it meant to give us the will love we think. we need to keep a close watch on the ball a survivors with thoughts that metabolism because they carry the virus in the body fluids they are to keep population to contain the outbreak the good news here is that we have a vaccine that works. the challenge is not the lack of medicine but the lack of trust in health services and communities where medical providers are too often absent this has now become the main hurdle in the brig and then to the a bull outbreak in getting the cliff hawk al-jazeera. 10 of the top stories on al-jazeera talks between the world's 2 superpowers have now wrapped up and the negotiations have been anything but easy the summit between the u.s. and china had already got off to a fire we start with both sides accusing the other of human rights violations and

bending countries to their will the chinese delegation found the talks in alaska candid constructive and helpful at least that's what they told state media by u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken says the 2 sides were fundamentally at odds over a number of topics lincoln says he raised several foreign policy issues including taiwan hong kong and china's crackdown on the weaker muslims. we certainly know and knew going in that there are a number of areas where we are fundamentally at odds on putting transactions in and drowned out with regard to what hong kong tibet increasingly taiwan as well as calm actions that it's taking in in cyberspace. and. it's no surprise that when we raise those issues clearly and directly we got a defensive response the astra zeneca vaccine is back in use across. most of europe

after regulators they cleared it safe the french prime minister a johnny cash states was among those rolling up his shirt sleeve to receive a dose but it's not soon enough to stop the capital paris and 16 other regions going back into a months long lockdown several european nations are up in restrictions as case numbers rise and brazil's president is taking several of his country states to court in a bid to overturn that lock down restrictions he says state governors don't have the authority to impose new rules even as infection rates hit record highs or the 90000 new cases were registered on thursday the 1st time that that barrier had been passed president james wilson at all says he wants people to have freedom but health leaders say the hospital system is collapsing in some areas those are the top stories stay with us accounting the cost is next my colleagues in doha we'll have more news in half an hour i'll see you monday. teach you how to see relief

streamline in the kitchen the. lost thousands of our programs between documentaries and. subscribe to eugene would slosh al-jazeera english. clark this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your look at the world of business and economics this week the man who saved the euro takes on navigating italy through the pandemic can he turn around the long struggling economy. also this week has a unified government the task ahead pulling together. including the country's 2 central bank. and takes

a long hard look at its open economy as china sweeps into everything from power to agriculture. so european debt crisis is spread across the continent threatening its biggest southern economies one man is credited with saving the euro with his vow to do whatever it takes draggy that then president of the european central bank through borsch on the markets raging fire then he may have had luck on his side the politics that have thrown greece ireland and portugal to the walls changed as french and german banks realize they could be wiped out of italy and spain were in the firing line now as the prime minister of italy leading the 69th government since the 2nd world war it appears he's taking his luck with him where other governments have failed drug he could once again be using other people's money to turn things around during the pandemic italy has recorded the most deaths of any european union country but with

a stuttering vaccine rollout draggy blocked the export of astra zeneca vaccines to australia with debts of more than 150 percent of g.d.p. brussels has relaxed the rules on budget deficits giving economies more breathing room the economy it contracted the most of any european union countries. but it to me stands to be the biggest winner from the 750000000000 euros the european union has set aside to help economies it share it could be 208000000000 euros over the next 6 years and that is something his predecessors have never been afforded they have been forced to cut costs and services to keep markets and its northern neighbors happy so can drag last more than 13 months the average term of an italian government well let's find out and joining me now from rome via skype is angelica denot the c.e.o. of international property developer identity in bolivia lardy. welcome to the program good to have you here all the political parties have fallen behind dragging

fallen in line with him which is quite unusual in italian politics isn't it what's changed this time. i think what has changed is the fact that everybody knowledge is and recognizes the fact that it's its do or die situation italy has to get it right they have we have to get our recovery fund planning right we only have until the end of april to at the end and we have to get a reconciliation program right we have no time left to waste and matter that he is internationally and domestically recognized as one of the most most prestigious italians out there so it was a no brainer he was the only option possible right he's also going to tackle these deep rooted problems in the slow growth low productivity high debt how can he go about that you think well the monies that are coming in will definitely help boost italian productivity estimates i that it should be by 4 percent it's going to be around him which is

a great start and he's having to tackle the issues that you rightly mention which are all rooted in the mental problem which is that italy is drowning in bureaucracy and it is slow it is an official and so he is he's moving really quickly to try and also tackle the problem of the slowness inefficiencies in our public image and the association system trying to innovate or trying to digitize it and that needs to be the starting point to fix everything else and there's $200000000000.00 euros from the new recovery fund how is that money likely to be spent where will it go it will go across $6.00 main pillars that were identified in the initial layout of the plan a lot of that is going to go into infrastructure investment as as we all know the italian infrastructure network is pretty much obsolete most of it was built after the 2nd world war so we need to we need to tackle that issue we need to continue building ours our real way it now works a lot is going to go into as we mentioned it's asian and of course

a massive chunk is going to go into sustainability into. and you see because it's only as with the rest of the book has to meet the green new deal targets we need to target. material carbon emissions by 2050 and so a lot will be invested in sustainability as well as a druggie advocating course increasing the country's debt which is already one of the highest in europe what kind of problems might that create down the line well and the big elephant in the room is what will happen once the. once you regulation on debt ceilings which has been relaxed for the covert the nemechek is reintroduced and how that will be reintroduced of course draggy is a very very prominent figure within the us there will be his job 4 our job to negotiate with italy's position but what's also being done at the moment with the recovery fund monies is that in many cases they're being used to substitute debt so the recovery fund that is being used to replace old more expensive that to chime in

made it happen and that britain more sustainable the 1st government bond under druggy was was offloaded at record low interest rates was now the markets like this man and my kids love him i mean he's the man behind whatever it takes he is a beacon of hope not just for italy but for europe he's the person who kept europe together the last time we had a massive crisis and therefore he is considered to be the met best man for the job in italy now and what about his approach to jobs then and to women and women of course been hard hit by the pandemic and. you wonder what drug drug can do to ensure that reforms and recovery are inclusive absolutely it's actually devastating if you look at the statistics of the jobs lost in 202070 percent were lost by women and that just goes to show that the size of the massive pay gap there is also a massive inequality when it comes to italian women having access to the labor

market and exist still being forced to choose between their. and there are jobs italy is a laggard in the european rankings in terms of the funeral inconsiderately on the labor market and it was estimated the just reaching european averages would boost italian g.d.p. by $88000000000.00 so. finding a way to reach a more equal distribution we can men and women is just good for business and i think you will have to invest heavily in in welfare schemes which are designed to aid women's return to the to the job market and to ensure that it is a more equal playing field right now how much support will you get from government about those sort of concepts. i think he must get full support and we have a ministry that is devoted just to equality and family matter it's with the minister and they made it very clear that feeling as if he is is top of their agenda as they were at the should be and what about the industry that you work and

mention because it's hugely crucial to the economy what would you think he'll do on that front so as you rightly said the construction industry is crucial to the economy and what's very interesting is that the italian construction industry association and analyzed the results in the recovery plan and they they found that 51 percent of buttons allocated to italy will touch our industry in one way or another and this is essential because the construction industry is at the tail end of the 12 year long crisis we've had a 33 percent reduction in production we've lost 600000 jobs tens of thousands of companies have failed and we're faced with a country that is crumbling as we mentioned before work the whole infrastructure system used to be upgraded but our city also need to be upgraded let's not forget that italy is one of the main tourist destinations in the world and to encourage her is to continue traveling to italy we need to maintain or in cities we need to

maintain our transportation networks our schools are falling apart those need to be rebuilt there is so much that needs to be done and so much of this it touches the construction industry so back to the question vimy that we started with county last more than 13 months. that's and i think his immediate priority is to make sure that that rollout happens on schedule and even better than scheduled in the promise that was made was that everybody would be vaccinated by the end of the summer and his other main goal is the recovery. here is he is saying that he has his goals or those that he's not planning to take on and mark let me say from my perspective i grew up abroad i've always admired him greatly i hope he could stay as long as possible right as well because then are to appreciate your perspective thanks very much indeed thank you for having me nic. now the fall of moammar gadhafi his dictatorship in 2011 brought

a decade of anarchy to libya with the un backed government in the west pitched against warlord holy for have to from the east but in recent weeks the united nations has brokered the deal to end the political turmoil unified government led by prime minister designate a bill hamid baber has the task of fixing a war torn economy it may surprise many that libya had 2 central banks the eastern central bank based in tripoli has issued that's now worth more than $23000000000.00 its creaky all infrastructure could hold back its recovery it's currently pumping oil at a rate of 1250000 barrels a day it hopes to get back to 1450000 barrels by the end of 2021 but that's still 200000 barrels short of what it was producing before gadhafi was toppled the economy crushed 66.7 percent last year and that just underlines the new unified government to do list. which includes fixing the water electricity and housing

infrastructure let's talk about all of this that's a cross to tart yourself who's joining us now from the harvest scott taric is the director of the brookings doha center in a board member of the central bank of libya taric welcome so 1st up after the civil war is there an estimate as to what the rebuild costs will be i don't think we have any updated estimates regarding that he building costs but if you go back to 2011 after the toppling of the old regime took place people had advanced figures as high as 100000000 dollars back then in the subsequent few years some of the destruction that took place in the city of benghazi alone was estimated to cost or acquired about $50000000000.00 so we're talking about tens of billions maybe hundreds of billions of dollars in order to restore. libya's sort of

a society build the infrastructure and certainly and more importantly from the perspective of average citizens put libya on the right path towards prosperity stability and the kind of standard of living that people hoped to achieve absolute it was an extraordinary amount of money isn't it said where is it going to come from and that is the conundrum that's the biggest challenge arguably facing not just libya's institutions but the country as a whole the money simply isn't there the last 10 years where. used to essentially cover most the current expenditures salaries subsidies and to a much lesser extent any development at locations meaning the kind of projects and funding for housing that the city public health not to mention the destruction the last i would put the damaged infrastructure and capital the money at the moment it

is not available within libya's existing staving available to sources and more importantly given what oil prices are given libya's oil production you're not going to be able to do a lot of rebuilding that a lying soley on the country's resources you have to look for the options abroad but this is happening at a time when massive debts have been run by all countries libya remains a very unattractive destination for foreign capital and so this puts libyan policymakers and its institutions in a very difficult position how to manage and fund couldn't needs while also investing for the future the building the economy that building the infrastructure to restoring sort of us is the. the magnitude of what is required

far exceeds certainly what is available at the moment and anyway a big problem before was the consistent international competition for what would be lucrative contracts how do you avoid that again well you'd have to avoid that by distorting the sovereignty of. libya the government and its people. but then you have to work through a backlog that goes back to play 2011 of contracts that were suspended at start what never completed and you have to start thinking about priorities for the coming period so how do you at on the one hand keep and minimize foreign interference while on the other hand establish priorities and decide how you want to fund those play oddities it is a task of monumental importance difficulty and certainly one for

a country that's just emerging from a civil war and where a national unity government has only been in place now for a few weeks i would say libya is in a better position today than it was just a few months ago but things remain fragile and how far you can achieve all the objectives that the public has that the libyans have of the of the country remains to be seen and will be one that will be would have to pay attention to over the next few years what's the best way then the navigating these these kind of clashing in some cases clashing international interests. i would say part of what we have observed in the last few months and but haps that is why the ceasefire that was signed in september october last year has remained in place there was a lot of international fatigue or fatigue amongst the countries competing for

influence in libya you also saw the biden and mr ation come in and begin to distort the stabilizing role that the u.s. had historically played. you also have to call that 1000 lockdowns and the preoccupation in all foreign capitals with domestic issues all of this is has essentially bought libyan some time. kept foreign actors busy elsewhere and has has given the country space to be able to. start putting the building blocks together will this last post 2021 we don't know yet but if we can libyans the national unity government can take the necessary steps to restore sovereignty to build on this national unity trajectory that he had that ability to domestic institutions and bring some coherence to country the country's finances i think we could give ourselves and the country could give itself

a very good chance of emerging in 2022 in a want to better foundation with this. essentially control over its destiny as opposed to what we observed in 2192020 ok a star not just going to jump in there just because we just need to wrap up but as part of bringing financial coherence of the country is the budget the 2021 budgets how important is that and will it get wholesale approval i think it's a very critical test for the national unity government heightened expectations amongst the pop up look about what the government is going to be able to do is going to push the budget envelope quite high whether that in fact is consistent with the country's available resources but it means to be seen i think at minimum this with require a very close cooperation coordination between the various acts in the country the government the central bank the audit butyl the national oil company we've not seen

that yet we've not even seen the budget yet but that will be one of the earliest and most critical test of whether this government is able to do both short totem needs and focus at the same time on building a foundation for the long term stability and prosperity targum use of fantastic to get your view on this thank you. ok chinese state owned companies have a growing influence in chile considered latin america's most open free market economy is raising concerns about the country's future economic independence a group of bipartisan politicians are proposing a law to limit chinese companies participation in key and strategic industries but as newman reports from the central city of jimbo don't go that's not as easy as it may sound. from the $1000000000.00 acquisition of one of the world's largest salmon companies to the purchase of copper and lithium mines to wineries and fruit fields . china has set its sights on chile it may be a small country but it has

a very long and strategic pacific coastline and lots of resources that the agent giant needs but that's not the only attraction the most important thing for china is. window shop in. their region. to say. you know here we are in. america but while chile's economic growth owns a great deal to china members of congress are warning of an aggressive investment offensive not from private capital but from the chinese state yes you're not my or not if you don't regulate the participation of a foreign slide in your economy that economy could be nationalized not by our own country but rather by a foreign state that's what we've presented a bipartisan bill to level the playing field for everyone because we're facing an

offensive by the chinese side the wants to take over strategic sectors of the economy with the congressman has called drafted a proposal that seeks to regulate farm state ownership in strategic and geopolitical sectors of the economy on the top of his list is the chinese states majority control of electricity distribution in chile cherry orchard like the. when you see here may not seem to fit that description but chinese companies are increasingly buying more and more agricultural land like this farm to produce one of chile's prime exports fruit especially cherries and that's raising concerns that china may be moving towards producing packing and exporting its own fruit eventual eliminating the chilean entrepreneur altogether. 6 weeks ago at the height of peak season $1000000000.00 cherry exports to china ground to an abrupt halt and counting i mean. it's very suspicious exactly when we started buying this bill in congress

the social networks in china who will now controlled by the state became denouncing that at sherry's had traces of coded 19. chiles foreign ministry refuses to entertain the notion of foul play at least publicly but now viral is not alone in suspecting that china was sending a veiled message that there's a high price to pay if chile decides to limit china's economic influence on human al-jazeera. the future of the falkland islands is being discussed the game after they were excluded from trade deals between the u.k. and the e.u. the british overseas territory will not be part of any commercial tax or customs agreements and stories of play reports argentina's government sees an opportunity. the falklands islands in the southern atlantic also known as my latinas for people in latin america are considered part of the overseas territories of the united

kingdom but 2 days after finalizing the brics it agreement the european union and oust that it would stop recognizing overseas territories under british rule and the benefits that came along the decision came as a surprise for residents of the islands that of the other surgeries were allowed to vote in the referendum even though. we respect that decision after it was quite a bit of a shock i think when the when the result came through we hadn't really expected that relationships change that next piece of the puzzle does need to be addressed because. we need a relationship with the cape. as well for years industries here have benefited from being a member state until now jane wallace is concerned about what's coming next i find a very concerning of the situation is that at the moment any fish or squid to react sport to europe attract

a tariff of between 6 and 18 percent i mean to give you an idea in terms of the conservative view based on our recent financial performance that 6 percent represents 30 percent on average of our profits over the last 5 years so as extremely disturbing the decision by the e.u.'s perceived as a victory for argentina which has been demanding before cancer movie now silence the south georgia and the south sandwich islands belongs to them. the thought printed dispute over the islands led to a war between britain and argentina in 1982 it lasted for 74 days and left almost 1000 dead in spite of losing the war argentina continues to demand that the islands are part of their territory inherited from the spanish colonial war manual females who is in charge of the venus issue in argentina says he's government is going to continue pushing for a negotiation. from us. we're still in the early stages of the brics it

but europe has signaled a change in its position on the islands there was a similar case at the u.n. when the child was archipelago the u.k. lost 114-2686 months to return the island to more rishis the only e.u. country to vote for the u.k. was hungry on the islands argentina's ambitions are perceived as a threat that's why people here are hoping their needs from now on one being annoyed. is our show for this week if you'd like to comment on anything you see you can tweet me at clark i'll just please use the hashtag a j c d c or just drop us an e-mail counting the cost 0 dot net is our address plenty more for you on line 2 at al-jazeera dot com slash c d c and that will take you straight to our page which. catch up on.

that is it for this edition of counting the cost time o'clock in the whole team thanks for joining us the news on al-jazeera is coming up. when freedom of the press is under threat demonstrators and journalists are dealing with internet outages police intimidation and charges of said dishes on the state line becomes the defaults in media in england about new games or images that lead to the letter to these guys that just how did he create a nuisance makes it hard for people to know what's real and what's not step outside the mainstream shift the focus covering the way the news discovered the listening posts on a. for afghans with ties to international organizations. this rate has never been greater. left exposed by the withdrawal of foreign troops . may be the only path to safety. but in

a nation makes home feel ever for there always. a bill part of the viewfinder asia series on al-jazeera. halfway between tokyo and she's a little girl was there and relatively sleepy place not a lot of violent crime and so when 4 people get killed on one occasion in as bloody a massacres this was in the trucks a lot report. the task force of 80 police officers was created to find out what happened. police counted more than 40 stab wounds all together in the victims.

american and chinese diplomats wrapped up a tense round of talks with the u.s. secretary of state saying the 2 sides are fundamentally at odds over a number of issues. from a headquarters in doha in.