to be made for infected students to take the exam in hospital and south korea's president has being seeing for himself special centers set out for students who are self isolating or you're about to move on i had various concerns but today looking at the preparations i am somewhat relieved because however the cove in 1902 ation is now worse than when we 1st planned for this day already under incredible exam pressure students this year have the added concerns of the pandemic to stress over rob mcbride al-jazeera sole. this is al-jazeera these on the headlines multiple countries are racing to prove covert 19 vaccines as the pandemic worsens in several places countries from the u.s. to russia and iran are seeing warning rises in case numbers until still there have

been more than 64000000 confirmed cases worldwide and nearly 1500000 deaths the united nations is currently holding a special session of the general assembly to discuss that very crisis the u.n. secretary general is calling for unity but he also hates how it is that wealthier countries for not doing enough to help developing nations every extended lifesaving assistance to 6 the city of the most vulnerable companies small global humanitarian response plan from the start we have called for a stimulus package was at least 10 percent of global g.d.p. and for that relief for all countries that needed i welcome the steps that have been taken to help developing countries but they are totally insufficient for the scale of this crisis. many low and middle income developing countries need immediate support to avert the liquidity crisis they are being forced to choose

between providing basic services for their people also receiving bams facebook has announced it will start removing posts that have false claims about coronavirus vaccines it says misinformation poses a risk of imminent harm to those posts will be taken social media company will label and reduce distribution of are not claims contradicting health experts hong kong media tycoon and pro-democracy advocate jamie lie has been taken into police custody he'll be held until a court case in april next year why is accused of fraud. has begun to transfer and bring the refugees to an island which the u.n. warns is prone to cycles and floods 40 buses left because of the saw on thursday stay with us on al-jazeera the bottom line is next.

hi i'm steve clemons and i have a question does morality matter anymore did it matter ever in american politics let's get to the bottom line. since election day a few weeks ago many american politicians have been talking about the need for the nation to heal but the rift between people inside america is really deep and there's frustration on both sides of that divide those who voted for donald trump and everything he stands for are wondering who is going to stand up for them now and millions of voters on the democratic side feel their hopes and aspirations pretty dashed as well trump once told writer bob woodward that he wanted to bring out the reagan people who are americans doomed to be motivated and divided by fear and anger and is there a way to really heal the nation today we speak with one of the most unique voices

in american public life reverend william barber the 2nd is the co-chair of the poor people's campaign a national call for moral revival a social justice movement that mobilizes the poor to be agents of social change reverend barber it's great to be with you today what i'm hoping to get at in that important work that you are doing is the question of what that common ground could be as you think about healing the breach and addressing at the same time many of the core problems of the nation what does that agenda look like what steve 1st of all thank you so much and what is so interesting about that question that you just raised is that we actually have aunts. asses that of ancient as our bible asses that are as old as our constitution.

deepest religious values but the problem is one of the 1st problem is we began all of our conversations i think we have to miss ologist that constantly keep us in division maybe even 3 in light of what you just quoted from one is the mis ology that there is some grand place behind us behind us where everybody was unified it is interesting to me that the constitution began with a confession that the reason we are writing the constitution is to move towards a more perfect union which is an admittance that we were not perfect behind us it cause us to look forward and to look back what only to do as one of our great him says to me and every flaws. but instead sometimes in politics we start 1st talking about how to get back to these glorious days of american exceptionalism and i think

that is that. the 2nd mythology that i think is this notion of language of left versus right and that we say left right and centrist often wonder where does that language come from that i know historically comes from the french revolution those on the left 'd or i guess the monarchy those on the right were for the monarchy i guess those in the center were for a mixture but we're not in the french revolution and to automatically try to put people in these false categories left and right and center actually i think creates division but also many times doesn't allow us to say some things are not left versus right there right versus wrong and if we look at out deep in this moral and constitutional foundations we have to be able to say see. some things are wrong are unconstitutional are morally. unacceptable and economically insane and

a constitutional it out of line we have to be able to do that otherwise we end up giving equal more status the 3rd thing a thing in the midst of a trump ism that we have to deal with is the danger of putting all of the problems was saying that on him he is a big cause but he had a lot of been able as and just like you said in your opening when he said he wanted to bring out the rage he's not even quoting himself he's quoting pat buchanan 'd and kevin phillips and the people who or what richard nixon in the 1960 s. to develop a strategy called positive polarization that is that has been that was designed to split the country for political power and it's been used by republicans from reagan to to to to nixon to. even george bush has used it and many of the politicians in the south so we have to have some honest

conversation 1st if we're going to have serious healing that's a script in the bible that says only the truth will set you free and we've got some truth telling that must be done in america so that we can at least have honest conversation about what healing these to take place like you do president elect biden is not talking about left and right he's not talking about division he's talking about this is the time to come together but i think you and i both know there are a lot of americans that are not hearing those words in the same you know a he right he says he's right when he says it's time to heal and it's admirable that he would raise that in that way. i would caution a little bit i know he says that people are not our enemies they are americans. but the awesome people who are there at the series of poor and low wealth people and black people and moving forward in this country if they had not ever says their

policy is a certain adversarial to justice 'd and to what we are called to be. deepest constitutional that is and if their policy is adversarial than the question is are they adversarial or just a pos not that i understand what he's saying in the sense that you don't just have to go around saying that evolution and nobody can work with and they're beyond change even though we have to be realistic there are some people that are totally committed we know what happened for instance when obama ran for office and while there were people totally committed we've watch what has happened in this senate over just not this truck but with the senate that totally committed to an in an adversarial way to being fat when it comes to supreme court justices we look at a mitch mcconnell he has refused to fix the voting rights act for over 7 years that's an add politically adversarial position he's refused to even let 'd living

wages come to the floor even though we have 62000000 americans working for less than a living wage and i would say and as i have talked to people from appalachia to alabama they see that as an adversarial position and they see it as a problem that the people are in fact not acting like quote unquote americans when it comes to the least of these and as dr king once said they give 'd socialism to the wealthy and then give rugged individualists to the poor and the least of these and we have to recognize that politics is about fighting for things it is about recognizing that i don't believe this disown cost center as you point out also say that to the. the president because there are some trying to say what you need to be essential what is a senate how do you pick up people what is the center of a stab this in just if you get have to think what is dissent providing for the

common defense you give half the people common defense or promoting the general welfare so you get half the people the 'd promotion of general welfare in a sense that's what we have now and it leans more toward the greedy take francis to 1st cares act 84 'd percent of that money went to corporations and bank it did not go to the people and the essential workers and those who voted and forced that are adversarial now i wouldn't call them evil and i would say they're beyond transformation i'm a preacher i wouldn't say that they that there is a possibility but right now we know that they have entrenched. added to see to war those who are being hurt the most before cove after cove so what i would say to president elect is you promised some things when you ran and you promised to fight for some people and we have seen what. evil public 'd policy can do over the

last 4 years and how committed some people like trumpet mcconnell are they will do whatever they can with power people need to see what good people would do with power what good policy looks like you said that you want to $15.00 an hour if you do that that will heal the nation because there's no scaling of the soul of the nation that doesn't heal a body of the nation you said you would expand health care we need to fight for that the 1st 5100 days 1st 50 you said that you would make sure essential workers had the sick leave an unemployment and and the rent forgiveness and mortgage forgive that they must see a president now that will fight for that you said you would deal with systemic racism in terms of voting rights and police reform that needs to have. when in the 1st $5200.00 days people need to see now that there will be a true fighting for all americans if you we are our people you said immigration for reform was necessary we would stop caging and losing children we would properly

address native americans and make sure that they have what has been promised to them as the original people you must do to and i think the president last night must go into the places where people have been sewn lied to that they think a democratic president and vice president are gets to go to the south go to appalachia let them know that the current policies we have now are costing us a trillion dollars of loss because of child poverty $2.00 trillion dollars in and lost wages because of wage gap did ter flip it over and showed him if we expand health care how many people will be helped black brown indigenous white how many people will be lifted if we pass living wages of every race creed color and just geography and let the american people know what the cost of inequality is as joseph stiglitz says what is it costing us and if people steal their body the body of the

nation heal then the soul of the nation will be heal but it can't just be rhetoric and it can't just be some. spiritual kind of coming together that does not have a fleshy reality that does not have an embodiment of the stab this man of justice. powerful my question is a lot of americans who voted for joe biden were voting against donald trump and they were voting for what they saw as a return to normal and i know that normality is not something you think we can go back to but i'd like to hear for those people who do have that as their motivator in this moment. what cuts you think have to be made what divisions have to be made to wake those folks up thought being jesus is pretty clear. on the human condition and jesus was saying of his own ministry you know oftentimes people present jesus

as just being a nice guy who just love people and i know he was killed because he threaten the empire because his love and the kind of love connected to justice that lifted the poor the least of these all of those that have been rejected by roman polish truck to those of cicero called the tricks of the city. jesus wasn't around them jesus said to caesar's you're not jesus said to the empire it is wrong 'd to have also a few people with wealth and the rest living in desperation what jesus called the pope cos and greek those who've been made poor by economic exploitation he said the nations would be judged by the least of these and that created division that's what jesus meant is that that the gospel of the truth. creates division of what he meant by that is there has to be a division from jews and so when people say for instance in america that we don't

have the resources but when code began we saw 2 and 3 trillion dollars immediately given to corporations while people who are on the front lines still have not got what they need desert division we can accept that there has to be a cutting asunder of that and exposing it for what it is every senator and congress person they get free health care they get the best health care we have to call that out how can you get the best free health care what a public option paid for by the people that's what i mean by public option and then you don't want joe constituents is to have the same thing truth and lies cannot exist together ok and be ok and that's what jesus was saying that that times that has to be a division and the true for the matter is we just can't do an election what is an election about it is a division of the asians one peep group present step in for the country another group presents definition and the people decide that i do think

a lot of people voted against it but that's not a small thing that is major to reject trump ism and to reject all of it is cut necked to the extremism and the division that has that on because copyright created himself he is an american and he was created out of the american reality at least part of it and part of that america. the reality has been an american reality it is always trying to go back to division and trying to live and that division them believing that that is the way to have power and as i said he spoke to an audience not that he created but it had been created for some 50 years before he ever ran for office so so division is a part of our reality even in the health we used and when i was in the country my grandmother used to have something called lansing a boil it meant spitting a bore so the plans could come out in order for healing to take place and in the

real sense we have to do that because in addition to the people that voted against which is huge we now know from early returns to 55 percent of people making less than $60000.00 a year poor low wealth people voted against trump. it last time brought poor low well people voted against draw the volume what this have because some 34000000 poor lower people didn't vote a 6000000 more voted this time than voted last time and they didn't vote for normal they didn't vote just to go back to precautious because pre-code it was 140000000 poor low well people in this country thought it 3 percent of the nation 66000000 white people 26000000 black people 61 percent of all 'd black people pre-code it was 87000000 people without health care or under insured pre-code it was 62000000 people working for less than a living wage pre-code it was $4000000.00 people getting up every morning look at

about unleaded gas and came back and let it water pre-code it was $0.54 of every discretionary dollar going to the war economy and less than 16 cents of every discretion ed dollar going toward health care infrastructure in education creek hope it actually. preconditioned us in some ways to be more be harmed by the pandemic most most public health officials will tell you that in addition to the turbulent almost criminal like in f. response to the pandemic of the trumpet ministration in addition to that it was the finishes of poverty and systemic racism that has given the opening for this pandemic to be even worse than it could have been the majority of the people that are dying seem that close here are poor and low wealth people the majority the people being hurt a poor and low wealth people who did not have the wages prior to cope and the

health care trying to cope and the sickly and unemployed prior to cope so. large numbers of people if they voted against front they also are not voting to stay where we are i believe and a lot of people are also a lot of a what voting for us not to return to normal because normal was not good nor he was not good moment to paint gives us a chance 'd to address what the bad normal was so that hopefully we can move to some new possibilities in this nation why has the republican party been able to have such almost a monopoly on evangelical christians as a long conversation as the. trace any given his active highlight exactly brit we can't these are not new struggles you know we started out in this country saying women couldn't vote white men who didn't have man couldn't vote

black people couldn't vote black people with 3 fifths of a person and a native americans could be exterminated all of those evils people found the ways to mis interpret and engage in theological malpractise to support what they were doing you know out and tell people. economics used to not be a space branch of thinking unto itself it was a part of moral philosophy but it is hard to have economics at the bottom are lost and then also have slavery and know that morally speaking you cannot. you know support slavery deepest religious values destine do that but we've had this problem in america with twisting the script as a slave master religion the religious and religious people that stood to get what payback cooperations the stand against the new deal and call 'd franklin delano roosevelt a socialist the religion is who undergird the clay and the religion is who right

stood against the king and when i say stay religious notice i'm not saying christian and even this time of event well it was the way the media talks about evangelicals like how many bad but i wouldn't be counted because the weight of media often talks about evangelicals they talk about white evangelicalism which is really more of an emphasis on white and he that the tickle isn't so here's what's the problem here is just like the constitution a lot of people will say they have a religious perspective but they haven't read it can't last it up with scripture they can't lie out of that with the teachings of jesus or the teaching of the prophet they are right when it is a religious perspective but it's their religion it's not the religion of christan it is not the religion of judaism and just like when they say they have a constitutional position but when you read the constitution it doesn't sound anything like what they're talking about so we have a lot of people and i have to say there's a train at logan perpetrating a fraud engaging in modern day heritage and that's why more and more people are

coming out we asked the putting out a 14 point plan 1st $1500.00 days rooted out deepest religious traditions that people's constitutional traditions this week for the bad administrations to say here are things that have to be done if we're going to be constitutionally consistent marland defensible and economically saying what would be our red line disappointment for you in the incoming administration that they could get this wrong and not take the enlightened path that you're encouraging and to. well it sounds like steve you have written you have read the post 963 martin and i'm so glad you have because some people think all he said was i have a dream which is the closing of the speech of the march and wasn't it wasn't even the title of the speech the title of the speech was norma's and never again norma say never again that's why i wanted the agenda items of the march on washington was $2.00 an hour living wage which today would be 15 and then of course you know the

voting rights act and then you know dr king said we have to deal with 3 issues system poverty racism and militarism and it wasn't just dr king it was the welfare rights workers the 'd women who pushed him to do the poor people's campaign so what he said dan is just as true now and as what jesus was saying about i have not come to bring peace but a so what's the worst thing that bad administration or in it ministration could do i thought of the is to set on what the pope called recently in his in cyclical the magic formulas of neo liberalism and trickle down economics which don't work because if they don't lift from the bottom and centrism doesn't do it and moderate i agree with him the old king those that are now talking about now that we've gone we've got to find some centrist 'd way we can't really push for health care for all we may have to slow down on $15.00 an hour for black people it took us from 0 to

400 years to get to 725 we started out making up in a slave and that some 25 we'd have to wait another 400 years to get 15 at that rate that's just doesn't make sense what we need to do now is take the constitution of danger united states. that says the 1st goal of a government is to establish justice and the 2nd is that a domestic tranquility in other words you can't get to the method tranquil it is without beginning with establishment of justice and every policy ought to be examined under the lens of the cost to ship does 'd this policy establish justice not is it left not is it right not is it centrist right but does the status justice for those who are hurting the most and they're hurting not because they're immoral but because of the failure of public policy over and over and over and over

again if we don't do this even the fed chairman recently said we're not going to get the economy back that we had we know that wall street doesn't measure backstreet and dirt roads and side roads we cannot exist as a democracy a genuine democracy when nearly 50 percent of the people living in poverty and low well 8000000 have been at it since may i was say to president biden elect donovan and comma after ice president comma has. first thing you do is do exactly what you say do not listen to those who tell you to slow down this isn't if. this is a good reconstruction more people are dying poor low well people are dying if you want to heal the nation heal the body and don't have agenda of doing it for just a few or just enough that some people can be comfortable with it because those them only become what

a few the truth is they would be comfortable with things being as they are right and that is unacceptable dr william j. barber the 2nd thank you so much for your candor today and we look forward to seeing what you roll out the 14 point plan and other plans you have to help give counsel to this new administration coming in thanks for joining us today thank you so much and your listeners can go to w w w poor 'd people's campaign or go w w w a breach repair or. so what's the bottom line it's hard not to be moved by the powerful moral appeals of reverend barber the spotlight is on america now and the world is watching well america come out of this divided and nasty place stronger and fairer and more just and restore its place in the world as the so-called beacon on the hill my guest believes the breach can be and should be healed that people in the richest nation in the world shouldn't have to struggle to make ends meet but that has been a long struggle and it's ongoing the election of joe biden and kamel harris is one

opportunity to begin to move on a new course but let's face it american history is also full of opportunities that were never changed and that's the bottom. december on al-jazeera it's 10 years since of revolution in tunisia ignited the arab spring al-jazeera looks back at the uprising and asks what really changed across the middle east the stream is where al jazeera has global audience becomes

a global community a year after the 1st coronavirus case in china will examine the devastation caused by the virus and the efforts made to eliminate covert 90 people in power is back with more investigative documentaries and in-depth stories climate leaders will gather all mind to press ahead with a new stage of the paris climate agreement and examine the possible global solutions december on al-jazeera. in 1958 charles de gaulle made a famous speech in algeria danica patrick and past but take a don't hold back the tide about jury and independence oh keep francis colonies in africa and the pacific. in the final episode of the series al-jazeera explores how the long and bitter fight for the french empire still resonates today blood and tears french to colonize ation on al-jazeera.

oh and i'm told stories from asia and the pacific i'm out to see if. we face a human tragedy. and the public knows humanitarian and development images a year into the corona virus pandemic some hope for vaccine development but still a long way to go according to the u.n. . other than i'm how i'm here c.n.n. this is al jazeera mine from doha also coming up battling misinformation facebook and instagram will begin removing false posts covert 19 vaccines.