and it is not accounted for how do firms actually survive in this very hostile environment there are smaller firms all over the country trying to remain below the radar if you will but doing succeeding doing very well and so their research on successful private. shows that's one example they don't rely on state want to be excellent and often they may become competitive on the world market so in a sense there is something happening bottom up but that's my opinion is is very promising professor it's been really good to talk to you many thanks indeed for being with us thank you at three and you now powerful cycler and floods have killed hundreds of people and left a massive trail of destruction across swathes of southeastern africa cyclon it die hit mozambique sports city of beara before moving inland it flattened buildings and put the lives of millions of people at risk it then barreled west to zimbabwe and

malawi al-jazeera as funny to miller flew over one of the hardest hit areas in central mozambique. the roofs of buildings people out from the muddy water that's all that's left of this town decimated by floodwater that almost a week ago waged a boozy in central missouri bieksa found a province it's not known how many people made it out safely. on stagnant water lies across the horizon on an isolated piece of dry land rescue workers drop off desperately needed food hundreds of people queue for what could be their only meal in days. little guy left. i. was. a little like. as we fly for we see what was once

a sports ground now a temporary shelter for hundreds of people who are stranded sit wait and sleep on a back to grandstand a short unsubtle group preview from floodwaters then a call comes through to save a critically ill patient this woman is pregnant and needs medical help as quickly as possible a ten minute flight between flood ravaged and the relative safety of beara city may be her only chance initial concern about how psycho to die would impact central mozambique has been replaced by a widespread flooding a growing number of deaths and the displacement of thousands of people. this is just one rescue of what aid agencies say could be thousands more. still to come on counting the cost the plight of venezuela's fishermen as they barter to survive. britain's decision to join china's

challenge of the world bank drew a quick preview from washington the us claimed the asia infrastructure investment bank would extend beijing's soft power three years on the decision by italy's new populist government to sign up for investment from beijing has raised concerns in western capitals the u.s. national security council warned endorsing the belton road initiative lens legitimacy to china's predatory approach to investment and will bring no benefits to the italian people those concerns are already playing out china's law jess's and trapping vulnerable nations in debt you may recall sri lanka fell behind with payments and had to hand over a vital seaport that had been built with chinese loans on a ninety nine year lease pakistan's attempts to go see it an i.m.f. loan have been complicated by washington's unwillingness for the money to be used to pay back beijing's loans to pakistan and in djibouti where the u.s.

has a military base china opened its first overseas base at the same time the country's depths have soared to eighty percent of g.d.p. from fifty percent in italy's case it has debts of two point three trillion euro and pays sixty four billion every year it interest payments should it get into trouble the european bailout fund would not be able to save the country china's president xi jinping hopes the two countries can work together on everything from ports to telecoms and pharmaceuticals to football joining us now from london greg swenson greg is the founding partner of merchant bank brig greg always good to have you with us on counting the cost so it's really. the first g. seven nation to sign up to the belts a road initiative why should that be a problem well i think it was a little aggressive you know on one hand it's just a memorandum of understanding it's not that big of a deal you know remember the e.u. is had diplomatic ties with with china since one nine hundred seventy five they've

got sixty six you know sectoral dialogues going on so it's not the first time there's been any conversations between members of the e.u. and china but i think it was a little aggressive in the sense that they've they've really annoyed the northern countries in the e.u. especially and surely they're going to annoy the u.s. by reaching out in this you know sort of extended fashion to china and indorsing the b r i which you know again in the united states and most of the e.u. has some issues with the chile suffering its third recession in a decade it's really is no one could could blame them for looking for ways to steer the economy out of trouble right and that that's natural and i think that's fine that they are reaching out look i think china is a great market for them especially considering that they are you know their role and large in the luxury good market but you know it's important to keep in mind that you know their their their first relationship should be with the e.u.

and also with the with the u.s. given you know the membership in nato and the wall you know the membership in the g. seven so look i think that i think that they've gone a little overboard you know is it the end of the world i don't think so but i do think it's natural to want to reach out to economic partners but you know and you know the e.u. is the number one market for china in terms of exports china is the number one market for the e.u. i'm sorry the number two market for the e.u. and notably the u.s. is the number one market for the e.u. so they should i think italy has to do a better job of being diplomatic with their allies before reaching out were over reaching out to china but it is quite natural to want to sell products so it is trying to embrace a snub for the united states i mean it really is also pushing back on. on the use of ways telecoms gear is this. right and they should i mean the keep in mind that

you know that. the you know the head of the league is being very careful not to overdo it so you know some of the other leadership you know notably de mayo is is maybe reaching out a little too aggressively it's there's nothing wrong with making arrangements for football teams there's nothing wrong with making arrangements for soft products but i think you have to draw the line at strategic things notably ports and then you mentioned huawei so i think communications are really critical here do you think that this is experience on their part is that you know this is populist government and it's of the oh absolutely i mean they're right out of the you know right out of the gates here you've got we've got five star one is on the left one is on the on the right you know i think we probably got its eye on being better economic partners and having traditional supply side economics and that's why i think that you know being a little more cautious whereas de mayo is being a little more aggressive that they you know they're disruptive they're you know

they're taking a page out of the populous playbook and not really paying attention to diplomatic you know traditional diplomatic methods but i would also argue that the you know the one they're having problems economically there's no doubt about that they have a significant dent debt problem and their economies very very weak and a very neat the growth is anemic but the way to fix that isn't necessarily partnering up with authoritarian government better to liberate your economy you know rich you know take a page out of the u.s. playbook and i think salvini has is is really in part on developing relationship with president trump you know take a page out of the trump playbook which was deregulate reduce taxation you know reduce the burden on the private sector liberate your labor rules but you know just just embracing china and borrowing more money is not the answer they've got enough debt that what they really have is a spending problem. three years ago britain was picking up a degree of flack for from the u.s. for joining tried as asia infrastructure investment bank. we've all heard

a lot about that of late have we right and that's why i'm sometimes cautious about getting too excited about. announcements like an m.o. you or embracing a new investment bank when they really haven't done much i mean so we'll see what happens i hope that you know there's a bit of a pushback or a pullback on the part of italy you know that that investment bag was announced i know it was controversial you know there really hasn't been much you know not a lot has come of it so i'm not that worried about it i mean the best thing to do is let the free markets work if china wants to over land in that sense that they want to expand their economic footprint there should be lines drawn in terms of strategic interests like communications i think waterway has to be dealt with so that t. and anything in the ports business especially and in a geo politically important place like italy i think there should be caution but i think the best way to do to let the free markets work that china wants to overland

they'll probably make some mistakes along the way so i'm not that worried about it but i do think it's a moment for the e.u. to embrace their their strategic partners notably the u.s. and really make you know some sort of pushback against this expansion by china both militarily and economically and i think that will work out and i think that the u.n. the u.s. will went great it's always good to talk to you on the kinds of the course many thanks david being with us great to see you adrian thanks. venezuela's political crisis continues as opposition leader keeps up his efforts to oust president nicolas maduro a collapsed economy means that many people are struggling to survive and there's. reports from cruise desperation is leading people to buy fish for vital supplies. this is a daily seen. in the state of. fishermen arrive whether it catches sardines which is the only fish most people can afford the stays. spent all night at

the. government to come and see what's happening here this is hunger it's desperation i don't even make money i only try to get food for my family. inflation is having a devastating effect among the country's poorest the fish that you can see here are starting. to. rise. one. of. these days struggle to find the most basic items medicines i difficult to find food. there's no food there's no money my husband works and money's worth less look at us i came here to find something to take back home. has been

a fisherman all his life it's what he's family has been doing for generations now for the first time in his life he's thinking of leaving the country. i already got myself and my family a passport three of my children already left if i go somewhere there has to be somewhere i can fish because it's the only thing i know how to do. has only one engine left. and the government has stopped giving credits to people like me years ago. engines are crucial because fisherman mostly work in the islands close by where they set up their base camp and the tides of the caribbean sea a place where the situation has deteriorated in the past two years just like almost everybody else fishermen are also struggling with the current economic crisis. because of that crisis insecurity has become a major issue and most of the fishermen we have spoken to say that they have been

robbed by that are operating in the area in the local was because most of them are former fisherman turned into smugglers. was robbed a few days ago it's a funny thing is something. the government detain them and then releases them they are armed and if there are five five of them are the boat i work with was stolen i am without a boat and without work. once had one of the most driving fishing industries in the region chavez came to power he nationalized companies some ports he also wanted to prioritize. but things did not go and. the government express companies and gave them to cooperate of no experience there's no knowledge in how to handle these companies when the equipment starts failing the nobody knows how to solve it initially b idea was good day many of them are not even working. people can no longer depend on their wages as the

economic crisis makes it difficult to every day it's a struggle for survival that people say the government has chosen to ignore. and that's our show for this week if you'd like to comment on anything you've seen you can tweet me i'm at a finnigan on twitter use the hash tag a.j. c.t.c. when you do or you can drop us a line in the cost of out a zero dot net is our e-mail address as always there's more few online at al-jazeera dot com slash c.c.c. that address takes you straight to one page and there you'll find individual reports links even a time episodes for you to catch up on but that's it for this edition of counting the cost i'm adrian finnegan from the whole table here of doha thanks for being with us the news on al-jazeera is.

up to. this powerful social network is sculpting

a global cyber society and regulation is playing catch up but as scandals begin to unfold they will witness is that we should not be in this position. they will lie as much extreme content as they can get on the cover to gauge how ethics weigh against profits and how the rules are being written. and signed facebook on al-jazeera. nightfall over gaza as the israeli military begins as strikes in response to the rocket attack north of tel aviv. israel has never a better friend than you and israel's prime minister had time from washington but not before the u.s. signs a declaration on the occupied golan heights. doha

and i'm kemal santa maria with the world news from al-jazeera where we are also looking at developments in bragg's at this hour i express my frustration with our collective failure to take a decision but i know. the prime minister theresa may admitting to parliament there is not enough support to take a break that deal to a third voters. had to be got up going father and mother with a smile. it was as if he knew he was not coming back and a grieving father remembers the heroic actions of his son in the iraqi ferry sinking. so developing events in washington and in gaza this hour. with a link to israel the united states has now officially recognized israel's claim to sovereignty over the occupied golan heights we're going to talk about that shortly but i want to start in gaza where the israeli military has begun bombing the strip

after sunday's rocket attack near tel aviv these latest images coming from the enclave before night fell the military says it is hitting home asked targets and it has mobilized ground forces near the gaza border this is as we say after a rocket landed in tel aviv near tel aviv and wounded seven people israel will not tolerate this i will not tolerate and as we speak as i told you mr president just now israel is responding forcefully to this wanton aggression i have a simple message to israel's enemies we will do whatever we must do to defend our people and defend our state. harri force that is with us now from that border fence near between gaza and israel harry tell us what you've been seeing and hearing. well what we've just been hearing in fact from our colleagues inside gaza is the most i think important information we've had since the strikes could under

way a little over an hour ago our colleagues at the bureau. of bureau inside gaza say that a building very close to our bureau the building housing the one thousand insurance company there were four strikes that they believe were from a drone strike small rockets to give a warning that this building was about to be targeted in a major way the fifth time any weaponry came in that was when the building was entirely destroyed now this is a company that is believed to be linked to hamas so this represents a real shift from what had been happening in the early phase of this attack which was military training bases being struck and naval base being struck we're now talking about a strike taking place right in the middle of densely populated gaza city presumably striking as they did in in november striking alex

a television station also linked to hamas they decide they decided to to go after a major target within the dense city of gaza so far we're not hearing any reports of casualties ambulances have apparently come to the scene it may well be that those warning strikes were enough to make sure that people got out of that building before it was taken down but we don't have confirmation of that ok any indications of sort of asking in a crystal ball gazing little bit but how long this might go on any sort of indications of how big this is because as we say it is in response specifically to this rocket attack in or near tel aviv. yes i mean we've been here many times over the last few months the idea of of an escalation potentially leading towards an all out war each time that it's happened both sides with egyptian mediation have managed to draw a bright draw back from the brink the most recent one as you say there were two

rocket attacks two two rockets launched from gaza towards television some ten days ago they both landed in open land nothing damaged nobody injured this one of course destroyed a family home and seven members of that family were injured so that in itself would suggest that a bigger response is coming than the one hundred or so targets which were struck last time it's also of course a very delicate and fraught political moment in israeli domestic politics two weeks out from an election where benjamin netanyahu is throwing the kitchen sink at it and making every effort he can to hold on to his premiership in the face of corruption indictments in the face of a very strong challenge from a former army chief benny gantz who himself has been saying that this launch this morning from gaza is the result of a failed strategy by netanyahu so we are expecting a much bigger response than we saw just a few days ago that may itself elicit a response from hamas and of course then we are on the escalatory escalates which

obviously. people have managed to draw back from in recent months but there are only so many times that can happen before before it it fails to that that the mediation risks runs the risk of failing ok again soon harry falsities on that israel has made gaza border so we saw benjamin netanyahu a moment ago he was speaking at the white house he was there with donald trump as the u.s. president signed a presidential proclamation saying the u.s. recognizes israeli sovereignty over the occupied golan heights israel seized the strategically important area and nine hundred sixty seven and has occupied it ever since. the united states recognizes israel's absolute right to defend itself the despicable attack this morning demonstrates the significant security challenges that israel faces every single day and today i'm taking historic action to promote

israel's ability to defend itself and really to have a very powerful very strong national security which they're entitled to have can we how good is our white house correspondent we know we can believe that historically they've always been good relations between these two countries but between these two leaders is seems to have gone to another level and donald trump taking the concrete steps that prime minister netanyahu would want. yeah this is a departure from fifty two years of u.s. policy so it's significant in that in and of itself there's no question the both of these leaders are facing tough times at home domestically and so perhaps that may be part of the calculation in motivation one that we know that the president here in the united states first indicated he would be making this presidential proclamation recognizing israel's addicks ation essentially israel of syrian

territory now this is going to be problematic for this president a couple of levels namely given the fact that the u.s. very much strongly opposes russia's annexation of crimea twenty fourteenth's there going to be some questions asked about that but there's also going to be some cynicism about this in the timing given the fact that it's appearing very much like a sort of a cynical ploy to hand a foreign policy victory to the israeli prime minister in advance of the israeli elections and also even though there has been very much support here in the u.s. congress bipartisan support in a divided congress for such a move many people are also going to question here in the united states the timing given the fact that donald trump is trying to deflect attention away from the moeller probe that of course that report has come out and well it certainly did in some respects look favorable for the president given there was found to be no collusion it did not exonerate him as he had hoped and so as the u.s.

congress continues to explore those questions many people are looking at this even though there may be quite a bit of support for israel here in the united states questioning the timing of this presidential proclamation it's always in the timing isn't it chemically how could so white house correspondent thank you now in the palestrina moments the united nations has commented on donald trump's presidential proclamation over the occupied golan heights and in fact on the air strikes in gaza james spader's diplomatic efforts at the u.n. an update from your. yes. the u.n. secretary general of put out a statement about the situation in guards or condemning the hamas rocket saying that he just got the news of the ongoing air attacks and calling on all sides for restraint but the message from the u.n. secretary general right now i pushed his spokesman on the need about the goal

and the u.s. recognition of israeli sovereignty there the u.n. is saying it sticks to its existing position nothing has changed in terms of international law but what they're not keen to do is criticize the united states president trump they leave questions about whether the u.s. u.s. was right to do this out of it and simply restate the existing position i think behind the scenes though there are some of the u.s. as close as that lies who are certainly scratching their heads off to this latest development following the recognition of the u.s. of jerusalem as israel's capital i think you're going to see some of this playing out in the coming hours in the u.n. security council because it is meeting for a meeting that was already arranged on israel and palestine on cheese day morning you're going to see both the ongoing if it's still going on at that point garza

attack and the recognition of the golan coming up in that security council meeting also worth telling you that nicholai in london off who is the u.n. official who's based in jerusalem is here in new york he's going to be having some urgent meetings with the u.n. secretary general here thanks to our diplomatic editor james bays in new york let's start the title together with mount a sharath in a political analyst here in doha a u.s. . proclamation declaration what if you want to call it tell me how much it counts for in the end because as james is alluding to there is plenty of other players involved here and i've already seen the russians saying that they say this is actually in violation of international law you know every time i hear international law and i hear myself saying international law i feel like it's been a prayer you know one repeats a prayer every day and one discloses the meaning of it so what do you mean by international law this is not like ordering coffee at some fast food restaurant

well that's what the united nations no no what i'm saying is in the end of the day . a signature on a proclamation and a tweet about the territory handing it to some people who occupied it by force has consequences that means tomorrow when something is going to happen to one of america's allies i don't know china moving on taiwan what's what's america going to say international law otherwise we're going to live in the law of the jungle in the end of the day the international law is just a word that we keep using it's almost like a buzzword but i think somehow we're not really digging digging in in the end of the day why will syria ever now make peace peace with israel the whole point was from fifty two years ago the international community including the united states especially the united states reached resolution two forty two with that said you give up occupied territory you.