words of all said the same sort of thing that they're concerned about a specific number of cases involving blood clots happening in patients who've received the astra zeneca vaccine that is so concerning that it needs to be referred to the the european medicines agency which is based in amsterdam. thousands of people have turned else across rebel held city is in syria to mark 10 years since the start of the war the u.n. security council has mess and heard calls for a renewed effort for a cease fire and political settlement. gunmen have kidnapped children and teachers at a primary school in the geria it's the 2nd kidnapping and could do mistakes in the last week. members of cabinet in libya's new interim unity government have been sworn into office in a ceremony into book it's part of a u.n. back there fit to bring stability ahead of elections in december years of conflict divided libyan institutions between the internationally recognized government in the west and a rival administration to the east security will be a major task for the government parents of protesters are holding funerals for their children and me and after at least 50 demonstrators were killed on sunday it was the worst day of violence in a month and a half long crackdown on the anti coup movement the protesters defied martial law on monday and were fired on with live ammunition killing 6 more. kenya is boycotting the start of an international court of justice hearing to decide its maritime border with somalia the neighbors both lay claim to energy resources off their coast beyond fishing rights the disputed area is believed to be rich in gas and oil somalia 1st asked the international court of justice to rule on their maritime border back in 2014. as the headlines i'll have more news for you here on al-jazeera right off to counting the cost will cease if i for now. hello i'm doubting obligato this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your look at the world of business and economics this week the perfect storm pandemic drought and china's demand prices hit 6 year highs just how high could they go. argentina is famous for its beef but the pandemic and inflation has sentimental with snow as since the 1950 s. . also this week ethiopia becomes one of 40 nations to see demick debt relief but there is fear many more won't step forward we'll tell you why they're at the mercy of debt rating agencies. the $21.00 trillion dollar u.s. government bond market has been in fits of turmoil amid concerns central banks support for the economy could lead to an uptick in inflation that sent the tech heavy nasdaq into correction territory meaning at last 10 percent of its value investors saw assets and commodities that can weather an inflationary storm like the dollar and oil both rose well the question is are those inflationary concerns real well there's plenty of evidence that global food prices are on the rise take a look at this it's the un's global food index with 2014 to the left of your screen the chart is almost like a bath tub with another sharp rise in 2020 and hitting a sick. high this year well as you can see the main food groups there they are they're all steadily climbing so you have cereals oils dairy meat and sugar they're all tracking higher according to the un's food and agriculture organization well what's behind the increase in prices it's a combination of things increasing demand from china adverse weather conditions on pandemic supply chains but it's nations like brazil lebanon and nigeria that are adversely affected in brazil for example president wilson are at temps to revive his political standing by handing out coronavirus aid to the poorest inadvertently pushing up the price of rice by 76 percent in lebanon on the country is in the midst of the worst financial crisis a pretty worthless currency has said inflation to a record high and food prices soaring by 400 percent and in nigeria the central bank may continue to devalue the currency as a did 3 times in 2020 closing the border for 16 months attacks on farmers an import restrictions of all exacerbated the situation now the government has been trying to reduce imports by increasing production more than a 1000000 farmers were given cash and tools but officials say they're planning to take thousands of farmers to court for failing to repay loans they took out to cultivate rice and other drees reports google. won an operation on the ability to make and watches closely as time hands prepared to field so i knew crop a few meters away other workers tend to shoot my getty's one of nigeria's major rice produces with hundreds of head just of land dedicated to growing rice is a serious thomas like him are benefiting from a government loan scheme to boost domestic production but this scheme faces risks they didn't farm must be. now. i. thought. you were giving them. then to be a talent though they are. what. leads to 34 member farmers corporate and says they weren't told there have anything back. if it was made clear to us that it's a loan we have 9 house approaches we didn't apply for it so i can tell you that we won't pay back a dime not all of it was money we consider it is gifts or assistance after all we see politicians take public funds with no accountability. the so-called a couple risky encourages promises small holdings to produce a variety of commodities and to connect produces with the process but 5 years after the program was introduced nigeria still import foods the scheme was meant to produce in excess sister interview team an estimated $600000000.00 has been provided to more than a 1000000 farmers to boost rice production critics of the process say it's corrupt and lacks transparency they accuse government officials and politicians of hijacking a scheme that could now collapse because of a failure to pay back their loans. an estimated 40 percent of those who've received money the failed or refused to fully repay. some officials say that's often the start. but one can understand that for one reason and other. especially the last time we had a flood so you can imagine our farmers lost a whole lot. africa's most populous nation has 34000000 hectares of land but only 33 percent is under production this country of more than 200000000 people imports much of what it eats the agricultural experts say that's because farming technology is out of date and if the government doesn't encourage mechanization. nothing will change. well joining me now from rome is art does our best jaan he's a senior economist at the united nations food and agricultural organization thanks very much for joining us so how concerned should we be about rising food prices and is this entirely down to the pandemic well you know when but if we prices go up it is always an issue for consumers it is seen very positively by farmers. just listening back to the discussions you had earlier i think that it is a pity that in many developing countries farmers would not benefit from the higher prices so they they tend to get the worst of the 2 world on one hand they have to pay more to consumers they're wonderful countries most of them and on the other they're farmers will not be able to respond to high prices and you know benefit from higher income that high prices could bring to them. the level of prices today as they are are obviously high they're not at the highest levels there are still will be the kind of you know prices that we so in the previous serious price surge that happening period between 2000 may 2011 however are put price index to feel good price index has been going on month in month for the last 6 not 9 months i would say. and you know it is now kind of the highest since 2002011 so it does give an impression that we are in a market where one could expect prices to remain high still for some time so does this mean that there is enough food in the world to meet demand. yes when you're talking about a global situation and let me be a little bit more precise year the measure that we publish every month really is a bad omen for of what's happening in the global market. individual countries and national saw writer saw a national level obviously situations could be for quite drastic supra one place or another globally is speaking in fact one of the lessons from the code that perhaps wasn't expected and is a positive one is that the agriculture system globally trade globally seem to have not been as much affected as people feared by the core and that the supply situation overall has been quite adequate and despite all the difficulties and even at the beginning you know fears about logistical issues transport really for all commodities basic food such as cereals such as wish to below was sugar meat they really we really didn't see much disruption in trade and supplies have been adequate to meet the demand at the global level and that we have to be very careful with that because what cohen has done in many parts of the world is that it really had cut people's income that means access to food so if maybe in a country but the and probably it is but the question is if i have lost my employment if i don't have jobs or if my earnings has has has come down and i have to feed my family what food will i go and buy and how i'm going to buy it so really the focus has been more on the demand side in this in this at the sort of higher prices right down on the surprise ok and speaking of the demand side how much of this has to do with the demand coming from china well i must say that the china factor has been quite important all the way i would say been predating the coca situation so it's not really cope with related china it's why you can get a very big problem. domestically which which was the african swine flu that basically destroyed you completely except so that had to be sorted out that had quite quite an implication for cruel meat market a china came into the market to bite me but then the recovery of that sector in china has been quite astonishing meaning that china would have needed feed as well to import and feed the animals so china become a huge importer for example corn imports will be on anybody expected and that sterling to kind of a situation where we had called it and he had china and us having an agreement called phase one on the rich china was going to buy a lot of agricultural commodities from us so it's really a i would say it's not one single factor but there were a few things that came together in a very short period of time and all together they have really had quite a quite a obert push to towards prices of all agricultural commodities so how much of that i don't have that in indian how much of that premium in food prices is then down to speculation and also fears a inflation driving up those commodity prices this is a this is very difficult to answer if i may say because as speculated you know let's say this huge amounts are made at every level from farmers level perhaps all the way than to the consumer you tend to store more if you think prices will go up in the future now depending on where you are in the value chain some of that could of course influence influence or however when we talking about really agriculture sector over a period of like to 234 months not all at night or 2 days or one closing issue of. fundamentals drive it right so there is not right now if year of an inflation like we had seen for example in 2070. 1010 there you are really in fact speculative activities as as a way of hedging against future in place and man let's go and wipe them out i don't think that we are experiencing that we are experiencing something is more or less at the local level where people may be expecting you know i'm not going to sell now because i know prices will go up higher but uncertainties are huge and usually speculators benefit from uncertainties the biggest uncertainty is not going to cultural commodities is the economic conditions ok thank you so much others are both here and for speaking to us from rome thank you so much. argentina is world renowned for its cattle that feed on the rich grass of its central pumphouse region but records show that last year a large part of the population stop purchasing meats and that's partly because of the economic impacts of cope with 19 terrorism bo reports from one of cyrus. green before ours is part of argentina's tradition but only wolf is proud of what his family has achieved their experts in preparing the traditionalist saddle or barbecue the grilling method used by the or skilled horsemen who roamed argentina the region in the 18th and 19th centuries that there was all of the good the pleasures are here we're proud to say this is a restaurant that feeds everyone all social classes those who have money and those who don't but things have changed it's becoming more and more expensive those who come have less money that the endemic has forced restaurants like this $1.00 to adapt it's working at 30 percent of its capacity what complicates the situation even more is that beef is becoming more expensive in a country where people are used to eating meat nearly every day latest reports show that beef consumption has dropped to an all time low or about 50 kilos a person a year half the amount consumed in the 1950 s. one of the recent is a changing eating abbots but there is more. played a crucial role in argentina culture this type of father was i part of people's life but in the past year the price of beef have increased around 70 percent because of inflation and increased exports and that's why the government is putting together a plan that aims to review the price of certain cut due to rising prices cows were taken last year to graceland instead of being fattened with corn they slow down beef production and reduce the supply experts in the air. fear government intervention to control the prices. back in 2008 government restrictions to prevent a rise in prices ended with a loss of around 20. and take you live to geneva where the world health organization is giving an update on the use of the astra zeneca covered 19 vaccine let's listen in to investigate them and it shows that the surveillance system works and that effective controls are in place deadly to advisory committee on vaccine safety has been reviewing that our vailable data is in close contact with the european medicines agency and will meet tomorrow but the greatest threat that most countries face now is lack of access to vaccines almost every day i receive calls from senior political leaders around the world asking when their country will receive their vaccines will call box some of them are frustrated and i understand why they see some of the world history just countries buying you have vaccines to immunize their populations several times over while their own countries have nothing we welcome the commitment by the acquired countries to deliver up to one $1000000000.00 of vaccine in the asia pacific region so-called works and we continue to call for all countries to work in solidarity to ensure that vaccination begins in all countries within the 1st 100 days of this year we have 26 days left no country can simply vaccinate its way out of this pandemic along. we are all in this together today marks the one year anniversary of the launch of the covered 19 solidarity response find an unprecedented collaboration between doubly joe the united nations foundation the swiss philanthropy foundation and many other partners to generate funds for the pandemic response including deadly to a strategy preparedness and response plan thanks to the generosity of individuals and corporations over the past year we have raised $242000000.00 u.s. dollars from morrison $662000.00 from persons this is the 1st time in its history that doubly joe has received donations from the general public to every individual an organization that contributed i say thank you your donations made a significant impact all over the world with your support we shipped more than 250000000 items of personal protective equipment provided technical support to hundreds of laps supplied more than 250001000 tests coordinated the deployment of more than 180 teams and missions delivered and supported over 12000 intensive care beds to prevent health systems from being overwhelmed provided training through op and chilled out all of which has more than 5000000 registrations for courses that are delivered in more than 50 languages from albanian to zulu and much more. but as you know the pundit week is not over 3 weeks ago we launched the strategy preparedness and response plan for 2021 which outlines how w.h.o. will support countries in responding to the pandemic and the resources we need to do it the plan calls for a total requirement of $1960000000.00 us dollars close to $2000000000.00 us dollars and we don't call countries and organizations who have already committed funds we are now inviting everyone to support the 2021 strategy preparedness and response plan to this will surely donita response from the money collected will be used to cyprus transmission save lives fight the info to make and accelerate acquittal access to vaccines dad and mystics internet puti x. when we launched this well he did it in response fund one year ago they knighted nations foundation played a vital role in making it happen today it's my great honor to welcome elizabeth cousins the president and chief executive officer of the united nations foundation. bit thank you so much for your support and partnership over the past year and for everything your team and yourself as done you have the floor thank you so much dr kendra's it is wonderful to join you neal and your colleagues as we mark a year since the launch of a covert nightshade solidarity response and look to its future. when w.h.o. called our united nations foundation just over one year ago you asked. earlier there we were hearing from the world health organizations director general dr ted there also. speaking about the cove in $1000.00 response he began by talking about the astra zeneca vaccine which several countries some dozen countries have suspended the use of the concerns about blood clots he said it shows the surveillance system works he went to talk went on to talk about how the greatest issue right now for the world is the lack of access to the scenes that no country can vaccinate its way out of the pandemic on its own let's go to dominic cain who has been monitoring that press conference from berlin dominic we missed the top there actually when dr gabriel source was speaking about the astra zeneca vaccine what exactly did he say. didn't say a great deal more about the vaccine he acknowledged the fact that several countries in europe on the continent of europe have suspended the administration of the vaccine to their citizens while the european medicines agency analyzes the evidence which those countries as perhaps presented to the am a not a great deal more from the director general of the w.h.o. specifically to the central issue here which is the relative safety of this particular vaccine the fact that these european countries have said that they believe there is a raised incidence of blood clots in those who have received the vaccine the interesting thing of course is that the e m a the european medicines agency for its part says that it is aware of a certain number of cases it referred to of the course the last few days on the 11th of march it said that had been made aware of 30 cases of blood clots amongst nearly 5000000 people having received the vaccine 30 from for from 5000000 which equates to one person for every 170000 people given the vaccine and on that basis on the 11th of march the e.m.a.'s ruling was that it was still better to administer the vaccine the not to administer the vaccine we were hoping that perhaps we would hear slightly more detail from the w.h.o. regarding specifically this central idea about the relative safety of the vaccine but seeing is the news conference had only started in the course of the last 10 minutes or so 5 to 10 minutes or so perhaps that they will come back to this particular issue as the meeting unfolds dominick. what do you think all of this is going to do. the public trust in the vaccine because now we have a few countries in the european union who are suspending use of this vaccine but this axiom is all being used widely in the u.k. as it. yes it's worth remembering that on the one hand you have countries such as the u.k. who have almost been pioneering the use of the astra zeneca vaccine really sealing a march on other countries by giving it to many millions of people in their general population the people who they felt need to have the vaccine 1st as it were to protect them against the ravages of covert 19 and then on the other side the flip side of this you have countries in the european union which was slower so the european union was slower to approve the use of astra zeneca as a vaccine for the population here the reason being that it wanted to to treat the entire continent as one block and to approve in one go and so that's what you have going on here slowness on the one part but the assistance on safety and then speed on the other with the with the hope to immunize as many people as possible as quickly as possible basically now the ball is in the court of the day again and there is a suggestion that there may be a decision some sort of statement tomorrow launch time. ok thank you for that that is john mccain live from and so just to recap for you the world health organization says this actually shows a surveillance system is working and it will be in contact with the european medicines agency regarding the astra zeneca vaccine we'll have plenty more on this for you in just a few minutes time here on al-jazeera to stay with us. for what $300000000.00 going to miss your members in such a small place where 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