Ittle more than a month after president obama announced a historic diplomatic reboot with cuba and lifting restrictions on americans travelling to the nation, 8 senators and 4 democrats and 4 republicans introduced legislation to go to cuba and this is the first on the trade with cuba and president obama eased some restrictions last month it takes an act to lift the full embargo in place for 50 years, any bill that eases or lifts embargo faces stiff opposition from many lawmakers. Meanwhile cuban president castro is sounding his own opposition to a more normal relationship with the United States so long as america quote blockade stays in place. He also renewed longstanding demands that the u. S. Evacuate the Guantanamo Navel base on the eastern coast of the islands and u. S. Leased the 45 square mile air from cuba since the early 20th century but since 1959 the communist government called the u. S. Presence there illegal under International Law because cuba insists the u. S. Base was imposed on cuba by force. Now, despite the still wide gulf separating the u. S. And cuban governments a lot has changed in a month, the two sides established diplomatic ties and u. S. People are allowed to enter cuba than before and bring back gifts like rum and cigars without getting hit with penalties. The cuban government released 53 from prison, a u. S. Condition put on last months reopening of diplomatic relations and u. S. Companies announcing plans to do business with cuba, credit card and American Express said this week its going to launch operations on the island and on Line Travel Agency kiak has websites to cuba. Nevertheless the cold war that poisoned relations between the two countries for half a century doesnt die easily and we explain in this report from nearby costarica. Reporter have not spoken publically since this was announced and many predicted the cold war between both countries was drawing to an end but after six weeks of silence cuban president castro had a lot to say to the country. Translator initiating diplomatic ties is the first step toward normalizing bilateral relations but they are impossible while the blockade exists. And until the legally occupied territory of guantanamo is returned to us and t. V. Ceases and until our people receive just compensation for the human and economic damage they have suffered. [applause] addressing leaders of the 33 Member Community of latin american and caribbean nations castro used harsh language to make clear that his communist government would not alter its oneparty state system one iota to please washington. And he went further suggesting the United States has changed its methods but not its objective to provoke the over government. Translator everything indicates that the objective is to have an artificial opposition using economic, political and communication methods. Reporter here in san jose castro has support of meres and urging president obama to use executive powers to further weaken the u. S. Embargo against cuba and bypassing congress. Not president obama plea to the Republican Controlled Congress to lift embargo suffered president castros position. The leader is clearly playing hard ball ahead of summit of americans where the first time in half a century United States and cuba will sit at the same table. And between now and then he is expecting more concessions from the white house without offering anything in exchange. This he said would be unethical. Im with al jazeera san jose. More on the thaw we have david from a week long visit from the capitol havana, the second trip back since a two year stint reporting from inside cuba we will start with the travel thing and whether or not there is legislation people can as you prove travel to cuba, why does it matter . In many ways it doesnt. I think the bottom line is that what the white house did executive order is allow the 12 categories and travelers can go as tourist as long as they come back and self report Something Else and check at customs. The significance of what the legislation that is pending is this would take an act of congress and sort of remove one portion of the embargo and that is huge significantly. Tip of the iceberg and when you cut the embargo. This is what they are talking about and the beginning step and the tip of the iceberg, once there is congressional where with all to make this happen the rest of the chips fall from what they say. The senators and rubio will stand in the way of this. This is a cuban american who is base is the hard line miami community. What they can do is kind of interesting because when you come back there are all sorts of checks so if you go down as a tourist and report you were going on a Culture Exchange what rubio will say lets get enforcement in place and get customs. That is a little bit ridiculous, isnt it, really, this . There is not too much he can do, this is executive order and he will try to block the enlisting of embargo but wants some documentation and paperwork, some penalties placed on people. You went down there, before you went to havana on the last trip you were in miami and talking to some hard liners who would support him. They are sticking to their guns on this. They are also getting old, this is an Older Community in south florida. You have three generations of people in south florida, the old generation that lost homes in havana and lost property and the middle guys who say my parents i still are memories of cuba and younger ones and say im a dolphins fan and this is my home. And in the piece we talked about castro taking a sort of a hard line or getting ready to take a hard line at the summit of the americans, what does he get for doing that . Castro needs dollars and we mentioned in previous reports the falling price of oil, that is really effecting what venezuela can do and an economy that is propped up by somebody, the soviet union or china or venezuela and Oil Subsidies but has to play another line that we have people in waiting in the wings that are not quite sure about this lean towards this market, free Market Capital system so he has to play it. Keep in mind when he gave the speech, sort of response to president obama on december 17th he was wearing Army Fatigues and the objects of that matter a bit and play kating to the base and saying we are here and cuban communism is still strong. Do you see any real bumps in this road toward the direction that the u. S. And cuba a month ago announced they are going in or is this all expected and on the edges . All kinds of bumps here, this is a country that is steeped in red tape be it from the free market system starting to Gain Momentum to bureaucracy in place, keep in mind most of the economy is run by the military like egypt in the sense and having American Companies partner with cuban military to go and negotiate deals with American Express and hotel that is not an easy line to hoe for the south florida community. Glad you are on top of the story on the cuban band, one place that stands to gain the most from the relationship with cuba is louisiana until 1961 the state was a Major Trading partner with havana and now louisiana rice farmers and other businesses are hoping diplomacy will lead to new opportunities and Jonathan Martin reports from new orleans. Reporter american businesses have been cutoff from trade with cuba for more than half a century, Many Americans still see the castro communist regime as enemy and others hoping to capitalize on a new market. For this fourth generation promising. Rice crop here is a very high quality crop. Reporter before the u. S. Trade embargo in the 60s cuba was the largest importer of louisianas rice. They import a lot of rice. Its almost the size of louisianas whole crop. So you can see it would be significant if we could get back to what we were doing before. Reporter with louisianas ports straddling the Mississippi River and 700 miles from cuba its in a prime spot to trade with cuba and with rice, poultry, beef and Petrol Chemicals to be exported. In the first year 1520 increase in sales of louisiana products, louisiana products going into cuba. Reporter opening trade with cuba could add millions to the states economy and create jobs. But critics say the excitement is premature. The embargo cannot be lifted absent congressional approval when they are going to get that. Reporter George Fowler fled cuba in 1960 when he was 9 years old and he is an attorney for the cuban american foundation, under castro he says opening trade does nothing for the people still struggling in cuba. The only one that benefits is fidel castro. What about countries like china and vietnam that we do business with . The chinese and vietnamese can make money from transactions and can become millionaires and billionaires or even just well to do. We stay away from politics. Reporter he too is sensitive to the needs of those in cuba but current trade restrictions put u. S. Farmers at a disadvantage. We are the ones in my opinion that are getting hurt from not being able to trade with cuba. Rice farmers, i mean they get their rice from somewhere else. Reporter lets stay in louisiana where there is high anxiety over low oil prices and coming up, a project that was supposed to create hundreds of jobs there is now in jeopardy, you are watching real money and next week this show moves to prime time and it will be 10 30 eastern and 7 30 pacific starting monday or set your dvr, we are back in two minutes. Because i was African American i was trying to fit in misty coplelands journey wasnt easy dancing gave me the opportunity to grow into the person. I dont think i could be without it now, this trailblazer is opening the door for others i wanna give back to ballet what its done for me. Every sunday, join us for exclusive. Revealing. And surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. Talk to al jazeera only on Al Jazeera America oil prices bounced around today and ended up rising 8 cents to settle at 44. 03 a barrel and earlier in the day the light sweet crude was 43 and the lowest since march of 2009 and that was after the financial crisis when the stock market hit the lowest point and went up from there but not a great time in the world. Dont get caught up in one day moves and the big picture is 58 plunge in prices since june when oil cost 107 a barrel and that is from increased Oil Production in america and global drop in demand as economies in europe and asia slow down and cheaper gasoline may be positive news for drivers but a sharp reminder of negative economic effects of Falling Energy prices phillips lost 39 million in the last three months of the year and its the first quarterly lost since 2008. The company slashed spending this year by another 2 billion in response to Falling Oil Prices and earlier dutch shell is cutting 15 billion and shell is cancelling or delaying 40 projects worldwide because of lower energy prices. Scotland british has announced plans to cut thousands of jobs globally and suspend some projects and causing anxiety in aberdeen which is the companys north sea headquarters and we report. Reporter on the eastern coast of scotland this Success Story thanks largely to oil and gas and 30,000 people work in the off shore industry its thought ten times as many employed in sectors like engineer but this month bp followed shell in announcing hundreds of job cuts and that has peoples attention on the impact of low oil prices. This part is the original fishing village from a time when it provided jobs for much of the local workforce. In the 1970s the Oil Exploration took off and it has made aberdeen prosperous and wondering if the prosperity could be at risk. I caught up with a woman who used to work in the oil and gas industry and her husband still does as an engineer and confident it will be thriving when her son grows up. Its a center of excellence so if the off shore and oil and gas off aberdeen slows down there is always work coming from overseas and we are skilled in the city so work will come from im sure foreign ways. Reporter Union Official jake is warning the future of the industry could be in danger unless the government steps in with take breaks for oil producers. Oil prices were high government increased oil and increase taxes. When the Oil Price Drops we should have a regime and its not just about sustaining jobs but production of oil and sustaining revenue stream of the economy as a whole. Reporter it feels like its thriving and catering to people above uk salaries, at this champaign bar they are not worried about oil prices and i why. Being an oil and gas city being driven by oil, its not 100 100 and there are a lot of differ industries here and not 100 to oil and gas. Reporter if it doesnt rise in the next few months confidence in major investors and hence jobs could take a further dip, al jazeera, aberdeen. At this country the slump in prices causing anxiety in louisiana the Economist Says for every dollar it falls louisiana loses 11 million. A South African Company says its delaying a dollar 14 billion investment in a plant to convert natural gas into liquid fuel in response to Lower International prices and the plant by lake charles, louisiana was going to create hundreds of permanent jobs. Congress one step close ore the show down with president obama over the Keystone Pipeline and the Senate Passed a bill to force approval of the controversial pipeline even though the president says he will veto the bill and the bill passed 6236 but 67 votes needed to over ride a veto, despite opposition from environmentalist nine democrats joined republicans and the house passed legislation earlier this month that will have to be reconciled with the Senate Version and a bill is expected on the president s desk next week and believe developing bio fuels could protect the environment but a new report says its not worth it. Ill tell you why in just two minutes. You know how they say that everybody has a purpose in life . Well, at one time, i felt that selling cocaine was my purpose. We was starvin, just lookin for a way to succeed. The first time i seen rock cocaine was 1980. The murder rate was skyhigh. South of the 10 freeway, was kind of a nomans land. You know, were selling it for the blacks. I said, you go into these neighborhoods, theres no cops you can sell it where you want and when they start killing each other, nobody cares. I was going through like a Million Dollars worth of drugs just about every day. Thats like gold we can make a fortune he was maybe the biggest guy in l. A. Freeway rick was getting his dope from a very big operator. I think were into something thats bigger than us. Something we really cant deal with. They had been trafficking on behalf of the United States government. She could prove what she was saying. [rapping] crack in the system. [rapping] this is los angeles. Bio fuels have long been touted as a way to fight Global Warming and reduce Oil Dependence but a paper from environmental think Tank Institute says bio energy guy is not living up to expectations and say dedicating crops and lands to bio energy is making it harder to sustainably feed the planet and that using bio energy to meet even a small traction of the worlds total Energy Demand is unrealistic and unsustainable and he agrees and president and ceo of Renewable Fuels association and trade association for americas ethanol industry and thank you for being on the show with us. Good to be with you. Lets talk about this, you put out a paper today saying debunking the dooms day theories again and basically a few cases here, one and ill outline them and you have heard them before and we talked about them ethanol is inefficient and bio fuels and do not produce as effective as other ways of doing it. Number two they are replacing crops that are used to feed people. We have decided its okay to grow fuel for our industries and our cars instead of feeding people and number three that it is you know its an industry that doesnt need to be subsidized. We put these subsidies in effect for all intents and purposes and made some corn farmers an industry wealthy but we dont need the subsidy. Have at them. Well, lets take them from the last to the first. Okay. The ethanol industry is not subsidized today. There is a program that requires refiners to utilize our products but there is no tax incentive and no subsidies whatsoever. Lets, you are right, i used the wrong word. There is a mandate that 15 of our fuel or percentage of our fuel has to come from ethanol and serves as a built in market for people who grow car. It serves as a mechanism to choice. No, no, a built in market, if somebody says 15 of all television anchor s had to be bald i would be employed the rest of my life. I think you should be. That is what im looking for. Oil companies are not in the business of providing Renewable Fuels to their customers. And they have walked away from alternative fuels. The only mechanism that has allowed Renewable Fuels to take a, gain a foot hold in this country is the renewable fuel standard and 10 of the fuel today is supplied by u. S. Produced ethanol, that is a great thing. Its less expensive than gasoline today. It is cleaner than gasoline. And it is revitalizing across the country. This is the assertion its putting food supply in danger to take land that would have been used for feed and turn it into land that is used to grow corn for fuel. Absolutely. This sounds like a modern day thomas malphis and you remember the social commentator of the 18th century who would warn that population growth in the 1800s would lead to devastating starvation, well, he was wrong in the 1800s and tim has been proven wrong today. Because this is not the first time he has come out with this theory. He did it eight years ago. And the fact of the matter is we now have real world data showing that the concerns that he has raised are completely unfounded. Yet from Industry Groups that you would also know from groups that represent food growers and manufacturers in america, the number one concern they always outline is that we need to improve yield per acre because we dont have enough food to feed the world so we are talking out of both sides of our mouth and they site survey after Research Paper saying if they could do that and we dont have enough power to do that. We dont have enough in the world today and we have to make sure we are not wasteful of what we produce but the Search Engines argument is that if we are growing crops for bio fuels that there is not going to be any crop land for food. Other land will have to be used and cleared to grow food. We dont have enough food or not efficient and if food is not there and we have to grow more the argument is right at least on that front. His argument is still wrong because farmers are ever more productive, look, since the renewable fuel standard, the program for ethanol to be used has been in place. Crop land in this country has fallen not to grow and at the same time yields increased and coming off the single largest corn crop in history. Yields have increased. Last year we produced a record 171 bushels of corn per acre shattering the previous record. One of the reasons you see such gains in productivity in yields is farmers are not getting more for their crop. So they are reinvesting in new equipment, Companies Investing in new technology and across the increases. Youve got some powerful adversaries and senator diane and pattoomey have the corn elimination act of 2015, what would happen if this mandate be . Well, refiners as i said do not want to be throughputting carbohydrates, Renewable Fuels and want to be able to maximize property by through putting carbons and the danger to significant. We have an oil glut at 44 a barrel and we have the too much oil in the country, will we suffer . Do you think the price of gasoline goes up by 10 cents because of it . A little bit ago you said not to be too concerned about one days price on oil. We all know that the price of oil is going to increase again. We know that 48 a barrel of oil is not a longterm future of this country. We need to have Renewable Fuels to provide some alternative to provide some relief at the pump because ethanol is today and has been for the last several years much cheaper than gasoline, even at 44 a barrel of oil, ethanol is a bargain in terms of octane and consumer gasoline prices. Bob, we will continue to have the conversation president and ceo of Renewable Association and next i will look at another organic resource and marijuana and Silicon Valley wants a piece of the pot, of marijuana. Reminder this show moves to a brand new time slot on monday, 10 30 eastern and 7 30 pacific. We are back right after this. Pass as sunday night. 140 World Leaders will take the podium. Get the full story. There is real disunity in the security council. About issues that impact your world. Infectious diseases are a major threat to health. The week ahead. Sunday 8 30 eastern. Only on Al Jazeera America. Can. Thats weed behind me. Silicon valley is always about the next big thing including capitalizing marijuana. Startups melissa chan has this. Like youre, marijuana. Start adding things to your car and that is a retime of ten minutes. You get some marijuana . And a guy walks through the door. Thanks for using us. And keva chocolate bar. You have a blue drink started just six months ago the Company Raised 1. 5 million in seed funding. Ease is like any other startup in Silicon Valley. The cannabis company. Even Venture Capital funds specifically dedicated now to investing in the industry. Marijuana is still mostly illegal but at this special event where pot startups pitch to local investors you wouldnt know. Allison wants to raise half a million for her start justify sweet leaf. We actually use organically used flower. You would use this base. And a cannabis based company in bervegly. We are hoping to raise altogether 1. 2 million. In 2013 the Legal Cannabis industry was already bringing in 1. 5 billion. This past year, 2014, it ballooned 74 to 2. 7 billion. By one estimate about all states legalized marijuana the total market size would top 36 billion. That is larger than the organic foods market. Its about the size as the wine market. So theres a real reason why investors and entrepreneurs are really excited about this pa market. But confusion about whats Legal Business and what isnt still remains for investors. They have to decide whether its too risky to invest their money when part of the country still cant decide whether its legal. If somehow youre out of state that you can take advantage of that and you know invest in that kind of an enterprise. Because the federal law is still there, because its still a violation of law. While Silicon Valley attorneys have looking the other way as business booms. But a new administration in 2016 could change that. I mean this is a little bit like creating an entire airplane industry two years before kitty hawk. The plane may stay up in the air or may not take off at all. And indeed, continuing the fight the count culture activists and lobbyists. The genie is out of the bold and no way to put it back in. Serious investors everywhere starting to see what the buzz is all about. Melissa chan al jazeera, san francisco. Tough assignment, melissa. Last night on this show, we here is how a different billionaire and his wife are spending their fortune. Im talking about bill and Melinda Gates. The bill and Melinda Gates foundation has got an endowment of about 42 billion. They recently committed more than 500 million to reducing the leading cause of death and disability in developing countries. I sat down in davos with sue Desmond Hellman to see where all of that is going. We try to go into areas like poalpoalpoaltpolio, like malaria. What were trying to create is a condition where people who might be spending their time on other illnesses that affect rich countries, will start to work on countries that affect the poor. Like ebola to lean in on eebl ebola and we found that important companies, gsk merck are going into trials. Clinical trials are expensive so Additional Capital is needed for clinical trials, manufacturing getting it done. Lets talk about market failure. There are probably three ways that market surveil your. It isnt cyclical, its not enough for people who are sick and three its a poor peoples disease. They cant shoot into if dark, dont get these things done. There has been work on Something Like an ebola vaccine for decades. What stopped it from becoming real. Well, the Market Forces you just outlined are incredibly tough. If you look at ebola there were less than 2,000 cases worldwide. This was an extremely rare disease, it affects poor people. A rational company wouldnt invest in ebola so. We see that as a market failure. And there isnt a richcountry version of ebola. Youll say we make money in a rich country and cut off in a poor country. Im at davos because we dont think thats a Sustainable Way for us to think about the Worlds Health in the future. We Want Companies to think that they can have a business including working on areas that affect poor people. And because of the scope of the Gates Foundation do you have the ability to move the noodle on a company being able to get approval faster or get through regulatory hurdles . We do. Now we care deeply about Patient Safety and ethics. So those arent negotiable. But getting to the top of the happy, getting to be first in line having a sense of urgency knowing people are dying as in the case of the ebola epidemic all the Global Regulators have been as motivated as we are. Yes we can help move things that are slow or take away from that sense of urgency that we want. Were in the middle of i think the top 1 of the 1 of the world. The top 1 will control the worlds wealth, accord to oxfam. All sorts of services for the wealthy and were particularly not good at doing i. T. For it for the poor. We have traditionally not been good about doing it for poor. Whats exciting now is that globally and bill and melinda have been a big part of the leadership the Global Leadership that exists today. In saying thats not okay. Its not okay that when we have vaccines that can prevent disease that children globally dont get them. Its not okay for moms to die during delivery. Its not okay for kids to die before they even reach the age of five. Thats what were pushing this 2015 weve got even more Ambitious Goals for Disease Eradication than we have ever before and its because of that equity issue that all lives have value and we believe when the entire globe gets together and say its not okay for a child to die of a preventible illness, we get vaccines. I say in 1990, one in five died of a preventible disease. By 2030, that will be one of 40. Progress is being made. When you hold yourself accountable, set Ambitious Goals, convince these people that this can happen and great things can happen. What are the preventible vaccine presentable diseases . Malaria remains a huge issue. We want to eradicate polio. The news in africa is better, 75 decrease in polio cases last year in africa. And nigeria is about to be polio free, we think. Things are better. Tuberculosis remains a huge issue globally. Hivaids a huge issue globally. Aims to vaccinate 3 million more children to prevent deaths. These are the good news items we can make a difference in Global Health including the healthy of the poor. Now able to buy again. Will they and should they . Answers are just two minutes away. Away. In the next eight years a whopping 7. 5 Million People who lost their homes to floash foreclosure could be flying back the other way because the seven year window to repair their credit has passed and they can now qualify for another mortgage. Miami metro area which took a huge hit during the recession could see 322,000 new homeowners in the next eight years and could be the same news for detroit, potential boomerang buyers or not because they could choose to rent ought their pliefs. Lives, darren, i fell trap to that nonsense that we all fell victim to over the years that somehow, this buying a house at any point was important to the fulfillment of the american dream. And we would tell people this. This was a cultural phenomenon. Im not sure now we should be telling anybody to buy anything they wont be able to 100 be able to afford and stay in. Yeah, i completely agree with that. Were at a really important Inflection Point where we have all these recovering homeowners where they find homeownership isnt what its cracked up or sold to them as. What are they, having a potential to buy again . They are most likely to become buyers again become homeowners again are those markets that are actually still affordable. Right. And i think thats key. Is these hopefully these homeowners this potential homeowners and lenders and others involved have learned the lesson over the years that not all of them have to be homeowners. Maybe they have but mortgage interest credit, everybody gets mad at me when i say it doesnt do that much foster us, it generally affects wealthier people more than it affects poor people. But we also have the business of where the government is now back in the business of getting people loans guaranteeing loans for people with very very little down payment. We are not treating this with as much importance as we should, do we want all these boomers back in the market . No we dont want them all back in the market. But we should also say go the to the other extreme. These boomers got in the market at a time which was not of their own doing. They got into the market when some of them shouldnt have but some of them could and would be good homeowners going forward. It is not a yes or no answer. Some of them should be, some shouldnt. Lets look at the markets miami and detroit atlanta was one of those markets for whatever reason, maybe you can tell me, where those institutional buyers got in in a big way and they would go to auction and they would buy thousands up and put in a market not as deeply discounted, miami is not as discounted now but detroit boomerang buyers dont have the low prices that theyve got in some of these other markets. No not as low. But atlanta would still rank as affordable because a mediumpriced home requires less than 25 of the Median Income there. Thats something that puts atlanta ahead of the game. I think if you are a boomerang buyer that makes it more accessible than los angeles where the median priced home now requires 50 to 60 of the Median Income. Yeah and brooklyn, new york, right here, 98 of Median Income to afford a house in brook lirn. So you know we brooklyn. We love all these areas that are gentrifying. Its too hard to afford a medianpriced home in new york or l. A. Another potential big needle mover in the Housing Market are moving to brooklyn. But the problem there is housing is so unaffordable it is very unlikely those millenials are going to become homeowners any time soon. Renting is also not so affordable there either but its still more affordable than buying a home. Some places are just for rich. Darren blomquist. San francisco and seattle where many traditional apartments and homes are too expensive for these millenial that darren was just talking about. Very small apartments Duarte Geraldino has a look. This doesnt feel that tight. Its not big but its enough. Evan poll takes pride of his 295 square foot apartment in the upper east side. He drew a detailed sketch of it so he could maximize every square inch. Nobody had seen the apartment yet and i had to get it before anyone else put their papers in basically. Its kind of cutthroat. Prices for manhattan studios range from 2300 to nearly 3,000 a month. Evan lives if a building constructed before the 1980s where new york citys rental restrictions went into effect. When you live in a place like this i have a rule one in, one out. If i buy something i have to take something out im at max capacity. New york has lift evidence zoning restrictions on one project in the city and has allowed a development to create an entire building of 55 microunits. From 260 to 350 square feet these apartments are so small theyre being built miles away in a factory. Theyll be driven into new york city and stacked on top of each other. This is one complete unit. This is representative of one of the units in our building. We are standing in whats going to be the hallway now. 22 will being set aside for low income peek. Theyll pay from 949 to 1040 per month. The building will be incredibly densely populated so when the buildings are created they will leave with half an inch of space, the space of my finger in between each one to avoid noise transference. Some Community Groups say theyre bad for neighborhoods. I think its kind of a bad idea because it forces an upward escalation in land prices. And in urban areas one of the Biggest Challenges in producing Affordable Housing is the cost of the land. Sarah disagrees. Shes carefully watching the new york experiment, and says because of the lack of space competing directly with families for a place to live. It may be cheaper for them as a Single Person but actually say that three bedroom apartment if its taking three or four single people and renting it, the landlord can get more money for that unit than if a family was renting. Cities around the country are jumping on the microbandwagon. This unit has two bedrooms, a kitchen and living room and less than 630 square feet but thats nothing compared to the 90 square feet elise cohen used to rent in new york. There was only 20 inches between bed and the ceiling. The landlord realized she was illegally subletting. I found an eviction notice on the door. They first decided to double the rent and let me stay and i agreed but they changed their mind. Reporter after years living like this she was able to save up enough money to buy herself a 600 square foot manhattan apartment. What is life after tiny like . Life after tiny . A lot less bruises. Duarte geraldino, al jazeera new york. Reporter many pairns are saying yes to a six Day Work Week. Get ready for priem time, this show rl moves to 10 30 thats five days a week by the way. Way. Only alternative people have. Borderland only on Al Jazeera America the massive blizzard that blasted the northeast this week the massive blizzard that blasted through the northeast created a though day four Day Work Week, but for many workers the four Day Work Week is not the anomaly its the norm. Many europeans now u. S. Companies are experimenting with a four Day Work Week. Some of them are finding that fewer hours add up to more efficiency loyalty and productivity. Saying thank god its thursday. Jen rogers has the story. Its thursday at the company tree house in portland, oregon. For most companies this doesnt mean anything special but here thursdays are really fridays. Tree house has a three Day Work Week. Tomorrow is the end of the week ive got to get things done. Ceo ron carlson and his wife jen, they decided to keep the tradition. I thought if everybody says you cant work less lets prove them wrong and see if its possible. Turns out it is. We have found a huge correlation between working less and being more efficient. When you look at it, makes sense. The idea, hey if i constrain myself to what i need to get done theres an increase in productivity. We do know with a workforce on shorter hours and on flexible arrangements tends to be happier more loyal and more stable. And all of those things tend to be good for the business bottom line if you like. Worldwide countries that work shorter hours tend to have higher productivity. Look for example at the g7 countries. With an average gdp 30 higher. That tells you that you cannot predict that an economy is going to be stronger because workers are working longer hours and its likely that the economy will be either just the same, or stronger if workers are working shorter hours on average. Carson says there has been some unexpected benefits for the four Day Work Week. Workersworkers go to doctors on fridays. Accusing us of stealing their people. I laugh because we treat people like humans here. Allowing some of their employees to have a four Day Work Week. Usually that involves flexible hours during the summers on fridays. That has to come from the ceos or founders. And trouble is, a lot of those people like working. Experimenting with the four Day Work Week in hopes that it will save money in the long run. Manufacturing and Tech Companies are more likely to work a four day ten hour work week. Its easy to think people are slacking. I sometimes figure out my schedule for the week to make sure i have everything. Yvette has worked at tree house for two years. Employees are held accountable. We look at whos completing those projects within a certain amount of time. Theres red flags that are pulled out if you are not pulling your weight in the company. We have let people go. You have to be able to perform here. Carson says his employees still get a Competitive Salary plus benefits. Bottom line his employees are efficient and happy even if the Company Grows more slowly as a result. Short term we may have been hurt a little bit but still growing over 100 a year in revenue. Im okay with that, seems good enough. I have enjoyed spending be dinnertime with you that looks delicious by the way. But starting monday, well take our meetings to prime time. 10 30 eastern 7 30 p. M. Pacific, all week. Im ali velshi. Thank you for joining us. At least 26 security personnel killed in coordinated attacks in egypt april sinai peninsula. Hello im folly bah thibault. This is al jazeera from doha. Still ahead. Hostages in iran homes. The new saudi kings cabinet well have a look at the latest lineup