2023. that number increase to over 36000000. this is a global problem. it is international in scope. and because of the instantaneous nature of many of these internet based platforms that users use to traffic in this type of material, it is circulated across the globe. 24 by 7. some social media companies such as met the parent company of facebook and instagram, receive high marks from child protection, advocates for screening out sexual abuse material. others including elan mosques. x, formerly known as twitter, have got to content moderation teams. those people were fired or they left the company leaving x wide open for the circulation of this kind of material. while producing or possessing child pornography is a serious federal crime. social media companies face view consequences when it

appears on their platforms, online sex, predators know that the internet is really an open ground, where they can find children who wants communicated. want to connect. analysts say social media companies use freedom of speech arguments to evade responsibility for more effective moderation of harmful content online and to maximize profits. there really is in, in my estimation of fairly significant cynicism here by the firms where they constantly appeal to wanting to protect ostensibly their users. first amendment rights when really what they're protecting is their own rights to make decisions pro and con, about content that suits them best financially, while congress has proved effective at regulating social media, some local governments are taking the lead. last month, new mexico sued meta for failing to prevent harm to children. and last week,

new york city mayor eric adams officially designated social media as a health hazard, protecting children online and enormous problem with no effective solution. rob reynolds, i'll just era, los angeles. the brazilian air force has finds a warning shots that a plane violating a no fly zone over lines belonging to an endangered indigenous people. the pilot was forced to land and escaped into the rain forest. the government of president united still vice promised to do more to protect the younger mom, a people from illegal minors that is in use or not on out of here as always more on our website that onto sierra dot com. i'll be back half to counting the cost to stay with the many have seen the war on guns us through the lens of photo journalist mo tons of

size the most terrifying victors. i never thought i never thought or even was able i was charged. so i couldn't even take the camera, the motives as high as a, joins the stream on audra 0. the hello, i'm adrian said again. this is counting the cost on al jazeera. you'll ricky, look at the world of business and economics this week from coffee shipments to oil tank because of tax by who the forces in the red sea disrupting global trade conduct push out prices and few inflation. also this week africa's debt is crippling the concepts. busy it's leaders demanded reform of the global financial system. at the g $77.00 summit plus selling sleep companies are increasingly

investing in the quest for rest. we looked at how bedtime has become a multi $1000000000.00 business. now installation was expected to ease in 2024 off the move in 18 months of interest rate hikes by central banks. the most aggressive monitor we type thing in decades, spots attacks by who the rebels in the red sea are threatening to push out the cost of living. again, the geopolitical tensions of disruptive global trades sent in shipping and insurance costs soaring a whitening war in the oil producing region could for the worse and people's finances. but why is the root so important? so it's kind of always the quickest see route between asia and europe. but any ship passing through either to or from the indian ocean has to come through the strait of bob outlined up in the red sea and the whose the rebels there have attacked vessels transporting goods through that straight. that they say a link to israel. many of the world's largest shipping firms are now taking

a longer journey around africa's cape of good hope that adds at least 10 days to shipping times, and costs companies millions of dollars. well, those additional costs could be passed on $5.00 businesses. the customers, more than 12 percent of annual global trade passes through the red sea. that's one trillion dollars worth of goods every year, including oil. busy oil, coffee, fruits and electronics, food and grocery costs could go up if shipping disruption, watson's, but it's energy prices. the worry government's the most because they are the biggest risk to inflation. the international benchmark, brent cruise rose briefly to $80.00 a barrel off of the us and u. k to minutes reaction against the cruelties in yemen. joining us from brussels, frederick erickson, who is the director of the european center of international political economy vitality. with this, frederick about 2024, as we said, was meant to be the that inflation began to dissipate. but with rising tension in the middle east. and there's a tax in the red sea,

is that still going to be the case? well, let's, let's hope i think, i think that's, that's perhaps the, the most prudent thing to do. i mean, as you said, we all right now in a situation where we have a couple of some of developments that are pushing up freight costs and a few other costs, which of course i'm making life much more difficult for the central banks that i have to plan for the be, i mean as far as we know, just start cutting the interest rates june 2024. and in that way, try to help economies to recover again from the economic downturns that we've seen since they started monterey type thing. and that by and i beat now be delayed, so our interest rates are going to remain more or less where they are now. or do you foresee another spike, like the ones we have, the following, the cobit pandemic, and, and at the beginning of a new crane war, if you look at the, the, the, the stuff that you buy in the retail store that were important and had been

transported to this way it's kind of all um, it's a very, very monotone part of that cost. that is actually power which price cost, however uh, aspect cost is going up. as we see a few of the developments, as you mentioned, or the price is, has begun to move a bit. and of course, that we have a few other problems. for instance, that the winter has proven to be bit cold. and we have more energy demand right now, which is helping to push up energy costs to bits, at least in, in, in, in the, are being a part of the world. that in itself presents a situation where i don't think central banks feel confident that they have control over inflation. and that they now can start to be confident about that. they can reduce policy rates and they trying to sort of be sure that this full, they are now going to start to cox interest rates. and in that way you have the

economy to, to revive. they need to have inflation down to levels where they are stable and secure at these low elevate levels. but if the whole wife is god forbid to the, to, to the, the, the, the, why, the middle east region. i mean, that's not going to do anything to help and inflation. is it, i mean, how, how bad could things get? so the likes of you, me and anyone watching? well, i mean, there are of cause scenarios that we can talk about and entertain, which is going to have a significant impact on the world. the corner me at large, not just on freight costs and on transport costs more generally, but so a laundry region will be in the middle east and all the type of, of conflicts. of course that's going to have a very, very usually impact and basically no central banks off the course they've been on for a couple of months now,

which has been pointing in the direction of cutting interest rates. if that happens, i mean, then we almost trying to go to see central bank stock disputing the economy with more liquidity again. so we are uh, you know, inflation or assign cold in, in, in more waste. and then just that oil prices are all the costs are going to go up. so frederick, i'll be back with you in just a moment, but 1st i want to talk about perhaps, what could be described as the opposite of inflation, mouth wash tea bags sausages to name, but a few pack sizes are becoming smaller, but the price has to reduce the practice is known as shrink flashing manufacturers say that it helped make products more affordable for consumers. as the rising cost of living begins to bite. but a new study by excellence research company has found that almost half of the consumer, so they'd find shrink flashing unacceptable. with the french, most upset on north america, and europe has the highest rate of dissatisfaction with the practice. consumers in

asia, pacific and life in america have shown less discontent. for the moment. the 2 regions, though, have a much smaller proportion of consumers than europe. who said that they noticed shrink flashing pretty well. what, what do you make of, of translation is it isn't here to state how much, how much smaller can products get. and yeah, so the, the, well, we're going to find out when we look what i think we talking about them. is there a few differences across the well here? and these differences in terms of how produces have, have perhaps to reduce the size of the product. so. ready the done other ways in order to find that a, find a strategy to balance costs and avoiding to pushover a lot of cost on the consumer in, in countries or in, in region square inflation has been very, very high. i think a lot of producers have been confronted with the realities that they pass on all

the increasing costs they have to the consumer. consumers won't buy the products. so they've still wanted to play with other strategies, like for instance, reducing the, the size of the content of the product. for instance, if you talk about food, i think that's being being the most obvious ones. and there's been a few other set of strategies as well, but i think it's been very, very strongly leading to the rice and inflation of the problems connected with finding a way to sort of avoid uh that consumers are going to be, are all the costs because if that's, if that's the case, and there's going to be just a very, very sharp dropping in, in consumer demand and then in consumer purchases of all of these particular products. so i think that's, that's predominantly what we've been talking about to you. then of course you have the more generic development which web seen over a long period of time, which of course is that, that produces all, you know,

electronics or food or other type of expand to bose are over time trying to size their products in a way that fits with everything from green or emissions, avoidance of food waste. um, uh, and i don't think that's going to be b be changed in, in, you know, anytime soon. but the, the more sort of translation part, i think that's a phenomenon which has been inter link to by inflation rates and inflation rates come, come down. then of course, we're probably not going to see companies playing around with that so much anymore . frederick, it's been really good to talk to on counting the cost manufacture date for being with us now the you and says that africa is public. that stood at $1.00 trillion dollars in 2022. that's an increase of 183 percent since 2010 african nations now spend more money on servicing interest on the debt. that

house or education and many of them are unable to invest in sustainable development . yet the share of official development assistance going to africa is a, it's lowest level involved in 2 decades to address the needs of the developing world, the you and of african leaders demanded before. busy of the global financial system at the g $77.00, some as well. my custom sharif reports i put those that summit cost a shadow of it. so it's south summit in uganda is capital composite of the group of $77.00. a g 77 represents the was largest into continental organization of developing countries in the u. n. the block representing 80 percent of the population is built inside cooling financial liabilities. separately, economies are considered at risk of dec distress by international institutions. un secretary general antonio good to this address be in oakland session. he criticized

outdated financial agency saying they failed to provide a safety net for developing countries in distress, financial institutions, and the frameworks created after the 2nd world war. still allows me to respond to the body license and the global economy of that's time, as they must view the forms so that they are duly universal, reflect with justice the realities of to day and that a much more responsive to the needs of developing countries. the team of the summit plus to help reduce the widening gap between rich and poor nations. are you an agency? says african dep has been wise and get to read? that's constraining difficult. the world bank has sounded an alarm over the continents prospects. g 77 leaders accused global institutions of lifting help and favoring rich northern countries. uganda and president, we already most of the need the come check rallied, member states,

the unity to increase economic cooperation, power push those city points, production levels of services. how to think of age that that's, that's in the, in, in $33.00 dealing with the issue of markets. and then the issue of, of the infrastructure. but this assumes that to help you some bundle as it is which is another issue. because you don't have peace, then we don't, we know that you with this. but i'm, let's say this part of the challenges developing countries phase, the global self that includes some $130.00 countries on the rise. $77.00, developing countries from the block in 1964 to promote economic interest in now includes a $130.00 nations with backing from china. this year,

the book is demanding a fed treatment in the global financial system. on the consumption eve, i'll just eva for counting the cost as well to unpack all of that, but join from cost center goals by diode us and bennett, who is the see of the global development advisory, a free capitalist godaddy with us at the what do you make then of the g $77.00 summit. did it really address the concerns of the developing world, particularly your parts of the world? i think thank you very much for having me. i think the do i need to do 77 and some, it was certainly very much why they've gone in the us. they've got in many ways because as you know, the certain cost in their government, the organization that seems to buy more collective economies interests of gets members of it also in those sort of strengthen cooperation between the south, a globe as us companies and at the same time was so health offending, they're negotiating their capacity. so of course, when they talk about these issues like the default, the global financial,

electric picture debt or climate finance, those actors with that back at the head of the applicant agenda. so yes, i think this, this, i mean, it was a much better comp and the fact that now over and nothing can can be you've done that use now checking the g 77 the stuff and he's going to be very much telling me they're cool in better targeting support for africa as products i think on members and for the developing countries that are members of the group. we had a little bit about it in the report. but how did african nations find themselves in trapped in, in this, in this vicious cycle of a debt? yes, so i think maybe before responding, just qualified in here because i think it's not african countries. i've talked in depth, but many african countries, of course they're going to be phasing and back increasing. so that's that. but and the reason is actually quite the mystic thoughts. but the funny, this was, this started before the fund image. so i think many ethnic kind of talk is cetera, legitimately the need to respond to develop on demands. and the needs for insight

suggests that needs to respond also to climate shift. as you know, i think i've used one so many but to i've been sort of, i'm not that much, but it does ask us so all of those needs actually let's let the government still go more to respond to the business particular it's really got some interest sector and the funding it and run the funding arrived. what happened was suppose was it was originally made and need to respond to the fund image. and that thing, that was also something that pushed the governments to both of them off to be able to sort of release their populations from the shock of the funded funding impact of defendants. and certainly that's how they have been on the, on the, on the boat and on the 11th. and i think also what happened after the fund image was of course the war and you can and also i saw does a boost and that sort of goes so much higher energy and for the prize that also a bunch of you did the higher bust of living and of course of the day was so by

many companies enough to go felt the need to sort of, i then them subsidize, only to get them, you know, the key as recognize the and that flip products and goals. because that also does require boring from uh, from domestic market, something to nothing markets and also somebody let their own credit as all of that actually contributed to, to, to the institution. to proceed with that being quite a bit now. so that's right. issue. and a big shot, actually many of the time come to the site and you talk about the high cost of, of living. to what extent is this the cycle of death and the set of things that, that holding the people of, of the continent back. well, i think the, the high level of debt has to becky demons in concert concepts, in many ways, special fund. it has a, some sort of a very dimension by 4. you can understand, but in the sense that it's actually may need to sort of, uh, you know, discover the policy, the challenges. it may also have to create some of the financial stability risk.

and i think this is something that, unfortunately many in depth did come to this or countries that i end up discuss are facing. but the symbol so has um, it's uh logged in back in the sense that they can also cause some and some extent that's, that'd be the sort of issues in the sense that the companies that are very much just servicing. hi dennis. i actually made most of the phase, some of the extended weight by some be most of my face, some ability to maintain that reserved things. and that's one of these after i think quickly about all of that is unfortunately having some very much of the human getting back in the sense that the population of these back in the cost of all of those. um uh, instructions are that i talked about among africa's denounces reform of the global financial system. the unbroken woods institutions is, is that a fall fetched notion of how realistic a prospect is that and especially these 5 states? yeah, because uh if you look at it, this is a no,

do you mind that has been made by accidentally many where the developing congress from the g 77 and others for a long time. and the good thing is that we fall off these already underway is the problem is unfortunately the speed and the visa is not really bad and that i think that's racks. i'm any of the time to talk. these are very much disappointed. the reason why these great of you think it's fine says i've been very fond of them as much as i've tried to put them on back. this is part of the front of the globe and financial back detective as we see some moment of essentially, i think we have seen institution like the one thing announcing becky, sort of ambitious, or i mean from as endo boston instability before where people for us, it got to be very much it into a and that's not necessarily the can get the case given the slowness of the reform process that i talked about. but this is something that the also is something that we see into the issue. i think they're also very fond there have very much slower. and this is also something that is really a concern for many developing countries and have different i think about many or

the around the ones that are facing the issues. so yes, i think the quoted that was made folks, i think the 77 summit for the 1st 70, some of the on the side that she had actually talked to east bailey. my son is a few minutes and we are hoping that the or the governing body is not just the g $77.00, but most of the deep wine ended the 7 and the which also would be very much pushing display have been doing. but i hope that the, with prostate into concrete progress don't really go to talk to you on counting the costs many thanks. indeed for being with us. now a good night sleep is everyone's dream. many brands of work and up to the business potential of that. they're selling products, services and applications, meant to provide that to us that time. the so called sleep economy is expected to be worth 585000000000 dollars this year. and it's not really big companies that are raking in profit.

imagine being able to make money when you sleep with social media influence. alec shannon says he's done just that learning more than $50000.00 in 18 months by sleeping at luxury hotels knowing that his account app follow that app on instagram . alex is among a growing number of so called sleep fluency is streaming life footage of themselves under the covers. and it's not just content produces that a caching in on bed time. hostile brands are trying to profit from people's dreams . products such as high tech pajamas robots of hub blankets. yes, you heard that right now, flooding the market. all of them intended to help you. those off, some of those items can cost cost a fortune. what do you do for a living? i saw a luxury bed time confidence. we to go beds. yes. it's the most expensive bed that you sell while we talk about it. 89600. $89000.00 for

a king size. some of those beds are entirely hand made, and it takes mazda across about at least 600 hours to make them. all those made of holes have exploding topics reported that the bubble mattress market is worth more than $50000000000.00 right now. but it's estimated to suppose 75000000000 by 20. so see. but should people even been paying that much to buy the bed of roses? well, the impact of expensive mattresses on a good night sleep is disputed by science. one of the reasons why people buy into the business is it exploding appetite for extravagance. but studies have found that a good nap boosts productivity and could save economies billions of dollars. so there is indeed money to be made between the sheets. a sweet dreams. joining us from the side and switzerland is l as bound to hell, and she's an international sleep expert, an adjunct professor at a business school electra, i am the business school good to have you with us. so what's behind the booming

business of sleep? a couple of really big trends. first of all, unfortunately, a lot of us are not getting enough sleep. we see for instance, that about 35 percent of the population says that they're sleeping less than 7 hours, even though $7.00 to $9.00 is recommended. but apart from that, we also see a general increased interest in our own how then our well being and, and unfortunately, the also to see that people suffer more from stress and, you know, kind of unhealthy lifestyle factors. if you just look at the percentage of people who work shifts, it's about 17 percent and we know that that really messes up your biological clock and hands your sleep in your house. so i think there's a lot to, to fix when it comes to people sleep. and with that we, of course, the, the big trends of advances in technology that make it finally much more affordable

for people to track and monitor their own sleep. not everyone, of course, can afford to buy themselves an expensive mattress, a the companies that produce those training sleep into a luxury well, you know, i think one definitely very concerning aspect of this conversation around sleep is the message that sleep is a luxury. we really need to remote, we're move that notion, that's because the luxury and replace it with a true of which is sleep is something we all need. we all deserve and something that unifies us. so we definitely of course, the, some players kind of aiming for that, you know, high end of the market. and we, for instance, also see that those with a higher income are more likely to have a sleep tracker. but that's that you definitely don't need to buy a very expensive mattress to have good sleep. i actually think that a lot of this,

you know, sleep is a luxury comes more from the equity that we see. we just see that when people have no concerns about their finances, they are less likely to get a good sleep, on average, they sleep 10 minutes less a night. and so there's a lot of factors that contribute to those who work. share those with the lower income or those in developing countries to have worse sleep. and that's something that i think we should all worry about. is it all in the, in just good marketing or is there some solid science behind all of this? that's a good question. um there's definitely increasingly more science behind it. um, so that's good to see more and more of the start ups and also bigger named companies, reaching out to steve experts to collaborate with them. really running studies to see whether their products are in fact improving sleep. but that's that i would say

that's maybe 20 percent of the total market and yes, a lot of it is marketing and i think we should all keep in mind that a lot of us can improve our own sleep simply by behavior change. but in my experience, people tend to just prefer to buy simple products as opposed to putting in the hard work else. it's been really good to talk to you on counting the cost. many thanks. indeed for being with us. you're welcome. anything of that? so i'll show for this week if you'd like to comment on anything that you've said you can get in touch with us. i'm at a finnegan on x. try to remember to use the hash tag h a c t c. when you do or you could drop us a line counter, the cost of the elder 0 dot net is our email address. as always, best print email. if you online. i'll just do a dot com slash ctc. that takes you straight to a page and they, you'll find individual reports links and the entire episodes for you to catch them . but that is it. so this edition of counting the costs, i agree, and so they going from the whole team here. and so thanks for being with us. the

news on which is 0 is next. the, the rails war on guns are continues. we bring you every angle of the story we're getting into the hospital that you've spent almost the last 100 days here. what lessons can be drawn if you adjust the piece you better prepare for. it's clear to the family that the plan for the government to continue with this move isn't working. for many more people killed overnight. can you talk this through where the strikes have been focusing? all we now seeing are worrying escalation. the prices and red assistant lead international efforts to contain the will stay without a 0 for the latest developments. for us, a call with of inside pick people around the world. this has been going on for a number of years how to do the 32. and it's

a national perspective to try to explain to global audience how this could impact the lives. this is an important part of the world and how to do this very good the bringing the news to the world from here, the heavy fighting breaks out between palestinian fighters and is really forces in con eunice in southern gosh, the hello. this is l g 0 life from joe. hi, i'm for the executable also coming up to political leader of how mosque considers a ceasefire plan. full guys, a but israel's prime minister rolls out the proposal for us. president says he's made up.