awards, which is more than any other composer and rasa. archaeologists in peru found a mummy bay estimate, is at least 800 years old. the remains were discovered near lima and predate the inca empire. the underground tomb also contained pots, vegetables, and stone tools. ah half past the hour, let's check the headlines for you and concerns over a new karone of ice variant of shaken the world economy level stock markets and the price of oil fell as the news emerged on friday. a travel industries likely to suffers borders close around the world. and growing number of countries are banding or restricting travel, specifically from southern africa. restrictions which came as the world health organization declared the new variance to be of concern. we understand that people are concerned. the good thing is that we have monitoring systems around the world to detect these variants very quickly. this variant was detected a few weeks ago,

and already scientists are sharing research with us information with us so that we can take action. what's really important as an individual is to lawyer exposure. the measures these proven public health measures have never been more important distancing wearing of a mask, making sure that it's over your nose and mouth with clean hands. making sure you avoid crowded spaces, have be in rooms where there's good ventilation and when it's your turn get vaccinated. in australia, thousands of protested again against corona virus rules. crowds march through melbourne city center for 3rd weekends, protesting against a bill that would give the victorian state government will pause. in the case of a new pandemic covey. 19 vaccinations have been made compulsory for nearly one point. 25000000 of the states workers. the bodies of 3 people have been found in a burned building in the solomon islands capital, where they've been days of rising the streets and honey are unquiet so, but tension remains high. approaches to set fire and damaged property. in the past

3 days, i want prime minister manasseh, so bizarre to resign albums of people. in milan, we're processing it gets rising, living costs corruption, and government favoritism for the frontier against to break up the demonstrations that the protest is, marched towards the council office in the capital longer. the united states is taking the disbanded colombian rebel group, fall off its list of terrorist organizations. the decision will allow us agencies to operate in parts of columbia. and the american musical legend, steven sondheim is down to the age of 90. 1 is broadway works, including classics like west side story gypsy and sweeney todd sometime $18.00 tony woods, which is more than any other composer and right. count of the cost is next with holla and then the news art with milling in about 25 minutes. o less than a year, capital will host the middle east 1st. well come in preparation. the country is

staging a major and settlement with 16 nations going head to head in thick path to fill stadiums for 2022 will keep you across the action as council prepares for the region's biggest ever sporting events that be for our come on out there ah, i hello, i'm how about you, dean? this is counting the coast own. i'll to see it right here. look at the world of business and economics this week. the country that one saw itself is a 100000000. all middle class society is finally acknowledging its economic policy

of the last decades as breads, inequality count, japan's new prime minister, bridge the gap between rich and poor. guessing $164.00 governments on board for more equitable access to coven 19 vaccines. we talked to the director general of the world trade organization on how she plans to do this. and saffron is considered indeed administered customers wed gold. but climate change and drunk like conditions are hurting the lucrative business. ah, was the 1st time in 40 years, save the children, has been handing out foot parcels to the poorest people in japan. it's not an isolated case. rich countries have seen a rise in the use o foot banks g to the pandemic. japan's you primary. so for mucous, she either has acknowledged the failure of trickle down economics for the whitening

inequality gap between rich and poor. he's taking aim at his predecessors, economic plan that has re shaped the japanese economy over the last decades. the countries poverty rates as the 2nd highest among g 7 nations. it's household income fell by 3.5 percent from 2014 to 2019. but the top 10 percent, so the wealthiest saw an increase and the average wage has hardly grown in the past 10 years with an increase of just 1.2 percent from 2012 through to last year. the average annual salary student around $38500.00. that's almost 45 percent less than the average annual wage in the us. we're in a quality is more pronounced. according to cassie, though, he plans to create what he calls

a virtuous economy. that effectively means raising income for a broader range of people to trigger consumption. the prime minister has announced to record stimulus, package of more than $490000000000.00. to help the country recover from the pandemic is the largest to thee, turns expected to increase outputs, although it means increasing its debt burden. well, the package includes financial aid for businesses affected by the corona, virus health crisis, and the slump into manns, around $880.00 cash handouts to households with children. and those aged 18 or below. it also involves money for strengthening semiconductor supply chains, programs to encourage domestic tourism and investments in a nation wide university funds. cuz she to also plans to increase wages for some

workers, including public health and medical staff. and he plans to give tax incentives for companies that ways pay. but despite, because she does criticism all of our been nomics years actually sticking to the policies mean 3 pillars known as the 3 arrows. they includes aggressive monetary easing, flexible fiscal policy, and a growth strategy. he will, however, move away from his predecessors, free market policies. and the prime minister has signaled a reform of corporate governance in favor of the small business sector. so will japan's prime minister succeeds in his mission? well sir, jiro took a sheeta is a professor at the school of management and information of innovation and former managing director of missouri hall into national. he joined me by skype from she's orca, in japan and it's great to have you withers own counseling,

the course at least on thursday, asking about the prime minister's prime focus. she to says he will bring a new form of capitalism. what does this mean, and is it really any different from abby nomics? really good question in the sense that yes ma'am, he needs to bring up something new, especially considering the fact that he was not as popular as these are tribal mr. cohen o amongst a japanese public, but he was elected because he was popular amongst the japanese believe the m p. 's . so obviously he has to come up with, well, some kind of a new plan that would basically attract people's eyes. and basically to rectify the disparity that was caused by the coven, 19. and a japanese are quite sensitive to this issue. although japan's no us disparity of wealth is rather low in amongst be always he, nations, people do not want to have such society will divide. so obviously this is an area

where he could tackle or basically claim to tackle are considering the new form of you know, capitalism. so would you say that this plan that he's presenting is a plan to regain trust among the political parties? or does it really represent radical reform in economic terms that the latter, unfortunately the answer is no. the reason why most of the japanese l d p a members are, i would say the m p. 's had chosen music. she has, as he was sustained a service call. mr. cornell is a much more radical or say a person who brings a lot of constructed destruction to the system. the issues claim to do that. oh mister cassia is much more of i say, adjuster to answer question, will he bring in something new? will he bring in something that would basically and change all to the course of the

japanese methodology? i don't think so. i think he is much more of a person that is stuck to the status quo. he sent to the stance hisco and he has some thing over a fiscal conservative issued descent. but the, do you think that this does represent something of a change in terms of a radical fiscal stimulus package? because that is something that's quite different. does it not? yes. i mean, he obviously will come up with these physical packages. in fact, everybody was seeing that even the opposition, but the biggest question which and none of them answered was considering or death situation, which is the heaviest dep owens all easy. ready nations in considering our demographics, which basically means that we will have a very large number of senior citizens and very low growth rate. or can we afford to continue with this kind of policy of just talking her big presence and not

talking about where the money is coming from. this is one of the big arguments that, that really been talked about enough in japan. and this is where mystic sheet or any other politicians do not want to be touch. unfortunately because of the coven, 19 people are used to the spending spree type of you know, policies. but i think, you know, what japan has to realize is a world do realize that one of the biggest weak point in japan is the step problem . and this is where i think politicians have to start talking about, you know, putting some discipline into the system. is that it just about control pulling the data and putting the discipline into the system. or is it time to tackle other difficult subjects? if for example, immigration, immigration is definitely, well them sd, jeez, another, we've got loads of things which and make the transformational changes. and i think japan has to move to the step unfortunately. um, the great thing about, you know,

mr. kachimba and his follower is that, you know, the transition of a se management will be smooth because he's very, he said a very, very long experience with the bureaucrats and within the party, it's got very good ties, et cetera. but the flip side of that is if and when you want to make radical changes, you'll be faced with severe opposition from exact the people who have been sporting you can me have the guts and goals. so, you know, can you afford to basically sacrifice, you know, his strength to make that transfer? so changes. i think that would be a very big question because if he loses his strongest point, then it will be very difficult by him to administer for the on at less talk about the changes that he is making. and of course, these are these payments that are going out to families name, of course is to host consumption and to kick start the economy that way. but will

it work in particular, given the, the world is facing such a keats a supply shortage. i think the answer is simply no, i mean we've done this before. the kept use of japanese consumption is that if you have to have it, you have to have a very good, i'll say environment of the corporate side. because of partly because a lifelong employment system is, which is still there in almost larger companies and also the behavior, the japanese which is extremely conservative, which tend to basically, um, stick to a very conservative nature in their spending patterns. so obviously, if they know that the macro environment, particular company side is good, then missiles are renting. but if they're just given cash, what happened before is that they get goes into savings. so if you look at the, the, the multiplier to the current of me, i'm pretty sure that you're not going to get a very big deal of buy, just,

you know, throwing cash at them. the important thing is to rejuvenate the prolonged, i would say on our say conditions, oh, the economy, which basically gives a much more a safeguard feeling for the consumers. but that said, of course, you know, for the people who has been, you know, suffering are very badly the non full time employees. women in particular who are in the service sector. of course, he cash ah, they're in a desperate situation. so yes, it will be an emergency measures, but will it really be an ignition of consumer spending to kick off? the answer is definitely no. well, it would be fascinating to see how it all plays out, but for now it says 0 tech a sheets are joining us from shizzle coo in japan. thank you so much for your analysis. we really appreciate it. thank you. ah,

they're getting 164 member states to pool in the same direction has made a toll order for the world trade organization. since its inception, 26 years ago, the w t o has struggled to get consensus for some of the most pressing issues of our time. now as the global economy, where there's a 2nd year of the pandemic, it's new direct to general hopes to make headway where others have failed. i'm delighted to say and go say or conjure willa, joins me now from geneva. she made history as the 1st woman and the 1st african to leads the world trade organization. madam director general, thank you so much for joining us here on counseling the coast. thank you. hello for have in me and let starts with the pandemic. one of the key root sites, or of the global pandemic, has been hailed as the vaccines and vaccine programs. many countries have vaccines

. many others simply don't have access to them. one proposed solution is waving vaccine patents. where do you stand on this? do you think this will help the entire world get out of this pandemic? well, thank you so much on her. i think this issue of access to vaccines is very, very important. and one of the most trouble in issues of that time, the fact that you have been to reach 366 percent or more of the population vaccinated and less take africa. you have about 7 percent. that kind of inequity of assets is what we really want to work hard to correct. and to do that, of course, you need several things to be place. you need to have a manufacturing capacity diversified to many countries, right now. 80 percent of export from 10 countries in the world and so concentrated

. so we need to put more capacity in developing countries and emerging markets. we never need the cost of transfer of technology that you talked about, which is the issue of intellectual property that many members of the w q or ask employee we've over 100 developing countries asking for that. on the other side, they are members who feel that this is not the answer to the pandemic on what we need to do is bring them to the middle. this is a negotiating form. i think that pragmatic solutions that we can come to that will give developing countries more upset to this technology again to ip, whilst at the same time taking care of the worries of the develop that we should not dis incentivized innovation. so i think that technology transfer is a big part of, of the issue manufacturing capacities. i know that,

but i'm keeping making sure that supply chains work because that, you know, manufacturing vaccine requests very complex of like a, there are many parts involved. i'm still making sure export prohibition and restrictions are lower and we paid to that. so now, you know very well the challenge of getting vaccines out to the developing world. he used to serve on the board of coffee. do you think there is it? is there anything more in that you want to see happening because now you're in the big chair, the world trade organization. what does that you feel you're able to do? you know that you were calling for, but when you are at guffy, i think what is innovative in the short term we, i think we need to work with the manufacturers if we helped them to monitor. yes, supply chain is a big show that goods low really. i think it would be very good to, to see them allow swapping of contracts between countries in the short term that

is rich countries that at the top of the q because they have more money. and can, and can, you know, big plus supplies of these to swap contracts with warranties at the back of the u. this is innovative, this is good. this will serve everybody in everybody's interest to get everyone fascinated worldwide. so that's something that we are working on more transparent in contract in more distribution, more equity. that's something that we dream of the drum. so when i was in got the on working on that and actually today they knew that switzerland has agreed to swap it. got attract, so that co that can get to the front of the line and get back to these 10 to 4 up on trees. why switzerland goods the back of the queue? i think these are some of the kinds of solutions that we are working with, manufacture as done. and then in the longer term,

i think another 2 is to go to the back of the world that don't have the capacity to manufacture. i mean, it's a nominal, that's enough. erica, we what 99 percent of that seems and 90 percent of our medical progress. so why don't we get to investment in those spots of the world and make sure that they come up or down population. but let's talk about your plans for the w t. you, you have of course made history being the 1st woman, the 1st african heads up this organization. you've talked about finding practical solutions and encouraging consensus. what are you hoping to do in terms of reforming this organization because there have been criticisms that it's not been able to get as much done as people would like. well, thank you highlighted, this is actually a very important issue that will be center stage. you're in this ministerial that we're going to start in, if in a few days,

i think let me 1st correct the impression that you know there is nothing you have in the w t o. yes, the organization has quite a few problems with his multilateral instrument in reaching agreements, and there are some agreements that have been pending for 20 years. but there are also some agreements that have been negotiated so much to be ongoing on very recent issues that are pertinent to our times. what am i talking about? digital tre, does taken now during this pandemic. i'm right now, they're 86 countries that they the membership in rooms that underpin e comment that they are members to negotiate in rules on how to help women a trade better in blue and fit into global value. and so they can improve their income, them with micro medium and small enterprises. so we do have some exciting things

going on in the area of climate change. we also have members who are working to see our country to be part of the solution. now come in back to what you said. yes, it is true that we have not a modernized some instrument for years. we've not been able to complete some multilateral negotiations in fishery, for instance. we've been negotiations that have been going on here for 21 years on how to, to reduce ample fishery subsidies that need to fishing. and so if we can, we are hoping that during this conference we can have ministers reach an agreement . finally, after 21 years to, to come those handful fishery stuff. in addition, i think we talked reform we need to update, negotiates in instruments. we have to update a monitoring capacity. and finally,

a dispute settlement system and more denies the way that we approach our rule in the organisation. i think these are the things that will be discussed in this ministerial, and hopefully we'll make some progress along those lines. well, there's great to hear that there's a, you're hoping for some progress after 21 years on the issue of fisheries, particularly when environmental protection is top of most people's minds right now . but of course, the big climate, but looms over. certainly the w t o in recent years has been the massive disputes between china and the united states. and when big disputes like this arise, how hopeful are you, will be able to come through them and get back to smoother way of treating internationally when you hello, you've pointed to the issue of, you know, the terrorist was the in the lecture last shown as some of the members being taken, which, you know, we have very,

we have to let them know that any options the coordinates. so of course, that the intentions between china and the u. s. as you said, between, between us and europe. i mean, but you've seen recently that's actually the united states and europe have come together and some of the long standing issues of parents. so that is very promising . and we hope that that can set an example of our members can bilaterally deal with each other. and come to agreement with us going to the dispute settlement. that being said, geopolitical attentions are high, but i want to share something with you while we see the rhetoric very hard actually, when you look at the trade number, you will see that trade between the u. s. and i know it's very robots and almost i know times the same be about trade between europe and china. so

sometimes what is actually happening on the ground dramatically different from the rhetoric that you hear? you joe politically. ok. director general of the world trade organization goes a culture whaler. thank you so much for joining us on counting the cos. thank you. know, for centuries, saffron has been a powerful components of the economy and culture in administered kashmir. temperatures have been rising though, and rainfall is more erratic, threatening the future of this rare spice. possibly metal reports. it's the busiest time of year for saffron farmers. may, roger, the family is harvesting purple flowers, but only bloom for a week. they live in did administered push me to pump our district, unlike others here have been foremost for generations. the last few years have been touch your daughter. now bruce walked to assist. i'd be production has been

decreasing. gradually when i was younger, we used to harvest about 15 kilograms. now we'd barely recover labor cars because of the erotic rainfall and at times, drought like conditions for the government installed irrigation pumps would barely use them. but we have been suffering. farming is hard work but lucrative trans individually plucked and piled up. a $150.00 pounds in flowers can yield one kilogram of saffron with sales for nearly $3500.00. now there was most expensive spice is staring at an uncertain future. the demand focus, re, saffron has always exceeded supply, and the gap is getting wider. production is down 30 percent on 2 decades ago, filling in some of that short fall in markets like these is suffering from iran. it's cheaper to buy and sometimes so dish meeting. the government opened this facility last year to increase production. until now here's a mud good, nice family, dried strength. the traditional way here is done by machines,

which is quicker and maintains the quality scientists test the strands regularly and certified them via tim. we're going dre the want to get it, because we heard that saffron gets the g. i tag here a little bit in his scientifically process. so we can sell it globally at a good price levels that many farmers have produced, lying and storage. yeah, i'm impressed with the facilities and technology them with lower none of the sheer law he from the saffron research center is telling farmers about new ways to so and 10 day crop. he also advises them on how to reduce the effects of climate change most to meet up, didn't you? i guess it is rainfall patterns have changed and it's not happening at the right time. that's one of the main reasons behind the production decline. we have recommended a new regression schedule to the farmers side to say their methods can improve saffron quality and increase production by up to 40 percent. but many farmers as skeptical. they have little faith in the government and see the lander secret. they say nature will look after them,

like it has done for centuries. and that's is our show for this week, but remember, you can't get in touch with those via switzer tweet me at alamo. here d, use the hash tag, ha, ctc. when you do or talk as an e mail came to the course at al jazeera dot, and next is much more for you online at al jazeera dot com slash a c t. c. that will take you straight to our page, which has entire episodes for you to catch up on. and that's it for this edition of kind say the coast i'm have them are hidden from the whole team. thanks for joining us. the uses next on al jazeera. oh, there's a lot more into al jazeera than t v with our website, mobile app, social media and podcast. i'll just there a digital is a world award winning online content. and each week on portal will bring you the very best of it. they're trying to broaden the people to leave it to go somewhere

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international politics to the global pandemic. and everything in between, upfront with me, mark lamond hill on al jazeera. ah, this is al jazeera ah, hello money inside, this is the news i lie from dive hall, coming up in the next 60 minutes. a new cove at 19 varian shakes global markets as governments ban all were straight flights from southern africa. the u. s. is calling for urgent negotiations to end the conflict in ethiopia, while prime minister be ahead, is on the front lines. and these 3 people are dead in the solomon islands off the

days of writing against government policies. and electric vehicles may be the future. but in the democratic republic of congo mining for materials used to.