or hundreds of young activists from around the world proposed strategies to tackle the climate crisis. coming out of the conference, many delegates expressed cautious optimism that leaders would follow through on promises tact swiftly and boldly. oh, the mood though on the street is different. many young activists said, trust between them and world leaders is broken and it likely won't be rebuilt until a major climate solution plan is put in place. and soon, adarine al jazeera new learn, ah, main stories. now, the ones actually general is told, ethiopia as prime minister does not accept his decision to expel at 7 senior members of staff in europe. his former 3 is claiming the officials a being expelled from meddling in the internal affairs of the country. but the un

says it could effect humanitarian operations that help more than 5000000 people in the war 2 and take ry region. expulsion came after the u. n. z h. he said a de facto blockade on a, to the region meant that was likely a famine. the canyon government. and our delegation certainly is, is not considering questions about perio state or what the responsibility of him government is. we are considering all the statements, including some of the communications are from the foreign ministry by twitter. and we are continuing to actively be informed and trying to be responsive to the situation as if there was. but we have every hope that it will are good in a positive direction. georgia, former president maquel soccer. she really has been detained just hours after arriving back in the country for the 1st time in years. it posted a video on facebook saying he wanted to support your position in the election on saturday. this fight the risk of arrest. he left georgia in 2013 when his 2nd term,

as president ended years later, he was sentenced in absentia to 6 years in prison. for abuse of power, a charge he said was analytically motivated and having averted a government shut down, us politicians appear no closer to solving bigger, more pressing problems. they are running out of time to raise the boring limit or risk defaulting on debt. a move which could tr, the global economic problems, publicans won't know part of the debt limit, right? saying it's the democrats problem since they control congress and the white house democrats, a divided though of a president biden's trillion dollar infrastructure bill. more on that story and everything else at the top of the next hour and about 25 minutes time. that's it for myself in the team here in london for now. counting cost is coming out next. ah, people are much more goes to the community. they live in no matter how much it

needs to present titian as much as anyone else's or going to like the main is one of the most hideous the police that's part of the night at delta. and now it's people say they want a clean up of their destroyed environment with the media, lunch. the coverage all covers you just when you suffer calamities. i don't think that's right above is what i would have to change. i wanted to go further to cover story stuff, impact the lives of people to truthfully tell the students that i was really passionate about tourist with flux. but governments would rather keep him in stories to drop the fixed narrative and only depend on the reality on the ground. but is why i became a journalist. i'm hammered. i booked ah,

[000:00:00;00] i hi there, i'm kimber. now this is counting the cost on algebra. you'll look at the, well, the business and economics this week, under the merkel of legacy germany's economy is the envy of the world. but it's economic position is on the thresh, unprepared for the digital age. and the next leader of germany take on its challenges, lies and fabrications. a war of words is game. make an epic as kicked off the apple app store. it all legal disputes have been settled. is apple abusing its monopoly power and a slow motion economic collapse. international buyers, a shunning afghan businesses. thumbs is struggling to stay afloat, forcing them to lay off employees. ah,

german roses have had their se, the social democrats won the most votes, and now start the process of forming a government, ending 16 years of conservative lead rule on the anglo market. whatever the makeup of the new government, it has a huge task ahead leading the world's fort biggest economy. merkel oversaw a huge transformation of the economy once the sick man of europe, the country, whether the north atlantic financial crisis and the great recession better than its neighbors. for many germany is the envy of the world and export juggernaut with its world beating motor industry. and the lowest debt burden of any g 7 nation. and therein lies many of its problems. the auto industry for a long time dismissed tesla as a niche and stubbornly pushed diesel. that was until the car makers admitted to cheating environmental tests. now tesla is worth $766000000000.00. that's more than twice as much as b and

w daimler and volkswagen combined. as they spent billions of dollars rolling out electric cars, $215000.00 jobs could be lost because there's no need for complicated combustion engines. that's almost a quarter of the number of people employed directly by the auto industry. now that belated investment has been reflected in other areas of the economy wanted to research and development. spending ranks highly had spending on digitization artificial intelligence and broadband has a lot to be desired. in a ranking of the world's most innovative countries seen hair, germany pops up the top 10 countries. but the auto industry has also enabled the country to record trade surpluses with other countries. and that hasn't gone unnoticed by trading partners. because that worse and bear economic problems, but it's germany's exports to china, which are causing the most concerned, leaving the country, dependent on the communist country and unwilling to confront beijing's human rights abuses. all of this trade means the country doesn't need to turn to the financial

markets to borrowed money to run the country. since the financial crisis, the country has implemented a law called a black 0 or a commitment to run a balanced budget. that's helped to keep its debt and check and has enabled berlin to respond to the pandemic with ease compared to its neighbors or germans a richer than their european neighbors. the country spending on infrastructure and green transformation is lagging behind many g 7 nations. let's discuss the challenges for the new chancellor. joining me is stephanie curts, research director at the kill institute for the world economy. i'd like to start by reading your quote, mr. coon's goldman sachs, as germany has fallen behind in the modernization of its economy. the deutsche bank says germany is falling behind as a research and innovation power house. what are your thoughts on that? i will say this is only half true on if we look at or in

d expenditure in the private sector in the corporate sector. there germany still holds a very strong position. also the professional education system is clearly earn an important pillar of the economy, which is still working very well. but, and here the 2 quotes are correct. there are some weaknesses in particular, when we talk about the coverage of high speed internet and access in particular and the mo bile sector. there are still a room for maneuver, but we also have to, i have to say that the situation there is improving gradually early, but it is improving. what impact has the black 0 ro had? d. thank always keeping one eye on the budget deficit. the balanced budget sir,

is not hindering germany. forum are investing, we have seen are almost record high levels of government investment being in line with the so called lex 0. it's a question of setting the right priorities. what is, are actually expanding massively in germany is, are items are, are in the budget. the rich have a lot to do was there's ending for social on support of programs. we an aging population. therefore, the pension system absorbs more and more funds. and this is a problem backed her debt break, or the blacks 0 is not preventing the german government from investing more aggressively. if they wanted to has germany ground to dependent on its trade with china. r n a, could it be hands strong? looking ahead,

as the u. s. looks to counter china. how do you think that's going to play out? the situation becomes more and more difficult. in particular, if we see something like a 2nd cold war between the united states and china. so it would be a huge problem for german exporters, but not only for exporters, but for corporates in general. because china today is already a very important production up of, for germany based or companies. and therefore, it would be extremely difficult. and if for german companies would face a situation where they have to decide between making business with the u. s. are making business with china and therefore they will try to find a way to reconcile the one with the other. but the situation is becoming more

difficult than it has been in the past. this is for sure. how do you say angela merkel? the legacy? how do you think she'll be reminded? it's a difficult question, a chance in a couple of seconds early. so to put it in nutshell, i would say that as a crisis managers, she did do quite a good job of bringing all parties around one table. but if you look at the fundamental decisions that have been taken, are there a lot of question marks remain in particular with her set up of the european monetary union, or which is still in very difficult conditions or so the energy transformation of the economy was not successful and we are still waiting for a pension reform this urgently needed and it was clear that it is needed for many years. so very few important reforms were pushed through

during her government period of 16 years. so i would say the overall assessment is very, very mixed. ok, let's talk about the heroes on. ultimately it was marianna, are he who despite opposition from belinda spunk. com fears and, and some would say alternately saved the euro. do you think that angela merkel tacit support for bundis banks opposition to bailing out greece might have led to the break up of the union had loud a voice is not prevailed. i would say that germany didn't play a very helpful role here because they try to keep them european monetary union to gather at any cost and her by so doing they gave up important principles. and in particular, the principle that there should not be

a debt union with in the monetary union. but this is crucial for fiscal discipline are on the level of the the member states. and what we are currently on stir ring is there are the fiscal rules that had been adopted more or less neglected by every one. the smaller member countries are still sticking to it, but the large ones, in particular, france, italy, and others. and they are more or less ignoring these rules and turn it will be very, very difficult to come back to a situate or to, to come back to a set up of her euro area where we are playing according to rules that everyone can agree to. i would say this is the fundamental problem of the euro zone,

is that there is no consensus in monetary policy making and actually angle a miracle did not really say clearly what she wanted. she wanted to kind of manage the crisis somewhat, but to what she did is she kicked the can down the road without really solving their underlying problems. all. 1 right, hey, thank you very much re analysis. they're still on coast research director at the kill institute for the world economy. my pleasure. ah, afghanistan's businesses are fighting for their survival, international clients staying way, and that's forcing firms to acts jobs, chance rakfish in cobble find out why no, of the ozzy sold land and a home in order to start off is fixed our company 40 years ago. he says he has since invested half a $1000000.00 in the factory flows. afghan and foreign companies used to buy the

clothes and scarves it makes but business has virtually ground to a halt. in recent weeks, when the taliban took control of afghanistan in august, the u. s froze nearly $10000000000.00 of afghan assets held abroad. and taliban leaders were forced to restrict cash withdrawals from local banks. but as okay, per car. the other thought about the taliban government has to re open the financial institutes mileage so people can withdraw enough money to buy materials for their businesses. hello. and the international community needs to soften their attitude. the stalemate badly affects every day afghan people hardware of they'll. carter is one of the factories. few employees who still comes to work unpaid. he fought the soviet army. when is invaded afghanistan in the 1980s. he never dreamed he would still be struggling to support his family. 40 years later, he says that he saw a tallow clara. the country is in a terrible state. the security situation is improved,

but there are no jobs. there's no happiness in life, no joy. the country is a mess. the factory employees around 30 women who work in a separate room from the men. some employees fled the country on evacuation flights when the taliban took control. no ab shows me a video of men. he used to pay to collect whoo for him in the northern city of missouri sharif. and so ricardo for them right now. around 80, people are employed at this factory. but as you can see, it's just down to day to a skeleton staff. and one of the big problems the companies facing is that one of his main overseas clients is refusing to buy the products at this company makes because the taxes that this company will pay on the profits that it makes. now go to the new taliban government. foreign companies are nervous about dealing with the afghan business partners. that's because foreign governments won't recognize the

taliban government, as some of its members are on terrorism and un sanctioned lists. 29 year old entrepreneur abdul raleigh, spend a $1000000.00 on what he says is the largest wolf spinning machine in afghanistan. he finally got it up and running 3 months ago, but was forced to suspend operations earlier this month. because foreign and local clients canceled orders and some investors fled the country with their cash i and therefore with her, i had big plans to buy more machinery, but i am dedicated to my community, but the consideration is hopeless. all my employees are forced to sit at home because i cannot pay them. no ob says he wants to help his workers, families, and build a new afghanistan for the time being. he and many afghan business owners like him have no choice but to put their dreams on hold. epic,

the developer of the popular fortnight game has been blacklisted by apple. bert after epic took apples court, accusing it of abusing it to ab store monopoly. epic says apples charges for in app purchases are unfair. a judge largely cited with apple, but also in a partial wind for epic, allow developers to use their own app payment systems. apple charges 30 percent commission from developers like epa to use it's app store. in 2020, it made $55000000000.00. it stands to lose $3500000000.00 from the loss of in app payment services. which sounds like a lot, but is only 1.2 percent of apples, total revenue. but for many smaller app developers, it's a matter of survival. after been kicked off, apple's app store, tim sweeney, the seo of the epic games tweeted, this is another extraordinary anti competitive moved by apple. even after the court ruled against these allegations,

sweeney has argued the reason for challenging apple was existential. because they wanted to create a met reverse in simple terms as a platform for developers and uses to earn more money for themselves. and with apple taking 30 percent that wasn't possible that met diverse in some games allows people. and some of the most impoverished parts of the world to make a living. let's get some analysis on this now with peers hunting roles research, director of games at i'm pear analysis, he twins me via skype from london. thank you very much for joining us here on counting the cost. so apple's decision to kick epic from it's ecosystem. is that an overreaction? hello, thanks very much for having me. i don't think so. i think come apples when it's writes, obviously to stop at pick publishing fortnight onto its platform while the court case is going on. that's what it's position it's. it's laid out, oversee in the context of the consume,

i'd love to see fortnight back on ios. and actually i think, i'm not sure we'll be waiting a huge amount of time before we see that going back on the platform. okay, is tim sweeney ethic ceo. right. though and calling apple saying apple has a monopoly? no, i don't think so. actually it's really all related to market definition. so the judge laid out a market definition. and the market that aches examined in the court case is really looking at mobile games transactions as the market definition. and within that context, apple does not have a monopoly. it has by apple's own data market, around $0.55 a share of the opportunity in that context. so it can't be described as a monopoly in that, in that way. epic was trying to convince the judge that the market definition was

actually more narrow than that. but it didn't convince the judge in that argument. okay, what then do you make of the court decision? i kind of gave a win to both sides that more in favor of apple overall seems pretty resounding defeat. pick really the judge, i don't think was that impressed by the arguments that forward. certainly around the idea of apple having a monopoly. the one area of the apple was identified as being anti competitive, all was in terms of its anti steering activity. so within its app app store rules, it doesn't allow developers to actually tell the users about where they can purchase outside of the app store ecosystem or about cheaper opportunities to do that. and the judge laid out

a ruling that means that it wants apple to allow developers to do that. do you think are the developers will challenge apple or develop their own app payment system? well, the routing set stipulates apple must allow developers to be able to make, use as aware potentially within the app about alternative payment mechanisms if they want to implement that. so i think some of the larger developers who already have a payment solutions outside of the app store. for example, we'll be able to roll out fairly easily. solar developers oversee, you know, we'll have to go through the process of building up the capability to do that. i think the benefits are popular, probably slightly exaggerated in terms of the data from the developer side because you know, there's lots of things to think about those additional costs to run your own

payment mechanism outside of the app store. and also things like actually pushing users to use those other forms of payment mechanism. and that, you know, the idea that developers will do that by potentially reducing their prices. and that obviously has a knock on impact on the revenue streams in that context. obviously, developers are following this news very closely, but do you think apple uses are following this legal title the apple uses care? well, i think that's a good question because at pick really was trying to present this as not just a sort of industry focus case, but was also saying this is good for the consumer and oversee had this whole kind of marketing effort to paint apple as the bad guy in the context of this court case, but i don't think the average consumer really cares about what's going on in this

sort of legal ranking. i think actually when it comes down to abuse each of alternative payment mechanisms, if they are implemented, a lot of people will take the easy route and take this, you know, the, the safe route is what they're used to. so using apple's own purchase mechanism. so i don't, i don't think actually consumers that are interested in this or that, you know, your average mainstream consumers are interested in this or impacted by what's going on in the core case. okay, let's turn and talk about the meta versus sort of overarching term used to describe the future of the online world. i guess it's not just socializing online, but playing games online assets online earning real money online. do you think that this decision by apple will impact that at all? i mean, it seems when he seems to think that it will very much impact the future of play to

earn games. yes i, i think there's, there's 2 elements to wipe who was trying to, to get to which was was alternative payment mechanism. but the other one which is perhaps more important in the context of met verse and play to earn games for example, is the ability to introduce other stores into the app store environment and all the ios environment. and that this case failed on that front. and i think the sort of key tenant, really of play to earn experience is, is really the secondary markets market place for use as there are things within the game. can go to those market places and convert that into real money, real money in a way or other assets within the game. and i don't think this, this result is cool cuz changes aren't in any way at the moment. so i don't think that there is

a significant change in the landscape for those types of experiences on ios at the moment. all right, thank you very much for that. pears, harding roles at an pair analysis. thank you. ban cogs, famous night life is part of the reason the city has been a top tourist destination in asia for years. but hist highlands government works on bringing international tourists back after the pandemic curfew is still in place. in bonds are closed. it's got hydro has more from the tie capital. this network of alleys in pat pong, usually the vibrant center of bangkok, unique style of night. life now sits idle and dark. the shutters were pulled down on bars and entertainment. venues. in the weeks after the 1st cases of coven 19 in thailand and have stayed down for most of the 18 months that followed. thanks to shut downs and curfews. this part of chinatown is home to a community of trendy small specialty bars. not only do bar owners view the governments handling of their industry during the pandemic as a near death blow, but alcohol control laws,

pre dating the shut downs have also been working against them. i'm at his house on title. i am embarrassed about the situation. thailand is renowned for his great nie life. many bars he received awards. why does in the government support industry? i think these strange laws are supported by big business to maintain them. monopoly of voice is not loud like t as bar owners call the laws draconian in which alco sales are limited to set hours during the day. heavy taxes on imports and unequal laws only allowing large companies to brew beer at the still alcohol. a ban on alcohol, advertising and internet sales are so strictly enforced. bars refined for posting videos of cocktail making and menus for drinks delivery. yet large bruise avoid the ban by advertising, mineral, water, and soda that bear the same logos as their alcohol products. here's an example of thailand's alcohol control laws. if i were to take a selfie here in this far and shared on social media,

i could be fined up to $1500.00 for indirectly advertising the brands of alcohol behind me. if i own the bar, i could be fined up to $15000.00 and possibly face a year in jail. alcohol control laws have been a contentious subject in thailand, historically, politically connected, conservative and religious groups have worked to keep them strict. an opposition member of parliament, a former bar owner himself, is working to change the laws and save smaller bars and trouble when really all his again and the toys come again there, there would file highlight is hobby up here to leave the firm. honestly, obviously, if not find any law, not yet some who support the alcohol laws say, it's also about safety for visitors, new comp, i think to a safety should be a priority. i think alcohol control is necessary. if he let the alcohol salus run free and do what it, what they want. things will get messy up. once thailand emerges from its locked

down, curfews are lifted in the night. life is allowed to reopen. it's unclear if a return as it once was, or a watered down version. and that is a shallow for this week to get in touch with us by treating me at kimberly l teams, the hash tag a j see to see when you do call, you can drop us an e mail. tell him to call us at algebra dot next is our address. but there's no view on mine at al serra dot com slash c t. c. that'll take you straight to our page, which has in time episodes for you to catch up on an answer to this edition of counting the cost. i'm can vanelle mounting. thanks for joining us. the news on algae there is next. ah. the white to vote representation. participation, democracy means that people have the right to choose their leaders and governments in free and fair election exploring why democracy has never been so wifi. in so many parts of the world,

a documentary series examines the biggest challenge is to democracy from those who under mine, it to those who are ready to die for right democracy maybe coming soon on oh, to 0. ah . a spiraling humanitarian crisis. now complicated by a diplomatic one. united nations tells ethiopia, it has no legal rights to expel 7 un officials. ah, but from doe har on camels, santa maria, and this is the world news from al jazeera, doesn't matter whether it's in 6 minutes, 6 days or 6 weeks,