system on notice that the department of justice will use every tool working along with our partners. every tool that we have to attack the criminal use of the dark net and crypto currency. the bits lateral website is predictably down a message earlier said it had been seized by international law enforcement action based in hong kong run by a russian. yes, treasury department says it laundered hundreds of millions of dollars and became a key point for criminality on the dark web. the treasury department says that makes it something that could be used to help rushes warden ukraine at a time and rushes waging a brood, old unjustified war in ukraine. and as it seeks to circumvent sanctions and governance controls to fillets coffers and sustain its violence, we will not tolerate criminals enterprises that enrich russia's malicious interest . ah, the justice department alleges most of the exchanges business comes from processing

online scams and wandering ransomware cache. it is ruling out further charges and claims to these action shot stone, a busy corner of the criminal ecosystem. allen fisher al jazeera washington. ah, this is al jazeera and these are the top stories. ukraine secret service has launched an investigation into a helicopter crash and the key region that killed the interior minister and other senior officials. 14 people died including one child. afghanistan's government says freezing temperatures have killed at least 70 people and tens of thousands of cattle across the country. forecast her say the cold snap will continue for at least another week. anti government protesters from across peru are converging on the capital for 2 days of mass demonstrations. they want president dina bought

a worth it to resign and her predecessor federal castillo to be released from jail . marianna sanchez reports from lima. been seeing a groups of different people with some of them, some of them with a costume, some of them with the flags of a representing the ink of civilization. many of them coming from the south of the country more than anywhere else in the country from could go from who know from i of who to an under way less where most of the deadly protests took place in the last few weeks. now these people have been marching around the streets of the capitol. israel supreme court has ordered prime minister benjamin netanyahu to remove a senior member of his government. it ruled that ru dairy cannot serve as a minister because he was convicted of tax fraud last year. dairy is a close ally of the prime minister and head of the ultra orthodox shots party. the decision has sparked fears of a political crisis in the new coalition government. the f. b,

i is arrested the russian founder of the bits lotto crypto currency exchange for alleged money laundering. the department of justice says the hong kong based site was used to launder millions of dollars of elicit russian funds. those are the headlines. the news continues here on al jazeera, after counting the cost. thanks for watching. oh, stated, imposed musical baron that made fool social resistance. on to do words tells the story or go home soon of music. you couldn't escape arabic, earth as everywhere that was outlined in early years of the turkish republic with which the people loved to he is our best losing all new jersey. i

live there, i'm the cloud. this is counting the cost on al jazeera. you looked at the, well, the business and economics this week, china's at 0 cobit policy is over despite a surgeon case as the country has opened, its doors to the rest of the world. will that help revive the economy and what are the global implications? also this week, europeans have been bracing for difficult winter because of the energy crunch, but gas storage facilities are almost full and prices fell from record highs. site did europe overcome it's energy crisis. plus we explore why savvy young's in, baldwin graduates, a trading as seen at the board room table for chance to work the land. ah. say 3 years of city wide looked downs and border closures in china

have disrupted supply chain squeeze businesses and cause widespread economic damage . now as bay jane joins the rest of the weldon adapting to life with the virus, the lifting of it straight cove. 19 policy is bringing both relief and uncertainty . rolling back pandemic rules is meant to revitalize the economy, but it's also led to new outbreaks. factory activities shrank in december at the shop is pace in nearly 3 years. as covert infections, sweat through production lines across the country, china has been struggling with a drop in retail sales consumers spending and record unemployment rates. but virus curves weren't the only fighter dragging down the chinese economy. the country's property sector is in crisis and trade, which makes up around a 5th of china's g. d. p. took a hit from the global economic slowdown, or the countries re, i bring could have huge implications for the rest of the world to, among the sectors expected to benefit from the lifting of restrictions on foreign

travel is the global hospitality sector. but while some countries offer travelers coming from china, a warm welcome, others impose travel requirements. 20 change as this now from bangkok. oh ruling out the red carpet on it, guests. 3 ministers and a host of senior government officials. welcome passengers on a flight from sharmen and southern china gift bags and garlands. but for the tourists, it was reward enough to be able to travel overseas. and people are currently under review, says here, and here also help you repeat it, interest and everything. wow. is the tourist moved through the airport? neither they nor any of the other arrivals were required to show vaccine certificates. the civil aviation authority that hardly announced full passengers

will be required to show proof of vaccination or immunity from cove at 19, regardless of their country of origin. but the health minister backtracked thailand is dropping vaccine requirements, despite concerns that an influx of chinese tourists could bring new variance at the virus by not imposing restrict, speaking to al jazeera, getting the minister explained. he wants to do everything so to encourage visitors to come. we evaluate the risk and the opportunity to gather a new i valuation is that there is no risk de still risk, but we have things to overcome those risks. you in the financial risks of not inviting people who by the way, you mean the, find the economic risk of norfolk southern risk. this abrupt you said is an indication of the fact that thailand wants tourist arrivals from anywhere in the world. the fact they're hoping for $10000000.00 arrivals from china by the end of the year. so soon, indication of hairline thailand is now on arrivals from china. other asian nations

are also hoping to leo back chinese tourists. japan was one of the most popular pre pandemic destinations for chinese travelers. although now they'll have to show negative cove at 19 tests. but no entry requirements for barley like thailand, indonesia has dropped all korean of ours curbs. although it expects visitor numbers will remain low. thailand however, needs to get back to pre pandemic visitor levels. fast hardy unhappy, the chinese tourists are coming back. we haven't been able to make a living. we all suffered while they were gone with only a 1000000 chinese arrivals expected in the 1st quarter of the year. that might be wishful thinking with the patient government lifting all travel restrictions. many asian countries will be hoping chinese visitors make the most of the new found freedom. so let's take this on from london and joined by shirley z u, who's a senior practitioner fellow with the ash center of harvard kennedy school,

and are visiting senior fellow at the london school of economics. charlie, welcome to the program at so 1st up, china's reopening is a big deal, isn't it? do you expect a quick economic recovery, or might it be hampered by the surge in infections? good morning, nick defect charade has hard to 80 percent in most of the economically developed regions in china. and the buyers will continue to spread are in the rural regions in the coming month. however, because of the fact that most of the industrial supply chains are spread across china's economically connected regions to so the supply chain recovery itself will be pretty quick and pretty strong. the government always investing infrastructure to keep the economy some needed a dose of boost. however, consumption is really 60 percent of the chinese economy. so unless we see the consumer demand to pick out, we do not really see the signs are fe sustainable,

our structure recovery yet. right. and that's the thing, is that because consumer and business confidence has been really hit by the cobra pandemic. so how will that the government's set about trying to restore that confidence? i absolutely agree with you. i think of some consistency in the government to policy setting be crucial to boost the consumer and business confidence. so chinese consumers have saved 17 trillion are being 2020 tunic and that's roughly almost close to 3 trillion dollars. and so consumers are really opting for saving, rather than investing or consuming. and i think i talked about consistency in the past couple of years. we have seen a lot of policies that have not been consistent. first of all, it was out to crack down on the real estate sector and now she rescued a sector. it was to crack down on china speak, take and not supporting the be tag. and it was a 0 call the containment for a couple of years. and, and all of a sudden, overnight is changed. sure. letting the viruses spread as quickly as possible. so

no matter if you are a consumer business entrepreneur, you really don't know what's going to happen next. and so i think the government really has a lot of job to do to send a strong, inconsistent message to the public and one of which is to be pro private business. i think the chinese president has recently openly supported the legitimate row of chinese private companies. jo, john governments, the government where ha, alibaba headquarters actually visited the company and established a strategic partnership there. and i think above all, it is really important for the chinese government to send a message out and at that expresses the consistency that economic growth rather than this ideological replicas. struggle will continue to be china's over our chain priority for the foreseeable future. right? another area that the government has had to focus on is, is trying to revive the property sector. has it done enough to they never enough. it's on the road because we haven't seen really the us stabilisation of the really

say sector yet. does victor really faces he structural demographic challenge? china's new birth number in 2022 hit a new low. so there are just simply too many homes for increasing the fewer populations. but the purpose of the government, today's really not so a inside another era of a high growth in the really sector, it is really trying to of, we're avert a systemic financial. isis is trying to say the banks, the banking sector is also trying to save the local governments who are not only heavily indebted today, but they are heavily re lines on will be say, land sales revenue for their fiscal receipts. and so really what the government is trying to achieve here is to avert a spill over from the real estate of crisis into the banking sector. the really see factor is not likely to see high levels of growth for a very long time, but will that i'm gonna be able to avert a systemic financial collapse?

i think so. i think the government still has a lot of tools, both monetary and the fiscal to deploy and needed. or what about money coming in from overseas foreign investments? how thought shape, you know, and that's the area that said been, i really contentious. china will always welcome foreign direct investment, but given the structure of the chinese economy today, nick, the f d i, the china tried to lure a william increasingly b, leaning towards the high end sectors. a high take i in manufacturing of finance and the public health, et cetera. and the recent past loaded negotiation that broke down between the chinese national. are you sure the provider and pfizer really shows that we understand that china inquired about the possibility of pfizer developing. we're producing a generic version in china of for the chinese consumers. and so as trying arrivals up to the global tech funds here,

i think the concerns we'll remain that as china becomes more and more powerful in technology, china will try to come up with a domestic version of the western kind of parts. and that to put the western kind of parts at a disadvantage to china, trying to reconnect with the rest of the world. but at a time when it's relations with the u. s, but not great, are they and the global economy is continuing to slow. so what impact will all of that have on the economic plan? i think we have to re nation the next arrows globalization. i think our sat, the original comprehensive economic partnership that was established between the r c r countries and the rest of asia neighbors. or will continue to generate a chew or trade and economic integration in the asia pacific region. china as clearly expressed the interest and effort in trying to apply for a membership in the c p t p p, which is

a higher bar regional trade in economic agreements. and i think, and today we're starting to seem of increasingly with clarity that the u. s. and the chinese forces are trying to mutually exclude each other from their own industrial supply chains, particularly i the high end. and so i think the next era of globalization, we're starting to see 2 parallel systems of globalization with the chinese and the u. s. a economy said the center. and then there will be a 2 parallel forms of globalization, of going on at the same time in across asia, europe and the increasing the africa. so finally, disability rewinding back to this reopening of china's economy. the is come sooner than expected for, for many golden sucks for once, just that, that will lead to supply chain issues. is that a problem? do they? i think goldman sachs has been wanting about short term supply chain disruptions

and balance, i think are china's re opening and rejoining the world as he said, is a positive for the global economy. and obviously another concern on the horizon is how will the pick up in chinese consumer demand. and also the production capacity of from within china is going to add to the results of global inflation. so there is quite a lot to consider. there are surely the years is great to have your analysis. we appreciate it. thanks very much in clinic. ah. so it's being considered year it's worst nightmare in decades, the energy crunch caused by russia shotting of gas applies, was expected to get worse, and even spiral out of control in the winter. factories did go dark and the heating was turned down as europe in households and businesses, or the brunt of hefty energy bills. but after months of striving to secure supplies and lower the cost of switching on the lights and cooking males,

europe's fortunes may have turned natural gas prices in europe. and the united states fell to their lowest level since russia's invasion of ukraine, wholesale european gas prices, as measured by the benchmark dutch futures contract. i've fallen to $77.00 per megawatt hour early this month, and they've sold to an all time high of $364.00 back in august. well, energy prices rocketed after russia stop the flow of gas through the nord stream, one pipeline to europe, citing technical problems. the e u is accused mosque of using energy as a weapon in retaliation for western sanctions imposed on russia over its invasion of ukraine. of the block boosted imports from norway to replace rush and gas and snap tops supplies. if liquefied natural gas mostly from the united states and qatar, they also raise to build facilities needed to receive l and g by ships and converted into gas that can be transported through pipelines. european nations filled up

their storage facilities and encourage consumes to use less gas by setting a voluntary 15 percent reduction target. some nations have shifted back to colon restarted nuclear plants and rolled out ambitious renewable energy plans. all the while russia has increased gas exports to china in an attempt to reduce its dependence on the european market. well, joining me now from vienna as your hands beneath your highness is the chairman and executive officer of j. b. c. vienna. you welcome to the program at 1st up. so there we were ferrying the winter of soaring prices and in fact, gas prices have slumped. is that just down to the war weather that we've had across europe so far this winter or indeed action taken by nations. but it's a combination, really expensive. tennis of the gas supply has motivated many of the consumers, many of the industries to reduce their demand. some of the businesses simply have

shut down. they preferred to make money by selling their natural gas. others obviously are reducing their consumption because it's so expensive, but they were also lucky because the winter weather supplies been fairly mild and trace it we have seen, still supplied from russia, which has prevented divorcing to. so there is reduced supply from russia. they managed to build inventories beforehand so, so far. yeah, they were lucky. you use the phrase as i fall twice, in particular, referring to the the winter weather. i mean, it could yet be a big freeze. would that change things radically? well, it won't change anything for this year. i think for this winter we are over the top of the most difficult time. the inventories are reasonably told so they will manage to go through this winter. the problem comes in the next he think, season,

simply because you have to bear in mind in 2022. a lot of the natural gas that is on inventory right now has still come out of russia. and because the supplies were still working fully till the middle of the year. now this, you know, stream one, you know, at least currently it seems unlikely to operate no stream to cook in theory operator. but that is politically not very, very easy to, to handle. so this year is going to be very difficult in the refill process. we talk about this, the drop in prices, but the consumers aren't seeing that, at what point will they see the dropping prices to the energy bills? and the question is, in whose interest is it? the governments are really trying to motivate the consumers not to maintain demand on the island. now, once prices decline, obviously the consumers don't feel the pressure so much and they would maybe increase consumption again. so i think right now, you know, it's in the interest of the governments to motivate the consumers to consume more.

that's why it's going to be very funny. if you see prices dropping, that would be unusual. how long do you think government can continue to intervene to keep prices down? i mean, right now the winter should do most of it. thereafter, when prices are falling, obviously it's going to be a bit more difficult for them not to to allow that price dropped to. so right now, you see a lot of motivation for everyone not not to consume as much as before. but i mean, we have to face this, this decline in process is not only a, you repeat in sphere, right? europe right now, it's benefiting from 2 factors in the market to, apart from the weather. number one is that china is not yet back on its feet. and number 2, simply because the high natural gas price is not only have motivated you repeat consumers to consumers. we have seen a whole bunch of asian countries that were turning away from coal in using more

natural gas, basically to revert back to coal. now that means they were priced out, and this is basically, to some degree helping the pin supplies iteration. he mentioned china. what are the implications of china's reopening on your energy market? where it's dramatic, i mean china and the last couple of years has become globally the biggest player on the island. she market. it has successfully reduced the share of coal and agenda, and that she portfolio basically increasing the gas element in it. now we have seen the last one to years, particularly the year 2022. there was no increase in consumption in terms of natural gas in china. us for obvious reasons compared to and that you cannot make slow down. and now, you know, doesn't matter to whom you speak, everyone would expect this year. there will be a come back now that may be happening, it may not. but if it happens, clearly,

china is a dominant player, and d and d, ellen, she market and it would be then, you know, compete with europe that put them price at drive price is higher, right? and will benefit russia, because china would be a klein's of russia. right? well, i mean, right now the funny thing is russia doesn't sell so much pipe gas to europe, but it's for the balance sheet to europe. it's so funny. i mean it's, it's the, the strategy in terms of factions in europe is not way well, well balanced. but right now, rusher is making more in vote to deal and she market. of course, the pipeline supply into china is one topic. but bear in mind that takes many years to go because of building and expanding pipelines that wants to die in place right now have been basically approved and built into the investment decision, but taking 5 to 10 years ago. so whatever happens right now has been decided many

years ago. so this is not a one day to the of the exercise, but yes, they will in the medium term, build more capacity iteration. and what's happened finally has inspired a change in the approach. the renewable energy build across europe is not going to continue. do you think and will it gain momentum? we see that right now, the pin commission is basically meant i think, member countries to accelerate the approval process for renewable projects. many countries that are now executing that thing in australia. they chose to prove it. and that means that you can build wind park solar pugs faster than before. and that will help. but bear in mind that it is not in the immediate solution. this is going to take a couple of years till that is translating into more energy independence. in the meantime, what it'll, what is happening is that the relatively low amount of carbon dioxide does that is

in natural gas, has been swapped against a higher amount of carbon dioxide in coal. because you see everywhere right now in europe that coal is helping out to provide to energy. and that basically comes at the cost, not only in asia, right. what i mentioned before, but it comes to the cost also in europe in terms of moving away from fossil fuels and high carbon energy. yo has been ye good to get your thoughts. thank you. thank you. all right, the soaring cost of living and rising interest rates are curbing consumers appetite shiny electronic devices. samsung, which is the world's biggest manufacturer of memory, chips, smartphones, and t. v. 's says it's profits for the last 3 months of 20. 22. plunged by almost 70 percent, that is the lowest level in 8 years. well, the south graham company has been struggling with weak demand for memory chips, smartphones, and displays. as consumers tamped down on spending. samsung as

a latest major technology company to be hit by dropping sales as concerns grow about a global economic downturn. well, unemployment is high in zimbabwe, and most of the population of 40000000 is working in formerly to make ends meet. many young graduates with degrees and business and more in finance, in technology, you can't find a job in their fields as switching to farming to try and earn a living. hiring mathias reports now from the grow munsey district in eastern symbolic way. unicoi giacomo has a master's degree in international trade law, but finding a job in zimbabwe is difficult. so in 2018, he became a farmer and now employees, several people. the 30 year old is one part of a new generation of educated youths who worked the land to create livelihoods, but navigating the countries. farming industry isn't easy. the biggest challenge

we've got is an issue are for finance or capital and do for even young people to be able to walk into a bank. you've got no collateral, you've got probably no history or you've got no studied lane to tell how valuable your business or your idea is. and also even the excess to, to lent the state some banks and the private sector help finance farmers. but many say they can't get the help they need to get started. this country has a lot of fertile land, but since landra fallen when commercial farms was seized from white and given to blacks and barbarians, some of that land is not being fully utilized. more young people here say they can help increase productivity in another part of the country, valerie mozilla and her husband are preparing to export watermelons to the middle east, zimbabwe. strategically located because most of this product grad getting it from

australia in brazil. zimbabwe is just $21.00 to $28.00 days to dubai. whereas when you look at brazil, they are looking at over $35.00 days on water, old infrastructure, electricity shortages and, and inflation rate of more than 200 percent. a. some of the factors holding back the bobbies farmers, it really depends on the performance of the economy, whether you are going to be successful. it really depends on the performance of economies the input economy improves. so at the profit prospects of firms, valerie believe farming could be one solution to the countries unemployment problem . but young people say for that to work, they must have access to the resources they need to thrive. i love says, i'll show for this week if you'd like to comment on anything you've seen, you can tweak me at clark al jazz using the hash tag a j c t c, or drop us an email. cutting the cost at auxilary dot net is all address but does

more for you online at ubs or a dot com slash cdc. that'll take you straight to our page, which has individual reports, links and anti episodes view the country. so that's it for this edition of counting the cost. i'm the clock from the whole team. thanks for joining us. the news on al jazeera is coming up ah, along with in depth analysis of the days headlines from around the world to try right. extremely, there is real and need to be tackled as soon as possible informed opinions. why is the serial opposition concerned about this rather small between turkey and see

those them on the really remove a key? this is, i'm so forth. frank assessments, you know, there was a joke about the interim government that it's not in for, nor does it got inside story on al jazeera, the latest news, as it breaks. also narrow supporters across the country. they don't take to the street until they talk well, the government with detailed coverage since land are formed when calissa bomb with these from why can given to plants and bobby, and some of the land is not being fully utilized from around the world. the newly formed orthodox church. great holes christmas pres, here for the 1st time ah, ukraine's interior minister is among at least 14 people killed in a helicopter crash near keith. the high.