premier league while it doesn't apply to all games fans in london were able to watch manchester united beat west ham 31 it's because of a change in lockdown rules which allows up to 2000 people to watch outdoor sports everybody i know my for support from drill for exactly so it's a cracking back. room. on its way to get some more throws yeah. we talk about it more because i do get more emotional i'm so pleased with. what you have is there who have missed the whole romney reminder of our top stories in his 1st post-election rally president trump has again falsely claimed to have won the election in georgia now he's in the state campaigning for 2 republican senators ahead of runoffs that will decide which party controls the u.s. senate this is something that's very important and you have to get out you have to

vote you have to make sure you have every vote counted everybody has to. because it's taken this election is control of the u.s. senate and that really means control of this country the voters of georgia will determine which party runs every committee right every piece of legislation controls every single taxpayer dollar the u.s. has reported a record number of covert 1000 infections for a 3rd day in a row nearly 230000 cases were recorded over the past 24 hours according to john hopkins university and there's been more than 2500 deaths in that time the u.s. has seen a huge resurgence of the virus over the past month putting immense pressure on hospitals post press that trade talks between the united kingdom and the european union are set to resume on sunday the 2 sides are deadlocked over issues of governance fishing and competition rules there's less than a month to go before a deadline to reach a post brett sit trade deal. the leader of ethiopia's to agree region says his

fighters are still battling government forces local leaders say government soldiers have bombed one town while fighting is under way outside the regional capital nic kelly a communications blackout has made it difficult to assess conditions on the ground several people have been detained in israel amid protests against prime minister benjamin netanyahu demonstrators are calling for him to resign over corruption charges and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. the united nations has condemned shelling in the yemen which has killed at least 6 civilians at least 10 others were injured in the port city of the data is the 3rd time the week that civilians have been killed in attacks or should follow those stories on our web site at al-jazeera dot com back with more news in half an hour next on al-jazeera it's counting the cost to stay with us. the world food program will be see the nobel peace prize for fighting against hunger and the use of starvation as a weapon of war we ask executive director david these he call the challenge of

combating global hunger would be met the age of the coronavirus pandemic the nobel interview on al-jazeera. given al this is counting the calls on al-jazeera to a look at the world of business and economics this week the end of austerity the ideology of collective punishment decimating the weak instances 90 for the economic mismanagement and crimes of the rich and powerful 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 countries to hack back at public services. commerce before politics despite u.s.

and european opposition germany pushes ahead with a gas pipeline that cements 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 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 mourned why well let's take a look at a few case studies. from recent 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 its health care spending was 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 spot 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 who's very strange most. critical. of the 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 saying the calling the old saying live news of the wealth the country. banks protected our 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 a countries like china japan south korea i well come from words in the intro. with our every corner of the great wall of this room but i will

find the good side what i'm striking from 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 thank you creating problems to allow them to call if we need to spend as well because it's. investing is. creating this integration for the 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 we just 12 months ago would have been think about . well you know there are different ways you i think create stat model if you are you a cult of a practice all along the supply chain so you can just contract economists. call the fishes that track the things things that say by you know you know that. scene creasing if you know the fable to. confirm that and i think birds spending route is a good instruction so essentially things are made because essentially to cultivate already the states of gravity is how i think about bringing back not destroying the

dome and the experiences. ization the supply chains because essentially men step on to grow these have safety that so and that's they support people in jobs through expending that have to support people and for a while the system we know from over the mountains of data that. people find it very very hard to launder very well 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 ringback back really imperative but if you offend your whole population should the laboratory are employed with sobriety that's essentially diminishes the possibility for recovery further down the road so we think in this sense i think

you are actually spending money to prevent race 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 developed world. how about 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 class it is about a thing where they settle on the same people are actually the working classes in the west and haven't really benefited from global brands the soul and the brackets of the many during times of stack and so forth so what they send me is we introduce a sterile and into 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 aaron i'm not have a business that people are not stable the poor that all i'm back create. the conditions for puppets and i think george osborne gave you my all initial actually it was very attractive because it priced in the british that.

very last time so we didn't say anything like for exactly that or so on the sample but it went on too long it was articulate on the academic idea. for god i think that's a state the local state so all councils and all. public services are essentially become defined by and they didn't have a bassman in them to enable them but that which i think is the shame by the writing of virus crisis status 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 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 obviously it has 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 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 household soup soup lies and full disproportionally young women in 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 recently called so for 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 that many countries are dependent on international investors for money right i mean how does that work now he's $2.00 sides off there of of the going on the one side it seems like the is 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 standard spend spend it has been calling for an inclusive real recall sounded the alarm bells on inequality peaking and saying that and then we were saying it's i mean the i.m.f. has strong research about that and yours awful stary we find 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 will be how they asked soon are we begin to see the end of all of that underneath it 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 all of 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 cancellation during the pandemic prime's there is still too many countries that are paying more input that service than what for example we are spending in their health care it has come from 8th revenge bent of a commitments to their 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 'd economy in times of of me because i don't need now. i'm equally sure even 3 feet really i'm off the special drawing rights which all i am

a member countries will be able to access without having to repay so there are ways of doing it that are not longs 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 or buying control 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 poor 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 in checks when people in their distressed countries are lacking the basic public services health care right now a seriously ill should mean canceling all debt payments all rich countries would level 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 knives and fanaa lee hoods 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 some 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 the this 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 a break europe 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 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 supposedly 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 russia in that role gas supplies. from russia over the last years have been relatively flat and there's no expectation that there would be a massive growth in all humans so what we really have here is a de versification by russia off its pipeline network the creation of redundancies that would then make it possible to shift volume from one pipeline to another wherever russia wants to put pressure on specific transport transit countries such as ukraine so this is really a strategy of labor supplying and expanding pipeline capacity in order to be able to use it for political pressure in the future there were some outside of germany who thought that the poisoning of opposition leader lexi novelli may 4th the

chancellor angela merkel to change her thinking on this what is her calculation head 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 priest a cause 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 now unfortunately this discussion 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 responsibly unilaterally in this context that basically rhetorical always stresses 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 bats impression is not has not gone away and it's not being by and by the german government any time 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 their gallants a 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 are 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 an energy heart in europe. it would put it in a different and up and say just 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. amongst europeans this project has 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.

fences the bites 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 a quick thank you. and that is that show for this week get in touch with us by tweeting me at can without end do you use the hash tag a j c d c when you do or drop us an e-mail county because al-jazeera dot net is an hour and to us but there's more for you on line it down to 0 dot com slash c.t.c. that will take you straight to our page which has individual reports links and type episodes for you catch up. and that is it for this edition of counting because some can't get out from the home team thanks for joining us news on al-jazeera is next. 2019 disputed election 4th believe your 1st indigenous president into exile

ever morale is considered his future and hope to return his party rallied behind new candidates. with a tense new election drawing close in late 2022 people in power went behind the scenes to see if the indigenous movement could pull off a remarkable comeback in libya exile will return on al-jazeera in 1958 charles de gaulle made a famous speech in algeria. campaigning i take the don't hold back the tide of algerian independence or keep france's colonies in africa and the pacific. in the final episode of the series al-jazeera explores how the long and bitter fight for the french empire still resonates today blood in tears french to colonize a shadow on al-jazeera.

al-jazeera. now. it's taken this election is control of the u.s. senate and that really means control of this country president trump addresses his 1st political rally since losing the election had all the senate runoff vote in georgia. colors all robin and this is all just a relaunch my headquarters here in doha coming up in the next 30 minutes the e.u. and the u.k. all last ditch talks on a break sit trade deal with a deadline just weeks away. the lights turned on but everyone's at home a quiet start to christmas.