over the weekend it takes the death toll in the caribbean to thirty eight rescuers say some of died after ignoring evacuation orders british m.p.'s have given their first approval to a bill that would give ministers powers to bypass parliament and create new doors the government says it's essential to allow the u.k. to leave the european union smoothly but critics will it will undermine democracy. as congress has protected president jimmy morale is from facing trial for irregular finances during his election campaign voted to keep his immunity from prosecution despite a congressional committee arguing against it the committee found evidence that at least eight hundred thousand dollars he received wasn't registered last month guatemala began a corruption trial against his brother and son but more oil services have been held in the u.s. to mark sixteen years since the september eleventh attacks. victims' relatives and rescue a former world trade center in new york. those are the headlines the news continues

here on al-jazeera after counting the cost thanks for watching. simplistic narratives listening post critiques the mainstream response exposing the influences that drive the headlines at this time on al-jazeera. hello i'm adrian finighan and this is counting the cost of al-jazeera a weekly look at the world of business and economics this week opening the door to private enterprise under the state's watchful eye north korea's bid to withstand international pressure. also this week cattle launches that was a pause in another step towards economic self-reliance. and targeting digital currency is why china has banned fundraising through initial coin offerings.

international sanctions against north korea have been scaled up significantly over the past year but pyongyang showing no signs of slowing down its nuclear weapons program instead it carried out its sixth nuclear test this month washington wants an oil embargo on a freeze on leader kim jong un's assets and it's threatening sanctions on any country that trades with north korea but analysts warn that north korea has a well established system in place to evade sanctions in fact its output grew at its fastest pace in seventeen years in twenty sixteen that's according to south korea's central bank which estimated that the economy grew by three point nine percent driven by mining and energy north korea doesn't publish economic data china accounted for nearly ninety three percent of all north korean trade russia a distant second with just over one percent earlier this year china said it will stop buying north korean coal but it's not clear how effective the ban is the un

says that we can force mint allows north korea to earn billions in foreign currency by selling drugs weapons banned minerals and counterfeit goods with the help of front companies and foreign nationals and pyongyang may be able to withstand some additional pressure because of the limited market reforms allowed by kim jong il and they've opened the door to private business the vast majority technically illegal but tacitly accepted some economists say wages and the standard of living of many citizens have improved. joining us now from seoul bureau kim a professor of economics at seoul national university recently published a book on north korea's economy called unveiling the north korean economy professor good to have you with us current sanctions are clearly having no impact on north korea's ambitions as far as its nuclear program a concert what more can be done in terms of sanctions are they going to have any effect i think that there are three most insurance possible the first one is

of. korea. does not produce any or you'll miss a cut you off and also to north korea with korea large extent how effective it will be it depends upon how much they have is told to prepare this kind of a solution. china and russia main exporters or you will mainly china north korea imports about one billion home every year and is now oil supply is done by china through a pipeline. so if the chinese government because of its oil supply is through a pipeline it reduces about the forty fifty percent or your consumption of korea it will hold the economy a political stunt do you think that the second one is sort of festive just briefly do you think that china would be willing to do that what is the question because.

cut more or you will means bend the north korea as a lie so it's a big decision so i think it's china is locked into cutting off the old spline of totally. however they may have to consider which is a better between us has pressure or cut you off or supply and so i think if this is big question and big determination but just as in always tea party congress will be held next month in october so that this is a maybe bait after the party congress rather than before because it's big very big decision what about secondary sanctions on companies on countries individuals who are doing business with north korea could they be effectively police and they've been would they be any use what the act was in active united states but.

we have to identify the individuals is titian's and the companies that do business with north korea and they have to stop therefore it requires resources to monitor what kind of problems what countries do sions what kind of companies a business is with north korea while the main items of the export import are there for it this time in the news time and resources and to monitor a list up there is not is the names of the individuals or companies that is decisions north korea's economy professor gruber what three point nine percent last year were. what's behind that growth what's what's driving that growth despite the fact that north korea is a pariah state and there are all these sanctions in place that that's right but they don't say show. some years ago basically the real solution if it was copied.

from us does the yeah therefore the grocer recalled last year i met so much does the nation's. biggest driving force these. markets and right at these changes they call me of north korea and this market's rate have impacts on construction because the money coming from trade helps to build large buildings in north korea also because north korea has built some power plants also there was encrypted was increased in production last year this are the most affected by trade to put it straight and marketisation korea it's about marketisation what do you what do you mean exactly is that going to help north korea withstand the impact of any further sanctions that are placed upon it where it is going interest because well i think it's the markets like i just saw it

because because of markets north korea economy. ok but the markets based on the mind control of those helping because people engage in much activities they do not like on state rationing therefore they become more autonomous therefore is the long run. loose control of people so what one sense yes because the markets economy is ok therefore they can concentrate on. you could happen to build up months and missile development but on the other hand in the long run a market of the mind controls as happy as the that they are for a given zone they have dilemma between these two as. it's the temple marketisation basically is the about seventy to ninety percent of the house income come from markets therefore although you saw visually a source economy is in fact is the market is the economy is that is the lies the markets are basically market people t's are very prevalent north korea now is

professor it's pretty good to talk to your own country the course many thanks indeed for being with us again thank you now india's government is launching an ambitious project to connect major rivers across the country it says that the plan is especially important after severe flooding from monsoon rains this season but as divya component reports now from bihar many fear that it could lead to an environmental disaster. bihar has been submerged by some of the worst flooding to hit the state this century hundreds were killed and hundreds of thousands made homeless in the past few weeks oh no idea nobody has come to help us we were stuck with the water on around nobody cares about us. we are is flooded almost every other year thousands of homes are washed away and millions of lives disrupted but the government says it has a solution if we are able to implement these projects we will be greatly

solving the problems of pride and crore in the country the plan is to connect sixty major rivers including the ganges those with surplus water will be dam that diverted to rivers with lower levels the government also plans to build thirty thousand reservoirs and canal stretching fifteen thousand kilometers to control the flow. some experts say this will improve transport and trade routes along the waterways as well as boost the economy but it comes at a price that is huge and monumental impacts it is a huge a social impacts a socially very disruptive project. it will destroy the reverse in fact it's estimated that millions of people will be affected by this community of farmers was uprooted two years ago to make way for a government infrastructure project a bridge across the ganges river they're still waiting to be resettled in compensated with fear that they will have to move again when the river link project

reaches be higher. i would rise people ought to leave their place on government promises a list you get a proper legal document the government cheechoo. government leaders are being asked why the river linking plan is going ahead with so much opposition we have to see how to minimize the sum margins in how best to address the issue. but critics say beef issues should be addressed before they asked taxpayers to foot the eighty seven billion dollar bill this project will cost. qatar's emir has an orchestrated the new deepwater hammered port as part of a wider plan to ensure economic security it means larger container ships can now go directly to cas are rather than docking in the united arab emirates where cargo was transferred to smaller vessels the u.a.e. is one of the countries that have imposed a land air and sea blockade on cats are the port will have an annual capacity of

seven point five million shipping containers and separate terminals dedicated to general cargo cereal vehicles and livestock it's expected to be fully operational by twenty twenty joining us now from london andrea's creagh address is strategic risk analyst focusing on the middle east security and assistant professor at king's college london always great to have you with this address what impact is the opening of this new port go to have on cattle as economy i think is a very significant development irrespective of the crisis i mean qatar was very much dependent on neighboring countries specially the land border to saudi arabia to get imports and exports out of the country particularly imports all the l.n.g. has never been a problem i mean qatar controls the entire supply chain of l.n.g. from from getting it out of the ground to actually to the terminals overseas anything else that has to be imported or exported from qatar had to go via doha

port which was a very small way to small port in qatar which with a maximum capacity of five hundred thousand to seven fifty thousand containers a year and now you just mentioned seven point five million is a significant increase in that. it provides qatar with independence it provides qatar with the ability to actually store food and to store consumer goods at a level that was never part. able before which makes again cards are more sustainable and more resilient in times of crisis such as these apart from that the port is part of a much wider project to create small and medium sized enterprises around that area that will be able to have direct access to a port and then again making the in for the logistical costs for these companies to import and export easier so i think it will have a massive impact also on the on the cutter's economy for small and medium sized enterprises because obviously qatar is trying to diversify get away from from the

from purely relying on hydrocarbons particularly gas and then creating a more resilient economy that is based on the private sector and i think this for the private sector this is a huge boost to have access to their own port which is now ten times bigger than the current court indoor in terms of capacity in terms of the ships that can dock there in terms of the infrastructure that is needed you know this is a twenty first century port that a country has such as qatar with a bishop is that carter has you know needs ok what other measures could the country take to ensure long term economic sustainability that you said that this that the opening of how it is going to help as far as the ongoing blockade is concerned what about the long term future what else needs to be done. you know in terms of diversification carter is very very early stage the reason is that qatar unlike other gulf countries is a lot more resilient in terms of its economic setup the rentier state in qatar is to function as well because ellen g.

can be still produce the very low cost and you know and in countries relatively small with a small population so they don't the diversification effort that is pushed now by the government is something that is a precautionary measure looking towards the future other countries actually with the back against their war saudi arabia. bahrain for example they need to diversify because they are already in the post hydrocarbon era. qatar isn't but nonetheless you know in terms of diversification it is very important and qatar is pushing the agenda just to prove to be prepared for the future and have a private sector that is fully operational and i think is in this is where port comes in it is important to be independent to have independent trade routes with other countries and not be reliant as they were you know they were over a line on jebel ali which is the biggest port in the middle east and close to dubai and now being independent of that and if trans shipment is needed so basically when goods have to be transferred from bigger to smaller vessels they can rely on ports

in mind when necessary but many ships can now directly dock at home a port that is very significant the longer this crisis goes on the more qatar will develop new trade routes which will be cheaper and in many ways you know this this crisis has been a blessing in disguise because how much port could it couldn't have been used in its fullest to its fullest capacity as it is as it is being used at the moment because of existing contracts with jebel ali and other ports in the u.a.e. now the u.a.e. have decided to to cut these contracts to nullify these contracts and now importers in qatar can now look for more lucrative and maybe cheaper routes directly into qatar and so and the government is doing everything to to incentivize this there is a lot of uncertainty incentives for local businessmen to create new imports new revenues of imports and using some of port to do that and they can do this in the long run more cheaper a lot cheaper than using for example

a general arlie in the u.a.e. so i think long term the economic cost of this crisis will go down significantly to a level that it is almost you know not not worth mentioning any more interest groups talk to you thanks for being with us thank you still to come on counting the cost why two top french fashion houses a barring on the way models from the captain. but first british workers at two mcdonald's restaurants have been staging the first strike to hit the company in the u.k. they're demanding better pay union recognition and the scrapping of so-called zero hour contracts lawrence lee reports from london. going on strike when you don't know if you'll get any work next week is dangerous and those who did it admit to being a bit scared they made their point outside parliament as well when you get paid so little you can't even afford your rent like steve who's living on people sofas for

the last four weeks there isn't much to loose i've just got into a place now i've been self-assertion for about four weeks. and i just go into a public place now and at the moment it's like sleeping on the floor. for a bet if it wasn't if it wasn't for the fact that they give me free dinner i don't eat because five days a week i get sweet mcdonald's the mcdonald's strike in the u.k. the first in the company's history here is being portrayed by the union movement as highly symbolic underpaid non-unionized zero hours contract workers have been effectively voiceless now they're taking on a global giant of course with all those might be emblematic of american working practices coming to europe for the fast food chain is by no means alone in the u.k. now almost a million people working in this phrase like food in retail on zero hours contracts with no apparent job security it isn't just in the u.k. either the workers here are being advised by more experienced unions from other countries the meeting i had with the workers from regional stores or striking. it

was like to be any store in new zealand teen years ago before we start of the organizing drive in absolute motion your vision labor party has raised the abolition of zero hours contracts as a campaign tactic designed to appeal to vast numbers of voters across the world and that i was being confronted by people saying we've had enough you make enormous profits you know just from a decent wage recognise trade unions and the exploitation is here when donald says it has raised pay levels and is offering more secure employment the workers want ten pounds or thirteen dollars an hour last year mcdonald's announced its shareholders received forty. billion dollars two of africa's leading economies say that they've emerged from recession but latest figures from south africa nigeria show economic growth in the second quarter nigeria's output rose munchen lead by north point five five percent but that's after five consecutive quarters of

negative growth returns from oil have risen and that's crucial for a country that counts on crude for ninety percent of export earnings and south africa recorded two point five percent growth in the second course a boost after two consecutive quarters of contraction the main driver was agriculture output grew by thirty three point six percent but growth remains sluggish and one in four south africans is out of work. now you are likely to be familiar with initial public offering so i.p.o.'s but have you heard of initial coiling offerings i c.e.o.'s are increasingly seen globally as a quick way to raise large sums with little or no regulator or oversight but a major market china has now banned the practice investors in i.c.'s by digital coins of the company which can appreciate in value if the business succeeds but they don't get any share in the company and there's no security unlike the traditional public offerings once the tokens are issued they can be traded against

other currencies such as bitcoin these current offerings have fueled a rapid rise in the values of crypto currencies this year chinese state media reported in july that there have been sixty five i c o's so far raising more than three hundred ninety four million dollars joining us now from cambridge dr garrett holman garrick's a research fellow at cambridge university's center for alternative finance good to have you with us dr holland what do you make of china's move here what about the timing of it well the i.c.l. market has been on fire late well over a billion dollars has been raised through i suppose just in the past couple months alone that's almost equal to the amount of venture capital that the block chain sector has attracted in five years and so it's not surprising you see regulators in markets like china raising concerns and looking to kind of slow things down a bit so is china has moved to slow down the growth of i.c.'s i think it will

slow down the growth some you know the u.s. security exchange commission also recently issued some guidance and i think other regulators here in the u.k. are also looking and i suppose this is going to cause people to take some pods and do a little more diligence on whether their ice you know meets the definition of security and you know which markets then you want to register and some exchanges are already . delisting certain i suppose from training and that's going to have an impact on the committee and growth is some sort of regulation actually needed i mean at the most it seems to be a bit of a free for all with very little security for the investor right well i think there are certainly going to be some you know some problems and we've seen some thousands of fraud already in the i.c.a.o. space i think that's that's a given you know when the case of china they have a history of very high alternative finance activity and there's been problems in the past in the peer to peer lending sector there were significant problems well

and so you know the action by the chinese is not surprising you know small investors small players have been hurt in the past and it's quite reasonable for regulators to be concerned about what's happening i think in this case do you think the regulators actually fully understand i c o's i think. you know people are getting up to speed here but i think there's still a lot of you know education needs to take place blocking is a very complex subject you know recent data show that eighty percent of the people who've heard of it don't understand how it works and so i think there is an education opportunity here but regulators are moving quickly i think to learn what they need to know about space and one final question get it how is this move likely to impact upon the established cryptocurrency bitcoin for example if it does does it have the power to move the price well it did initially but i think people took a step back and you know and didn't you know panic about what had happened they

realize this is one you know well significant market that's you know kind of slowed things down in the ice you know space it's not necessarily going to do rail coin or other major platforms you know i think regulation can also have some positive effects or currencies and digital assets they you know suggest that they are going to be around for a while and is that these issues become more regulated more likely they'll be opened up on more traditional exchange and is to show investors will have more access to them through time and really gets to achieve a thanks a day for being with us and counting the cost thank you for having me. europe's human rights court has barred companies from snooping on their employees' e-mails without informing them in advance the case centered on a romanian man who created a yahoo messenger account to communicate with clients but also used the account to chat with his family leading to his firing the court ruled that the man's privacy rights have been violated since his employer didn't let him know in advance that he

was being monitored. two giants of the french fashion industry are joining hands to ban models who are too skinny or too young l v m h caring will adopt a charter to treat models better and say they'll persuade others to follow suit the reports from paris for some time. has been criticized by people who say that he uses models to young too thin and promotes unattainable unrealistic ideals of beauty and it can also encourage eating disorders such as anorexia now two french giants health and caring say they are going to change that now that's important because they own many of the world's most recognized fashion brands such as christian dior. gucci and louis. and that includes a ban on ultra skinny models and also stops the use of models under the age of sixteen to represent adults on one ways it's an advertising for many people be

watching to see if this really change in the fashion industry carrying say that the new rules will be in place in this season fashion weeks which begin in new york thursday and that they'll have a monitoring committee in place to make sure that the rules are enforced so that. in paris ending our show for this week if there's anything you want to comment on them please do get in touch with us follow or tweet me at a finnigan on twitter using the hash tag a j c t c when you do or you can drop us a line counting the cost at al jazeera dot that is our address as always there's plenty more for you online at al-jazeera dot com slash. that link takes you straight to page which has individual links even entire episodes. that's it for this edition of counting the cost. for the whole team here in doha thanks for being with us the news of al-jazeera is next.

from the icy mountain steps of goliad to the flooded lowlands of south america. the high stakes series returns. following the daring journey. from around the globe extraordinary risks to earn a living. risking it all coming

soon on al-jazeera. i just want to make sure all of our audience is on the scene where they're on line to us citizens here and what puts people of iraq the one in the same or if you join us our. differently because. people. is a dialogue with hostile streams and one of their pitches might. join the global conversation this time on al-jazeera. hello i'm daryn jordan in doha with a quick reminder of the top stories here at al-jazeera the united nations security council has agreed to impose new sanctions on north korea they severely restrict fuel supplies and exporters. foreign countries from hiring north korean workers diplomatic editor james bays has more from the united.