also, call him in china. chinese authorities deny human rights abuses are being committed and say a bully caught will not succeed. the i or c headed by thomas park says the olympics should not be influenced by politics in john dot co preparations continue. china has pledged to deliver a green and inclusive winter olympics, but how many people will be invited or choose to attend remains in question. katrina, you are the 0 young jackal paging. ah . just recap on the headlines before we go. emergency work is in belgium and west and germany is searching for more than a 1000 people still on accounted for after heavy floods. a 125 people are confined to have died, but the figure is expected to rise. rescue efforts of being hampered as well by collapse, rose and damaged communication lines,

raging waters and land slides of devastated entire communities. washing away houses and destroying businesses. south africa, presidents as a week of violence and looting in which at least $212.00 people were killed, was planned and coordinated on a visit to the scene of losing in dub and several rama posts said, security forces have identified 12 ringleaders, 25000 soldiers have now been deployed on the streets of major cities. it is clear now that the events of the past week, when nothing less than a deliberate, a co ordinated and well planned attack on our democracy. the constitutional order of our country is under threat. the current instability and ongoing incitement to violence constitutes

a direct contravention of the constitution of our country. and the rule of law covert cases arising in all us states and official say. the search is largely among those who have not been vaccinated. infections are up 70 percent depth of jumped by 26 percent. and los angeles county is again making laws going mandatory in doors. many universities only letting fully inoculated staff and students return to campus . and then here in the u. k. governance report that it's highest number of new covered cases in more than 6 months, just days before the frictions are lifted across england. u. k. government data shows that we're close to 52000 new cases of the virus reported on friday a day earlier, the u. k prime minister, or johnson said, the country could overcome the worst of the pandemic if it was careful. so counting, the cost is coming out. next examining ethiopia, political and economic travels. stay with out there as the world's how to

a rich ticket giant leaves award. the final frontier, the day with all 0, jeff bezos, boards the blue origin. you shepherd, space flight on july 20th the billionaires face with special coverage. ah, hello, i'm how am i doing? i'm. this is counting the coast on al jazeera. you're look at the world of business and economics this week. internal conflict board was to dispute european challenges are piling up with them the united states calling on international lenders. the block, access to finances is prime minister. i'll be offered up for the political and economic challenges. one of the biggest exports is of emissions wants to drill in the arctic box. environmentalists aren't challenging nor ways. plans in the

european court. the pandemic have decimated the tourism and leisure industry. we find out how one island nation hoping i'm planning for the recovery. ah, for much of the past few decades, ethiopia, as economy with the exception, has grown at a breakneck 10 percent or more. until the arrival of prime minister avia hundreds in 2018. he has hope to list the economy, it's it middle income spaces through privatization, but conflicts in the northern te joy region. the pandemic and locust swarms of strains the countries finances report to the prime minister who won the nobel peace prize for ending a board of war with neighboring eritrea. the challenges are acting out its forces slipping. roaches in a c grade before plunging the region into

a humanitarian crisis, the united nations says 70 percent of the population needs food, aids that comfort food from abby's decision to live bands and position and rebel groups which stalked long, held ethnic tensions and rivalries. camino fighting and i'm horror and or maria has left hundreds. dave's tension of brewing on the board with see done over disputed farming lands. she'll political tensions are also rising between egypt. see don and g o p over ivy's decisions to continue filling a vast them on the nile, cairo and her to me feel water diverted to fill the 4500000000 dollar down will cause dr. says she don't experience last year despite all the challenges at home and abroad. i b one last month's election when in 410 with the 436

seats that were up for grabs, opposition groups of accused his party, a vote. rigging intimidating and harassing its opponents. but the wrong dates can deal with all the challenges you see your face it's, it's that conflicts and t gray that are the ross of washington, which imposed sanctions on the country. the united states provided 1000000000 and funding and 2020, but crucially, it's toll be international monetary funds and the world bank to withhold funding that could prove problematic. the company tries to renegotiate its debts. it's not just governments and international bodies that are thinking twice about investing in ethiopia, foreign direct investment. so business investments slumped to 2400000000 last year from a high of 4200000000 in 2017. if currency has slumped 12 percent against the dollar this year, and economy may grow just 2 percent this year after an average of almost 10 percent

over the last decade, according to the m. s. that we mentioned. so if you p as grounds ethiopian renee, sounds dam project to stream ties with egypt. se done, but for e feel pins, it's a source of pride's many have contributed millions of dollars to the project by buying bonds. and as catherine saw reports from this rocky in the field here, they're looking forwards to how it will change their lives. patch never get omega shows us all she's ever used to light up her house. a bottle kerosene lamp. she lives in a village, 2 hours drive north about the starbuck who down there is a my good afternoon. we have many health problems. we spend more time than we should in hospitals, and i think it's linked to this lamp. next door, her brother in law is using solar energy, but only he and

a few others here can afford it. theater to women, travel far with donkeys to get the most basic support. if we had a tricity in our village, so they wouldn't have to go far to grind maze, for example, up to $65000000.00 fuel pins. that's more than half the population are not connected to the electricity grades. many have bought government bonds for the construction of the grand renaissance dom africa's largest hydro electric dom, about 250 philippines leave in this village. the poor, firmer who raised a $1500.00 for the construction of the dumb. the passionate about the project, and eagerly waiting to be connected to the grids. if you'll be a ha started filling the down for a 2nd time, and this is causing a nice downstream egypt and so done, are worried about how it could effect their own water flows. the 2 countries want a binding agreement governing how the dom well the operated talks mediated by the

african union, have failed. prime minister, be amid recently told parliament the project will not stop. it does not intend to other countries or intention is to work with other countries and improve the state of moses. a term was worried about the tensions he has invested about $2000000.00 in expanding his oxygen and nitrogen energy plant and r t. c. pace of more reliable electricity. his factory, which supplies oxygen to all of eastern the field, is facing daily and predictable power cuts. what is your life? because without enough in this country cannot be such commodity. for us, we are going to be willingly romana we've always thought of the agreement. the completion of the done is imminent. and a few pills like to show met desa,

his family and neighbors. back in miss rocky village are preparing for what it may bring. right slips get some analysis now with low now was senior political analyst with kate based and k. c. african economics. great. with his own carriage and the cost and i e feel p has requested that it's that be restructured under g twins. he plans to help countries deal with the pandemic. how does washington's coal owned be? i and i found the world back to with whole funding complicate matters at all. certainly. but it needs to be said that microsoft really complicated the service bench initiative to expire at the end of the year and approach the g $24.00 day treatment under the common framework in january. there has been very little in terms of progress spent, and that is of course, costing regular enzyme as the initiative is set to expire. the august that is

significant. the country has asked me to people 1000000000, which is about $0.60 and a g d p, which almost 30 is external. the slow progress is, is most likely contributed towards moody and decisions have done great the country in may. i place a credit rating on review, and we saw a rather exasperated statement and from the i m. s on july 6th, when it said it strongly encourage us to split permission on a credit committee. and what exactly is holding up the negotiations? it's, it's possible that it has to do with us pressure, but it also seems that there is, and some exasperation from, from, from some of the criticism frustration around transparency issues. it seems that he is reluctant to open his books. and this could have a number of reasons why the cost of the warranty greg. one of those it learns with,

with china being being another. but it certainly certainly complicating across that is already problematic. well, it's a problematic situation as a complicated situation, but given the deck, the g t p ratio that you've just caught aids, would you say that you feel peers finances or the critical position right now? yes, i would. i would suggest that they probably finance is not just not healthy one. currently. we saw them as much recently of the war in tikrit crossing as much as 2 and a half $1000000000.00. now that puts an enormous hole in any countries, public finances then as to these, these sort of if socratic risks, that will f d i and will threaten donors support. that's another major consideration. one of

the largest recipients, all of aid in africa and the u. s. alone contributed some 1000000000 dollars, 1000000000 dollars to that in 2020. this is very much under threat and is one of the significant b, which is the us has so i would have been very annoyed by my comments made last year by president job. and specifically by us secretary of state and the blinker comments, particularly to congress way. he described the situation p. grandma to ethnic clinton would have rankled them a great deal, but it is the thought essential individuals and the restrictions placed on on economic and security assistance that will, that will hurt most quite low spring. the focus and i want to prime minister, be now he has won a strong mandates in last month's elections. do you think he will be able to achieve his goal of lifting the country up to middle income state says,

or do you think the pandemic? because just erased that prospects entirely. yes. i guess it's of course it's a major threat to, to, to know ministration, which should be one in october is one, an enormous, overwhelming mandate. the awesome suggestions and it's, it's that he won almost too many books and some of us got position filled with any books and opposition candidate $11.00 of the one of the seats. they want. everything else that that's from mandate comes with enormous time just depend demik the situation and see greg is perhaps the biggest threat really we are seeing movements of soldiers mobilization taking place. and i'm our regional security forces to go meet tpl live advances in the west of the region,

mainly has captured most of the north and south too. great. so this the, the complex situation that he has to deal with. i could have mentioned this earlier as well, is that if you guess privatization drive it's much wanted privatization, so face and significant risks. now, the big full spectrum in, in, in april of this year. and he only attracted to his and at least part of that can be explained by the fact that investment, if you go right now concert, very good reputation, risk and your you with you base companies will be reluctant to just for, for massive investments like that, considering country stuff at the moment. well, i'm, i'm glad you touched on the privatization, because that is one of the signature policies and other one offense. real policy drives is that the grands renee's own stand projects, and that of course is causing a lot of tension amongst you, feel p as

a neighbors will do you make of this? how does this feed into the economic picture and is this another potential flash point for conflicts? so before, before i move on to the good, i should point out that this is another leverage that the, the us is seemingly interested in using against the successful car bid that was awarded in may of this year. quite a large part of that consortium was made up of the us international finance corporation in both the $500000000.00 loan, which now seems to be in the balance. a lot of this us pressure being placed on on it is certainly not good news for the grand. if you're going to miss on stem agreement and tripod agreement was done in egypt and the us, of course rick las partner to each. and there's a section that they all favor in egypt in these negotiations, and the open us relationships intent on so many graphs. and one of the reasons why

i'm sitting on the grocery under the auspices of the african union, the sofa conflict cannot be dismissed, but it needs to be said that conflict between jo pierre at egypt is very difficult to imagine just because of the she had to divide the massive distance between those 2 countries. so in essence, soon done with act to involve the soul continues such confident they would have to provide egypt support and allow them to use the territory. we're getting well ahead of us all by talking, but that is, that is a consideration. and so done on some of the least recognize this the advantage of having a massive hydro electric project on its door stick that it could potentially benefit from in the future. for electricity, so they would be reluctant to have situation escalate and get to follow ok. fascinating insights for you low now. really appreciate you talking to us here on

a cat into the course that's low now from n k c economics. thank you much. the who's in norway has done a lot to curtail it's emissions with consumers buying more electric than conventional carts. but western europe, the biggest exports of oil, is also one of the world's biggest exporters of emissions and not content with plans for c bad mining. it's also planning to drill for oil in the arctic. but not if environmentalists have their way at bolton's bi victories and courts against royal dutch shell. and the german government activists are pushing a european court to rule. but norway, drilling is a breach of human rights. in 3 previous cases, norwegian courts affirm the government has not breached those rights. well,

let's talk now it's one of the activists is bringing that case. joining is via skype from melbourne. australia is some coarser gilbert's, a campaigner for economic justice, friends of the earth international. could you just start by explaining to us why you're bringing this case? what are the grains for pursuing this legal action? so what we know from these cases and a lot of the climate cases in general, what we need to prove is that climate change causes a breach of human rights and that it's exploiting new fossil fuels also leads to directly to climate change. we think that there's much new evidence coming out in terms of climate change. we see that the impacts of climate change getting worse and worse. i'm from australia. and just last year we saw massive bush fires destroying it in area, the size of france. we're currently seeing heat waves in north america and also

floods throughout the world. so the evidence is mounting about the impact of climate change. we've also seen a number of very significant victories by young people in regards to claim litigation. so the german cases is very telling in which a group of young people in germany were able to, to win on these human rights climate grounds. also, we were able to win friends of the earth against the dutch dutch royal show in a climate case recently. so there's a real growing movement for these sort of cases and we see a real opportunity to win this case. let's talk about emissions now in st. louis over, you are norway, i'm cancer, those are 3 countries that are quite small in terms of population. but all have vast reserves of oil and gas for exports. they're all exposing their emissions. now a st. leah, i've been quite slow when it comes to acknowledging and implementing changes at

home. but norway, it seems half made great strides. but despite all this, the still pushing their heads with, with drilling in the arctic group. why do you think this is? well, there's a lot of money to be made in oil. and what we need to do is have people stand up for people on planet, and we really need to have a holistic approach to climate change which encompasses all elements. so it's, it's, you know, it's not good enough for a government or a company to be doing one thing on one side. and then another thing on the other side, we see this with this trailer as well with extreme amounts of exports. and that's why this case is so important, we need people to be out there cooling out the green washing astray. exports a lot more fossil fuels than, than it produces itself. and so we need cases like this to hold governments and companies accountable for what they're actually doing. and we know if way to keep

we've seen a safe climate, we need to keep the oil in the, in the soil. and that's why this case is so important. no, sam, back in 2018. the norwegian governments after a significant amount of pressure announced that the arctic le fulton islands will be protected for oil drilling for 4 years. now. that time is nearly oh, do you think will be more pushback? i think we, we always face push back and we are always willing and ready to fight. we've done a lot of solidarity actions with friends of you know, and this is a really important case. people love the arctic and they're going to fight for this is a massive global campaign, and we're hopeful to winning the courts and they'll be significant global pressure on the norwegian government around this issue at the upcoming climate negotiations and into the future. okay, great to get your thoughts. thank you so much for joining us on kind of thing that cost some across the gilbert's campaigner at friends of the earth international.

thank you. thanks for having me. the leisure and hospitality sexes have been hit hardest by the pandemic. according to the world travel and tourism council, the industry suffered loss of almost $4.00 trillion dollars in 2020, 20. 19 the travel and tourism sector contributed 10 percent to global g. d p. a share which decreased to 5.5 percent in 20. 22, of course, to the ongoing restrictions to mobility or in 202062 1000000 jobs were lost, representing a drop of 18.5 percent, leaving just 272000000 people employed across the sector globally. that's compared to 334000000 in 2019. where you can see why governments are desperate to get people back into work and get the economy butchering one island

nation that is opening this borders to travelers and visitors. is maricia se in the years prior to the coven 19 pandemic. maricia welcomes up to 1400000 visitors annually with to resume accounting for approximately 25 percent of g d p. well, let's find out how they're going to reopen the economy to international tourism. joining via skype from fort lewis, as our vend bundle director, all the maricia se tourism promotion authority, great for have you with us all. and i can see the cost just started. so if i explaining how you're preparing for this influx of tourists, we are in 2 phases. one which is found to live, where buyer, we are with a result but and, and from up to about we were the island subject to box

passengers. and then there won't be one time then i can just enjoy the peace of the island. tell us about the resort bobo. how will this work? we'll have to respond restricted to the individual resorts or will they eventually be allowed to explore the rest of the islands. actually as a result, will allow us to come to ris in full of the work last week. and all of them will have access to all the parts that be refined. they need to be after for it, then they come out in the coming and basically with that we know, but we want to promote our legendary service. excuse me,

marvelous night tourism accounts for 25 percent of g d p. the last year has been very difficult of course all around the world but just explain. so the impact that this is hard on people who work in the industry tourism was because the bottom one at heart. yep. for the would the government because they can very career career measures. and how me explain the board meeting and the post was to support empire. and fortunately with this clever managed mind of the band that make up 90, we are to the amount that we owe and see. and you want to name on a move to said he's the new luxury. ok,

it's very interesting. the government has the support scheme, but the government obe maricia is, is also pushing for the production of vaccines on maricia soil. tell us more about this initiative. this has been measured by the minister of finance and i would like to place on record as a vibrant economy. we are, it's a diversified economy. and today, actually with the time to make we've been getting back. this is quite challenging. so i would say this isn't that that would be able to invite investors to come to invest in this law. and this could be also beneficial all our region. great for have you on the show. thank you so much for joining us, as our vend boons and director of the maricia here is

a promotion authority. thank you. thank you. and that is our show for this week, but that was more for you online at al jazeera dot com slash sci fi fi. that'll take you straight to our page, which has entire episodes for you to catch up on. i'm high level here seen from the current to the coffee. thank you for joining us. the news on i'll just era is next . ah lithium extraction is well under way at the all, at full snaps. in the province of a point in northern argentina. it is referred to as the wire gold of renewable energy layer a. we're trying to establish a small supply chain of lithium batteries so we can comply with demand. one of the demands is a transformation of the public transport system origin. tina has one of the biggest in the region and we would try to transform our bosses one and

a twisted system. i didn't know what livia until i have around 70 percent of the world's lithium research live in liquid brian. we are located in full flat, like this one, thousands of liters of water are necessary to pump up the frying research to the surface. there is later on, distributed in evaporation pool communities around this area are concerned. at least few extraction would complicate or access toward a mineral central to the quest for clean energy. a key ingredient for the production of electric car batteries, cobalt extracting that is dangerous, profitable, with global demand set the skyrocket. people in power investigates, claims that industrial mines contracting the precious material needed for cleaner energy are in fact, poisoning the environment with dire health consequences for those living in their shadow. the cost of coal, both people in power on

a story that need to be tow, signed away and demand to be heard. opening the window into another light and challenging perception. witness documentaries. the change on al jazeera ah, more than a 1000 people missing, at least 100006 dead, does catastrophic floods strike germany and neighboring country. ah, so i'm fully back to boy watching al jazeera life from dell ha. also coming out the events of the past week when nothing less than a deliberate coordinator. and.