my, he should say was 80 years old and i want to catch up any time with our website address that is out there, dot com. and you can watch us live by clicking on the orange line icon out of here dot com. ah, top stories are 0 fighting has escalated between the taliban and a resistance group in the pantry of valley and it's kind of stone region, 150 kilometers north of cargo has been the only province to hold out against taliban rule. even though it's now entirely surrounded several 1000 fighters from regional groups and remnants of the government forces of mast in the valley. smoke can be seen from distant mountains, but number of casualties is hard to verify as roads blocks and mobile phone systems cut off. diplomatic engagements with the taliban and its neighbors continue.

the british foreign secretary is in his lum bad for talks with his pakistani counterpart of the european union's foreign policy chief says it is ready to engage with a new taliban government. already working with a group is cut off, which is sent officials to cobble to help get the airport running. the us extra state will now visit doha. our diplomacy with allies and partners continues to intensify. that diplomacy is already produced. the statement signed by more than $100.00 countries and the un security council resolution that makes clear the international communities expectations of a taliban lead government. including freedom of travel, making good on its commitments on counterterrorism. upholding the basic rights of afghans including women and minorities. and forming an inclusive government and rejecting reprisals in a couple of days on sunday. i'll be have heading to doha, where i'll meet with kentoria leaders to express our deep gratitude for all that they're doing to support the evacuation effort. the u. s. president is in louisiana

to look at the damage wrought by hurricane ida. joe barton has met local officials before planned fly over of areas hit by the storm. torrential rain broke widespread flooding and power to a 1000000 homes and businesses was cut. at least 9 people were killed in louisiana . with at least 49 people killed across new jersey, new york and pennsylvania. 3 people remain in a critical condition after being stabbed in an organ supermarket. 6 people who total eaten, dorothy said the attacker who was shot and killed by police was being closely monitored by intelligence agencies. as the top stories do, stay with us on out there. if you can count in the cost is up next one year for you after that. thanks for watching me. ah

ah, i'm fully back. you know, this is counting the cost on al jazeera. you look at the, well, the business and economics this week, china's designs on the indian ocean bay jane, investing billions in poor simeon marjorie lanka. and pakistan. can india counter china's geopolitical and economic? might jack's top brent sand shoddy maintenance,

the tenants who had enough and pushed berlin for a local referendum to strip a german stock market, listed company of tens of thousands of homes and a toxic relationship. we look at how organized crime, who have turns romania into europe, something around the after it's rapid dan, chaotic withdrawal from afghanistan after 20 years of war and fails. nation building. washington was keen to reassure countries, mostly in se, asia that it would stand by them as china asserts more control over what it considers its territory. us vice president common harris on a trip to singapore and vietnam, accused made jean of bullying and called his claims to the south china sea, excessive china vietnam brunei, malaysia, the phil be invent taiwan lake plains, 2 parts of the south china sea, which is caused by vital shipping lanes and contains gas fields and rich fishing

grounds. china has established military outposts on artificial islands in the south china sea and objects to foreign warship failing through what it claims is it sovereign waters. but china is extending its reach into other territories to protect what it considers its maritime sell court, which is part of a multi $1000000000.00 spending package, better known as the belt enrolled initiative that we saw in shanghai call is day that port stay in hong kong thailand, singapore and malaysia, and crucially, it's paying billions of dollars to build poor se myanmar, to ensure lanka, and pakistan as you can see, it completely in circles. india raising concerns in new delhi about its influence and china's expansive foreign policy and navy, which is many times bigger than its own fleet. and with good reason, sri lanka, lost control of a strategic $1400000000.00 humble, total port to a chinese company. after he couldn't keep up with debt we payments which has become

known as china is debt trap policy. china is also developing the only deep sea port in south asia in august capital colombo. that's the problem for new delhi, because 40 percent of container congo are offloaded to a smaller ships for the short trip to india. and then there is the quad. our port in pakistan built a spot of china's belton road initiative called the china pakistan economic court, or a $60000000000.00 project linking the arabian sea to china's land lock western region, access to the indian ocean c. bruce is critical to beijing. as today, china is the world's top oil importer purchasing 542000000 tons of crude oil in 2020 last year. 53 percent of china's crude oil imports came from the middle east and passed through the indian ocean. well, let's get some analysis with collin co, a research fellow at the s roger raton. school of international studies is joining

us on skype from singapore. thank you very much calling for being on counting the cost. china has been very strategic in the way to expanding its reach and in the indian ocean. what is it? and again, ultimately, i know want to ensure that it's on national interest are being met. and i think in this sense, you know, that continue express to the self communications that will guarantee and interrupt the excess energy supplies that he gets from the middle east. and not a rico will be secure and expending economic interest in the region, especially even the investment under the bank will initiate the at the, i know why the good that interest our property in the long right? beijing is coming, of course, to be protecting its trade rules, but it's also very clearly in circling india. it's biggest regional rival. well,

i mean, to call the and so come on might be and all the state when, while china might be able to master code friends along the border. and so far, the only reliable len base neighbor get neighbor who will be pocket done. whereas, you know, we would talk about the c bought. i don't think that is one a real, which i know clean to and india beyond the building of port restructure. because given the dynamic between india and it's, you know, solve asia, the carro may bus in the region, i don't think that is and possible. and so called new dally, right? but efforts by india to county china have been less successful. for example, new delhi and tokyo japan have offered to build a port in sri lanka, but there is times seem to be less successful. why? why do you think that is?

we have a few factors to consider. a one thought that you had to do with the fact that i know dos, you know, make it easier for what you receive in countries such as sri lanka, who excess is investment, what we call no fuel strings attached on those fees. but more importantly is to do with the requirements that you need in order to receive those. by contrast, it we talk about japan is more tedious way. i mean it, and so be more on the way it comes to, you know, the filming of requirements. we talk about environmental impact assessment for returns and are the requirements and some form of job environment, the good the but also important piece co trusting ability and for india, i think when it comes to you for shock tra, india has never been eating compared to i know in japan in the sense,

so we talk about an india and i not foss belong, like sample more to pen play a bigger role than india. i do think democratic countries, collin, or those that say they want to protective all space consensus. do you think they can collectively counter china when you look at the long term strategy? well pushed was democratic, so sorry, these uri, maybe of all booked by the rest of us. all, you know, transparency, that, you know i have to address. we do have an answer to multiple, the whole does not to say that, you know, less democrat the all different countries do not have the proceed to the end though . but you know, the thing is that for democratic country, these very often constitute a structural impediment. when it comes to responding to what would be c s m,

so under my was they all or the whether you're talking about, you know, a breeze or approach law firm where the book is possible to come together for these . and i think it is important to be realistic about you, the prospect of having, you know, a concert approach all the time due to what i will see as not just about the omen political interest or just the but what to do is, you know, report the you know, the spring each bus has a queen size ultimately and you know, each democratic and b will mastered their own resources and their own people believe be based on also comes to and so i think the, the heard those that i believe in or what have to be overcome, if you want the approach you, if i know, do you think finally calling that china's asian neighbors are convinced that the us

will stick with them? or is it better for them to stay neutral that, that need. there has always been a sense of, of when we talk about western pacific region means east asia. right. there has been a long standing concern about you as you get the wind comes to the region. but that being said, wow, that has to be what we will call a within the, at the that we will, we will see any topic we comes to ongoing in the us where the know me or in terms of the better security. but it's quite clear that, you know, there is some hedging that in place when countries around china are exploring options you on the us by deepening the eyes. who are the huge press, the like my, the power such as for reasons india and, you know, runs germany. you, for instance, i think that you know,

approach the right to your it, you more than one basket is going to be the approach that's going to be undertaken in our context of uncertainty, calling co. thank you so much for your analysis. thank you for joining us. on counting the cost. thank you so much for having the species of firefly found in the form of test color in federal mexico, a dying out. i'm surprisingly, humans are to blame for the destruction of the force due to logging and agriculture, and even tourists who come to see the so called forest of lights are contributing to the extinction of the firefly algiers, john home and reports a symphony of light in the force of plus gala central met code. these 5 flies pulse and cease in unison. great groups participating in a joint courtship ritual that coordinated displays. what makes this species for

penis plus your c special? and in the last few years, they've had never increasing audience. this is a present for guy l from his girlfriend, erica, that come all the way from france. they thought it was a nice idea for his where they already no idea and different it was a surprise until today. so i'm here for the state authorities say the number of visitors to see the 5 flies doubled in the 6 years before the pandemic. and that's a cause for celebration. but also worry for scientists like carlos called darrow phill as almost have it in a moment or relevant a critical this was me, we're going to see them in a critical moment in their lives. and we disturbed that we disturbed the relationship between them and therefore their reproduction and torchlight phones spoke. distract them sound too if tour is straight from the path, they can also tremble the females who can't fly. the concern is the if tourism

operators here don't take care, they might lose what attracts their clients. in the 1st place. we had an up to see the fall flies right now, right? you have quite smooth tool group. and each tour operator has a number of people that they're allowed to take up to see the fire flies each night . what we're being told is that the problem can be, is that to operate, to sometimes exceed that number for people that haven't got a license to just take people up anyway inclined to sign tools. it's a problem in a region with a lot of economic necessity. 92 months a year to make money from the luminous b $2.00. but many are aware am regulating themselves in one follow guessing comes like i like in. a lot of the education we give to people is about what not to bring repellant white clothing to be silent for a waiver to begin,

let's just begun. hopefully go. i'm paying recycling local materials to reduce the environmental impact mass. so on the, on the sun name to these platforms are from an industrial part of tuscola. there is wood not only for the platform, but also for the bed bases. we use this wood that was in place for these quite rustic tape and all the while he's trying to reuse would others chopping down trees all over the forest? it's perhaps the biggest threat for the fireflies logging which squeezes their living space. the now every june to august, the visual symphony continues. the challenge for the future is to keep the lights from going out. john holman, audi ozetta plus gala mexico. now the housing market has been on a bit of a tear in many developed nations. there are many reasons the cost of borrowing has been held down by central banks, tax cars, and a desire to move out of cities. but home buyers are also having to compete for

homes. again, some of the world's biggest financial institutions, j. p. morgan leonard and p s. p. investments are pouring money in just not being up family homes. financial. dr. blackstone is buying whole partners of america for $6000000000.00. the company own 17000 homes, not interestingly. the company allows tenants to buy their rentals in the u. k lloyd's banking group plans to buy 50000 homes over the next 10 years. and retailer john lewis planned to build 10000 rental homes. but there is some pushback against giant landlords. berlin will be holding a referendum in september that would allow the local government to buy 240000 properties from germany's biggest publicly listed residential landlord. while let's talk to one of those campaign is dr. joanna kusha, who is a research fellow in urban studies at kings college, the university of cambridge, and she's joining us 5 kite from berlin. thank you so much for being on the show with us. so why has the city decided to vote on seizing these properties from the

company that owns them? but linda, besides, can use the power they happen to democratic system and organize this referendum to end the domination of financial markets over our housing system. so what the initiative is trying to do is actually not so much for the city to buy that department, but actually to expropriate them to see this property from the financial corporation and be privatized to take it back to the city, whither compensation? so have the people been evicted from their homes because they haven't been able to pay the rent. but these are relatively strong rental protection laws. so often eviction is not directly that easy, but it's been evictions of people have been priced out of the apartment or evicted under the guise of modernization. so despite the strongly got protection, but tenants is building this corporations,

they have their own legal department and they have been very good in finding new coal in tenant protection laws. busy give us an idea, joanna of the rental prices in berlin. has they been an increase? oh the the be, i'm for the dentist and please, and especially some accounts really attractive of the city like prospect of meta. we've been the last 12 years. we could see price quadrupling, so the prices are renting an apartment would be now $4.00 times bigger than 12 years ago. so our investors wealthy investors, you think adding to the crisis by, by buying buildings and leaving them empty. absolutely, the cooperation could be expropriate. this referendum operate on the financial markets and they are loyal to their shareholders and not to the tenants and 1000000000. it's structurally logical, but it's the housing markets in the city. but john, at the question also of why the city would be a better landlord than

a stock market listed company. well, so many reasons being that the city politically must be loyal, good citizen and not the shareholders based locally abroad and up in tax haven. so the city could also use the income from this rent to build more apartments, and also in this way to, to said it overcome to housing prices. and lastly, 1000000000 has a huge experience in public land not exist already. and all the, all the polls show that it can tend to be more happy in public housing than been in private, the corporate housing. you talked about john, an increase and unprecedented and for unprecedented increased. you said in rental prices, to what extent did the pandemic contribute? to that, not just in berlin, but also in the rest of germany is, is there an increase in the number of renters? well, germany, it's important to remember that in comparison to the world and launch, gemini,

and 1000000000 in particular, very high number of runs is belinda, 85 percent rental. so when seeing if the system for all levels of the society, almost everyone is a tenant in 1000000000. what the antenna, what the global pandemic shown, of course, is how important housing is for so many kind of products, including health policy and for the economic policy supporting people who are the fund damage. so definitely, pandemic was attracted building political immobilization because it made me even more dire right now. the extra creation initiative is based on article 15 of the german constitution, which says land, natural resources and means of production can be reclaimed for public ownership in exchange for compensation. it's never been tested in practice. so what are the chances of success?

yes, that they citing because it's one of the baby cloth of the german. so you should actually have never really been tried. so legally, we have to speak or weapon potential new precedents at the same time, all the legal opinions show that legally speaking it would be possible and if it be possible, we'll see you in the upcoming gra, her end of the latest paula show that this life majority is for patients. so it is, there, it is a very exciting political moment. it seems that it's possible, but wouldn't the money required to buy all these properties drawn? i would need be better used to build new homes. well this would, this would be much less money available for the, for the new home because the city is not going to bind the apartment. expropriation with compensation and compensation getting speaking has to be below market prices because the actual temperature for what we trying to do is socialization is about

intriguing. the common who are using the common destiny. a compensation based corporation must be below market prices, right. rental price is extremely high, as you said, how easy or difficult would it be to stop speculation and rising rental prices in germany? well, if they're not random and successful, we can expect that this. ringback back to just financial speculation on 1000000000 housing markets could be stopped in a way that the lovely, unprecedented, it would be the fair here in the world, a lot of graphic initiative managing to break that domain, nation global financial capitalism. and that's make the political so exciting not just willing, but for the whole world. but the cities attempt to impose a rental cap was struck down by germany's highest court on what ground the problem

was not, not with the law itself, which was not faulty. the problem was competent. so within the federal system it should have been the federal state imposing such lo and it was done in berlin under lock lever, which in this case could be, you would not possible. this is not going to happen with the expropriation and with the referendum, precisely because there's no the president, the federal space, has never attempted anything like that. and therefore, legally speaking of berlin, which is also land in federal state, has the right to right. and the post that will be certainly very interesting to see how the spans out. thank you so much for talking to us. you're on a cool shack. jonna joining us from 1000000000. thank you for being on the show. thank you. romania has become a dumping ground for most of europe. c. leave a waste. government officials have told arduous era criminal organizations within the country have made it a big business. and simmons report from bucharest,

this site was registered as a recycling center. yet it became a mountain of waste mixed with building rubble ignored by local authorities for more than 10 years. until now, i stick a lot of plastic domestic waste may be induced to waste in that part. the new head of romania is national environment agency, octavian. but china knew nothing about it until sewage pipes beneath the tip collapsed a few weeks ago, flooding a suburb of bucharest, aside from the acrid stench and the colossal scale of its tip and others like it. romania now has an even bigger problem with illegal waste. go east to the black sea port of cassandra and rubbish is a criminal commodity with millions of dollars. and a determined prosecutor here is taking on the car, sells the model for problem of illegal waste. trafficking is compatible with the

drug trafficking to doing its faces. an overwhelming challenge, but he did smash warner daisha plan to import a shipment of toxic waste from italy, so called business men were involved and they attempted to bribe local officials, whales from other european consignments, like these sho, recycling centers as destinations. but instead they go to basic consideration sites all landfill dumps, pollution on a big scale. this is part of one consignment from the u. k. host of cop 26, the u. n. global warming summit due in november need. so says the u. k is incorporating enough on getting prosecutions. i wish to have a more collaboration of, of, from the part of the british authorities were fighting against and the crimes. and then the crimes regard. not romania and not going to beat them. in my opinion. it's

a problem for all the product, october the on, but john, who says his investigation team is poorly paid and it faces intimidation from criminals, exposing your family, your life. it's a problem to be put on the mound, but john, who stay and besides symbolise is a different era of ways. crime now to wolf by matthew cartels, bribery, corruption, here and overseas. and there's pollution never seen before. coupled with inaction and apparent indifference in other european states. andrew simmons al jazeera, bucharest, and that is our show for this week. get in touch with us, my tweaking me actually by a g e and don't get to the hash tag a j, c t c. when you can or drop us an e mail counting the cost that al jazeera dot net is address. but it is more for you on line algebra dot com slash ctc. that will take you straight to our page. we

chose individual reports named an entire episode for you to catch up. and i say for this edition of counting the cost, i'm fully basketball from the whole team here until hi, thank you for joining us and use on. i'll just use talk to al jazeera, we can what gives you hope that it is going to be peace because the situation on the ground seems to be pointing. otherwise we listen. we were never on the whatever road to off migration. we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that on sierra, investigative journalist and government panic. they didn't have the infrastructure they needed. they promised results in 5 days. but it's been a year examining, the headline. is this another potential flashpoint for conflicts? voice is from different corner. every house here has someone who has made it to the

top of ever. it's not just one, but several time program that has been your i to not punitive you today. on algiers, near one 3rd of all the food produce is the wasted with tens of thousands of put out fall in south korea has been transformed from what still fender is the global leader in foot recycling i the reporting on how new technology is making. it's possible in kenya, i mean the farmer and santi, what he did, the oil life depended on was life afraid, or just just the right here to report on the people often ignored, but who must be hurt? how many other channels can you say will take the time and put extensive thought into reporting from under reported areas? of course we cover major global offend, but our passion lives and making sure that you're hearing the stories from people

in places like how to find libya and her region. and so many others. we go to them, you make the effort, we care. ah, the taliban battle fighters in ne afghan is done in a bit to take over the last pocket of resistance against the group. we're looking at what actions, what policies? any new afghan government pursues us, secretary of state anthony blink can express his concern about the formation of a ton of ongoing ah, i'm hadn't seeking this is edge. is it alive from also coming up us.