flooding and neighboring arkansas. ah no without desert, these are the top stories this, our emanuel micron has been sworn in for a 2nd term as french president. he's vowing to build a stronger france and to do better than in his 1st 5 years micron. a centrist was helped by left wing voters who were anxious to keep the far right runner up marine le pen out of office. north korea has fired. what's believed to be a ballistic missile for the 2nd time this week. and for as a warning from the u. s that pyongyang could be preparing to test nuclear missiles later this month. russia is rehearsing for his annual victory parade on monday, marking the anniversary of nazi germany surrender. in the 2nd world war. they'll be a curfew around the ukrainian port city of odessa from sunday. because it worries over russian celebrations. it's the final day of campaigning. a head of monday's

presidential election in the philippines leading candidates offers not marcos junior and vice president, lenny robledo. so as louis is following the marcus campaign in manila. well, the marcus campaign really has been able to take advantage of the fact that more than half of the registered voters in the philippines are too young to have lived through his father's administration. or even to remember what it is like. it was a period wife with corruption and human rights abuses, but his campaign and his supporters have been able to re paint that as a golden era for the philippines. they talked about the infrastructure that he had built glossing over the fact that he got the country into huge foreign debt. now he has been able to do this in part with misleading posts on social media, shoreline because president has drawn chris some criticism, both at home and abroad, after declaring a state of emergency for the 2nd time in 5 weeks. president got

a bio roger pack sir, has been facing nationwide calls for his resignation because of an economic crisis . decree gives the president sweeping powers, santibanez, ordering women in afghanistan to where head to toe burgers and public. the orders come from the supreme leader who says it's traditional and respectful as one of the strictest controls imposed on women since the group swept to power. last august. and 7 palestinians have been injured in confrontations with israeli forces in the occupied west bank. it happened after a house in the village of that i'll her, if year was demolished on saturday, the home belong to a man who, along with other family is accused of killing and is ready cetera. in december. those are your headlines this our more news continuing hair on al jazeera that's after counting the cost nuclear whiskey today. but the news on our website. oh, no struggles full of pleasure. fancy play. when police look at it yesterday,

ma'am. oh, what is it today? my lowville bomb ladder to clean this up, let alone put us about to buy me when we were out of town. what an intimate look at life in cuba will work a mom or was there like, i say, i killed said the commented me there yet. my cuba on al jazeera ah hello, i'm adrian finnegan. this is counting the cost on elder 0. you're wiki, look at the world of business and economics. this week, the stakes arising in the battle over russian energy, putin turns off, the gas taps and the e. you propose, as a ban on moscow's oil imports by the end of the year. but what will the energy war cost also this week?

russia's rouble hits of 2 year high. and it's so called fortress economy is believed to be holding up so far. but has moscow really, whether the worst of sanctions, netflix loses subscribers for the 1st time at the decade. and cnn plus shuts down its platform just a month off to launch. how viewers had enough that is the whole streaming industry of risks. ah, rushes president vladimir putin is making good on his threat to turn off the supply of natural gas to europe. supplies to bulgaria, and poland have been halted after they refused to pay for gas in roubles. other european countries may also be cut off within weeks. if they to reject russia's demand, the e u, as dismissed the move as blackmail that is under pressure to cut the cord on russian energy. the block has proposed a complete ban on all washing oil imports. by the end of the year. we will make sure that we phase out russian oil in an orderly fashion. so in

a way that allows us and our partners to secure alternative supply routes. and at the same time, be very careful that we minimize the impact on the global market. with all these steps, we are depriving the russian economy from its ability to diversify and to modernize who teen wanted to wipe out ukraine from the map. and she were clearly not sexy, but natural gas has yet to be targeted with sanctions. russia demanded the european companies pay for gas in euro's to gas, prong bank, which would then convert them into roubles in a secondary account. the e rejected the ultimate him saying that it violates sanctions, but several european thumbs had reportedly opened accounts, outcast prom bank, to meet russia's payment demand, poland, and bulgaria, which refused to pay an rouble say that they could cope without russian gas. sophia says that it's made alternative arrangements while warsaw insists that it's energy

supplies are secure. however, other countries could be hit hard if russia cut supplies. germany's gas storage facilities are only $33.00 and a half percent full. italy's at 35 percent, and hunger is just 19.4 percent, but europe in governments of fast tracking regulation that requires gas stores to be filled to 80 percent capacity before next winter. they've also set a year and deadline to cut 2 thirds of gas imports from russia and planned to eliminate it completely by 2027 and more liquefied natural gas is being shipped from qatar and the u. s. piped natural gas imports from countries like norway and algeria will be increased and the deployment of renewable energy will be accelerated among other measures taken to decrease the dependence on russian energy . russia provides 40 percent of europe's gas and 25 percent of its oil. and the cost of some $850000000.00

a day. and that accounts for at least 40 percent of brushes revenues? well the price of gas search by as much as 20 percent off the gas prom suspended deliveries. and the euro's value fell below $1.06. for the 1st time in 5 years. europe's leaders say that they can't afford the consequences of an immediate boycott and the divided over the ban on russian energy imports. well, let's discuss this further with michael bradshaw, a professor of global energy at work business school. he georgia, now from coventry in the u. k. michael european countries can't just stop using wash and gas overnight. and yet here they are faced with this dilemma of how to keep their supplies going well, not breaching russian sanctions. how are they going to do that? very difficult. i mean, i think it's, it's a deliberate play. bye bye. glad to drive division. so, you know, there is a very technical issue about how they should make their payment payments to into

get from bank. and the european commission is determined if you, if you do what the russians do, then you are a breach sanctions. actually, i don't think the european politicians want to see the gas stop flowing because the gas situation is pretty, pretty difficult. president pushing has made good on his threat though to, to, to cut off the gas. he's already done it to bulgaria and to poland, who could be next? well i think they selectively chose those countries in the countries have so they wouldn't follow the payment regime problem that already decided to it wasn't going to renew its contract in russia at the end of the year. the gary is not a major importer. i think it really determine what will determine this is what happens with the major import places such as germany, initially who are not only highly dependent on russian gas, but it's a large while the gas and their industries are life. i mean, i think that's very good. i was just going to ask you what all this is going to do to the price of gas as well. we as consumers, does it mean that wherever we are in the world are going to be paying more for

natural gas as it? yes, um no, i mean, i think this is affecting the sort of the short term spot market. if you like a lot of the natural gas, it's traded as l n g into asia, he's on long term contracts, and he's actually indexed for the price. it's primarily in europe where we've got a reliance on short to spot markets in the market. so is the very last factor in the price of gas. interesting, the, or also the gas price of gas. so it's much lower in the united states has been going up because the demand for gas to export to europe. so yes, it will affect every consumer in europe in the united states and eventually in asia, they will also have to door on the spot market. but in the northern hemisphere course meeting in the summer investment is. ready lower than what is president putin strategy here? he's not going to shoot himself in the foot by cutting off gas supplies to, to major customers. he must have a plan here. well, come about shortage, shooting himself in the middle. i think this whole of the war and ukraine. i can't see that. are there any when i don't see what you're spending to gain from

destroying the position of russia? there are a lot of the supplier, you'll see europe. so if he has a plan, is probably already backfired time the russian economy withstand the loss of so much energy revenue. well, the thing at the moment of course, is that it's when you talk about revenue, the price is so high that the volumes for the revenue still remains quite high. and in fact, in the last 6 months, natural gas in ports of huge amounts of money and in the past, they used to be very much 2nd, 2nd place to oil. again, the price is also high, but russia is trading. it's a very significant discount at the moment, but it is finding buyers, i think over the longer term. this will start to have a major impact on the russian economy. it will take time for russia. syrup final turn into sources of supply, and it will be costly and difficult for russia to find a solid markets restoril. so i would think, you know, over the long term period this would really stop the impact on the russian economy

. you say that russia is finding buyers where all those buyers, china, that they're in there in asia, is that they going to be able to fill the gaps the europe is leaving. well, yes and no. i mean, i think, yes, they've been talk of chinese bars. they're not the national companies, i think they're the smallest. the smaller private refineries in years. been taking some cargoes, but not the size, the volumes that russia has been ex, exports to your, your it's why far it's, it's my support market. it's also having to send that oil further on ships and it's struggling to find ships and get insurance shipping. so one of those things going to make it much more difficult to, to, to maintain exports and earnings at the level they have been in the recent past. it's, but it's not an easy matter. suddenly to readjust markets, why are there enough energy alternatives for europe to plug the gaps than if it's not reliant upon or not relying as much upon russian gas and oil. again, it's a question of time if you look at the various plans to come out for me and paschal

energy agency, i'm from the european union itself. i meaning in the short term it's, it's going to be very challenging. i talking about importing more l n g, which is already happening from united states. but i was looking at the demand side . what can we do to reduce the amount of gas for example that we consume? and of course, these very high prices, the oil, for example, label. so dr. demand destruction, people drive less, they much more cautious about their energy usage. so a combination of demand side, fax is perhaps on and some reorientation of supply. but there's still going to be a gap and if, if, if gas deliveries do get disrupted. net coming next winter, then we'll be we'll, we'll be seeing potentially power cups and industry having to shut down. we'll come back to that in just a moment cuz that's an important point. but in the meantime, you mentioned about people looking to alternative supplies. will this crisis hasten? do you think that the shift accelerate the transition to renewable energy supplies? well, very much. ready that's the intention you're with it,

with the various plans and some tend to new k with our new strategy that this is going to accelerate the transition away. so it's not just about moving away from rational and gas. it's accelerating way for more than gas, from anywhere, like promoting low carbon transition. so when we talked a few moments ago about president putin, perhaps shooting himself in the foot here with having an unrealistic strategy. if we're going to be facing power cuts in europe as early as next winter, could it be argued that perhaps europe and leaders are doing the same, they're going to hurt themselves economically by moving away from russian gas and oil. yes, absolutely. you know, and i think you'll see that some european leaders in the last last they also talked about being a double edged sword. and you hear a similar rhetoric from, from seen in the sense of europe searching itself. but that's the price that we have to pay. we're going to do take actions that really do heard russia, but yes, it is going to have an impact. there's no doubt about that. other,

any winners in this situation? it's hard to find them. now let's see at the moment, national company said the delivery reco profit, so i assuming the other all states doing well, but they're knock on effect. these very high prices may be very negative in terms of the global economy and the, and that may, again, drive demand destruction unless income. so i think just coming out of the pandemic and having this level of disruption in the global economy is not good for anyone. i can't see any real when a professor it's been really go to tokyo and counting across many thanks. indeed for being with us. thank you very much, bye. the. so why does the russian president want payments in rubles, for one answer could be to shore up the currency, which plunged to historic close after vladimir putin sent his troops into ukraine, unleashing unprecedented western sanctions that have battered the russian economy. but now, thanks in part to higher commodities prices,

banks of return to liquidity surplus and the ruble as rallied, hitting a 2 year high against the euro. and the dollar. and the central bank has reversed its policy of steep increases to borrowing costs. interest rates have been caught by a for the 3 percent in an attempt to boost the economy. the main lending rate, which was raised in the immediate aftermath of the invasion, is now up 14 percent. russia is imposed capital controls to prevent russians moving their money out of the country and requires the countries exporters to convert most of their foreign currency revenues into roubles and the rebel as gained more ground after the country said that it managed to pay back creditors with dollars, as russia tries to avoid defaulting on its debts, the russian finance ministry said that it made a $565000000000.00 euro bond payment that was due this year, as well as settling at $84000000.00 euro bond that was sent to mature in 2 years, russia has lost access to much of its foreign currency reserves due to sanctions

and wants to pay lenders in roubles, but credit ratings agencies have rejected that suggestion. but russia is expected to suffer a deep recession. the central bank warned that the economy may face 2 straight years of contraction estimated at up to 10 percent this year. it also expects inflation to increase by around 20 percent over the coming months and the interruptions to supply chains caused by the sanctions a crippling russia's production capacities. there was a 72 percent drop in passenger car production in the country. for example, in march, we're joining us now from london. is tatiana all over lead emerging market economist at oxford economics. tatiana, good to have you with us at 1st question has to be, why is president puting in insisting right now that energy payments have to be made in rubles hello and thank you for inviting me today. i think 1st of all, this is a political statement and it's understandable in the current j political contest

context. the purpose of this announcement was basically to sort of, it would be viewed as a sang some in response to the west, imposing biting sanctions on the russia. and it has been targeted at so called friendly come to speech have imposed such sanction. but actually, if you look at the mechanism itself, the trash has proposed, it doesn't actually demand european bias to play in the rubles, it's demand them to play into accounts and guess from bank beach and payments can be made in their regional current fuel. the contract, whether it was mostly juris. and the trick here is that the, the money is going to be them convert that into both in russia. so strictly

speaking, the decree beach put in find does not demand payment, renewables. ok. the ruble itself is on a slightly firm ground. right now. it's written against the dollar and the euro. a touch has russia avoided the worst of what the sanctions were designed to do it? i mean, is it going to avoid economic collapse? well, yes, we can actually say that the 1st free, so base crisis is, has now finished. and actually the russian authorities have managed to avoid you know, amount down into banking sector for example, or complete meltdown in effects market. and this was done by a combination of capital controls and huge re try reach the central bank implemented in the days of the invasion. so the free trial was

a $1050.00 basis points, which is very large. and the capital controls are preventing investors from moving funds to russia, which is reducing the pressure on the rubel. so if you look at where the rubel is trading now, is actually at trading at a stronger level versus us dollar them. it was in the, in the base preceding the beginning of the base conflict. all right, so the economy is, is weathering the storm for the moment, but for how long could it continue to do so? well, there are some long john processes which have been launched in be home to me. it deep restructuring of the changes still be happening to the structure with a call me as russia is going to people the way from europe towards asia.

so treat ties are going to be cut, they're already being cut with the west and buyers of russian exports, self sanctioning and creating their input. so russian come or did use mostly. russia is no longer able to import a lot of goods from the country. speech have imposed sanctions against it. so the, these processes couple ready to be launched. it's just the matter of months and years before before we can see the full impact over these measures and the country is, there's no doubt the country is headed for quite a deep recession, isn't it? yes it is. our current focused view is caesar, recession know for about with the contraction and they output took about 10 percent this year. and so the 3 percent next year. and what impact is all of that kind of have on the cost of living for ordinary russians? the cost of leaving has already increased considerably. price is increased in march

by 7.6 percent versus the level in february, february. so it was quite a shop shock. but after that, actually the price grows slowed down because as i have said, they ruble exchange rates that the life and return to its previous level. so there is no so the pressure on price is from the currency side. we mentioned a few moments ago that the country has managed to, to, to pay off some of the of its debt. what are the long term prospects on that? can russia afford to keep servicing its debt? is there a danger somewhere down the line of his economic pressure continues for, for maybe 12 years or longer of russia defaulting on its debt while russia has a very low level of government debt. so i think that even this by the current measures my just currently discussed by the european union regarding the

freezing out russian oil and gas. i think still russia still should be able to play it's it's that if the oil price at some point in the future, collapses, as a task happens in the past, then the situation go probably change. but at the moment, the main risk of fresh and default is tammy, from its ability to actually perform these payments. it's effectively up to us of authorities, whether do allow us banks to process so the debt payments by the russian government . so the piece is where the main, the risk is to have a great talk to you on counting the cost money. thanks. and dave for being with us . thank you for inviting me again. now it's known as a global hits like squid game money, heis and the crown. netflix has been top of the league of streaming services for a long time now,

but pandemic restrictions that kept people glued to their screens. a receding competition is getting tougher, and netflix is losing subscribers for the 1st time. at a decade. the platform lost $200000.00 subscribers in the 1st 3 months of the year . at expects to lose 2000000 more in the 2nd quarter. the announcement sent the company's stock down more than 35 percent last week, wiping at least $54000000000.00 off its market value. netflix generated revenue of almost $8000000000.00 in the 1st 3 months of the year. but that marked a slow down for previous quarter's while profits fell by more than 6 percent. and it's not only netflix that has faced a slump. shares in disney roku, paramount at warner brothers discovery have also slipped, or cnn is shutting down its streaming service. cnn plus just a month after it was launched. on the flip side, h, b o at h, b o max had almost 78000000 subscribers at the end of the 1st quarter of 2022.

that's around a 13000000 year on year increase. joining us from london, tim mulligan, he's a senior analyst and research director at media research team. good had he with us . where is it all gone wrong for netflix? a big question. simply poll, netflix reached a certain level of growth and development where easy when this book canoeing, that rapid growth trajectory out the previous decade on the long and pretty speed that comes into is one is competition and coal markets to go into domestic market us, which still accounts for over a 3rd or better scriber's, but then it's where the growth is becoming the last the years since they made it back in 2017 folks and international subscribers. that growth is leveling off because the mitigate market staff don't actually have the discretion. we income to

be able to afford monthly subscription. so the competition are now moving into support propositions. this is something that netflix has mostly pushed back against happenings that are offering that call us pay is free on demand experience. the final today should make about why netflix is starting to struggle with growth and retention. is a combination of that whole folio of content. so they know speed. don't have news, nurse be done, have schools in the line. now this is essential to be able to offer a streaming tv alternatives to digital k tv, which is what the talk about subscription video services are. see the streaming pay tv, so they lack that. some of you know, school capacitors moving into the market over the last 3 years have that they lacks

something that they may want to consider. the other final pace is to our war why netflix is currently in this challenging position, is we're entertain what media calls the attention recession. now, the recession is when the combination of the long term strategic limits, all people are able to get out of the homes and able to socialize again. they will do all the to dish month payment formats that weren't available to a lot. remember that there are still parts the world that are coming out of that lockdown period. so inevitably, that combines with this long term set it attention engagement to create attention,

recession have way past pig streaming. do you think? do you think the market is just to saturated? yes and no, it's a qualified. yes, no. because what we're, what we're experiencing is, is transition judicial tv consumption to streaming tv consumption. we're moving into that streaming tv. so that still means that there are some negative behaviors around traditionally new tv consumption that will migrate to streaming. but why isn't downloadable is we've also got these constraints and the amount time that can be spent at home and table return in real life is payments. the movie attention recession means that growth is not no longer be easily found. and the other aspect of this is the subscription model, all streaming services. today, the goal of the subscription prescription model is now being old minutes. it will

inevitably be surpassed by app supported streaming. in the same way, traditional tv has been divided between k tv and broadcast tv. app tv is traditionally be the majority of the market. your consumers are willing to tolerate assets to engage with content is the minority. you are willing to pay for an app free experience that will never be trans like streaming, specially as this becomes a global phenomena, news beyond develop markets which now increase the saturated with subscription services. fascinating term has been really good top here many thanks for being with us on counting the cost. you're welcome. thank you. i'm. that's our show for this week. don't forget to be able to get in touch with us about anything you've seen. you can treat me. i'm at 8th, finnegan on twitter. please use the hash tag a j c t c. when you do or you could drop us a line counting the cost of al jazeera dot net is our email address. as always,

there's plenty more for you online at al serra dot com slash ctc. that takes you straight to a page from there, you'll find individual reports, links, even entire episodes for you to catch up. but that is it for this edition of counting the cost. i'm adrian finnegan from the whole team here in so how, thanks for being with us. the news is next on al jazeera. ah ah, how and why did wooten become so obsessed? with this law?

we were giving them a tool to hold corrupt individuals in human rights, abusers accountable. they're going to rip this deal apart if they take the white house of 2025. what is the world hearing what we're talking about? why american? today we take on us politics and society. that's the bottom line. ah, this is al jazeera ah, i'm terry johnson. this is a news our life from don't will coming up in the next 60 minutes. french press tend to manual macaroni is sworn in for a 2nd time. that's likely to be overshadowed by challenges at home and abroad. after more than a dozen tests so far this year, north korea is accused of firing. another ballistic missile has its forces back to you.