for wrong breaking for with what is going on in new york city. on a just 0. it's a $1000000000.00 money laundering operation for coal. marsha is bigger than the company with financial institutions, regulators and governments complicit about was offering with it. right. right. but in a 4 part series, our juicy or is investigative unit goes on to cover in southern africa, pittsburgh, we could throw 90 percent, has, doesn't, once it's reformed, it's practically brandon. good. part one on al jazeera. ah, the british and swiss central banks raise interest rates to curb inflation when it could be impacts as we'll hop on the banking turmoil.

ah, hello, nora kyle, this is aus is, are alive from doha. also coming up a very dangerous moment. the, i'm f warns lebanon to implement changes to prevent a total economic collapse. 8 more cases of tomato virus reports his neck record, tauriel, guinea. after 5 people died from the disease and hands in air. and will protest across france against the government plan to raise the age of retirement president is standing firm on the issue. ah, so we start in the united kingdom where the bank of england has raised interest rates for the 11th time, in 18 months. the move follow similar measures by the u. s. federal reserve and swish swiss national bank is brought the rate to 4.25 percent. the central banks,

they curbing inflation remains a priority. despite market concerns about turmoil in the banking sector rate rise in the u. k. comes just a day off the announcement that inflation went up last month. hitting 10.4 percent . it was driven by high food and energy prices for brennan begins our coverage from london. the inflation that was announced on wednesday from 10 point one percent going up on expect to be to 10.4 percent or the force in the hands of the members of the monetary policy committee of the bank of england when they made that decision this morning, i have to say there are some chinks of hope in the predictions that the bank of england are putting forward saying for example, well, 1st of all, it was not a unanimous decision. it was $7.00 to $2.00 in favor of increasing the interest rates from 4 percent to 4.2 to 5 percent. the other 2 members of the monetary policy committee actually would prefer to keep interest rates where they were. so

there are signs of, of a weakening results from the m p. c. there. the other thing is that the bank of england no longer predicting but the economy will go into recession. there is an expectation that the economy will grow in inverted commas slightly over the next year. so a little glimmer of hope that the other thing though, is that they also expect energy prices or the energy price contribution to inflation to turn negative during the course of this year. we of course, have the ukraine war, which bums up the price of energy, mainly rushing gas because of the shortage of that. that is expected to come out of the inflationary pressure over the next year. those pressures easing, as people find all alternative that said though it is a stone increase, the rock concerns that as the bank central banks around the world continue to try to put the brakes on on inflation that it might spill over into a water recessionary pressure on the economy, so it's

a very delicate balancing act that the central banks are having to try and track of the rate hikes in europe. follow wednesdays announcement by the us federal reserve that the american benchmark rate has risen to 5 percent. that's the highest since 2007. hi is joe castro reports from washington d. c. the u. s. central bank decision to raise the federal interest rate by a quarter percentage point was the result of being stuck between conflicting forces . don't raise the rate enough and consumer prices may continue to sort raise it too high and more banks may fail. history has shown that isolated banking problems, if left unaddressed, can undermine confidence in healthy banks and threaten the ability of the banking system as a whole. the banking term while hits suddenly 2 weeks ago when to midsize banks, failed people lined up to demand their money money that was no longer there. after silicon valley bank sold its government bonds at a loss due to high interest rates. as phoebe's practices had caught the attention

of banking regulators in 2022, but the fed fail to prevent the crisis german jerome, pow so the blame lies with the bank. now under investigation at a basic level, silicon valley bank management failed badly. they grew the bank very quickly, they expose the bank to significant liquidity, risk and interest rate, risk, and emergency intervention by regulators, and the us treasury department has stabilize the banking sector for now. treasury secretary janet yellen told a senate committee on wednesday that regulatory reforms may be required. this was a very unusual set of circumstances that silicon valley bank faced. it appears that they had seen significant interest rate risk that they were subject to and exceptionally high over 90 percent of their

deposits were uninsured. the big day, a financial news made for volatile trading on wall street with the dow and s and p closing down more than one and a half percent. investors fear, even the modest interest rate hike will increase pressure on banks. just how much higher will the federal interest rate go? well, the federal reserve is signaling that it's approaching the end of an aggressive campaign to raise interest rates in order to lower inflation. perhaps one more interest rate hike is expected before the end of this year, and then if the patient indeed continues to descend downward as expected, then come 2024 interest rate cuts could be expected. heidi jo, castro, al jazeera washington. the i m f is wanting lebanon urgently needs 2 forms to prevent hyperinflation. a conditional agreement was reached last year on a $3000000000.00 loan to save its economy, but needed changes have not been made. protesters tried to storm government

headquarters in beirut on wednesday. police fight tear gas to break up the crowds. many of those a retired soldiers demanding a living pension. and other 8 cases of mob virus had been confirmed by the world health organization in equitorial guinea brings the total number to 9 and probable cases to 20. since the outbreak with 1st declared in february, and these 5 people have died, the fees and hands and m, the cases were confirmed in new regions of the country indicating a wife and outbreak. there are no vaccines, nor anti virus treatments approved to treat the severe viral fever. this is feeling fears. it could spread further in the region with alarm sounding and cameroon. and kenya, lamar virus disease or m v d is a rare hemorrhagic fever. it affects both people and non human primates has been same virus family. as abolla. marlborough has an average fatality rate of 50 percent, which varies in different strains in the west outbreak and go there in 2005. the

fatality rate was 88 percent. it killed more than $300.00 people. dr. my says he don't mighty as the world health organizations regional director for africa. she explains what steps need to be taken to contain the mob virus. first and foremost, do we need to intensify epidemiological surveillance so quickly, confirming contacts of cases, cases themselves. and the most important thing to do, of course, is to stop the transmission of the virus. the virus is transmitted in body fluid, so blood, sweat alive, other body fluid. so what is very important is, 1st of all, for health care workers was some of the 1st contacts and we have had a couple of health co workers die in a pictorial guinea to, to make sure that they are aware of all the precautions, even as they do the clinical care of people and investigations of the disease. they have the knowledge that they need and they have the equipment that they need. so

personal protection, equipment, gloves, masks, and so forth to stop them being infected. and then very importantly, at the same time as we are understanding further confirming the cases, isolating the case is to make sure that they minimize contact with other people. we have to progressively build up these systems so that we're not starting from scratch each time. and one of them, most important aspects of this is really the population's understanding community is understanding and the role that they can play. because at the end of the day are health systems don't penetrate the community to the degree that we can do without their own triggers. of suspicion and recall of this is what we were told we needed to be careful about. that needs to be reinforced. of course, we need community health contact with the population. so people are reminded and enabled to minimize the transmission more protest her and away in france against

the government's plans to raise the age of retirement protests as a block lamps and roads and several cities where people demanding that present manual macro block, the pension bill. in city of nan police use take us as fast, the crowns as they appear to be doing. so. here in paris, a correspondent natasha butler has more from the french capital. there are thousands of people filling the square. the infantry parents are going to be picky . school and i think from the front office demonstration that has already left, but there are people still coming in to this classroom around. there's been a lot of disruption, say it is a nationwide so i can protest and nice to meet you and that's affecting across the public sector transform education, health services, golf. but you still finding out in power, it's a lot of anger over president micro pension reform bill, which will raise the retirement. but not people are now angry. is the method by

which micro government push this bill through all the bypass and you'll make them pay the $455.00 degree people say dr. shows the price of micro look not only does not care, i should say about people in the streets and their concerns, but he also doesn't care that frozen institutions. they say about lawmakers about opposition. and critics that he only cares about what he wants israel parliament has passed the 1st of several laws that make up the government, controversial judicial overhaul. now, despite nationwide protests against the changes to the judicial system, a plan would limit the power of the supreme court. critics that threatens democracy, 100 demonstrates the blocking rates and protest. iran con has more from west jerusalem law. people here are calling it netanyahu's law. basically the law allows or will disallows rather now the attorney general from declaring the prime minister unfit for office. why does this apply to benjamin netanyahu?

well, he has at least 3 court cases going through their whining through the system at the moment. so regardless of whatever the result of those court cases, he will continue to serve in office and that say the protesters is undelivered. craddick, it was one of the key things that the coalition government wanted to push forward. that's why this has been passed before. other parts of the jew judicial reform bill is a series of reforms, is going to limit the supreme court our now because this bill is passed, we likely to see more people out on the street on saturday. there is also a protest i a cross is wrong, $95.00 different locations across his world is going on today. but the big protests there on saturday and it's likely to get more and more people out on the street. but the government is passing these laws is holding firm and it's holding firm because it does have a very slim majority in parliament. and that ga, that coalition is holding firm. because this is what the coalition once it wants to

restrict the supreme court. and it seems to be working so some form of this judicial reform bill will likely pass. will it pass before pass over before easter mid april. we don't know that that's the key moment in time. so let's see what happens in the coming days. people in take here are observing rabbit and as they struggle to recover from last month, devastating earthquakes. thousands are still living in tents and depend on a to survive. as i said, our reports from one camp displaced people in the southeastern city of adding a man, oh, an unusual room of them in a demon. the 1st prayer of the muslim holy month is held in a makeshift moscow o rama is not only about fasting. it's also time for joy and celebration, all but not this year. father. sure it is difficult to slip away from a done in

a 10 city conditions are difficult. i would never have imagined slip rating ramadan without a roof over our heads. monmouth gazelle and his family used to live in a 3 story house. it collapsed when the 2 portal earthquakes structure kia and syria . in early february. the gazelles are among about 5000 people who, how south shelter here. they all depend on your mac, on his mit, the video that we provide to meals, p dave tower and to hold in the coming days will also have a temporary stage for traditional blaze to be performed to help people overcome the psychological trauma of the earthquakes out of them julia. but mama's wife came out, says it's impossible to forget what happened. she was trapped under the rubble of the home for hours. i can her grandchild and waiting to be rescued. dotala again you did to school, i go to school on. they provide psychological support,

but what use is that after we've lost everything, we built that house with every penny we saved through our lives. during ramadan i used to prepare meals for my family. now i don't even have an oven to cook the whole for them. the earth greeks destroyed around a 1000 buildings in idea a month more than a 1000 people died. those who survived have turned to prayer, especially during her grandmother. 2 0, many people who see they hold their time in pants will be short and that they will be able to move into houses quickly. but nearly 2 months after the road creeks that optimism is fading. life here is becoming increasingly difficult and they're struggling to get used to the new normal wrist and said that i'll jazeera or the amana. so these tortilla cilla has hair on out. is era

south exchanges. as tech talks, chief executive tries to convince you as lawmakers that the social media platform is safe. and ethiopia as prime minister appoints a former senior tea gray official to heads up the northern regions at new interim government. ah hello, welcome to look at the international forecasts on hope all will we'll start to see some dry up riots are in touch warmer on the weather across sir california as we go through the next couple of days. ridge of high pressure slowly but surely making its way in and that'll quieten things down. we have got an area of low pressure now moving across the plains. chain of storms on that, anywhere from around texas over towards tennessee valley pushing up towards the ne, knocking the temperature back in d. c. to around 16 celsius dryer to the north of that for the time being noticed

still some showers, their winfrey showers, of course, around the rockies up towards the pacific northwest. but it is an improving picture for ally, still a little colder than it should be. but temperate is getting up to about 18 degrees celsius, with some sunshine, warm sunshine there, into the se, temperatures picking up again in the good part of florida is where the system sliding its way further south was bring you some outbreaks of rain across the caribbean. i think all pass could see some wet weather as we go on through the next couple of days that rain making its way across cuba. jamaica, hispaniola pushing across the east and i was sinking further south was an even down towards trinidad and tobago. we'll see a few showers coming in to make our way through saturday and sunday afternoon. ah. with

blue ah, again, you're watching out, is there a has reminder of our top stories this hour? the bank of england has increased its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage points to 4.25 percent is the 11th consecutive rate rise. and

just a day off the announcement that inflation has also gone up. another 8 cases of mob virus disease have been confirmed and equitorial guinea disease killed 5 people in tanza near this week. and more protests are underway and france against the government's plans to raise the age of retirement. protest is blocked ramps, and roads and several cities. because demanding that present manual micron drop the pension bell, tick tock, seo shows each who is testifying before the us house energy and commerce committee . he's facing questions about the social media platforms, unless relationship with the chinese communist party and it's use of data. session began, but the chair of the committee giving her annette back on him. ambiguity view of the threat posed by take talk chick talk is a grave threat of foreign influence in american life. has been said is like allowing the soviet union, the power to produce saturday morning cartoons during the cold war. but much more

powerful and much more dangerous. banning your platform will address the immediate threats make no mistake. this committee is also look into the future. american needs to be prepared to stop the next technological tool or weapon china will use for its own strategic game. we must prevent any ap website and platform like to talk from ever find on americans again or the head of tech. so it made a series of promises to the u. s. lawmakers. there are more than a 150000000 americans who love our platform. and we know we have a responsibility to protect them, which is why i'm making the following commitments to you and to all our uses. number one, we will keep safety, particularly for teenagers as a top priority for us. number 2, we will firewall protect us data from unwanted for an axis. number 3 picked up

where we mean a place for free expression and will not be manipulated by any government. cohen baker explains how tick tock and other social media platforms use data. tick tock is a leader in grabbing people's attention to do this. it needs lots of their data. users need to give access to their phones, camera, microphone, photos, video, contacts, location information, and to their behavior online. now this is all similar to what other major social media companies asked for to. this is an industry practice as a whole to violate our rights to privacy, to sell ad. and this is why we need term data protection rule to end is damaging attitude that everyone is preaching privacy. so why shouldn't we most of us know about cookies, which put code from the web onto our devices. companies also use what's known as a pixel tracker to keep tabs on users as they browse the web. these are bits of code hidden as tiny images and web pages or emails that report back to the company when you visit pixels are deployed by most big companies. on most websites. they're

not always consented to, but they are mostly legal. in a study by ferret a canadian security company pixel trackers from tick tock were found across the web as were pixel trackers from the other major social media giants. but tech talks were also found on government websites that did not know they were there. and the u . s government has find 2 american health companies for using pixels to track users . while they were looking at sensitive personal health websites. you start with the violation of privacy by just falling by, by, by following people on line and trying to know what they're doing. but once you get inside in those habits, then the company have an interest to try to see how they can exploit that. and company may explain that to sell you more either. but then other actor makes for that to, to try to, to change your political views. tracking is now a big part of our browsing experience, because our data has become the most valuable commodity for companies. oh mike, hannah has been listening into showed the choose that testimony for us. and mike

mcmillan just reconvened, also taking a break. what's been happening so far? well, the seo has been facing pretty hostile questioning throughout the course of the morning. and this is, as was said, during proceedings, the most bipartisan committee in congress. there were questions coming from both republicans and democrats about the way tick tock operates. in particular, it was highlighted, the fear that it is a propaganda vehicle for china, that it feeds data back to china. this was denied strongly by the c o, who insists that the servers for tick tock at present are within the united states . he's also pledge to ensure that these servers are continually inspected by independent inspectors. so the congress generally very, very critical of tick tock, not only on the national security issue,

but also numerous questions about the impact the app has on children in particular . and the ways in which the tick tock is going to prevent any harm to kids who use that particular f. o. what is the defense that take took the caea of take talk has been offering will he has offered a proposed project project, texas. he calls it in terms of which the way in which tick tock is run would be essentially overhauled. all the servers will be in the united states. they will be run by a u. s. company at the moment in his article, who actually runs the service within the united states. and he says as well, these service will be continually monitored by independent observers to ensure the safety of the data being collected on them. this says the c o is something that no other media company has offered. however, the stool does not appear to be enough for many in congress who continue to probe

the question of what is the link between china, the parent company of tick tock, down spite, as well as tick tock itself. this is the concern among most of the legislators here, and this may will be the movement to either close down to talk or insist that it gets turned over to mary couldn't control. now that is something that china forcibly resist. so we may be looking at a argument, ongoing legal argument about freedom of speech. certainly this whole process has got a long way to go. ok, mike, thanks very much for keeping across it for us. now the v. p and government has a point to the senior official in the t grey people's liberation front of the head of a new interim to grow regional government. get a to read. our appointment comes just a day off the t p l. f was removed from a list of terrorist organizations establishing a temporary government with

a crucial part of the peace deal last year that ended fighting between to grow and rebels and government troops. the conflicts of kill tens of thousands of people enforce millions more out of their homes. where peace failed between the c a p and government and the t p l f was signed in november last year. it ended 2 years of war. the fighting began in november 2020 prime minister abbey had ordered the military offensive against the p. p. f, and response to what he said were taxed on army bases. the government declared a truth in march last year to allow you monetary and aid into tea. gray, you entered repeatedly called for an end to the violence using both sides of committed war crimes. but after 5 months of relative calm, fighting again started in august. peace was finally reached in november by then more than 2600000 people had been displaced in the years of drought and left millions without enough to eat. cafeteria, rudolph spoke with al jazeera shortly after his appointment was confirmed. he said

he's certain the t p l a forces will support efforts to sustain peace outright. his trigger happy people who were in the war simply for the fighting or for the shooting. there were there to address political grievances that we felt as the people we had the right to to, to, to fight for. and we also believe that peace is the best given at this point in time. and as long as they can close that address in a minute, and we have reason to believe that causes can be address it in a, in a political dialogue. and then there is no reason why we should continue fighting it because we were not there. we were not in the fighting for the, for the sake of fighting, were there because we had versus, we had to call us and we have reason to believe that our causes could be addressed in a peaceful manner. and i don't have the slightest that fighters will be fully

behind out if it's to, to, to, to, to sustain this and to get, to get back on track and to rebuild it from ground up. washington is denying china statements that a u. s. destroyer has been forced from the south china sea on thursday. the chinese military said it drove the vessel away from disputed waters near the parasol islands. but the u. s. navy says its destroyer is continuing its routine operations in the area and has not been expelled out those katrina, you as more on the story from beijing. certainly not the 1st time. we've had differing accounts from the u. s. in china about what happens without trying to see what is dangerous about the timing is that distrust and tension between washington and aging are at an all time high, making any potential confrontation, extremely risky. now, according to china's navy, the u. s. guided miss all destroy the 1000000, entered an area that they didn't show by the parasol island illegally and

commission. china's navy then monitored the ship and ultimately drove it away. and now it accuses the u. s. of causing instability in this region. washington has not released a statement saying that what the chinese say is false and it says that the 1000000 continues to conduct what it says, a freedom of navigational operations in international waters. now, much of the resource rich south trying to see if claimed by beijing, despite competing claimed by many of its ne visit building a pos which are island and intensifying military activities in this region. the u. s. and other governments have accused that bullying and the area where the incident took place is about a 7 kilometer square kilometer area by the power island also claimed by taiwan and viet nam into the physician politician. role gandhi has been sentenced to 2 years in jail for defamation in 2019 in 2900 speech gandhi made references to prime

minister and arrange a modi and to fugitive india businessmen. sharing the movie. so name calling them, thieves candy says have comment wasn't against any community and will appeal against the ruling sentence have been since has been suspended for a month from mister moody's governing b j. p. that nobody is above the law. as soon as prime minister has reveal details of a post referendum that will give constitutional recognition to the nation's indigenous people and smell bernezi spoke as an emotional news conference on thursday, outlining the plans. australians will vote on it later this year if it passes a panel will be set up to advise parliament on issues that impact the lives of aboriginal people. ah, this is al jazeera, these are our top stories. the bank of england has increased its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to $4.00.