with warming temperatures this southeast corner of south korea traditionally sees the cherry blossom 1st before it rolls north up the peninsula in a wave of color, but its already bloomed in soul. the 2nd earliest date on record, the earliest being set just 2 years ago. in this district in sol, the annual celebration of the forsythia bloom has been brought forward a week because the flowers have bloomed early. neighboring japan is also experiencing earlier cherry blossom tokyo this year, equaling the record for the 1st bloom. and back in the southeast of south korea as the city of young ju prepares for its festival, the blossoms are already falling with several days to go. by listening to him, it seems to be passing earlier each year, which makes you think about the environmental. nature is beautiful, but seemingly ominous barometer of dangerously changing times. rob mcbride al

jazeera young jew, south korea ah, is a round up of our top stories. former us president donald trump will appear in a new york court on tuesday. the 1st ex president to face criminal charges. the case against him involves a hush money payment to adult film star, stormy daniels i had on the 2016 election from is expected to voluntarily surrender and plead not guilty to the charges. i feel very concerned about the rule on this country ports. it endangers the rule of law for all americans to dates donald trump, to march the democrat of the day after it, sir, arrow your friend the day after that you were me. and that's what concerns we want . a prosecutor couldn't use the law and the system to go after political opponent. it's something that frightens me. the president of valerie says his country is willing to host long range russian strategic nuclear missiles, as well as small

a tactical nuclear weapons. alexander lucas shanker made the comments during his annual address to the nation. he also said he knows of western plans to invade his country from neighboring poland. ukrainians have been marking the one year anniversary of the recapture of the town of boucher with president vladimir lensky, vowing to defeat what he calls of russian evil. ukraine accuses russia. the massacre of hundreds of civilians that italy has blown, the microsoft banked artificial intelligence system. chat, g p t, italian data protection authority, say the services being investigated for failing to check the age of its users. charge e p t was launched in the u. s. in november of last year, and it's designed to interact and create content in the human like way. malaysia's highest court is dismissed, an attempt by former prime minister nat geo ross like to have his corruption conviction. reviewed that g be serving as 12 year sentence related to the embezzlement of the states investment fund. south africa athlete oscar pastorius

will stay in prison for at least another year. after being denied parole. he serving 13 years for the murder of his girlfriend. riva stay in camp. the parole board ruled he hasn't served the minimum term to become eligible. okay. count the cost is next asking if the chinese you on is a serious threat to the us dollar. stay with us for that. the journey from childhood into young adulthood is speckled with tribulation for youngsters like lima autism is another challenge to add to the makes gong to with a loving family and it carrying frank, she bravely lives lands and chases hatchery as she finds her place in the world. oh, see me as i am a witness documentary on how to sierra, ah,

with an ominous cloud. this is counter that calls on al jazeera. we'll look at the well, the business and economics. this week, russia is increasingly turning to chime as you on as its foreign currency of choice . and moscow supports the use of the u on and trade with other countries. could that threaten the u. s. dollar? also this way? ukraine winds a d i. m f, 's 1st loan to a country at war. why did the international monetary fund change its rules to lend the nation and what all the terms and conditions for keith? and the i m f has agreed to inject millions of dollars into shoreline because economy is it enough to help the i'm a nation rate in its debt. in canton, the government's revive economic growth. ah. so since

being shot out of much of the global financial system, russia has sought alternatives to soften the impact to western sanctions. is tend to china for an economic lifeline and tre, between the 2 countries. hence, a record of a 190000000000 dollars last year. much of those payments were made in chinese and russian currencies. the 2 biggest geopolitical rivals of the u. s. one to counterbalance the don't. of the dollar worldwide, and russia is increasingly embracing the u on, even before the war, rushes central bank tried reducing the country's dependence on western currencies. but the invasion has further accelerated those efforts. in the 3rd quarter of 2022 foreign currency in the russian banking system fell to an all time low, 15 percent. and in the past year, the share of the dollar and the euro transactions on the russian market has declined. meanwhile, the on over took the us dollar as the most traded currency on the moscow exchange

last month with the market share of close to 40 percent of trading volume or russians president is making efforts to get other countries to pay for trade in chinese currency, austria's meeting with the chinese president choosing pink in moscow more than a week ago. let me put in said, we support the use of chinese won in the payments between russia and the countries of asia, africa, and latin america. the russian leader also express confidence that such forms of payments will be developed between russian partners and colleagues in 3rd countries . the meeting between she and putin was meant to cement that no limits partnership which was announced last year. and the 2 leaders have agreed to expand the economic ties. china is already a major bar, discounted russian oil and gas. it's imports of russian coal such 20 percent more than 68000000 tons. russia has also been ramping up in ports of chinese goods, including machinery, electronics, base, metal vehicles, ships and aircraft. well,

the us dollar has dominated global trade and capital flows for decades. basset, sharon global central bank reserves. it's dropped to less than 60 percent from roughly 70 percent 20 years ago. the euro share has gone up slightly since it's low . it's more than 2 decades ago, from 18 percent, just under 20 percent. and while the wind is being widely used, it's constitutes less than 3 percent of global currency reserves. and china attempts to expand the currencies international role. hands face ro, blogs will dig more into that with, i guess. now join us from london is. maximilian has to follow at the foreign policy research institute and political risk consultant max, welcome to the program. first up in your view, how significant is a shift this russian adoption of the one. thank you for having me. i think the russians adoption of the one is not really a story about you want to strengthen, certainly not a story about you on replacing or immediately challenging the dollars,

the key global reserve and more importantly, global trade currency. this is a story about russia's weakness and the fact that russia has huge issues trading the dollar. what the western sanctions regime mean? is there any hard currency that crosses border, physically or additionally, with russia automatically has discount to that currency abroad? how large that is, the key effort of sanctions authorities in russia tries to resistance. but because of that, russia has shifted to trading in the one. but even then, it's still not quite as much of a share brushing exports as dollar trade is still today for 14 months on from the beginning of the war. right. and that's one of the risks associated with it, especially bear in mind. and you know, china's propensity to sudden evaluations. certainly that is one risk. the other issue is that there are still capital controls in china, and how really russia can move changes you want to go into other currencies. is

a challenge for them as well. we saw there's actually in the aftermath of putin and she is summit in moscow last week, the kremlin, formally requested that sharon hughes, its restrictions on renewing the trading and exchange ability so that it could denominate arbitrate with africa in the currency. and beijing so far has just not responded. ready requests and how wide spread is if you wanna use within russia, russian people and businesses courage to use it. well. so last february was very rarely use the russian central bank to ship some of its holdings over the preceding 8 years since the 1st invented ukraine in 2014 and you on. but it hadn't really been a major instrument of trade savings or credit financing now. so the russians open up some savings products in the u on we've seen trade, obviously with china, with some other countries increased pretty substantially. but for me, which really isn't china still hasn't oper, rush a long term financing,

even with the one. so the credit market there is still really incredibly under developed and tiny out of what the dollar credit market once was the max you were talking about the increase the ukraine war and what's happened with the sanctions and so forth. and in making this happen, to what degree will this, this pivot and make a difference to the russian economy? well, you know, i think it really puts rush in a position where it is dependent on china or tray rush actually runs a trade surplus with china on like, you know, western countries. but the way to think about this in my view is not really from a position of strength, but really that china is happy to say, well, we'll take as many russian commodities, some of which we're now going to discount as a result of sanctions on the oil in particular, the discounts are in the grade is there are russian seaborne trade oil for the rest oil that comes in. so russia essentially become a commodity supplier state to china. chinese exports, you know,

to russia have increased somewhat. the key thing is that the regime wants particularly material defense supplies and bands technology has not yet been forthcoming. so, you know, i think it's really representative of the balance of power in that relationship. and what about putin encouraging other countries in asia and africa and latin america? to use a go on? well, couldn't, has actually criticize what he calls the dollar system for the last 20 years and what is known as the exorbitant privilege of us dollars additional, its ability to borrow in deficits. but geopolitical basis also gives us significant political strength through the extra territory. our sanctions regime and putting the longest shape against this and wants to push to have a move away from it. but the rule is not really a currency that is attractive for anyone to serve as an alternative. so he's willing to promote the chinese one,

but this is rhetoric we've heard for 20 years. and as you mentioned in the beginning, although the dollar share global reserves is down a little bit over the last 20 years, it's actually come back up a little bit in the last few years is still by far the key trade currency. and i am very much of the new, the dollar has money is not under immediate threat. you know, we found ourselves in an economic war between the western russia and the west weapon read through the dollars system. there is far larger, far more powerful and makes that an unbalanced conflict and naturally shapes against that because he wants to take on that order as part of this conflict in the dollar, not under immediate threat to say, but perhaps down the line of the storm clouds. well, i think that, you know, china as a 20 or 30 year plan to really replace the dollar, or at least to put china's the key note in the global, international economic order. you know, what's very interesting is, you know, from my view, i'm very much

a russian specialist background. russia has long chance to get these things. but the u. s. largely has been unaware of some of the geopolitical strengths of the dollar and the history of how it came to be. so powerful is really a series of u. s. policy mistakes. and inadvertently, faxed west china seems to have a very coordinated and driven long term strategy. so i don't want to say that is not a risk, but i think, you know, for china, a long term effort. and my view is one of the issues with this. you know, russian chinese and balance and why we haven't seen the credit aspect to it so far because that's what most strictly sanctioned by the west is a for now. china. so she's russia's efforts as more of a threat to its agenda that does an opportunity to advance that may change at some point. i think that's the key question around the economic aspects of this global conflict. but for now, i think, you know, china strategy really is not one of the race in russia, as apartment there and more be hesitant because it has much more long term strategy

. and it's happy with the order. it just wants to be number one. whereas russia effectively wants to undermine it, are right, and as far as china is concerned, just to wrap it up and long term strategy for sure. but what kind of road blocks are in the way of it? expanding its currency? well, you know, the check capital controls that are still in place on the chinese. you want to really by far the key one until that happens. the chinese currency won't be seen as a means of savings and deposits internationally, or is trade because people want to get caught in that, you know, despite there being some talk elsewhere in recent years, we see this every time this, your political crisis at the end of the dollar system, you know, they're still very few people internationally, are willing to get paid in you on. whereas u. s. dollar bills are usually accepted pretty much everywhere you from a fish market in russia to a traders in hong kong, regardless of the level of geopolitical tensions, macs, just great,

get your perspective, appreciate that. thanks a lot. thank you for having me. ah, well, russia pits the china, you create appeal to international aid to keep the country running. the economy shrank by around 3rd last year. it's budget deficit has risen to $38000000000.00 and to rebuild the water nation. well, that would cost billions of dollars or, but as estimated less than half of the money pledged by the west has reach keith, the nation is now set to receive a loan from the international monetary fund. and that is a 1st for country war. the m f is agreed on a $15600000000.00 funding package to ukraine. it's expected to be approved in the coming weeks. the 4 year funding deal is also one of the largest financial packages . keith has received since that russia's invasion last year. it will help you crane close its massive budget deficit and support his bid for european union membership . let's take this on join us restore crime is toby on becca. he's the director of

the stock. i'm institute of transition economics. also a board member of the key school of economics toby and welcome to the show at so the have has not granted loans to countries at war in its entire history. why does it change the rules now? do you think? i think these are extraordinary circumstances. that's the very short answer to this . if we remember the math, what's that up faster? the 2nd world war when we had all the difficulties in the war world back then. and this now is the 1st large scale war in europe with the aggressions from russia to your credit. and so, you know, these are extraordinary circumstances and i think we have to look at it from, from this perspective, shaw, that's why this particular war i'm in boys, unfortunately, over the years of a nice, why wouldn't they support those to those countries to yeah, i think yeah, i think there are different aspects to this. of course. one is of course that the

math is political institution in some ways we have member countries that need to think about how they want to support countries that have difficulties. and one important thing region here is of course, that ukraine has very strong and powerful friends at the board of the mass to control so large share of devoting of the mass port. of course, like the countries of european union, the u. s. department countries that have support, did you create now over this last year or so? so this figure of $15600000000.00. how will it be distributed and how would it be managed? would it be all for the rebuild? now? i mean, there are different phases of this program. the 1st one is of course, to make sure that the country can deal with its economy, challenges in the short run, you know, plugging the hole in the budget that you mention, and making sure that ukraine does not need to print my itself to finance its,

its big deficits of this is more in the short drawn step illustration of the macroeconomic situation and then going forward. it will also be part of the reconstruction process, but we're not there yet. as you know. yeah, i mean, while the war goes on is just like trying to stem a flooding dam is ultimately the country needs the war to end to rebuild its economy. yeah, absolutely. and it needs to continuous support of countries from the european union and from the u. s. canada, japan, et cetera. and what about the conditions of this funding? tell us about those? well, i mean, all of the i m f programs have the idea that countries have to just policy today will be able to repay the, the m f at some future day. and there's always this idea that money should be spent in a way that supports sustainable growth and all sorts of other different dimensions of the economy. and this is no exception in the us. so, you know,

there will be discussions about, besides so budget deficits, how you run monetary policy and then also institutional reform sling to independence of central bank legal system, etc. which is, you know, standard things in the math program, right? a standard, but there's not a standard situation. ukraine as a country, it was kind of on a commitments when it's at war in this way. well, i mean there's much more uncertainty to this program than standard i m f programs of course. but i think if we connect back to the idea that this is based on the fact that the import, the powers that are part of the i m f, it's actually agreeing to this program. i also think of this as a signal that they will commit their own funding and help and assistance in different ways to make sure this is a sustainable lineup program. so basically what, what this means is that i think this is a signal that the u. s. and other parts of ukraine are serious about their

commitment to, to help you to create for as long as it takes, basically, you say, how a lot of money that's that should have gone to the crating government that has not reached the projects. it was meant to go to lot of corruption. how do we, how are we sure that that won't happen here, and how should that be fought? there has been a lot of progress, of course, in terms of dealing with corruption, a lot of the different parts of ukrainian society and external partners have a lot of focus on corruption. of course, as we know. and this is one of the reasons that the 3 sent, the, you know, scandals with corruption has come to the surface sites. in some ways, this is a pretty good sign that now people and the institutions take this very seriously in ukraine. it doesn't mean that it goes away overnight, but it will continue to be one of the top priorities to monitor and make sure that money is not going away in this way in the future. of course,

a final question to you will be on going forward, do you think you will get as much funding for reconstruction and recovery as it did to trying assistance more time economy? well, i think it's going to need even more support in the future. of course, but there, it's also the issue of rush up, paying reparations for the damages has done to ukraine. most of us have been discussed, pass about 300000000000 or so of russian assets are frozen in western institutions . so you know that it's also going to be part of the discussion when it comes to funding the reconstruction of ukraine. but then of course, is going to also need private sector investments bilateral donors and everyone else to help out with the reconstruction in the future. to be on back, i'd great to get your analysis. thanks very much need. thank you. queues for fuel and now a thing of the past, food shortages,

reduced and cooking gas available, again, straight line because worst economic crisis in decades is showing signs of improvement. but the island nation is struggling to find the funds to important necessities repay more than $6000000000.00 every year until 2029. the government has secured a net $3000000000.00 bailout for the international monetary fund. the loan comes nearly a year after tough to go see asians between the i m f. sure lanka and its creditors . china has agreed to supports relying cars, debt restructuring, which was crucial to secure the package that followed. similar arrangements by other creditors, including india and japan. government is also imposed unpopular measures to meet the i m. s. requirements including raising taxes, utility prices and cutting subsidies on fuel and electricity. or joining us from a colombo in sri lanka, child, dumb singer. he's the product, head of macro economic and the math research at frontier research. i welcome to the

program. so this deal many $3000000000.00, but it enables another $7000000000.00. how useful is this going to be for sure, like the deal. so if there's the money that comes in the money that comes in it, so right now it is not something that's going to be a game changer. why? he's a game changer and has the potential to see the future for sure. lanka is that this is essentially the next spot in the already could all be restructuring of the country overall, the coming off of the country. so this allows you to move forward on some further reform the denali cut off, never development. so the way back to, we know finance on those if and move forward and also allows us to move forward with the restructuring. so starting that process is what this i have a program beginning and really crystallizes. and of course, the road ahead, but the long road is not able to stuff that we got in the back. so we should be looking more the medium to long term. as far as that's concerned very much, i mean the, the factors or the reforms needed,

they can always ultimate as needed to take us to the beginning, long to really have to start knowledge allows us to of the growth is and move forward. i was going to say because the conditions mean that you have to act now to have the load in the 1st place. so immediately will it help shore up the economy. so or the last 6 months or so, a lot of the arc shortages are in the country that started out and started primarily as a result of the economy contraction the deb putting down demand that has meant that some significant amount of those shortage is nothing team for the margin on that side things are looking they don't already. this does allow us now to, for example, no reforms is required for the state or rises, reforms that are required on the energy for us to move forward with that. so this is very much a critical part of it, but it's important christopher. and the countries being through a lot of started as it is, it's just the way it goes with these kinds of deals that you have to go through.

morals therapy become a country cope with that. what we see more protests, it's not the case itself that required just tell you about the fact that the re lock of the economy had taken that into a very unsustainable level. and then from that point, if you recall that you need to get the typing up as you need to reverse some of those policies. and once you've taken due on of a consumption driven base, typing dose, it does. in fact, by being said, it's a really fall, it's one thing that has a nice high taxes, especially on the progressive and for high income, under the broadest about that discussions on how in the future meeting. so they will be opposition to some of the form to specify those that are due at the but in terms of what directly effects brings up, the majority of the country was the one thing that helps you to the fact that there's actually a mini mom spend required, and i'm a program for social fester, the company is required to spend their being a percentage of gdp on socially. but of course the one that really the fact that tricity subsidies entities have been made cost effective. the problem wasn't any

other option. other than that, because of the absolute bad in the, to dealing with that the alternative grab the bus. but the fact that that is the case of the payments. so that's part of it remains recently, some prices have started to come down as currency started, just because students will go below prices coming down as a hopefully that kind of actually can help me to get some of the pain on the, especially on the work in the shop, there's a need to drive up exports. how does the government plan to do that? so that, i mean, she got all those wanted to drive up as export and they have had different different strategy and different different plans for me. from my perspective, i think it's about getting any barriers all the way and creating an environment that is more conducive to expand for an export services. so that's what look like structure the font that would look like proving or getting rid of regulation or over the nation and allow for the current to reflect market conditions would

also be one of the now because economy has a tradition of digital last 1520 years because a controller which has exports. ready this overall cheating g could help create a better environment, but only time that how much, how much impact the business is really suffered over the last few years, especially in the past year and the poor to will money be directed in that direction. especially on the i think the and that said, i think like i said that either minimal vendor wide for those. and that is to do live in nominate robeto's seat mean an increase in the market will be spent in that country better. also seeing some of the factors that lead to the deepest contracts that are very long reversing their interest rates are starting to fall into lack of current. also do some sort of like i said, these factors just mean that we're directly does a double with the terms of the overall economic environment in ruby does create

a situation where the figure of the ground do feel less and less. they more involved moving forward. how would you see that because economy and the company as time as long as re longer can speak to this over all of the farm trajectory. i think that he's paused for a lot of optimism on it because having to stick to the requirement that is the little bit of the difficult ability to complete as an addition in the stick into these kinds of factors to lock us talking this, this time from a very, very deep contraction that an order of mine to the financial aid to reverse of previously you would reverse and wait 2 years for the extra b. so now you supervise, you've seen me get to the next month or so. so hopefully that prevents a reversal on but on, on that basis i am optimistic but cost us up to speed on what the future of the country dumps again, thank you. so we have,

i'll show you for this week. if you'd like to comment on anything, you said you can tweak me al, just please use the hash tag a j c t c. i'll just drop it to the mail come to the cost. 0 dot net is our address . there's probably more view online, it's algebra dot com, forward slash ctc. and that'll take you straight to page, which is individual reports linked an entire episode to catch up on that set for this edition of cards and the cost on the clock and the whole team. thanks for joining us. the news on algebra coming ah ah and

many of us are living with the effects of ecological breakdown. so what would be stories in which technology hopefully promised of salvation for the planet, billionaires big tech and an unwavering faith in innovation alley re investigates with a tech no optimism is helping or hindering the fight against climate change. it's a distraction. self delusion is he, i just masking over it all hail the planet episode to on al jazeera, unprompted and uninterrupted discussions from our london broadcast center on al jazeera. ah, former us president donald trump is expected to volunteer.