Countdown hello welcome to hello. Welcome to countdown. At 11 00 a. M. London time, eu ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting in brussels. The deteriorating relationship with russia and the threat posed by islamist militants and iraq. International correspondent hans nichols is in brussels. They have a lot to discuss and just the first day. They have very little hard intelligence about what is happening on the ground in both of the situation. Iraq appears to be improving but on ukraine, theres a great deal of conclusion confusion so there will be an attempt to see clarity. Its unlikely there will be another round of sanctions according to an eu official. They will assess the impact of and thenimport ban they will try and figure out what is actually happening right now in the city of donetsk. Vladimir putin in crimea talking about a worsening crisis. There are reports from local of armored incursions into rebel held territory. We still do not know what will be happening with this aid convoy with the russians claim is humanitarian. One thing is clear, sanctions are appearing to have an effect and they have asked for a 42 billion held, a bailout of sorts. They are heavily leveraged. They appear to need help from vladimir putin. Mobile the discussions center hat will theon wat w discussions center on in relation to iraq . Downmaliki is stepping making way for a new coalition, a new government to form. On this crucial question of it seems thatds, the german press is giving Angela Merkel inching towards providing some sort of support with the u. K. And france. That will be on the agenda here. The u. S. Is saying the situation from a humanitarian with the refugees trapped on that mountain is improving and the government in bag dad is talking about potentially arming the in baghdad is talking about potentially arming the kurds. That will be a potential take out of this meeting today. We will speaks, to you later. Our International Correspondent in brussels. Pressure proposing a ceasefire for humanitarian aid deliveries to the ukraine is almost 300 trucks wait near the border of the wartorn region. For chilcote joins us convoydate. Where are we . Convoygate . What are the speculations . The humanitarian aid convoy is in russia. That is the most important thing to note. It is adjacent to the rebelheld part of ukraine. Ukrainians have said they want to inspect this convoy when it comes over. Not clear how they would do that if they do not control the area on the other side of the border. The second thing you need to know is that the russians are talking about a ceasefire, a truce. The russian president spoke with barroso and the two agreed that they would meet at some point face to face to discuss ukraine. On thetion to that, diplomatic front, the russian president was in crimea yesterday, the territory they have annexed saying that he would really like to resolve the conflict and he will do everything he can to do that. Finally, we have this sighting fewf you doesnt apcs a dozen apcs. Apc being . Armored personnel carriers, tanks without tracks. We cannot independently verify that. I guess it is important to note that the ukrainians maintain the russians have been moving apc personnel across the border for many months now. If its true, if you doesnt is a big deal. That would be exceptionally alarming. Perhaps the concern that all of these trucks going to the rebelheld part of the border, what has the reaction been in general . They want to respect everything first. Now we have dueling convoys. Kiev says theyre going to send their convoys as well. There is a defensive, hearts and minds, that the russians opened up in the ukrainians say cynically, they started it. If you think about these cities, the humanitarian situation is dire. Have been surrounded by the military. They have not had any electricity or Running Water in two weeks. To note that it closed before the reports of the apcs. People have to make up their mind because we only have verification from a couple reporters. Having said that, the markets appear to be shrugging off this situation. Getting increasingly optimistic. The russian stock market up for a fifth straight day the biggest winning streak since may . A long time now. Up, russian bond yields down. . How concerned should we be what does it say to you . Does it say anything to you . Is it just pr, spin in terms of whats going on at the moment . I think its interesting that the ceo has asked the government to consider these state guarantees for 42 billion. The government has said they will take two weeks. They will decide whether they will give the aid. What we have heard is that they will not be doing that. There is the conversation about whether this is ok to raid the k iddies. Is it ok . A little bit about the sanctions. At its core used. They can still go to asia. Remember, while they are very leveraged, this is a company that presells its oil. They already have tens of particularlyil a from the chinese. It really has to do with how much it has to fund them in the future. Dont miss our discussion later with the Ukrainian Foreign minister on the response to the russian convoy coming up later on countdown. Lets look at the corporate news. The battle for the 10 d brazilian assets is heating up. Telecom italia the battle for assets. Brazilian we need to look into this bidding battle. Who spoke first . Its a really nice corporate battle going on. Telecom italia is seeking to merge its brazilian unit with that of vivendi. Up. S team that company with the brazilian. Telefonica made a 6. 7 billion euro bid for gtp itself. They knew that Telecom Italia talking it out. They were going to come in and put more than 6 billion euros on the table trying to woo vivendi over. Telecom italia perhaps has more to offer. They went to team up and we will let you, vivendi, further focusing on content through to italy and we will give you a new market. Telecom italia has more programming, content. To look at the decline in service revenue. Wayt looks as though either vivendi will end up with a stake in Telecom Italia. They will also be distributing content and team up for mozilla. If they go with telefonicas off er, why doesnt want further stakes in Telecom Companies . When vivendi has been divesting . Is the power of content and what you can charge. The relationship of who your relationship is in terms of disseminating and thats part of the story. They would like to have the revenue flowing but do not want to be directly managing this anymore. They do not want to have a unit that they have to manage but would not mind if someone else was managing it for them. They keep skin in the game and they are able to distribute content. One really interesting area muchh, a key question, how will they offer . More than the 6. 7 billion euro offered from telefonica . Lessl does not want telecom players. They want more. Like america. And its a bit like weve seen in france as well. Are bothhese deals saying lets merge our bazillion both a lessening of the amount of players. Winning thecome, propaganda war. Who knows more concerned with narrative dan geopolitics. We talked to Kings CollegeRussia Institute head coming up next. Time for todays company news. Chiquita is continue with the planned purchase of its irish competitor. They completed the unsolicited takeover offer from two brazilian companies. The combination would create the largest of the nana company and billscut chiquitas tax by relocating its headquarters to ireland. The auto parts maker is bidding joint trfw to exit a venturer with bosch. Theyre trying to reach an agreement before they can to create the secondbiggest car parts maker. Drinksla, the largest company, has agreed to buy a 17 stake in monster beverage for just 2 billion. This is a sign of cocacola increasing its bet on the expanding energy drink market. Moscows calling for a ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine summit can deliver aid to the citizens. The aid convoy is waiting on the russian side of the border waiting to enter ukraine. The call for a truce are from unconfirmed reports that armored personnel carriers have been seen crossing the border. Director of the Russia Institute at Kings College london, samuel us now. Joins good morning. You say putin is now embarking on a propaganda war. War after hee pr lost Public Opinion certainly in the west after the downing of mh 370 . This is an opportunity for him to change the narrative to show that russia can do something that looks contract is. In other places, maybe make them not churlish in terms of letting aid in. Its a big hill to climb but the problem right now is the pr. It keeps Ukrainian Forces out more or less and its difficult to achieve military aims and it keeps a thorn in the side of the government of kiev. When we read that putin is about to meet the finnish Prime Minister, the First International meeting for him since july, is this just mores to ring . Do you think he genuinely wants to the escalate . Whats your read . Deescelate . To see thiss not want to get anywhere us. It does not necessarily mean he wants to see this again that her. He does not necessarily wants to get a solution that kiev or brussels will be happy with but he wants to make sure it does not get more costly from his point of view. Its very difficult because these are unconfirmed reports. There are unconfirmed reports about armored personnel carriers. Would it surprise you if we were trying to have a wooing of the hearts and minds in the west that he is trying to not deescalate but look as though hes being the better man offering aid . Theyre trying to maintain plausible deniability. Weve seen reports that they are no more or less credible. I think this is probably an opportunity for them to reinforce and deal with some of the losses. We have seen some changes with donetsk in the last couple of days and theyre trying to make sure that they can withstand the attack and the siege that has been put on by the Ukrainian Forces. Talk to me about sanctions bar the effect on various economies about retaliatory measures. What purpose does sanctions have ultimately . The fundamental purpose from the point of view reticular live from washington and western governments is to the russian elite, those who support putin and make it possible for him to govern, what the cost of food and continuing to rule of putin continuing to rule. It makes it difficult for them to live their lifestyle. There are possibly approaching the government to seek Financial Assistance and sanctions are working in that case. Sanctions were designed fundamentally to raise the cost of capital for the russian economy and they have done that. Were seeing that with this story. I surprised its happening so quickly . Im not. Corporate borrowing in russia is both massive and relatively shortterm. They have to roll it over on a one or twoyear basis. Does this sway his actions or not . If hes not able to keep his elite and constituents happy than he has a problem he has to deal with. Read for us the tea. Crystalave to, read the ball. Where do you think this goes from here . Will be just see freezing of the situation remaining within the sanction environment . Goal is to freeze the situation in the ground in ukraine making sure he does not get drawn into a fullscale conflict or make sure they cannot reassert military control. What hes looking for is a way ate with thedeescal west. The west needs to sit back and think about what that would look like. Begins to imagine a way forward for moscow. What would they have to do to be able to ramp down the sanctions and change the nature of the relationship . Itwere going to leave there. Director of the Russia Institute of Kings College london, samuel greene. From the screen to the scene. Cologne,thering in germany, to get a sneak peek of whats coming up for the gaming world in 2015. We have the details coming up next. Welcome back to countdown. The worlds biggest video game affair with more than 340,000 visitors expect did in cologne, cologne. Expected in the battle is still on between the main consoles. They have even had to set up a tent village because there are so many people about to descend on the city that they cannot get hotels room. Its like a festival there with tents and camping. That the console makers sony with the and microsoft with the xbox one have done with the market. Demand is huge. They have more than 10 million sold. That is basically more than double Microsoft Xbox ones numbers. Get feeding the frenzy to into new games. Sony is selling off metal gear solid. A stealth game, i tell you. [laughter] one everythat saturday. Quantam break. Its kind of a bit like timetam leap to do with travel and and an experiment that goes wrong. Xbox viceo microsoft president and he is telling us the amount that this market is exploding. The good news is the industry is continuing to grow strongly. There predict thing 900 billion in annual sales within the next two or three years across all formats. This is creating a great ecosystem for developers. Its a vibrant market for gamers because they are investing to make magical experiences to keep the industry growing. The market quadrupling in the next few years is pretty phenomenal. The premier League Season kicks off tomorrow. 20 clubs. Im ahead of you. Im taking that back. All things football. And a little bit of man u. Welcome back to countdown. Time now for a check on the Foreign Exchange markets. It is risk off. Down against virtually all of its major peers bar one. Down for a fifth day in a row. As the geopolitical stage changes in the aid convoy begins to arrive, this the worst performing currency. You could be heading toward a sixyear low according to the combinations of the cloud here. Tweet me. I will explain. Moving the agenda along, we have a look at the malaysian ringgit. Growth numbers, it is rising in the dollar is falling. Growth, six quarters in a row, 6. 4 gdp, what europe would give for that. That is raise rates and the view. We are at a ninemonth or the ringgit and west whack says that trend will continue. These are the Bloomberg Top headlines. Iraqi Prime Minister almaliki has agreed to leave office. He has previously refused to step down causing a political deadlock in baghdad. This paves the way for a la body alabadi to create a more cohesive administration. Meanwhile, European UnionForeign Ministers are meeting today in emergency sessions with iraq at the top of the agenda. Theyre ready to discuss how to armed Kurdish Forces fighting islamist state militants in the north. They are also discussing ukraine. They want to assess the economic sanctions imposed for its support of rebels in ukraine. Several news outlets are reporting that Russian Armored vehicles have crossed the border into ukraine. Russia has long denied assisting the rebels there. The armored personnel carriers are not part of the humanitarian aid convoy, 280 trucks bound for the rebelheld areas of ukraine and are now near the border. Was just saying, the bank of japan may cut its growth target for the fiscal year, the fourth time. We had export numbers earlier failing to bolster the economy in the april sales tax increase really hitting home for those familiar with the discussion. Zeb eckert joins us from hong kong. What do you make of these reports . Its certainly not a good situation. S plan nothe abenomic meeting expectations in the bank of japan resorting to measures to boost the economy. Fourth time this year to cut the growth forecast as expected. Is the if it comes it will be in october where the boj reviews this again. 0. 4 is the estimate for the fullyear forecast less than the 1 or sent median forecast of board members. It comes as they face the deepest contraction in three years. We are back where we started. Three years ago we had the nuclear crisis, the tsunami and then japans economy really has not recovered significantly from that if you look at these latest numbers and the fact that they may cut the forecast. When itnt be a shock eventually comes through. Zeb eckert on the bank of japan growth rates. Thehe first weekend of premier League Season is about a day away. Its all about winning the trophy but for the owners and broadcasters, it means rising ticket prices and higher broadcast rights. Joining me now to put the world of premier League Football to books, the author of the turning my back on the premier league lee price and alex. This, essentially, is about cost inflation. Alex, from a writers perspective, where are we from where we were 23 years ago when the premier league kicked off . Was worth 300 Million Pounds in the current deal is annualized and at one billion plus if you include international rights. Major cost inflation which benefits the clubs and the players. And of course the next deal will be up for auction perhaps the beginning of 2015. Sky and bt will be battling it out for those rights. I assume they will have to pay a lot more than last time. There will be other new entrants in the market place like espnwalt disney. People can consume sports over so many more formats than was the case in the past with tablets, mobile, traditional tv. Have dealt with cost inflation of a different type. You have been a man u for many years. You were there before the success of the early 1990s. Tell us what tier and you off . Exactly what you said, the cost inflation. The newest deal where they can afford anything from the gate and be no worse off but of course, the prices go up, the profit goes up and if and get turned away and turned off. Thats what happened to me. I could not justify the price where i felt like a customer. Where was your moment when you realized enough is enough . Its more about business than the sport, the fan, the passion, the glory. When the contract worth 300,000 pounds per week and thats more than i will make in perhaps half of my working career. I cannot relate to these players. They are not humans to me. I cannot relate to those guys in the picture anymore with 11 teenage multimillionaires and im just a bloke in the sta