space x. capsule, which has docks with the international space station ushering in a year era of commercial space flight. so you can see one of the 4 astronauts there coming out of the poets making their way into the i.s.a.'s. no, this mission marks the return of american national space using american rockets. launching from american soil. the true dr. can spacecraft lifted off from florida on sunday. it 27 hours to complete that journey. taking those 4 astronauts to the i.s.m.'s, their scientific mission will last for 6 months. and how he did it with the headlines here on al-jazeera u.s. pharmaceutical company would earn a says only results show it's covert. $1000.00 vaccine is nearly 95 percent

effective. earlier drugmaker, pfizer announced its vaccine was 90 percent effective. well, both plans ask the regulators for a merge and say approval within weeks. it's a really important milestone in the fight against the pandemic, because it demonstrates that our very senior morning 1273 is able to prevent cope with 1000 disease, including severe disease in people who are sick. and it's really just a milestone. we have a lot of work ahead of us knowing the vaccine is going to be effective is great news, but we still need to complete the regulatory process, which involves completing the study, generally more to follow safety. and then of course, we need to get busy manufacture. so drugs, national security advisor says he'd like to see the blockade on council results within 70 days. over to brian said the 1st step is for saudi arabia and bahrain to fully real in their airspace to qatari aircraft. the u.s.

is expected to have the number of troops in afghanistan by the middle of january leaving around 2500 personnel. the order would stop short of i going president, donald trump's goal to have all troops withdrawn by the end of the year. donald trump has also asked some of his top officials for options on attacking. iran's may nuclear sites, but then decided against the move that's according to the new york times article says, a meeting was held on thursday as he and his top national security advisers. and francisco sagansky has been chosen by peru's congress to be the interim president. he is the 3rd person to take the job in the space of a week unless you're up to date stay say whether this here and i'll just hear counting, the cost is up. next one of the most wanted men on the planet. he masterminded a $4500000000.00 fraud. they want to put him in jail,

but you cannot help being in the past. al-jazeera reveals never before heard recordings implicating some of the world's most powerful players. everyone, most of them would benefit by the abuse of power and the corrupt jolo hunt for a fugitive on a just, you know, i'm adrian. so they can, this is counting the cost on al-jazeera a look at the world of business and economics this week. the once mighty financial capitals of the world been refused to ghost towns by the pandemic. can they reinvent themselves? as more people work from home? we're in brazil where millions of lost jobs to the coronavirus,

but some of found new ways to feed themselves. that could also help in the fight against deforestation. but after sinking to record lows, the turkish lira reaches for higher ground earlier one file. as the central bank governor and his son in law, resigns as finance minister for more than a century, cities have been magnets for millions of people with the promise of a better life and work. but the pandemic is realizing the way we live and work. city centers have been turned into ghost towns as people work from home that could potentially leave lasting, scars with shops, restaurants, and services that cater to commuters being decimated by some estimates. the economic damage to the world's top 2 financial centers supposes the wreckage of the financial crisis of 2008. new york and london are also facing a huge drop in tax and transport revenues. new york is expecting a $2000000000.00 fall in personal taxes this year,

and unemployment is at 16 percent. that's twice as high as other cities in the country. only 10 percent of manhattan office employees have returned to the workplace as of late october, that's up from 8 percent as of middle guests. london's transport system, which includes tube trains and buses was bailed out by the government. the $2400000000.00 loan falls short of the $4800000000.00 needed over the next 18 months, passenger numbers and revenue a down 70 percent. because of the pandemic. we have 2 reports for you in a moment. gabriel is on the looks at the opening of america's biggest mall at a time that most of us a spending more on line. but 1st al-jazeera is john hendren takes a look at chicago's downward financial spiral. as the economy feels the impact of the pandemic. the pandemic, his scarred chicago's historic landscape plywood replaces neighborhood haunts.

sports bar, the rain forest cafe, all gone. the city's famed willis tower is mostly empty. it shuttered navy pier. the ferris wheel is indefinitely stalled. 40 percent of restaurants nationwide expect to close in the next 6 months. according to the national restaurant association. it's going to be fixed the maybe even 80 percent, because right now, a lot in the warmer days we can sort of hit a break even if people, if the business goes down, people are going to run out of money pretty soon. you have to be creaming your house after 3 decades in chicago, celebrity chef rick bayless, whose trim staff, it is numerous, chicago be stroh's. it is bracing for worse to come and his pockets are deeper than most restaurants, especially independent own restaurants, are sort of the fabric of the neighborhood come next spring. if we don't get some

sort of financial assistance from the government, those neighborhoods are downtown area. they're going to look very different and it's going to take a few years to rebuild. restaurants are getting creative with street closures, an outdoor seating and heat lamps. they're trying to keep people coming as long as they can, but in cold weather climates like chicago, nobody really knows how long they can go on. chicago's once bustling magnificent mile shopping district is a shadow of its former self with even open shops, boarded against recurring social unrest. their protest chants echoing in one american city after another, violence is up and it is causing some minor flight out of the major cities. we're seeing more and more people moving to suburbs outside urban landscapes. and i think that is a real concern on the other side of this virus. this spiraling economy spans across

the u.s. as once for low jobs are gone for good. each day the pandemics losses mount in lives and livelihoods. the latest here is central camera. the chicago institution opened it 899 closed in 2020 and hoping to reopen again. john hendren, al-jazeera, chicago. it's a shopping mall like no other in america. it's got the shops more than $350.00 retail stores under one roof, but it also has slides, a full water park feeding in a giant pools and also slopes the ski and snowboard type. it's all part of more than 20 entertainment at tractions. at the newly opened american dream shopping mall near new york, the largest shopping center in the united states, 20 years and 5000000000 dollars after its inception. he was supposed to open in march, but couldn't do covert lockdowns as crews put on final touches for the grand opening

that happened in october mall executives promise it will be successful despite new obstacles and changing consumer behavior. more people buying online rather than in person. and fewer people wanting to flock to shopping malls, or retail stores during an ongoing pandemic. when you think about, it's that millions of people down no experience feeling supplicated going crazy. looking for something to do, looking for something that they can really reenergize in reignite the family unit and we believe that that's going to be american dream, but not too far from the mega ball here in new york city. the struggles in the retail industry are obvious. everywhere you look, shops are boarded up,

victims of covert lockdowns in an economic recession, unemployment in new york city alone during the height of the pandemic reach nearly 20 percent. and it's still around 15 percent today. and an estimated 80000 of new york small businesses may never reopen. we've been talking a shakeout happening in retail for a long time now. and the pandemic, i think has accelerated the shakeout that had been coming. and you have a number of stores that just aren't going to make it because they don't have enough cash on hand, or they weren't able to raise enough capital. that leaves odd in uncertain times in the retail industry. as businesses close, while a mega mall calling itself the american dream tries to lure customers with attractions. at a time when retail in america is much like a nightmare. gabriel is on to counting the cost. now the city of london

corporation's been working on a plan to revive the financial district post pandemic. john romeo, chief, executive of consultants. all of the wyman forum has been involved in that process . he joins us now live via skype from london. john, you face a pretty uphill challenge, a number of firms have already started looking for small offices as they adjust their office requirements to cater to the number of people who are working from home right now. how do you counter that? thank you, adrian. i mean, this is you're right when it comes to infectious diseases, the advantages of cities that density of talent, the global. 'd connectedness actually become vulnerabilities and in the case of london, a whole series of challenges that predated cove it. 'd the rising cost of living. 'd some of the infrastructure, the inequalities where. 'd we just became that much more pressing and that workplaces are a great example. we saw pretty much overnight with the emergence of the 10 demick,

most of financial and professional. 'd services switched to remote working, something we thought would take 5 years. and now as we look forward, some of those changes are, are looking more and more permanent. certainly there's a different demand for the mix of public transport options and how you use commercial space. now it's uncertain what those long term trends will be, but certainly some of the takeaways. 'd i think are, are becoming clear that we're. 'd in a more permanent, flexible working more businesses are expecting to have teleworking options going forward. but that said in our mind, certainly the office. 'd is not dead, it's just changing and whether it's a university model, a club model that face to face interaction needed for collaboration and co creation . 'd and a lot of the things that drove success of, of london in particular, professional services, financial services and, and technology are still going to be required. so we see it rather than being that

stench threat. we think it's much more an opportunity to reimagine and reinvent some of that space. ok, so what's the plan? office space in london. notoriously expensive. i mean that's not going to attract stops. what do you need from the man of london from, from the government? are we going to see office prices coming down? i think it's a much broader question. london is much more than just a physical space. and if you, you mention, start ups, london has the 2nd highest rated ecosystem start up in the world. and behind only silicon valley, the good number of tech unicorns, the advanced technology companies that exist there are 2001 to the focus on ai, over box on quantum computing. we've got an ecosystem across some of the regulatory environment. the business is the education system, but london is london because of its. 'd people and its ability to attract that talent. and so certainly the pandemic has highlighted some of the shortcomings

within that impose new challenges and whether that's working in silos or other areas. and so what we're looking for and hoping the mayor does is use this is an opportunity to identify the. 'd strengths that london. 'd has the hub for. 'd experts in innovation, but using that to connect across some of these silos to thinking about the diverse population that we have and making it not just about diversity, but also inclusion. and thinking about for those high potential business is helping them to survive. helping to connect them to a vice, to funding, to, to pick chairman and bring that all together. and you talk about talent, some of that talent, a big chunk of it is going to me what is going to find life a lot more difficult from january the 1st when, when workers from the continent, for example, won't find it. that easy to come and work in london anymore. it makes you,

it puts you to a competitive disobey intensional smit. i'm not, i'm not sure. i mean, the u.k. is changing its trading relationship with the world where that's being redefined. and again, it becomes an opportunity to, to rethink some of it's so on the one hand you've got digitalisation. 'd equality, climate change, those are all now global priorities that countries and cities need to react to to stay attractive in. 'd and competitive there is a global trend towards putting more in think the opportunity for. 'd london is to continue to fly that flag for a global, outward looking britain that that is built on a reputation for. 'd its global financial center that hub for professional services and technology. we've got those capabilities. 'd at scale, the retail sector was already on the going fundamental change before the pandemic. and because of people's changing habits, you look at john lewis think that the big 6 successful department store chain,

which is, which is now reducing its footprint. it's changing the use of some of its properties, some of the flaws in its big stores to office space, even affordable housing as well. now we're talking about one of the main competitors in which is the west end of london, not the city of london, which we're talking about here. you concerned that there's going to be a flood of office space affordable office space across the the, the capital which is going to put you again in the city of london at a disadvantage. the report was commissioned by the city of london corporation. we were looking at this as recommendations an opportunity for. 'd munden indeed the u.k. more broadly, so rather viewing it as competition between parts of london. i think this is much more an opportunity of thinking how london as a major city as a hub for. 'd the whole. 'd of the u.k. and deede other beta cities around the world. 'd can reinvent themselves at, i guess, in terms of your specific question on the, the, this space, what we,

what we see is a need across the city. the city of london broadly defined as it is the requirement to adapt and design the space in a different way to meet these changing needs. a new density of, of work, places across sectors and how to use that, that space to be transformed. that's going to have to happen everywhere. we don't think that that goes away. it's just, it's going, it's certainly going to look different really going to talk here many thanks again for being with us and counting the cost. thank you. pre-sell slums, the coronavirus pandemic, has forced more people out of work, has left them struggling to afford life's basic beings. but some people are now growing the own food and that could be helping to slow deforestation. as monica explains, rio de janeiro, a city surrounded by mountains of lush vegetation,

which is rapidly disappearing. sprawling slums have been devouring the forest for decades. they're still growing invading protected areas like this one. but now environmentalists like donna, some dos have founded the coronavirus, an unlikely ally to fight deforestation. when the pin demick began and then started knocking on her neighbors' doors to distribute organic vegetables along with seeds, sprouts, and instructions on how to grow them. for the idea was to convince people to build less and turn to mother nature. at a time when the economy had shut down, and 10000000 brazilians were going hungry, all the hooked up to the idea of the nature of the pandemic, helped anup prove her point. when she moved cheerily, u.g.

had dreams of a bigger house, but covert 19 left her husband unemployed with the family discovered that nature could feed them if only they'd let it live. the new, her eyes buying food for everyone costs us at least 1000 ryall. but by planting our own organic food, we're not only ageing healthier, but saving at least 300 reale, a 3rd of what we spend in the supermarket. lot of was in the heart of really isn't it or not to one of the pretty violent strong family of 12. we have a plant corn, avocado, and also herb the family lives in what is called the promised land. an extension of the pain, a complex slum home 250000, people. it's controlled by the red command, one of brazil's largest drug cartels. they're responsible for occupying new territory and distributing it. and it was selling. it took

a lot of negotiation with the drug traffickers and the neighbor has to convince them that destroying the forest is not the best way out. paper made roofs over their heads, and as families grow, they build more mall. but with a pandemic, they realize that cement in bricks can't feed them and that is no building the cistern to store rainwater in the promised land. while nagel maida, who spent 6 years in jail for drug trafficking, is helping very clear the land season. i was in prison when the pandemic began, unable to help my wife and 3 children. i was lucky to be given this new opportunity . it's not only a job, but a new way of looking at life that my, that and she used to be a street vendor until the pandemic with no job and time on her hands. she started raising chickens. she plans to transform this whole area into

a fruit and vegetable garden, an urban slum, still surrounded by poverty and violence, but where mango trees are now allowed to flourish, and children and animals roam free as if they lived on a farm. monica and not give all just sirrah rio de janeiro. now. your fire central bank of about one day the next day, your son in law steps down as finance minister, the best breath turkey's president ended what appears to be his unconventional economic policy. you see, interest rates have been held as low as possible in the hope that it would revive the turkish economy when your currency sinks more than 30 percent in a year. at inflation saws you need to increase interest rates. the central bank has spent a staggering $100000000000.00 trying to prop up the currency, but what's driven her to want a more conventional economic policies may have more to do with the u.s. election. joe biden's victory could mean turkey's hit with sanctions for its

purchase of a russian missile system, something the president trump was unwilling to push. right, let's get down to the nitty gritty here name as long as the chief markets analyst eva trade, he joins us now via skype from london. so 1st the central bank governor was fired then early on, son in law stepped down as finance minister, there was a bit of a shock. what do you make of it all? i think the key word that you've used that is shocked how he came across the oryx mark. because knew it was really expecting this particular me. however, the important element to this is that yes, i do go on if given a freehold to center bonds and that means central banks can reach him play with the interest rates in order to increase the inflation. that is the key. i mean, because of that and the asian market is that in the coming days will event. but

$98.00, we could see an interest rate increase in turkey by on that basis point and big tears up. that particular reason they need it. is this an admission that the spending $100000000000.00 to support them? the lira was, was a costly mistake and has it got anything to do with the joe biden's victory in the us presidential election? i think joe biden's victory is, is a completely separate factor over here as well. and that is more by reading, building bridges than walls with other countries. because i think that is the rare mantra with respect to biden's administration of the president elect biden's administration. so going forward, what we see in terms of foreign policy from biden to a's, taki is going to be more. 'd moving towards

a new manager level and that means more businesses and more economy. all right, so you say that the took, his interest rate is going to go up. you said what $300.00 basis points. but that is what market is pretty much anticipated. so right, so that life is going to become a heck of a lot more expensive for people in turkey, very soon, like what you increase interest rates here. i do that because you want to control place your money. inflation comes down. that means things will become less cheaper on one hand, but at the same time, if you are putting money, if you have burned in the higher to 1st rate means you are obviously going to get more hate. at the same time. if you are boring money from an apartment, that your costs will increase with their back. to what extent is that is the turkish lira a busted flush and no matter what you do with it it's, it's not looking good at the moment. basically because of the underlying turkish

economy. yes, that is true, but in 1st rate, it is a double edged. because if you increase in 1st rate, yes, it is great, but often it is great to show up a client to ask for any country. but at the same forbearance, i mean, it is a great business because obviously the higher in charge more money. and that is why we need massive priming the banks. but on the other side, as a consumer, as a business, higher interest rates are generally not that good. and then i think this is pretty much gone. has been saying over the last number of years, that is the reason that it doesn't really like the conventional monetary policies which under ratio use interest rate to conclude this question. really good to talk to and i am many thanks again for being with us. thank you very. while the pandemic has devastated many industries, it's given a huge boost to the videogame sector,

tech companies, microsoft and sony. launching new consoles, a sharp rise in the number of players worldwide. south korea, with some of the fastest internet speeds in the world, is a major targets. a game developer has a fantasy of his robot bride reports now from seoul. it's one business sector that has been thriving in the pandemic. and has the makers of the most popular gaming consoles rushing their latest offerings to market? globally, the gaming industry was stagnant last year, but the outbreak of corona virus means the industry in south korea and the rest of the world has seen big growth. from sony, there's the new playstation 5 and cry. we have the power, branded playstation of the world's biggest gaming ecosystems, and an established user community going head to head with microsoft's latest x. box system. it's like all gaming systems here. benefiting from south korea's super

fast 5 g. mobile internet network enabling, ever more immersive play without making any in the past, people had to download install and then play a game going forward. we will be playing games by streaming them a line. the professional gaming of the sports has also grown during the pandemic helping confirm south korea's position as a world leader. there are bigger sponsorship deals, and developing technology offers the expanding online audience a richer experience. for south korea, it's all much more than just video games. it represents a part of its economic future as it charts, a path focused on digital content. gaming joins k., pop dramas, and movies as the country's growing export of soft power. if for the last half a century, manufacturing has helped our economy to flourish. cultural continue to be the

country's power of development. for the next 100 years. south korea has seemingly embarked on a quest for digital supremacy now with the new devices to help it. rob mcbride, al-jazeera soul. and that's our show for this week. if you'd like to tell us what you think, get in touch with us, you can tweet me a finnigan on twitter. please use the hash tag a j c c c. when you do or you can drop us a line counting the cost of al-jazeera dot net is our address. as always, there's plenty more for you online at al-jazeera dot com slash c t c. that address takes you straight to our page there. you'll find individual reports, links, even entire episodes fuse catch up on. but that is it for this edition of counting the cost. i'm adrian finighan from the whole team. thanks for being with us. the news on al-jazeera is next. this is life on the streets of and out from

riyadh to discovery of theater is an opportunity to escape and become some amends for the tuition of a plane. and perhaps a life time little princess. part of the viewfinder, latin american series announces the last covert. 19 is indiscriminate, but it quickly found the racial divisions in american society. the cold pandemic. it's a real lurk. that's true. in the racially segregated city of chicago, the majority of deaths have been black and latino residents fault lines asks why i think it's becoming clear that if such a thing as structural racism, the great divide coverage, 1000 and race in chicago on al-jazeera

al-jazeera every i'm how i'm a hit in doha, with the headlines on al-jazeera with infections surging worldwide and government struggling to respond. there's been another dose of hope in the battle against covert 19 u.s. pharmaceutical firm. durness says early tests show its vaccine is 94.5 percent effective in preventing the virus. alan fischer reports from the white house. the number of covert cases is soaring, states are bringing back don't reinstating limits on gatherings. closing schools, 1000000 new cases were reported in just 6 days. the virus is killing more than 1000 people.