this past week they needed at least 250 seconds worth of data and they obviously fall short of that so it's kind of up to be here as to what. comes of this test if they need another test or what happens with the path forward old news of course on our websites there what is on your screen the address al-jazeera dot com. time for a quick check of the top stories here on al-jazeera the u.s. capitol is on high alert after the f.b.i. warned of possible violence leading up to president elect joe biden as an integration barriers have been set up across washington d.c. and thousands of national guard troops have been deployed al-jazeera gable is on that has more they are not so much worried about the same scenes as january 6th hundreds or thousands of people overtaking the u.s.

capitol the capitol is completely sealed off it would be unfathomable for a large group of people to even get close to it at this time but what they are worried about is what they term lone wolf domestic terrorism one or 2 people doing some sort of trying to do some sort of. harm to people here in washington d.c. well the incoming biden administration is planning to use executive orders to undo several of president donald trump's policies it'll include reversing trump so-called muslim travel ban and rejoining the power of climate agreement uganda's president has been reelected for a 6th term in office the electoral commission announced that you were in the 71 of the 60 percent of the vote is main opponent but the wind says the vote was a complete fraud and his urging his supporters to reject it the u.s. on other observers have described the poll is fundamentally flawed. germany's ruling party the c.d.u.

has elected army lashon as its new leader that puts him in the running to succeed chancellor angela merkel and step aside after 16 years in the job general elections are set for september in northern brazil more emergency supplies of oxygen have been lifted to a city that's been overwhelmed by a surge and coronavirus people in man now have been cheering in the streets to buy oxygen in a desperate bid to keep loved ones alive and nasa has cut short a crucial test of its so-called space system the boosters for powerful engines ignited simulating a liftoff. but it fell short of the 8 minutes needed to stay on track for its planned debut later this year the project's part of an effort to put humans back on the moon by 2024 those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after counting the cost of watching latin american people have finally spoken about it as i see it because of balance because more dangerous world is looking to.

put the election behind us the republican party dumptruck the weekly take on u.s. politics and that's the bottom line. hello i'm sami's a than this is counting the cost of al-jazeera your look at the world of business and economics this week on track to become the world's biggest economy this decade president she sets another more ambitious target and china become a 30 trillion dollar economy by 2035 more than 100000000 people lose their jobs in india as modis government forces a lockdown millions migrating back to their villages will they return. and with supply chains temporarily broken due to the pandemic is a vertical farming the answer to our ever increasing demand for food.

president xi has ambition to double the size of china's economy by the middle of the next decade after mismanaging the pandemic the united states could relinquish its title to being the world's biggest economy by 2028 attempts by the trump administration to restrict access to technology may just be a bump on the road to china's relentless rise but it doesn't come without its challenges in the form of demographics massive debts and geopolitical in tango. ment's so can she hit his ambitious target or right now the world's 2nd largest economy is worth an estimated $14.00 trillion dollars according to the world bank china's economy is expected to grow at its slowest pace since the maoi era despite that china is actually expected to register growth of 2 percent for 2020 it's the only g.

20 nations to do so but to double wide 2035 the economy would need to expand about 4.7 percent a year just a little context in $29000.00 the economy grew at the slowest pace in almost 3 decades 6 point one percent so some think the target could be easily reached well it was easy to attain double digit growth as china has with the trillions spent on building roads rail and housing across the country not a problem as the economy doubled in value 4 times between 19802010 but as it moves its economy towards a more consumer reliant model its debt tripled to a staggering $43.00 trillion dollars that's almost 3 times the size of its economy but that consumer orientation is yielding results retail sales rose to $6.00 trillion dollars last year according to the national bureau of statistics which puts it around $200000000000.00 shy of consumer spending in the american market in

2019. so how does it make the next leap and has ambitions to become a high income country that's defined as gross national product per capita income of $12375.00 u.s. dollars or more it also has the challenges though of geopolitical tensions with the united states india and countries around the south china sea joining me now from london then is douglas mcwilliams douglas is the founder of the center for economics and business research good to have you with us so what gives you the confidence that china's economy will overtake the u.s. by 2028 china's got thought times the population of the united states so when the g.d.p. per capita in china reaches a quarter of that in the united states the total g.d.p. will be bigger and the other thing that gives us confidence is although we can't be

precise about the individual year we've got a pretty decent track record in forecasting the world economy and say we're better than anyone else and it doesn't mean we're all that good but it means that if we say something it certainly incorporating the best knowledge that's available what is it got to do though to get to the next milestone which is through 30 trillion dollars well getting to 30 trillion dollars is not that difficult and we're assuming that chinese growth will slow down very considerably we're expecting rapid growth in the abstract here because growth last year was pretty close to 0 but still just slightly positive we're expecting a rapid bounce back to something like 9 percent growth this year but we're expecting by the 2030 years that growth will be well below 4 percent and we think that china can do that it's based on technology china's got a good record in technology and it's based on the fact that the world is

increasingly investing in technological solutions so we think that there's reasonable confidence that they can get there but at what cost in terms of debt right because that has soared to i think $43.00 trillion dollars will that have to double again in order to reach a 30 trillion dollar economy. we'll continue to grow in china i think some of the debt isn't a manageable some of the debt will have to be sorted in various different ways but i think the whole world at the moment is awash with debts we had debt even before the pandemic hits us. hang on let me jump in when you say it's going to be have to be sorted in different ways how and what will it mean for the world because china is not me you know a small country as we well obviously talking about it china is a managed economy i mean the idea that it's complete free markets is i think a sort of western illusion that china is

a much more managed economy solti didn't escapes means that some of it will have to be written off some of it will have to be swapped for equity some of it will have to be managed people will have to take a haircut there's a whole range of different things that happen when you start dealing with debt problems the point is that you don't have to collapse an economy just saw some of the debt problems and of course china is not the only country to have a debt problem most western economy is not particularly post and have got debt problems and we're going to have to do similar things can china move towards a more consumer led economy and consumer led growth where it's working population is like thing to the climb for the rest of the century is there the working population is probably at its peak right now and certainly you would be expected to be small and through example by the end of the century the expectation is that the working population in india will be one and

a half times bigger than that in china so yes you are seeing changes of that kind but out the chinese at the moment save a very high proportion of what they are and it is possible as they reconsider go up. so those become a more consumer led economy and indeed that's what president really is talking about when he talks about growth being based on a dual circulation economy which means that a lot of the growth will be based on domestic demand as well as on export demand which is the been the traditional leading source of growth when you talk about exports we're going to talk about the u.s. when you see the relationship with the u.s. going yes there is a transition going on in the white house but on the other hand the seems to be bipartisan support for the idea of containing china right i think you and i must be joking to the same people in the incoming administration because certainly the

messages that i've got are exactly the same as the ones that you've identified it does look to me as if the incoming by that ministration won't be that different on economic grounds. but i think there will be 2 changes of chosen and both could be significant the 1st is i don't think that the biden administration will be need this to provoke a change the trumpet realist rationing had a particular style which tended to be to be quite aggressive in language and that kind of thing and say things that on the whole in china were treated quite offensively that they felt that they won't be treated with proper respect i think the biden administration even if it's tough will use language there's more i'm audience and it is not designed to offend and i think that could help a working relationship i think the 2nd thing is that it's clear to me that one of

the sayings of the bible ministration wants to do is create greater unity amongst the other countries in the world not just talking about the west one talking about middle east i'm talking about asia. and i think that the the aim of the buying of ministration is to create a more cohesive group of countries that can negotiate with china and i think probably we're in a situation where there is a good opportunity for a product line between the u.s. and china. which there was not under the trump ministration whether it happens or not i don't know and it could be that we go in for a period where. the ministrations test each other but it could just be that we get lucky and that the 2 superpowers and we're going to be living in a 2 superpower our world for many years the 2 superpowers realize that working

together will be more successful than trying at least metaphorically to make war and great talking to you thanks so much for a job interview thank you very much. last march a sudden nationwide lockdown in india prompted internal migration on a massive scale tens of millions of workers returned to their villages after losing their jobs in cities it's estimated more than 120000000 people lost their jobs and there were real fears many of the unemployed would return to work in the cities where the government has announced billions of dollars in aid but he hasn't reached everyone elizabeth purana reports from new delhi. riots one of the 5 bicycles she was given after her journey home to the state of bihar made national headlines during india's lockdown. in may the 17 year old cycled 1200 kilometers

with her injured father sitting behind her she gone to take care of him after he was injured in a void accident and was unable to carry on working as a top took driver that the lockdown was imposed with no money they were forced to leave the city of good girl love all good ad does god allow a besa landlord was asking for a new or lot of money so we thought what can we do then i said let's go home and pop us or we won't make it but i said we'll do it. but all public transport suspended. for $15.00 with the last of their money and they joined a group of people travelling in the same direction despite sleeping on the road at night for $7.00 days a father mohan says they were the lucky ones. the people who were in more distress were. the people with young children women carrying big young boys with blisters and this horror does more because i thought.

it was a lockdown which laid bare the quality of the government asked people to stay at home more than 10000000 who worked in cities and states away from their homes to go back hundreds died on the journey. but warnings that workers might not come back to their jobs didn't come to fruition despite feeling abandoned by the government or their employers when the lockdown was announced many migrant workers have returned to the city and to construction sites like this one and that's because there isn't enough work for them in the rural areas. they decided to leave his home in west bengal and travel to 1400 kilometers back from where he'd come he managed to find work again as a laborer. everyone was sitting idle at home and there were too many mouths to feed so i thought it's better if i leave because i'll get whatever work is going food

and save some money too. but economists warn that with the government loosening labor laws this year those workers who have returned are often in a worse situation than they were in before so i would say systemic changes. they're actually. providing protection even. if measures being provided. the government announced billions of dollars in aid to help those without work and the past say they haven't received any the attention and money josie received diskettes have also dried up now she says she just wants to finish school but can't afford to. a landmark free trade agreement between african nations came into effect on january the 1st its implementation has been delayed because of the pandemic 55 nations signed up

after it was finalized the african union summit last july well under the deal tariffs on 90 percent of goods will be eliminated the world bank says it will increase the continent's income by $450000000000.00 by 2035 the agency also says africa's exports will get a $560000000000.00 boost and the free trade agreement promises to lift $30000000.00 africans out of extreme poverty al-jazeera has added reese has more from the army in the. workers at this garment factory rushed to deliver a 1000 selfies masks the owner says more than 2 and a half 1000000. to control the spread of copied 90. but as the africa free trade agreement comes into effect he foresees trouble ahead for the continent's poor countries. small and poor economies will always be at a disadvantage hopefully as time goes on we can get special considerations

otherwise it will be difficult to compete. businesses in poor countries may have their concerns but overall experts say the agreement will eventually benefit them they believe the cheap cost of labor in these countries will attract more industries. into african trade. development the level of industrialisation. very some will have an advantage over others but african countries need to. unfinished among themselves. currently imports most of its needs from bottled water to food and machinery from big retail to local markets flooded with imported products because. the country will continue to depend on him making it difficult. to grow. experts say it's hard to see european and asian multinational companies giving up

the trade advantage they've held in africa for centuries. africa's largest economies lined the shelves at the emmys biggest retail monopoly. prefer these brands traders say they won't be many local goods on store shelves and less government steps in. we should be given support the government should facilitate easy acquisition of land and loans from banks. but it's hard to see how governments on the continent can do. but without breaching the protectionism rules of africa trade agreement and the world trade organization. now the pandemic disrupted some of the world's well oiled global supply chains the spotlight has been thrown on to food security and the environmental cost of flying in food from thousands of miles away but land within city limits can be expensive the solution maybe grow vertical al-jazeera as paul reese reports from stockholm. it's harvest time

but not as we know it these very modern farm hands are bringing in the crops from a vertical farm plants growing from the walls instead of the ground no tractors required just a pair of scissors and artificial intelligence senses that feed information on factors like speed of growth and nutrition content into a central database so that on this farm the computer is in charge. the farm that you're seeing here everything is basically connected so all the part of me is that we have an influence on the growth of a plan for controlling that we are building our basically food brain to control everything by help of artificial intelligence and we create the perfect part of the mint basil kale and rocket to get everything they could ever desire light water humidity temperature tailored to their individual needs and without the risky

business of growing out in nature anyone inside the farm has to wear a protective suit like this to stop bacteria coming in from outside it also means they don't need pesticides so you can eat the produce straight off the wall. they taste better than the average supermarket salads and they're already being sold in local stores and restaurants and stock. and local means local the sweet green farm hidden under this building in an old newspaper archive is part of a program called neighbor food it aims to give all urban swedes access to produce grown within yards of the door the global movement in urban farming could play a vital role in preventing food crises. as covert 19 exposes weaknesses in the supply chain that have left people hungry everywhere from zimbabwe to the u.s. the climate crisis the epidemic ongoing right now has shown us how vulnerable we are in the cities we become very passive consumers we want to turn that around and

where people start producing in the spaces that are otherwise empty those spaces below our buildings can be used for food production this farms so-called food brain is available on subscription so any start ups can have their own environment controlled from here it could make vertical farming a growth industry that puts more food within easy reach at a time when it's most needed. now i just want to show you this before we start our discussion on whether vertical farming has a future this is a silicon valley startup called plenty it's backed by soft bank the former chairman of google and jeff bezos collectively plowed $400000000.00 into the ag tech company to claims its vertical farm can produce the same quantity of fruits and vegetable as a $720.00 acre flat farm but only 2 acres how well by using

artificial intelligence and robots it's able to use 95 percent less water and 9009 percent less land. well let's bring in our guest from vatican university in the netherlands leo marsalis leo is head of the whole to culture and product physiology group good to have you with us so is it possible to feed the world through vertical farming well what we have to consider invertible farming we can in fact grow every crop i would say technically we can grow just any crop and the crop will do very well can we grow enough of it though. yes we could if we had of course you would need to build them and then we could grow definitely sufficient the question is if it is for every crop economically feasible and i think is in particular very well economically feasible for fresh vegetables what about the projects though does it end up with the same nutrients as those grown in the

natural environment if there is still such a thing as a natural environment in this day and age yes so dish nutritional value of the crops are very much depends on how we grow them and in d.c. systems we can grow or we can choose the conditions that we need so i would say in the end we can grow with a better nutritional value and a better quality of course you have to make the right choices are we grow them we can choose to do it better or it so explain the process to us how can you grow things using less chemicals not using genetically modified seeds and yet still keep the yields high so it is we grow in it inside everything of control if no best's or diseases get in you also don't need to destroy it so that is because there's a close system we keep the best in diseases out if you keep them out you don't need

a society to destroy them this respect to do whatever we want them for water newton to grow the plans are actually in the water with the nutrients or we might need to use. substrate like what. the idea is that all the water that we supply too much is being really used to collect it and reuse of it makes no more of warner and no loss of nutrients then there is still a lot of water behind transpiration that ends up as one of labor but in these closed indoor systems you can also. the wall of paper too and that makes if you hardly use any water well and how do we dan get so high yield notes because we can control the temperature we can control the light intensity is who how much light but also the color of the light we can control the air unity because you can control all those factors we can get them higher rate although i should say

we still need electricity because we'd use lamps in the lamps need a lot of electricity so we have to realize that the system needs electricity while i'm glad you mentioned that because i was just about to jump in and say well it might be water efficient but it does use a lot of electricity isn't that still a challenge it's got to become more energy efficient right i would say at this moment the electricity use is one of the major challenges and that's also in our research that we have decided well this is what we need to improve there is by using more efficient lighting that effect in particular on how can we further improve. the efficiency of the land although it is already very efficient we see there are still a lot of opportunities to make it more efficient so we have to grow will have a higher growth rate with less light if there is less light we use less electricity

then it is about further improvement all elaborate control system and and there is definitely a challenge any challenge we are working on at this moment to now to to drastically improve that as well all right now what i'm wondering is there was an approach by some resources poor nations to go and buy land in developing countries sovereign wealth funds with doing that does vertical farming mean that vattel pro-choice is now a thing of the past. you know probably this is more on. a political issue and how it is dealt with i was a vertical farm and we can't really we can get a lot of production on a very small and very real hardly need any land area there is a indicated i think there is in particular suitable or fresh bread alls and there's not so what's one more ignored freezable or the green group all right it's been

good to get your thoughts for us i can discussion thank you so much. and that's our show for this week there's more for you online though with al-jazeera dot com slash see things see that'll take you straight to our page which has an entire episode for you to catch up on. that's it for this edition of counting the cost i'm sammy's a ban from the whole team here thanks for joining us the news on al-jazeera is next . setting the discussions millions of americans feel disaffected by both political parties examining the headlines this hour about events and relatives are marching to an appointment right now where they're calling for morning edition now also explore an abundance of world class programming designed to inform why you shall be only solution for a child as young as 10 months of age come to inspire you to see the world from

a different perspective on al-jazeera. they come in here and in search of work to provide a better life for the families they've left behind. but though their labor is vital to least food industry they risk exploitation by corporations and organized crime. trapped in a system with little hope of escape people in power investigates italy 6 links on al-jazeera. this 2nd episode of the series exposed the rise of the major drug cartels and their reign of terror in the sentence mexican government told the traffickers we have to produce the body because they know it is good. america's public enemy number one is drug abuse and the launch of the international war on fronts drug trafficking politics and.

drug lords on al-jazeera. the u.s. capitol is on lockdown ahead of president elect joe biden's inauguration amid fears of possible protests against his election victory. hello i'm daryn jordan this is al-jazeera also coming up. celebrations as it does president wins a 6th but his main challenger calls the election results a sham and says there's been widespread fraud. where in my house in brazil where emergency supplies of oxygen not being sent to hospital.