainly by cooking gas and gasoline prices. and argentina's consumer prices have risen by more than 6 percent,

the highest level into decades. inflation is expected to hit 60 percent by the end of the year. that while the region's economy is expected to grow by less than 2.4 percent this year, down from a 6.8 percent expansion in 2021. but the continent is a major global producer of commodities at a time the world faces supply crunches. sheila is the world's leading producer of copper, whose price had an old time high in march, while brazil in columbia are among the regions biggest exporters of crude oil. well to discuss the inflation challenge and latin america, i'm joined now by carlos desousa. carlos is the director for emerging market debt portfolio manager and vanderbilt asset management. he's joining us from 0. welcome to the program, carlos desousa. so as we've been reporting, inflation forecasts and latin america are worse than expected. in many countries, they're reaching levels that they haven't reached in decades in countries like brazil, for example. tell us why that is. and are there specific reasons?

inflation specific reasons to latin america. thank you for having me. yes, inflation in several countries is quite high. multi year high level phenomenon, franklin. so there are not that many particular reasons why inflation is high enough in america. in fact, nothing. america is very similar levels done in the rest of the world. brazil is perhaps one exception where you have inflation at the moment of 11.3 percent, which is higher than in the united states and in the rest of latin america as well . for brazil in particular, i would say that the fiscal stimulus that brazil imposed in $22200.00 and demick was larger than the majority of the latin american countries. and in the matter of the emerging markets, it was more comparable to the interest of the united states. and i also have to say that the congress related restrictions, bills were much less stringent than in the rest of the world. so brazil actually

started recovering faster and that's why inflation also came earlier in brazil. and the last where you some, the weakness of the brazilian bri out doing the last 2 years. however, what i have to say that brazil also was the 1st country to start hiking rates very aggressively, and is the only country where real interest rates. so interest rates minus inflation are actually process. so brazil ready to interest rates to 11.75 percent . and the resilient has been recovering quite strongly this year. so what you're saying is the governments have taken including brazil, other countries in the mountain and took that measure to implement interest rate hikes. that measure hasn't been working to tackle inflation, hiking, rates, things time. ready to, to tackle the inflation because what central banks can influence via interest rates in aggregate demand that usually takes some 6 months to take effect. so i would not

say that it's not working. i would just say that center bank have to be patient. they have to migrate, and then maybe 6 months later, you will see inflation slowing down. moreover, central banks control or influence aggregate demand. they don't influence supply. and we are now in the world. seeing a lot of supply stops, we've seen much higher commodity prices. we're seeing that global trade has a lot of disruption. there's nothing i can do about that. and that's not particularly america, that's the global dominant. right. and that is of course, down to the ukraine war. but do you expect more price increases, especially as the war and you create a driving commodity prices up prices will continue to increase because inflation is quite high and inflation is not going to drop to 0 tomorrow. therefore, we prices will have to continue increasing. but that's different than inflation accelerating much more than today. so if you frame the question asked, do i expect inflation to accelerate much more? perhaps only a little bit,

not very much more. you expect prices to continue increasing? yes, absolutely. ok got, let's look at, for example, president castillo, who announced tax cuts an increased minimum wage. do you think that has helped the situation in this country and what other measures should governments to talk take on to tackle this problem in your opinion? i don't think that's gonna make a big difference, to be honest. what the governments can do today is number one, let the banks do their job, which so far they're doing. so be patient on that sense. and what this should do, perhaps a bit more is to increase transfers of direct cash transfer as do the poor, so that they are not as effective. for example, a week ago there were, this brought us in peru and the professors were saying that information was high. so that was one of the main reasons of protest. but inflation and brew it's actually the lowest in america is about 6.2 percent, which is low,

much lower than in the united states, and much lower than the euro zone. and that in most countries. so it's not so much the people were protested because inflation high, but because they very poor now cannot afford their usual founder of living and can be tackled by government by transferring money. specifically to the very good people that are the most. okay. and just put a sort of all into context for us and inflation. obviously, the fact is that it is increasing in countries in latin america, economic growth expected to slow down or it has been slowing down up until this point. what does this mean for, for a latin american economy is going forward? so again, that's also level phenomena. we see growth slowing down at a global level. the same as we see inflation accelerating at a global level. so i would not say that this particular of latin america, in fact because commodity prices are so high and many american countries are

commodity exporters. they are actually better position to recover from from the currency circus. and hi, commodity prices is likely to increase medium term growth in a lot of that, that's an american economy. so i was confused by saying that in the middle term, this to be rather than the positive for growth. and more importantly that because central banks in america have been hiking, raise much more aggressively and much earlier than the rest of the world. even though electron america, we see quite a lot of translation right now. it may be the region that and so controlling inflation much earlier than the rest of the world. ok, we'll leave it there. thank you so much. carlos, this is a for joining us from zurich. thank you. i am the place has started triple digits in lebanon. the currency last, almost 90 percent of the value that's more than 3 quarters of lebanon's population are now poor. and the lebanese government is running out of cash to buy wheat,

medicine and fuel lebanon's economic meltdown is one of the world's worse than 150 years. the government says it's in desperate need for financial help to get out of the crisis. it's finally reached a preliminary funding deal with the international monetary funds, but the full approval of the $3000000000.00 us dollar loan over 46 months comes with a caveats. the lebanese government has to implement a series of financial reforms. they include an audits of the central bank restructuring, the countries collapse, banking sectors, improving transparency mechanisms, and unifying multiple exchange rates to the spiraling lebanese pounds. now, if approved, the program would help unlock further. for an age, lebanese banks are estimated to have lost almost $69000000000.00 us dollars and have imposed informal capital controls savers, deprived of access to their deposits, are being offered checks worth a fraction of their savings. many customers have accused the banks of shifting their losses to depositors,

and they've taken legal action to recover their money. then the reports from bay roots, more than $100000000000.00 remained stuck in lebanon's banks since 2019, when the financial system collapsed. depositors had been facing limits on withdrawals at unfavorable exchange rates. now, some banks are closing accounts of mainly british passport holders. after a u. k. court ordered a lebanese bank to give a depositor his money. depositors say they are offered a check for the balance, but they are worth less than 20 percent of their value. manager of the bank told me that i can take my check at the notary is and wander around and see who can accept or bankers check bank say they are short of cash and fear. if depositors continue winning legal challenges, they will have to declare bankruptcy. they say the answer is for the political

authorities to pass a law that would regulate the outflow of foreign currency. banks have been accused of helping to politically connected transfer their money abroad. many of them are shareholders in lebanon's largest banks. critics call the financial system a ponzi scheme for decades, banks lent to the state that high interest rates, while successive governments largely plundered funds and piled up debts until capital inflows slowed and the economy collapsed. and experts believe much of the money is now gone. with people locked out of their savings as they struggle with high inflation and poverty. so there are many challenges in order to get the money back. we cannot just get it back by doing individual lawsuit. and also we have to see a restructuring of the banking sector and the public that and this is what's not happening . those in power have so far failed to reform

a system that they long benefited from them to shift the losses to the people who withdraw their money at around 30 percent of its value. already depositors have lost billions of dollars. joining me now from be routed. let's see what you see is the chief economist and head of the economic part research and analysis department at b plus a bank group. thank you so much for joining us on the program, sir. so for this deal to become final, lebanon has to implement a series of reforms. do you think these reforms are achievable, considering the state of the lebanese economy and what are the challenges going forward? and i am very explicit. it statement about the actions the authorities need to big for the agreement to be approved and become, find them by diana executive board at southern prior actions have to do with the banking system. the central bank of london and commercial buys, such as approving a strategy for the fluctuating of the banking sector,

modifying the banking secrecy, low unifying, the exchange rates, the multiple exchange rates. i think capital control measures and passing a banking. these are usually legislation. so these are all a challenging, challenging points and measures, but really we do not have a choice if you want to get out of the crisis. i do not believe that is any other alternative than continuing with the i have and and implemented forms according to this agreement with the i am. so now the responsibility is already fees to prove that they are serious aiden for disagreement. by implementing these a prior actions, diana did not put a table for the implementation, knowing that we are close to body, i meant that the elections are may 15th, we're getting close to that. and we have for the venture elections in october. so

the argument actually, right, do you think the politicians will at least feel the pressure somewhat? because as you're saying time is not on the side of the lebanese and, and we do have these parliamentary elections in may, definitely not on the side of the dilemma. any of the economy or the private sector, politicians have to feel the pressure, given the living conditions in the countries, the contraction of the economy and the very vocal population. so maybe right now it's not an idea of buying these reforms all together, but we can start with things that are already on track like the argument inactive, the budget for 2022 that is already in parliament that already have been completed and for the government will start working on the nation and then forward it to

parliament after the election. you are right under pressure of time and in terms of delivery. but that is, that is an opportunity there to start the process. how will the banks respond to this? because as you were pointing out just a few moments ago, some of the rules that the i m. s has have put forward or stated that need to go ahead, including a central bank audit, reforming the secrecy long as you were pointing out the evaluation of the countries major banks. these could be sticking points, and particularly for the banks themselves, will they, will the banks actually comply? well, the banks have been calling, i'm calling for a deed with the i am at the beginning of the crisis in october of 2019 and patient banks in lebanon is statement was coming to agreement with authorities and urging these to implement the banking sector what is corporate and comply with the requirements of the players action,

including as you mention the external audit of the largest 14 banks in the country . it is in the best interest of the banking sector to facilitate as much as it can . the duty for measures and the banking sector has been calling since the local, the crisis, putting capital control measures that have not been implemented. so definitely in the interest of the banking sector to proceed with all these reforms and but on, but for them not to be limited to the banking sector. right. is other thing that needs to be implemented afterwards, like that he's structuring the public sector fighting evasion. what i want to ask you about my final question, in fact, because you know, there is deep rooted corruption and financial mismanagement in lebanon. as we all know, this is going to be a major, a challenge to tackle. going ahead as a not how do you see that playing out? well, there is also a lot of skepticism in lebanon by the private sector,

by the organization, by the ordinary lebanese, because we have been through international support and international conferences. where do i need to have that form in exchange for financial support and nothing much higher. so now the sponsibility is on the political class on the government, on the branch to demonstrate that there are serious in this thing that i've been use economy over current prices. to do the full port, trinity of the deal with the okay, and finally let me ask you, i mean it's, it's really the lebanese people that have been feeling the brunt of this economic crisis for several years now. is this rescue plan going to bring more relief or more pain to them? that's a very good question. many people think that, you know, that perception is that the, the, i am, i mean a lot of pain, but we have been suffering for 2 and a half years already from multiple exchange rates from high inflation rate,

from the shortages of the, for the be in the market, i'm sure some of the, for the, i agree with you on, if the mapping, if they are fully implemented, wouldn't be founded by the lebanese. but for the medium, i'm not positive outcomes for, for the nice people and it's up to the government to communicate with you people on the, on the importance of implementing the, the form and their outcome in the medium and long term. ok. thank you so much. no staple, but for speaking to us from beirut, thank you. more than 346000000 people are going hungry across africa, but the situation is particularly leak in the continents west and that's a whole region. that's where millions of people face the worst food crisis. in a decades, the u. n. has described the emergency as her renders and has warned resources to support the most vulnerable or

a rock bottom. the world food program says the number of hungry people across west africa. this a hell has quadrupled to 41000000 between 20192022 n g o are calling on the international community to provide at least 4000000000 dollars sought by the u. n. for the region. international donors including the you have pledged almost $2000000000.00 to help ease hunger and this a hell and lake chad region. or part of the problem is linked to high food prices, which have increased by up to 30 percent over the past 5 years in west africa. they're expected to go much higher nutrition. reserves are already decreasing in this a hell. and the war in ukraine could cause a significant reduction in wheat stocks. 6 west african countries import at least 30 percent of the grain from russia and ukraine. from senegal, capital to car, i'm joined now by my do job. he's the regional representative of action against hunger organization for west and central africa. welcome to the program. i'm a dude yoke. so we're reporting about the food insecurity,

right across the continent. but why is the situation particularly bad in west africa and the sahara region? we should say it out in the hall, several of those that were some of the situation in derision and bunch story in science. we have climate shots which is creating a prostitute resources causing formulation disbursement and added pressure on already limited resources, dis, combating the lago rental which results in to do that for cash offer originally inspire generated easy to confidence and to readily comfort most of the time before being sold by religious, separate east, or digital liabilities. in addition, we would say that an attache. the region faces multiple epidemics each hair. so imagine was just one more on the already headed murder into sales and is watching

this pressure on the population often leads to long gum and difficulties in accessing by link social services when they are with independence, which plays in more. busy which place many people can say in millions of food, volume footage shot insecurity every year. ok, let's break down some of the reasons that you gave and, and 1st look at the issue of food prices. so reported a problem. how much worse could the situation get? because of the war in ukraine, as we know, some west african countries in port, at least up to 50 percent of their wheat from both ukraine and russia. yes, well, we should say that the situation is already more. we'll wait for you to call because the prices are already very high and for some countries that in one of their ways from reshowing. busy can yes, we already saw them to see an increase in the price of bread and some weedy products. the recurring and crisis has come to shut relations,

or when you're not going in, should say that however, it should be not that a trend of a price increase was up. so can say before the beginning of the union credits this inflationary. our trend at the global level house called the increase in food prices in decider board in boston. and look on the porters scene or countries trading relatively little ways you credit on your show except to some countries like marita, yas, synagogue, inference. and whether or we should say that it's a due process, an increase on the food prices. ease may be also we can say these additional mental factors and ready to what santa, my am and speculation on serial. a major world training price increase. let me ask you about the response to the, to the sahara crisis,

because it is one of the worst humanitarian crises, yet it's the least funded or one of the least funded. that is, why do you think that is? we can say we all, all these costs denise, this is a sam regarding the multiple transistor we have and all but our amended these. we met an odd to san glass 1st. however, we are dealing with prior to zation of the ads for coming from done us. we can say that we, she mean their response plans are not funded. and though that we're looking to be funded are suffering from a lack of funding the income increase. you can say the increase over price in loses the all star auto trader means that missouri adapt our response which infinite, unfortunately we've got more than when you are you talking about more long term

solutions rather than emergency ones. what do you mean by re adapting the response that we should, we should do both the credit and science needs ball. we must respond to that martin needs might 7 the last for animal. so we should work really. busy population a different people try to centering medic services she bought from and it used to have them copies. mitchell shucks. and how to not do dominion, their image yet needs. okay, we'll leave it there. thank you so much, mama, dude. you up for joining us from the car. thank you for that's our show for this week. you can get in touch with us. my tweeting me. i said in a g into the hashtag. ha, since you see when you do, you can also drop us an e mail counseling costs that al jazeera dot net is our address. but there's more for you online at al jazeera dot com slash c t. c. that'll take you straight to our page, which has individual reports,

links on entire episodes for you to catch up on. so that's it for this edition of counting the cost on to any navigator from the whole team. thanks for joining us. the news on al jazeera is next mainstream coverage of big stories can sometimes deliver more heat than lights. in any water scenario, there's always a push to simplify narratives. the listening post covering the way the news is covered on al jazeera. echoing the 2017 elections a manual micro and marina pan, a head to head for the french presidency. but with the far right leader le pen, having softened her image and growing discontent with micro and the cost of living crisis at play. how will france vote follow the french election on al jazeera? concealing a family man. politicized by the forces of nature,

filmed over 4 years. i came in pharma documents, his struggle for his community survival, and built a template for global action on climate change. cassini, the climate diaries, a witness documentary on now to sierra. ah, i, moline site, indo are your top stories on al jazeera, ukrainian president, laudermill lansky says russia has begun a full scale offensive to take control of eastern regions. he says invading forces, attacking along a 480 kilometer front in dumbass, where russian back separatists have declared their own republics. zamora good. now we can already state that russian troops have begun the battle with the dumbass to which they had been preparing for a long time, but