because they were unable to get election related information as quickly as they would have wanted. many are disappointed that the internet will shut down on important days but they say with election out of the way and internet back up they hope the leaders will settle that dispute peacefully catherine saw al-jazeera kampala. stuff a quick check of the headlines here in al-jazeera an independent panel set up by the world health organization has criticized china's response to the coronavirus interim report says officials could have applied measures more forcefully during the initial outbreak and will have a panel also criticize the double h o's own response saying the global pandemic alert system is not fit for purpose the organization says it's too early to comment. meanwhile al-jazeera is

investigative unit has obtained videos smuggled out of china that show the earliest days of the covert 19 outbreak in the city of will hand the footage shows police cracking down on journalists and hospital wards full of newly infected people u.s. health officials are calling for transparency. between which finally route west we will be will only be successful who cleans provided with the following information connally possession of chinese authorities 1st all stories produced in china on the presence of sars cool the 2 related genetic sequence sequences in animals. animal testing results in around a problem since there are moments in our polls when the markets if your girl analysis of genetic data circles. the white house says it will lift an entry ban on travelers from the e.u. the u.k. and brazil impose a new requirement for

a coded negative test instead the incoming biden administration says it doesn't plan to ease the restrictions security forces in guatemala have broken up a group of central american migrants who set up camp at a roadblock they were traveling in a so-called caravan that's a large group formed mainly for safety reasons the government's refusing to let them continue on their journey towards the us some are being sent back the others have vowed to continue. dozens have been arrested and sent petersburg at a rally in support of russian opposition politician the election of ali he's been jailed for 30 days for breaching parole conditions when he was in the hospital the nerve agent poisoning. he was arrested on arrival from germany well those were the headlines of news continues on out of his era after counting the cost stage of them so watching by fire. after unprecedented scenes of violence and chaos on capitol hill joe biden. will be sworn into office but with

a literally obstructed president and a continuing pandemic just different what the traditional celebrations need to be special coverage of the u.s. presidential inauguration announcing. 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 she 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 entanglements 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 man. era despite that china is actually expected to register growth of 2 percent for 2020 it's the only g

20 nation to do so but to double by 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 oriented ation 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 4 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 at it 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 back 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 20 thirty's that gross 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 it 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 debt we had debt even before the pandemic hits us we're only 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 that they 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 in 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 talking to the same people in the incoming administration because certainly the

messages that i've got are exactly the same as the ones doing that you've identified it does look to me as if the incoming by the administration won't be that different on economic grounds but i think there will be 2 changes of cho and both could be significant the 1st is i don't think that the biden administration will be needless to provoke a chance to 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 by an administration even if it is 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 but i'm talking about middle east i'm talking about asia. and i think that the the aim of the by administration 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. that 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. our world for many years the 2 superpowers realize that working together will

be more successful than trying at least metaphorically to make war it's been 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 wouldn't 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. josie comedy via it's one of the 5 bicycles she was given after her journey home to the state of bihar made national headlines due in india's lockdown. in may the 17 year old cycled 1200 kilometers

with her injured father sitting behind her she got 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 lock down was and posted with no money they were forced to leave the city of good girl love all good ad disgruntled best the 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 papa said we will 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 horrendous more because i thought these people before us.

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 rural areas. they've decided to leave his home in west bengal and travel the 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 steps back in. providing protection even. if measures being provided. 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 as gifts have also dried up now she says she just wants to finish school the counter for 2 a landmark free trade agreement between african nations came into effect on january the 1st its implementation has been delayed because of the pandemic of 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 more from 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. 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 water to food and machinery from big retail. flooded with imported products because. the country will continue to depend on him. 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 that 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 sensors 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 meters that we have that have an influence on the growth of a plan for controlling that we are building on our basically food brain to control everything by help of artificial intelligence and recreate the perth or. the mint basil kale and drink it 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 supermarkets. 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 the 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 and. covert 19 exposes weaknesses in the supply chain that of 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 amazon 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 valve again 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 in vertical 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 oh 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 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 all right 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 and 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 give to pests and diseases out if you keep them out you don't

need as the size to destroy them this respect to do whatever we want them for water newton big a lot of plans are actually in the water with the nutrients or we might need to use . substrate like what rule 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 wonder 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 collect the water vapor 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 intensities who how much light but also the color of the light we can control the air humanity because we can control all those factors we can get them higher rate although i should say

we still need electricity because we'd use lamps. inland need a lot of electricity to we have to realize that this system needs electricity well 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 is 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 that is by using more efficient and i think that effect in particular or how can we further improve the the efficiency of the land to grow so 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 still have a higher growth rate is less light if there is less likely use less electricity and

it is about further improving the whole land with control systems and and that is definitely a challenge and a challenge we are working on at this moment to add to to drastically improve that that's not all right now what i'm wondering is there was an approach by some resource poor nations to go and buy land in developing countries sovereign wealth funds with doing that does vertical farming mean that that approach is now a thing of the past yeah probably this is more on. a political issue and how it is doubtful if i would say vertical farming we can probably we can get a lot of production on a very small and there really hardly any any land area that has a indicated i think is in particular suitable for fresh vegetables and this not so much on economic freedom go where the grain crops are right it's been good to get

your thoughts fascinating discussion thank you so much ok in the comp. and that's our show for this week there's more for you online though at al-jazeera dot com slash see things see that'll take you straight to our page which has entire episodes for you to catch up on. that's it for this edition of counting the cost i'm sammy's a ban on the whole team here thanks for joining us the news on al-jazeera is next. when the news breaks the next few days how crucial security forces have been deployed heavy in hot water like this one when people need to be. our demands have to be fulfilled by the government and then if all the families leave i'll be too but there are other far mostly other states al jazeera has teams on the ground this is the insurrection that president trump is accused of killing to bring the loot

documentaries and lightening. divorce rates in taiwan are soaring and as a marriage consultant helen knows this unli too well. but as their 60th wedding anniversary approaches own parents are looking more names rather than alms look out to go to. canada daughter and professional expertise make them see eye to eye. my father my mother part of the viewfinder asia series on al-jazeera. the 2nd episode of the series exposed the rise of the major drug cartels and their reign of terror and the current sentence a mexican government belittling 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 drugs drug trafficking and politics and

power that the drug lords on al-jazeera. hello i'm daryn jordan in doha with a quick reminder the top stories here on al-jazeera an independent panel set up by the world health organization has criticized china's response to the coronavirus interim report says officials could have applied measures more forcefully during the initial outbreak in. the panel also criticize the w.h.o. zone response saying the global pandemic alert system is not fit for purpose the organization says it's too early to comment meanwhile al-jazeera is an investigative unit as obtained video smuggled out of china that show the earliest days of the coded $900.00 outbreak in the city of.