my husband is national league for democracy minister for younger, and i don't expect he'll be released. he's a journalist and sentence under 5 o 5 to 3 years. so i hope he will be set free. senior general men on lies hosting china's foreign minister in the capital naperville. some believe paging may be encouraging that genta to soften its comparative approach. others think the concessions are a result of sanctions already and place economic sanctions that deprive the hunter of the resources required to operate its war making machinery would weaken its capacity to attack the people of me and more. tens of thousands of political prisoners remain in jail with little chance of early release, particularly uncensored. she whose 33 year jail sentence could take her to the end of her life. tony ching altura. ah,

this is out of here. and these other top stories. russia says it foiled an assassination attempt on president vladimir putin. a kremlin says to drones were used in an attack on the presidential residence in moscow. claims ukraine was behind it. t strongly denies the allegation. journalist from the shop of oliver has more from moscow present. peyton was not in the kremlin, at the time of the incident. russian officials immediately blamed ukraine for that time, and called it a planned act of terror and an assassination attempt on present peyton. ah, we understand her. there are 2 video clips of that talk. a dad now circulating the media, one of them shows the moment of shooting down the drone and how to was falling on the dome a one of the crumbling buildings on the other. we can see how the dome is burning. the parents of a 13 year old boy accuse of opening fire in a school in a serbian capital belgrade had been arrested. the city is mourning,

the death of 8 children and one security guard. police say the suspect used his father's gun in the attack. but the boy is not expected to be charged because he's below the legal age to face trial, police and hungry of fire tear gas, it teachers and students who are protesting against a new bill that would end teachers public servant status. the protesting teachers say the planned laurel significantly increase their workload. hungry is government says that bill seeks to improve the quality of education not to nations is calling for security guarantees at the highest level for the safe movement of a delivery. since to dawn, the calls come as the bodies humanitarian chief visits the country to coordinate relief efforts. hundreds of migrants of stormed and immigration station at mexico's southern border. these 2 people were injured when the crowd scramble to get documents for transit through the country to the u. s. border. and the u. s.

federal reserve has raised interest rates to 5.25 percent. it's highest level in 16 years. is a 10th time in just over a year. the federal reserve has height rates, as it tries to contain inflation. is all the headlines. news continues. herron al jazeera, that's after counting the cost. assassination is dissident destabilizing . the democratic process. you will, you will lose it. it will be a loss for all the a documentary explores how autocratic leaders undermine democracy to consolidate their power through the eyes of those who dare to stand and defy it. our country deserves so much better than being ruled by a cleft aquatic dictatorship, opposing autocracy. democracy may be on al jazeera. ah,

[000:00:00;00] with 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 russian 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, 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 in ukraine. but critics warned that millions of africans lack electricity and supplies a much needed at home. oh michael, some sharif reports since russia invaded ukraine last year, several european leaders have listed african countries. you're looking for alternative energy suppliers and the continent has some of the world's deepest natural gas reserves. analysts say, a lack of investment in energy infrastructure and security threats from arm troops have hamper development. but the warning ukraine has presented an opportunity. one algeria, an italy already exploring ca, medina, allowed procurement there. the aim is to increase energy exports from algeria to easily 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. and let any sending it to is stepping up, increasing expose of energy liquefied natural gas to germany, from $2500000.00 tons this year to up to $10000000.00 by 2030, which it's hoped will create much needed employment. we want a level to have whenever it comes to decision making. this is project for sending on for the development of the country and is important that we have our senegalese national, sitting at the table. some believe europe speak to us africa could solve the continents on supply problem. the international energy agency estimates about 600000000 africans don't have power. while 900000000 have no access to plain fuels for cooking union venue for a different, we often have trouble getting electricity. but we think that with this plan,

this will change little by little. currently, african countries provide around 20 percent of he ups gas and the energy crisis is fueling hope that the continent can increase the chair and consume sharif al jazeera for counting the cost. johnny has not from johannesburg, his n. j. ioc is the executive chairman at the african energy chamber. good to have you with us, sir. and j, how much of an opportunity for african countries has the war in ukraine provided in terms of energy supplies? it 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 already power africa, big europe has been and biggest consumer of africa, natural gas,

you seen gas sales increase from equity around getting to nigeria to amazon b. i pretty shipping some respect shipments on facebook and ellen, he's in your, on our jury as well as the year has become africa. biggest consume of natural gas seems to war. ukraine started africa has massive reserves, but does it have the capacity to ramp up supply? he doesn't have the capacity to ramp up supply because he 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 human 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 gees. i've seen that the past 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 are 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. i'm re do deals faster sign be sign sign you deals, but also in a sense, way you shouldn't take too long to approve a project any time you needed to try to, to build that 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 this when flu. 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 and how, how to africa. governments strike a balance, a leash that can be done here. 600000000 africans don't have access to electricity. 900000000 have no access to clean cooking technologies. most of them women, the continent is still seeing massive one,

and it would've been on industrialization so that natural gas needed. we can strike a healthy balance to re duke. i'm feeling about gas, while european partners and all the same time be able to drive not just gas power projects, but also people chemicals and all of that. they are getting talk to us 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 doing training for africa. and we need to be very careful about getting cold data telling us a balance, court d i using quarter power. your right now was in south africa today did when 8 to 10 i was, we knew it. christie on black house be so we need to find a balance that when you come down on the rise asian that we see if the political

partitions need to watch the language in the scramble for natural gas 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 hydrogenated, re ammonia in europe and africa really drive that no carbon economy that can really deal 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 if we going to look at these green and call me a low 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 react, achieving just in the transition, you can tell africa today. and as we get nothing to colonize that the same time, you're 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 this time. it's been great to talk your account to the cost money . thanks for being with us. that 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, 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 accusative 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 washes 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 not from london is alex my and he's the director of the africa program, the managing director of ethics, risk and resilience at to chat of house alex good to have you with us. why are russia, china and 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. i, it, 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, of, 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 moment, 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 that the word and an alignment i think, is the, the most apparent that comes to mind. 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 ala carte approach, they want to kind of pick and choose what's good for them. and i think that, that it's, that, that 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 the ministration has stepping up its campaign to, to win africa back. what areas is it looking to invest in and 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 or strategic and critical minerals for the industrial complex back in the united states. have had a number of high level meetings about this, see 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 says from, from the biden administration,

a very positive you've just mentioned the figures, the reality of corporate america falling behind at the moment. it is very sluggish . if you look at the camilla harris trip that you mentioned, the vice president of the united states to gonna and zambia or am i forget really the one other country tons near. i think it might have been i'm, i, there wasn't so 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 only african market than they have at the moment. china is accused, once again of setting debt traps across the continent is, is good question. this is a piece of work that we ourselves did at chatham house, published in that last december. and we'd 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 track 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. it 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 talked to, to russians as it's been very difficult for them in terms of investment. there are some nice areas still where, 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 so 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 talking about x money . 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 scrambles of rent of 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 of the air, for example. and beijing refines as much as 60 percent of the wells. 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 the 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 in it's called policy. and even if you were very disorganized, even if you were very poor, even if you are very corrupt to 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 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 a africa's rare earth marketed and 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 earth than man knew it 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, and 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 advance, he 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 the 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 stroll. yes. and the chinese have now bought the 2 largest lithium deposits in the broadway. peter, it's been great to talk to you and carry the cos, buddy, 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 tweet me. i'm at a finnigan 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 frank assessments. this tricky bride says with this hopeful lot, hm. and what countries could come together and start putting in place the rules allow us to treat this global cummins with the attention it deserves. inside story on al jazeera, talk to al jazeera, we are who is really fighting this war, russia, music, wagner, or is it the russian or military? we listen, we started talking to me on my own so that this is the at yours. who does it? usually take them back, we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matters on al jazeera. ah, ah, russia accuses ukraine of trying to assassinate president vladimir putin with