mark our communication communication channels remain open north korea knows they're open they know where the door is they know word of them through that door when they want to talk after three people have been killed in demonstrations in gaza and the west bank against u.s. president donald trump's decision so recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel medical groups say hundreds of others have been injured in gaza president trump and sweet the u.s. embassy would be relocated to jerusalem from tentative e.u. leaders have given the go ahead for breaks it talks to move on to the next stage of negotiations they say they can now focus on trade after making enough progress on sissons rights the irish border and how much the u.k. has to pay to leave the e.u. which is prime minister to resume a hailed the decision as an important step. here is congress's move to impeach the president over alleged links to a major corruption scandal involving the brazilian construction firm or the brics

politicians across the divide supported the motion to impeach bill kaczynski a moral incapacity company owned by kaczynski is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars. those are your top stories counting the cost is up next the very same things your company. witnessed documentaries. at this time on al-jazeera. hello i'm come on santa maria this is counting the cost on al-jazeera you look at the world of business and economics this week the mouse and the fact it's one of the biggest media shake ups in recent history and disney buys out rupert murdoch's

twenty first century fox but the story goes deeper than that it's about how we consume all this entertainment content and how a new habit of watching the internet rather than the t.v. is impacting the corporate landscape or is it the other way around also this way why is there no opec for gas well there is an industry body the gas exporting countries for. secretary general what's determining the price of gas also the issue of net neutrality who really owns the internet who has the right to control our access why it matters so much. so it is the big media to name synonymous with on screen entertainment and by the sounds of things this will be no mickey mouse outfit the walt disney company is buying up the entertainment business of rupert murdoch's twenty first century fox in a landmark fifty two point four billion dollars deal if it's approved it'll be

a union of hollywood heavyweights but this is also about survival of the fittest disney and fox both need to strengthen their offerings because as you all know we don't just watch the t.v. or go to the movies anymore that why the story to come after this from john hendren . in a move that would reshape the entertainment industry large parts of what belong to twenty first century fox would become the property of disney we're getting quite quality content we're getting global reach we're getting access to new technologies and we're also getting great talent there while there is risk associated with this whether you look at the price or whether you look at the regulatory side or whether you look at the complexity of integrating companies this size that risk was well worth taking on the marriage of fox and the mouse is priced at fifty two billion dollars but it still needs the approval of any trust regulators in an e-mail to disney employees chairman and c.e.o. bob iger called it a historic move forward for us one that reflects a rapidly evolving media landscape brands from rupert murdoch's fox empire included

in the deal or twentieth century fox film and television sky b s b the national geographic channels the f.x. networks star india and its streaming service the aim of this combined company is to create even more high quality content and then to distribute it in ways that consumers prefer and consumers demand in today's world and we think that this combination is going to enable even more that disney expects to save two billion dollars in cost savings analysts say that will likely come at the expense of shrinking or even eliminating the hallowed twentieth century fox studios the cellular home to classics such as the sound of music. was. in the very first star wars film with the hulu service it will let disney take on netflix apple amazon google and facebook in the rapidly expanding realm of online

video the massive deal is not a foregone conclusion the u.s. justice department recently said eighteen t's bid to acquire time warner is unlikely to be approved without major changes that signals that plan pacts like this could also have to pass intense antitrust scrutiny before they become reality . joining us from london now mark mulligan he's a media and technology analyst and the founder of media research thank you so much for your time disney and twenty first century fox there's almost not enough suppose heads to say how big this deal and this company will be or the interesting thing is it's all about your perspective so in the media world yes absolutely huge in the tech world and the combined entity still far off the likes of facebook and google and amazon and i think that's actually the point you know that disney and fox are realizing that with the growth that you're seeing within

the tech majors versus media companies the only chance they've got of even being on the same lap of the races of these guys is by being a combined entity but are they really good i mean are they competing obviously in these online world but there's still a company like facebook or google is very different to disney which which has so much history and makes the content its primary thing is to make the content. we're already seeing google making its own content you've got bread is a starting point and there will be more t.v. which is a t.v. . proposition which is taking on the mainstream and more will become a really big deal we've got facebook making original facebook probably bidding on sports rights. google potentially been a sports rights next year amazon already looking to beat in sports rights all of these companies are going to be going right at the home turf of disney and fox and we've seen with the likes of netflix and amazon you know these are companies which

have come from nowhere to be absolutely major player grabbing the emmys in the awards in the kitty market share in subscriber count what we've seen at the moment is a battle between distribution and content the saying always to be content is king but now we see that the distribution the big technology companies that's where the power resides i think we need to look at the disney folks there within that context do you reckon they can put it in this marketplace now given as you just i mean you just mentioned amazon t.v. and netflix is one but there's so many of these streaming services now is there a place for disney within that. we're certainly seeing a degree of maturity in the streaming market in the big markets in the the u.s. we've got more than one hundred million video subscribers and had dozens upon dozens of different services but they still move fast amounts of growth in this market in or even in the u.s. but you know you look elsewhere so many markets across europe in the americas and

asia are still really just getting going so this is a market which is a huge amount of growth left to me yet. the challenge is is if you are worried one company who makes one set of shows you know how to be good those shows are is just one set of shows so if you are going to really have rallied to your end users you either need to make sure that is so compelling we need to mix it in with the stuff which is why when we see the likes of h.b.o. doing its own. video service it looks so much narrower and shallower than what you get on netflix is the thing there mark everything we've talked about is dependent on having a decent internet connection and we all know how frustrating it is when you don't have one. this is actually a major issue here isn't it making sure that people if they're going to have access they've got to have the internet in the first place absolutely in companies not netflix have got incredibly smart at this so one of the things that they're greater is migrating people away actually from mobile viewing to t.v.

centric viewing you know the majority of people a sign up for netflix on mobile well after a number of months be mainly watching through a t.v. set you know so there is a recognition from the streaming companies of the need to get people you know away from the less reliable mobile networks into the home market but there's a much bigger challenge at the moment which is we're just looking like we're going to have new regulations on net neutrality in the u.s. what that essentially means is the telcos who provide the internet access are going to be able to decide which services they want to perform well and which not so it might be that you know telco x. in the u.s. has. launch its own video service and it decides if anybody's watching netflix is going to get a really small amount of connection so however good your broadband connection is netflix is always going to underperform and that's potentially one of the most worrying developments that's facing streaming services of the moment and is that just a u.s. issue at the moment or is this something people all over the world should be concerned about the whole net neutrality debate has been going on for you know more

well more than a decade but normally what we see is that when regulations get put in place in the u.s. then we end up seeing versions of them making their way into the solution across europe and in other regions so it's a very contentious issue is one where local governments and regulators or have their own viewpoint but it'll be a very important precedent set at the u.s. does go down this route final thought for you then martin and this is getting a bit philosophical but go with me on this because as we're talking about all this it just makes me think about this internet saturation yes you made the point that netflix is trying to drag people towards their televisions but really phones tablet computers it follows us everywhere and i wonder about your thoughts on that saturation and what it's doing to us especially is it progressing just so fast. yes it's a really good question we're in what's termed the attention economy where all these

different services social media and everything that we can get on our devices is competing for attention you know everybody's trying to get a bit of our attention to to get to suspend time with content the services it's resulted in. filling up our time much more than we used to one of my favorite statistics of the entire digital liver is from the national swedish statistical office when they're looking at the activities most cannibalized by digital media and the number one activity most kind of lies is staring out of the window you know so we really are get to the stage where we're spending less time being mindful spending less time reflecting we're spending much more time swallowing the information around us and i think we'll see the most dramatic societal and cultural impact among the gen zinni that's the the young millennial born in this millennium or one would say we're tweens and teens they're the ones who've grown up from the playground with snapshot with instagram their entire lives has been this continual

feed of information so i think that's when we're going to see the real impact of what's happened with the tension economy bursting at the same. again fascinating talking to you and i must remember to go and look out the window again thanks for joining us pleasure. now on that note it's interesting to hear a form of facebook executive now saying social media is quote ripping society apart . who headed facebook's user growth from two thousand and seven to two thousand and eleven expressed regret over his past and building the tools that he says are now destroying the social fabric of how society works he recommended people take a break from social media saying addiction to it is a global problem well here's the response from facebook has not been at facebook for over six years when joe mouth was at facebook we were focused on building new social media experiences and growing facebook around the world facebook was

a very different company back then and as we have grown we have realized our responsibilities have grown to. mention this next topic in our interview a little bit earlier net neutrality and this week rules protecting open internet access have been repealed by the u.s. government the changes could mean large corporations can pay the internet service providers to prioritize their websites and even block their competitive neutrality advocates worry this all could lead to censorship and increased internet access costs castro has more on that from washington. opposed to the repeal of net neutrality rules in the u.s. and making their voices heard on the streets of washington protesters in the end were not loud enough to sway the vote of the federal communications commission your car was your reason we're still i dissent the commission voted three to two along partisan lines to undo the obama era regulations that the chairman called

burdensome and unnecessary it is not the job of the government to be in the business of picking winners and losers in the internet economy we should have a level playing field and let consumers decide who prevails net neutrality rules essentially prohibited broadband providers in the u.s. from speeding up a consumer's access to some internet content over others even if websites were willing to pay for the advantage the idea was to preserve the internet as a public resource for all protester randy call and says the rules have protected her nonprofits ability to reach an online audience this in an e-mail out to gazan people and from their great one point three million around the country and in places around the world. only possible through having a free and open internet that like all our cards and the strength of our ideas could not be blocked arse stopped by the size of our budget never before has

a debate over the intangible connections of the internet sparked such public passion more than twenty million comments were received by the f.c.c. prior to thursday's vote and now at least two states have said they will appeal the commission's decision which you don't of course just and you've got congresspeople you've got millions of people who are in your corner and we will achieve internet you close the internet wallabies net neutrality. we will win at the end of the day internet companies have said they have no immediate plans to change consumers' experience but now that the net neutrality protection is gone it remains to be seen how long the industry will put in quality over revenue potential. and still to come on counting the cost how households in greece turned

their power bills into checks from the power company and they did it with more than a little help from the sun that story still to come. in other news this week it seems one way to survive retail armageddon is to engage in some retail therapy stuff to the c.e.o. the european more. has said online shopping has its limits and physical stores will never go out of fashion and he's putting his money where his mouth is. which has high end malls from paris to helsinki is bidding fifteen point seven billion dollars to buy a stranger's westfield's the deal is approved will create the world's biggest mall operator in the u.s. it was the final policy amazing to federal reserve chief janet yellen and the central bank raise rates by a quarter of a percentage point while also raising its forecast for u.s. growth in twenty eighteen to two and a half percent that is well above september's estimate of two point one percent the new fed chair jerome powell takes over in february also many ways in for president

trump's tax bill to passenger legislation so a lot to watch in the u.s. economy in the next year and here in the middle east state oil firm adn all crazy eight hundred fifty one million dollars through an initial public offering of a ten percent stake in its distribution unit the listing is part of a strategy by the u.a.e. as well as other gulf nations to privatized energy sector assets don't forget the listing of saudi state owned oil giant saudi aramco which is slated for twenty eighteen it is likely to be the world's largest i.p.o. . do you notice there even in these days of renewable energy how we generally still talk about oil before anything else and opec meeting or decision for example it is still a big deal and often a consequential one but now gas producing countries like russia and iran have laid out what they think is the future of their industry for the next two decades and it's looking pretty strong remember natural gas is used for beverage thing from heating to electricity generation and it's

a lot cleaner i went down to the headquarters of the gas exporting countries forum here in doha to catch up with dr mohamed hussein a bally the organization's secretary general. ok thank you dr daley it's a pleasure to talk to you thank you for joining us today as i said to you before we get into the outlook i do want to deal with the. that as a citizen lazy characterization of this is the gas opaque it's not quite like that can you explain for a viewer who's not familiar with the form how it works and how it differs well our organization is functioning quite differently than than opec because it's a platform to exchange data information and also to foster the coordination amongst the various countries of member countries. and to have a common understanding of what is happening in the in the gas market what are the challenges and opportunities and how we can address them in harmony and this is quite different from just putting kowtows on production of quotas on exports so you

don't influence prices as such well or in the so should i say in the same way that opec influences oil prices yes can you elaborate actually. here we do support the policies that would secure the supply and stable supply and demand and we do encourage the countries to invest and to contribute to the sustainability and stability of the market so in that way we think that we would be contributing to the interest of the member countries in having a fair price and being able also to have enough revenues for investment have you had a desire to get into that. realm of of courses and production numbers in the early

have not been any kind of desire for that because i guess that the going through the market can ism and. this level of coordination is a working and is going to work in the future and we have some other organizations and other energy of the additions that they are doing the same and they are influencing the market valuables so let's talk about the outlook then let's let's just start with the short term well as you said last year we had several developments which have affected the long term trends of energy in general of course and gas also in particular one was the u.s. policy u.s. a new administration policy towards energy and the towards fossil fuel which is affected and of course as a result of that we predict that it is going to be in favor of gas we have also the new energy package of europe. again that is going to affect this we have the

thirteenth plan of china these are all very major developments that is affecting the long term trend as well as we have some announcements which are very important one of them is catherine ounce meant to increase thirty percent of his production second one is the more progress in the development of southpark gas of iran iran we also have some announcement from egypt that the whole field is going to be on a stream much sooner than that so the production and algeria as well we have some announcement so all together from the supply side and from the policy side we have some new developments that is going to affect the long term trend. what is the picture in the if i frame it in very basic of supply and demand very good let me

just tell you a few figures of the main drivers of this energy and gas you know what is happening is that in the next twenty three years up until twenty forty we are going to have one point seven billion people more people in the world in twenty three years in just twenty three years we're going to have seven hundred seventy million more cars they're going to have seven hundred ninety million new homes and the people of the world on average are going to be eighty percent more wealthy actually the g.d.p. per capita on average of the world is going to increase eighty percent so all together they are these are very strong drivers for demand of energy other renewables they was attractive and they wind energy solar energy i'm wondering how gas looks stacks up against them well actually in comparison with the renewables of

course renewables do not have any emission and gas has some emission but you know in general when we compare them the efficiency of gas is very high the c o two emission of gas is very low compared to or oil and cord we should not forget that. now the dominant energy that is being used by the world is poised then followed by cord so these two are the dominant energies and will remain to be one of the main energies in the whole world i should also say that in the next twenty three years although the share of the fossil fuel is going to diminish and come down but it is going to be around seventy five percent so now we are dependent on fossil fuel for eighty percent and even after twenty three years. we are going to be dependent on them and seventy five percent so this is why gas is very important as we can

switch cool with gas or so reduce the other there polluting energies with gas we are going to mitigate the c o two emissions at any pleasure talking to you today. and finally for you some good news out of greece for so long it was all about debt and economic hardship but during that long recession greece underwent rapid growth in the use of solar energy and it means the country will now meet its emissions targets under the paris climate change accord johnson reports now from lafayette greece's solar revolution came from the countryside forty two thousand homes like this one turns their power bills into checks from the power company by selling electricity back to the grid to pensioner phillipos are you know plus an extra nine thousand dollars a year have made a difference then as it's my pension all over again without it we'd be pinching our pennies in this economy it means i can help my children my daughters in school my

son is unemployed my wife doesn't have a pension over five years household installed three hundred and seventy five megawatts of generating capacity equivalent to a mid-sized power station and that's not counting farmers who turned over their land to larger scale production or industrial installations in solar and wind power both of which greece has in abundance but the government quashed this revolution in twenty fourteen strapped for cash it cuts the rate at which the grid bought power from homes from fifty five cents per kilowatt hour to under twelve cents but twenty fourteen law effectively removed households from the renewable energy market until then more than four thousand homes would install solar panels on their rooftops each year but in that year the number fell to just sixty three and it has never recovered. a new bill now aims to bring the solar revolution to the cities where

more than half the population lives by encouraging groups of five or more homeowners to install solar panels but the twenty fourteen rate cut still haunts people like voto whose proceeds fell by half. i'm not sure whether the broken promises of the past make it possible for investors to go forward today we're talking about an investment of about seventy thousand dollars the bill quotes a guaranteed purchase price but there's also a clause allowing the environment minister to change that price can someone trust that after an entire solar economy collapsed because of a law greece still depends on fossil fuels for two thirds of its electricity that's because its power stations burn imported oil and lignite coal it's only abundant native fuel but lignite use has hugged in the past ten years while renewables have doubled to thirty percent of the electricity supply if policy is consistent greeks have shown they will reach for the sun and that is our show for this week but

remember you can get in touch with us you can tweet me. to use the hash tag a j c t c when you do or drop us an e-mail counting the cost of al-jazeera doc net is the address you can also head online to al-jazeera dot com which takes you straight to our page individual reports links and entire episodes. that is it for this edition of continent cost on canal santamaria from the whole team thanks for joining us the news on al-jazeera is next. quite.

stunning images from the niger delta through the unflinching eyes of a look up photographer. george also did an artist on a mission to demonstrates the good and that bad of his beloved homeland document's the effects of the black gold that both feeds and disfigures his country and showcases the traditional monarchs caught between a modern wild and a tribal culture the new african photography this time on al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera.