my name is ozy mandy, his king of kings, experts and business leaders are calling on governments to come up with regulations and safeguards and quickly to prevent this form of a i technology from getting out of control loop on my works, ye mighty and despair. rob reynolds, al jazeera, santa clara, california. ah, this is al jazeera and this is the top stories, the sell fighting between sedans, army and the rapids support forces hasn't stopped. despite, has 72. alice sees 5, saudi arabia has become the lightest country to announce it. we'll arrange to evacuated. citizens from sir don. have been, morgan is in cartoon, there's been intense ha, artillery strikes and aircraft shelling out aircrafts, writes against the idea iris of physicians in the northern parts of the capital.

her tomb residence from their say that they can see the smoke rising for the 6th day. now they say this is the scene that they've become very familiar with and that the way ceasefire has lost its meaning to them. here in the capitol, hot tomb. there's also been reports of artillery strikes in the southern parts of the capitol and this is just this morning alone essence to satisfy was announced in the early hours of friday. there's been reports of artillery stripes has been reports of direct confrontations between the sudanese army and the rapid support forces on the ground. people around the world, a marking earth day, calling on politicians to step up the fight against climate change. wildlife populations have shrunk by nearly 70 percent's since the 1st day in 1970. and the world has warmed by at least 1.3 degrees celsius. more african countries looks it to approve a new malaria vaccine beds according to the world health organization. ghana and nigeria have already endorsed the use of the new gen. the move was seen as unusual

because the w h o hasn't approved the vaccine. the u. s. supreme court has ruled in favor of protecting access to a widely used abortion pill, at least for now, it's introduced a temporary block on a link from a lower court which had restricted the pill. the chinese foreign minister is in the philippines, says manila is staging major military exercises with united states. the countries have deep economic ties, but have rival claims. the territory in the south china sea and around supreme leader has used his ead message to call for unity. it follows months of protests against the mandatory wearing wearing of the he jap. well those are the headlines as always, our website al jazeera dot com. as the latest on all our top stories counting, the cost is up next. a meeting of minds or over the world, the hottest rise of in colorado. the climate catastrophe. where do you put the

resulting anger? well, i'm hoping we can use the fuel to change society for the better musical innovative brian enough meats when now and economist, hygiene chang party. i quoted myself. the fun is the car is in the world. yeah. i don't have any competition. cd unscripted on al jazeera, i hello nick clark. this is counting the constant al jazeera, your weekly look at the wealth of business and economics. this week, giving up nuclear energy, germany powers down its last react as well. other countries are looking to expand that plans. should atomic energy remain part of the energy mix?

also this week, the brazilian president is cozying up with china. so why is beijing expanding its economic ties in latin, america's largest nation, and how far will that partnership go? plus looted to silver, his challenge west and lead financial institutions during his chima trip and called on brits nations to end the dominance of the u. s. dollar in international trade. so then anti nuclear activists have spent decades fighting for this very moment. germany has now shut down its 3 remaining atomic power plants. supporters of the decisions say the reactors are a dangerous and unsustainable source of energy, and retiring them make the country safer. but critics questioning how the country can secure enough energy to drive the economy as it reduces dependence on gas supplies from russia. rhetoric, gate and b has this report. oh, environmental activists celebrate the end of an era, the closure of the neck,

a west time nuclear power plant, along with the shut down of 2 other reactors. it finalizes the phasing out of nuclear power in germany, geologist and also for the children's park to shake it later. this is a big success for us. i think one of the reasons if not the main reason was focus sheeman 2011. but i also think that our decades on fight against nuclear power has played a role. the decision was announced more than a decade ago by then, chance langler merkel after the fukushima nuclear disaster in japan. critics have long described nuclear power as dangerous and unsustainable. the consequences of a real nuclear accident can be catastrophic. and i remember after speaking on the same platform as no to con crew, was the prime minister of japan at chateau. we had supper afterwards and being astonished when he turned to me and said, we'll look if the wind was in the wrong direction, we would have lost tokyo. but opponents have criticized the closures given the challenge is caused by russia's invasion of ukraine and the energy crisis. they say

germany will be forced to rely more heavily on polluting coal and natural gas to meet its energy needs. the climate minister says the remaining plants only generated up to 6 percent of the country's power during the past year, and their closure won't affect energy security. yet some question whether the german public is ready for renewable alternatives. the renewables expansion has been landed certain way, but we do not know at the germans will tolerate the further construction of wind turbans in their villages. i know the german savvy supported an abstract, but it's not clear that will happen. so counting future weather and climate based energy. as for sure, going to common replace the nuclear electricity that is lost and being replaced by the call electricity. now i don't know what other industrialized countries are working on, replacing fossil fuels with nuclear energy, but supporters of the shut down insisted the right move and they hope other nations

will follow victoria gate and be full counting the cost. all right, let's have a look at the nation's expanding than nuclear plants. the u. k is in the process of building a new plan to names to start working on h reactors. by the end of the decade, france gets about 70 percent of its power from nuclear and is planning to build 6 new reactors. finland opened its 5th nuclear plant last year. japan is still dealing with the aftermath of the 2011 fukushima nuclear disaster. but it's considering restarting 7 reactors, united states, the world's biggest nuclear power, is started up. a new reactor in march is 1st new planted nearly 7 years. while china has the worlds fastest growing nuclear energy program, and one of the youngest, with as many as 55 reactors. let's take the song. joining us from london is ellie chambers who's an analyst of e, you power markets of the independent commodity intelligence services. welcome to

counting the cost. so 1st, where do you stand on this? is this the right decision? do you think from germany, in my own personal opinion, this is not the right decision for germany. i think when you take into account the costs of the alternative sources that germany will have to use to fill this got that's left by the nuclear file. it's my opinion that this isn't a positive move. so tell us about that gap and how it would be filled in and kind of costs that we're talking about and how long that's going to go on for. because, you know, ideally there is a transition taking place in energy transition. taking place. model runs indicated that that would be a large gap left by the size of a nuclear,

and that will be mainly filled by imports of power from other countries. the countries are unlikely to raise that exports to germany the most. ah, the netherlands frowns. so you can know my say like a bit of hypocrisy and that because a lot of french electricity is generated from nuclear plants itself. also, you will get some more contribution from fossil fuel pumps that will primarily be coming from gas phones followed by leg and coal. and when you look at the, at the costs of these different types of electricity and nuclear does have higher

stock costs. but obviously germany already had these nuclear plants had that wasn't really something that had to be considered. the running costs of nuclear plants are very low compared to fossil fuel pounds. in fact, even when you take like all the costs into consideration in most countries, electricity produced from nuclear plants, well, bay are a lot cheaper to produce. so from the point of view of those who are supporting this, moved by germany celebrating huge we are they because it's the end of what they perceive to be a dirty and dangerous fuel. if you perceive it as a, i suppose there are, there are kind of 2 aspects that make her a plant,

the t or not the t. and one of them is whether it's carbon and obviously fossil fuels a met, a lot more carbon nuclear plants, the decides that you're probably talking about is that it produces nuclear waste. so you could say it's not sustainable. and in that y yes. when we look at the nuclear energy industry, do you think it should be part of the ongoing energy production system for the world, or should it just be part of the transition ultimately to totally renewable? i mean, the thing about nuclear is that it does provide a large lay stable, consistent form of energy. i'm at camera on nearly 247.

and that's not something that renewables can do at the moment. and while we are having technologies come in, which could serve to balance the system the rest of the time when not really saying battery storage friend stance at a sky. oh wow, right, good day that the my men another option is hydrogen, while hydrogen is quite untested. as an energy storage technology. and so we have yet to see whether either of those can really be a viable alternative to their consistent stable supply. energy that comes from nuclear plants, all right, and he chambers. thank you. thank ye. ah.

now china went from once having little trade with brazil to being its top trading partner in 2009 out pacing the united states. and at that time, louis nasty alluded to, silva was serving his 1st tenure as brazil's president lula is now back in office. and he's recently visited badging in an attempt to repair ties that had suffered under jaya bolton, ours presidency. the visit was also aimed at boosting trade between the 2 countries, even further. brazil sign several new economic agreements with china during the trip, including packs on agricultural trade, aviation, and investments. trade value between the 2 countries reach more than 150000000000 dollars last year. china is a major buyer of brazilian soybeans. iron o and crude oil, and brazil is a top recipient of chinese investments in latin america. while the 2 nations took steps to make it easier to settle their foreign trade operations in their currencies. last month, the brazilian president visited the war way. a facility in shanghai. the technology

company has sanctioned by the u. s. over national security concerns. his trip was also included the swearing in a form of brazilian president bill marissa f as head of the new china lead new development bank, which funds infrastructure projects. in many developing nations or president, lyla is seeking partnerships to challenge western dominated economic institutions. and he is called on the bricks blog, which is made up of brazil, russia, india, china, and south africa to create an alternative currency to the dollar for use in trade between them. toward the north. gimme a want to keep us by every night i asked myself, why should every country have to be tied to a dollar for trade? why don't we trade in our own currency and why don't we have the commitment to innovate a loss of keno? i received a room where that we need to have a currency that puts countries in

a slightly calmer situation because to day a country needs to run after dollars in order to export. and it could export in its own currency on the central banks, could certainly take care of that. i put you on the bridge because no body, why can't buy like the bricks buying a currency to finance trade between brazil and china between brazil and other bricks countries. well, to discuss all of that on join. now, by our 2 guests regimen of blanco who is research director and head of americas risks in sites, various maple cross joins me now from ben allen. medina in spain and from singapore is chain gang. he's an assistant director in senior research fellow of the east asian institute at the national university of singapore. welcome both benjamin if i could start with you say bilateral trade has of course balloon between brazil and china in recent years. so just how significant to these new agreement, the new agreements are very significant in the sense that they bring breast sale

back to china and it's lula so per to need see to try to, you know, put fuel back in the brazilian economy. and mark a very different policy from his predecessor jr. bull scenario. so of course, you know, for lula in particular, infrastructure investment and in bringing back life to brazil's industrial heart land are crucial. and he hopes that china will be able to give brazil that lifeline. particularly with his own support base in the industrial sector. indeed, it's a trend going from china's point of view. what are the upsides of this arrangement? yeah, actually for sitting being i being lunas uh, visits or to beijing is very important for he is a 3rd world of foreign policy at these days and economically. and i think this is also very important for china,

a country that needs the recovery office economy a very badly this year because last year china didn't and meet is economic target of about 5 percent or so. i think a full china, brazil is important because of its resources and the raw materials, especially because we know that china now has become a one of the world's largest, her manufacturing house in the world. so it needs a lot of resources and energy and agricultural products at which brazil can provide armand for china. so i think this visit is very important for teaching. and we talked about industrial policy. very important for luna and you know china's investment and results infrastructure projects. what kind of thing are we talking about? how important will that be? well, we're talking about 2 things in particular. i mean,

when it comes to industry, chinese companies are entering brazil in areas where western manufacturers are leaving. so for example, if we think about the automaker industry and car factories that need new buyers in northeastern brazil. and those new buyers came from china. when the country needed them, the other side of the equation has to do with internet connectivity with them brazil to reduce costs and ease the transport of goods out to ports and across to asia. we often cite the fact that it's more expensive to transport. one ton of soy with in brazil, them from a brazilian port to china. and so what lula is looking for here is investment in road in railway and import infrastructure on the one hand. and on the other hand, also on telecommunications. and that's where that visit to hallway besides being

a controversial or eyebrow racing from washington is particularly interesting from a brazilian domestic policy perspective. right. and your mentor on washington, lula, of course, has been up in the multilateral agenda altogether. but when he went to washington, he didn't seem to, to go with a whole array of business deals. that wasn't so much of a business agenda on the table that but china was completely different and you made a why do you think that was? well, i mean, this goes partly into playing into what you know, brazilian diplomats are calling active non alignment. right. the agenda with washington is more a long issues. the round human rights climate change democracy, protecting democracy in the region. these are issues that are don't sit or don't align particularly well with the the agenda in beijing, which is around trade and investment. but doesn't mean that the u. s. and remain

unimportant investor in brazil. in fact, you know, it is a huge for indirect investor in brazil, and u. s. companies operate in the countries, you know, including in areas where they compete with chinese investors like oil and gas and mining. so that you know, for or lula. this is the moment where he wants to show that brazil can be in the global arena, talking to different partners and leading emerging markets in this conversation. and it's the idea about, you know, brazil can lead latin america and other global south economies in a multi polar world that includes china and the united states as crucial partners. channels got you to reflect on that as well. and then i want to move on to the issue of a dollar the u. s. dollar dominance. and the cool for that to change 1st will just just respond to what you mean. it was just saying, yeah, for the i think definitely it is. the currency cooperation is one of the focus is

for a new last visit to china. because both countries actually have the incentives to use their own currencies for trade, bilateral trade and also investments. as these days, i think i increasing number of countries actually are feeding that actually relying too much on the us dollar of or treat any investment sometimes could cause some problems. so that's why i think for not the visits to china. i think this is one of the issues the discussed and also i think they are going to move forward to use their currency. the more often as china has been brazil is the major trading partner for yes. so there shouldn't be a much easier about using their own currencies in a broader sense, chen,

how much is it going to affect the dominance of the u. s. dollar in international trade because it trade in china's currency still only accounts for about 3 percent of central bank reserves, and that's compared to 60 percent for the us dollar. yes, although i think china and non number of other countries actually are trying to use their currencies more often for global trade and investment that's do a long way to go before the current currencies can really play a major role in global trade and investment and replace the u. s. dollar, because we know that the us dollar dominance in the global financial system treats system has lasted for decades. hinged us technological, economic power as well as they don't all you'll treat system. so that's why i do not being that it's easy for these countries to move to was id

a dollar. right. right. vision won't do me. would you like to reflect on that? yeah, i mean, i think, you know, increasing bilateral trade in, you know, non dollar. and particularly if, you know, with chinese now is part of an organic process in which chinese precedence in, you know, in global trade is significant. but for a country like brazil, but also trades in commodities that our benchmark in us dollars, it will be nearly impossible to remove itself entirely if we think about, you know, commodities whether it's soy, iron or oil and gas, you know, they're all benchmark $10.00. so as much as lula wants to position these detachment from the us dollar, it is something that will remain as part of global trade for the foreseeable future . turning point, if i may come to you dealer,

reset the forward resilient president, of course has been appointed head of the new chinese backed new development bank. what do you think about this bank and can it become the great bank of the global south is lula himself is said. yeah, i do think that these new development bank, or the bricks bank, do have, does have the potential to become a global development bank for, for global south, which is beverly and needing all kinds of financial support for their infrastructure and economic development. but of course, we also have the existing mechanism, global financial mechanisms, like the world bank i'm asked and asian development bank. so i think in the future we have a kind of competition between the conventional ball o financial assistance and the emerging oh,

financial developments as like the new development banks and also some of other i development banks. for example, in china. i saw in the future are going to see this kind of competition. all right, we'll leave that. do appreciate your time. i jen gang. thank you so much. and jemina blanco. thank you to you for joining us from spain. thank you. lebanon's economic collapse has devastated as banking sector and turned the nation into a cash based economy. a mass deprived a near bankrupt government to billions of dollars in tax revenue. and it's driving elicit activity. and we consume, sheriff was more this currency exchange store in lebanon's, mika valley is buzzing with lebanon's currencies. and freeform and customers want to exchange it for you as dollars in mid march, the value of the lebanese pound plunge to a historic law of $100000.00 against the dollar. it's the result of

a 4 year old financial crisis blamed and decades of government mismanagement and corruption. alina phenomenal, us is, can people come holding bags of cash running around on that they want dollars or whatever reach you, give them what they just want dollars, fear in water will be to more businesses across lab. now now or press exclusively with cash restaurants, coffee shops, and supermarkets have all stopped accepting car payments, a key to get on the know that she used to sell mostly on cards. but lately we have problems with banks. they are not giving us money. when i have $20.00 to $30.00 card transactions and our for example, $4000.00, they wont even give me $500.00 or $400.00. this is why it stopped check stopped. everything today is cash. since 2019 lebanese banks have imposed restrictions and cash patrols, locking depositors out of their savings and estimated $8000000000.00,

it's exchanging hands informally. that's causing concern, particularly among western nations, attempting to track elicit cash transactions. it's the biggest threat that the government of the country is facing because it is a very, very, very dangerous that the entire economy as a cash economy, all the money is going to the private sector. the solution is only in one place that is to normalize unfinalize, the restructuring of the banking system. lo, restructuring is one of the reforms demanded by creditors if lebanon is to receive much needed international support. but that means the political and business elite would have to compromise their hold on power. and that's something they persisted so far. and we consume sharif anesthesia for counting the cost. and that is all

shave for this week. if you'd like to comment on anything you've seen, you can tweak me at nick talk. i'll just just use the hash tag a j, c t c, or d, drops an e mail counter the cost at algeria dot net. it's our address, but there's plenty more for you online at al jazeera dot com slash c d c. and that will take you straight to our page, which is individual port links, and indeed in tar episodes for you to catch up on that is it for this edition of counting the cost i'm to clog to the whole team. thanks for joining us. the news is coming right up ah and

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ah, holding the powerful to account as we examined, the u. s. is role in the world on al jazeera. ah ah. hello, i'm sam is a dime. this is the news out live from go ha, coming up in the next 60 minutes. country started evacuating embassy staff from sedan is fighting persist despite the seas. foreign announcements. i want to say to the po, sorry. we are the civilians.