3 the same year, the wright brothers cowed out their 1st flight. the mother of 4 survived cancer twice live through to well was, i'm the 1800 spanish flu. at a ceremony in 201910, acar was recognized as the world's oldest person. she spent her final, he is enjoying mathematics and kathy and said she was happier than she'd ever been . ah, this is al jazeera and these are the top stories. now. russian forces have attacked critical infrastructure including rail lines which ukraine says is to stop it from re supplying its troops on the front lines in the east. the crows, neat train station and the vision was one of 5 struck by missiles in central and western ukraine. un secretary general antonia good terrorist is in moscow. i had ever planned meeting with russian president vladimir putin on tuesday. the summit

has been arranged in the hope of pushing open diplomatic channels between ukraine and russia. russian that media outlets have reported a series of blasts in moldova as it break wait region of trans. this trip. explosions reportedly happened at the ministry of state security building the city of tourist bone. so far there have been no reports of casualties. transit in history is supported by russia and is on ukraine's western border. twitter board has unanimously decided to sell the company to you don't, must, can a deal worth around $44000000000.00. if it goes through, shareholders will be paid more than $54.00 per share. gabriel, alexander has more from well, essentially you on mosque, came up with the financing. that's what happened. i mean, it was 10 days ago. he made an all cash offer of $44000000000.00 to buy or twitter. most people on wall street did not take that too seriously. and this is

why, because even for isla musk who's worth more than 4 times that $44000000000.00, it would have been nearly impossible for him simply to write a check for $44000000000.00. and people on wall street knew that not impossible, but quite difficult. what he needed was financing the turkish court. his sentence acted as to osmond caballo to life in prison for attempting to overthrow the government. the charge is related to financing protest in 2013 and involvement. the 2016 attempted to the u. s. in europe to top quarter, called a sentence, a disappointment in ethiopia, ti gray people's liberation front says it's completely withdrawn its forces from that far region. they hope they withdraw without a to reach to gray. more than 90 percent of the regions population needs food aid. there's a headline. news continues here now does there after counting the cost? in the 1st i lands oma mesopotamia,

where the 1st settlements formed the cradle of civilization. iraqi people who depended on the tigris and euphrates for centuries can no longer make a living on rivers blighted by will and pollution. out of their world reveals how the man may decline. one of history's most famed ancient environments, leaving its people struggling to survive iraq's dying rivers. ah, i hello, i'm fully back to bo, this is counting the cost on al jazeera, your weekly look at the world of business and economics. this week is to longest worst economic crisis in decades and is to pushing people to the brink. so what's gone wrong for the islands nation, and can it secure the cache?

it means to buy basic supplies. old. so this week, china's g d p growth for the 1st quarter beats forecast, but the countries way down by lockdown. so can be gene, keep the economy growing or, well the wells manufacturer a grind to a halt and as fuel prices rise, electric comic as i an increase in sales. but his demand for the vehicles really increasing among drivers. and if so, is there enough to supply them? ah, thank you very much for joining us, sri lankan coffers have old but dried up and it cannot afford to pay for imports. millions of its people are bearing the brunt of the countries economic crisis. basic goods are in short supply power, carsa frequent prices are sorry, and the value of incomes is eroding. many people blame the president for the worst economic crisis in more than 70 years. and they have taken to the streets, demanding, he stepped down, go to buy a roger pox,

a has admitted making mistakes and promises he will correct them. a roger pack sir has appointed a new cabinet by the opposition, has threatened to bring it down. part of the country's economic crisis is caused by a lack of foreign currency. shall anchors, finance minister has started talks with the international monetary fund, seeking a rapid financing instrument or r f i. the island nation has also turned to india and china for debt relief, but both countries have offered more credit lines. to buy commodities, sri lanka has suspended payments on its international debt of more than $51000000000.00 effectively putting the country. in default, the island nations foreign reserve stood at a less than $2000000000.00 at the end of march. while the countries foreign debt obligations were this year exceed $7000000000.00. a sank exchange was also suspended for 5 days last week. now, should anchors inflation rate climb to almost 19 percent last month up from more

than 15 percent in february is highest level since october 2008 and the fastest raised in asia. here's an idea of how much basic necessities now cost white rise. a common sri lankan staple increased by 93 percent since 2019 chicken and lentils have gone up by at least 55 and a 100. 17 percent, respectively. the state own sale on petroleum corporation raised the price of fuel by more than a 130 per cent last week. and a standard household cylinder of cooking gas inc. fees from almost $5.00 in 2021 last year to 9 dollars this year. and the country's ruby has plans to record lowes becoming the world's worst performing currency. the government has the value that will be placed, curves on non essential imports and almost doubled interest rates in a bit to tackle the economic crisis shrunk as economy has lost much of its tourism revenues. because of the pandemic and remittance is dried up. but critic face

government decisions to cut taxes and shift to organic farming are among the main reasons behind the crisis. or joining us now from shall and guess capital colombo is will mesh where i'm with dolly, who is an economics lecturer at the university of colombo. thank you so much for being with us on counting the costs. this is by far the worst crisis lanka face in independence in 1948. how do we get to this point? what went wrong? to start, we'd be going made a cds or bad trades that starting from x in d, elected to the his in 2019 and subsequent reports. benjamin, he did law that had an adverse impact on sheila, how we were, the decisions that the government made some sequence to defend me, particularly to, to hold that will be following up exchange a pigeon, particularly the decision not to restructure date. and going by admit that these,

what has actually led to this crisis, because been me when we enter into those and 21, it was quite clear that there was no way sheila case. going to continue with the food industry payments. because the con case for in the law, and we law, significant amount of revenue to worrisome because of depend to make impact. and on the other hand, we didn't have the ability to go to the international capital markets and borrow money to issuing euro bonds was hovering bugs. that is because would append to me can as be less likely to text, but right. so you didn't, you didn't have the luxury or refinance again. the, the ideal auction was the fee structure and the go and when decision to not to take that option was what caused this whole prices to the prison mind. a roger pack for has admitted making mistakes. is it just download to his policy decisions that have made sure lunk as economy so, so vulnerable to the stocks or the other factors that play the will the economy was

by little bit because she long because export hasn't gone from your last couple of decades or more and at the same time the tax revenue was very, very low. probably one of the was among the woods. so when you are inside your bush and you had to be very cautious when you make your policy, and they were not cautious, particularly when you have a very lot actually when you read doesn't make sense to the tax cut. right. but they went ahead and gave it as an election promise. and soon after they left the good the public even to be the text, which was absolutely unnecessary for a country that has made it when. so it and also their decision to strictly, you know, not going to, i mean, because they were insisting that we are not going to him if you're not speaking. i mean, as he says and debated till the last moment, people are dying or short ages to make that decision. so it was the wrong policies that pursued, ignoring the economist advice that has led to these shortages and the daily suffering of the experience today. what the government has now officially requested,

you know, the i m f help, which has been criticized because as yourself, many people have said it's taken too long for them to go to the i m s. they've requested an r f i, which is usually granted to countries with urgent funding needs because of shop commodity price rights. for example, national disasters will be get this and will be i am f bailout work this time around. let's talk about the bailout in into parts lately. the odd, if i were to make sure that be fine as well, then you will have something might be called the extended fun festivities. the normal beta package that relates between ca gotten 2016, but for for the finance the in to want to be received. sheila cost debt has to be sustainable level, which is not the recent stock the board made. i mean, clearly stipulates that priyanka need these on sustainable. and unless the government easing the odd to me that it's a stable, that i missed,

you may not be in a position to give, give, provide, lending at this point. so. so it's a bit of a tricky c ration. it's quite difficult at this point to get an eye on it because the level of the, of the buggy has. but we'll have to see what policy actions that you would like to look at this point. and if that policy action is to get an idea of what about china and india, they've offered credit lines. does that offer a lifeline or will it mean more debt for sure longer? well, i mean, definitely going to be more that because that's the only way out of this. you'll have to borrow what you need to be cautious. this at this point you will have to borrow but, but you have to borrow for sure. lease, or that you don't or what, but did. and also to get to more of a transition, a formal state, you know, the date that you have to pay across large, i mean long number of years. and also we can low interest rate because we can't really dig the burden of

a commercial that anymore at this point in right now. and also we dictated nines, very nice. my tells in the short term, particularly in terms of was a play which might be running on these days, the poor credit line provided by india. that's another credit line coming from india, or maybe seen essentially i would then intermediate, a good chinese embassy. and in a press conference few weeks ago mentioned that they were still willing to provide a credit line and another known saw some of the woods that received the pretty nice but, but that's how quickly that those things comes. it's important must equal x reaching play notes. okay, now speaking of, of the debt the, the moody's ratings agency has one that's your lanka. we'll see a series of defaults on it. foreign debts after the government said it would stop re payments. of course. what are the implications of bad? what would that mean for sure? lanka, and speak for the vein which we de paul did. i did was not the worst case. the

reason being in prayer, they've treated me, made an announcement for what we call the union. i try before we go informing all the credit, we are not able to be rather than an abrupt but disorderly the 4th. so that's one good thing. so which means the tailor could just that look here we have building to the start date and the claim if you have any questions so things wouldn't be bad as disorderly before. so that's one good thing that was done but, but that was to the question was that it was too late, too late? saw the stall depends on how quickly the debt restructuring process goes. that has to go along with diane. if it was, she should have smith saw the sequence of feet. i wouldn't say to be betty c via ok . it wouldn't be bad to disorderly before. and i don't think that the imports below kicked due to the default, but the imports. how old are the affected because that is, those are ignored and that's the key concern to address. no,

fine for the interest so strong. tom bell. 20 need to get these lines to ensure that the basic, our food may be seen oil and i was going to ask you about that, that the choice is the bed best options now for sure, lank as government waste for the government to improve the country's fiscal position while also protecting those who might face poverty as a result of policies that that might lean towards charity. there has to be a co bus or show safety net program, giving cash transfer to those who are particularly affected by the high food prices and short gauges and make it a priority along the b c form to cuz otherwise the forms will not be politically feasible been because nice people come through that all it's and start writing, ingest most of the so, so the require at the, at the medication strategy to communicate with the vulnerable groups that this is what we are doing. and this is how we are going to protect you and to do the need to protect them. thank you so much for talking to us about this. ensuring light on

the situation. insurance formation, rome, dolly lecturing economics at the university of columbus. thank you very much for your time. lasha fisher to be here. thank you. ah. china's economy has beaten all expectations for the 1st 3 months of the year. gross domestic products grew by 4.8 percent compared to a year earlier, but consumer spending fell and unemployment rose suggesting tougher months ahead. that says the country is expected to feel the full blown impact of corona virus locked downs and the war in ukraine. many economists say beijing growth target of around 5.5 percent for 2022 appears to be out of reach. katrina, you report somebody. jane. china's economy beat most expert forecasts and expanded by 4.8 percent in the 1st 3 months of 2022 strong manufacturing activity and a boost in infrastructure. spending early in the year drove much of that growth.

but major challenges threatened the outlook of the world's 2nd largest economy should yet you should. the global situation has been complex on the fluid. domestic were covered, 19 continues to have impact. that's why some major indicators was low down and there's a pressure i can army performance other china is battling, it's worse corin of iris outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic. and tens of millions of people nationwide have been confined to their homes, look downs and purse march across major industrial and commercial hubs, including shanghai and sion, gen have crippled supply chains and assembly lines. analysts say the damage caused by shutdowns will be further felt in future economic data. but retail spending has already contracted by 3.5 percent. unemployment has also risen. foreign business leaders say badging 0 tolerance approach to corporate 19 is harming both the domestic and global economy. the western and japan, korea,

all the big economies have strong interest. the china changes to one because it said percent of all goods and china manufacture could have some sort of china in there. so of china actually sneezer, you know, the world catches a cold. we need child to succeed. we need china to open up in order to actually maintain also good the global economy at a certain speech speech and a global economy needs china now to succeed because we have a war in ukraine which as a rebel on effect. and this is like a perfect storm coming altogether. unfortunately, rising inflation and a cash crunch in the property sector are also dragging on growth. the government has set a g d p target of around 5.5 percent this year. it's the lowest in decades, but many believe this figure will be tough to achieve without the rolling out of more aggressive stimulus measures. still, china's leaders insist on maintaining the most heavy handed pandemic measures in

the world. the cities of she and pseudo, and john jo have joined shanghai in imposing restrictions, followed local outbreaks over the weekend. on joining us now is robin monday high professor of asian, initially at the i. e. s. e business call and president of the asian studies association of hong kong. thank you very much, miss them on behalf of being with us on counting the course. let's start with the good news. the positive news. first, the chinese economy making a solid start at to the year. what are the main factors driving this growth? well, as you know, they are still benefiting from their success of the, the wound or experience. so while the world was starting to cromwell down they actually were actually, china was recovering. so they continued being the world. so factory. so they were exporting and they were making the goods that the world demanded. so this is

a result of that but, but the 1st quarter, g, d p does not tell the whole story, does it? i mean, what's the reality of the situation right now on the ground? ok, they said 515 percent is the target. so the whole year are personally i've, i'm doubtful about that. it depends on several things. i would, i would mention 3 things. the 1st one is the revival of the domestic consumption ah, in, within china. the 2nd one is the resumption of international trade, which was disrupted by the a ukraine ukraine war sauce imports of china has gone down. and also, you know, the china imports an array of goods which are later are re exported. so both are done because the ports have also begun to be close flights of also been reduced. so oh, and contributes to down flow of international 3. and the 3rd one is the supply and

demand factors. first of all is the your grain war. second is the prizes of commodities driven by the, by the war. so you have all call natural gas and other commodities. food also, 3rd is inflation. and china is way to talk. it is different from other countries. it works and then production capacity is down because of the lack, balance and armors factories are kind of still don't. right? well let's talk about those locked down since the beginning of march. china has struggled to, to contain it's worth over 19, not breaks in the start of the pandemic. as you yourself said, when the world was dealing with china was actually doing much better than most countries. but now it's in the grapes of this crisis. we've seen important ports

like shanghai shut down. how does the government make economic stability a top priority, while also maintaining the 0 covered 19 policy strategies? one solution to china always had was to use infrastructure investment. what if, if things are down, they will double down and on, on making more infrastructure that's to preserve employment, to keep the economy going because externals will be difficult. so they will use internal tools in order to, to keep the economy going. but, you know, that's not very easy to do because there are other, other issues that they have to contend with. for example, the aging of the population, the factor in the lying down attitude of the population. the positive side is innovation and technology improvement goes up. but those are the things that they

have to, you know, make sure that they interact property. so the economy is able to do briefly miss that one to her. let me ask you about that. the global impact on this, you know, especially for those countries who rely on chinese production and on demand for chinese investment. how, how difficult do you see the situation being for them in the coming months? for me, i consider this a very difficult issue because they have, ah, a play playbook rule to follow because a vague this year is special for china. they have this, they have this special meeting in ridge, ah, presidency is expected to have another another term, another 5 year term. so that cannot be disturbed. so in, in the past once these things happen. so it is very difficult to move because as we have seen already in the past beginning, the one crisis was that there is

a china way of doing things. and that's why in the 1st stage of the one crisis, it was like disaster. but bits they quickly changed, but that change has to be decided by the cup. okay, so and that is the problem here. thank you so much for your time. thank you for talking to us. we'll been one day hi. with petrol prices storing the preferences of ca, shoppers are shifting drive is increasingly choosing cause that plug into sockets over those that burn fossil fuels. global sales of electric vehicles are estimated to have jumped nearly a 120 percent in the 1st quarter of the year. despite the high cost of the vehicles and batteries. the average cost of lithium ion battery sales increased to at least $160.00 per kilowatt hour in the 1st quarter of this year. as compared to 105 dollars last year. the high battery cost added almost $1500.00 for the best selling electric vehicle in china, for example, supply chain disruption vend sanctions on russian. metals are among the main

factors, driving up cost and a market share of electric vehicles around the world increased $41.00 times in the last 10 years, reaching 8.3 percent and sales broke records globally last year. global e v purchases reached more than $6000000.00 units in 202108 percent more than the previous year. 130000 electric vehicles were sold throughout the year in 2012. that figure was reached in a week in 2021. china recorded the high sales at 3400000 . 2.3000000 electric vehicles were sold in europe. this figure was by 66 percent compared to 2020. the us rank deferred with 735000 electric vehicle sales. well, joining us now from london is casper rose, who's a chief date, the officer at benchmark mineral intelligence and agency specialize in electric

vehicles and battery supply chain casper. thank you so much for being with us on counting the cost. so what is driving this demand for electric vehicles? our environmental concerns, motivating buys always it more about gas prices is a combination of factors driving, driving electric vehicles, demand at the moment in some regions. it's a subsidy, so you're saying some quite generous subsidies available and electric vehicles, particularly in china and in europe in the kind of policy, well as well as some big drivers. so again, in europe there's fleet emission standards that need to be met by over time make is across the whole fleet. so one way to achieve as is to move to more and more electric baker sales. and then just to kind of longer term as a consumer, looking at the planning to end internal combustion engine. victo sales, very different based globally, but between 2030 and let's say 2050, generally speaking, people thinking now more and more about electric vehicles. and i guess just finally

kind of a consumer preference to move to more and more environmentally friendly technology . as speaking of the longer term, let's talk about the cost, the price of these vehicles because there's been a continuous search in prices, right? for electric vehicles, costs rose because, you know, of supply chain disruptions. the sanctions on russia, for example, to expect this rise to be temporary or will battery costs for example, stay elevated. or are we going to see at some point, some sort of stabilization, you know, the major component that's driving the rising cost. the batteries is, is leaky mind battery critical role material. so the cathode, which is a cafe in a battery. cafe representative of the cost of the battery the moment, and that's what you find the lithium, the nickels manganese and those pray. price is very high. as you know, high prices willing been incentivized, more investment in production of federal materials. everything cash flowing, opperation, new nickel, opperation, etc. but it takes a long time for that to come to market. take many years and you mind to be billed.

we typically say around 7 years. so we will say those investments that are happening now and, and commence last year coming to play in the coming year. and that will, that will balance costs. now, the ultimate cost of the b, i guess, is really what matters in the compensation today. and they still economy discounts to be made in terms of the vehicle production level of the production level. but we do expect these material markets to go in and out and deficit over the next decade . so for right now, the main problem is lithium and lithium deficit. in the very tight and that's why we see price for him benchmark publishes various different grade prices on a global basis. the average is 465 percent year one year. and since the start, the panoramic recover recovery is closer to 800 percent and i was gonna ask you how manufacturers are getting around the supply chain disruptions? i mean, it's very challenging at the moment. i mean, we have the earnings,

korea from tesla who specifically, you know, mosque and tessa themes specifically mentioned. lithium is a major concern and could be a limiting factor in the right of which my batteries can be produced. and they are exposed to cost at the moment. so by that, what i mean is that no hedging mechanism, like you would having something like other logic commodity markets. these are speciality chemicals. lithium in particular is no commodity. you can't just use any kind of him in your process, you have to qualify that product. so it's very, very challenging. so at the moment what we're seeing is largely speaking, those additional material costs are being added to the the vehicle in some way or margin of being casserole. thank you very much for talking to us. thank you very much. and that is our show for this week. get in touch with us by tweeting me at fully bought a g e and do use the hashtag acdc. when you do or drop us an email. counting the cost that al jazeera dot net is our address. but there is more for you online at al

jazeera dot com slash ctc that will take you straight to our page, which has individual reports, link setting, tie episodes for you to catch up on that is it for this edition of counting the cost? i am fully battle from me and the whole team here in doha. thanks. watching. the news on al jazeera is next weekend stories from african perspectives. and the maroon by the just a business when the short documentaries from african feel maybe i'm going to do from south africa, ethiopia, and nigeria. we've been to go over some stuff in this class. she saw this as my, and my role on africa direct on al jazeera. did you know, you can watch out as they were english streaming live on like youtube channel,

plus thousands of all programs. award winning documentaries. and in depth news reports. subscribe to youtube dot com, forward slash al jazeera english. ah, i'm carry johnston and dough with a reminder of our top stories herron al jazeera, russian forces of attack. critical infrastructure, including rail lines, is she crane says, is to stop it from re supplying its troops on the front lines in the east. the cries, neat train station near the vive. it was one of 5 struck by miss 1000 central and western ukraine. un secretary general antonia good cherish is in moscow ahead of a plan that meeting with the russian president vladimir putin. on tuesday. the summit has been arranged in the hope of pushing open diplomatic channels which.