catered throughout our stadium. so we are pretty sure that there will be some sorts of a daily usage for these facilities beyond 2020, to the middle east. 7 wells campus take more than a decade in the making. a game changer for cats are the aims to establish itself as a cultural hub in the region. so to create a, i'll just 0. so ah, this is a, let's get around up the top story south africa. as corona virus cases have doubled to more than 8500 in a day, most of the infections are thought to be of the army kron various. it has now been reported in at least $24.00 countries with us being one of the latest. allen fisher has more from washington. this man arrived in the united states and california on the 22nd of november from south africa. that of course,

before the travel bands were put in place, didn't feel terribly well tested on the 29th of november. it was then he was positive, it was sent for further testing on the 30th by 3 pm. public health experts had the sample by 8 pm. they confirmed it was the new variant. you remember that when corporate was found in the united states, it was also forced on the west coast. now this man is an isolation. his course contacts have tested negative, but of course track in trace is underway. the women's tennis association has suspended tournaments in china and hong kong. it's over concerns about the safety of for my doubles world. number one upon schwein. she's accused a former vice premier of coercing her intersects and was not seen in public for more than 2 weeks in the state of the w t. a had said players and staff could face risks in china. uganda is deploying troops across the border into democratic

republic of congo as it baffles an arm group. it follows as strikes on tuesday against the allied democratic forces, part of a joint operation with the congress army both pro and anti abortion rights activists have been protesting at the u. s. supreme court. it's deciding whether to uphold a mississippi law banning most terminations. after 15 weeks, it could lead to abortions becoming illegal once again. in many states, nato is threatening russia with economic sanctions, if it uses force against ukraine, concerns about a military build up with the board dominated discussions in lab b as capital reagan, russia back separatists in easton ukraine, and the conflict has killed about 14 season in the past 7 years, those are the headlines counting, the cost is next december on and just either cattle, host the feet, the arab cup, a momentous event for the region and

a glimpse of what's in store for the 2022 world cup. people in power investigates the use and abuse of power across the globe. a world exclusive interview with joint nobel peace, lori recognized the safeguarding freedom of expression as a pre condition for democracy and lasting peace from shore. documentaries to in depth explain his portal. showcase is the best voucher zero's digital content. i think he had jewels to a close. we look back at the events that have shaped the news and look ahead to next year. december on a jesse europe. ah, [000:00:00;00] i . hello, i'm halla here,

dean. this is counting the coast on al jazeera. you're look at the world's own business and economics this week, the country that one so 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, red gold. but climate change and drunk like conditions are hurting the lucrative business. ah, i 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 or food banks due to the pandemic. japan's you primary to serve for mucus, 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 u. s. where inequality 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 the record stimulus package of more than $490000000000.00 to help the country recover from the pandemic. it's the largest to dates and expected to increase outputs, although it means increasing its debt burden. while the package includes financial aid for businesses affected by the corona, virus health crisis and the slump in demands 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 the investments in a nation wide university funds. cuz she 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 cash, 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 all cut 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 fully. casita 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, and 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 re game 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 of a radical or say, a person who brings a lot of constructed destruction to the system. the issues claim to do that. oh, mystery kasheila 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 stan cisco and he has some thing of a, a fiscal conservative issue, the st. but the, do you think that this does represent something of a change in terms of a bicycle 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 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 to a big presence and not talking about where the money is coming from. this is one of the big argument that's not really been talked about enough in japan. and this is where mystic sheet or any other politicians do not want to be touched. 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, and other we've got loads of things which and make the transformational changes. and i think japan has to move to step on. fortunately, the, 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 character 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 the, 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, it goes into savings. so if you look at the, the, the multiplier to the current to 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 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 taxes 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 are 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 this. on the other side, there are members who feel that this is not the answer to the plan. then we can what we need to do is bring them to the middle. this is a negotiating form, and 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 they develop that we should not dis, incentivized innovation so i think that technology transfer that 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 supply chain there. 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 help them to monitor. yes, supply chain is a mix, showed 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, that at the top of the q because they have more money and can, and can, you know, big 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 contracting, more distribution, more equity. that's something that we dream of the drum. so when i was the got the

on working on that then 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 2 for up on trees. why switzerland goods, the back of the queue? i think these are some of the kinds of solution 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 in africa we, what 99 percent of that seems and 90 percent of our medical progress. so why don't we get to investment in those parts 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, some activities that are ongoing on very recent issues that are pertinent to our times. what am i talking about digital to it as they can. now, during this pandemic,

i'm right now they're 86 countries that they the membership rule 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 harmful fishery subsidies. 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 you will 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 what 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 unilateral actions that as some of the members have been taken, which, you know, we have very, we have to let them know that there are any options. the coordinates golf course that the intentions between china and the u. s. as you said, between, between us and europe. but you've seen recently that's actually the united states and europe have come together and some of the long standing issues of terrorists. 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, the step 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 kinetically. ok. director general of the world trade organization goes a conjure whaler. thank you so much for joining us on counting the cos. thank you. night 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 farmer. may roger bean family is harvesting purple flowers, but only bloom for a week. they live in indian administered push me to pump our district. unlike others here have been foremost for generations. the last few years have been tough . road and broken walk through associated with food production has been decreasing . gradually when i was younger, we used to harvest about 15 kilograms. now we barely recover labor cars because of the erotic rainfall. and at times, drought like conditions for the government installed irrigation pumps, but barely use them. but when they suffer, farming is hard work but lucrative trans individually plucked and piled up a 150 pounds. and flowers can yield one kilogram of saffron, which sells nearly $3500.00. now there was most expensive spice is staring at an uncertain future that modification re soften 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. it's suffering from iran . it's cheaper to buy and sometimes so dish meeting. the government opened this facility last year to increase production on to now realize i'm a good, nice family, dr. strong. the traditional way here is done by machines which is quicker and maintains the quality scientist as the strands regularly and certified them the achieve. we're going to want to get it because we heard that cell phone gets the g . i tag here in a scientifically process. so we can sell it globally at a good price that many farmers have produced, lying in storage. i am impressed with the facilities and technology similar. we know the sheila here from the saturn research center is telling farmers about new ways to so enter their crop. he also advises them on how to reduce the effects of climate change most to meet you, my guess is rainfall patterns have changed and it's not happening at the right time . and that's one of the main reasons behind the production decline. we have

recommended a newer edition schedule to the farmer's sign, to see their methods can improve saffron quality and increase production by up to 40 percent. but many farmers are skeptical. they have little faith in the government and see their lander secret. they say nature will look after them, like it has done for centuries. and advances are short for this week, but remember, you can't get in touch with those via twitter, tweet me at alamo. here d, use the hash tag agent ctc. when you do or talk as an email, came to the course at al jazeera dot net, there's much more for you online at al jazeera dot com slash a c t c. that will take you straight to our page, which is entire episodes for you to catch up on an answer for this edition of counting the cost. i'm halima, hidden from the whole team. thanks for joining us. the uses next on al jazeera

ah a informed opinion. there is a ne, fabulous federal government to take action to really facilitate a peak right in depth analysis of the dates, global headlines inside story on al jazeera, african stories of resilience and her age. i get younger than i write a little boy, them kind of tradition and dedication. but a little guy was a little more global about a short documentary by african filmmakers

on the white 9 and the book make it africa direct on al jazeera ah al jazeera with chapel. ah, south africa's corona virus cases double to 8500 in a day. most of them from the army kron variance the united states. i did advise its 1st case of on a con and a traveler from south africa with house experts pushing for vaccinations over a travel band. ah, i'm has them. think of this is al jazeera live from dollhouse,

a coming up. the european union unveils a $340000000000.00 plan to rival china's beltran road infrastructure project,