semi with manchester city, we are about to be knocked out before 2 like goals by substitute rodrigo took the match into extra time. and a penalty from kareem as the bend. zima eventually gave them a 31 when on the night, and a 65 win on aggregate having ready one the spanish league title we are madrid will head to paris on may 28th aiming to become european champions for a 14th time in their history. ah, it's got a recap of your top story is ukraine's president has asked un secretary general to help save ukrainians trapped at the as old style steel plant. and mario poll. russian troops have reportedly entered the facility where ukrainian soldiers and civilians. i hold it up inside delivery with today, i spoke to you and secretary general antonio gutierrez and we discussed what we

have already achieved and what is still necessary to do to save maria pole and the defenders of mary a whole city. there is not a single day that i and my team wouldn't do this, and i'm grateful to everybody who helps. the european union has urged member states to ban russian oil imports as part of his latest sanctions related to the war in ukraine. the block one set done in stages several countries are pushing back. the united nations says the war and ukraine is adding to what a cause. a perfect storm of faxes that are making hunger was globally joint report involving the u. n. 's weld food program found a 193000000 people and 53 countries don't have enough to eat. the u. s. federal reserve has raised a key interest rate by half. a percentage point had hoped to me would use demand and low inflation. is the biggest increase in more than 20 years.

world health organization is worn to access to safe abortions is crucial to saving lives. it follows the leaking of documents, suggesting the u. s. supreme court may soon reverse a landmark of both abortion ruling. the draft opinion has sparked pro, an anti abortion right demonstrations. round madrid will play level pool in the champions league final all to staging a dramatic late come back in the 2nd leg of this semi with manchester city. it will now head to paris on may 28th aiming to become european champions for 14th time in their history. okay, those are you headlines? lots more news on our website out. is there a dot com coming up next is counting the cost. on

may, 9th, the philippines will vote to electing new president to replace rodrigo and more than 35 years since the country emerged from his father's dictate. their ship could front runner forward in march of junior the top spot as the philippines. both join us for a special coverage on the 0 is hello there. i'm kim fidel. this is counting the call on al jazeera, your look at the world of business and economics this week. he's a prolific tweeter. moscow centric um put his owner in a $44000000000.00 deal. so what will the world's richest man gain, and how is the influential platform will change. also this week, the mountains of death and the world's poorest nation. i. m. s, and world war and many countries are at risk of distress. their calling for urgent action. so who should foot the bill?

uphold dwindling foreign currency reserves. the government limits important tends to the citizens abroad to shore up in cash stockpile the himalayan nation heading for an economic crisis. ah, it's been a volatile deal and if it goes through, it would be one of the largest leveraged buyouts on record tis the basic c o. l on mosque has agreed to a quiet twitter for $44000000000.00. i could potentially add a new job. his resume, new age, media baron, given millions of uses, rely on twitter for their news. and they might get some of the platforms, content restrictions, relaxed mosques, as he wants to promote free speech. but what does that mean in practice? as well as on the report from new york, the deal is done the month long saga of who will own twitter appears over in one of the largest and most unusual tech acquisitions ever. the board of directors and

twitter unanimously agreed to sell the social media company to even musk for $44000000000.00. up until the deal was announced, there was doubt on wall street. that musk could cobble together the financing needed, but he did. must help pay for the deal with $25500000000.00 in debt financing by a group of banks lead by morgan stanley. in a press release announcing the deal must talked about improving the platform by getting rid of automated spam accounts and making its algorithms open to the public and authenticating all users. but for musk buying twitter is about free speech, or at least his version of it potentially ending twitters current content, moderation, or stopping the platforming of users to break the rules you on mosque is not buying twitter or financial reasons, although he thinks he can make some money on it,

he's buying it for ideological reasons and i think that's the really important part and all this. and that's ultimately what's scary with musk and control. they fear a return to the unruly spread of disinformation on the platform. so as today, a good day or bad day for twitter users, that is probably the most important question here. and i think it's also the question that's going to be hardest to answer. i think that if he does a lot of the work that has been done trying to protect against sort of normative, really bad speech such as this information and especially his speech that's going to be a bad day for twitter. but you know, there's a chance that he takes over and doesn't sort of have quite a sweeping of a reform agenda. as he said, he's put forth in over the last couple it sent it to mulch you. it's month for twitter. the saw must take a 9 percent stake in the company, making him it's larger shareholder. he was then offered

a seat on the board of directors, only to have it abruptly revoked, followed by his cash offer to buy the entire company all within the last few weeks . ultimately, lawn must got what he wanted to not only be a twitter user, but to also be its owner. gabe rosato al jazeera new york. investors have long been concerned about the company's growth. the number suggests that twitter is hard a the most successful social media platform in the marketplace. the company ended 2021 with a $5000000000.00 revenue fraction of the figures recorded by other platforms, facebook's core app, and nearly $70000000.00 in advertising revenue. more than 15 times the amount twitter earned in the same period last year. twitter is not the biggest social platform either and as more than 217000000 davy uses, compared with billions for facebook and instagram. well, there have been different reactions to the deal from politicians while the white

house said it's concerned about the power of large social media platforms. some republicans welcomed it as an encouraging day for freedom of speech. to discuss all of that now i am joined to by daniel, i'm from new york. daniel is the managing director and senior equity research analyst at web bush security. thank you for your time. i surprised by this deal, then known in a 1000000 years come in 2022 would think that you are in moscow and twitter. so with that said, on twitter, it is vulnerable. i mean, the company's been under performing social media for the last decade and must, can knew that there was an opportunity in the and also it was a game of thrones to board and look for another bidder. a white knight couldn't find it, must be called his financing riches person in the world. they had to sit down, deal got done. so, you know, look, i think for mosque the easy part. he was playing chassis,

the board was playing checkers. so that was the easy part, the hard parts can be fixing twitter, which is what i view as almost every like up co battle. that's been a lot of touring and falling to get to this point. it was, you know, is it almost going to join the board? no, he's not. he wants to buy it out that going to put for this poison pill plan that didn't happen. why do you think it is that the board ended up accepting the steel? well this is, this is a game, a game of thrones, right? and in terms of how it all played out. i mean, ultimately, i mean must surprise the board with the 9 percent the. they tried to invite them on thinking musk is just going to eat cheese and crackers in the corner and approving board measures. we all know that's not much, so one must decided not to join the board. that's where this became hostile. now of course the board did a poison pill and actually gave them time to try to find a 2nd bidder. but mosques, price for twitter,

there's no $1.00 in the universe that would match that. so that continued to play out and ultimately their options started to diminish and they were at a point where they had to accept the bid for mosque. and that's why we are where we are because they were really no other white knights. last because this isn't about money, he's described in self as a free speech absolutist. how do you think he is going to change twitter? he's talked about obviously making the algorithm open source. beyond that, what sort of changes do you think we're going to see? it will likely grocery subscription model, you know, probably per month in terms of what it's paid in terms of their freedom of speech issue. look at the buyer storms issue. you know, i mean how, you know, ultimately do you make sure it's not accessible, which has become over the years, and then how do you monetize your memory? he's spending 20 percent of his network. so saying famous speech is one thing and

he just basically took a decent piece of the test. so shares in trade that for twitter. and i think now, i mean they're going to have to ok, subscription model, you know, west constriction in terms what you could say. but does that ultimately improved from man is asian perspective because they've been losing out the tick tock, instagram, facebook in the social media arms race, which continues to believe that's why, you know, in terms of musk trading in his task for twitter shares. that just puts more pressure on castle stock and you've seen that play out. yeah, i mean, yeah, he said this is, i guess it's about his ideals and his thoughts on free speech. there are concerns in some court is that this could just kind of inflame misinformation that we're going to see even more misinformation that as you put it, it's got to become even more of a of assess pit. do you think that's going to happen? what department?

twitter is that we could talk about twitter can trump to all the other controversies. but yet there are the 3rd tier player in social media. she never hear tick, tock or instagram, yet, knew the amount of users or 10 acts. and i think that's the problem is that you know, the, the balancing act to make sure twitters and go down that path that's gonna be difficult. then how do you do? and that's why continues to be, this is a major head scratcher for must to go in, in terms of going after twitter. it's a different animal than paid pal. tasha space act his obviously just massive, massive historic success stories. and i think that's the problem going forward. the other issue is that it's political blow back, not just in the us, but just globally on both sides of the aisle. and now could then have an impact on tasa speech sex. and that's really been the concern, especially for a company like cason space, or where must is the heart and lungs of those companies. do you think that regulate

his could step in and stop the deal or how do you think twitter will react to regulations in general? well, i think from an anti trust perspective, it won't get black because there's really no anti trust issues. i do think there will be twists and turns both in brussels as well as the beltway, you know, probably a lot of sort of regulatory scrutiny, because it's such an important platform in terms of global reach. but it, but if you will get twitter stock right now, i still think there's will call 10 to 15 percent uncertainty in terms of what was read speaking in that that the ultimate does not get done. what must the breakup fee be? great. he decides to walkway to $1000000000.00. that's pretty small relative to a deal of this size. so it's just, you know, watch out or not just the regulatory, but some of the other issues that could get away here. and as we all know, must 24 hours could change tune as you say,

twitter has not performed in the way that the other big social networks have. why is that, and do you think a lot mosque could bring? i guess the last factor to twitter and make it profitable to that point. he pow paso space x ray. when we're talking sherman biggest success stories be script the last 2 years may be ever is especially when it comes to catherine space act. but, but twitter is a different animal, you know ok to monetize it. you can make it a keyed subscription service department, twitter or just been engagement has not been there. as we talked about, it starts to become just as assess pool in terms of from a heat perspective. and now it's kind of ok, like what could he do to turn this right? there is a must factor. you could see more come on the platform, but then you can also see depending on which way take some lead the platform. and i

think that really continues to be the conundrum from us because he just spent 44000000000 and that's a walk spend in terms of pushing free speech, especially when it comes to a twitter platform with it easier said than done. you know, especially as we've seen over the last years, i'm sorry, the high. thank you very much for your time. we'll leave it there from new york. daniel eyes. thank you. i boyle. price is a surging around the world, and the central bank raise interest rates to tame inflation. borrowing is becoming more expensive. the world bank on the international monetary fund say that's putting more pressure on the poorest nations who face what they say is a huge build up of death. at least a dozen countries might not be able to pay back billions of dollars owed to lenders over the next year. well, financial institutions calling for urgent action to find solutions. at a $74.00 low income nation, we'll have to repay an estimated $35000000000.00 to official bilateral and private

sector lenders. this year. government debts and low income countries are expected to exceed 50 percent of gross domestic product. from less than 44 percent and 2019, before the pandemic started, almost 60 percent of all low income countries are in or near debt distress. which means they need to restructure. they weren't risk of needing to do so. and it re, payments are estimated to be up 45 percent and just the last 2 years the i m f says china's share of external debts owed by the 73, highly indebted. poor nations, jumped to 18 percent in 2020 from 2 percent. 2006 for nations will pay china and its land is almost 14000000000 dollars this year in debt servicing costs. while the private sector lending rose to 11 percent from 3 percent and a combined share of multilateral institutions such as the i, m f and the world bank and the parents public business, mostly rich west and government felt 50 8 percent from 83 percent campaign is

a calling for debt payments of developing countries to be dropped this year. almost 50 countries must resume paying back after a g 20 initiative, which provided less than $13000000000.00 in debt suspension expired last year. the g 20 later launch the common frameworks, the debt treatments, but only zambia if you had applied for it so far and progress on restructuring, the debt has been slow. well, greg swenson joins us now from london. greg is the founding partner at merchant bank brig. mcaden, thank you very much for your time. so a huge build up of debt, a credit crunch and borrowing cost rising. how bad is the debt crisis going to guess? i think it will get a lot worse before it gets better. can look, you've had a massive build up of sovereign get over the, not just over the last 2 years because of the cobra crisis. but really after the last 14 years since the global financial crisis in 2008 as balance sheets have

shifted from the consumer to some degree to corporate. but more importantly from the consumer and corporate balance sheet, including banks to the sovereigns to government jets. so this is unsustainable, and i think we'll see some of a lot of potential difficulties in the next couple of years. we're talking today about poor countries and well equipped, they don't have huge reserve power. they go to manage this, especially as is getting more expensive to service. yeah. does great question come in and then obviously they have to restructure it. they have to work it out. that's not necessarily a great long term solution, but it's a near term solution. it's not like they're defaulting, or they're just piling on more debt. i think just refinancing is a mistake because it doesn't solve the problem. it's just extending the obligation . and if anything, adding more interest and an obligation to the loan. so i think it's important that they restructure, they work with the global g, f i's, and the,

and the multi lat institutions to work out and restructure these loans. otherwise, things will get a lot worse before they get better, especially for the poor countries who can't just print money from their central banks. like like especially the u. s. but also many of the western central banks. if we accept, then that we're in a debt crisis, who's responsible that crisis is that the lenders that we're, is it the borrowers? that's a tricky one. i mean, look, it's really both, you know, borrowers are going to take the money, especially developing countries in africa, asia, latin america, as well as eastern europe. you know, they will take the money if offered and one of the, one of the results of money printing over the last decade of quantitative easing and 0 interest rates. is that too much money is chasing to few assets. so financial assets had been pushed up the percentage of fat financial asset valuation compared

to g, b, g, d, p, has changed dramatically. and so they have to the lenders in a way, have to reach out to the developing countries to get any type of yield. and the developing countries are sometimes foolish to take the money and fall into a debt trap. it's really, you know, i think both borrower and lender are to blame and this is what happens when there's too much money to chasing to few assets. there are some debt relief mechanisms. how effective do you think they have been? well, in many cases, they're very effective, kim, and especially in the near term. you know, some of these developing countries are just running through a near term challenge, for example, over borrowing during the coven crisis. those were not, those were not necessarily issues that they brought upon themselves. those aren't long term structural defects with their economies. that was just a short term problem brought upon, you know, created by the coven crisis. and many of the western governments shutting down

their own economies. but also encouraging the developing economies to shut down as well. so. so look, i don't think that's something that's a long term defects. so those tort type of restructurings in the near term are, are very important to the developing countries and important to the lenders who need to restructure work out these loans. but i think in the long term, there has to be a shift from the she did the aid and sovereign debt mom to more of a long term investment model. that means private capital and to the global development, financial institutions investing in infrastructure and critical imports for these countries. so it's not just loans and aid that need to be rework. it's long term impact, an opportunity from the lenders from london. greg swenson, thank you. thanks. can nepal has been struggling with a loss of tourists, a fall remittances and to trade deficit. but while visit is all starting to trickle

back in economic problems are expected to get worse. fuel and food prices are skyrocketing and himalayan nation is running low on foreign currency and could even run out a less than 7 months or not. the number reports now and how the government is trying to sure off it's stockpiles of cash. in this bustling market in downtown, got my do its business as usual. but experts warn behind all the activity an economic crisis is looming. during the pandemic, the number of tourists fails. the amount of money sent home by nepalese working abroad also dropped significantly. nepalese international vit isn't particularly high, but as ballooning import and high oil prices depleted foreign currency reserves experts warn the country could be headed towards an economy crisis. if the government doesn't step up in time. and there are other pressures i'm going to

say to guy. there's been a hike, an oil prices, a leader of petrol, that cost around $100.00 rupees. now costs $160.00 rupees. nepal central bank has taken action to manage import and increased foreign exchange reserves. that's some kind of the challenge in the economy, particularly because of the import of some of the items, for example, the vehicles, the petroleum products, which are a large portion of the board in nepal. so how we can manage that? that's one of the issues that is struggling in the present context. reducing by dia, import cars, and heavy duty equipment to nepal. she says it's important for businesses to work with the government, the central bank and business community. we being all completely him import oriented economy. we have a huge trade in balance because we have nothing being exported from here or at least a little being exported from here. so every small change in the world on the globe

impact. and that is why we have these you know, these spanish situations every now and then as nepal absorbs economic shops, experts say it needs to act fast to avoid a full blown crisis from coming through, i'm joined now by this wash called child the executive director of the cotton do based institute for integrated development studies. thank you very much for joining us. so, let's start with putting it simply is nepal, on course for an economic crisis. not a year in economic crisis in the pile. we are feeling some pressure on next to not to balance, but it doesn't mean that we're facing an economic crisis. no ball is running out of of foreign currency reserves though those reserve fell by more than 16 percent just in the past few months. why is that and how low our they against the countries debt . what happened was after called lead to economy activities,

quickly recovered the one bank credit and then import. so this led to some our extended balances. so our problem is on the thompson, unlike insulin car, where the problem is more on the x to not dead, ours is more on the terms of trade because we are facing a very large deficit for last 5 years. on our, our current account deficit is growing every year, so that's where some measures have to be done to check that the negative consequences, that's all about remitted remittances. they constitute nearly a 3rd of the never leaves economy. the government says if one 100000 never leaves national, living abroad, each deposited $10000.00 into netflix banks that could help overcome

the crisis. i mean, how realistic is that? actually in that sense is our revenue turns as the bus and as of the tv has come down to at 22 percent or so from the highs of 26 percent is back. but that certainly significant revenue for the, for the country. so. so that is majors that government wants to implement the new, you know, the made just one of the new measures that taken by the government ease to tap the savings of it by the dads leaving in advance countries. and they, you know, they got out of the banking institutions have started getting a very attractive interest rate worked in dollar deposit as well as local currency dep, legit. so that has started abstract. he never the dashboard in advance countries

and that is m all, many may i just would like to take in future, but that don't have at least in the short term. that's going to have us to have a better color for our it boards. yeah, let's talk about that. the reserves, as you said, less enough for less than 7 months. so how is the limit on non essential import? how is that going to help? how much is that going to help the government from that bob has introduced majors to ban 10 items of import and few months back. the central bank has tight and created for import, and this together have started making some impacts in tom stuff in bullets. but all there always are room in the private sector. the import us to find the ways to

import goods. but i think this is one of the major images that government has to take because immediately there is no other ways, rather than to put a restriction on the bullets. because these are the images that well government can take for in the long run, we need to initiate lots of structural reforms to address this issue, but immediate immediate towns. i think putting restrictions on import is the one the way that the government can do. all right, thank you very much for your time. i got home there from katherine. thank you very much. and that is also for this week. get in touch with us by treating me at kim vanelle and do use the has tag a j t t c. when you do or you can talk with an email, counting the cost on their dot net is our address is more for you online at al serra dot com slash the dc. that will take you straight to our page,

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