parts of maine, it was so cold, there were frost quakes. small earthquakes caused by sudden cracks in frozen soil. elsewhere the brutal, cold, complicated, the emergency response to a massive fire. after train derailment overnight in ohio, freezing the water being pumped to fire fighters, icey roads have made for hazardous driving in some states, like here in oklahoma. but back in boston, temperatures began to creep up slightly in the afternoon, reaching negative 12. people began to come out and brave the elements having some fun. but this is certainly a deep freeze that people here won't forget any time soon. gabriel sandow al jazeera boston ah. time for a quick check of the headlines here on al jazeera, the u. s. military,

a shot down a chinese balloon, which it says was a surveillance craft. the pentagon claims the balloon was being used to spy on strategic sites across the country. beijing has condemned the move. they maintain it was a civilian weather balloon that had blown off course. our pentagon correspondent, political hand has more from washington, dc. i. they say now they're going to focus on the recovery effort. they say that should be easier than they actually thought it would be, because it's in somewhat shallow water is just about 14 meters, a little bit more than that. so what they're doing now is they have a whole host of u. s. navy ships a patrol in the area, the coast guards there. they say they're doing is they're bringing in a special boat sort of crane apparatus. and then they're going to use navy divers and unmanned subversive goals. to basically go down to where this at this now dep deflated balloon is and all of that equipment and basically pull it up to the surface, loaded onto a ship. people in ecuador are preparing to head to the polls to vote in a referendum on constitutional reforms. the vote is seen as

a major test for president, yet more lasso, whose approval rating sits at less than 20 percent. this comes as the country faces ongoing unrest triggered by an increase food and fuel prices. hope frances has been meeting people affected by the conflict and south sudan, the head of the roman catholic church, called for an end to the decade long civil war that's displaced 4000000 people. 22 people are now confirmed dead in wild fires that are sweeping across chile firefighters. say there are now more than 250 different act of fires. the fires have been sparked by an unusually hot summer heat wave. almost half a 1000000 people in ukraine's odessa region, or without power. after a fire at an overloaded electrical substation officials warned that repairs could take weeks, a high voltage substation, and the power infrastructure around odessa had been damaged by repeated russian missile strikes. protests had been held against israel's coalition government for

a 5th successive saturday. the government led by prime minister benjamin netanyahu is the most right wing and israel's history. there's widespread anger against his proposals to weaken the powers of the supreme court. those are the headlines. the news continues here on al jazeera, after counting the cost. thanks for watching. bye for now. ah, al jazeera, when ever you oh, i

hello on the clock. this is counted colson al jazeera. you'll look at the, well, the business and economics this week. europe's population is aging, and france is among many nations struggling to keep retirement schemes afloat. so should work as were taught much older and who put the pension bill. also this week, rising interest rates straining the budgets of countries already in debts. egypt and pakistan are among nations vulnerable to default. will they implement much needed reforms and india's business tycoon, go to a donnie last billions off to fold plans by u. s. investment firm. we explore what's next, the dani empire. ah, said europeans are living longer as a continents population grows older, the number of people who contribute to retirement schemes shrinks. and that is pushing many countries to reform their pension systems to balance the books in france or proposed bill has proven hugely unpopular. the government says it

increasingly retirement age is vital to prevent the system from game bankrupt. but unions and left wing politicians, they are not convinced the control receive over the reform centers on raising the retirement age by 2 years to 64 by 2030. the bill would also increase the minimum number of years that people must pay into the system to get the full pension from 42 to 43 years. it also includes an increase in the minimum pension around $1300.00 a month and allows those who begin work yet younger ages to retire earlier. we're more than a 1000000 people took to the streets for the 2nd nationwide strike against the pension reforms. reforming the social welfare system is a man or micron signature policy, and he has defended his plan as essential. we spoke to joe old, a taxi driver nearing retirement in pers. business was on these oh, i am 70 years old. i've been driving taxis for 42 years and if all goes well,

i'll be retiring in 2 months. however, you all thought i work 11 hours a day. sometimes i try to the saturday morning as well, but it's not always easy if you want family time. if it, if young i was happy working as the taxi driver i organized the hours to sweet me young. i didn't think about my retirement mercy or not. but the things changed with the pandemic and the crises that follow it. we had days with barely 20 percent of our usual turnover. she all, i did the calculations and my patient will be about a $1000.00 a month. my wife and i are going to struggle to make it to the end of the month. she get several, $320.00 off. so we want to children. so she didn't work much. and when she did, she was miserable. she was exploited more than anything else. so i'm very clearly basket. i feel sick to my stomach because now more and more i am confronted with real life. i am approaching retirement and it feels like it sold me for nothing.

some people were, i am a skirt, but they say to myself, fortunately there are these reforms and they will increase pensions to $1300.50. i have to say, i am almost happy because for me that's an extra $270.00, which is something we need. but then to make people work for longer, these owners, obviously everyone knows that if you have to, you'll do it. but you have to be physically able, you have to be strong and he's not easy. it all depends on the job. and many job psychologically or emotionally, dis, 3 you did, and then you need to find or keep a job. if you're already 5055, your salt is difficult to find work. so i'd almost 70 kangi. imagine you go to the recruiters and when you tell them your age, they say sir, it's time to stop working. and i think they are right. is time to stop, although i did follow you will in fact, frances retirement age is among the lowest in europe. the country spent around 14

percent of g. d. p on state pensions in 2019. but it is italy who has the most generous system, spending almost 16 percent of his g. d. p on pensions. and that's followed by greece, which plans to increase pensions this year for the 1st time. in more than a decade. germany spends almost 10 percent of its g d, p on pension, and it's among nations lifting the retirement age to $67.00. the u. k is reportedly lifting it to 68. iceland spends the smallest amount on retirees in europe at 2.9 percent of g d p. yet it is ranked among the top 3 systems. well, joining me now from paris is if he be vista, who is the director of the economic research department at ostrom, asset management affiliate, welcome to the show. at the 1st thing, even in france, raises the retirement age to 64 that still lower than many developed economies say, why such up role? well, it's a, it's a very complicated situation. and for us, you know,

the question is, why do in your retirement reform now, or we have had the bond to make where the surgeon position. and so it's a very, it's probably not a good moment to do that. so the 1st rhythm, the 3rd reason is that as there is a strong political, a reason for that because the kids don't my core, i was not the majority of the national family. and it's her way to limit its power. uncertain as a reform that will take place probably is her her probably not well as, til in a way that people who will retire rapidly or will or will have to, to, to fund postpone the mozy edge of retirement. so if you are 60 while,

if you are 55, you have to work longer. not usually in the retirement reform. it takes time for, for drinks, then it's due to changes creation. so that's, or the reason such, make the year such earn right with the currents in france, right. the thing is, money has got to come from somewhere, isn't it? because if you look at the c, d says that france has very high expected years of life in retirement at ranks 2nd in men at 23 and a half years. and 3rd and women at 27 point one years. and that's compare across the continent. and someone has to pay for that, the money has to come from somewhere that people need to keep working longer than many people agree on reducing to land. so from the retirement period and working longer, but and so there is no really, there is no discussion there on the so i'll just forward that to, to discussion. what is, why do we doing it now?

the 2nd is, does a former retirement re fall as it was bought a 2014? i'll just take a break in 2020. 0, can we manage as is to reforms of former one, which here which will continue on probably we like to write a new one as complicated says, what's your answer to that? what's the solution? what should the government, the solution is to probably love doing it clearly. now it's not necessary to do it now. even for, for budget reasons, for budget bounce reasons, it necessity now as the question is, are on wish permit or do we, do we play on, you know, in retirements? can you hugger a 3 parameters, the number of your contribution, as a neighbor of the pension for retirees, as a level of contribution,

that's for the 3 parameters? and the question is, how to, to, to mix all of them. the government says that lifting her, it's on an actual help at racy employment rate. that's going to be a good thing. we have to demonstrate that it has not been shown everywhere. the world is complicated. no, in france, people above 50 years or other very low employment rates are for many reason to change and we have, we have to which is free. so we have to have a god to make how this improvement dreadful, the people, edge above 55 will increase die. nothing about that. so that's a very well situation as the re full since to be not put any compared to do you know, as you start to wait, we are not sure that the situation is a,

are all willing to all of the reform have been worked on. definitely. so that so that's why it's complicated. and one final thing, it struck me just this reading 3 isn't some facts beforehand that we talked about. iceland, 3 percent, just 3 percent of g d, p spent on pensions yet is among the best games in the world. how do they make that what their countries like iceland, lighter than mog, this a very specific retirement scheme, interiors 5 minutes. it's very small countries, lots of diversified as the price. so it's easier to abby or kind of consensus on the different topics and the retirement is one of you can see so into a kind of put a team agreement or we can have, you know, small country, not in large countries like france o, f, innovation, appreciate that thank you. thank you ah

occurrences sinking to record, lowes dwindling foreign reserves and ballooning debt like many developing nations. the economic crises in egypt and pakistan have been aggravated by the war in ukraine. but other factors have also had an impact among them. the role of military run enterprises in the economy and investments in big and costly infrastructure projects. egypt has a population of more than 100000000 people, one 3rd of them live in poverty. they can't even afford basic foods like eggs and cooking oil, which have doubled in price. the country impose import restrictions and banks limited foreign currency withdrawals to try and conserve scarce dollars. pakistan is also struggling with rising inflation, and it's facing an acute balance of payments crisis with less than 3 weeks worth of import cover in it's a foreign reserves. egypt and pakistan have both resorted to the international monetary fund to help ease their financial problems. cairo committed to reducing

the military's role in the economy as part of the $3000000000.00 i m f package. it also agree to move to a flexible currency exchange rate and slow down public investment in national projects. pakistan has also taken steps to revive its stalled $7000000000.00 fund. among them is easing control on the currency and hiking up petrol and diesel prices . okay, from garage young join, not by act. as ive sally's an assistant professor of economics at how did university there, i miss, i felt welcome to the program. at 1st, tell us more about pakistan, an egypt situation, the similarities and how they've reached this point. well, thank you for having me on the show. next, they can amik crisis in egypt and pakistan has many similarities. first of all, both crises came about in the immediate aftermath of the cities between russia and ukraine. and you might remember that this crisis led to

a commodities supersize because in the case of egypt, there was a massive capital flight of about $20000000000.00. and then egypt was importing very expensive because it's one of the, it's actually the biggest cedar imported in the ward. and those prices went up in the immediate aftermath of the russia, you can conflict in the case of pakistan, elevated oil prices lead to a classic balance of payments crisis. and initially, pakistan tried to deal with it by freezing imports, but very soon both countries are forced to turn back to the i m f for assistance so that the i m f could assist them in stabilizing the condoms. so the efforts that both countries have now made to try and minimize the risk. well, they work well. yes. and no. the efforts that were made by egypt pragmatically, by turning to friends the out of countries that ford in about $13.00 to $15000000000.00 to be egyptian office. initially it worked,

but later on it did not work because they then had to turn to the i m as in the case of pakistan. again, pakistan tried to freeze the exchange rate so as to get a handle, what were important inflation. but they realize that because of this policy decision and because of the overall political instability and pakistan in flaws basically right up. and they were also forced to turn to the i m f for assistance when it comes to the valuations. why was it necessary to do that and how hard was that for people on the street? well, the basic reason has to do with the conditions of the i m. s. that requires exchanged aid in both egypt and pakistan to be determined by market forces. and yes, it has been extremely painful for people. common people in the case of pakistan, inflation is already topping out at 28 percent,

which is highest in 50 years. mind you, in the case of egypt, inflation has stopping out at 25 percent. if we look back at the case of pakistan, this massive inflation highest and 50 is also was large. this country has seen in history pakistani on miscalculate this is going to push an extra 20000000 people into poverty. so this is going to bring about a lot of issues in terms of social unrest, more political instability, and regulation. egypt has committed to reducing the military's role in the economy . will that happen? will it work? well, the i m f has asked specifically for the egyptian state or the military owned businesses to you know, to extricate themselves only to strategic sectors. i think this is not going to work in the short term or the medium term because when it comes to egypt,

almost 2 thirds of the g d. p is connected with state or military on businesses. and this creates a number of different problems for egypt. for instance, it mitigates against innovation and growth. many private sector businesses don't want to compete with military owned businesses because these businesses have thanks and the quarter doors above us. so this, like i said, mitigates against innovation and growth. if egypt were somehow to, you know, get it, get its military out of its economy only by a few percentage points. i think that would open up the space for and to put no ship for innovation and for more growth. so that would give the private sector more opportunity to get involved in both countries. right? that's right. so in the case of pakistan, i mean, which is somewhat similar to you know, miller trees footprint. it's also very expensive and pakistan the military on

serial breakfast cereal, factories and fertilizer factories. but the military's economic footprint and pakistan is not as expensive as it is egypt. of course they have been criticisms for or on the miller trees business connections or being who bake and for the fact that the allegedly pay less tax. so the situation is somewhat similar between egypt and pakistan in terms of the military or the state footprint. when it comes to the economy, similarity also in the way that both countries pull billions of dollars into making projects. does that kind of investment work? i think that's more true in the case of egypt where you know, this massive amount of money on billions of dollars have been paid, have been bored into various vanity projects in the last 10 years. so any where from a new administrative capital to cities in the desert,

what this has done is that this has not brought actual foreign direct investment, which would have created jobs. and would have been a more sustainable source of hard currency. as opposed to that what, what, what this does is that the brings about a classic balance of payments problem and mitigates against growth. as i mentioned previously to you. as far as egypt is concerned, human rights watch is one that the i m f deal. i will leave a 1000000 the economic rights. millions unprotected. do you think that's right? that is the case. i think that that is definitely going to these the i m f. petition allergies are definitely going to push more people into poverty just like in baptist, on buckets. tiny parliament calculated that almost $20000000.00 people are going to be pushed additional $20000000.00 people are going to be pushed into poverty. so i think this is a very serious situation. this is going to create political unrest in both egypt and buckets. at least in the case of pakistan,

the i m f has been somewhat supportive of this month main welfare program or social safety program, which is the benefit and from support program. all right, we'll have to leave it there or does i so appreciate that. thank you. thank you. now in the as a dining group has built a fortune with investments across ports, airports, renewable energy and other industries. but the business empire has recently lost billions of dollars in stock market value. it's founder go to madonna slipped from a list of 10 of the wealth, wealthiest off to fraud allegations against his companies by a u. s. investment firm. the tumbling value of a dining group is fair to have broader implications for indian markets. full outcomes after hindenburg research released a report accusing the tiny group of engaging in decades of so called brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud. the firm dismissed the report as malicious and accused hindenberg of a calculated attack. the american firm says that

a don is extensive rebuttal of its report, ignored, important delegations, and was obligated by nationalism. let's take this on to discuss all of this. i'm joined now by the pankey man who is an associate professor of economics or a page in global university and director for new economics studies. so the pension mahan, welcome to the program. at 1st up a donnie is a big, significant company in india. what happens here is a big deal, isn't it? yes, absolutely. nick and a, one of the key things we need to know is that, and on he has been the poster boy of india's bay, aggressive bullish equity, ron, buddy lily from ear 2020. i mean, his company's profits of sort like no other company. even the lawn must have gas. laura jeff bezos of amazon have never seen their neck would go up at this beast and on his neck. what was somewhere around 9320000000 in september 2019. and

this increase to 160000000000 september 2022. so it's a remarkable rise for any business person in india on asia. he is the founder of one of the largest or don't bring it in india. and more importantly, his business as a beginning, right into the moni government is big agenda on infra investment spending. any of the highways boards, including for the infrastructure investment. you've seen the government making across most of logistical investment. okay. well, it's hugely significant clearly. so what are the implications of this, and is there a danger of broad financial contagion? i think looking at what we see right now, we do see that the business of the stock market really responding in something happened over the last week. i wouldn't be on the side of caution by

saying that the largest stock market trends. why did they have gone missing with what's happened to the stock market share value collapse and probably the, you're not going to look at a provider financially contagion. one needs to be mindful of what's happening with businesses that are connected and have less money to be as you go. i think that's a lot of the problem is really live and but the information be how i think the next few weeks of a likely finding an insurance companies and so forth. absolutely, absolutely. because the boarding strategy for these are the group in the last 3 years, particularly as been looking beyond domestic bath. they've been having fun with these mostly in the form of bonds. and the batter funding in india has been restricted, locked in a 3 years. so there's a lot of exposure in going back to it, but more importantly, this is going to be in the bottom picture really becomes important. the group has

chart says not on the phones, so doing cash, but dani shows focus on international buyers. so whatever happens with the positions exposure dani group for external international one would have gamification on the company and in been stock market. now as you mentioned, the dani is closely associated with their end remote east india elementary and see how the prime minister handled with so so far we have not really heard the from minister and much of the government ministration. and the popular mainstream media has not really picked up on the news. i've the same time. what you would really see is that the movie line as being delivered to the government's business strategy in the last 9 years, the line so. so i was just be, we'll be back to withdraw. that is the prime minister's on state. and one of the

things that need to be more importantly, i think, is the one the gothic linkages. and brenda brockridge that you generated thought structure on which most of all these book and policy push has been pivoted. so my sense is that the government may want and that the opposition, you may expect that to happen independent examination to say b and maybe even a panel to look at the allegations put forward by hand in both and at the same time . also look at the boy back to that and i think the center by because i want to be put in an inquiry and this would be be downing or benting as opposed to be is that force finally to punch in briefly? if you would, what do you make of the allegations and why do you see this heading? there are 2 reasons. one is donny was to be the writers in pushing for private investment across sectors. in india. anything happening to

the company is big data on the government's own policy agenda investment. the other thing is the underlying indicators. if you were to see a private investment in india, domestic and foreign has been paid by 9. you know that the government is not fee because the private investment really pickup and when you have a big company like a donnie's piecing a stock market collapse in the show that you'd like to really have seen in the last week. this will discourage many foreign investors to portfolio investment to put that kind of money in india. this is, of course, a lot that has to do with the external situations also, but the not going back then. so far we shall see how it all unfolds depends. you man, appreciate that. thank you. so there is, i'll show for this week if you'd like to comment on anything you've seen, you can treat me nick, clock al jones, please use the hash tag a,

j c from c. we'll just drop as an e mail counting the cost algebra dot net is our address. but there's more one line of course that out to ga dot com, slash and ctc that will take you straight to our page, which has individual reports, links in, in the new to catch up. so that is it for this edition of kind of the cost. i'm a clock from the whole team here. thanks for joining us. the news on algebra is coming up the ah and a city defined by military occupation. there's never been an arab state. he with

a capital of jerusalem. everyone is welcome. but as the default structure of that main thing they called all the projects, that's what we refused a was one of the founders of a settlement with this and the story of jerusalem through the eyes of its own people, segregation, occupations, discrimination, injustice. this is upper thigh to the 21st century jerusalem, a rock and a hard place on al jazeera, informed opinions far right extreme is there is real and need to be tackled as soon as possible. frank assessments. there was a joke about the interim government that it's not in for, nor does it go inside story on al jazeera. ah us fighter jets shoot down a suspected chinese surveillance balloon that's been drifting across american aerospace for.