i think the date to watch is march 25th that's when the torch relay begins for northern japan 4 months 10000 runners crossing the country arriving to enjoy our 23rd in tokyo it would seem absurd to start the torch relay and then have to have no olympics the international and then pick committee make 75 percent of its income from selling broadcast rights of the olympics if tokyo is cancelled it could lose an estimated $2.00 to $3000000000.00 of revenue victoria gave him be al-jazeera. and it could add lines this hour now u.s. president joe biden is targeting the economy on a 2nd full day in office he signed executive orders which he says will help those hardest hit by the pandemic in total the incoming president is proposing a plan with nearly 2 trillion dollars to help the economy get back on track

meanwhile donald trump could go on trial in the u.s. senate as soon as next week the chamber's top democrat says the articles of impeachment against of all the president will be delivered on monday is charged with inciting the mall which rioted inside the capitol building this month an event which led to several deaths but politicians in trump's republican party say starting the process just days after he left office is rushing the trial it will be a full trial it will be a fair trial but make no mistake there will be a trial and when that trial ends senators will have to decide if they believe donald john donald john trump incited the erection insurrection against the united states this impeachment began with an on president life raft and minimal process over and of. the circle cannot be an insufficient so to cross the road in our former program crawled through due process or damages. or the program food

would throw a couple of other stories or watching a new variant of the corona virus which is spreading globally could carry a higher risk of death for since prime minister says the mutation which was 1st detected in his country might be linked to marginally more fatalities but boris johnson also said that both vaccines used in the u.k. was still proving affective against it more than 5000000 people in the country have now received an inoculation. and google is saying it will block searches in australia unless the government backs down on plans to force it to pay for content the tech giant says the new law would be unmanageable but the government says the threatening behavior is another sign of its dominance. blows the headlines this hour counting the cost is coming up next that's it for myself from the team here in london but there will be more news from doha at the top of the next hour in about half an hour's time. i'll coverage of africa is what i'm most proud of every time i

travel there whether it's east or west africa people stop me and tell me how much they appreciate our country and our focus is not just on their suffering but also on the more uplifting and inspiring stories people trucks are just here to tell them what's happening in their communities in a clear and on fire story came down from africa and i couldn't be more proud to be part of the. oh i'm fully back to bro this is counting the cost on al-jazeera you look at the world of business and economics this week the trillion dollar man president biden sponsor revive the pandemic economy plus promises to create millions of new skilled

and green jobs and is it too late to reset relationships with old friends after being spurned by trump europe has been pushing through its own economic and geopolitical agenda that could be problematic for biden's administration we'll get the view from the e.u. when we talk to montages foreign minister promised nigeria's population will double by the middle of the century can farmers meet the demand the united nations is warning droughts and terror attacks could lead to famine in the north of the country. the 1st major legislation for president joe biden unsurprisingly is getting the pandemic under control with a massive injection of money targeting the most needy the headline number $1.00 trillion dollars will go some way to provide an additional shot to the economy but what about his other plans for the economy all joining his campaign tackling inequality and wealth disparities where top of the agenda the selection of his

economic team gives us a hint at what to expect janet yellen will be the 1st woman to become the treasury secretary she urged lawmakers to spend big to save the economy and to worry about debt yellen also said corporations and the rich will need to pay their fair share near a ton dan is the 1st woman of color to head the office of management and budget 10 dan was brought up by a mother who had to rely on food stamps to feed her family after her divorce. and supports a strong social safety net i don't want a day or more nigerian born a day and more will be the 1st black person to serve as deputy treasury secretary he wrote on twitter he wanted to make sure that our economy works not just for the wealthy but for the hard working people who make it one cecilia rules will be the 1st black chair of the council of economic advisors rules is an expert in labor markets and has champions paid sick leave last year nearly $34000000.00 workers about a quarter of the u.s.

workforce lacks paid sick leave and according to accountancy firm deloitte the pandemic is going to make us income inequality worse it says the proportion of wealth held by the richest 10 percent has jumped from about 61 percent to 70 percent and for the top one percent it rose from 17 percent to 26 percent that's over the past 30 years while the economy is expected to eke out a small gain for 2020 the unemployment rate stood at 6.8 percent in december getting people back into work will be a priority biden has pledged 2 trillion dollars for infrastructure projects to create millions of jobs that includes $1000000.00 jobs in the auto industry as a sector moves to producing electric cars another $250000.00 jobs will be created by capping abandoned oil and natural gas wells and reclaiming abandoned coal hardrock and uranium mines but the most ambitious challenge starts by rejoining the

paris climate accord which president delighted in leaving biden is planning to invest 400000000000 dollars over 10 years in green technology in the process creating 10000000 jobs. like wars pandemics and natural disasters that give countries to renew and set inequalities right can biden see this ambitious plan through joining me now from oxford england is professor william barnard from democrat. a broad he's also the author of dixiecrats and democrats professor bernard thank you for talking to us on counting the cost so what do we learn from the president's selection of his economic team is it business as usual or can we expect greater oversight south of the financial sector but i think many of them are very familiar faces i mean he's a partner to secretary of treasury janet yellen has been met with almost universal approval across the political spectrum she has 20 years experience with the fed itself and with the government if she is in the center cisco good and in 4 years as

as chair and i think generally looked upon as a very competent individual and one who is perhaps better is best prepared to take over the treasury has anyone in recent history biden try to think to appeal he knows he has to keep his party you know he tried to peel across the board in his in his appointments. one of one of them the deputy treasury secretary idea a lot of is a dodger inboard lawyer but he has worked both sides of the on the president in that he was he was timothy geithner's. chief of staff in the treasury years ago and they work also it's a warrant in the consumer finance bureau so he gets along across the board there are some people who have been critical of some of the backgrounds some of the previous statements of some of the appointee but mostly this is a middle of the road left of center group that has appeal pretty much across the

political spectrum right and precisely on that i mean working with both sides of the aisle the democrats have a slim majority in the house are you worried that some policy decisions will be bogged down the or even watered down as a result one of the lessons of the reaction to the crisis back in march and april it was that we did things right for the 1st time in an economic crisis we were both we were big and we weren't quick that. oh down after the 3rd bill passed by and we had some difficulty getting the last bill through it will be difficult i think is a is a hard left but nonetheless i think it's doable we do need in my view interview most economists at it another significant the stimulus package in order to bridge the gap to when the economy recovers after the career of the virus is under control and needs to be relatively big there 'd will be some disagreements with that there already so wrong least particularly in the book a survey of republican circles and also from so depressed about the size of the

debt which is this has grown enormously i mean the response to this economic crisis was an order of magnitude greater than the response back in 200720098 is we did it right for the 1st time in some time and it worked well but we need one more push right to get through it it will be difficult to get through a closely divided senate and house right and one of the much anticipated pounds is a 4 interest factor in these usually take a decade or more in planning to completion and so on do you think there are projects that are already shovel ready from a political point of view obviously biden needs to show that jobs are being created by the time the next election comes around how how will he be able to do that if it . you know we've been talking about a major infrastructure bill for well over a decade the federal highway system which started in the 1920 s. and then in that the sixty's with the interstate highways being built under

eisenhower of they need they badly are in need of repair roads and bridges of the country need a great deal of attention we talked about this for some time typically that infrastructure bill received support on both sides of there are of both parties have an interest in construction jobs in getting the county going all the rest so it is perhaps a little surprising that we haven't been able to do something to this point i think we're at the point where the general recognition is there that and something major needs to be done it will be done whether or not they're not shovel ready programs many of these have been in planning for quite some time it does take some time to get up and going but nonetheless especially needed and i think you will see some national infrastructure a major way this recession what about inequality how do you start to redress inequality i mean as a proposed tax on those who earn more than $400000.00 a year will that be sufficient. you know this is one of the fundamental problems facing all us major every major economies around the world the major advanced

economies have all seen a growing disparity in economic wealth within themselves while the around the world over the last decade has been much raising up of relatively poor countries and in a leveling of a good deal but within countries particular major best countries is going to growing disparity is where most difficult intransitive problems that we face is also one that isn't easily amenable we don't know quite what to do. it is occurred under governments of all stripes left and right they just occurred in almost every advanced country we are a little a little bit see how best to deal with the one thing we can do is not enact tax policies as was done in the last in the situation of tax cuts going primarily to the upper. ranks within the income structure of the not enact policies that exacerbate make worse the disparity of income but there are any number of measures including support for education trying to putting that will wage increases and the

rest that will have to be taken that too is a long term problem and not want easily amenable but what about a wealth tax do you think there should be a while tax on on you know those newly minted tech being out for instance i think there are probably other ways and better ways of raising a significant sums of money well taxes have proven in the past and they've done a number of countries particularly in europe not to be particularly effective in generated have been abandoned after some time because they thought it was easy enough to move capital around and the capital flies from one place to another with a bunch of button these days of so. istar this is certainly the easiest or best way in raising the funds it will be necessary there will be just tax increases to be sure the tax rebalances and all the rest but only direct will churches. thank you very much professor william bernard for talking to us on counting the cost thank you for your time. now

president trump antagonized many of america's traditional allies including the european union they were demands that nato nations should contribute more funding to the military alliance tariffs on steel and as an outgoing solve or more tariffs on aircrafts while the biden administration would like to reset many of those relationships they are stumbling blocks like the e.u.'s decision to strike an investment agreement with china well let's talk through what the relationship could look like with the minister of foreign affairs and european affairs of malta everest's bartolo foreign minister bartolo thank you very much for talking to us think on counting the cost here at al-jazeera so let's start with the relationship the future relationship between the european union and america the biden administration the new administration in the u.s. has expressed an interest in working closely with its traditional allies i imagine for that that come says a welcome relief for the european union that there's

a new administration at the white house yes and even on his 1st day by then the fact that his head will be rejoining the paris agreement on climate change and also regarding the world health organization that is very welcome. at the same time we must not expect biden to be a miracle worker it doesn't mean that the new administration. it's a new dawn it's a new day but even that new day might have clouds might have storms might have disagreements but the style of why there is totally different disagreements doesn't mean that we turn against each other into enemies we sit down and discuss why it's going to be possible with the biden administration they are disagreements a lot of them on terrorists for instance for the european union i want to know to work closely with the u.s. to return to that old relationship what are the conditions if any probably from

both sides in the sense that like for example the vestment agreement with china it also depends on how they by the administration is going to position position itself regarding regarding china. what we expect from the by the station is to have a multilateral approach that we can sit down and discuss. and not expect the world to simply divide into supporters or opponents right that even when we disagree we can still agree on the european union for instance demand that the us drop the tariffs on the e.u. that the trumpet ministration imposed but i think that the negotiation will show that both sides will have to make major concessions while we talk about this but let's keep in mind that the 1st priority i think of the by the administration is not going to be what happens beyond america's shores but what happens inside the united states because the united states is a broken society there are

a lot of important issues that have to be addressed in terms of the effect of the pandemic and also in terms of the wide painful polarization that there is in american society right well let's focus on the e.u. itself right now it introduced a trillion dollar budget and stimulus 540000000000 for green investment what does that mean to you exactly now i think that is very important i think it's very positive that we are putting together economic development and what we're going to do about the climate we we have come to a point now it's a tipping point where unless we really take serious it you know steps to deal with the economic and the development of the climate emergency at the same time we will not save this planet. at the moment perhaps the only thing we can do and it's very important even somebody like david attenborough says this we will slow down global

warming eventually if we really slow it down we can reverse it we can only do that with the kind of the comic development the model of consumption the model of of production our lifestyle how we travel how we consume and how we produce things so the fact that we are combining those 2 together and especially this is where perhaps the pandemic is offering us an opportunity because we need to reimagine we need to reinvent our economy and the best way to do it now was to come back ok i know it's a slogan to build back better but the but we really need to do that and that's now it's not a choice anymore that has really become a necessity what is important is that we start taking steps and that it doesn't take too long to make use of these funds because there are countries where it is really a problem thank you very much foreign minister bartolo for talking to us thank you for your time we thank you thank you. now when you think about the nigerian

economy we have an oversize you of the oil industry it's a big contributor to the government's revenue but it represents just about 10 percent of the economy about 50 percent of the country's $200000000.00 plus population are dependent on the agriculture industry which represents about a 5th of the economy but it doesn't bring in the money like oil and is facing some big challenges especially when you think by the middle of the century it would have to feed a population that is likely to double to more than $400000000.00 right now the united nations has warned northwest nigeria is at risk of famine due to the pandemic trying to change end of violence drought desertification and loss of forests are changing the agricultural landscape threatening the livelihoods of 40000000 people and that's led to clashes between roaming cattle herders and small . family owned farms adding to the problem nigeria's cattle population has doubled to 20000000 since 1981 and late last year book kills dozens of farm workers in

retribution for cooperating with the nigerian military attacks on farmers climate change and the pandemic also threatening food reserves the old farmers association of nigeria warned that stocks have declined to less than $30000.00 metric tons a fraction of what it requires to feed the population kabir abraham is the group president of the old farmers association of nigeria a fine he sat down with west africa correspondent to talk about the challenges farmers herders and government face ahmed began by asking him if programs led by the world bank to reverse the impact of these education and climate change were working for many people all over the world denial of especially plummeting what we are very conscious of a desire to fish and because we're out of public and all these bridges when they come in a lot of the focus in them well whether they are going on and there's

a lot of improvement in the culture in farming the only thing that we have not the translation into. what the subtly a little bit of what is going on and. the impact is felt not 1111 persistent problem it's been an age long problem is a question between farmers and cattle herders and their walkable solutions in place to deal with this and how is it impacting the culture you see in nigeria problem became what is so. i believe in the last 20 years and then i fortunately last 20 years. is the period during which politics came in his or to we had a very good relationship between farmers. and pastoralists or harder because we all belong to the same family if you have a heart of cattle or sheep or whatever you are a farmer so we have in far way there's a lot of synergy between us and the media like. when i was growing up i used to

escort my father to the farm on horseback and there would be this will and the people had been in their hearts very at the border of the farm they will be waiting for us to finish harvesting they would go in and it's the residue and then the animals will drive their donkey and that's what we use for what lies are so we had a symbiotic relationship we took what others would call what they were merely very small skirmishes at the most you know the the the postulates would use the stick you know the stick that they used to call em in now the utah county and then you can just see that the the heart does suffer the same shit as a problem because they are bonded they're kidnappers all involved in this whole thing the captive rustler is not necessarily a huntsman he is somebody who was so hard that he doesn't know so basically are

there. things that have been put in place like solutions put in please either by the farmers and hundreds of them 1st or by the government community to deal with that so many own. efforts by the farmers how does the government. and so we're going to ration even so like you as the id and there are so many organizations here in this country that but faith in the in the peace conference is that we have we have had training by the clinton delhi is the truth on money and crisis management we are there how does whether the farmers whether i will have started from there we know how to deal with each other how to accommodate each other how to have a synergy between us it's going on and then the government is doing a program here they call it the. transformation plan where it will save the center didn't rise and they had to give them all the facilities that they like to give

them education because most of the problem is lack of education so a lot of what is going on it looks like the problem in the agriculture sector are so numerous from the provision of include the conflict between promise and heritage . water problems climate change and all that. these government intervention programs to solve these problems working. i believe we can have more like oliver twist we should do more we should do more on the exchanges have to work this is the bane of our society the institutions must work and the current president is an m.p. told me of. what should be in nigeria when he needs people of like mind to work with all this so the appointment of people in 2 places was to be looked up on you must not do it because of you know certain various.

maybe oligarchies or. religion or tribes or whatever you must do it or merits you must put the right people in the right place otherwise things will never work you know our diversity we should take advantage of our diversity now in terms of the impact of agriculture in nigeria it looks like agriculture in this country despite the involvement of half the population in this sector is not as productive when compared to states like countries like the united states where hundreds of billions of dollars is being contributed by the agriculture sector to the american economy for example but here in nigeria and as in many other african countries the opposite is you're saying why is this so many reasons 150 years ago agriculture was the same here in the united states. but what do you know these mechanization know

there's a lot of research. so so and the yield is higher so the population of farmers in the united states is now barely 2 percent because of the conditions replacement of human labor with. muscle labor and then a lot of where there is such findings have been put in place so productivity is high at a very for agriculture isn't the contributions of g.d.p. in nigeria even when we used to rudeness on we had lived on agriculture there is no reason why we shouldn't. do that again and this is why we are here today we are trying to restore the dignity of agriculture and nigeria is going to do it sounds to the focus of this administration what do we need this policy to continue you know we don't want to have breaks in the policies because it is a change in government it was to do that in africa you will get that it takes time

in europe i mean in the u.k. for instance we used to go there every year for the rural agricultural in england the population of farmers about 3 percent interest about 3 percent what they used to be as high as we have here today so this is work in progress and we hope that things will get there but we need for cause we need you reappraisal we nearly all tradition and we need to mechanize and to mechanize we do not have to import wholesale what is available abroad we must use our our technology integration centers to repair what has gone back and to improvise and build certain things that are indigenous people that will improve our agriculture look at brazil. he were told robin was a problem with what other cultures would be something else because they're looking inwards and they're bored with their lot and they're now it's what we thank you so much so thank you very much. and that is our show for this week get in touch with us by tweeting me for a jaitley and do use the hashtag a.g.c. to see when you do or drop us an e-mail counting the cost at 0 dot net is. there's

more for you online at al-jazeera dot com slash c d c that will take you straight to our page which has entire episodes for you to watch and to catch up on a set for this edition of counting the cost i'm fully back to bill from the whole team thank you for joining us the news on al-jazeera is next.

the. american people have finally folk in america is i split when america is off balance or will become more dangerous the world is looking at us live mixture of sadness and. with the election behind us will the republican party dump trucks the fuel weiqi take on us politics and society that's the bottom line. freezing winds and rugged terrain and at times seem impossible. but the afghan traders who brave the will concur and all that is no choice. combating the impossible to sell their goods

and isolated areas so. we follow that daring journeys as they overcome the extremes. risking it all afghanistan on al-jazeera. we. will let people go on. here as president joe biden signs executive orders to help millions struggling financially during the pandemic calling it a national emergency. we're watching all just your own life from a headquarters and. also coming up accused if inciting an insurrection the impeachment trial of donald trump a set to begin next week.