Reaction i spoke. This morning and they said well the situation militarily was so bad bad for us we didnt have any choice underground. Taken already. And they were really a few kilometers away from it and that would have been a huge blow another huge blow i would say for i mean people are upset. Are saying so why did we have this war you know just soldiers have paid a very high price a 1200 have died in this conflict as a cording to the government and now they lost also a huge chunk of terror. U. S. Attorney general william barr has authorized federal prosecutors to investigate allegations of voting irregularities if theres strong evidence but the man in charge of election crimes resigned just hours after that the term campaigns filed lawsuits in battleground states but so far theres little evidence of problems of the polls. At least 50 people have been beheaded in mozambique over the past 3 days police say a group linked to eisele is to blame unrest in the northern cabo delgado province began in 2017 and has since displaced thousands of people. Perus congress has voted to remove president Martin Vickery from office hes accused of accepting bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars which he denies and the American Company pfizer says its Coronavirus Vaccine developed with a german firm biotech is more than 90 percent effective in late stage trolls those are the headlines the news continues here on out counts any cost. As donald trump been good for America Everything is in disarray the media of course taking every bit of bait that the chance of the market the fact that america has been a force for good. From the American People get inspiration from him and the other half cringe your weekly take on us politics and society thats the bottom line. There and give it al this is counting the cost on aljazeera well look at the world of business and economics this week the end of austerity the ideology of collective punishment decimating the weakest in society for the economic mismanagement and crimes of the rich and powerful may be consigned to history. And while the International Monetary fund warns of a rise in inequality due to the pandemic one leading charity says the lender of last resort is still dishing out loans that require countries to hack back at Public Services. Before politics despite u. S. And european opposition germany pushes ahead with a gas pipeline that cements its dependence on russia but also increases germanys dominance of the rest of europe. On a countrys finances are in a mess and the lender of last resort needs to step in a bailout comes with conditions mostly draconian austerity measures but governments have also been known to implement them for ideological reasons the International Monetary fund has recognized that maybe austerity is not the best course of action and it can in fact make matters worse with pandemic the i. M. F. Now says governments should spend spend spend and not worry about the finances until a recovery is embedded some would say the death of austerity should not be more and why well lets take a look at a few case studies. From recent history under the i. M. F. European central bank and European Union bail out greece had to take an axe to public spending the people of greece paid a heavy price seeing an increase in Child Mortality its Health Care Spending was slashed from almost 10 percent to 2008 to 8 percent in 2017 the troika had wanted spending to fall to 6 percent the Unemployment Rate remains shockingly hired 17 percent last year and the country has yet to pay off its debts 21 i. M. F. Administered bailouts have done little to spot team is economy into life for the past 3 years the economy has been in recession and the pandemic will take another huge bite out of the country economy minister Martin Boozman has blamed the i. M. F. Austerity measures for the credit crisis but argentina has managed to convince creditors to restructure 65000000000. 00 of debt and is now in talks with the i. M. F. About its 44000000000. 00 loan and after 141000000000. 00 pounds bailout of the banks in 20082 years later prisons then finance minister George Osborne introduced austerity measures to reduce the budget deficit the result was debt almost doubled to 1. 00 trillion dollars growth was anemic and the economy was 130000000000. 00 smaller a decade later more than 4000000. 00 children thats one in 4 lived in poverty and more than 1000000 people were forced to use food banks. Now there is a caveat the end of austerity is mainly for advanced economies her control of their own currencies and can raise money and the i. M. F. Believe such countries should be able to stabilize their finances by the middle of the decade well joining me now via skype from london is Phillip Blond a political thing can and you can theologian and director of think tank publica thank you for your time great to talk to you this is interesting advice isnt it from the i. M. F. The advice to spend to save lives and to keep the economy going but that is a huge change in contrast from the financial crisis in 2008 isnt it yeah it reminds me of john ruskins whos very strange most. Critical. Of the ones you say and he said there is no where out lines. I think thats true. The fundamental right of all the economy if you will is to allow life to flourish but if there is no there is no way out then what is the last hurrah your fathers. Choice is really saying the calling the old saying lives have the wealth the countrys. Banks protected their economy all those that have best protected human life so when they need to come to asia bold its not just a bill or a factory and countries like china japan south korea i well come from that was in the intro. With our return of the great wall this grand final from the good side what im striking from the i. M. F. Is always to understand. The. 5 whole developing. That should this you austerity as a response to the coronavirus that seems like a nice sensible is for. The say and really what i think they should be doing and i suspect they all sankey creating problems to allow them to call if we need to spend as well because its. Investing is. Creating this invitation for the people to stay not down which is the idea frank approach. To preventing viral spread that we say. Save the economy is something were going to talk to the interim director of Oxfam International about a little later in the program but i want to come back to this advice for advanced economies at least to spend spend spend this is just mean that were going to see an increase in debt and deficits which just 12 months ago would have been think about. Well you know there are different ways you i think create stat mole if you are you a cut of a process all along the supply chain so you can just contract economists Christian School the fishes that truck things thing that say buy the fuel youll back. Seeing creasing if youre the fabless to. Confirm that im driving the birds spending route is a good instruction so essentially things because essentially to cultivate already the states of gravity is how i think about bringing back not just throwing on a rope and experiences on. The stations of supply chains because essentially men stefansson probably means have safety that so unless they support people in jobs through expending that have to support people and to freeze while the system we know from over the mountains of rabbit. People by the very very heart the longer theyre in routes assistance the farms back into the labor market back evaporating called life support so that theres enough business cooperatives to bounce back as quickly as you found and i think i think banks really imperative but if you offend your whole population should the laboratory are employed with sobriety thats essentially diminishes the possibility for recovery further down the road so we think in this sense i think your actually spending money for bank races that maybe lets talk about the u. K. For a minute it was also introduced austerity for what critics to made with purely ideological reasons. To sort of shrink the state and cut Public Services now a decade on you know the number of people using food banks has risen to 1200000 according to the Trussell Trust i mean so what does that say is it just the vulnerable then who suffer whats interesting in a developed this is reference rate its the only popular so you dont trump shall we say is the liberalism discovered in the west and well past so. Essentially painter as is the house in the. How about the waxing plots in the developing world so if you do a distribution. Whose benefits of marriage from the last its its there is in the way i think lasted about a day and several of the same people are not actually the working classes in the west and havent really benefited from Global Brands the soul and the rabbits of the many during times of stack and so forth so what they send me is we introduce a styrofoam aimed into a system where these people are highly vulnerable anyway after the only thing security is done with a team of lies and you know you can tell the americans are and not as a. People are not stable the poor that all im back create the the conditions for puppets and i think the short sellers for you my all in the show actually it was very attractive because a price in the british that. Very last time says that we didnt say anything like precisely that or so on the sample but it went on too long it was articulate on the academic idea that all schools have any data states in the local state so all councils and all. Public services are essentially become defined by and they didnt have to be bassman in them to enable them but that which i think is the sharing by differing virus crisis spaces to attenuate that well have to leave it there thank you so much for your time there for that dont we preach it thank you. Now while the i. M. F. Says countries do not need to introduce austerity measures or any kind of belt tightening according to oxfam the majority of the loans extended by the lender during the pandemic will require some cuts to public spending and that could force some countries to cut Public Health care pensions and jobs such as doctors and teaches over madrid vera joins me now via skype jim a is the interim executive director for Oxfam International we really appreciate your time this things unfair right if youre an advanced economy and youre already doing ok you can spend spend spend the i. M. F. Says it will be fine but if youre already struggling belt tightening will come and things could get worse. It will not work it will not work for the people i mean overseas or just found that 84 percent of the 91 i am there call it 19 loans and polish and in some cases they dont require countries to a lot talk about sarah the measures in aftermath of the Health Crisis is a thanks at least 767 lower middle Income Countries from the u. S. To 25 or 70 measures could include cuts Public Services including wage freezes cast of Public Sector workers like doctors and nurses it includes increases in value of the taxes which apply to every day to look seeing food households to supervise and fall disproportionately on women and the poorest parts of the population thinking human terms i mean just when people think they can brief us or. Somebody they could be losing their access to health care for themselves or their children or resing income support having over the last jobs so it doesnt work for the poor people for the most Vulnerable People and for the poorest countries and the i. M. F. Itself has been warning of rising inequality has been warning. Of rising poverty that many countries are dependent on International Investors for money right i mean how does that work now hes 2. 00 sides off there of of the going not only of the one side it seems like the is the i. M. F. Just 2 faces research and sometimes executive. That director are saying the right things or 2 countries doing in terms of what they should be doing today i mean the n. F. L. Is saying it stands for and spend it has been calling for an inclusive real recall sounded the alarm bells on inequality peaking and saying that and then he was saying it i mean the i. M. F. Has a Strong Research about that and yours awful stary we find we we command these these sort of research and analyses but then comes the unethical practices and as you say i mean countries need money and they need even more money now because of their often their inks and the consequence and so when it comes to the county by county practices we are seeing that loans i mean is so far away from their works and the i. M. F. Is very influential if they want to commission more requests into those laws and they would be how they asked soon we begin to see the end of all of that underneath it will exacerbate they now find the across the world and who as we pay that price we have to see different ways i mean we have to honor this research on the consequences of the conclusions that you cause and we definitely countries need money now where should it come it should come from that consolation during the pandemic problems there is still too many countries that are paying more into debt service than what for example we are spending in health care it has come from 8th revenge bent of a commitments to their open seat 0. 7 percent of the of the g. D. P. That is 50 years now of it and its not there except for a few countries and the i. M. F. Could do more i mean they could go further and block and block these way they harvest of issuing a special drawing rights form of global currency that can be pumped into the Global Economy in times of of me because i dont need now. Im equally sure even 33 trillion of the special rights which all i. M. F. Member countries will be able to access without having to repay so there are ways of all d doing it that are not longs we conditions ok so that is what you think the i. M. F. Could do what about the International Community what about the private sector what should it be doing you know seeing in that signing if if you think about generally speaking about the International Community they should be agreeing and going further in debt cancellation this is schemes they have done something but is not close to what should be should be done because they should include also that from or buying control from other movie that there are creditors and they should include also private sector i mean its really outrageous that now precisely in. Times i am but i did lenders have not been brought into any kind of these g. 20 deals for that cancellation as most of the governments have done so poor countries are continuing to repay their debts to reach banks and hedge funds you know now. So you have this situation where some of the worlds richest and biggest creditors and fortunes on their shareholders are cashing in checks when people in their distressed countries are lacking the basic Public Services health care right now are they seriously ill should mean counseling all debt payments all rich countries will institutions but also for private creditors like ok ive got weve got time for one more i just want to bring this back to the reality of what this all means for people who are already struggling for knives and fanaa lee hoods right because people are going to be impacted by this. I mean all of our Research Also also shows how you got to anyone 64 countries countries including kenya or pakistan or where they were already spending more of on repayments than in health care because the before the pandemic hit them or a part of our research to finds how far its only 22 per cent of the Global Workforce who has any kind of social protection in such as sick leave or unemployment. Protection even if it doesnt change the full. Economic system and the writing is now taxed the wages what we will be seeing is that vid this time we are thinking that even 500000000 people could go into poverty because of the pandemic and its consequences it will be even the words so it has it needs a full shift if we are thinking about the most liberal of our most impact that by the pandemic that such those that are not only using lives but their livelihoods to ok will have lived there thank you so much for your time that is 10 of their their the interim executive director for Oxfam International we appreciate it thats the pleasure. Now can you dealing commercial deals from politics well thats what germany is hoping to do with the controversial nord stream pipeline that will bring in gas from russia to europes biggest economy thats despite the latest sanctions from the United States that take aim at russian pipe laying vessel academic Church Scheme which is attempting to complete the last 147 kilometers of construction but then has already said it wont bow to u. S. Pressure not to go ahead with the project despite making it more dependent on russia for the supply of energy which washington believes is a Security Threat even the poisoning of russian Opposition Leader alexina valley which many thought may be a reason for berlin to give up on the project has been brushed aside some of germanys own neighbors have imposed their own sanctions poland find russias state controlled gas giant gazprom 6500000000 euros for going ahead with the construction of the nord stream to pipeline without securing its approval. Were joining me now via skype from berlin is europe for a break europe is a senior fellow and director for central and Eastern Europe at the German Marshall Fund of the United States really good to talk to you so the u. S. Keeps imposing sanctions poland has issued its own penalties i mean is there anything that would make change its mind when it comes to russia being such a great energy. I think we have to step back a little bit on this question because if you see the situation from germany. From the perspective of the German Government and also german business then russia and previously soviet union have always been very reliable and the departments going back almost half a century or so from that since germany is receiving very rationally and pursuing a very Strong Energy partnership with with russia what the german debates tends to fade out however is that russia also moves this energy as a political weapon against its neighbor as accounts of apartness and this is a point that simply underestimated here in germany for as long as. The country and its debates decouples economic and energy questions from those political and security questions relating to russia. This decision to go for a Strong Partnership with russia is not going to be not going to be of arson fortunately today and this is what i struggle to understand is that the pipeline will be on the used to mean the existing pipeline has huge capacity which is already on the you so whats this about is this about geopolitical troop well this is really in the 1st place geo Political Tool that russia voice you know the Pipeline Capacity that is in place is fully sufficient to provide europe with russian actual gas supplies to. From russia over the last years have been relatively flat and theres no expectation that there would be a massive growth in volume so what we really have here is a diversification by russia of its Pipeline Network the creation of redundancies that would then make it possible to shift volumes from one pipeline to another wherever russia wants to put pressure on specific transport transit countries such as ukraine so this is really a strategy of they were supplying and expanding Pipeline Capacity in order to be able to use it for political pressure in the future there were some outside of germany who thought that the poisoning of Opposition Leader lexi novelli may 4th the chancellor Angela Merkel to change her thinking on this what is her calculation head do you think. There really was a debate that started. In the summer here in germany whether or not in response to the poisoning of alec saying that our new best should be a priest a poor perhaps even a Council Agent of the north stream to pipeline project there seemed to be quite some momentum there were many senior policymakers including from chancellor merkels party who demanded that this would be the appropriate response and even the chancellor at some stage herself seemed to indicate that this is not only a commercial project as she has maintained for many years but also one that has a strong pull its for that now unfortunately this concession has not gone and gone the any further the momentum seems to have seemed to fade in the meantime and theres no indication at this stage that. The chancellor and her government. Would take measures against those projects what i can really only do is speculate here why this is why this is the case in my opinion germany is acting responsibly unilaterally in this context that basically rhetorical always stresses has to be a european approach to Energy Policy to Energy Security but when it comes to this particular project germany is clearly acting unilaterally and very selfishly selfishly in my opinion unfortunately bats impression is not has not on the way and its not being biased by and by the German Government any time soon 18 countries 18 European Countries have opposed this project basically going as far as saying this increases germanys power in europe does it well it does in their way because it shows that a large and influential country like germany does get away with unilateral decisions even though gallants a an overwhelming majority of the partners who are opposed to this project. Plus a number of countries like ukraine that point themselves outside of the bar but are very close European Partners at the same time i think that this project is also one that would obviously put germany into a much stronger position as an energy heart in europe. It would put it in a different and. Competitive position than europeans Energy Market so there are there are a number of aspects that will increase german german power and influence here at the same time what is popular in the minds. Amongst europeans this project has a very stark divide between germany and especially central and Eastern European partners in the European Union and beyond and it will be very hard to mend the. Divide in the years to come if germany does not change its. On this controversial project ok thank you so much for your perspective your analysis from berlin europe for bric thank you. And that is that show for this week get in touch with us by tweeting me at camperdown and do you use the hash tag a j c d c when you do or drop us an email counted because aljazeera dot net is an hour and yes but theres more for you online at aljazeera dot com slash c. T. C. That will take you straight to a page which has individual reports links and entire episodes for you catch up. And that is it for this edition of counting because some cant get out from the home team thanks for joining us news on aljazeera is next. Rewind returns with updates on the best of out is here is documentary us. The moving story of 2 young tuckman girls in afghanistan. At last able to get an education after vs oppressive taliban occupation. But what has become of their dreams. Rewind pencils and bullets. On aljazeera. Gang life this was our foundation. I tried to do Something Different when i met daisy it was the best day of my life. I wish that they could have gone on forever. But my past caught up with me. And made us all pay the price of daisy and that on aljazeera. If you want to help save the world. On imran khan in doha with the top stories on aljazeera ideals been signed to end the weeks of conflict between autumn india and i was about john in that disputed region of nagornokarabakh a cease fire has already taken effect but theres been an angry reaction among some of them indians catcha lopez all the reports. The deal comes after 6 weeks of relentless fighting it was 1st announced in a Facebook Post by armenian Prime Minister mikel pushy nion within minutes confirmation came from and moscow he would. Meet with