us treasury secretary janet yellen is set to kick off her visit to beijing in a push to stablise economic ties. president biden meets with sweden s prime minister in a show of support for the country s bid to join nato. cuba is grappling with a fuel crisis, and is turning to an old ally for help russia. we ll have a special report. hello, i m sumi somaskanda. us treasury secretary janet yellen has left for beijing, a trip which will test the biden administration s ability to cool relations with the superpower. secretary yellen will aim to preserve healthy economic ties between the world s two largest economies. but, the two sides may clash over the biden administration s push to de risk relations, which ultimately means relying less on chinese supply chains.
it s his turn. but at the petrol station, the tanker hasn t arrived, and nobody knows when it s due, much to the drivers frustration. translation: the system | is inefficient and ineffective. we re not allowed to fill a full tank. people are not informed. it lacks proper organisation and infrastructure. the latest challenge for cuba has been in fuel, and the queues at the petrol pumps must be set into context of other major challenges the island has faced in recent years in food security, inflation, and electricity provision. it must feel to the beleaguered cuban people like the country simply lurches from crisis to crisis, forcing out an entire generation of young people from the worst economic conditions since the 1990s. the root of cuba s problems is a potent combination of government mismanagement, global economic downturn, and the decades long us embargo. to alleviate the situation, the cuban state recently signed
to the 1950s, but both are now running on fumes, struggling to maintain momentum, without a significant overhaul in the years ahead. the question on many cubans lips are one of these agreements with russia be enough, will they make a difference to the economic state of the island at the moment, and in a sense i think the answer is that they could. as we had to contributor there in the peace ache in the short term it makes sense that you are putting out fires, you have to deal with that, but of course i think cuba really still needs the backing of its socialist ally, venezuela, who has its obvious own economic difficulties, and they are looking the other partners too, like in the southern cone, the return of president lula in brazil offers a possibility, mexico, but perhaps russia is the obvious major partner, even at this very, very sensitive time of the war in ukraine. 50 time of the war in ukraine. so what do you think russia is looking for in return here? that s the thing. again, as
then pulled on the other direction by the us economic embargo. that is a huge strain on the economy and on the cuban people. when you put on top of that the downturn in the tourism sector because of the coronavirus, it really has become very, very bleak for people. so a lot of people are quite hopeful about the role in russia, and perhaps helping pull cuba out of its current situation, but to be honest, when the crisis hit fuel, as it has done recently, then they found that patients was being tested to its very limits. it s hard enough for cuban taxi driverjorge lloro to keep his soviet era lada of the road. spare parts are scarce and expensive. but recently, even filling the tank turned into a days long ordeal. over the past month, petrol shortages in cuba became so severe that, at their height, the queues at petrol pumps stretched for several city blocks. thousands of waiting customers were organised into whatsapp groups. jorge is number 426, and he s just been told
defence minister i should say in russia, saying that cuba remains their most important ally in the region. ilil ally in the region. our corresponding - ally in the region. our corresponding will. ally in the region. our. corresponding will grant. ally in the region. our corresponding will grant. great to speak to you as always. a un fact finding mission has urged iranian authories to halt the executions of protestors, who were sentenced to death for participating in anti government protests last year. the mass demonstrations were sparked by the death of 22 year old mahsa amini in september. amini was in the custody of iran s morality police at her time of death. iran called the mission politically motivated . our special correspondent kasra naji reports from the un. the fact finding mission on iran was established some seven months ago here at the un human council. the commission is specifically asked to look into numerous reports of gross violation of human rights, during months of