one with a controversial political slant, a statue appeared in the centre, the city showing form a king juan carlos aiming a rifle at the landmark bronze figure of a bear shaking a tree. juan carlos is well known for big game hunting. one of the controversies leading his abdication 9 years ago. ah, type picture of the headlines here this our original african block is pushing to extend a ceasefire in sedan that's meant to expire on thursday. the army says it'll send a delegation for talks for the rapids, support forces have not yet commented. now the question is, will that cease fire hold? because many residents around the capitol hudson in various parts were able to heavy to hear heavy artillery during the previous. these flyers and so they believed that there was no way for them to leave the capital or to be able to get out of their homes to get basic necessities. so it really comes down to the issue of implementation. both sides have repeatedly stated that they will commit to any

of these fired that they agree to, as long as the other sites do not perform any military activities and do not attack the other. so it's not clear yet. if this is fire, which is due to thought after the current one ends on thursday, also will hold are not ukrainian president vladimir zalinski has named a new ambassador to beijing after a phone call with the chinese president shing ping. it's the 1st time the 2 leaders were spoken, since russia's invasion of ukraine the us house of representatives has voted to raise the level of the government's debt. the republican bill increases the debt ceiling to $31.00 trillion dollars. it includes limit on spending a move that president biden as threatened to veto one of you the same price. a 1st republic bank has continued to drop on wednesday, and it says it could be the next us bank to collapse. the san francisco based lender stock price plummeted. more than 20 percent in morning trade. on tuesday its value sank nearly 50 percent for my brazilian president, jaya bolton arrow,

has testified to federal police as part of an ongoing investigation and to post election riots. thousands of his support of the government buildings in january after he lost the presidential election. hundreds of them are expected to stand trunel, and jailed russian opposition. leader alexia valley has called the latest case against him. absurd, he was in court on wednesday in the early stages of a new trial on extremism charges. the balance is already serving 11 years in a maximum security prison. he says, all charges against him are politically motivated, violently was take at the hospital early this month, the spokesperson saying she could not, not poisoning the cause. so those were the headlines. the news continues here now to 0 after counting the cost statement, then to watching bye for now. frank assessments, this treat surprises that this hopeful moment where countries could come together and stop putting in place. the rules allow us to treat this global cummins with the

attention of dessert insight story on al jazeera. ah, with hello nick loud. this is counting the cost and al jazeera of your weekly look at the wealth of business and economics. this week, giving up nuclear energy, germany powers down its loss, 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 silva, his challenge western lead financial institutions during his chima trip and called

on brits nations to end the dominance of the u. s. dollars in international trade, ah, said an anti nuclear activists have spent decades fighting for this very moment. germany has now shut down. it's 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, it questioning how the country can secure enough energy to drive the economy as it reduces dependence on gas supplies from russia to tori gate and b has this report. oh, environmental activists celebrate the end of an era. the closure of the neck a wes time nuclear power plant, along with the shut down of 2 other reactors. it finalizes the phasing out of nuclear power in germany, dodge, and also food. so in spanish i get rid of. this is

a big success for us. i think one of the reasons if not the main reason was fukushima in 2011. but i also think that our decade long fight against nuclear power has played a role in the decision was announced more than a decade ago by then chancellor angler 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 off the speaking on the same platform as no to khan who was the prime minister of japan. at the same time, we had supper afterwards and being astonished when he turned to me and said 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 land a certain way, but we do not know it. germans will tolerate the further construction of wind turbans in their villages. i know the germans say they 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 it 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 nations expanding their 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. it started up a new reactor in march. it's 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 eli chambers, who's an analyst of e u power market for 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 gap. that last why then you clarify is out. it's my opinion that this isn't a positive move. so tell us about that gap and how it would be filled 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. our module runs indicated that that would be a large gap left by the size of nuclear, and that will be mainly filled by imports of power from other countries. the country is 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, it's so also you will get some more contribution from fossil fuel pumps that will primarily be coming from gas phones followed by leg cone and when you look at the, at the costs of these different types of electricity and nuclear does have high stock costs. but obviously germany already had these nuclear plants. so 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, ah, a lot cheaper to produce. so from the point of view, those who are supporting this moved by germany, celebrating hughes. 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 dirty or not. and one of them is whether it's carbon and obviously fossil fuels a met, a lot more carbon nuclear plants. but the,

the site that you're probably talking about is that it produces nuclear waste. so you could say it's not sustainable. and in that way, 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 li, stable, consistent form of energy, and that 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, we're not really saying battery storage friend stance at the sky. oh, why? right? good day that the my men another option is hydrogen, while hydrogen this 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 consist, an stable supply of energy that comes from nuclear plants, all right, and he chambers, thank you. thank you. oh, 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 really da 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, bolts, and ours presidency. the visit was also aimed at boosting trade between the 2 countries even further. the brazil signed 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 as 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 is sanctioned by the u. s. over national security concerns. his trip is also included, the swearing in form of brazilian president bilmar, russo f as head of the new china lead new development bank,

which funds infrastructure projects in many developing nations. president lula is seeking partnerships to challenge western dominated economic institutions and is called on the bricks block, which is made up of brazil, russia, india, china, and south africa to creates an alternative currency to the dollar for use in trade between them. ill thought the lloyd, to me bill, won't the book you get told the little spy? every night i asked myself, why should every country have to be tied to the dollar for trade? why can't we trade in our own currency if you know, and why don't we have the commitment to innovate raw somewhere that key noise, perceivable to room, where we need to have a currency that puts countries in a slightly karma situation. because today, a country needs to run after dollars in order to export, and it could export in its own currency. and the central banks could certainly take care of that. my book, if you mo, commas brick of no body. why can't

a bank like the bricks bank cover currency to finance trade between brazil and china, between brazil and other bricks countries? well did is gas. all of that i'm joined now by our 2 guests. as you men of blanco, who is research director and head of america's risks, insights at various maple croft joins me now from banal. 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 and germane if i could start with you and say, bilateral trade has of course ballooned between brazil and china in recent years. so just how significant are these new agreements? the new agreements are very significant in the sense that they bring brusell back to china and it's new list. so put to need see, to try to, you know, put fuel back in the brazilian economy. and mark a very different policy from his predecessor j bowles, so narrow. so of course,

you know, for lula in particular, infrastructure investment and, you know, 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 in data is going from china's point of view. what are the upsides of this arrangement actually for being i, being new visit to beijing is very important for his 3rd world foreign policy these days and cannot make lee. i think this is also very important for china, a country that needs the recovery of economy very badly this year because last year china didn't meet it's economic target of about 5 percent.

so i think for china, brazil is important because of its resources and raw materials, the specially because we know that china now has become a, one of the world's largest manufacturing hops in the world. so it's nice, a lot of result is an energy and every cultural products which brazil can provide or not for china. so i think this visit is very important for teaching gym and he talks about industrial policy. very important for luna and you know, chinese investment and brazil's infrastructure projects, what kind of thing are we talking about and how important will that be? well, we're talking about 2 things in particular. i mean, when it comes to industry, chinese companies are enter in 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 in from china. when the country needed them, the other side of the equation has to do with interconnectivity with them, brazil, to reduce costs and east, 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 lou lane 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. it wasn't so much of a business agenda on the table that but china was completely different. do you mind? 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 along 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. that 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 channel. 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 meant. it was just saying, yeah, for the i think definitely 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 major, treating hard to know for yes. so there shouldn't be 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 and 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 these 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 that. 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 ones to position these detachment from the us dollar, it is something that will remain as part of global trade for the foreseeable future trend. finally, if i may come to you dealer, is that 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 kind of 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, does have the potential to become a global development bank for, for global south, which is better the 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 math and asian development bank. so i think in the future we have a kind of competition between the conventional little ball o financial assistance and the emerging oh, financial developments or as like the new development banks and also some of the other i development bass, for example, in china. i saw in the future, i going to see this kind of competition. all right,

we'll leave that. do appreciate your time, my gen dang. thank you so much and jemina blanca. thank you for joining us from spring 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're consume shutting for more. this currency exchange sto in lebanon, mika valley is buzzing with lebanon's currencies. and freeform and customers want to exchange it for u. s. 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 on the left alarm. and the last is, can people come holding bags of cash running around them that they want dollars or

whatever reach you, give them what they just want dollars fair and what will be to more businesses across lebanon now or print exclusively with cash restaurants, coffee shops, and supermarkets have all stuff that septic 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 to 30 card transactions. and now 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, an estimated $8000000000.00 is exchanging hands informally. that's causing concern, particularly among western nations, attempting to attract illicit 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 anxious seizure for counting the cost. and that is all show for this week. if you'd like to comment on anything you've seen, you can tweak me at that point. i'll just just use the hash tag a j, c t c, or de drops an e mail counter the course at alger dot net. it's our address, but there's plenty more for you online at al jazeera dot com slash cdc. that will

take you straight to our page, which is individual port links and indeed into episodes for you to catch up on that is it for this edition of cause of the course. i'm to clog the whole team. thanks for joining us. the news is coming right up ah and a notice in paris, why are electing a new president on april the 30th foreign policy matters in the fight against corruption, have dominated campaign? the governing party has been in power for more than 60 years. could this be the

moment for your position had been waiting for follow the paraguay election this month on al jazeera, j, propaganda media, censorship, and the rise of all of their italian rule. you wake up one day, the system has been turned from an electoral democracy into a competitive authoritarian. the shame a look at the loss of power in hungarian new to the experiences of those who live it every day that is oppress shuttle us. but we haven't to be very careful, of course, and we have to be brave enough to support that question how democracy dies. democracy may be on al jazeera. the climate has changed every year for millions of years, decades of talk. but little action is all about distract, create confusion to crate, smoke and mirrors the shocking truth about how the climate debate has been systematically. so 1st is the oil industry was a main bank roller or opposition to contact the campaign against the climate. do

you think that's a bad thing more to to and did was here's a good thing. absolutely. on, on jesse. ah, so then cease fires repeatedly broken in many areas, but the countries minute 20 to says he's ready for talks about another one. long queues for bread and fuel as some sudden these tried to take advantage of the fighting to stuck up. ah hello, i'm darn jordan. this is al serra live from della also coming up the greatest president .