and already a detail in this picture has caught scientists attention that rock on the left the one that looks like a hunk of swiss cheese and there are a number of different geological processes that can make holes in iraq like that and to the science team is now thinking about what this might mean and one of the questions we'll ask 1st is whether these rocks represent a volcanic or sedimentary origin and both of those would be equally exciting to the team ultimately perseverance may dig up evidence that life existed on mars at some point in the ancient past that could be a sign that life is widespread in our solar system our galaxy and the far flung reaches of the universe and that we are not alone robert oulds al jazeera los angeles. the sound is there and these are the top stories al-jazeera has gained access to

pilots of a confidential u.n. report which finds that blackwater erik prince violated an arms embargo on libya it says prince said weapons to war telephone huffed are. president joe biden has declared the u.s. is back sweeping away donald trump's america 1st foreign policy fight an address the munich security conference seeking to reassure allies sidelined during the trumpy is has been severe flooding in indonesia's capital jakarta triggered by heavy rainfall evacuations are underway up to 180 centimeters of rain was recorded in some areas it's not clear how many people are affected yes jessica washington has more from jakarta. there is over development too much concrete a lack of green space over the extraction of ground water these are some of the factors that contribute to jakarta severe flooding every year and make your car the world's fastest sinking city the scientists that we've spoken to say that the

jakarta governor nice bus weighed in has not acted as he had promised and has instead of focusing on proven normalization widening the rivers to make the city more resilient against flooding he's focused on the aesthetics rather than the practicalities and that means that this year and it potentially in future years this flooding crisis will only get worse. protests against me and miles military have entered the 3rd week around a 1000 people gathered in the largest city again gone to them on the base of deposed leader aung san suu kyi a return to civilian rule. a court in moscow is due to hear an appeal by kremlin critic in the valley who's asking to be released from prison but only is facing 2 court decisions i could up hold the judge's ruling to jail him for several years. those are the headlines don't go away though i will have more news for you here on al-jazeera right off the inside story which is coming up next on counting the cost

the prosperous president we delve into just how well you've got a map putin is at a time when the rest of russia isn't back plus the rise of mean stops with there's plenty of money to be made and almost none of it is about the core business. counting the costs on al-jazeera. when you'd ever bona break in the shopping precinct coronavirus that african countries that raffling with health why seize on different fronts so how come their health care systems go and could access to cope with 19 vaccines the continent this is inside story. hello welcome to the program. and resurgence of a boat is raising fears of an uncontrolled spread of the disease it's already being

detected in the democratic republic of congo neighboring sierra leone and liberia are tracking possible cases the well health organization has asked 6 countries to be on high alert the crisis comes as many african nations are struggling to contain the corona virus africa is seeing a sharp rise in covert 19 deaths and health care systems overstretched it's fear there could be more fatalities if a boat is left unchecked they double shift more than $11000.00 doses of vaccines to have why the disease in guinea. south africa is leading the rise in coronavirus debts on the continent accounting for nearly half in more contagious kovan $1000.00 variant has pushed hospitals have their limits and is spread across other nations the mutation is to reduce the impact of vaccines south africa has just switched

from astra zeneca doses to johnson and johnson's shots over such concerns officials are criticizing the dominance of pharmaceutical companies over access to covert 19 vaccines it's representative of the world trade organization says structural change is needed to allow countries to manufacture their own vaccines this issue a fairer access to vaccine to poorer nations has also been raised by the french president in manuel mark ron has european nations and the u.s. to hand 5 percent of their current cove in $1000.00 vaccine supplies to developing countries in africa like ross comments came after the united nations secretary general antonio the terrorist denounced the and even distribution of covert 1000 shots. we don't do them we must respond to what is a moral duty and to the situation of glaring inequality and to do so out of

conviction and solidarity as president obama said but also if i may say so out of interest because if we do not eradicate this virus from the entire globe through an appropriate vaccination strategy let it thrive on the african continent and elsewhere in the poorest countries and to continue to circulate to make variants and probably variants that will end up being resistant to the vaccines now being deployed in europe the united states and the middle east let's have a look at other african nations that have started to roll out vaccines zimbabwe's using of this sign of that china has distributed to several african countries the strain that emerged in south africa is the thought to be dominant there senegal has received its 1st 200000 doses of the judge from the same company but there are concerns about the vaccines efficacy after study found it produced weaker immune response against the mutation deaths across the african continent have reached

$100000.00 where the contagious variant and limited access to vaccines many are concerned that figure could get much higher. let's bring in our guests from johannesburg having read this she is member of the south africa ministerial advisory committee for covert encoded vaccine from brazzaville. dr richard miniter coordinator of the immunization and vaccine development program of the world health organization and from paris john johnson vaccination and a pedantic response referent of a doctors without borders friends thank you all for joining us. your country has stepped in criticizing vaccine inequality globally but at the same time we're seeing the same pattern which is wealthy nations hoarding hundreds of

millions of doses which they want to possibly be using how do you see of this disconnect. when i think the disconnect is obvious and we just heard president micron make of state. from francis point of view they're beginning to understand that and recognizing that from a global health perspective this makes absolutely no sense at all and the african union as you said then led by president obama who has made very strong statements about this in the 2009 pandemic flu and the african region was that the last continent to get any vaccines and by the time we got back since it was they were going to be of little use in terms of pandemic prevention so the whole efforts of the african union the kovacs of the 2 the world health organization and now i'm pleased to say many large countries that are both manufacturing vaccines and have these sorts of vaccines i think that we've got to change the dialogue to say that

that really has to be the norm sharing has to be the norm and access for poor countries and particularly in the african region we've got to change the pattern of distribution that has so far prevailed which has been extremely limited. richard there is this issue of changing the mindsets to be able to convince people that it's about time to share the stock buyers they have by the same time of the current pace it seems that millions of people in africa won't be able to get vaccine by this by the end of this year how concerned are you about this particular thing. well we have very very much concern indeed and as professor reserve said the promise of international solidarity has been so far elusive and we believe that . until people you know africa as well are protected and it be nice nobody will be

safe everywhere so i think it's. time for that time that. for the international and public health perspective that we understand or that unless people at the meanest everywhere i think nobody would be really safe even in places where exhibition is going to be going on so it's it's not only more a moral imperative to do the right things but it just makes public have sense to make sure that vaccines or so to reach the people even africa. this looks like an uphill climb for the african continent john because they're underfunded like a fly behind western countries the having their own political economic problems the tackling kovi the overstretch and now they are faced with a new threat which is the author of a boat you've been working in one of the epicenters of

a bowler back in the past how concerned are you about the new break which seems to be stretching about spreading from guinea all the way to many other countries in west africa well 1st of all it's not spreading yet but we have is a cluster of 7 cases 3 that were confirmed in 4 that are probable cases so we haven't confirmed them biologically but it's assumed that there were cases so it's not a huge number of cases so far and it's in guinea for the moment however it is very concerning because we see that this is happening in a city that's the 2nd largest city in guinea and it shares a border very close with. and. so this is this is concerning because obviously bill it is a very mortal disease. and we are taking it very seriously i think all the international actors have made a very rapid response we can give me and in the neighboring countries to make sure that we're ready to respond quickly because the best time to respond to an outbreak

is that beginning to stop quickly. howling which we've been talking about the inequality gap here when it comes to the access to the vaccine when you talk a little bit about software you have switched from the to johnson and johnson because of the reports about the efficacy against the south african variant and because ultimately with johnson and johnson it's just one single dose as you know we're learning going to databases about this disease the way it moves forward isn't this something that could potentially have an impact on the way which is the particular kind of vaccine to that to deal with in the near future. yes and i mean not only in south africa there are huge global discussions going on including with the manufacturers and the developers about how are we going to respond you've probably read that globally there are variants now occurring all over the world

that the force that if you have a strong force infections knots of people infected you're much more likely to get there it's emerging we're also seeing that these variants are starting to to move towards each other in terms of the changes and so we're probably going to see that certain changes that mutations of the virus are an advantage for the virus in terms of spread and in terms of resisting the body's immune system so we're going to see this convo mogens variants probably worldwide so south africa is grappling with the variants and thinking about which vaccines to use of course the problem is that the moment for most of the new vaccines their brand new the variant to spread it to the u.s. well so we don't have an awful lot of data on which to judge you know is one of actually going to be better than the other and there's a very careful discussion going on to say well can we understand the majority well coming under central animal models and how much clinical data do we need to get to really understand the impact on the variance on how effective the vaccine is going

to be because clearly we can't keep doing these huge clinical trials every time we get a new variant with every maxine it's simply not feasible so we're trying to find alternative ways to give us a good idea how effective a vaccine is likely to be as we get these new variants and so forth about africa we are we changed to the johnson and johnson because there we do have some clinical data generated from south africa and the clinical chart earlier are as alongside lab data that suggests that this is that scene will be effective and that was one of the reasons why we've made that switch. richard when french president in a way micron said that it's about time for european countries or the u.s. to set aside something like 5 percent of their own stockpiles of the vaccines to be distributed among poor nations do you see of those countries. responding positively when you know that ultimately. i would say it's safe to wait until the

last citizen in my own country get the vaccine before i start handing out to the other nations. when i think about the announcement represent micro. city i think is a very good step right direction. but we have yet to see what will be their reaction of other. high income countries we know that today at the g 7 meeting there would be a discussion around this in talk he called how each country can step in and then start to share some of the disease that they're hoarding and which at the end of the day will not make sense to keep well we know very well that people in the you looking at countries are still waiting for the vaccine and it's important here to mention that the and professor reason mentioned these we does not to have

learned from the past in 2009 during each one h. one n one pandemic i think we we were out of the back of the queue to get the vaccine when the disease was not any more prevalent and it's for that reason that sure working with other partners you know to the hearts facility really to make sure that. the global story so it should be at the core for vaccine deployment globally so we do hope that the. announcement that was done by a good french president but hopefully other high income countries will be translated in concrete action so that we can see even the vaccines that flow is soonest possible. developing country and enough it can you know john if you remember back in 20141516 when the work concerns that the 0 bowler outbreak in west

africa could turn into something dramatic that's when the international initiative brought about to significant changes 1st of all we have a vaccine and number 2 a stockpile to tackle any future. break is this something that world leaders could learn from now when they are grappling with cove in 1000. well certainly a response to to inhibit to make sure some similarities and i think one of the things that we learned during the past people outbreaks is that you have to carry out research and science during the epidemic and just as helen said earlier we need to be able to study these vaccines in a way that's both. careful and scientific in appropriate and ethical and at the same time we need to advance the science as quickly as possible to be able to respond and so what we saw in the outbreak in west africa was that they started

developing therapeutics and vaccines for a while at the same time the outbreak was occurring and during the outbreaks we saw last year and in the democratic republic of congo we were able to use this vaccine to respond to reduce the number of cases and we were also able to use the monoclonal antibodies that the therapies that were developed for ebola for the 1st time to treat patients and reduce the mortality so there's definitely some similarities and there's things we can learn i think we have a long way to go for ebola as well as for coated in terms of how we use these tools because that's what's important is a vaccine but the way that it's distributed the timing of the people that get it that's that's the most important thing and i think this goes into the conversation we've been having about global equity making sure that it's not just certain areas of the globe that are vaccinated before others because that won't bring about an epidemic and in fact it's just a fractured response and what we've seen ebola responses in other epidemic responses that is that any response that's it's not organized it's not cohesive and

it's fractured will not will not succeed hallinan it lots enough lots in america and africa decades of civil wars go bump should miss embezzlement mismanagement of public funds. have undermined the chances for those countries to reset their own priorities and now the work up to the need to think about ways to put more money into scientific research have their own platforms and why not have their own pharmaceutical companies that would be able to sell drugs which are efficient at a reasonable price in the african continent with south africa as one of the leaders how do you see that happening in the near future. well if we're focusing for the moment on vaccines a few years ago there was what was called at this declaration which ministers of health minister of finance under the auspices of the african union where the minister said we really want to be able to manufacture our own vaccines.

manufacturing is is takes quite a long time to establish if you're going to produce a vaccine from that sort of that square not there are other parts of the manufacturing that countries could get into much more quickly but now i think this is this is a wake up call we've got extraordinary few sites in the african region that can manufacture vaccines and the vulnerability of that is now playing out you can see that in europe in the u.s. in russia in china where they have their own manufacturing sites and they have the science to back up and develop vaccines that they've been able to rapidly develop back since and manufacture them and roll them out and create the data that's required to understand if they if they work and if they're sick. because we don't have that we're sitting waiting and we're very vulnerable then to the to the responses of rich countries i just want to mention one thing that i think is really

really important we mention that we know will post a follow up to below we learnt a couple of things. and one of them was that we need to really create different ways of getting back since rapidly produced and rapidly are there and the the kovacs disability that we've mentioned already here the intent of that facility which has been rapidly put together under the auspices of dovish of guardians another group called seppi that kovacs the syllabi is has got over $190.00 countries now including the poorest countries of the world middle income countries and ok countries big picture. and that is that is trying to get back. from the manufacturers and get money out into support countries and it's been extremely it's starting to show real and success we just heard that it's secured 1100000000 dollars years or that's you know but that's and $4000000000.00 in the

last 24 hours from the white house so that kind of initiative is the kind of thing that we need to see to really fill that gap up but attached is a very strong manufactured article later a little bit later more about kovacs in the tire for the time being richard this is exactly what i think you have been trying to do of which is basically as a coordinator of the immunization and vaccine development program looking into ways where these countries could come together and integrate their logistics to be able to manufacture the own vaccines i've been talking to people in north africa sub-saharan africa east africa they're basically saying that we should come together as communities have their own own platform we could do outsourcing with the european manufacturing pharmaceutical companies but ultimately africa needs to have a sophisticated state of the art research centers there with pave the way to manufacture

in vaccines and this should happen any time soon because we will continue to grapple with the same health issues in the near future. yeah absolutely i think and i hope there will be it before and after 19 terms of research and development of vaccines in africa and i think this has been. a big wake up call a lot of impressive infrastructure to produce bikes in but need even more importantly the research and development capacity and platform i'm going to do i just could very quickly for the development of the novel productive gridding acces so i think we have been working. in collaboration with many countries now to see how these and there's been a very strong. push from the government themselves in africa to make sure that they cannot say like anymore on the outside and illustration we for

this study that was done in south africa with the new variants i think we need to have these capacity established. countries in the region to make sure that's when even the product that the book outside are coming to africa can have the capacity to not only conduct those concrete trials but also to i just strategy based on their findings that we have so we do believe that's one important elements additional one is their regulatory pathway that needs to be strengthened in the countries and we are working quite hard in that area with various tools truck and international read love story in order to be able to ferment these steps of development to go forward have a few minutes left but have many other issues to tackle here john kovacs which is the international coalition which is aiming to provide vaccines for. people across

the world now they have more financial support but they're hoping to be able to see 2000000000. doses delivered by the end of 2021 do you think that would be possible . i you know i i think i've been surprised this whole then demick what's been possible because last year we were saying we wouldn't see any vaccines come to market before march of 2021 and finally what we saw was that already at the end of 2020 we had vaccines and we started vaccination i think that the resourcefulness of the scientific community and the people responding to this pandemic is quite impressive and i would not be surprised if kodak's does succeed they've been working very hard and they have a good plan and the they have good cooperation with a lot of different countries ok and i would like to see it succeed and i think if they have the financing they'll be able to do it thank you hal and now do you see the well being able to vaccinate 70 percent of its population to be able to say we

have immunity to defeat. in 1000 well at that 1000000 dollar question and i think that really depends on the response that you just sent or over rich countries to both giving back scenes giving financial support to initiatives such as backs of the african union but it also depends on countries political willingness to pay for this and so i would say that all of those things aligned i certainly think that we could do it it would be an extraordinary globally cheap. than 30 seconds richard now many companies to satisfy is that a contemplative 3rd dose a booster to deal with any of variance and you know this is going to put us into a new mindset where we have to think about how to design the trials for the 3rd booster is this something that could undermine the chances to get to all the people very soon. well i think it's a bit early to say that i think out we still see research going on on how to adjust

the use you wish and we see more of that. but i think our objective at deshon now he's at least provides the current vaccines which are showing some very good level of it because it is many people as possible and this is what by the way will help to me max the parents knew what your variance so if people are left without. being vaccinated we'd see the occurrence of new variant sank into the wheel in parts even in places where vaccination have already hooker i think just the fact that women managed to get a vaccine within a year when usually it takes years and years it could be an indication of that when when we come together we can really make miracles helen razer richard mcgregor john johnson a really appreciate your insight thank you thank you for watching or can see the program again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com for further

discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com for will slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is a chance they spot it from the national level and the entire team here in doha i for now. said his only change because some people believe in a purpose that is bigger than their. mom to make a political of my city around the state representative they put themselves in knots need to make the changes something that we. should have taken this long to do that in the name as condemnation blank we have a discotheque to slosh war to create new york areas we have to change this culture

i am one of the fortunate ones who can leave and if that might somehow but all the people and the majority of these illegal of us are talking about just good hard working people that want to live the american dream like our ancestors these are going to refugees are terrified that they may be forced to return to myanmar. in india identity politics on the rise what we're seeing is the construction mills partitions and cuts and loads of units of people across the country and there's a dark side in detroit is to see the grid philosophical majesty of the him fix it to something more like the team i didn't see of the british when i meet with victims of violence and discover what life is like for minorities in the country join me on my journey in search of india's soul on al-jazeera.

al-jazeera. where every. a confidential un report accuses donald trump's ally erik prince was standing mercenaries and weapons to a libyan war old. convert al this is all just there alone from doha also coming up america is back transatlantic alliance is back u.s. president joe biden in his 1st address to world leaders promising.