Twenty five minutes time after counting the cost which is next. Hello im sam is a than this is counting the cost of aljazeera the weekly look at the world of business and economics this week flying taxis megadeals and management shakeups will look at the flight plan for global aviation in two thousand and eighteen after a turbulent year here in the crowd also this week sales there on the rise find out why what that tells us about the state of the Global Economy going into the new year. Plus a matter of life and death on the nile but for which country by egypts calling for the world bank to help settle the dispute the longest river in africa. Has two thousand and eighteen gets under way a couple of big multibillion dollar deals are in play which could change the face of entire industries now theres one blockbuster deal that could reshape the Global Aerospace industry aircraft make a boeing is held multibillion dollar talks for a takeover of Brazils Embraer now the deal should it go ahead would combine the Worlds LargestAerospace Company with the Third Largest passenger jet maker the brazilian government would have to sign off on it and the two players have only confirmed theyve had private talks but the move is being viewed within the industry as significant with advance of consolidation wife sweeping through the airspace sector i might remember knocked over european rival airbus secured a controlling stake in the c. Series jet from canada has been barred. And there was also in focus this week here in the middle east demanding an apology from the United Arab Emirates after the u. A. E. Banton is in women from flying to the gulf states or transiting its airports in retaliation dubai based Emirates Airlines has been banned from operating flights to and from tunisia charlotte reports. This was the scene at tunis airport on friday as women turned up for flights the start of a u. I. Travel ban against women and girls of all ages to be given it was really nothing if i came here and found chaos and theyre saying to an indian woman under the age of thirty cannot board emerick plane Family Member money but i arrived here only for a man to come and tell me that any woman who holds a tunis in passport is banned from boarding us airline. Two days later the u. A. E. Explains the temporary travel restriction is for security reasons the minister of state for Foreign Affairs posted on twitter they had communicated security information with tunisia and that the u. A. E. Appreciates and values to his young woman. But outrage across china zero and elsewhere grew with claims of discrimination and racism to his ears governments took immediate action the ministry of transport has decided to suspend Emirates Airlines flights to and from tunisia to the latter finds a suitable solution to operate its flights in accordance with International Regulations and conventions emirates didnt respond to our quest for an interview to do confirm via twitter they were instructed to stop services to tune spy to new zealand authorities a fictive to seen between the fifth children as young as two years old will be im barred from flying i mean not many people would consider two year old threats on officials or even informing families that even if you are a one month old female baby you wouldnt be allowed to fly and you wouldnt be allowed to enter the u. A. E. Territory emirates is the only airline that flies you a direct meaning it severed the transport link between the countries its unclear if the diplomatic link will also be cut. To his ear has been trying to repair relations with the u. A. E. After its twenty eleven revolution its Biggest Political Party has strong ties to casa currently under blockades by the u. A. E. And three other arab countries emirates will remain suspended until tunisia feels it can operate within International Regulations the sudden and vague ban that museum woman face now turned on the line or joining us from london is Peter Morris Peter is a chief economist at global flight good to have you with us now from emirates air flights to tunis to cut the railways flights to some arab destinations it seems like you went a little ban happy in the middle east in two thousand and seven how did that impact the region as a travel hob. Well i think youve probably got to take the camera back to some extent and look at whats happened in the industry overall and then within it whats happened within the middle east and i think the first thing thats interesting is if you actually look at the end of last year after was looking at about five percent or so traffic growth for the year in fact its turned out to be more than fifty percent higher than that or at certain a bit percent so overall the Global Industry has really done pretty well and profits of maintained the same kind of level that they had in twenty sixteen so you know overall in st feeling good about itself however what happened in the middle east and theres been a succession of issues that started with the u. S. Administration introducing certain visa rules followed by laptop bands and so on all of which impacted potential demand on an Important Network for gulf carriers in particular but whats happened is that theres pretty much been a hand brake stall on the kind of levels of growth that youve seen from twenty to twenty sixteen which are around ten to fifteen percent or so for for qatar and for emirates and those of drop to pretty much one to two percent or so year on year and its going to be even less when you roll forward into twenty eighteen to what extent do you think its going to impact those gulf carriers in two thousand and eighteen and beyond. Well i think whats interesting to look at that in the background of an industry that without doubt those go carries profited from the economies of scale that they changed and particularly developing markets to north America Europe to asia pacific and so on and so there is been a certain degree of scrabbling necessary given the sudden changes that occurred on the political front to try and find new markets to adapt to the capacity thats coming on stream will they are find ways to slow down. Well i mean its pretty much youve got. What youre finding is certain carries are being excluded from certain markets for whatever reason and so that where they were looking at ten twelve percent growth they cant be looking at that in fact theyre looking at no growth at all on those particular markets so weve got to look at alternatives now if we broaden it out a little bit and talk a little more global weve got buying a stake in bombardier boeing possibly doing the same with embraer is the market theyre heading towards consolidation well its interesting that. Bombard were pretty well dependent on that delta deal than if the delta deal fell through my particular if these terrorists are three hundred percent or whatever the figure was going to be brought in clearly or made the whole deal in feasible so air bus to some extent have helped them out but i think that there is a Real Advantage for air bus in looking at having a plan within north america that will actually have a lower cost of operation annoy the europe or canada so its not just philanthropies thats taking place by bus and indeed in the case of boeing its a question of whether they could be looking at the kind of potential they could have in terms of outsourcing certain elements to brazil where theres a low labor cost and there is a highly trained workforce as well on the aviation what are they getting perhaps lower production cost but ultimately what does it mean for consumers as these Companies Get bigger and bigger well i think youre seeing a transition phase that moment where the. Body and then both have kind of top of the range bottom of the narrow body range in terms of the kind of standard seven three seven or a three twenty so that what theyre doing is bringing in an airplane that much more economic but its still got. A certain capacity limit in talking about the future of an airbus is supposed to Start Testing its air taxi service in two thousand and eighteen weve got that joint effort by and brian nasa will be testing those in two thousand and twenty to what extent do air tanks you think represent the future of the taxi business well i i think youre talking nice there arent you i mean theres been the whole sort of very light jet. Phase in which you are talking about. Two to six people type jets that could operate at a much lower cost but nonetheless thats only been a nice market i think the economies of scale are such that you see something happening at the narrow body level the sort of one fifty to one seven five seat and thats a kind the sweet spot in terms of economics of operation if you look at the wide body similar sweet spots around three fifty four hundred type seats and i think its very very difficult to get the economics right when youre talking about one pilot and possibly even two pilots flying six people you know the economics just dont stand again i dont think i want some pointless serves line goes to be highly less. You know is the autonomous plane the way forward. I think theres a lot of psychological barriers probably the technical barriers have all been solved to some degree but the psychological barrier is for the passengers and for the Airline Operating those particular vocals will always be challenging to some extent you can imagine a situation if there is some kind of problems that occurs and the excitement that will be in the media about that even though you know aviation is the safest form of public transport but nonetheless youre going to see an intense focus before those pilotless aircraft are going to be permitted and even looking at moving from two pilots to one pilot is a considerable challenge for airlines so moving from one to zero its not that the problems are really technical the problems are almost certainly psychological and regulatory who wants to be talking to a machine when theyre up in the air anyway thanks so much theyre ok now two thousand and seventeen was the year that drivers car and trucks became a reality we saw them being tested on roads in the u. S. And u. K. Developers say more than a million lives the year could be saved without humans behind the wheel those accidents would be almost eradicated but that could also mean a loss of millions of jobs lawrence lee has more in this brave new world events official intelligence the first direct effect on all our lives will be in transport its already begun and it will change humanity in many ways. Its well enough known by now that Driverless Cars and lorries are being trials the future were told may involve our children not having to learn how to drive please press the automation button to raise the car to go to meetings in a satirical was this fun even sitting in a simulator you feel a lack of control if you dont grip the wheel or press the brakes driving on for real involves a leap of faith whose english you know that is true there anything to the Steering Wheel you are now free to engage in other times the engineers here assure the technology is good enough for driverless travel on motorways if not in congested cities because theres too much going on. You know this is extremely busy and complex environment with lots of potential destructors people running across roads. So i think thats probably too complex weve certainly tried contemporary vehicle to make sure both on the motorway and in urban environments. They dont work at all in urban environments and even on motorways they require regular interventions by human drivers the future it seems may be a combination of systems moving us from port to driverless port monorail systems near airports or driverless and people use those quite happily the parts of the cars through space would be similar to if there were you know some physical guide to them so i think in some cases so long as the as the speeds are fairly low its probably a safe proposition. True believers in driverless transport say we will be able to sleep or work in our vehicle but if that sounds good it will also mean the loss of millions of jobs and i wonder trades unions want to know how those jobs will be replaced were looking to see massive massive investment in electric vehicles driverless vehicles future mobility we need a great leap forward its easy to understand this concern in the u. K. There was a massive shock when car factories which had traditionally employed thousands of people all shut because of foreign competition this used to be the jackie were factory in the West Midlands now its going to be a warehouse the advent of Driverless Cars and wide automation could be a far greater shock still the British Government reckons that Driverless Cars could create up to thirty thousand jobs in the u. K. Which sounds ok until you hear evidence that says that in this part of england alone automation could cost three hundred thousand jobs it becomes pretty clear that governments like the one in britain in the job strategy for automation and quickly were asked to consider a world in which no humans at the wheel of a vehicle means accidents will not happen and more than a million lives will be saved every year driverless vehicles will be on the roads and soon but will human souse jobs rely on transport except them and can we learn to trust the machines to safeguard the lives of those we love still to come on counting the cost how intrapreneur as from a refugee camp are turning all tents into a thriving bank business. The river nile is one of the worlds most important Water Resources nearly a quarter of a billion people depend on it africas largest hydro dam the grand ethiopian renaissance dam is set to begin setting up its reservoir in the new year and its not clear what that will mean for other countries downstream so the four point eight billion dollar megaproject. It is raising massive concerns about water rights egypt calls it a matter of life or death but so does ethiopia which needs the dam to transform its economy. Says previous agreements on water sharing our outdated and now egypt as i asked the world bank to step in as a neutral party. We usually work and cooperate to avoid any kind of tension and there are some issues that should be taken away and separated from others and i think the water issue of egypt sudan in ethiopia should bring us together in the union because its the issue related to the future and the interest of the three countries. Will not bring any significant harm upon the egyptian side and we are working at the state of the us we are trying to be very transparent the important thing here is that if there are any concerns that come from the egyptians we are working very closely to solve. For more interviews and explain is on the dam and the history behind access to now waters take a look at our previous shows on hydro economics at aljazeera dot com slash counting the cost its a story thats likely to top government agendas and several african countries in the year ahead this is that planting season left a path of death and destruction in the u. S. And the caribbean it cost an estimated two hundred billion dollars in damage coastal communities where the worst hit Severe Weather is being linked to Climate Change and is jacob ward reports from california rising sea levels are also something to worry about if you live by the sea. For years scientists have been warning us that by the end of this century Climate Change will bring more storms more forest fires and drought as well as rising sea levels but a new report from the union of concerned scientists is getting specific revealing the exact neighborhoods block by block that the union says will be repeatedly flooded within the next six decades alameda in Northern California is one of them the series is no barrier is hopeful that this former naval base could relieve its overcrowded Housing Market but if the projections are correct that is not going to work out so this would be underwater this would be one of the first neighborhoods in alameda that would see chronic flooding due to sea level around whats chronic flooding by that we mean flooding on average every other week every other week twenty six times a year while dr christy dall coauthor of the report says that having seen the data she feels we must rethink where we live when we first set out to research Sea Level Rise so we had fan pression that a lot of people do that its something that wont be affecting us until the end of the century perhaps but when we started to look at not just whats going to be permanently underwater but whats going to be flooded often enough that functionally its unusable thats when we saw that this problem is really going to start affecting communities decades earlier than we had anticipated it waterfront house has always been a symbol of success but as the water rises it may yet come to symbolize the very real dangers of Climate Change. Global arms sales are up according to the latest reports from the Stockholm InternationalPeace Research institute its latest report shows that u. S. Group Lockheed Martin is now the worlds top arms producer and brings it didnt seem to have an impact on the arms sales of British Companies be a ranks number four in the top one hundred list of global arms for juices russia has been selling more aggressively in the past few years and Chinese Companies too are exporting more the report also said south korea is becoming a bigger player among socalled emerging produces. Earlier i spoke with peter way xmen Senior Research of the arms the military Expenditure Program at the Stockholm InternationalPeace Research institute i began by asking him what the size of the global arms market tells us about the state of the Global Economy i think on the one hand its a significant in the industry and we talk about for example that total sales of those and that large example using companies in the world amount to Something Like treat it and seventy five billion a year thats a significant amount on the one hand but on the other hand we really look at how that compares to other industries lets say the car industry if you look at the largest arms producing company in the world which is the mark martin in the u. S. They have a turnover of about forty billion in two thousand and sixteen a company like fox by then has a turnover which is easily five times as big things a bit in perspective the arms industry is important the arms industry has an impact but in terms of the economical impact it is actually not that large we dont talk about a very large percentage of the World Economy other than instability what other factors are linked or driving the global increase in demand for arms well i think one is the perception that military capability is important for security a perception which of course is its kind of driven its kind of supported by the industry itself they do what they have to do as an industry they will try to sell their product and try to explain world that their core product is needed to create stability and security on the national or regional or even the global level and that is a very important fact factoring into the other one is Economic Development states that have more to spend are tend also to spend more on all arms and finally there is of course that that idea and. Im not saying it is true but there is the idea that investment in the arms industry can lead to Technological Development of a country thats a very questionable pieces to make but i think it still is an important one which is being used by the arms in this treaty to to sell their products and finally the plight of refugees is something thats likely to remain a focus in the year ahead and one country on the front line of the refugee crisis is of course greece jonah hill has this report from athens on how entrepreneurship is an important key to integration. While busy continues to store those on the refugee route into europe in a little warehouse north of athens some lives a changing for the better right know yes. Im. Happy now im ready you have. A spring. Here refugees from afghanistan pakistan and iran run a business making bags and backpacks using old tents and other material from the camp they want lived in i cant afford like a movie i take care of my children better as long as i have a job here. I happy to stay here Lisa Campbell founded the ngo that set up this business what it does is give them a reason to be able to stay here because they are safe here their kids can go to school here they have medical care here there are there are reasons to stay angry if you have a job. The greek government has closed a number of refugee camps on the mainland preferring to try and integrate refugees into society all that remains of camp is the sitemap and whatever these budding entrepreneurs could salvage this is a pile of beds recovered from a recently closed refugee camp this canvas will soon be turned into designer items it is if you like upcycling of the refugee crisis this business turning a lot of misery into a little bit of hope and happiness made in greece here at least the exercise in integration is going well. I think its a great improvement for the area and people can get to know what these refugees and organizations are doing but Lisa Campbell knows theyre really only scratching the surface of a much bigger problem i want to know that ive done made a difference in these lives. And maybe the example somebody else can pick up and maybe other people can do the same thing to help those thousands upon thousands of other things. But its a start and the bags are selling like hotcakes online and thats our show for this week but remember you can get in touch with us five twitter use the hash tag a. J. Seat and see when you do or drop us an email counting the cost down to zero dot net is our address theres more for you online that aljazeera dot com slash c t c that will take you straight to our page which has individual reports links and entire episodes for you to catch up on. For this edition of counting the cost im sam is a dance from the hotel here thanks for joining us and aljazeera is next. January just african heads of state and government will gather in for the thirtieth assembly of the African Union where the goals set out in twenty seventeen minutes rewind returns with brand new episodes updating some of the best aljazeera documentaries from over the years the biggest names in politics in business will meet in the swiss alps for the World Economic forum what will be talk of the agenda. Engages in rigorous debate cutting through the headlines on the front and in a week our special coverage will be gauging reaction from around the world to americas most controversial president of modern times january on aljazeera. A nation where corruption is endemic now embroiled in a battle to hold the power to account. How has this radical transformation occur. I mean if i mean if you want to shedding light on the romanians pressing for change on the unconventional methods to eliminate corruption remain people at this time on aljazeera. Here. In the philippines millions live in overcrowded slow but some of found another place to call home Public Cemeteries one on one east meets those living among the dead at this time on aljazeera. At least fourteen people reportedly killed in antigovernment protests in iran the president has calls for calm. Hello im Maryam Namazie in law