we commend the secretary general and his call for the united nations to focus more on people and less on bureaucracy positive words from u.s. president donald trump ahead of his first united nations general assembly.

hello there i'm felicity barr and this is our live from london also coming up. kurdish leaders in iraq say they will go ahead with an independence vote despite a supreme court ruling suspending next week's referendum. facing starvation and disease in bangladesh we report on the dark conditions being. that he fled vietnam . and back behind the microphone a shock appearance by the former white house press secretary sean spicer brings the house down at the end. u.s. president donald trump has made his debut at the united nations in new york where he pushed for reforms that would quote focus more on people and less on bureaucracy

president trump said the u.n. has not yet reached its potential because of mismanagement within the organization but a sharp contrast to his first becoming president promised the u.s. would partner with the organization to help it become a stronger and more effective force for peace around the world. in recent years the united nations has not reached its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement while the united nations on a regular budget has increased by one hundred forty percent and its staff has more than doubled since two thousand we are not seeing the results in line with this investment but i know that under the secretary general that's changing and it's changing fast and we've seen it that's why we commend the secretary general and his call for the united nations to focus more on people and less on bureaucracy

well here and course the rules in jordan joins us live now from the headquarters is in new york and rolls to think it's fair to say that trump speech is far less critical than one might have expected. certainly the people here. president. much much more. in their praise for the work. perhaps this is the result of his. at the same time. a very strong working relationship to talk more about influence on the relationship between the united states. is the former communications director

for the u.s. mission to the u.n. . person. you. talk about the influence that. there was a lot of concern when she took the post that she was in fact going to be taking names and promising retribution. during your time working in the u.s. mission. you know follow through with what she said she was going to do not taking names in the sense of where things began but she's been paying attention to what countries are saying what what's happening with this reform. it's an attempt to bring the united nations up to where it should be in the twenty first century and bring about real change and that's what we've been trying to do since she got here. an opportunity serendipitous opportunity given that. a

long time public servant had identified some. things that he thinks need to be reorganized was this an opportunity that couldn't be passed. that you talk about. of course. the united nations has gone through different times in which reform has been the catchphrase is something that's talked about all the. nations certainly the ones that contribute a lot of funding to the united nations like the united states which is the biggest funder they all have management reform specialists who are trying to tackle these issues trying to bring the organization into a place where it's more efficient where you don't have waste of taxpayer money. president touched on during his remarks the idea of every country paying its fair share that really is something that is beyond. talking about.

payment schedules that are set up under the rubric of the u.n. charter person can just change that alone can't no you can't but there are tools that can be used in terms of assessment in terms of voluntary contributions and other areas in which you can force reform and that is something that could come to bear in significant ways if the united nations doesn't reform itself in ways that are satisfactory to the administration is it. perhaps. sees the value in the united nations sees the value in responding to humanitarian crises providing full work to the efforts of military organizations and providing the support to new democracies around the world. there is a sense that there really is a purpose for the united nations and in that purpose it is doing the very things you just laid out the the issue is is it capable of doing it in a formal way in an official way in

a non wasteful way and we all know even within the private sector that certain efficiencies kick in to make sure that you're getting your bang for your buck well if you're living off the largess of the public and countries contributing without any accountability. you're going to run into difficulty and often bureaucracy stands in the way of actually getting a good job done and then finally the security council where the u.s. is perhaps the first among the permanent five members there's been so many criticism of levied against the security council for being politicized is there an opportunity in your view for the united states to try to break some of that longchamp or does this require a sense of political risk that perhaps no one on the council is willing to take right now you've been covering the u.n. for years i used to cover it as a journalist and then as a as a government official. there are competing geo political needs that the different

members of the security council have in order to reach their policy goals so by nature of the world and our different countries we're going to have times in which we're going to butt heads and there's nothing really even you know in the happiest circumstances you're going to have moments of tension that are going to appear you know are there ways in which you can work to try to quiet down and simmer down some of the tensions absolutely that's something that certainly we tried to do you know working with the russians and the chinese and you saw some recent success in terms of the resolutions on north korea for instance stuff that didn't you know wasn't imaginable i would say a year or two years ago so there are ways in which you can find ways to work together but let's be honest we live in a very diverse world and those different beliefs are going to come into collision from time to time all right we will leave it there former spokesperson for us ambassador nikki haley the former communications director for the u.s.

mission to the u.n. listening back to you. thank you. well donald trump was speaking at a reform panel ahead of making his debut at the annual u.n. general assembly on tuesday from abroad. on to north korea the u.s. president will have plenty to talk about as our diplomatic editor james bays reports in a development of this every year when world leaders gather in new york in september they listen carefully to the words of the most powerful person on earth but for the first time since the u.n. was created at the end of the second world war the u.s. president will address them from this podium is someone who at times has appeared to question the multilateral order the united nations represents. diplomats are wary of what president trump will say in his nine months in office he's already attended nato g. seven and g. twenty summits on the global stage he's appeared at times uncertain his actions

unpredictable donald trump does not perform well at big international summits when he attended a nato summit he actually managed to physically push another leader out of the way and his advisors must hope that he will be back here because this is his last chance to really convince other world leaders that he is someone they can do business with and not just a nativist who wants to be u.n. over to china as usual global leaders face a whole host of challenges among them an ongoing humanitarian emergency with the exodus of the row hinge or in myanmar then there's the wars in syria in iraq yemen and libya as well as the future of the iran nuclear deal but this year at the top of the agenda another nuclear state north korea it is a particularly pressing issue because of the provocative timing of the latest

missile test which took place just days ago the number of launches the number of tests is much greater even in this year than it's been over the last decades so this is a very immediate very immediate question and yes i think it will be the top question here in this week at the u.n. this is not just the first general assembly week for the new u.s. president and tony terrorists became u.n. secretary general at the start of the year he plans a program of modernization and streamlining and james pays out at the united nations right. kurdish leaders in iraq say they will go. ahead with an independence vote next week despite a ruling by iraq's supreme court suspending the referendum the court ordered that the poll be persona to questions about its legality have been addressed

a referendum we held on sept tenth of the twenty fifth in the three provinces that make up the rich kurdish region as well as disputed territories the governments of baghdad regional neighbors iran and turkey and the u.s. of all called for the vote to be delayed fearing it could create instability from which i saw could benefit. will have made his life for us in erbil that is the capital of the kurdish region in northern iraq and harder it does not appear that this referendum is going to take place. well we are hearing at least coming out at the moment from the kurdish authorities that it is going ahead but as we speak now to british defense secretary michael fallon is holding meetings with the kurdish president muscled barzani he was earlier in baghdad and he leaving baghdad said that he was going to come here to try to convince the kurds to postpone this

referendum he also said that he was going to make clear that the u.k.'s position was against this non-binding referendum now over the last twenty four hours you had yesterday iran saying that it was against this referendum and actually warning that it will close down his border crossing and stop all security cooperation between the kurdish region and to run should this referendum go ahead iran viewing it as a threat to his own national security earlier today as you mentioned we had a federal supreme court also calling for the suspension of this referendum that should be binding for the kurds because the federal supreme court according to two thousand and five calls it usually is actually the authority that ruled on any ethnic sectarian and regional disputes in this country and the kurds have actually helped write this constitution and have signed this so certainly there is a lot of pressure from all sides for this referendum to stop but as far as we know

at least publicly there is no sign that the kurds are backing off now they are trying to get as much as they can from baghdad they say if we get guarantees from baghdad a date a precise date that would be guaranteed not only from baghdad but also by the united nations we might be able to postpone they also want guarantees that baghdad would pay their share in the national budget which is which has been cut off for months and then you have many civil servants. in this region who are now getting paid less than half of their monthly salary so maybe the kurds are trying to put this defiant poster publicly while trying to get as much as they can privately but this is now a very difficult situation because you have this regional opposition you have international opposition going all the way to washington and you have a president regional president who will have to turn round and explain to the kurds

if indeed this referendum is postponed why and what did they get in return or a hold over the night is there an appeal. aid workers say the ranger crisis at the bangladesh border is now one of the biggest humanitarian catastrophes in the world they say they're struggling to meet the needs of the one four hundred thousand refugees who fled violence since august twenty fifth one has more now from southeast bangladesh. a month after renewed violence began in myanmar's rakhine state of rohingya are making the journey to the border with bangladesh every day they're escaping ethnic cleansing by the myanmar military. we were six people in our family now there are just three of us they killed my father one of the girls and my husband. is a volunteer with the regional center. he's one of. the

i guess. this is a disaster it's a manmade disaster what's happening in myanmar is inhumane and we are proud that bangladeshis are showing their humanity but the volunteers are being overwhelmed every time a food truck arrives. russian these are some of the refugees behind the new ones by relief workers but residents here have been getting upset about this they say that the situation is out of control. aid workers say they are struggling to scale up operations quickly enough they want more help to take care of health issues provide shelter and other basic needs i think international donors now have to step up to the plate and that is not just the traditional donors of the united states europe japan but also nontraditional donors in particular countries in the middle east and countries in the region. particularly those on the ground say this is now a global crisis and needs

a sustained global response until that happens these refugees will have to make do with what little cancer way. martha are all busy or shop will be bangladesh. or more than one hundred thousand protesters in bangladesh's capital came out in support of the range of refugees. they marched towards where mars embassy in darker to protest against the country's crackdown on the muslim minority group that i'm straight as was stopped by police before they reached their target. india's government has told the supreme court that it has evidence the revenger pose a security threat to its country and have links with pakistan based fighters the home ministry wants to get clearance to deport around forty thousand ranger who have settled in india the country's top court is hearing a petition filed on behalf of two ranger refugees challenging government decision to force them to leave. or

a still heads all the election will tell you why nepal took over four months to complete its first local election in nearly twenty years. we'll have the latest from houston where cleanup efforts for horak at home prepared to be a major operation. with. hello again the rains are gathering over the southeastern parts of china once more recently though it's been in the far western parts of my map where we've seen the wettest of the weather young going has been incredibly saudi but this system is beginning to break up so few more outbreaks of rain perhaps on tuesday but then more in the way of dry weather on tuesday there what we're also going to see is this system begin to pull itself together over the eastern parts of china and this one gradually then sweeps its way eastwards as we head into wednesday so for

shanghai it really does look very wet for the south not as well for us in hong kong you might just catch the or shower but thirty three degrees we are maximum now towards the west you can see plenty of cloud on the map here stretches all the way across the central belt all of india giving some very heavy downpours at the moment particularly intense of the rains around mumbai and we're expecting more very sharp downpours as we head through the day on tuesday as well by wednesday they will begin to lose some of their intensity what you'll also notice is this little circulation that's developing here that's gradually pushing its way towards the west and as it does so it will bring a few more showers towards new delhi there as we head later on during the week here in doha wellwood no massive change for us really the winds still filtering in from the east that we're still hot and humid a maximum at the moment is around thirty nine. on counting the cost how apple's i phone economics make it the most profitable

company in the world. j. trade is influencing the prices in myanmar. one hundred days of the gulf crisis we look at how the economy is very. counting the cost at this time on a. new yorkers are very receptive to it because it is such an international city they are very interested and that global perspective that al-jazeera provides. welcome back undermines at the top stories here on al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump has made his debut at the united nations where he pushed for reforms to make you when i was ation more effective and and mismanagement. kurdish

leaders in iraq are pushing ahead with an independence referendum next week despite a ruling by iraq's supreme court to suspend the vote. hundreds of thousands of people have marched through the capital of bangladesh to support wreckin job refugees the country has received almost a million people fleeing violence in neighboring we had. syrian activists say government troops are close to encircling a pocket of ice the feiss off the crossing the euphrates river serves as a demarcation line between government allied forces and u.s. backed rebels syrian government troops have been fighting ice on the west side of the river where us fight rebels are battling the armed group on the a site has this update. the syrian army and the earth are competing to take over territory that was under the control of ice in

particular in areas in the us or and also. but now the situation might change because a syrian army by crossing the eastern riverbank of the euphrates sends a message that is committed to control all those areas which puts it on a collision course with the. likely to see clashes between the and the syrian army in the coming days but now the problem with this is that the as the earth is seen by the americans as a key ally in the fight against isis while the russians provide significant military assistance the syrian army and if there are any clashes between the us the ever syria army this could lead to more tension between the americans and russia so this is quite a significant development in syria north korea has once again dismissed sanctions against it as a hostile acts and want that it will spare it to move faster towards completing its

nuclear force u.s. bombers and fighter jets are taking part in joint military drills with south korea and japan in another show of force against pyongyang separately china and russia carried out their own naval drills off the russian far east imports of latifah stock. the pool has completed its first local elections nearly two decades after voting finally took place in an unstable southern province most of the country voted in may but the local polls were repeatedly delayed in the number two province which has been the scene of ethnic violence in recent years electoral commission turnout at above seventy percent so being addressed reports from the town of rash. long queues formed as the polling station at the school opened on monday morning voters are electing village and municipal government representatives for the first time in two decades for so many baby mundelein

a father in law goes i mundell they lection provokes bitter memories her husband was shot dead by security forces in march mundo was from the marginalized mother is a community so are most people who live here at least fifty protesters demanding greater representation have been killed in the past two years political leaders here boycotted local elections which were held nationwide in may. politicians come here and they say that they will solve all our problems that they will build us a house. everyone says they will help once we vote but how do we know what they do know that it's not for us to say. security is tight with around sixty thousand personnel deployed to prevent further protests people we talked to said they're not interested in protesting or politics they want their lives improved and parties here say government leaders and have ignored development

of the region corruption is a major problem they say and health education infrastructure and industry are all languishing they hope a local government dress that many problems. the lack of employment opportunities is apparent in the queues many men are missing because they're leverage in middle east countries and beyond because. we need development we need plans and policies we need to clean the city. many voters we talked to said they had been repeatedly disappointed by both regional and national political parties there are no apparent front runners to win this local election but the result is expected to give some indication how this important and unstable region will vote in parliamentary and provincial election do later this year. al-jazeera.

general motors has announced it's recalling more than two and a half million vehicles in china because of concerns about faulty airbags the airbags which are made by the japanese firm to carter have the potential to inflate with too much force firing shrapnel at the driver passenger's the defect has been linked to several deaths and schools of injuries around the world. aurukun harvey is long gone but it has left behind millions of tons of debris getting rid of what is becoming a major public health concern is now a top priority in houston to see how the big cleanup operation is going. it's a beautiful day for an ugly job and the trash collectors are out in force in houston working to clear away the rotting smelly reminders of hurricane harvey regular visitors there's a new sensation to clean up. only those who don't johnny in haley say this load will be just the first to come out of their flood damaged home and they're

delighted to see city crews at work be able to get their debris out here right now is a good sign it's a huge job of course trash haulers expect to move more than six point one million cubic meters of garbage or enough to fill one of the world's biggest football stadiums one and a half times and that is just for the city of houston. residents are being urged to separate their garbage to make recycling easier setting aside electronic components like television sets for instance but most of these piles include all kinds of unsorted material and the city says that's ok too the point now is to move the track if we can get himself or even give them a push toward that cycling. set up we'll but right now if they're mixed in their trailers and do a piece of with it we're going to pick it up he said residents just glad to see the debris that's been growing mold in the hot texas sun all the way man the stench is going to be

a big relief yeah just get it out maybe smelly and then whine but as the trash is removed outside it's clear there's still plenty of misery left behind city officials say this job could take three to four months alan shuffler al-jazeera houston. now the emmy awards in the united states senate write the best of the year's television and. ten minutes off to one of the most incredible cold months in american political history it's no surprise that political satire dominated this year's event as kathy lopez who diane reports the ceremony in los angeles was also notable for most unexpected comeback oh ok. it's the best of the small screen with all the big names. political satire most of it focusing on president donald trump took center stage i'm like the presidency emmys go to the winner of the popular vote. in an unexpected twist former white house

press secretary sean spicer mocked himself and the president he referenced his first media conference where he defended the crowd size at trump's inauguration it was right here. to witness and emmys period both in person and around the world melissa mccarthy was just meters away she won an emmy for her in person nation of spicer at last week's creative arts ceremony i'd like to begin with the president's schedule political comedy mark the style of saturday night live this season the most watched in twenty three years old boy the media saying nice things and no one is talking about rush alec baldwin who impersonates trump on the show jokingly shared his award for best supporting actor with the president i suppose i should say at long last mr president here is your emmy. on the same team kate mckinnon known for her resemblance to hillary clinton one supporting actress in a comedy series thank you to hillary clinton for your grace politics is also at the

heart of veep which won best comedy series but it was about more than just laughs the entertainment industry has used the political divide to address bigger issues like race and inequality for the third year in a row this is the most diverse group of nominees in emmy history. the handmaid's tale based on a religious dictatorship taking over america was named outstanding drama series. but political satire won the night whether it's life imitating art or the other way around. al-jazeera. reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump has made his debut at the united nations in new york where he pushed for reforms that would quote focus more people and less on bureaucracy

president trump says mismanagement in the u.n. means it hasn't reached its potential but he promised the u.s. would partner with the organization to make it stronger and more effective in recent years the united nations has not reached its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement while the united nations on a regular budget has increased by one hundred forty percent and its staff has more than doubled since two thousand we are not seeing the results in line with this investment but i know that under the secretary general that's changing and it's changing fast and we've seen it kurdish leaders in iraq say they'll go ahead with an independence vote next week despite a ruling by iraq's supreme court suspending the referendum the court ordered the poll be postponed until questions about its legality have been addressed the referendum will be held on september the twenty fifth in three provinces that make

up the oil rich kurdish region as well as disputed territories. over one hundred thousand protesters in bangladesh as capital have demonstrated in support of revenge or refugees and march towards mammals embassy in dhaka to protest against the country's crackdown on the muslim minority group that on the street is was stopped by police for they reached their targets. north korea has once again dismissing actions against it as a hostile acts on board that it will spur it to move faster towards completing its nuclear goal in another show of force against pyongyang u.s. bombers and fighter jets are taking part in joint military drills with south korea and japan general motors says it's recalling more than two and a half million vehicles in china because of concerns about faulty airbags they were made by the japanese to carter and have the potential to inflate with too much force foreign shrapnel at the driver and passengers the defect has been linked to

several deaths and injuries. and those were his headlines here on al-jazeera are back with more for you in about twenty five minutes time do stay with us though counting the cost is next of i. am has i'm sick of this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week. we'll look at how apple's i phone economics made it the most profitable company in the world. also this week me and mark how the jade trade land grabs and vested interests are playing

a part in what the u.n. calls ethnic cleansing.