Ukrainian offensive Authorities Say 250 ukrainian troops or killed in 16 tanks destroyed. Charles stratford has more from keith. Its impossible to independently verify these claims and counts of claims by both sides. But that certainly seems 11 and some suggest some heavy fighting in various points along the Eastern Front line, the front line of around a 1000 kilometers. It started earlier today with the claim made by the Russian Military that they had repelled. Well, they describe is a large scale ukraine in operation pushing into the southern zone thats region in 56. 00 is the Russian Military said. And as i say, impossible to independently verify the voltage that the Russian Military supplied alone with those claims. Us secretary of state antony blinking, says washington will not let it run, develop nuclear weapons. Speaking of the american israel, Public Affairs committee blinking, also urge tv normalization of relations between saudi arabia and israel. The former us Vice President mike pens has officially announced his candidacy in the 2024 republican race for the white house fences run. Will pit him against his former ally, President Donald TrumpTrain Services have resumed at the site of indias worst rail disaster. In decades, preliminary reports suggest a signalling error caused the crash that killed 275 people on friday. But its ortiz, have launched a criminal investigation Prime Minister and the render moody has promised to punish those responsible and voters in kuwait or preparing to cast their ballots. In the 2nd, the parliamentary election in less than a year. Coates is the only goal state with an elected assembly that has the power to challenge the unelected government. But disputes between the m. P. s and the cabinets have led to a political deadlock. Those are headlines analysis here as always our website, which is 0 and dot com has details on all our stories up next, counting the cost to stay tuned for that. A joint label conversation to just say the issue was no good. The people industry could be continued is say, this is a dialogue. We dont always talk to people that have different opinions that we do. Everyone has to police must have it here as the society doesnt do enough to recognize and celebrate women. It was found, this was fun to have an American Occupation of the meetings to the countries. The street on algae 0. The hello, im adrian said again, and this is counting the cost on al jazeera, your weekly look at the world of business. I think it all makes this week. Default brings friendship. Yet again, the u. S. Is the only country to set the debt ceiling. So why is it so contentious that also this week, europes powerhouse have slipped into recession. To germanys economic slowed down drag down the whole concept of dumped a game, changing my gerry is multi 1000000000. 00 oil refinery. Could solve the nations fuel source just but environmentalists arkansas each time the us gets near to its depth, ceiling americans of the rest of the world seemed to anticipate catastrophic consequences. Congress often has to vote to raise or suspend the amount that the government can borrow to pay its bills or risk. A historic default. Politicians have pasta bill to suspend the 31. 00 trillion dollar dep limit all to a tough political battle. But the republicans, no democrats got all they wanted the compromise agreement caps Government Spending for the next 2 years, but increases the Defense Budget to more than 880000000000 dollars this year. It also pull was back on, used cobit funds, speeds up permission to Energy Projects and expands work requirements for some food aid recipients. The bill passed percentage on thursday and 5 and will sided digital before the june 5th deadline. So what exactly is the debt ceiling . Well, it enables congress to limit the amounts of money the government can borrow to pay bills already approved by lawmakers. Its been periodically raised because the u. S. One is large annual deficits and the revenue collection taxes isnt sufficient. In recent years with the us becoming more positive and will make us of use the debt ceiling vote as leverage against other issues. A stand off over the debt ceiling in 2011, lead standard and poors to cut the us as a Credit Rating for the 1st time ever. Denmark is the only other advanced economy with a debt limit set at a fix know middle finger. Most other economies set that limits as a percentage of g d p. Joining us now from london is below have fees chief executive of the micro hi of good to have you with us uh, bill out. So the rest of the world was watching. Once again, americas debt ceiling debate, why does it matter so much to the rest of the world . Well, i mean, the big reason is that the us is the largest economy in the world. And so what happens to the us affects the whole well, so if the, if the us stuff is a slow down or recession, a crisis of any kind, it will have a huge impact from the rest of the world. But economically, and it will say, proofing that for markets as well. Most markets in the world have a strong relationship with the us markets. And why is it such a contentious issue in the, in the us, its all about politics, isnt it . Yes, its all about politics ends, its just a, its an unusual situation that the us has with the agree a budgets and spending and so on. But at the same time, they have this debt ceiling issue which, which essentially allows previously agreed budget to be renamed on. So its this, is this uncomfortable do you, i would see that the us has, which sets it set stuff up to always have these types of complex, especially when the us steps levels reach the threshold. Thats close to good. That seating the house. Speakers said that this was a deal worthy of the american people. Was it to . Well, i think all sides of the old political policies that all sides will claim victory with this agreement. In essence, both sides got something from the agreement. So of rules as being an agreement of roughly 1. 00 trillion dollars a caught, sabine agreed for the next 10 years. And the republicans wanted more. They want it, obviously trading dollars the democrats wanted 0. So we landed somewhere halfway in between. So both sides contain victory. There. Awesome. When is in this situation and there were some loses as a rule its, its a mixed bag. This depth assuming bring friendship seems to happen with allowing regularity in the us. Okay. We can breathe a sigh of relief perhaps. Now, how long before it all happens, again, its a great question and its the, it will happen again, you know, the current agreement is that the, the debt ceiling the next possibility. But that seeing conflict, the debate will be 2 years away. So we have agreed to uh, to your extension of the debt seating so, so this takes us to off to the us election. So for one or 2 years, we can sign a breath of release, but it will come back, no doubt a but a deal usually comes the market. So what about the future of volatility though, given that the treasury is going to, going to have to instantly replenish the cash, but its gone through. Yeah, so now now we have those. So the next phase of potential volatility as you write you point out. So the try to will have to build up its, its cash balances, the so called trends, tga balances. Thats at the side, which will then mean that the reserves held by the banks right beside what has to be drawn down, which will be a drain on the credits in the market. So a rapid increase in the price of these balances at the sped will lead to a contraction of an acquitted c in a. The market which could lead to move on to say, lets see. Now the question is, where the, the, the treasury and the fad will rebuild the balances as rapidly as they have said, they would all what they slow it down to ensure the markets remain stable. And this is a big question about for investors right now. Denmark is the only problem that the only countries all the which has a similar situation with the us, with these base budget limits and deficit problems. What, why do we never hear about problems with, with brinkmann shifts in, in denmark . I mean, why, why does it, what is the situation that would make the headlines of the us does well, as usual, denmark always is the perfect country see in on the multiple different i mentioned. But one, the difference is that a role that levels in denmark a much, much lower than the us, the us that levels depending on how you calculate it, is between 80 to 90 percent of ttp. Deadlock is close to 230 to 40 percent so, so its, its considerably lower than the debt ceiling limit that they have in denmark. More of the denmark tends to run budget surpluses as well as deficits us almost always ones that states as always running into fiscal problems. Whereas denmark tends to balance as books. And then the other thing, denmark is much more off a friendly government and political system than the u. S. U as, as tiny po, the rise in denmark, both policies, all the coalitions that run the country tend to agree jointly on the president of the leader of the country. And so theres, its, its much more of a collegiate type set top uh that you have in denmark compared to the us, 80 to 90 percent of g d p. That sounds incredibly expensive. How does that the us get away with that . Well, you know, thats the old debt level, i just have to be and so thats the Outstanding Balance rather than the amount of interest thats used to service. But thats it. So, you know, in terms of the, the ongoing spending around the us Government Spending all of the tests, it is the Interest Rate expense. But the big reason why the us is able to do this, any of the countries kind of is essentially the, the government has a printing press, ultimately, the able to print money through the central bank. But also they have the ability and the monopoly on raising taxes. So because of those 2 uh, you know, unique rights that the government has the able to run these much higher deposition debt loads compared to a private household. So this is the advantage of having the rights to print money and the right to tax law. Its always great to talk to you all kinds of the cost manufacturing data being with us. Right. My pleasure. Thank you to believe now, but it was once described as the sick man of europe. Germany became the confidence economic powerhouse over the past 2 decades. But the whole thing of russian gas supplies hub the economy and the cost of living crisis is we can consume a spending economic output shrank in the 1st quarter of the year, typically the nation into recession. Now that spells danger for the whole confidence this dominic came reports from bullet, i think of jim and industry and so many people. This is what springs to mind. Assembly lines in factories building costs with customers across the world. And that by helping drawings, Economic Growth in europes metaphorical power has. But now germanys economy is shrinking despite on going high demand for such high quality cause. And one leading economist says, inflation is to blame fiscal previously endorsement, how appropriate we have in germany. And which is unusual and appear to be kind of like weakness is private consumption. And its mainly hitting people with middle and lower incomes because they individually have to spend much more their monthly income on energy and food. Impact is something need doing else can relate. She helps run cleaning services. Thats a leading burden. Ospital status or wages have not kept pace with inflation and she worries about how shell make ends meet. Everything has got more expensive. We paid double the amount now when we go shopping, you used to get to bags full for 50 year old, right. And now to 50 years and you just get one smooth by that you get a lot less. Now this is showing the rates of the recession is slightly just the north point, 5 percent drop in the last quarter of 2022 followed by note point 3 percent in the 1st of this year. But this was not expected to happen back in january off shots said he was absolutely convinced that would be no recession despite now having been proved wrong. The german shots to the remains up feats, at least in public houses. The german economies prospect are very goes out of were solving the challenges we face. You know, we have full employment. There is a public debate around a shortage of what comes in germany. And in fact, we have a big demand for skilled workers across the continent. Many lead his attention is focused on the economy for these to be our immediate, an overriding priority would be to bring inflation, but down to a 2 percent medium to unplug it in a timely manner. And we will do so. But that policy has been in place for some considerable time and shop is across europe on not feeling the benefit. Some analysts say this is the achilles heel of the economy right now. Meaning the recession might be here some time. Dont when it came to counting the cost of an the journey its not from brussels. Is frederick erickson. Hes the director of the European Center for International Political economy. Good to have you with a set frederick. Germanys economy looked like he was holding up better than expected at the beginning of the year. Whats going wrong when i think there are plenty of things that have gone wrong. I mean, obviously, um, did you want me to call them a has been extraordinarily affected by increasing Energy Prices and sort of the reduction of Energy Supply the gas supply so that they well personally dependent on for, for long periods of time. So theres been substantial problems, economic problems coming from back, but, but more generally, i mean, when you look at the German Economy, you look at sort of the slow pace of recovery from the pen demik. When you look at the structural aspects of the problems theyve had over many years and trying to revenge that sort of Old Industrial sex that become much most Service Oriented and much more productive. Theyve had so the big difficulties there. And i think thats also whats so biting them in the bank right down, which is that, that they just have sort of one engine in economy, which is that Old Industrial sector. But now as, as some of the structural economies change comes very difficult for the German Economy to get another engine to move all Government Policies to blame here. I know we, we talked about the warranty paint and gas supplies. But to put that there is a political element tool of this. What i mean, yes and no, and i think theres been successive governments in germany that has failed to do whats obviously necessary in order to diversify the economy, re balance it to be less dependent, sort of on old industry sectors. That, of course, are extraordinary to sensitive to increase as an energy pricings right now. I mean, you could say that this government could do a lot more in terms of providing uh, economic impulses to the economy. Which brings is cutting a few taxes or increasing spend expenditures in order to help german households to, to manage to and keep consumption of. But a lot of the reserves, the fiscal reserve that existed in germany, of course, has been going to rapidly expanding the money that is spent on building new energy infrastructure. There is sort of a, a cyclical effect that would come from that as well. But it stopped immediately helping to keep up consumption and to, to sort of get the economy moving at, at, at the somewhat high speed but, but, but im coming back to the main issue again, which is that when you look at germany, now when you look at the full cost for the German Economy for, for this year, for 2024 and sort of you look credits of the dont time. This is a slow moving economy and actually looking at productivity, growth rates are extraordinary low. The expected growth staying in, in gross domestic product. And the now put is extraordinarily low and duly explanation to that is that the German Economy has some really manage this transition away from an Old Industrial economy towards much more of a tech tribune, Service Oriented digital economy. And thats whats really binding. Its in the back, one of a knock on effects, frederick of germanys recession for the rest of the years old. And should other countries be word . So they should definitely take the word. I mean, in the 1st place, germany is an extraordinary, a big part of the entire yours that i think its represents almost one foot, all the economic and put into your stone cots and consumption. And germany will have immediate knock on effect on, on exports from other european economies economies. Because its, its crucial dependent on, on, on the time for the imports that it gets from, from other you countries, ford, sports and consumption. So click on to see that were going to see that the congress was struggling a bit more on the export from the in order to have the, because of all of all of the slow moving German Economy. And perhaps that can be a, some efforts made by the government to help sort of consumption to keep up. But thats over time. This is going to definitely can happen to knock on effect on others. The other thing of cause is, is, is if you have misalignment between germany and the rest of all the earth on, in terms of how fast its economy mode is moving and how quickly you can get inflation rates down. That, of course, may have other effects. Another point of me, which is that the east would be the European Central bank, is not going to set rates, which looks like whats going on that bank on sec rates. What happens in germany . So this germany, we saw that the beginning of all of this, the germany was once the sick amount of you are not for a very long time. No the does it risk becoming the sick amount of your up again . When it is already to the sick man on your end, it has been for quite a while. I think the that sort of old vision of the German Ec