say the assaults reflect a bigger problem in us society it's part of again deep rooted systemic racism in america. see some people as belonging and others as outsiders and right now are cast as perpetual farmers and rats researchers at san francisco state university reported 2800 racist incidents involving asian americans last year ranging from verbal abuse and spitting to physical assault rob reynolds al jazeera los angeles. let's take you through the headlines on al-jazeera donald trump 2nd impeachment trial is nearly finished final vote in the senate is expected as early as this weekend lawyers for the former president wrapped up their defense describing the trial as unconstitutional this unprecedented effort is not about

democrats opposing political violence is about democrats trying to disqualify their political opposition it is constitutional cancel culture history will will will record this shameful effort as a deliberate attempt by the democrat party to smear censor and cancel not just president trump but the 75000000 americans who voted for him. simply trying manages insisted donald trump whipped up the right hands and didn't act to stop their rampage he knew the violence that was underway he knew the severity of the threats and most importantly he knew the capitol police were overwhelmingly outnumbered and in a fight for their lives against thousands of insurgents with weapons we know he

knew that. we know that he did not send any individuals we did not hear any tweets we did not hear him tell those individuals stop this is wrong you must go back we did not hear that and protesters are out on the streets of me and now for an 8th consecutive day they want the generals to release depose the unsung suchi the u.s. to to lift its terrorist designation for yemen's who tease on tuesday but the shift in policy comes with a warning from the white house of more sanctions if the violence continues and at least 4 people have been killed and many others injured in an explosion near somalia's parliament a car bomb blew up in a busy intersection in mogadishu and destroyed several vehicles or those are the headlines along with the news hour in about 25 minutes time next counting the cost but sami. what americans be thinking and doing right now it should be

a bad idea they don't care about their work is all they care about is making money fine it is not going to be locked out of the calling for them to lower the defense budget to be high the bottom line on us politics and policies and their effect on the world. is a than this is counting the cost of al-jazeera look at the world of business and economics this week diet public services regular power cuts and water shortages where these rants all wealth go also this week the 1st coded vaccine to win approval was based on m r n a technology doesn't represent the future for investments into cures and nigeria's huge oil industry underperforming polluting and wasteful after more than 3 decades can the government of the industry.

now ranked as the 4th biggest all producer in the world you'd think iraq had the financial resources to weather the pandemic and drop in oil prices but that's not the case it's fragile economy is struggling to cope and they may have to turn to the international monetary fund for assistance it has already devalued its currency by almost a 5th enabling it to eke out more did ask for dollars or this is the syncs appraisal of the world bank a precarious political situation weak health care system ineffective social safety nets rampant corruption and lapid dated service delivery all amplify this fragility and have fueled large scale protests across the country or that begs the question where does all of iraq. it's all wealth go

a lot to 90 percent of iraq's budget is dependent on oil exports this is budget is $113000000000.00 almost half of that budget is spent on the civil service but about 20 percent of those salaries go to people who do not exist in other words corruption it's deficit that's of course the difference between the money it raises in the money it spends is expected to be about 50000000000 dollars bank data will fill the gap by possibly collecting 6000000000 from the i.m.f. by turning to international investors but also by raising taxes on civil servants and pensioners so iraqis are being asked to carry the burden of corruption again it's not only the people who are fed up with the government businesses of long complained about red tape in some provinces want to bypass the government and cut their own deals for investment and bob province is one it was retaken for my sole control 4 years ago al jazeera simona faulting reports from ramadi.

for years after it was largely freed from eisel construction in iraq's western anbar province is booming once complete this mall in the provincial capital of the mahdi aims to be the largest of its kind in iraq if took out a little more have these projects are needed in this province and according to our assessment in feasibility study we believe this project will be successful. precious jobs have been created at a time when iraq suffers from economic downturn and rising poverty rates just. minutes before this project started i was unemployed to project how many young people to get jobs it has helped produce and employment in the province. it's estimated unbar has a non sector investment portfolio worth $2000000000.01 of the highest among iraq's 18 provinces the director of un parse investment commission says the relative stability around ramadi over the past few years has created

a business friendly environment. and society believes in the authority of the civilian government because of that we haven't had any armed groups. no one is allowed to carry weapons except for the government security forces. the local government wants to develop vast untapped mineral and gas resources and says it needs to attract more foreign investors especially from the gulf but the sunni province is demanding more leeway to circumvent the shia led government in baghdad known for its cumbersome bureaucracy and widespread corruption. we hope the central government gives us more authority in energy and electricity production and many international companies proposed projects in end because of a limited a forest in the complicated procedures of the central government things are going to light up. the local governments push for investment doesn't just aim to develop

on mars economy it also underpins its political ambitions for greater autonomy from the central government in baghdad but some businessmen say decentralization alone won't solve their problems this investors' says it has taken more than 2 years to complete the paperwork for this hypochlorite plant and blames the local and central governments equally. he has spent millions of dollars but is yet to receive a license he didn't want to speak on camera for fear it might further complicate the process experts say until the government overhauls its regulations few foreign investors will take the risk of setting up shop here. al-jazeera similar fault in reporting there from ramadi right let's discuss then where iraq's all wealth has gone joining me now from london is adamant about julie it is the chief investment officer of the a.f.c. iraq fund and a board member of the credit bank of iraq could have you with us so our colleagues

at al-jazeera arabic have reported that about $9000000000.00 is going on salaries for people who don't exist i'm wondering how does a problem like this continue for so many years in iraq it's not like everybody doesn't know that there are these ghost salary issues going on in iraq well i think you've hit it on the nail everybody knows that we have a large number of ghost employees whether the figure is anywhere near the 9000000000 dollars i think that's open for debate simply because we don't have precise numbers we have at best at best guess estimates because the the government itself does not have precise number of its own employees that's one of the challenges we have the budget recognizes we have 3200000000 and 2000000 employees however no one knows that true or not so the 9000000000 is is maybe is exaggerated

but the the the damage it does to the overall economy certainly is not exactly everybody knows there is this problem made of go salaries in ghost employees where is the accountability this is been going on for years it's not the 1st budget where this has surfaced right absolutely up to this is definitely something is going on 20 years however the important thing to keep in mind and to notice is that we are discussing the side effects i mean when it comes to this when it comes to corruption when it comes to all of these things the things that we all in iraq if you ask an iraqi is as he or she would say we know about this stuff how are we looking at the symptoms. you know the this kind of corruption is a symptom of a system that is at fault so fundamentally we have a core issue of the system that our current system of. in which by every ministry every department every unit is pretty much taken up by certain parties that create a condition in which such corruption takes place is it deeper than the us or all

the quota system of divvying up budgets some might argue it's actually deeper than that it's that the politicians and the parties don't really represent the centers of power it's the armed militias and factions behind them in some cases foreign governments that really control the reality of iraq i think that that is always exaggerated i mean definitely it is the political parties that make up the system whether they have something somehow foreign or domestic or other affiliations that's secondary the nain issue is the structure of the system it's a it's a structure of the masses itself that is what is at fault because in a way if you think about the difference between what the muslims are basically is the same illness that we all have in the middle east one way or the other which is the public sector becomes the way that citizens sort of get rewarded the difference

between iraq and everywhere else is that we have become you know we create a monster version out of that frank and version of it because we have multiple power centers and they all go after their own interests or it was the bottom line for this then we're going to have to turn to the i.m.f. to ask for money foreign investors are going to bring in the cash or is it going to be the taxpayers of. the thing as it's a multiple thing in a way the problem with iraq as as you know is that we are our budget is structurally on balance in that the public sector payroll takes over. in a low to medium low oil price environment ok which we have right now is you know all right brant are at $60.00 and so we all feel relieved but that is a cyclical issue secularly long term there is less and less demand for oil so let's forget where all prices are right now because not this year we are talking of 60 last year we're talking of 20 so you know that's highly unpredictable however for

us or what is structurally imbalanced public sector pay takes over almost everything so at some stage if we don't fix our house we need to go to the i.m.f. and the i.m.f. would say sure but to give you the aid you have to restructure the public sector peril and other other items if that happens certainly you will get foreign investors just witness what happened 2016 when egypt embark on its own program that the i.m.f. approved of it gave it an extended front facility which was about $12000000000.00 and foreign investors flocked into egyptian bonds so if we fix our house if we fix our structural imbalances because unlike many other countries even when things are terribly wrong iraq is incredibly wealthy look at last year last year was a terrible year for us in terms of low prices yet we still sold something like $42.00 to $43000000000.00 worth of oil so for us no question of revenues is the

mismatch between revenues and expenditures that eat up all these revenues and that's really what what we need to fix if we fix it with the i.m.f. work and blessing in terms of a program that is actually real and credible then foreign investor would come otherwise we iraqis have to pay for it and we already pay for it because we allow the public sector to be everything leaving no room starving the investment in underlying infrastructure so in a way it's us and the government we need to wake up our thanks so much with the doctor thank you. that. is tradition and then there's innovation for a long time traditional vaccines were made by weakened or inactive viruses or parts of them and this certainly has been successful in helping to eliminate everything from measles to polio but the breakout technology of the covert 19 era has been

messenger r.n.a. it sends a code to yourselves to develop an immune response the leaders in this field by on tech the german company owned by the children of turkish immigrants has seen its stock surge 300 percent in the last 12 months u.s. biotech company madonna produced a vaccine that was 95 percent effective the best of all vaccines produced so far its stocks surged 778 percent and it's not surprising that big pharma have been buying stakes in these manufacturers astra zeneca is the biggest shareholder in madonna with a 7.7 percent stake and glaxo smith kline which had a troubled attempt with its partner to develop a coded 1000 vaccine has bought a 10 percent stake in german biotech cure back. this is where the technology gets really exciting you see it offers the potential to create drugs and vaccines for cancer which kills in 1000000 people worldwide well joining me now from about the

capital city of morocco is dr as it in a pariah me as the is the director of med biotech the medical biotechnology lab and head of the biotechnology lab at the robot medical school good to have you with us so in technological terms just how important is to science and humanity or actually thank you for having me to talk about this technology but it's a great a think an amended maze that we could do it actually this is the reason we thought it would be a dream for many years but no i think we are getting closer and closer to having this technology applied and actually been able to produce proteins and cure a lot of the diseases that we couldn't actually think about it but to make it easy to understand actually the technology is kind of the the software of life so what you do it gets you bring it and information genetic information to the cell and the

cell will be produce and any protein going both that you need or to correct any defect that you have through the expression of this protein so give me an example of maybe some of the diseases which we haven't been able to treat in the past which we might now be able to do with this technology and r.n.a. well actually all of the model of genetic diseases meaning that one gene is defective and in the cell it clear a clear will be able to do it so cystic fibrosis actually is one of them cystic fibrosis actually space than one protein that is the the safety are brought in that is a really having lots of with patients and it's not working so it would be easy if we think theory clear barnet's easy to bring this amorally that is correct form. well off the senate and bring it to the senate and the senate will be able actually to produce the right protein that we go to the membrane and be able to function correctly and that will save a lot of people and lots of pain so it's

a lot of examples but cancer will be another one that's we could come back to it all right i mean eventually cancer and cystic fibrosis how far are we away from finding a cure for those diseases where that's a 1000000000 question actually but then just trying to say that's a game actually the dream to have this kind of technology is not from today's for many years ago our and they think we're dreaming basically to reproduce what we could do the same could do naturally so we thought since the beginning if it would be possible to do the same thing to correct the defect that we have in people the only problem with that is just the the body on the says they have their own because of the fins and then every time we're brought up this ember of a this software for life for the 2 for the correcting the defects the broad the bloody or the says will be rejecting them so now we hopefully get to the point

where we can actually and that's one of the nicest things about scoring this we'll be able actually to bring these proteins the body will take them the sale will take them and be able to produce them so i think we have not that far from the 1st application and we have to combine that with another technology that is a really great or soul is the noble prize of the seed of chris because 9 and chris because my system is going dove correct in there actually the defects on the d.n.a. so that if we can bind this to technology i think the future will be i have no idea how can be the future. well outside of the united states and germany is anyone working on that future using this kind of technology particularly in the developing countries but i think now i think nothing that then is that many countries working on that even in developed countries actually because this technology stayed kind of in these 2 countries but i think now with the corporate 19 and the success of the

incredible success of this tour in a vaccine we'll never thought that we have a vaccine with 95 percent if it were say that something we wouldn't have bought and they think seeing that lots of people are thinking about it's and they think the solution for all this country is it's too good to this technology new transfer and they think it's feasible let's end on a nice positive optimistic outlook especially since we're talking about covert thanks so much doctors and the thank you thank you both with thank you very much nigeria's oil industry has been dogged by allegations of mismanagement corruption and environmental damage the government is hoping to get to grips by rehabilitating refineries cutting down flaring and cleaning up oil leaks amid trees takes a deep dive into nigeria's oil industry. this is one of nigeria's government run oil refineries in the city of port harcourt but most of his

operation has been shut down to upgrade equipment and facilities the government plans to hand over these money losing branches to investors to run after decades of mismanagement. africa's biggest oil producer has turned from self-sufficiency in refined petroleum products in the 1970 s. and eighty's to now a net importer of the product. it's for plans continue to operate well below capacity and sometimes shut down for months off we should say that has to stop what we have done different now just to make sure that we know what we're doing we know who would do it i would go back to the origin of it but at a funded deal done such a way that you don't normally stick somebody delegate that project and that is well on cause there's a new urgency to complete the commercialization process nigeria has been hit by a lot on prices and a weakened global demand. the government desperate to shore up its revenue base

sees that he find a risk as a way out of an expensive fuel import regime subsidized at more than $2000000000.00 a year. all industry sources say between july and september last year the country imported more than 5000000000 liters of refined products. a subsidy program that allowed those connected to politicians to steal hundreds of millions of dollars annually has cost the government huge losses in the past it's crap the subsidy 3 years ago but still the losses continue to mount there will have a lot of side what does with the jeep when just will be delivered and ultimately will come to when i get out become the public it's all in product in the us are because of vision some nigerians say they are cautiously optimistic if this is not true fans i'm probably wrong. in spite of the age of the technologies that produced them over 50 years ago they are still refineries of that age around the world of

the us to fully functional so i think they can be rejigged to a point where they wish to come back to the functionality in such a way that the big government of nigeria it peoples of nigeria still have stake in the refineries they do oppose the community has been living in the shadows of 3 gas flare points since 1970. people here say the flames damage their lives and livelihoods. every way. our roofs don't last. crops cannot probably. move with water. have moved because of that but. for us to get fish now would have to. kill less. he says compensation paid to some has done little to ease their pain

and they aren't alone why as likely as birds throughout nigeria's or rich delta. oil companies still find it more convenient to burn away the gas even though it could be used to generate electricity an estimated printer 3000000 cubic meters of gas is being flared every day for 174 points like this costing nigeria about a $1000000000.00 and when the government says it's a waste and if stopped could add $3000.00 megawatts of electricity in a country that to struggling to generate $4000.00 megawatts. because of the difficulty in enforcing a total ban in 2019 nigeria launched an ambitious project to increase domestic use of gas and export this it hopes will cut the waste and save lives and the environment the fact that its environmental friendly it is cheap it also and there was quick industrialization and growth and we didn't do dis or by love feel out of time he said it's an issue where we can continue to lead men and that's why this

project will do 2 things one is to deliver on previous attempts to have a trust african got 5 plan which will deliver got through the military into europe and also to deepen the gas consumption country in boosting domestic consumption government is also promoting the use of compressed natural gas in vehicles but the most effort is to see a drastic reduction. in guest larry we are actually giving out those flares to people to manage and we believe that. will be able to take care of all the gas flares within the next few years as. the government is hoping that the petroleum industry bill in parliament for 20 years will soon pass and attract more investment in oil and gas. to gas or to lives ation and help minimize flaring i'm told in communities like it was a co may have to live with the damage caused by the gas plants blazing at their

doorsteps. workers educate and eva but to flush out trucked oil in boulder creek as all comes to the surface a boom traps the sludge for evacuation it's a job the contractors hired by all john child must quickly accomplish before the tide returns the cleanup is due to litigation against the company following a massive oil spill in ogoni in 2009 is this walk is to remediate. creek. after the next phase will be to restore. among groups and monitoring so far is a $1000.00 hectares. while shellings contract to say they have done a lot to subsides the nigerian government led decontamination effort jointly funded by the shell company is off to a slow start. heavy machinery is now deployed farther inland to excavate and treat

contaminated soil we take it from what we had planned but we're trying to see what we can do to catch up there's still a lot of work to do to catch up i mean to take. an assessment by the united nations environment program 1st published in 2011 shows that pollution from more than half a century of oil production was worse than or originally thought the report recommended a $1000000000.00 fund to clean up alone an area covering 1000 square kilometers the work which began success later could take at least 25 years to complete much of a is a wasteland this is dead fish and crustaceans no longer spawn here farmlands fish ponds and even underground water supplies have been polluted by hydrocarbons leaking from old pipelines we could play some activists in the region are less impressed with the work so far.

is one. how many years. and that's not the only concern significant amount of all 30 continues in the region for the complicating the process of reversing the environmental damage experts believe 15 to 20000 square kilometers more of nigeria's oil producing region require the attention orgone is currently receiving they fear that unless the entire region is decontaminated or going as clean up me in the end be a waste of time and resources as rican tabulation could occur. am address from nigeria and that's our show over this way but there's more for you online of al-jazeera dot com slash c.t.c.

where you can catch up on past episodes. that's it for this edition of counting the cost time sam is a than from the whole team here thanks for joining us the news announcer sirrah is next. for this 11 year old girl football is a passion. and a ticket out of poverty. now she has a once in a lifetime opportunity to raise the stakes a little higher. in her long journey to success. championship dreams part of the viewfinder asia's series. on al-jazeera. to make a change. change your life for the path of a country challenge the accepted truths if you want to create something you 1st break and then you remove upturned the status quo and fight injustice down the

whole monsoon rather desolate. will salvage his home. witness personal documentaries that alter deception on al-jazeera. her war. this is 0. caliber i missed on the entire this is the news hour live from our headquarters here and coming up in the next 60 minutes no turning back mass protests for me for 8 straight days now against the generals who seized power from elected leaders plus . it asks for constitutional cancel culture to take.