china grands governor manuel mamba or pauses to plant when all they want is a polymer. now it has always been that way. and we know that our married girl will always try to bully joy again. here. the national government insists the deal only aims to shore up the country's defences. the philippines foreign affairs secretary enrica monotony, categorically stating the us won't be allowed to stockpile weapons for conflict over to one partner below al jazeera civic bay, the philippines, and something different. a man becoming the 1st chinese national to fly through one of his countries natural wonders in a wing suit. juncture pang jumped from a helicopter 2000 meters behind the chairman cave in central china. before passing

through the giant arch. things flying is considered one of the world's most dangerous extreme sport. ah, this is al jazeera, these are our top stories, has been sporadic gunfire and sudan. despite another extension of a full train. 72 our sci fi. plumes of smoke can be seen off the air strikes in costume, borrowing near the capital un says more than 800000 people may flee the violence. hipaa morgan has the latest from cartoon. several positions belonging to the rapid support forces in the northern parts of the capitol and in eastern mile, that's in the north east part of the capital, where also head by air strikes. heavy artillery can also be heard around the vicinity of the presidential palace. that's the scene of fighting between the rapid support forces and the sudanese army since the thought of the conflict 17 days ago . the recess is a control of the presidential palace,

but because of its vicinity to the general command of the army, which is in control of the army itself. this, the, for the new army is trying to gain it back and that has been, that has involved a lot of artillery strikes. a lot of after i embarrass hours of the day, dozens of people including children, has been injured in ukraine after a series of overnight russian missile strikes. extensive damage was reported in the eastern city of poplar and j. p. morgan chase full by the 1st republic bank of the us. regulators sees the troubled bank claps, walks the 3rd major us institutions have fail in less than 2 months. they've been confrontations between demonstrated them police in paris. those rallies around the world, mark international workers, de protested in front, angry at present, to buy new macros move to raise the age of retirement. and us secretary of state. and steve lincoln is holding meetings with the foreign ministers of all media and

as a by john talk same to reduce tensions. i've been going to come back to dispute as a by john set up to checkpoints in the regional relaxing corridor last month. it's the only road connecting armenia with the area. those are headlines to stay change . we've got counting the cost of next. ah, the united kingdom will crown a new monarch on may the same king chose the 3rd is planning a ceremony. the owner's historic traditions while embracing a new mountain. whoa, whoa. the pageantry from westminster abbey on out is in. i . hello, i'm adrian said again, and this is counting the coastal al jazeera,

you'll, we can look at the world of business and economics this week. europe has time to africa to replace washing gas. it's now looking at the continents green hydrogen potential to make the shift to renewables. but can african countries fill the energy gaps? also this week, the us, china and russia, racing for political and economic influence on the continent, but at what cost? plus, playing catch up, washington and beijing also competing for africa's rep earth elements, which are critical to the production of renewable technologies. ah, as europe shown as washing energy supplies, it's increasingly turning to africa to find alternatives. the continent has vast natural gas reserves, but supplies only 6 percent of fossil fuel globally. african governments and businesses want to capitalize on the opportunity created by the war and ukraine. but critics warn, but millions of africans lack electricity and supplies

a much needed at home over co, some sharif reports since russia invaded ukraine last year. several european leaders have visited african countries. they're looking for alternative energy suppliers. and a continent has some of the wolves, deepest natural gas reserves. analysts say, a lack of investment in energy infrastructure and security threats from om groups have hamper development. but the war in ukraine has presented an opportunity, one, algeria and italy already exploring ca, much in other, allows for opium in their home will be, am as to increase energy exports from algeria to italy and potentially on to europe, including finding solutions to increase the volume of gas transported a new pipeline that would also transport hydrogen and new electrical undersea cable and increased production of liquefied natural gas. let any spaniel 2 is tapping up,

increasing exports of ellen gee, liquefied natural gas to germany, from $2500000.00 tons this year to up to $10000000.00, but 2030, which it's hoped will create much needed employment. we want to be able to her whenever it comes to decision maker. this is project for selling on for the development of the country and is important that we her, our senegalese national. sitting on the table. some believe europe spivey towards africa could solve the continents on supply problems. the international energy agency estimates about 600000000 africans don't have power. while 900000000 have no access to plain fuse for cooking union venue for the am a different, we often have trouble getting electricity. but we think that with this plant, this will change little by little amity. currently, african countries provide around 20 percent of your ups gas and the energy crisis is fueling hope that the continent can increase the chair michelson. sharif under

sierra for counting the cost. joining us not from johannesburg, his n j. i ok, is the executive chairman at the african energy chamber. good to have you with us and j. how much of an opportunity for african countries has the war in ukraine provided in terms of energy supplies in war in ukraine had actually drain african energy supplies because they've been massive demand for a lot of natural gas going to euro in a saying that natural gas could have been use the venus for it or use we're getting, getting g across africa to really power africa. big europe has been to biggest consumer of african natural gas. you seen gas sales increase from equity around getting to nigeria. you will mozambie, i pretty shipping some respect shipments on he's looking in. he's euro on our jury as well as the year has become africa. biggest consume of natural gas in the war.

ukraine started, africa has massive reserves, but does it have the capacity to ramp up supply? it doesn't have the capacity to ramp up supply because it has been in massive on the investment in africa, natural gas for a long time. african natural gas has been good on it back on, on it, back food because the i've been around climate concerns. yeah. the lack of investment on that he best been around exploration for natural gas and healing infrastructure. people mean like in nigeria, i am going through a moroccan are area hot not being developed. you pipelines going from nigeria? true with african american. yeah. has not been, you know, a lot of the gas fields that are being stranded and i have not seen that investment . that has been a problem for africa right now. and i think right now we need to start thinking about having a game changer, henri, around, and financing for infrastructure and,

and gas people and floating in geez, i've seen that it struck solution for right now for africa with that investment going to come from given that the massive potential for profit here, you'd think that the people would be, would be locking the door down to, to invest in africa right now. well, i think the biggest issue around when people looking at invest in africa around natural gas, you seen massive gas is being found now maybe in a meeting with them be nigeria still has great potential. would be true industrial act as being passed right now in need to receive financing. but we also have to take into consideration some of the struggles of financing a car. they have to cut red tape, create an environment, and re do deals faster, sign be sign sign you deals. but also in a sense, way you shouldn't take too long to approve it project any time you needed to drive

to, to build up project. and we need to look us african me to start thinking about how we address issues around resource nationalities. and it doesn't walk on when we do do investment through he even greatest to become on critics though, as i say that africa needs to fix its internal supply problems 1st before it exports its resources to other countries. i mean how, how to africa governments strike a balance, a leash that can be done here. 600000000 africans don't have access to electricity. 900 me. you don't have no access to clean cooking technologies. most of them, when the continent is still seeing massive one, then it will been on industrialization. so that natural gas needed. we could strike a healthy balance to re do come fever, gas wide european partners,

and also the same time to be able to drive not just gas power projects, but also petrochemical and all of that. it gets lean, talk to investment, but also the climate polarization scene. around the world, when it comes to gas, it's really a hurry. i forgot the most because it got to be in color right. at the same time in european countries have declared gas green, i'm gas is green for europe been trained for africa. and we need to be very careful about getting cold data telling us a balance, court d i using court power. your right now was in south africa today did when 8 or 10 hours we knew electricity on black house be. so we need to find a balance that when you come down on to put our asian, that we see if the, some of the partitions need to watch your language in the scramble for natural gas is, is europe ignoring africa's potential for renewable energy sources?

absolutely. as best potential for renewable sources, we just started talking about bringing hydrogen this amazing amount of potential to re, re re hydrogen needed re ammonia in europe and africa really drive that. no carbon economy that can really do with heavy industries. look at morocco, some other projects happened in egypt are area that come right down to south africa, south african, the media is seen amazing amounts on the big green hygiene deals that being signing martina. i'm synagogue and that great potential that has have to come, but we also have to pay attention to the fact that you, we're going to look at these green economy a log cabin economy. africa has less than 2 percent of global investment in renewables. debt is not right, that needs to be increased and that needs to be wrapped up. if you are going to re are achieving just in the transition, you can tell africa today. and as we get nothing today,

colonized that is sales done. not matching those words with financing with connie, and we're not talking a we talking real credit lines. we talking financing investments that will really go on and give africa if i can chance to re industrialize why. so there wasn't a couple nice at the time. it's been great to talk your account to the cost money, thanks for being with us. and he, so what is an honor to be with you? ah, china has spent 2 decades expanding its political and economic relations with africa to day one in 3 major infrastructure projects on the continent is built by chinese state owned enterprises. that's according to the u. s, but beijing isn't alone. russia is widening its involvement. that 2 mainly through arms sales and mining projects. now after 4 years of neglect, under the trump administration, president joe biden wants to win africa back. his administration's officials of

toward the continent over the past few months in a bid to unlock american investments that among them is vice president comalla harris, who's announced billions of dollars and investments to gonna tanzania and zambia biden has committed $55000000000.00 in financial assistance to africa over the next 3 years, he's also increased humanitarian aid to african countries. mainly those battling food insecurity. while he has a look at how american investments in africa compared to chinese ones, china was the continents largest to weigh trading partner in 2021. with more than $254000000000.00 worth of business. the united states institute of peace says that's 4 times the amount of trade between the u. s. and africa. a new study by the center for global development says the chinese banks provided $23000000000.00 to infrastructure projects in sub saharan africa, between 272020. that's more than double. the amount lent by such banks in the u. s

. germany, japan and france combined. beijing is the largest provider of foreign direct investment, supporting hundreds of thousands of african jobs. that's nearly double the level of u. s. foreign direct investment. chinese landing to african countries has dropped lately, but the nation remains by far, the largest linda to african countries. china's critics accused of deliberately lending to african countries that it knows can't repay the money to increase its political influence. beijing denies practicing so cold debt trap diplomacy and says partnerships a built in good faith. the u. s. also accuses washers varden, a group which a secured many mining projects in africa, of committing human rights abuses and of extorting natural resources in african countries. joining us now from london is alex my and he's the director of the africa program, the managing director of ethics, risk, and resilience at

a chat of the house. alex, good to have you with us. why are russia, china the u. s. racing to build economic ties? with africa right now, where an error of multi polarity and africa has plenty of natural resources. it has strategic and critical minerals. and it has a very large agricultural base. and so it's, it's a market the many countries want to be engaged in. all of the reality is that we are in a bit of a retreat. and just at the moment because of the state of the global economy and, and hot hyde lending. right? so the, the con, the cost of providing funding has, has gone significantly up. and so there's still plenty of activity on the african continent, but it is much dampened compared with what it was say in 20192020. so putting aside the that, that the town term for the mobile, how does africa approach this dealing doing business with 3 competing powers?

yeah, i mean, not just 3 competing cars. i mean ad in the gulf states, turkey. i'm, you know, the members of the european union. so is a really crowded, frenetic market place. and i think the, the word non alignment, i think, is the, the most apparent that comes to mind. i'm many african countries, not all of them. many of them want to be non aligned, they do not want to be pigeonholed. and so they prefer choosing an al accounts approach. they want to come to pick and choose what's good for them. and i think that that is that the, the new reality that we're dealing with. so that's not bad if you got lots of suitors, as long as you negotiate a good deal in flight praying off russia and china and some gulf states of maybe some europeans. you might get a better deal i if, if you're able to manage and negotiate that well, the, by that ministration is stepping up its campaign to,

to win africa back. what areas is it looking to invest in on how does that differ differ rather from the areas that the china and russia are investigate early . the americans are definitely very concerned about access o strategic and critical minerals for the industrial complex back in the united states. have had a number of high level meetings about this year, including on the fringes of the u. n. so countries like the democratic republic of the congo come to mind and the u. s. has looked at how to support in the structure, but they infrastructure companies are not doing too well and some are actually retreating at the moment. so that, that, that the headline as from from the biden administration, a very positive you've just mentioned the figures, the reality of corporate america falling behind. i'm at the moment, it is very sluggish. if you look at the camella harris trip that you mentioned,

the vice president of the united states, to gonna as ambia, i am, i forget really the one of the country turns near. i think it might have been i'm, i, there wasn't so the so much corporate america tied to that trip despite what she was saying. and there, i think there is a problem for the united states. they really do need to get a lot more corporate american companies focused on the african market than they have at the moment. china is accused, once again of setting death traps across the continent. is it good question? this is a piece of work that we ourselves did at chatham house, published in that last december. and we looked at where china was really investing so that the reality is it shut china's of f d i and investments are, are deep. but in a smaller number of countries, particularly 7 or 8 countries, which we focused on. when we looked at those in death, we didn't find evidence of debt trap,

except potentially am one. and that's g booty. and that's because if it's g, a strategic position on the gulf of aidan, i'm many countries have strategic interests that because of its location by kentucky the that the gulf of aidan itself. but also because of access to the hinterland, ethiopia. so i don't think that the evidence stacks up on, on rhetorical noun debt trap, which tends to be not only out of washington, although less so just recently. but japan and india tend to kind of use that rhetoric. but there's the, the research that we've done doesn't, doesn't support that. and what about what russia is, is doing in africa and 2019 president putin said that he was going to double investment to on the continent of has that materialized given the sanctions that are in place against russia given the war in ukraine. and so the russians have another, their 2nd russia, africa summit planned for july, this year in st. petersburg. so it'll be interesting to see who shows up and what

the headlines are there, and particularly from the commercial side, the reality when i talk to, to russians as it's been very difficult for them in terms of investment. there are some nice areas still where, where russia, it is investing as longstanding investments in the republic, a guinea on book side. and i've just seen figures through, in terms of exports, of, of kind of a fuel products, kerosene and other things have significantly increased in a couple of african countries, particularly north african ones. but also nigeria, which i think is a reconfigure ration of trade with the african confidence given you and western sanctions. and those exports are going elsewhere. but russia is struggling except in a, in a few countries. as you've mentioned that private military company, butler has been active and has struck dales to, to extract minerals in exchange for security services. got to talk to alex many thanks for being with us on counting the cost. you're very welcome. thank you for

inviting me. africa is also at the heart of a geo political scramble. so read earth minerals demand for those elements is increasing globally as governments around the world, plenty to reduce their emissions and make the transition to green energy. the metals are used in the production of electric vehicles and wind turbines and other renewable technologies. and many african nations have large deposits of them. but chinese miners control most commercial exports of minerals in places like the democratic republic of congo, zambia, and tens. and here, for example, and beijing refines as much as 60 percent of the world's lithium bolden, 60 percent of its cobalt, according to a report by the brookings institution and results for development, the u. s. wants to decrease its reliance on china and is trying to africa for the minerals. joining us not from idaho in the united states, peter major, the director of mining at modern corporate solutions. good to have you with us,

peter. how significant are african deposits of red minerals? wo i drew like a lot of things. we don't really know how they can they are. we just know africa is largest continent in the world and other than asia. and it's probably the least explored, even though man has been here for a few 100 years. western man, it's huge. and it's rich. and just the congo alone is bigger than europe. and congo has gone from almost bursley 50000 tons of copper production a year to almost 2000000 tons just in the last 20 years. and that's just one country out of a huge continent. and it's because there hasn't been a demand large enough that could be met with wrestle world if. if we see a chilly in south america, produces almost

a 3rd of the world's copper. but it's now peaked for the last 10 years. it can't produce much more copper, it's slowly going down, but the will population keeps growing, and the demand for copper keeps going. and so now, more and more countries are turning to africa, even though it's, it's still quite disorganized, even though it's quite still 3rd world. it is hugely, hugely rich in still relatively unexplored and that includes all minerals, not just copper. and rarer st. without a doubt are going to be probably more abundant in china and africa than even are in china with more money put into expiration. so peter, what are the, the challenges for africa than in a realizing its full potential? we hear a word in south africa use quite, quite frequently by the west. and now it's use myself africans themself. although they don't like the word, it's called policy. and even if you are very disorganized,

even if you are very poor, even if you are very corrupt tra crime ridden. if you have the correct policies it on board, you will attract money, real money. and we don't mean hot money that comes in the day leads to moral. we lead bricks and mortar money. and that's unfortunately been a lot of africa's problem is their policies change too often. probably the 2nd problem in africa is they can't enforce the policy when they get a good one. and so if you have a bad policy, you attract the wrong money. i'll forget needs money invested there. that you want the right money and you need the right policy yet. right. and, and also, i mean, i suppose on the policy comes, security has a lot of unrest in many countries in africa and people who invest what a know that the assets, while they're investing into is, is secure. they certainly do adrian. and amazingly enough,

even though governments can't always provide that security, if they have the correct policy, the western cut countries, the western investors and, and let me not prejudice anyone, yell china asia, either russia. if there is a correct policy, they will bring the money and they will bring in security because the metal prices are so high now that the margin that they can make is large enough to allow for the security. peter, how much control does china have over? ah, africa's rare earth marketed and on pricing to what extent is china stolen a march on on the u. s. is, is it trying to get a look in now at increasing its investment? it is. and right now, i don't think china has very much control over africa as reverse has. oddly

enough, and let's, let's get specific here. the rare earth elements. they're not copper, lithium, z, cobalt, rarest elements. they're 17 funny sounding names. and the reason china got such great control over them is through most of humanity. there were more rare earth than man knew what to do with. the u. s. was a much larger producer. up until the 1990s, the late ninety's then was china. but china needed rares, a boy put focus and money into it. and it was producing rivers much cheaper than anybody else in the world could. so all the other production closed down and only china is producing then by the end of the 90s, the early millennium. now there's all a sudden with technology advanced like it is now the use for rare earth elements all civ, 17 of em. there's only a few 1000 tons

a year that get produced. now that demand is large enough that china can start raising prices and they keep raising prices, raising prices in the world's happy to buy from china. china doesn't control africa's reverse. we've hardy found reverse in africa. and yet it's got some good deposits, especially south africa. and especially lawanda, and they're not chinese controlled yet, but as we saw on zillow, bob, we cimbawe is a rising star lithium. and it wasn't chinese that found a lithium in zimbabwe. it, we saw a stallions and the chinese have now bought the 2 largest lithium deposits in zimbabwe. peter, it's been great to talk to you and carry the cost, but he, thanks for being with us. thank you, adrian. i really appreciate your time. and that's our show for this week. get in touch with us. if you want to comment on anything that you've seen, you can tweak me. i'm at a finnegan on twitter. try to remember to use the hash tag a j,

c t c. when you to or you can drop us a line count to the cost of al jazeera dot net is our email address. there's plenty more for you online at al jazeera dot com slash ctc. that takes you straight to a page there. you'll find individual reports, links, an entire episodes to catch up for that is it for this edition of counting? the cost on adrian said again from the team here in doha, thanks for being with us. but he is on al jazeera, this next ah ah, holding the powerful to account as we examined the u. s. seats ro in the world on

al jazeera, inspiring stories from around the world. ah. ready human life capture in his fast one. ah, groundbreaking films, from award winning filmmakers. what is going on in new york city? on a jetta ah . as strikes near a residential area, just north of su, don's capitol as another sci fi fail.