Now meet with federal officials. Donald trump has accepted the decision, although he hasnt conceded trump said in a tweet, hes directing his team to cooperate, but is promising to keep up the fight political hay and has more from washington. All eyes are going to be on the Republican Party leadership in the coming days, because really were seeing increased pressure on them to buck the president. On this we saw the big wigs of National Security officials from former republican administrations. Theyve all come out and said this is bad for democracy. Its many of them, not all of them. Obviously, its bad for democracy. Its bad for National Security and probably more important. Were seeing dozens upon dozens of countries. C. E. O. s the most influential republican donors come out in a letter saying this has to. And Republican Leadership needs to let the president know that its over british drug company, astra zeneca, and the University Say late stage testing of their code 19 vaccine shows its highly effective. They say it can be stored at 1st temperature, making it cheaper and easier to distribute. Leaders in ethiopia, region are denying government claims that the military surrounding the regional capital mckayla a promise to be ahmed has given that he great Peoples Liberation front until wednesday. Just surrender or face an assault on the city that he has so far refused to stand aside. China has launched a probe to the moon to bring back in iraq the 1st such attempt by any nation in more than 40 years, basing spending billions of dollars on its military run space program, and the hopes to launch a manned mission to the moon before 2030. And those, the headlines and news continues here on our desire after counting the cost from sunrise to some say across asia and the pacific explode on tome and fascinating stories, one on one east on aljazeera. Hello, im adrian finnegan. This is counting the cost on aljazeera a look at the world of business and economics this week. As the cost of the pandemic pile up zambia defaults on its debts as china and private investors wangle over who should take losses on their loans and the debt tsunami. Means that Central Banks are considering the unthinkable negative Interest Rates, but are investors prepared to pay governments for the privilege of lending to brazil is no longer one of the worlds top 10 economies. Many brazilians face a painful financial future. With soaring food prices and house prices, the g 20 Rich Countries Club struck an historic agreement on restructuring debt for some of the worlds poorest nations. The move goes beyond the current deal to freeze debt repayments until june next year. That is significant because it includes china. Beijing has been reluctant to sign up to any deal that would cancel or restructure debts, which china accounts for 63 percent of overall debt owed to g. 20 nations in 2019. Its not exactly how much money china is owed, but various estimates say the country has given out loans worth 1. 00 trillion to 5 trillion dollars in the past 20 years. And thats a problem. The United States and many western private lenders have been unwilling to discuss restructuring debt for the poorest nations because they dont want to bail out beijing. China has gone as far as classifying state lenders as private institutions to avoid scrutiny. Most of the money has been spent on rolling out its belton Road Initiative to build infrastructure and increase its influence in mostly developing nations. Its law gess has come a huge cost for many of the 138 patients who have signed up to the program. Now despite that historic g 20 deal, a number of countries, a close to defaulting on their debts. As the pandemic decimates economies, zambia became the 1st african default of the covert 19 era. It has the backing of many empty debt campaigners who are encouraging more nations to join zambia in threatening default. Zambias problems predate the pandemic. Its africas 2nd biggest cop exporter. And as copper prices tanked, it found it more difficult to meet its payments. Its thought the country has 11000000000. 00 worth of debt. Negotiations have hit a wall because of debts. It has to china. Its thought that zambia owes china about 3000000000. 00, but china wont offer debt relief unless it gets 200000000. 00 in a wrist. Paid 1st. Private lenders arent willing to give zambia new money, the fear that it will be used to pay off china and not without good reason. Zambia said it may draw down 700000000000. 00 worth of chinese debt. Zambia has also been in talks with the International Monetary fund for a 1300000000. 00 loan. Lets get more on what could be a gathering storm if more countries to fold on their debts from london by skype are joined by elisa strobel, senior economist for Subsaharan Africa at i. H. S. Market. And he said good to have you with us. Our earth to zambia get into such a financial mess. Yes, economic mismanagement and a lack of Fiscal Consolidation over recent years, underlines some aspen actual difficulty. Additionally, in the decor transparency over debt on the chinese lenders, including alleged off balance sheet, chinese loans to state owned a crisis. And the fact that some, if they were step restructuring over i. M. F. And gave him an add to the debt, then the sum in authorities have been under them to secure an i. M. F. Support Program Since late 2017. That would more concessional financing, leaving told it like sterile duck. Therefore, to increase sharply and also inhibiting the governments ability to secure to agree on short term fiscal imbalance of payments funding from other multilateral institutions such as the African Development bank. What is that theyve been doing with the money that it but its borrowed. There are allegations that the government might have been spending it on winning elections rather than helping the economy. Yes. Well some parts of the borrowed money went into recurrent expenditure, including salaries. Well, other parts went into Infrastructure Projects including millisecond and ola 1. 00 trying to 1000000000 u. S. 1. 00 project. However, there were concerns raised over allegations of art if she pushed Price Inflation and some of the Infrastructure Projects. As i mentioned, a list 2nd all are a project. Also there are various direction allegations that support the rhetorical mismanagement of funds. As a result in september 2018, as some donor, foreigners have a suspended their donor 8 support for or the some government bacha it here by in particular the financing of the cash and spare programs as well as the Agricultural Sector where particular negatively impacted by these suspensions. And is that why china is reluctant to offer any debt relief . Well, china, mainland state backed lenders are very unlikely to pursue full scale in depth relief, an up or a debt for structuring in stat. This is because Debt Forgiveness can set an undesirable exxon mobil to other dept or seek more favorable treatment on chinese loans. Especially if this will be politically currently difficult to justify given china malians economy beginning to recover from the impact of the covert 19 virus outbreak. In stat, china, mainland, likely to provide depth relief on a case by case basis, which may include, for instance, extending the payment period. A temporary waiving of interest payments. If lending is not already on concessional terms, offering for the credit to default or marginally forgiving debt by either reducing project scope or depth to act or to agreements for some of the commodity rich countries in particular. Like and go lower. You mention i go to other any other countries in a similar situation to zambia . How many more zambias are there out there . Yes, we see for verity of countries next year to see the Debt Service Burden to build up sharply such as force of vatican amid and kenya, kenyas government says refusal to access relief under the g 20 debts of a Suspension Initiative heightens fiscal risks beyond their receiving of the emergency code 19 funding for the majority of african countries. However, debt initiatives by the g 20 and the i. M. F. Occur and we have around 34 countries, african countries that have received emergency funding by the i. M. F. These packages have east external liquidity pressure somewhat. And the extension of these initiatives, lorson payment risk, somewhat currently until mid next year. Are other concerns that sam be a could be heading the what the same way as in bob . Wait. Yes, yes, because we do not see any near term improvement in this regard. Some enough, the artist will have to prove to private lenders as well as the i am math, that Government Debt will be placed on a more sustainable half and a show of policy credibility in order to unlock emergency funding. That is so necessary. However, because of the Upcoming Elections next year, that would and will fire spending. We expect i. M. F. And gauge meant for that unlike you. Prior to that, also the i. M. F. Warned that some guess replacement of its Central Bank Governor last august led to an increase in the political control of a Monetary Policy resulting in a weakening of some b. S. Policy credibility. And thus delaying discussions with the i. M. F. For the basis for really good to talk to your county because many thanks indeed for being with us. My good question. Thank you. The coronavirus pandemic has ravaged brazils economy, which is predicted to contract by about 5 percent this year. Economic Analysis Shows the south american nation is no longer ranked among the worlds top 10 economies. Many brazilians face a painful financial future with soaring food and house prices now is a serious market. Yaquis have reports now from rio. d d its tea time in this slum in rio de janeiro. d d baker sounds his horn to announce fresh buns for sale, but they cost 50 percent more than in january. Prices in general have become absurdly expensive since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic unemployment is at a 14 percent record high. And many here are surviving on the government emergency aid, which will only last until the end of the year. For brazil, spore the future looks bleak. But investors are also worried. The country is no longer part of the worlds top 10 economies. Brazilians used to boast the 9th largest g. D. P. Now they ranked 12 on the list. According to a report based on data from the International Monetary fund, brazils productivity has been declining, sees 2015, with the pandemic, the economy will shrink an additional 5 percent. Besides that Political Uncertainty has helped the body of the brazilian reale make it one of the worlds most worst performing currencies. A weak currency favors exports, but the Silver Lining is that double edged sword. With less food being sold on the domestic market, prices have gone up. Most brazilians, like a shooting up at the, are not interested in the countrys international rankings. Theyre worried that staple foods like rice and black beans are 20 percent more expensive. Its not only fuel prices that went up Construction Material is also more expensive. These rigs, for example, cost 30 percent more than before the pandemic. The silva lost his job as a truck driver and moved his belongings from an apartment or neighborhood to a shack. Though he says my palace, at least i have a roof over my head in this movie garden economy minister paulo ganders says brazil, bro. Once the pandemic is over and he can finally implement market friendly reforms. But for most here, what matters now is putting food on the table. The economic recovery promised by the government still sounds like a long, hard, uphill battle money and i kept, ill just sirrah, rio de janeiro. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures south of the financial crisis in 2008, Central Banks poured trillions of dollars into buying up Government Debts to make sure the cost of borrowing didnt get out of hand. Quantitative easing also helped grease the financial infrastructure, making sure that banks could continue to learn money to businesses. Central banks are very much at the limit of what they can do to keep economies motoring, but there is a new tool that has and is about to be deployed. Negative Interest Rates, simply put, that would mean investors would pay the government to hold bombs. Consumers may have to pay banks to hold their money, and borrowers pay less back on the mortgages that they have. The bank of england, which is set rates of north point one percent, could be the next to introduce negative rates. Ok, lets bring in our regular contributor bill, ill have faced chief executive of the macro highest bilawal. What are negative Interest Rates . And whats got us to the point that were thinking about using such unconventional tools. Now thats a very good, good question. I mean, mix of rates really does sound like were in some kind of fantasy world. Thats essentially where when somebody takes out a loan rather than paying interest, they receive interest. And so this is something Central Banks have started to engage in of the last 45 years. Why as an investor, what would i, would i pay a bank for their, for their debt . And why as a saver, what i, what i pay a bank to hold it. Now thats a very good question and i think theres a few answers too to that question. You know, one is theres still a convenience factor whereby the alternative is to hold your, your money in cash, which would return require you to store the money in your house or under the mattress or in a safe or Something Like that. And this is not just going to vigils, but this also applies to companies as well. Companies would have to store all of their cash in a physical location. And that, you know, would be quite onerous than that there would be costs associated with that. So the thinking is that theres a level of. d interest that somebody would be willing to pay for a bank to hold their their money. And so in that way, there is scope for negative rates simply to be a charge for holding your money. Now if the negative rates are too negative, then there would be much more often move for people to store cash themselves physically in some way. But at the moment the rates, while they are negative, they arent sufficiently negs. If the people to make that switch they have been used before, its, weve been in particular has made as it has, it helped economies where its been used to the price. The trouble here is that many, the countries that did introduce negative rates like sweden and euro zone, they also introduced lots of other measures that the same time as well. So for example, these countries in gauged in quantitative easing, which meant that the governments also started to buy government bonds, which push down long term Interest Rates in those countries and push down Mortgage Rates those countries. So at one level, its hard to disentangle the 2 in general, what you can say is that after these countries did introduce negative rates, you did see these economies start to improve economically, their growth did pick up. However, inflation, which is the thing that the Central Banks really wanted to increase didnt really increase that much at all. So it does seem like after 34 years of Central Banks doing this, you know, there is some reluctance to push this too much further. It seems like most Central Banks now have decided not to really go down the route of pushing rates even more negative. What about wealth inequality just does it, does it encourage households to take on on more debt that they cant afford . Yet there is a real possibility that that could happen. The, there are a couple of different issues here. One is that if you do have negative rates, people are more reluctant to put their money into savings accounts. So instead they may start to save in more risky investments, so they may go into equities or high yielding corporate bonds. So there is that possibility. But then the other side is also that, you know, are these negative rates passed on to households for them to be able to borrow and make to raise themselves . And thats less clear what we have seen is that the negative rates and also the quantitative easing have pushed down Interest Rates in general, which is then had allowed people to get say, for example, lower Mortgage Rates and through lower Mortgage Rates. People have been buying houses a lot more. So in that sense there has, in this increase in asset prices and not everybody owns a house. It tends to be, you know, rich people that own houses and able to buy it was ease. And so you are seeing there is this inequality that has been building since we have seen the introduction of next rights bill, im going to completely change the subject. Now a massive trading block is coming into force covering a 3rd of the worlds population. And a 3rd of the worlds economy. Do you think that the u. S. Is going to count to chinas influence in this new trade pact with its own transpacific trading pact . I think they will. I mean, its been quite evident that you know, under the trumpet ministration the u. S. Started to withdraw from various multilateral agreements, you know, with asia, with europe and so on. And this allowed china and other Asian Countries to form their own trading blocks. And so they, they had their own version of p. P. P. , and more recently now the r. C. E. P. , which has china in that trading block. So what youve seen as, as the u. S. Is withdrawn from the world from these multilateral organizations. The rest of the world has started to form their own trading blocks. Now this will be an issue for the u. S. The u. S. Does have a new administration well, so it seems at least with president biden, and the noise were getting from the u. S. Side is that they are they are very much motivated to reengage in multilateral agreements. So my sense is they will try to, into some kind of some new version of g. D. P. With Asian Countries. The challenge for them is that these agreements in asia have already started to be formed, you know, with this new china trade agreement. So that challenge for the u. S. Will be to somehow enter into this stage where all these agreements have already, started to be formed. So it will be a bit of a challenge for the u. S. , but i do think they will try to launch their own asia u. S. Trade agreement. But as always, good to talk to you many thanks indeed for being with us. Thank you very much. Climate change and overfishing are endangering many species in the rich waters around antarctica. The major threats are top priority at a conference in chile, where scientists, a pushing for a protected marine park around the antarctic peninsula. A latin america editor lucien newman reports from santiago the waters around the antarctic peninsula not only home to unique moving animals, but also to their means of survival. They eat krill, a key species in the southern oceans eco system. But all this is in danger of extinction because of overfishing around the antarctic peninsula, which is why the commission for the conservation of antarctic Marine Resources is being asked to approve a proposal for the creation of a marine protected area around the peninsula. The science thats been showing the biggest particularly dedicated but also very important for the whole world. Why are you saying that antarctica . So rewarding to the rest of the world. This current coal, the humble current, is actually a crime that comes from the antarctica and it brings all this coal rich water on. My program hasnt quite also been retained oxygen because its cold. So the current also create huge amount of life for a massive bigger area. The death antartica, the only way to kelley have more fish, even in the future, or to have a life in this planet is likely to. But they some of those places that are key for the balance of the planet. For the 3rd year in a row chile and argentina, jointly asking the annual meeting of the commission to declare parts of the peninsula off limits to commercial fishing in the southern oceans. Unique environment supports species that cant be found anywhere else on the planet. So the idea is to manage in a different way fishery an activity occurring in the area by and in this that includes some areas, calmly called non take songs where the fishery will not be allowed. But there is resistance, particularly from russia and china. Argentina says theres no time to lose and intimated to me and he said, argentina and chile have taken the initiative because if something is not done soon, it will be all of humanity that will be damaged. We ask the countries that are considering vetoing this proposal not to do so because we need this. Humanity needs is. His plea for the rational use of Marine Resources is backed by all the best available science. Which in the past has been the Guiding Light for the 26 commission members. But for some countries, that may not be enough to see in you an aljazeera sent the album out 0 has obtained recordings of one of the worlds most wanted men trying to negotiate immunity. From prosecution, the billionaire financier joe lowe, is wanted for his role in malaysias multibillion 1. 01, m d b fraud scandal. Marion jolly has our exclusive report. Just a warning, it contains some flashing lights. He was once 2 tourists for his digs and lifestyle luxury, real estate and supernaut, all bored with one m. T. B. Money. But today the malaysian finance ia job is on the run. Wanted by the already see in the United States and malaysia in recordings of taint exclusively by 0000, is heard for the 1st time, trying to college deal with mojave, a mohammads government soon after 8 historic election win in may 28th. Just on the phone jolo protests is in a serious but office to return all the assets purchased with one name to be found. I think used to lucia, not former f. B. I. Special agent. Deborah love provocateur, worked on the agencys initial one m. T. B. Investigation. You know, its like the bank robber who gets caught it is like, well if i return the money, then i dont want to be charged with robbing the bank. Well, you still robbed the bank, and in this case, youre robbed of the development fund. And theres strong evidence he deed, according to the man who led the f. B. I. Is one m. T. B. Investigation until recently. And i think were very confident that we will be able to prove involvement and his position in this scheme. In july this year, joes coconspirator, malaysias former prime minister, as you present, was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in jail, subject to an appeal for crimes related to want to be back in 2018. Jolo put all the blame on him, but breed when the fugitive to justice has proved challenging. Despite 2, interpol red notices against him and multiple passports canceled, he continues to evade authorities and travel. The only way theyre going to happen is through corruption and through the full resources of one or more governments. But according to the fugitive life on the run is not an easy question. 2 years on and he still paying millions of dollars to lawyers and p. R. Firms around the world. Marianne jolie elegies in or out. And thats our show for this week. If youd like to comment on anything that weve seen, you can get in touch with us tweet me. Im at a figure on twitter use the hashtag a j c to see what you do, drop us ally and counting the cost of aljazeera drop. That is our email address. As always, theres plenty more few online at aljazeera dot com slash c. T. C. That takes you straight to a page. And a you can catch up on past shows. But thats it for this edition of counting the cost of adrian for the good from the whole team here in doha, thanks for being with us. But news on aljazeera is next. In 2012, aljazeera travels to iraq, people who are definitely scared to speak on camera. Theyre saying that if they talk to us, they think theyll be arrested down the line to take the pulse of a country ravaged under us occupation. Some of these graves are completely destroyed. Its one of the most holy and sacred sites in all of iraq could turn into a battleground between the 90 army and the americans rewind returns to iraq after the americans. At this time on al jazeera, romanias, ancient forests, some of europes most pristine. They are crucial for our society and crucial for battle against the climate crisis, but illegal logging by a ruthless team, the mafia is destroying both the landscape and peoples lives. Logging in romania is our violence, killing with some roles amidst claims of corruption and the role of powerful multinationals. People in power investigates. Romania break into the far east. On aljazeera, december on aljazeera. Its 10 years since of revolution in tunisia ignited the arab spring. Aljazeera looks back at the uprising and asks what really changed across the middle east. This stream is where al jazeera has global audience becomes a global community. I give after the 1st coronavirus case in china, well examine the devastation caused by the virus and the efforts made to eliminate covert 90 people in power is back with more investigative documentaries and indepth stories. Climate leaders will gather online to press ahead with a new stage of the paris climate agreement and examine the possible global solutions. December on aljazeera on amman, callen in doha, the top stories on aljazeera. The u. S. Federal office oversees the transfer of power in the white house has told joe biden, his transition can fully begin. It means the president elects Transition Team can now meet with admiral officials. Donald trump has accepted the decision but still hasnt conceded classical high and has the latest from washington. This is the letter president elect. Joe biden has been waiting for