horrible mistakes in the handling of intelligence on him in hong kong 8 pro-democracy politicians have appeared in court over a fight at a legislative council meeting more than 5 months ago they were granted bail until the next appearance in february they're accused of contempt and obstruction critics say it's part of an attempt to sideline to scenting voices. joe biden is edging closer to that magic number 270 electoral college votes needed to be the next president of the united states he's already overtaken donald trump in 2 key battleground states pennsylvania and georgia based on the associated press projections biden a secure 264 vote so far is on 214 and he needs georgia and pennsylvania if he's going to crush across that 270 vote threshold or the republican national committee

chairman has been speaking out echoing trump's claims in questioning the integrity of the election saying that legal teams on the ground in 4 states following allegations of voting irregularities we have seen some discrepancies in michigan and some irregularities that deserve investigation democrats and the media spent for years and millions of taxpayer dollars talking about a russian hoax on the grounds of election integrity now with just over 48 hours after polls have closed in an actual election for president they want to ignore clear regularities russia call states as one and this election we will not stand for that. meanwhile the house speaker nancy pelosi is open the indicated that the democrats are expecting a job by victory. this morning it is clear that the biden harris ticket will win the white house his election is historic propelled by the biggest vote ever in the

history of our country 73800000 and counting americans the most votes ever received by any presidential ticket in history but the race is tight in both states that we're watching very closely as you saying in georgia most of the remaining votes are from atlanta and its suburbs they tend to lean democrat and have helped joe biden get ahead but the margin is so slim the there is going to be a recount in georgia biden has also overtaken president trump in pennsylvania but his margin has been shrinking actually the the figures there have been fluctuating throughout the night and then of course crowds building in philadelphia and washington as democrats say they anticipate a victory but protest by republican supporters in places like detroit as well our coverage of this story continues at the top of the next hour. in an election that's seen as a test of its past i'm a crutch if you like to the government will vote for a new parliament faced with international pressure over

a military crackdown over angeles. sushi's national league for democracy hold on to its majority. memory lection on al-jazeera. either give it al this is counting the calls on al-jazeera go look at the world of business and economics this week the end of austerity the ideology of collective punishment decimating the weakest in society for the economic mismanagement and crimes of the rich and powerful may be consigned to history. while the international monetary fund warns of a rise in inequality due to the pandemic one leading charity says the lender of last resort is still dishing out loans that require the countries to hack back at public services. before politics despite u.s.

and european opposition germany pushes ahead with a gas pipeline that cement its dependence on russia but also increases germany's dominance of the rest of europe. on a country's finances are in a mess and the lender of last resort needs to step in a bailout comes with conditions mostly draconian austerity measures but governments have also been known to implement them for ideological reasons the international monetary fund has recognized that maybe austerity is not the best course of action and it can in fact make matters worse with a pandemic the i.m.f. now says governments should spend spend spend and not worry about the finances until a recovery is embedded some would say the death of austerity should not be more why well let's take a look at a few case studies for research. history under the i.m.f. european central bank and european union bail out greece had to take an axe to public spending the people of greece paid

a heavy price seeing an increase in child mortality is health care spending with slashed from almost 10 percent to 2008 to 8 percent in 2017 the troika had wanted spending to fall to 6 percent the unemployment rate remains shockingly high of 17 percent last year and the country has yet to pay off its debts 21 i.m.f. administered bailouts have done little to spark team is economy into life for the past 3 years the economy has been in recession and the pandemic will take another huge bite out of the country economy minister martin boozman has blamed the i.m.f. austerity measures for the credit crisis but argentina has managed to convince creditors to restructure $65000000000.00 of debt and is now in talks with the i.m.f. about its $44000000000.00 loan and after $141000000000.00 pounds bailout of the banks in 20082 years later persons then finance minister george osborne introduced

austerity measures to reduce the budget deficit the result was debt almost doubled to $1.00 trillion dollars growth was anemic and the economy was $130000000000.00 smaller a decade later more than $4000000.00 children that's one in 4 lived in poverty and more than 1000000 people were forced to use food banks. now there is a caveat the end of austerity is mainly for advanced economies her control of their own currencies and can raise money and the i.m.f. believe such countries should be able to stabilize their finances by the middle of the decade well joining me now via skype from london is phillip blond a political thing can and you can theologian and director of the think tank publica thank you for your time great to talk to you this is interesting advice isn't it from the i.m.f. the advice to spend to save lives and to keep the economy going but that is a huge change in contrast from the financial crisis in 2008 isn't it yeah it

reminds me of john ruskin's very. critical. of that aren't you so great and he said there is no where out lines. i think that's true. the fundamental right of all the economy if you will is to allow life to flourish but if there is no there is no way out then what is the last hurrah your father's. choice is really saying the calling the old saying lies news of the wealth the country's. banks protected their economy all those that have best protected human life so when they need to come to asia bold it's not just a bill or a factory of countries like china japan south korea. come from. and fro. with our their economies and grow this brand but i will

find the good side what i'm striving for the i.m.f. is already to understand. the. 5 whole developing. that should this you austerity as a response to the carotid artery that seems like a nice sensible is. the say and really what i think they should be doing and i suspect they all sankey creating problems to allow them to call if we need to spend as well because. investing is how construct creating this invitation for people to stay not down which is the idea frank approach. to preventing viral spread that we say. save the economy is something we're going to talk to the interim director of oxfam

international about a little later in the program but i want to come back to this advice for advanced economies at least to spend spend spend this is just mean that we're going to see an increase in debt and deficits which just 12 months ago would have been think about. well you know there are different ways you i think create stat mole if you are you'll get a cut of a practice along the supply chain so you can just contract economists. call the fishes that track the things things that say by that you'll know that. increasing if you're the fabless to. confirm that and i think birds spending route is a good instructor so essentially keep things afloat because essentially cultivate already the states of gravity of how i think about bringing back not destroying the

dome and the experiences and. ization the supply chains because essentially men step on to the problem is have safety that so and that's they support people in ringback jobs through expending that have to support people and to freeze wealth the system we know from over the mountains of data that. people are finding very very hard the longer they're in route for assistance to farms back in the labor market back to the battery thing called life support so that there's enough business cooperatives to bounce back as quickly as you found and i think i think banks really imperative but if you offend your populated should the rabbit are employed with sobriety that's essentially diminishes the possibility for recovery further down the road so i think in this sense i think you

are actually spending money to prevent rates assassinates let's talk about the u.k. for a minute it was also introduced austerity for what critics to made with purely ideological reasons. to sort of shrink the state and cut public services now a decade on you know the number of people using food banks has risen to 1200000 according to the trussell trust i mean so what does that say is it just the vulnerable then who suffer what's interesting in developed this reference rate it's the only popular trunk shall we say is. this prevents them instead of in the west and well for the past sort of. a sane sweeping alliances. in the. house the whacking plots in the developing world so if you do a distribution of. who's benefits of marriage from that i suppose it's it's

there is in the way i think lasted about a day and several of the same people are actually the working classes in the west and haven't really benefited from good to break the soul and be branded to be many during times of stack and so forth so what they send me is we introduce a stare and see a. system where these people are highly vulnerable anyway after the weekend security is done with a team of lawyers and you know you can tell americans aren't not as a. people are not stable the poor that all i'm back create the the conditions for puppets and i think the short sellers for you my all in the show actually it was very attractive because a price in the british that. very last time

says that we didn't say anything like precisely that or so on the sample but it went on too long it was articulate on the academic idea. for god and the data states the local state so all councils and all. public services are essentially become defined by and they did not have a bassman in them to enable them which i think is the shame by the bring the virus crisis out of state to state to attenuate that we'll have to leave it there thank you so much for your time there for that don't we preach it thank you. now while the i.m.f. says countries do not need to introduce austerity measures or any kind of belt tightening according to oxfam the majority of the loans extended by the lender during the pandemic will require some cuts to public spending and that could force some countries to cut public health care pensions and jobs such as doctors and

teaches well for madrid vera joins me now via skype jim a is the interim executive director for oxfam international we really appreciate your time this things unfair right if you're an advanced economy and you're already doing ok you can spend spend spend the i.m.f. says it will be fine but if you're already struggling belt tightening will come and things could get worse. it will not work it will not work for the people i mean overseas or just found that 84 percent of the $91.00 they and their colleagues $1000.00 loans and polish and some cases it won't require countries to a lot talks are the measures in aftermath of the health crisis is a thanks at least $767.00 lower middle income countries from the u.s. to $25.00 or 70 measures could include cuts to public service this includes wage freezes cats the public sector workers like doctors and nurses it includes

increases in value of the taxes which apply to every they call it seeing food households who supervise and fall disproportionately on women and the poorest parts of the population thinking human terms i mean just when people think they can brief us or. somebody they could be losing their access to health care for themselves or their children or resing income support having over the last jobs so it doesn't work for the poor people for the most political people and for the poorest countries and the i.m.f. itself has been warning of rising inequality has been warning. of rising poverty but many countries are dependent on international investors for money right i mean how does that work now he's $2.00 sides off there off of the going not only on the one side it seems like the if the i.m.f. just 2 faces research and sometimes the executive. that director are saying the right things or 2 countries doing in terms of what they should be doing today i

mean the n.f.l. is saying a stand stand stand it has been calling for an inclusive real recall sounded the alarm bells on inequality peaking and saying that and then he was saying it i mean the i.m.f. has strong research about that and yours awful stary we find we we command these these sort of research and analyses but then comes the unethical practices and as you say i mean countries need money and they need even more money now because of their often their inks and the consequence and so when it comes to the county by county practices we are seeing that loans i mean is so far away from their works and the i.m.f. is very influential if they want to commission more requests into those laws and they would be how they asked soon we begin to see the end of all of that and then he will exacerbate they now find the across the world and who as we pay that price

we have to see different ways i mean we have to honor this research on the consequences of the conclusions that you cause and we definitely countries need money now where should we call it should come from that consolation during the pandemic prime's there is still too many countries that are paying more in put that service than what for example we are spending in health care it has come from 8th revenge bent of a commitments to the open seat 0.7 percent of the of the g.d.p. that is 50 years now of it and it's not there except for a few countries and the i.m.f. could do more i mean they could go further and block and block these way they harvest of issuing a special drawing rights form of global currency that can be pumped into the global economy in times of of me because i don't need now. i'm equally sure even 33 trillion of the special rights which all i.m.f.

member companies will be able to access we felt having to repay so there are ways of 'd doing it that are not long's we conditions ok so that is what you think the i.m.f. could do what about the international community what about the private sector what should it be doing you know seeing in that signing if if you think about generally speaking about the international community they should be agreeing and going further in debt cancellation this is schemes they have done something but is not close to what should be should be done because they should include also there from the world bank and from from other movie that there are creditors and they should include also private sector i mean it's really outrageous that now precisely in incoming times i am but i did lenders have not been brought into any kind of these g. 20 deals for that cancellation as most of the governments have done so who are countries

are continuing to repay their debts to reach banks and hedge funds you know now. so you have this situation where some of the world's richest and biggest creditors and fortunes on their shareholders are cashing checks when people in their distressed countries are lacking the basic public services health care right now are they seriously ill should mean counseling all debt payments all rich countries will institutions but also for private creditors like ok i've got time for one more i just want to bring this back to the reality of what this all means for people who are already struggling for not have and fanaa lee has right because people are going to be impacted by this. i mean all of our research also also shows how you got to anyone 64 countries countries including kenya or pakistan or where they were already spending more of on repayments than in health care because

the before the pandemic hit them or part of our research to find how far it's only 22 per cent of the global workforce who has any kind of social protection in such as sick leave or unemployment. protection even if it doesn't change the full. economic system and the writing it's now taxed wages what we will be seeing is that. we are thinking that even 500000000 people could go into poverty because of the pandemic and its consequences it will be even the words so it has it needs a foolish if if we are thinking about the most liberal of our most impact that by the pandemic that such those that are not only using lives but their livelihoods to

ok will have lived there thank you so much for your time that instead of there there the interim executive director for oxfam international we appreciate it thanks to you. now can you dealing commercial deals from politics well that's what germany is hoping to do with the controversial nord stream pipeline that will bring in gas from russia to europe's biggest economy that's despite the latest sanctions from the united states that take aim at russian pipe playing vessel academic skate which is attempting to complete the last 147 kilometers of construction but the net has already said it won't bow to u.s. pressure not to go ahead with the project despite making it more dependent on russia for the supply of energy which washington believes is a security threat even the poisoning of russian opposition leader alexina valley which many thought may be a reason for bill and to give up on the project has been brushed aside some of

germany's own neighbors have imposed their own sanctions poland find russia's state controlled gas giant gazprom 6500000000 euros for going ahead with the construction of the nord stream to pipeline without securing its approval. we're joining me now via skype from berlin is europe for big york is a senior fellow and director for central and eastern europe at the german marshall fund of the united states really good to talk to you so the u.s. keeps imposing sanctions poland has issued its own penalties i mean is there anything that would make the change its mind when it comes to russia being such a great energy. i think we have to step back a little bit on this question because if you see the situation from germany. from the perspective of the german government and also german business then russia and previously the soviet union have always been very reliable and the 2 party going

back almost half a century or so from that sense germany is receiving very rationally and pursuing a very strong energy partnership with with russia what the german debate's tends to fade out however is that russia also moves this energy as a political weapon against its neighbor as accounts of apartness and this is a point that simply underestimated here in germany for as long as. the country and its debates decouples economic and energy questions from those political and security questions relating to russia. this this decision to go for a strong partnership with russia is not going to be not going to be a rigorous unfortunately what today and this is what i struggle to understand is that the pipeline will be on the used to mean the existing pipeline has huge capacity which is already on the you so what's this about is this about

geopolitical troop well this is really in the 1st place geo political tool that russia voice you know the pipeline capacity that is in place is fully sufficient to provide europe with russian troll gas supplies. russia over the last years has been relatively slots and there's no a spectator in the massive growth in volume so what we really have here is the diversification by russia of the pipeline that sparked the creation of redundancies that would then make it possible to shift volumes from one pipeline to another wherever russia wants to puts pressure on specific transport transit countries such as ukraine so this is really a strategy of diversifying and expanding pipeline capacity in order to be able to use that for political pressure in the future there were some outside of germany who thought that the poisoning of opposition leader alexina valley may force the

chancellor angela merkel to change her thinking on this what is her account collation here do you think. there really was debates that started. in the summer here in germany whether or not in response to the poisoning of alec saying that our new best should be a phrase a poor perhaps even a council ational to pipeline project there seemed to be quite some momentum there were many senior policymakers including from chancellor merkel's party who demand that this would be the appropriate response and even the chancellor at some stage herself seemed to indicate that this is not only a commercial project as she has maintained for many years but also one that has a strong pull its for that which is now unfortunately this special has not gone and gone any further the momentum seems to have seemed to fade in the meantime and there's no indication at this stage that. the chancellor and her government. would

take measures against those projects what i can really only do is speculate here why this is why this is the case in my opinion germany is acting irresponsibly unilaterally in this context that basically rhetorical always stresses that there has to be a european approach to energy policy to energy security but when it comes to this particular project germany is clearly acting unilaterally and very selfishly selfishly in my opinion unfortunately bout's impression is not has not gone away and it's not being by and by the german government anytime soon 18 countries 18 european countries have opposed this project it's only going as far as saying this increases germany's power in europe doesn't it well it does in the way because it shows that

a large and influential country like germany does get away with unilateral decisions even though gallants a an overwhelming majority of the partners who are opposed to this project. plus a number of countries like ukraine that point themselves outside of the bar but our very close european partners at the same time i think that this project is also one that would obviously put germany into a much stronger position as and the jihad in europe. would put it in a different and more competitive position than europeans energy market so there are there are a number of aspects that will increase german german power and influence here at the same time what is popular in the minds. of nurse amongst europeans this project has put a very stark divide between germany and especially central and eastern european partners in the european union and beyond and it will be very hard to mend the.

divide in the years to come if germany does not change its. on this controversial project ok thank you so much for your perspective your analysis from berlin europe for bric thank you. and that is that show for this week get in touch with us by tweeting me at camperdown and do you use the hash tag a j c d c when you do or drop us an e-mail to the concert al jazeera dot net is an hour and yes but there's more for you online and on syria dot com slash c.t.c. that will take you straight to our page which has digital reports links and entire episodes for you catch up. and that is it for this edition of counting the cost some can get out from the home team thanks for joining us news on al-jazeera is next. when corona virus struck america care homes for the elderly became ground 0 they

cut corners things don't get done and people die as a result kline's reveals our troubled industry imploded under the weight of the pandemic we put the book patient care. but isn't that the american way. tells us what kind of people we are. when covert hits america's nursing home. with jealousy they spoke she just exquisitely she's very glamorous it's part of our culture to look at our very very best for a special occasion and for people who spend money everything you see on the catwalk they do it here. if there is going to be longevity they have to come in and tell me things are going to mine my dear on al-jazeera. unprompted and uninterrupted discussions from on london broadcast center.

on al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera. this is the news hour live from with coverage of the increasingly tense wait for definitive u.s. election result. confidence is building among joe biden supporters as he inches.