system is texted to very well. i hope that the are we can make it his face walking in the moon. oh whiting. he's also excited about the opportunities as a teenager, he to part in a space camp for students. he go to see astronauts training and visited some of china's space exploration facilities. now the scientist is hoping his research in wind turbines can be put to use in the national space program is just amazing that what we can achieve and what we have yet to explore in space. currently, i'm thinking whether i can use some of my knowledge and expertise to see what i can contribute with the city space museum is where many young people get their 1st glimpse, the rest of the galaxy for young people. there were seriously conquered up your interest in size of the way of sancho of direction of their science research. and it's hope some of these young people will have a future beyond furniture. jessica washington out to 0

hong kong. ah. talk a quick check of a headlines here on al jazeera, the u. s. secretary of state us how talks with china's top diplomat weeks after a suspected chinese spy balloon was shot down inside american air space. anthony blink and told one ye that american sovereignty should never be violated again. there was no apology. ah, but what i can also tell you is this was an opportunity to speak very clearly. and very directly about the fact that china sent a surveillance balloon over our territory, violating our sovereignty, violating international law. and i told him quite simply that that was unacceptable . and can never happen again. were of course, not the only ones on the receiving end of the surveillance balloons. more than 40 countries. i've had these balloons fly over them in recent years,

or that that's been exposed to the world. of lincoln's meeting came on the sidelines of a security conference in munich, where the biden administration has leveled its most serious condemnation, yet of russia's invasion of ukraine. u. s. vice president cobbler harris accused moscow of crimes against humanity and ukraine. in the case of russia's actions in ukraine, we have examined the evidence. we know the legal standards and there is no doubt. these are crimes against humanity. the north korean leader kim james sister has urged the united states to stop what she calls or acts threatening pyongyang. security comments came just ours. up to north korea, said it attested another intercontinental ballistic missile. japan says the miss

r landed in it's exclusive economic zone. emergency crews are still finding survivors in turkey, coupled with their child rescued and hat i. on saturday, 13 days after the earthquakes, the victims were trapped under the rubble for 296 hours. the child later died in the hospital. those are the headlines that is continues here now to sierra after counting the cost and she and thanks for watching talk to al jazeera, we on what should they not be more oversized perhaps so foundations like yours. we listen when it comes from diversification, we don't do it in order to be gets wrinkled, the rational, none of your sources. we meet with global news maintenance. i'm talk about the store restock matter. on al jazeera, i

hello money inside. this is counting the cost on al jazeera, your look at the world of business and economics this week, reconstruction efforts on to earthquakes into kia and syria could cost billions of dollars. that bill is likely to worse than tech, he is already struggling economy. so how will the country cope also this week, people in north western syria feel abandoned by the world off to the devastating earthquakes. the un has increased, its a deliveries to the war torn country. ah, is it too little too late? nearly a year after russia invaded ukraine, the nation's economy is wrecked. financial aid from western don't as is helping some businesses survive, but isn't enough to keep the entire country going. ah, take, he is worse. earthquakes in nearly

a century have kill tens of thousands of people flattened entire city blocks and wrecked businesses. response efforts are shifting to coping with the off to mouth and providing shelter. food and medical help to survivors. attack as president has promised to rebuild affected areas within a year. he's allocating more than $5000000000.00 for the initial disaster relief with cash handouts for families. but business groups say the total restoration bill could exceed $84000000.00 or so said a reports life has come to hold in the torture city of the armen since the earthquake struck last week. and nothing symbolizes that more than this clocked over. a landmark of the city. the clock stopped, went to question the region. like many others here, jobby of this there has sent his family members to stumble because of the devastation. though no natural gas, no electricity, no water, nothing for food. we rely entirely on the

a disputed in the 10 city. more than 1000 buildings have collapsed here and around 10000 people lost their lives, though so survived, are now struggling. only 25 percent of the city has water of the pipes were heavily damaged. it will take days if not weeks to repair them. 60 percent of residents are living without electricity, none are getting natural gas. this was the largest stadium in our the ammon. it has not been turned into a tense city. that's home to more than 5000 people, turkeys and vitamin an urban planning minister and were at crew told al jazeera that the government will provide people with more shelter and promised harms will be quickly rebuilt. electric is now some parts of the city are provided with electricity and water. we are repairing the infrastructure of the city. now though, for natural gas, the process of damage assessments is continuing. once we fix the pipes,

public buildings such as hospitals, schools, and buildings that a slightly damaged will be our priority to provide gas. we will rebuild the homes within a year and jedi goal knoxville, business here has also been disrupted, and most shops have either collapse or, or haven't damaged. this is what is left of his results. shop. is that i see we have lost everything, whatever we had in the shop is gone. we don't know how we will resume our business again, but at least my family's life. according to summer course, the earthquakes have already caused turkey more than $80000000000.00 in losses or 10 percent of its cross domestic product. in on the um, on the scale of destruction is immerse and the displacement of survivors is becoming a humanitarian crisis. rescuers here or not, he had a fever voices from under the rubble, they are gradually shifting from finding bodies to clear in the debris and for white into essential goods as services to tens of thousands who have survived. this

was out of that of iraq or the month, so the church year. joining us for miss dumble is her con, ex boss. she's the managing director of strategic advisory services. many thanks for joining the program. so the scale of the destruction caused by this earthquake seems so immense. do we have any idea yet of the economic impact? thank you so much for having me. and also i want to thank all your viewers for day basis for the turkish people during this very difficult time. and the humanitarian last has been overwhelming. obviously, you need to move on and lives according to early estimates, right? we will be looking at $84000000000.00 of economy cost and almost $70000000000.00. it would be in the infrastructure and the housing side

and around $14000000000.00 in terms of loss manpower, as well as impact to the g d p. i would expect probably up to 2 points of g d. p growth from the turkish economy side this year alone, one 3rd of steel, manufacturing and exporting facilities, actually had been built in this region. and dave are not physically operationally impacted by the los their employees. and from that perspective, they would be losing production probably they would be, they would say close probably till the end of march. and on top of it, these can, their own port also had been impacted, which is a majors at a g and steel export. toward this region, a contributes to about 15 percent of showcased. agriculture output will be impacted

on the production site. the division should be add to the steel industry. obviously, the touch styles and logistic infrastructures also very impacted from the force perspective. you know, even like godaddy, which was one of the bursted cities alone contributed to 5 percent all turkey's exports. so huge apologies picking you up on the agricultural side of things. is that going to have an impact on food insulation? which turkey is already been dealing with? yes, always at this point, we have 5 significantly more problems and inflation. but before these quakes, it contributed a great deal to the poverty and cost of living. the official number was about 65 percent annual, the inflation. without any doubt. with this,

it will impact the domestic, are the cultural, put that for the supply should be hurt and fortunate. the inevitably hurt the, the prices that add on to the cost of living and charging. what sort of impact do you see on the housing market. you touched on it, but of course we've had this whole controversy around building codes and so on. what impact exactly, is it going to have on the housing market? just to share with you the magnitude of the scale over a 170000 buildings have been impacted at about 25 to 30000 of them at b, it is basically gone or impacted. so rebuilding this whole region is going to very important, but i think it's also the, the regulatory drug as the sort of the moral side of the story. because it's as late as in 2018 turkey passed, an amnesty of

a law for all the zoning individuals in the country, but also in the region which is where basically you issue a building code building license to sup our buildings. so this is really expose the on the paintings of all the shandey construction that has been going on for the last 20 years. and unfortunately, this is part of the populace moves on behalf of the government or any government to really issue these licenses in exchange for votes. and if you will know, turkey was headed for elections on may 14th, but that will surely have an impact on that as well. as you say, massive reconstruction needed, can turkey afford what it's going to cost to rebuild these areas that happen? destroyed? yes, it again, good turkey is do $20.00 country and construction has

always been one of the leading sectors, the economy and, and also these numbers, although they'd be looking at pencils, billions of dollars with the support from a domestic and international resources organizations. they should be able to rebuild life. it's going to take several years and it's going to impact. you never will be the economy and all the talk to people, you know, through our taxes would be partially paid for this. but i think this is going to be one of the probably most manageable parts of this for the 3rd quarter, if you are a foreign investor looking at turkey right now, what, how you looking at turkey in the short, in the short run and in the long run this was probably one of the deadliest disasters in the history of mankind. and from that perspective,

this could happen to anybody. and as an investor strategic investors, i would tend to look at the meet to long term fundamentals of any country, including 30. so from that perspective, before the quake, obviously it was a young, vibrant, re gillian economy where it's very hard boats again validated basically book force and also it the location of the country is a very strategic as part of the customs union with you as well as being it literally a strategic point between east and west of very again, very vibrant economy as well as the infrastructure from telecom to education. it is still a high, long term high potential emission area. and also, especially these times,

i think one would really a look at the timing of the investments. and before these quake, it was already probably one of the cheapest places in terms of asset prices in the vote. so from a return on investment perspective, you won't be before these quakes were there. so if for any long term message, be the strategic game plan is definitely needs to be put on the agenda. really interesting to talk to you how can a bash managing director of the strategic advisory services talking to a staff from a stumble. thank you, sir. thank you. story. ah. the situation in syria is stalk a different to that. in turkey, a little international aid has reached parts of the north. most people there were ready displaced because of the country civil war. now the earthquakes compounding their misery. more than 4000000 rely almost entirely on

a to survive. aid workers have pleaded for help, but the un has acknowledged it's failed to deliver. it's now appealed for nearly $400000000.00, an aide and boosted deliveries to the area, alta guessing commission from the syrian president to use 2 more border crossings from turkey. the u. n was previously restricted to using just one border crossing approved by the security council for a delivery of the agencies and countries in the region have sent a shipments by air. so you damascus international airport, but none have reached areas on the opposition control. joining us from wellington in new zealand is come, saw an economist and non resident fellow at the middle east institute. thank you for joining the program. so why has the international community been so slow to help syria? i think there is a combination of factors. one of the factors is the fact that the asset regime has such

a long history of diverting aid and stealing it at times. however, the situation in northwest syria was different. that part which is held by the opposition, received far less aid, not because aid is being diverted, although it is being diverted, but to a far lesser extent compared to regime health, syria, but their, their response. there was virtually nonexistent because of the united nations, refused to activate its emergency mechanisms and to deliver aid to people in that region without the permission of the, the security council or the asset regime in damascus. so the only crossing from turkey into north northwest syria, which is that bill hello, are the only crossing which was authorized by the you and for delivering aid was not accessible in the 1st few days. most critical for rescuing lives in the 1st few

days of the earthquake. so that meant that the you and could not deliver aid altogether to northwest syria. now the response of other countries also by laterally was very disappointing. virtually no aid was delivered to northwest syria, which is the, the part most vulnerable in the country. basha, assad, blame the sanctions that the u. s. has put on syria for the lack of aid is he right . sanctions do play a role in him during the humanitarian response. that's just a fact. however, the impact of sanctions on the humanitarian response is hugely exaggerated by the asset regime. so what's actually limiting that the delivery of aid is the factory of the regime? the, the diversion it's, it's a factor that matters a lot more than sanctions. now do say,

how do sanctions hinder the humanitarian response? so say you are an organization based in any country around the world and you want to send money to, to syria. you would actually struggle to send that money using the formal channels because of western sanctions on syria. now what i mean by saying it hinders the humanitarian response, but it doesn't stop it. there are many alternative ways to getting that money into syria. there are other impacts for sanctions on the humanitarian response. however, their impact is hugely exaggerated. what is the humanitarian situation in syria now is a getting in, in a nutshell, the humanitarian situation in the country has never been worse. it's not even during the 1st world war when syria was still part of the ottoman empire, aid is getting in and even though it's actually,

it's been dwindling over the past few years with a donor fatigue. it is actually getting in. the main issue is that it's being politicized. it's being diverted. and that's why most people are actually not benefiting from it. what more can the international community do to help applies the syrian people? i mean, i think the number one thing that needs to be done is pushing for a political settlement. that's the only thing that's going to help the country stand on its feet. again, a political transition that restores the hope of syrians in investing in that country. in bringing their money back from abroad into syria, there are other things which are more operational that need to be done. for instance, aid that's forming the backbone of the economy in syria. now, it needs to be distributed more equitably. so people who deserve it need to have it and it's being stolen all around the country to, to varying degrees,

obviously. but something needs to be done about it. and if you allow me to just add the very last thing, i think there is an issue with the united nations as an institution, responsible for delivering humanitarian aid. it remains obsessed with its protocols and that the sovereignty of its members states instead of focusing on humanitarian needs. i mean one of the main 4 pillars of the humanity of a humanitarian response is that the relatively relativity of needs that is not being met in syria. people who need a, the most, i'm not receiving. it comes saud, an economist, a non resident fellow at the middle east institute. thank you so much for your time . so, russia's invasion of ukraine has uprooted millions of people from their homes, cut off access to its ports, and disrupted, forming more than

a 3rd of the nation's budget is being spent on battling russian forces. the economy shrank by more than 30 percent last year. that's the largest decline since ukraine declared independence from the soviet union in 1991 tens of billions of dollars and international aid has helped the government to continue to provide services. the u . s. has provided nearly $50000000000.00 and military financial and humanitarian aid to keep almost half if that went to the military. several e institutions provided more than $35000000000.00 in aid to ukraine. the majority of that amount was allocated for financial help. the united kingdom was the fed highest contributes of a to ukraine with more than $7000000000.00. pledge between january and november, the arm f says ukraine needs at least $3000000000.00 a month to finance. it's war time economy. and it would cost almost $350000000000.00 to rebuild the country. ukrainian officials want western

governments to use rushes, frozen assets worth more than $300000000000.00 to fund reconstruction efforts. let's dig in more into the cost of rushes, invasion on ukraine's economy with joined from london by you again. yes. lips sofa who is a senior economist at oxford economics. thank you for joining the program. what is your assessment of you? craze. economy almost a year now into the wall. moving company has done better plan here in the beginning of the colossus was around 50 percent in march. and april, by the end of the year, this contraction narrowed to about 35 percent or that notwithstanding massive ah, missile attacks in your grades, energy infrastructure. so for the years, the all if contracted by 30 percent, i mean, which is a huge blow. ah, but the economy has in clarkston, it's still functioning. why do you think that is the case?

well, there were 2 elements that, oh, that were crucial the domestic response, which was very effective. the monetary and fiscal response or fixing the young have read. now the currency in implementing capital controls avoiding of bank, ron, or for effective ah, bank, a commercial bank response and fiscal authorities and this ah, fixing over the read now and close capital controls. we're also enabled by and sustained international board so that the central bank and that could replenish its reserves and world and the rest of the international helped at all went to supporting the budget an am military help. all of those elements work very important. but those loans are going to have to be paid back at some point on they, on the debt is building up huge pace. about half of the money

that came last year came in the form of grants. it was about $32000000000.00 that ukraine received. 15, those down or 17 event was wrong, mostly from the euro, for the month of new that was negligible around $15000000000.00, but it was given a, a scale of disruption. it was, it was not extraordinary. and did that to to d p is about 85 percent of 2022, which is again huge. but a lot of countries in peacetime have similar levels. i'm going to reach about a 100 percent at the moment. they are all day every payments on august nominated data is suspended until 2024. so it's actually your brain is over a gene on technical difficult. essentially, the majority of funds have been coming from the united states and the united

kingdom. both those economies have their own problems and economic challenges. is that concerned that at some point they wouldn't be able to give as much as they have been giving? well, i wouldn't say that the u. k has been one of the biggest providers out. it's basically the us, yes, the lines share on the you. so much financial assistance from the you. yes, there are very some internal push back to through this process. but there's still really a consensus of the end of the day that it would cost much more if the security situation got out of control. and only if you're grain, lewis is this, or it would have implications for broader international order for the security in europe and security in europe is very important to the us. so at the end of the day,

i think there might be more scrutiny given the republican majority in the us or saying, ah, they majority of democrats, depending on which part of the congress you speaking, may be more scrutiny because they end of today. it seems like at the moment veins national partners, i'm actually planning to make sure that this help is more regular this year than last year. and so that they indeed make sure there is around $3000000.00 a month. this year. ukrainian officials have suggested this idea of turning to russian assets seized assets to fund the reconstruction of ukraine. how viable is that? as an idea in, in, in the slow process? because legally, and so this, the thing that they desire to make russia say,

and the reason will make sure russia pays for the rate of construction is not everything. but these are the western partners, want to make sure they don't set a legal precedent with old central banks will be afraid that there can be can be seen. and then it will be a problem. essentially $4.00 the reserve currency. so the process will be and will be flow and legally very, very thorough at the moment. there is already some early progress already being made and even on the conditions where this money will be temporarily used and then return. and it's not an easy process. and i think you're bringing economy will not be able to wait until they see issues result russian. money will be coming for this purpose. oh, really interesting to speak to you again. yes. lip service senior economist oxford

economics talking to a staff from london. thank you. thank you. that is all show for this week. get in touch with us by 3. see me at money side. do you use the high side a, j. b, when you or you can office at a mail accounting because out there a dot net is our address on those move for you on line al jazeera dot com slash cdc, that will take you straight to our page, which has individual report links and be to catch up on that is it for this edition of counting the call time on the inside from the whole team back to joining us. the news on out there is the ah,

and this is the image of whole home that says those visitors, a bustling, glamorous city. but under ground, a different reality appears. official figures released in november show the number of people experiencing homelessness is the highest in a decade and is a shop rise in the number if women experiencing housing insecurity. that report also said there's need for better services and more funds for hostile accommodation as the situation westerns. it's the middle of winter here in hong kong, and the temperature often drops below 10 degrees at night. people in this on to pass are preparing for another nice exposed to freezing conditions. ah.