took place even before the ceremony as the stars arrived on the carpet. and notably this year was not read. it is champagne color. the 1st time in 62 years of oscars history. and in another fresh twist acceptance speeches were posted to social media and audience is invited to interact by scanning q r code displayed on their screens. unlike some recent years, the night was free of fiascos with producers hoping the celebration of the craft of cinema alone was enough to draw audiences. heidi joe castro, al jazeera los angeles. ah, the headlines on al jazeera u. s. president joe biden has tried to ease concern over the collapse of silicon valley bank. he says the banking system is safe and those responsible for the crisis will be held accountable for management of these banks will be fired if the

bank is taken over by f. d, i see the people running the bank should not work there anymore. 3rd, investors in the banks will not be protected. they knowingly took a risk, and when the risk didn't pay off, investors lose their money. that's how capitalism works. and the biden administration has approved a major oil and gas deal drilling project in alaska. the $8000000000.00 plan led by oil giant conoco phillips phase strong opposition from climate activists. china's leader, she jane being has promised to modernize his nation's military into a great wallace seal. he was speaking for the 1st time after being confirmed as present for an historic fair term. she also call for beijing to play a big role in promoting global security. north korea st media says pyongyang as test fired to strategic cause missiles from a submarine. the latest launchers came just ahead of planned military exercises by

the united states and south korea. on monday, the commander of ukraine's grand forces says his troops are repelling russian attempts to take the eastern city of back mort. but the situation there is difficult truth with rushes. wagner private military group control at least half of the city, but say the fighting is becoming more intense. the further they advance moscow has made a win in back most a strategic and symbolic fire t. the bbc has announced that it's presented. gary linux is to return to broadcasting the corporation says lenika will be back on air while an independent review into social media use is conducted. the ex england player had been suspended from v vi says main football program. after tweeting criticism of the u. k. a new policy on asylum seekers and the u. k. parliament is set to debate the bill aimed at curbing the numbers of asylum seekers who arrive on british shores in small boats. no amendments can be made to the text, but at the end of the debate, a vote will be held on whether the bill proceeds to the next stage of the

legislative process. and those are the headlines on al jazeera, as always more news at andre 0, dot com, and i'll be back after counting the cost, stay with us. untold. still, oh, we speak when others stand. ah, we cover all sides no matter where it takes us. a fancy again with my eyes and power and passion. we tell your stones, we are your voice. union, your net check out is here. ah, [000:00:00;00]

with hello, i'm adrian. second of this is counting, the coastal al jazeera, your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week. china's changing ping accuses the u. s. of blocking his countries rise at his government sets the lowest g d p target in decades, is beijing's reporting. both of us will it outpace the u. s. also this week, the un cold for a revolution of support for the world's poorest nations. at a summit in doha, the president of malawi tells us how least developed countries could reach their full potential plus cutting edge gene therapies, a potentially life saving medicines. the drugs come at an astronomical price. come a cost be brought down at who should foot the bill? ah, she's paying heads. it is the thomas, china's president, with sweeping changes to financial and tech regulation. the chinese leader is

bracing for a tough competition between the world's 2 largest economies, and he's made it clear he considers the u. s. and important threats to his country's growth, blaming what he called an american lead campaign of suppression for his nation's troubles. she's read direct criticism of ashington comes after the nations set its lowest g d p targets. in decades outgoing chinese premier lee kit chang announced a g d p. target of just 5 percent for this year at the opening of the national people's congress. lee said the government dames to create around $12000000.00 urban jobs, keep the unemployment rate at around 5 and a half percent and boost the defense budget by more than 70 percent. he's also vowed to support privately owned businesses and encourage foreign investment. china's g d p expanded by just 3 percent last year. well, short of the official target of around 5.5 percent. but the economy appears to be

rebounding strongly after the pandemic manufacturing activity in february, for example, expanded at the fastest pace in more than a decade. however, chinese officials warned of risks ahead. the u. s. as imposed several restrictions on china's access to high end technology over the past few months. but a new report by the australian strategic policy institute found that beijing leaves the world in 37 out of 44 critical technologies. and as in a position to become the world's top technology superpower. among the fields dominated by china, a drones machine, learning electric batteries and nuclear energy. the united states leads in just 7 critical technologies, including space, launch systems, and quantum computing. the u. k. and india are among the top 5 countries in 29 of the 44 technologies. or joining me now from london is douglas mac williams. he's the executive deputy chairman of the center for economics and business research. good to have you with

a set douglas champagne claims. washington for his country's economic kirk slow down. how much is america's trade war and the export restrictions really impacted china's economy? is it to blame? well, direct sport so done by about 6 percent. so it is a partial factor, but i think the recent problems in china have a lot more to do with. first of all, the problems of coverage and the way it exploded after they opened up a bit and. and then the recovery from that, i don't think that you could internally blame washington for cut for chinese woes. what do you make them all for china's modest economic growth outlook. it's g d p forecast. i mean by, by anyone else's standards, it would be pretty good, but by china's, it's pretty low. you still my went from the back to say that if you think fight the

sentence mothers just look at what the rest of us. again. i mean, when you climb higher up the mountain, the ag center and the possibility of growing it, double digit rates is no longer there. 5 percent for a huge economy like china is still a pretty decent rate of growth. incidentally, it's not ended. the chinese government will cost it's also awful cost. we think that's roughly what they're going to be achieving now. and that's a pretty healthy lick for a steady, sophisticated economy. not you think then that the base of double digit growth for china a well actually over now they can't, they don't have the labor supplies to achieve that. and they didn't have a head room. i mean, when you stopped for a very low base when your economy is very low income, you've obviously got his up with the loss of getting used to grow. but china is now a sophisticated economy. you can't grow sophisticated to conduct at 10 percent. paging moved to type in control of

a bodies overseeing the finance like the scientific and, and technology sectors to how do you think that's going to affect the chinese economy? it probably won't have much effect on growth in the short term, but these are the sorts of things that insidious the slowing down your rate of growth over a period of 1020 years. so it probably means that looking at in quarter century as time their economy will be, will have been smaller because of the extent of the government interference. and one of the things that you really need in the mountain wells is creativity. and if the government is trying to restrict crates, unity, it will slow down the rates of chinese growth. certainly, and think tanks at the china could be in a position to become the world's top technology super power in the future. should the us be worried? they said this,

i think in 10 out of 14 technology in china is going to be in the lead. and i don't think that's a wrong assessment, but i think they're talking mainly about physical technology. and as i said in creativity is the biggest driving rules, and i think the way the chinese government is running the is reducing their ability to get the greatest amount of creativity as the chinese population and as a chinese enterprise. so my guess is that they won't do quite as well as the trend and think tank things. while i think the americans still got quite a lot going on and they will be able to take advantage of their much 3, our environments over your organization had predicted some time ago that the chinese economy could outpace the us by 2030 to 2036 do you still see that happening? it's pretty inevitable that china willing to take the u. s, because the population is 4 times bigger than that us. and so it means that when g

d p per capita reaches only a quarter of the american, a chinese gdp, mathematic will be bigger. but there isn't a prior to being 1st in this world, china will still be a relatively less sophisticated economy. and it will simply be an economy with a lot of people in it. so that's the way it's going. it will happen. i'm pretty certain, it's just when it happens is less that we now think it be later rather than it could even be later than that. it could even be delayed towards 2040, but there are roughly the same size even now. and the gap will narrow as we move on that does china's economic plan doesn't involve any, any big stimulus packages president. she is called on the private sector to help and in the fight alongside the government. can the private sector be an economic

driver and of a lack of stimulus packages or announcements on stimulus? a mistake you think when they run out of them initially, it is a lot more difficult for them to push state control, spending and so on. now, with all the packages that have happened, the money that's been used up for the property venture zone. but i think it is realistic to expect what they technically call in china, revenge spending, which satisfied and frightening. but what it actually is the spending that was suppressed during the coven period when there was a lot a lot done. so on people bills are huge savings and they're expecting that the private sector will unleash the savings and turn them into spending. and there's already pension sign that people are buying many more clothes than buying many more tronic goods. and of course,

travel has suddenly just taken off. so it's not perhaps the most appropriate medicine, but, you know, i mean, travel is exploding as a expenditure item. and i think it is reasonable. the chinese government to expect the private sector will actually be the thing that drank the economy for the sun. is this what is, as we said, economic target this g d p, a target actually achievable? do you think? i think it does depend on whether they get another buyer to code it because the vaccination record isn't fantastic and it also does depend on the rest of the world. now most of the news we've had in recent months, the rest of the world has been said, the positive and everyone's revising out the graceful costs. and i think patches supported for chinese economy, good, tokyo sunday, thanks for being with us on counting the cost. my pleasure, thank you very much. ah,

the walls least developed countries or l. d. c's are defined as having an average national income of around $1000.00 per person. more than 1000000000 people live in those 46 nations. and many of them survive on less than $2.00 a day. barely half the population has access to electricity. and only one in 5 can plug into the internet. rising food prices, high debt, climate change and diseases such as coven 19 a wearing them down even more will will lead, has gathered at the un is least developed countries once in a decade, summit in catalyst capital to revive commitments to the doha program of action. the plan focuses on 6 areas, including how to eradicate poverty and hans trade deal with food insecurity. and how best to tackle climate change. the u and has called on wealthy nations to provide $500000000000.00 a year to help those nations boost their economies. cutters announced a $60000000.00 financial contribution. elders here is natasha, good aim,

spoke to the president of below iep on the chair of the l. d. c. group, lazarus, chuck. where up at the summit here in doha, she asked him 1st, how least developed countries could help to solve their own problems. mallory has $26.00 to $3.00 to be calm and inclusively wealthy, self reliant, industrialized nation, mid up a middle income. it me is for us, the 1st 10 years that we started our last year implementing our movement toward that realization. every country needs to have that and then align their own vision with the doha program of action. which is a consensus built over the years by countries not just the list

develop involving the others, the development partners so that we are working in a concerted effort. bring in sooner just to gather that spar exponential development. for example, my lowery's case, we wanted to concentrate in the immediate future on agriculture commercialization and mechanization so that we can grow large volumes, crops, diversified across the section. add value to this same have many industries across the country and export. so we earn a more money to be able to access goods and services that we may not have present. and so if i could,

culture is emphasize in the manner we are thinking. even do mega farms to out great extent and then tourism. and then mining, we had a g o mapping of the country with maybe we didn't have anything. and yet they are minerals gemstones that are, you know, being discovered in ru tire and graphite. so we think if we can immediately have investors come work with us, the story of malawi will be different. so will be the stories of many of these list, develop countries. what would meaningful progress look like when it comes to assisting least developed countries? i see a development in terms of the doha program of action, leading men in nations to graduate. there are certain

a developmental matters within the program of action which must of necessity be accomplished online universities and stuff like this and shore and the youth and the women are included in all of this processes. it means everyone's hands are on deck. everybody's work in toward the fulfillment of this. there is an outstanding issue of public debt and loan conditions by the ins and high interest rates. how can these things be reformed to help address the specific challenges of least developed countries, the reforms that we're demand. even the debt relief that we demand is not necessarily because we just want freebies or something for free. it is because there's

a realization much of the developed world has soul developed by actually exploiting the natural resources in a way that has brought more problems than solutions. and so you cannot ass, for example, smaller nations who have contributed very little for example, to this whole issue ah, of cobrin emissions asked them to do something different from the way they developed an expect that they would do that with that any assistance because they all manner of things that are happening well, which call for, you know, climate justice really and a re thinking of the whole process of lending institutions

where sometimes they're not necessarily given you a hand up. they're actually perpetuating a dependence, the syndrome that needs to be broken. and so we need to rethink this things and, and, and asked the tough questions as to is this really produced in what was intended? how long have these institutions been there? and how is it that others are still struggling? that man in which they are the un secretary general slammed rich countries and energy giants for burdening l. d. c's with what he called predatory interest rates . $25.00, developing economies spent bullen 20 percent of their revenues on servicing debt. the international monetary fund has been criticized for imposing tough conditions on countries seeking loans. the i m f told, counting the cost that it's pushing for more action on providing debt relief. to the 2nd,

the general i know has been calling for greater action. the managing director of the i math has also been calling for stronger action to speed up the delivery of debt relief to those countries who, who haven't sustainable. that's and who need debt restructuring. i'm and that we put forward a number of proposals to try and make the process smoother and faster so countries can, can, can restructure there that sooner rather than later. not gene therapy works by adding a new gene or repairing a mutated one inside the body to treat or cure rare and dangerous diseases. the one time treatment could potentially save the lives of millions of people, but that the world's most expensive drugs health systems that ensure a struggle to cover the costs making access to the therapies, very limited. so how can they become more accessible? that question was top of the agenda at last week's genome editing conference in london from where joe hall reports one of the key issues being discussed at this

human genome, editing summit among scientists, ethicists and policy makers, is the prohibitive cost of genome editing treatments for read diseases caused by single cell mutations think sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis huntington's congenital blindness, even cancers, and h, i. v. the problem exists because of a combination of onerous government regulations in the development of any new treatments, often by companies that have profit based in the private sector. so that the process becomes cumbersome. the costs jaw dropping. lehigh, in fact, one treatment for a red blood disease known as the most expensive on the planet, currently costs $3.00 and a half $1000000.00 for just a single dose. so that it becomes a question, not just of easing those government regulations, but also of securing government funding for research. and that means persuading taxpayers that they should be paying for research into red diseases,

even though huge gaps remain in treating common elements. so while the technology exists, that could help the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world, taking it the main stream could become one of the next great horizons of human genome editing. who, joining me now here in doha, is colin baker al 0 sires editor calling y r gene therapies. so expensive scientists have new tools and techniques that can correct the human genome inside the human body. that's a very big deal. we're and we're talking about serious diseases that affect a small populations with great severity. so that's a tantalizing problem to solve. the problem is it really raises 3 difficult issues for the market. one, you have a small patient population too. you have drugs that are very expensive to develop and traditionally have taken a long time to develop that might soon change and 3,

these are one time use drugs. when you combine those 3 factors, you get a real question about how to price them. and the pricing that we've seen has been astronomical. we see a new record breaking drug almost every year. now are drugs for blood disorders. for neurological diseases have soared above $2.00 and $3000000.00 for a dose. obviously, big solid leads a return on its investment. but the price is fair. furnace is a really tough question to answer in this particular environment. because you do have a lot of scientific questions that still need to be answered and an avenues of attack that still need to be resolved before we get to sort of a mainstreaming of these types of drugs. how to deliver them to the places in the body where they're needed. you know, some diseases are easier to attack, perhaps in the bone marrow or in the back of the i a certain genetic blindness that's inherited. and these are places where it was sort of know how to deliver drugs, others for say, muscle, or perhaps diseases that affect the brain. and the central nervous system might be a little harder to deliver. so some of the techniques and technologies that are

required to get there still require investment, but when it comes to fairness, the regulators are asking the same question and you have some drugs makers in europe as well as in america who pulled their products mid development because the regular simply said, look, you can't charge more than a certain amount for this drug. and the drugs maker said that's not sustainable for us. and they old mid development, leaving those few hundreds of patients with very serious conditions in the lurch, which seems desperately unfair. ultimately, who should foot the bill of, in a public and private insurers ready to step up and, and, and pay these astronomical costs. it's difficult in canada, you had a family that spend that raised over $3000000.00 to try to fund a therapy for their own child. they, they raised that through, through sort of means, like go fund me in, in europe where you have single payer health care systems. you know, you are going to have panels deciding how to allocate these resources in the u. s. where you have private insurers and you have families putting the bill, you'll start up companies that are going to try to figure out financing methods. you have guarantees within the treatment plan that if the drug fails,

some of that money might not be owed. but if i mean in the end for, for instance, the sickle cell therapy, that's presumably going to be approved by the u. s. f. d a this summer. this is a partnership between the drugs company that wants to make this drug and deliver it to say 30000 people in the coming years. but at the moment is working with academia . and so you have the, the sickle cell patient coming in through a trial program funded by the universe of their cellular 6000000000 people with, with sickle cell, most of whom are in sub saharan africa. were many people as we were hearing earlier, a poor, there's no way that they can afford this kind of a therapy. is it going to be available to them? this is a really interesting problem because in africa, you do have these, these robust genetic, a sequencing data basing research efforts led by groups like h, 3 african, many of their representatives where we're at this conference talking about how, how a pipeline could be developed to move some of these therapies from the places where they currently are, and it's just inevitable that they will be in places that are highly resourced at

the moment. because you do need large support teams to deliver these therapies at unique complex systems. and some of the resources that may not be available um, in, in, in, in, in facilities in the developing world. how to move these therapies to the developing world. and some of the research that is being done on the african continent is going to aid that effort. one of the big hurdles that, for instance, the melinda gates foundation is trying to overcome is how to move some of these therapies from a procedures that are done out of the human body, where you remove cells edit and placed them back in with, with a fair amount of infrastructure around that process to something that can be delivered in the human body, what's called in vivo when we cross that barrier, for instance, for during sickle cell or for addressing some of the complications of h, i v, you know, you can really start to see some of these therapies, although the costs would remain high, being available to be delivered to the places where they're needed most were not there yet. the big question will cost eventually come down and when well, will an inflection point come is a really important, a sort of goal to try to reach and, and there are many research organizations and, and,

and private companies that are trying to get their news therapies. and new technologies like crisper, which has only been around for about 10 years. crisper cas 9 is a combination of a protein and a bit of genetic code. it was found in nature. it's, it's both amazingly accurate at being able to, to reach targeted genetic mutations and also correct them either by deleting them interfering with them or even replacing them with a could with bit with the gene that functions. this is a model that some scientists liken. it's not the same but likened to the m r. ne approach. we had after cove, where you have one platform that could be attuned to attack a spectrum of different types of disorders. that's extremely interesting. and then as you get some of these technologies approved for, for the delivery of these drugs, you know, you sort of have an iterative process where you have generations of drugs that follow. so it, it is believed that, that, that we will see sort of a roadmap to, to, to cheaper options and more widespread options. but we're just at the beginning of this process now. colon. let me, thanks and it

a science that has to call it back up and that's all show for this week. don't forget if you'd like to comment on anything you've seen, you can get in touch by tweeting me. i'm at a finnegan. please remember to use the hash tag a j, c t c. when you do or you could drop us alive. counting the cost that al jazeera dot net is our e mail address, as always, plenty will for you online at al jazeera dot com slash ctc. that takes you straight to a page that you'll find individual forced links, even in time episodes for you to catch up on. but that's it for this edition of counting the cost on adrian finnegan for the whole team here. and though how, thanks will be with us, the news on al jazeera is next. ah, what is gay city has become a major global issue? the demand is going straight up and the supply is going straight down, turning in essential natural resources into

a commodity traded for profit. just because it's life doesn't mean it cannot be priced. what about the guy that can't afford it? a guy still needs water. al jazeera examines the social financial and environmental impact of war to privatization notes. if water on al jazeera, ah, good with ah, dismissing environmental concerns, the biden administration improves a controversial oil drilling project in alaska.