bull scenario to change course, but with the effects of climate change looming, many believe it's a fight on which the hell out of the entire world depends. i listened to al jazeera, civil defense authorities in indonesia have expanded the safety zone around a volcano that erupted on sunday, or than 4000 people now evacuated from around the volcano. the government says it's currently at its 2nd highest level of activity. so how past the hour we will take you through the headlines and u.s. drug make him a donor, is seeking approval from american and european regulators for emergency use of its coronavirus vaccine. the u.s. health secretary says if everything goes to plan, then federal approval could be granted in the coming weeks. with pfizer, we have the f.d.a.

announced an advisory committee for december the 10th. and if everything is on track, everything proves out what, what it appears to be. we could be looking at approval within days after that midair enters basically one week behind that. and general perna, his from operation work speed that will ship within 24 hours of f.d.a. authorization. so we could be seeing both of these vaccines out and getting into people's arms before christmas. the u.s. battleground states of arizona and wisconsin have become the latest to certify joe biden's election victories the trump campaign and the republican party had challenge the arizona results in court. and trump is expected to continue appealing against the results. the u.s. secretary of state is urging the ethiopian prime minister to end fighting in the north and to great region. told to ethiopia's parliament federal forces are in full control of the regional capital nicolay but the people's liberation front says fighting is ongoing. top nuclear scientist has been laid to rest in tehran. in fact,

it was assassinated on friday. iran's leaders are blaming israel for the killing and a valid to retaliate. turkey is tightening coronavirus restrictions after a record number of deaths for the 8th consecutive day. 188 people have died in the last 24 hours, so a full look downs will be imposed at the weekend and curfews on weekdays. deforestation of brazil's amazon region, a surge to a 12 year high in the area destroyed. it's growing sharply since president jibril sonora came to power, and france's government has dropped a controversial draft law that would restrict the publishing of images of police to build spot large protests on saturday, fueled by anger over a video of police beating a black man in paris those are the headlines on al-jazeera counting, the costs is next. after world war 2, france's great empire began to unravel and vietnam was throwing themselves into the

streets, bursting with joy, kissing each other. and algeria, if the indochinese that many french army, why not? the decline continues an episode to bludgeon tears french to colonize ation on al-jazeera. hello, i'm sam is a band. this is counting the cost on al-jazeera. your look at the world of business and economics this week, president xi extends his grip across china and hong kong. taiwan could be next as beijing, navy, and trains missiles on the country. what will the u.s. response be? also this week, a failed decades old policy of unfettered, free market economics want next for chile, as the people redefined the economy to eliminate inequality, class tax,

the rich argentina starts a debate on who should pay for the pandemic before the question. many countries are starting to ponder. china is tightening its grip on hong kong new laws imposed by beijing disqualified for lawmakers for being unpatriotic. that prompted 14 pro-democracy lawmakers to quit as president. she is consolidating his power, scrapping a 2 term presidential limit. he's crushed voices opposed to him and has taken a firmer grip on the autonomous region of detaining millions of wiggers in hundreds of internment camps. and she may not be done yet, is next focus could be the island nation of taiwan, which it claims as its own territory. she has gone as far as saying it's an inevitable requirement for the historical,

rejuvenating of the chinese nation. but just how feasible is this, and according to the south china morning, post china has deployed its most advanced hypersonic missiles to its south east coast as it prepares for a possible invasion. that's because taiwan's president has refused to accept the one china principle. it's moved more marines closer to taiwan and held invasion drills. despite the pandemic, china has increased its military spending by 6.6 percent this year, as it sees every increasing threats. china has built the world's biggest navy, a fleet of $350.00 warships to stake its claim to the south china sea. that's raising concerns in washington, which is pledging to counter and expand its warship fleet from 293-2350 5. president trump, for his part, agreed last chance to sell a 100 harpoon antiship missiles worth $2400000000.00 to taiwan,

but also sold 1800000000 dollars worth of land attack mobile missiles. it's all part of taiwan's hedgehog strategy to resist an invasion. president elect joe biden hasn't expressed a view on taiwan yet, but he has assured japan the u.s. would help defend the disputed senkaku islands, which beijing claims to the trump administration has signed a 5 year economic deal with taiwan. despite objections from china, the deal falls short of a full blown trade deal. well, joining me now from singapore is in charge. he's the associate professor of political science at the national university of singapore. good to have you with us . so china's been quite assertive when it comes to hong kong when it comes to the we will taiwan be next. might it be facing an invasion? i think an invasion is probably a bit, but far off at this point in time. but certainly it will be bringing on more

pressure on china. one, we've been seeing increased military activity and increase in the frequency of flights milledge of military aircraft in one sort of balance air defense identification zone and also are around one crossing the median line. these are efforts, i think, to put more pressure on taiwan to suggest to its government and people that they should not behave in ways that the p.r.c. doesn't like. has china legal, the ability right now to do an invasion if it wanted to some point to things like the number of landing craft and say in my view, one thing to point the missiles and fly more across all the key components. i'm missing, right? so an all out invasion, i think it's going to be challenging. it's going to be challenging for several reasons. one of course, is the logistical capability of lining crop of aircraft to support an invasion force is, of course, the weather and the telestrator, the seas that can be

a bit unpredictable. getting large amounts of people and material across can be a bit tricky. and of course, crossing that expensive want to would mean that, you know, these vessels could be picked off from the town on site. so there's a high amount of risk. i don't think it's that feasible for china to do at this moment because an invasion is, i think quite an extreme measure. the lots of, of the course of measures that china can possibly take that don't get into the asian territory. however, much more assertive beijing months to be taiwan would be much of an international backlash. so i think it depends on how the clash happens. if beijing engine has a situation where it looks like the townies side is being really egregious or excessive, then perhaps they'll be less of a backlash. or if the chinese side does something that is on its own accord,

that is highly unacceptable. and the eyes of the international community, meaning to say that if you know, actually decided that it wanted to decline depends right away that it wanted to act in ways that provoke the p.r.c. actively without, without you know, having reason to do so. but short of those, and i think those are very unlikely scenarios because taiwan has a leadership that is pretty common. seems to know what it's doing. so in that sense, that whatever response to trying to caution, especially if it gets increase of his, he's excessive. i think there would be a mortgage national backlash. how much of it would there be whether that has an effect on changing china's course of action, i think remains to be seen. but i think in general, there is going to be a lot more resistance and happiness to a chinese excessiveness, but we haven't seen the u.s. president like joe biden take a position yet on taiwan. why?

i think what we've seen him do is to talk about his, his proxies in terms of people who lincoln, who was the presumptive secretary of state, talk about increasing ties and improving relations with taiwan. so presumably that is reflective of his position. the reason why president biden elect biden himself has not come across, i suppose, is because he does not think that the taiwan issue needs to be put on a priority. it doesn't have to be, but at the focus of u.s. foreign relations right now. and of course, we also know that his focus is his declared focus is on the pandemic. it's on fixing the u.s. economy, so he probably doesn't want other issues. going to include it to get in the way of that primary agenda. while we've seen taiwanese buying more u.s. weapons, president from giving taiwan these critical weapons. this is all polly guess of

taiwan's hedgehogs, perhaps trying to get as much as they can out of the current u.s. administration. so the talent side has been trying to increase its defensive capability for while this current tranche of weapons sales, you know, it's, it's come up at a time where, how it has been faced, facing increasing pressure from china. i mentioned the military activity from the chinese side. so in that sense, it makes it's, you know, it's quite clear that the tolerance i would want to up its ability to be a hedgehog, to be able to at least impose costs that are pretty heavy on china. should china choose to be well rested? i mean, the whole idea of all for the tell inside is to make an invasion, make any sort of course of attempt difficult. there's always going to be an element of doubt in the minds of the chinese dissing me because that would cause them to

hold back. right. so this current round of sales, you know, feeds into that strategy. given the fact that china has upped the ante on its on its side. so it's surprising the u.s. is selling weapons to taiwan. the u.s. still doesn't have a full blown trade deal with taiwan. i think this gets him pot to the administration's general reticence and sensitivity to, you know, opening up mall more trade deals. so actually for the trauma administration, this is already, i think, pretty significant step. right. it's not some done through with new trade deals. it's renegotiated existing ones, so that's on the trouble ministrations on the other. i think there's also recognition that the u.s. public is not as ready to be more open economically at this point in time. so i think in terms of the economic relationship with taiwan, that trade arrangement is probably as far as feasible,

what outgoing administration goes as far as probably the u.s. public can stomach. well, the time being, of course, taiwan is still very interested in getting a free trade agreement. and i suppose those negotiations will continue, and we may see something later down the line in the biden, and in this region, has been good talking to you. thanks so much. thank you. it all began with students protesting about a hike in metro fares, but it's mushroomed into something much bigger long before ronald reagan and margaret thatcher. chil, a was a test bed for unfettered free market economics or neo liberalism, under the right wing dictatorship of all gusto. pinochet, that experiment in the 1970, s. was continued by democratic governments from 990 to the present day. pinochet's rule was an economic failure posted to ship the economy has performed better than

its neighbors, but it has failed to address inequality, access to pensions, health care and education were left to the free market. the people finally got to vote on the constitution, the outcome, a landslide, to scrap the charter in favor of more government intervention in the state. so what now? well, there's a long way to go before the people of chile see any change or joining me now via skype from london is latin america economist at capital economics. good to have you with us. so chill, there's been this 6 steps, success rather story for developing countries for so long. what's gone wrong? well, i think if you look at chile over the last few decades it's, it's been a regional performer in latin america in aggregate sounds. but i think one of the issues is that, and all of the citizens of have enjoyed those gains in the economy. i think there was a sense among many of the citizens that the benefits only went to those of the top

. and that's why we saw those mass protests last year calling to reduce inequality and provide better public welfare provisions for things like education and health care. so i think even though in aggregate the economy's done well, possibly those towards the bottom end of the distribution haven't been able to enjoy as much. so when you look at those people on the streets, as you said, that basically does that vindicate what economists like. joseph stiglitz have been saying that neo liberalism has undermined democracy for the last 40 years that trickle down economics hasn't worked. i think it depends on whether we look at an absolute or relative sense. i mean, i'm not sure those have moved our party over the last 40 years, but these, you know, they're both free market principles because the economy was growing fairly well. and so most people are in a better position than they were say,

40 years ago. but if you look at over, no sense, then income inequality has widened, then there's a feeling amongst those at the bottom that have seen others. and their wealth and income massive yesterday was in a right of sense those. so the average person, it's maybe not increased as much so i don't think it's necessarily fair to say that, you know, liberalism has just totally fail is probably just been more of a case that it hasn't done enough in insurance to certain benefit. everyone right now it is a long process of changing the constitution, right? yeah. so there's still a long way to go. so we had the referendum last month where she lands voted to have a new constitution. as part of that vote, they are also elected to have their new constitution drafted by a constituent assembly nor citizens, rather than

a mix of citizens and current politicians. and that constituent assembly will be elected in april. and that assembly will then have to draft a new constitution and there have to be a 2 thirds guarantee for any clause that goes in to a new constitution. and that process will take about a year, and then the new charter will be put to another referendum in 2022 for the people to vote. and it's only at that stage where there may be a new political system in chile. so we're looking at years before we know exactly what the people want, those then thing on the horizon that we can say, that's probably one of the changes that's going to be introduced. i think the main thing we could see is a shift towards greater state intervention in the economy. ok. money that was my children's pensions, education, health care? yeah, exactly. so a lot of the protests that we saw last year. 'd were calling for things better,

public welfare provision for health care, education, pensions, and it looks like the state level papers are all in or 3 parts of it in all of those sectors. you know, and that could be a positive for the economy. i think for education and health care in particular, if it means that there's more good quality and widespread provision of health care education that could boost the potential of the economy. if it means that there's a more, more knowledgeable, more educated and healthier workforce. but there is, there is, of course, a risk that the state sector goes too far and if they venture into other areas of the economy where this, perhaps a better left to the private sector, there's a risk there could crowd out the more productive private sector. so at this stage, it's probably too early to say whether that be a good or a bad thing for the economy. so was about finding the balance, isn't that well,

there will be any need for spending to increase, right? but the government does have some room to maneuver right with debt 30 percent of g.d.p. . one thing that she hasn't favor is that it's deposition is very low, especially compared to others in latin america. and so we've already seen them enact quite substantial stimulus during the crown of us and ek, but up 12 percent of g.d.p. on things like wage subsidy schemes, for example. and it looks like and the latest budget have said that they're going to continue keeping spending fairly high over the next few years to try and stimulate the economy because they're, the public finances came into a crisis in pretty good shape or in thanks so much for your thoughts and the mouse's on that may kill that. thank you. argentina's congress is debating a bill seeking to raise billions of dollars from the super rich. the one off taxes meant support families who've been hit hard by the pandemic. today's about reports

from one of silence argentina's tax by and how it should be sliced and made an economic crisis has become food for lively discussion . and when a site is and now for the 1st time deputies are set to debate imposing a wealth tax on arjun times who have over $2000000.00 in assets, thousands took to the streets outside congress to show support for the new tax and the government if i were the fundamentalists, it was as if we are seeing a very delicate situation in argentina with people struggling to find food, people who have lost their jobs. so imposing a tax on wealth is necessary to the tax under discussion would amount to 2 percent for individuals with assets worth more than $2500000.00 and scale up to us much as $525.00 for all trial wealthy citizens holding their fortunes outside the country.

argentina is desperate for funds as the coronavirus than democrats had a devastated impact in the economy. poverty rates are close to 50 percent, but commercial chambres in the country warning that a wealth tax in this context could have an impact on potential investors who already see the country as a negative for business. several nationals are fleeing the south american nation, claiming that doing business in argentina is complicated and unprofitable volatile politics. price and currency controls and state interventionism are part of doing business here. and the law is being debated as argentina begins discussing with the, i.m.f. how to pay over $40000000000.00 in debt. says the opposition will vote against the people this kind of taxes per recession. it's not a tax that will promote investment. on the contrary,

the problem is how this tax is being discussed and the public protests by the government, which it's a climate against business, there was no discussion. the only intention is to show that they are champions of the poor when they are getting into the austerity measures demanded by the i.m.f. and the us. but president of the, for member said the new tax is meant to aid public coffers to cope with a pandemic of funding that we are living in terms of where solidarity years to be the role in congress. we see the debate on world tax. what is being debated is whether those who have more can express in terms of him agency in solidarity with the rest of the country. i difficult times for argentina, years of recession and inflation, and the impact of the pandemic have left millions in need finding balance between providing aid and stabilizing the economy is seen as crucial to help the country

leave its economic troubles behind. as the promise of vaccines sends stocks to record highs, some governments are already thinking about how they're going to pay for the cost of the pandemic. but is it premature when the recovery isn't expected to kick in until late 2021 at best? let's get some analysis from jamil, afterward, director of investment strategy, a german fin, tech company, nagger. good to have you with us. so governments are looking at a range of things from like tax increases to austerity measures. is this the right thing to do? you think? absolutely not, look, similarly, livelihoods have been impacted by this. were that stupid jobs, like ones, other unfortunate circumstances from this pandemic. and even by lots of governments, it comes not now except we are still in the early stages of the contents of the economic rescue plan. so it would be very premature to be moving out of this money, but to me, let me jump in and be the devil's advocate for these governments. if they've got

bills to pay, they've got bills to pay. what are they supposed to do? so government center that's stuck between a hockey rink going to have place because if they kick the can down the road, it could be impacting future generations. for example, that's millions of millions of people. young school, kids who have not been at school for many months and they do not want them to be impacted potentially 10 years, not at the same time. one that is hundreds of millions of people who are still going through forms of patches from this economic a personal, actually it's insensitive to be doing this now. and the vaccine has not been approved yet, nor has it been rolled out distributed, and prove that it's going to work for a mass amount of people globally. so what the government centered have to do. and what's happening right now is that hands are tied around for folks because jet debt to g.d.p. has increased to 362 percent this year just to give some figures on that done, but it's taxes this year and around 320 percent. so over the past 9 months, 10 months, it's grown in some forms of b.

and other government, such as not to give them have not spent this much money into governments since wartime. civil talking about the early and mid 1940, s., . and yet this economy specifically the u.k., it's still the worst impacted by this pandemic across all industrial and g 7 nations that give some kind of appetite towards what this style. and that has been the big problem. but essentially it until we get back to a recovery that has a flat road, we know the vaccine works. we know that things going slow. he's voting gradually, get back to normal because the moment we've got done, we've gone and we've had a transfer like situation essentially until we get on a straight road. we don't know how successful this is going to be. and that's why we have to get back on stuff before we can decide to say how we're going to begin to pay that money back. of course that has to be paid back is correct conversation, but it's not a solution that has to be so today. so i think the of a, of all the on that is saying they're saying wait until the,

the recovery becomes really well established. i'd definitely do not only the i.m.f., but on the world central banks to what the i meant to suggest that this pace of recovery is going to be uneven. it's not the kind of narrative to say that every economy is going to go through different situations such as they have already in the end of it. but the federal reserve chair, which is the u.s. central bank, drew. it's going to say that when there's a condom, it does get back on to an even folks in the normal will be different to what it was before and listen to be a huge group of people which includes employees isn't a cause business. this is also going to include many sectors that are going to continue to need to pull, and that means by support. they need to have more government aid money to help more stimulus needs and most interesting measures. and actually the nudge in the direction right now is that government still has a influential role to play, to do mole a buddha for the economist to get back. because one of the lessons from the global financial crisis,

i know we don't talk about some of it was 13 years ago. but one of the lessons was that actually the governments that got me fast enough, that's why the recovery took as long as 10 years or so. we were still talking about it even before this pandemic. now this pandemic, we might get a hoot by 2021 and some sort of lexi, but we certainly do not want to be talking about it 5 years or so from now, which is why for the next one, yet the support has to remain in place. hopefully by 2020 to 2023, and action packed and then be put into place as well. so how to get this debt issue back under some sort of sustained i could show it to about 2020 to 2023, the roadies bump. a vaccines have been approved, get other markets getting ahead of themselves and all this optimism. i said prices are always the 1st things to price stuff again very early and i'm going to use that comment at the i.m.f. . it may just recently, the disconnect between asset prices just basically means global markets and the real economy is tremendous. it's even larger now than it already was that we can

have this year. and that's where we were before there was a big discrepancy based essentially markets believe that destruction going to be approved in days and weeks and i'll be fingers crossed. that's to be the case. but i also believe that things are going to be very, very quickly. listen to be a sudden recovery, but you also felt the same thing at the beginning of the 1st wave of we were in that interim period. megan, where things were starting to be reopened up. but that they did not take into account that would have to step back and that would rank restrictions to come into place once again. so that's a place that's a price is always do this, but it does not mean that the economy is justified and the right place the disconnect is tremendous. all right, always good to have you. thanks so much to me and thank you. and that's our show for this waiver. remember, you can get in touch with us via twitter, use the hash tag, a.j. c.t.c. . when you do more drama, say about counting, the cost about is there. i don't know is our address. there's more for you online at al-jazeera dot com slash the thing saying it will take you straight to our page,

which has individual reports, links and entire episodes for you to catch up on. that's it for this edition of counting the cost time sami's they banned from the whole team. here for now, it's goodbye news. an al-jazeera is that the past past, travels the road to mexico, raising ecological nowhere, caring creative solution to the country's most dramatic, demonstrated by deep in the struggle for a better speech. last past comes of that you find in latin america seen on al-jazeera dissecting the headlines in the midst of a pandemic. let's start with some of the on the ground realities of back in the news coverage. what's the lay of the land challenging assumptions and the official

night listening post on now to 0. 0600 hours g.m.t. here on al-jazeera. i'm come all santa maria and these are the headlines. a 2nd, u.s. drug maker, madonna has announced its regulators there and in the european union for emergency approval for a covert 19 vaccine. but then it says its final trial results confirm it is more than 94 percent effective. it's a week behind pfizer, which is fueling hopes the u.s. could have maybe 2 approved vaccines by the end of the year. the u.s. health secretary says if everything goes to plan and federal approval for vaccines could be granted in just weeks with pfizer, we have the f.d.a. announced an advisory.