or even reverse their reopening plans. there is no one size fits all approach. of course labor laws differ country by country. but with the majority of us companies planning to call back employees to the office in the coming weeks, the u. s. could be a test case on what works. and perhaps what doesn't. gabriel's condo, i would use either new york. ah. top i could check out the headlines here on, i'll just see over the world health organization has worn governments against eating cove at 900 restrictions to soon criticizing what it calls a premise you rush back to full normality. it says the pandemic isn't over yet. and further waves of infection could arrive late in the year. we just need to be a little more patient. remember last summer where we had everything got good and then everyone kind of relaxed. and then we kind of arrived in september,

october and ended up in huge trouble. but i think that's where we're going again with a much more transmissible variant this time around. well, the warning came of the u. k. prime minister, confirm most covert 19 restrictions in england will be lifted in 2 weeks. people won't have to wear face masks in most places or maintain social distancing. or johnson admits, though the move could drive up infections. but as people must learn to live with the virus, we must be honest with ourselves that if we can't reopen our society in the next few weeks, when we will be helped by the arrival of summer and by the the school holidays. then we miss ourselves. when will we be able to return to normal and asian industry groups says tech giants could stop offering their services and hong kong over proposed changes to data privacy laws. it says the drop laws, vague wording could leave local staff open to face criminal investigations and prosecution. i've kinda sounds government just sending reinforcements to the north

after a 1000 of its troops fled across the border to to just on taliban fighters have been gaining territory, raising concerns about security once foreign troops complete their withdrawal in september, ablaze, plastic factory and thailand that killed at least one fire fight and injured more than 30 people has been contained. the cause of the blast started the fire still unknown. residents have been told to stay out of a 10 kilometer exclusion zone around the facility. on the outskirts of bank up. the number of people missing or unaccounted for after a mudslide in central japan as risen to more than 80 rescue crews. and tommy are taking advantage of a break in the rain. 2 days after the disaster, japan's prime minister says the focus is still on finding people alive. well, those are the headlines and continues here now. 0 after counting the calls. thank you and thanks for watching. i thought i would just need to arabic

who left the middle east and built remarkable lights. finding stuff in germany, of the united states. yet never forgetting that homeland of iraq and palestine. inspiring human story, the areas that brought the designer and the atomic side analogy. i lose hello, i'm have them here, and this is counting the cost on. i'll just be your look at the world of business and economics this week for miss handling the pandemic to its over reliance on commodities. the outsiders challenging the political establishment in latin america

as millions fall back into poverty, move unequal region of the world. argentina avoid another default was full and currency reserves. the country could mine its way. i have trouble huge reserves of lithium when osiris once more from international miners, shit, its minerals overseas, and late to e commerce, them at least was playing catch up. we talked to one of the biggest investors and asked can the asians deliver another success like right hailing up, carrying? ah, latin america's fortunes have been inexplicably linked to commodity prices as copper, gold, oil, and solely prices rise. so do political fortunes, foreign money, flood sensitive region, and everyone's feels richer, but inevitably come to see producers. the curse of rising currencies makes it more

expensive to imports, leading to inflation hot money leaves, and that sore people for back into poverty. and the cycle goes on, right now, the pandemic is hating the region harder than any other according to the un economic commission on latin america and the caribbean, just over a 3rd of the reaches population or 209000000 people are living poverty. that's $22000000.00 more than last year was slightly more than 8 percent of the world's population, or $600000000.00 people at half, almost 28 percent of all the tests from covey 19 and the economy contract. it almost 8 percent last year. that's despite governance spending $86000000000.00 attempting to support the economy, while many incumbent governments are under pressure for their poor handling of pandemic. and it's mainly parties on the left that are taking advantage 13

countries or holding elections in the next 15 months or so. through is already elected primary school teacher trading, an activist federal kasteel. as it's next president, his campaign asked a simple question, why is the resort which nation so poor? he unseated conservative rival keiko for g more 8. then she lay a communist danielle judge way is likely to unseat the rights of center. sebastian p. yeah. in november's presidential elections at an interview. bloomberg, he said, people are coming to the realization that the liberal policies are incompatible with democracy. chileans have had enough as the free market that has failed to reduce inequalities. and then columbia left one, candidate, gustavo, petro, could become the country's 1st socialist liter. i knew that a silver could make could come back in brazil against right when the populace j are

both sonata, who, belittle the pandemic, has almost half a 1000000 citizens perished. a patchwork of locked fence have done little to contain the pandemic with costs rise, and governments are keen to get people vaccinated and find new sources of income to pay for the pandemic. argentina is one country that has huge potential to become one of the world's leaving lithium producers. it's a major challenge for the south american nation seeking international partners to help develop the industry traceable, has more lithium extraction is well and away at the level full flats in the province of who, who is in northern argentina. it is referred to as the wire gold of renewable energy. that's what the market says. again, tina needs to increase lithium extraction, but also manufacture batteries to add value to the production chain layer a. we are trying to establish

a small supply chain of lithium batteries. so we can meet with the demand. one area of demand is the transformation of fudge and tina's lodge public transport system to include electric, but lithium production is a priority for argentina government. it's minister of production says that government has already signed deals with several companies. china is a major player in the business and has been increasing its presence in the region. democracy. the endo would you see was we're seeing lots of interest in the possibility of investing in the country. last week we signed a memorandum with a chinese company that is already producing lithium in argentina, and is hoping to advance into batteries. and we signed with another chinese company to build batteries and cars are going to be you're seeing lots of interest because of our natural resources, industrial history and technology that allows us to plan ahead. lithium, ion batteries, rechargeable and lightweight power. the most used electronic devices on the planet

from cell phones to laptops. much of that, lithium comes from what is known as the lithium triangle. i didn't pino bolivia until you have a wrong 70 percent of the words. lithium research. the lithium is liquid, ryan reserves no k to install flat, like this, when thousands of liters of water are necessary to pump up the brian research to the surface there later on, distributed in evaporation pools. communities around this area are concerned that unless you extraction could complicate though access to water. people here depend on these false labs to make a living. dining and lament flores is part of the indigenous communities in the area. like on the i to be in which one that ancestors have been living here since before the argent times state, and now they want to invade it. we haven't seen any serious studies on what will happen to the water. it is something that worries us that we are concerned about what is being done to other salt flats in the region. they are broken dirty and we

don't want that to happen here. and that's why scientists like victoria flexor, i working to find alto native ways to extract lithium. so we are looking at both disruptive technology. that means technologies that do not need to evaporate water to extract lithium. and we are also looking at where we michael, upgrade to the current about technology. and we are looking to try to we gather some of the work that he's currently lost during of operation. it would be an inconsistency to extract lithium for a, for a greener world. and for a greener economy, if we are contaminating the regions or the locations around the bosses, developing technologies is expensive and will take time. a major challenge for developing nations quite trying to find a balance between conservation and growth please. i will. cedar pool. we didn't

tina well, let's get some analysis now with him in a blanket. she's the head of america's risk insights that various maple crossed and female joins us know by skype from wellness i or ease gates. i have you with us on counting the cost that as much as it's dangerous to lump together a region, a $600000000.00 people are a dozen or so countries it does appear that there is an immense, with all the candidates on the left. why? yes, the if you think this is all to do with the pandemic. well, i think the pen demik has actually exacerbated some of the underlying challenges that the region had had face for many decades. right. and, you know, i'd like to challenge a bit, this idea that the region is turning to the left. i think what we're seeing in latin america is a challenge to incumbent some establishment which, you know,

we could say we're seeing more broadly across the world in the region. really, this is injecting additional instability because it's fragmented political that where from their inception intended to be representing small a few number of parties, right? and now what we're ending up with is congress is with a high number of parties and precedents that are acting in a way like they're in a part of the mentally system needing to get the support from, from all the political parties to rules. but at the same time, it's not a parliamentary system. so congress cannot remove the president except in exceptional circumstances. and unfortunately, we have seen that happening in the region. increasingly over the past decade. would you say the current rise in commodity prices fed is coming a bit too late to save these incumbent governments in the region?

yes, because the problem is not only con, i'll make right. i mean, of course, the economy plays a huge role. the pandemic hit the region very hard. latin america recorded the 2nd words ttp contraction as a region f d. i had brought massively in all the major economies, right. whether you're talking about brit sales, columbia, mexico, i can see that they've all the same major drugs and f d i in plenty. plenty. but there's also much more structural underlying, socially issues in the region that government is both on the left and on the right . have failed to address for many years and so voted in the region are looking for those new canada that break with traditional parties. promise a break with traditional politics and promise to make those long lasting changes to address in a quality poverty, informality unemployment, access to education,

access to health care. so really much more complex than if the economy doing well. or if the economy doing poorly at the moment, will pacifically if we, if we look at the cases, peru, petro castillo, he could be the next president there. is he rides to question why such a resource rich nation is so poor? well, absolutely, for me has some significant structural issues to address. i mean, we, you know, speaking about the pen demik with 70 percent in formality. we saw peru use games, but it had taken it adapted to may inject one year, whether we're talking about employment or poverty rates, right. in education, the system remains shut down. so we're talking about generations where human capital development is going back behind for several years. and as you mentioned,

this is one of the most economically successful countries in the region, and we've been years and very wealthy when it comes to to it's mineral wealth and especially pauper. so of course, you know, from a political perspective, cassius promises to review the contribution that mining made to the economy and how that expense and how that helps develop men resonate with voters, particularly those in the rural areas where communities see their environment affected by a strike of industry, but they feel lima, take all the, all the wealth and dust and distributed back to the regions that are hosting a multinational, extracted mineral. move her to sheila, you know, in the countries no real right thing. it's dictatorship era constitution. a

right wing free markets are new liberal as policies on the back cert over there. how do you see events that play a note? well, i see this a very different story because of course, of the institutional development of the country hat. so even though it's face had similar challenges, right, the issues i mentioned before i could make that same statement about sheila in terms of education and access to health care, et cetera. but i think the, the huge difference is sheila, if we compare it to the case of perot or even the case of columbia, which is in the midst of significant civil and rest of the moment and have been for the almost 3 months. the difference is, the chilean political establishment was able to rally together rather early on in the civil unrest movement right after 2 months in 2019 and institute a framework on a road to re so that in a structural manner and in an institutional manner. now, the question is,

will it be successful and will it be enough to block a social demand? because, of course, any structural response, right? when, where we rewriting a constitution creating effectively a new legal framework for the country. this takes a lot of time. so the question then becomes our chilion patients enough to see those changes through which are going to take anywhere between 5 to 10 years at least to, to show any result. in the meantime, what we're seeing is very short term to for more money making it into people's pockets. and we have seeing that throughout the pandemic with the government having to give it into changing the pension system and allowing for pension withdrawals early on, as people want to see the money that they've been saving for many years, some decade back in their pocket. human blanco from various maple crossed thanks so

much for talking through the complex dynamics in this fascinating region. we appreciate the skyrocketing fuel prices in india, driving up the cost of foods and other basic goods is putting pressure on millions of families and comes as the inflation rate surpasses. the crucial 6 percent threshold said one of the countries central bank. elizabeth per item has more now for new delhi 12 year old show about cooks flat bread for her family on a fire made of wood and dried cow dung. her mother sony urns just over $3.00 a day when she gets work at the vegetable farms that surround their home. but she says they can't afford to buy gas for cooking. as we bought them was guilty a stand, but the day that it's really hard right now to take care of my family prices are going up lentils,

a $1.30 kilo who's going to eat that. we don't buy anything to eat and we only eat the vegetables which grow in the fields and don't buy anything else because of the rising prices. the prize of essential items has been increasing in india during the past year. cooking oil by 30 percent fruits and vegetables by 12 percent and lentils by 10 percent. and that has had a big impact in the country with average income is the equivalent of about $5.00 a day. one reason for the higher price of food is the cost to transportation. failure to what i know you'll be run through the router not for the poor because their prices are skyrocketing and even vegetables. people buy hoss kilo instead of one saves a lot while expenses a high. meanwhile, the fuel prices are already broken the backs of the poor i. the government has increased fuel prices up to 50 times this year, lead into protests earlier this month. on average and indian spends nearly

a 5th of their daily wages on fuel and the other places, race, which reflects an increase in the price of them services. what's the point 3 percent in may, that is above the 6 percent threshold set by the bank of india that economists say the rise of the price of food is more worrying than that of fuel. this great off for prices going up is going to get good, much worse, in which case is going to have a devastating effect on the open for particular. and some of them, particularly those who are in non agricultural activities and who actually by the cause of get the the government distributes free rations to the poor, but the help doesn't reach everyone. sony says she doesn't have the ration card that's necessary to get the food. her children, including 9 year old gout him,

are only attending classes because of the kindness of a few young people who are teaching for free. sony wants sure, but to learn to cook and clean and case have free education stops, and she'll have to find work. elizabeth koran and al jazeera, new delhi. the middle east has always loved bricks and mortar shopping, mostly because the family owns conglomerates controlled by the old guards. but a younger generation has been pushing the boundaries of e commerce, with huge success, with rise, hailing up carrying, being snapped filled by uber. and soup dot com falling to amazon and the pandemic has accelerated the shift on line for shoppers. i'm cities of like, one company that has managed to raise $24000000.00 in the likes of saudi. your data investment funds is open search. the man based mobile 1st classified marketplace claims to have $65000000.00 consumers across the region and sales goods worth

around $30000000000.00 a year. so let's talk and i will call don't bozza. the phones are and managing director of investment group. i mean, a great piece also chairman of open 6. great to talk to you today. no, you own many of the middle east talk e commerce sites and talk of course about open soup. sell any car, dot com and the right healing service genie. have you seen any more traffic as it were, cheering the pandemic. thank you for having me. hi la. obviously, they've been that and they make, has been a great excellent for adoption and uses your eco max services in a similar manner to how more, by an education increase in instigation, depend, demik has been the drive back for more usage and adoption in a business like open to q 2nd, have 10 to our application to savage,

and find whatever they need be a tech car or an apartment fashion, anything that they need. this has actually dated their lives payment. basically, we have gotten to about 2800000000 page views in open to last year. we're trying to get credit for us during the pandemic at this point of time, every 16 seconds. so probably since we started, there's been 2 items that were already sold on, on open source. what we have seen also is that after the book dodge where chevy and fully lifted in many of the countries that this increase and savage, in traffic to eco max businesses in the mega has consisted and continued to increase in fact. so we're very optimistic about the future of eco max and online services, and they mean that was to be optimistic advice. and your show firms have shown remarkable adaptability to the challenging circumstances. but for the raids

shearing up genie, i mean was that not have to told by the panoramic because we know uber and lyft really struggled during those tough times. of course, so obviously when, when they were locked down and people were unable to launch and jamie was, was significantly affected. however, when locked downs wherever gifted partially, we noted that genie as gotten back to its previous level and exceeded its previous level of mark. more importantly, after the lock downs were lifted. we've seen jeannie basically hitting new 11th new or get cards in terms of traffic. this is because use exam pass in jagger's, have opted for private carriers because private coverage offered them assurance in terms of basically security in terms of those cars that are infected

today because we have interest over our drivers. by the end of this month, we're going to have 100 percent of all the g need dr. bags being vaccinated, which is something that is very hard and difficult to say, or play in florida at that you know, public transportation services. well, the great the, the business is approved, so adaptable and able to cope with the challenges. would you say there are any more unicorns in the middle east that we should be keeping an eye on at this time? because cream, of course, is bought for more than 3000000000 by over and the scene has really inspired a lot more investments as investors are looking for the next big thing. oh absolutely. what's happening in the middle east? how that is that there is trans sack of value that is happening in the largest traditional economy sectors. so take, for example, a business like open source. where did all of those ads that used to appear in 64

page printed newspapers in the middle east go. and the ad that is related to us at rest, whether you are selling a car or getting an apartment or looking for somebody to hire or offering any kind of suggest. all of those ad has shifted to open source. so all of those, you know, 1000000000 dollar evaluations have shifted to online businesses with the lack of open talk leading the way, not even that, but those businesses are getting close to that transaction. so though they started by, you know, selling advertising space, they're now making costs on the transaction itself, which means that even going to be bigger than that, you know, they're basically parallel business models in that traditionally economy. the same is happening, for example, in the automotive sector. congregating sectors, etc. the way you have seen many 1000000000 eggs being limited in the middle east because you know, they, where they're where car today bags,

owning that largest chart rooms and the most seen streets and do by your door. how order, you know, is that the order yard, this is now, you know, moving on line where businesses like any cars have become the largest used cars to get back in the u. e, in, nor time becoming bigger than any of the existing car trade tags. we're given this changing dynamic, do you think there's a needs for a tech index in the middle east, like the nasdaq, to the spar growth? most definitely, i mean until to day. and there is no proxy for that growth of online businesses in the me. that is listed that investors can buy into, to sort of participate in that growth of online businesses. and i mean that agent and there are many reasons for that. one of the reasons is that, you know, that hasn't been big enough businesses to list the ones who have become big like,

man, so quick snap. but i think, you know, we're seeing those big businesses coming through and we're seeing. and it says like, honestly our own business model, and as i'm in a group where we're considering listing of the group itself to provide access for ultra high network individuals and family offices to be able to invest and participate in that growth of online businesses in them. you know, i believe we are approximately 15 years behind the u. s. probably 10 years behind western europe and maybe 5 to 7 years behind south east asia. so there is a lot to come. there's a lot to come. a lot of cats are going to be, but a fascinating early, diverse, and changing landscape. great to get your thoughts on this. how doing the top of the managing director of the i mean a group. thank you so much talking to us on counting the cost and thank you for having me. hello. amber is are short for this week,

but there's more for you online at our to 0 dot com slash c p. c. that will take you straight to our page, which has in some of your episodes for catch up on i'm how am i getting from the whole country michel, steve, thank you for joining us. reduce on, i'll just era is next. ah. the story as the bob way in her words, she is always told from the perspective of the great man, whether it's even moving all robot mcgarvey. my responsibility to tell is involved with story in a way that it hasn't really been told before the ordinary. everyday life was involved with the people. i'm writing about patina. got out of darkness, mice and bob way on algebra. we understand the differences

and similarities of culture across the world. no matter why you call hand era who bring you the news and current affairs. tv. ah ah, hello, i'm down, jordan and joe hall with the headlines here on out 0. the world health organization has worn governments against using cobra 19 restrictions to soon criticizing what it called apprenticeship rushed back to full normality. several countries in europe are relaxing rule despite concerns of the honey contagious. delta vary and that the w h. o says the pandemic isn't there, but yet, and further waves of infection could arrive later in the year. we just need to be a little more patient. remember last summer when we had.