press freedoms are under threat. and some stories can only be told by those who will not compromise on the truth. news from just one part of the viewfinder asia series on al-jazeera. safe and highly effective u.s. regulators are set to approve johnson and johnson single shot coronavirus vaccine paving the way for a global rollout. hello i'm down in jordan this is out as they are live from doha also coming up ghana becomes the 1st country to receive doses under a un backed scheme aimed at making vaccines available to less wealthy countries.

protesters march in me and as the military appointed foreign minister flies to thailand for crisis talks. and in a landmark ruling a german court sentences a former syrian intelligence officer to prison for aiding crimes against humanity. the drive to end the coronavirus pandemic is picking up speed new research shows the johnson and johnson vaccine is highly effective in preventing severe cases of covert 19 it could get emergency approval for use in the u.s. by the end of the week will the single shot vaccine has been tested in the u.s. brazil and south africa studies show it's highly effective in combating the more aggressive there instead the virus europe's inoculation program is also gathering pace e.u. countries are set to discuss vaccination certificates for their citizens as part of efforts to stimulate travel. through the summer and garner has become the 1st

country to receive free vaccines through the international kovacs scheme astra zeneca jobs arrived in the capital accra on wednesday having been flown in from india sarah curran reports now on the kovacs fiend. even back seem to ensure that people from less wealthy countries are protected against covert 19 is being hailed as a historic moment. the rival of $600000.00 from india marks the beginning of a massive campaign that will see more than $2000000000.00 doses delivered to several developing countries across different continents this covert program is about equity and certainly darity if you follow the vaccination going on around the planet so far it's only citizens from the let the say the better off countries that have benefited from this and from today we're bringing in equity gone the plants inoculate around 20 percent of its population in the 1st phase of its campaign but is still not enough and the government says it's working on securing more doses.

almost $2500000.00 people worldwide have died from corona virus so far rich countries have been able to buy far more vaccines in poorer ones and while kovacs has managed to raise $6000000000.00 in needs at least another 2000000000 to meet its targets the 2021 this is only financed now so we can reach in 1002 countries the most vulnerable population the older citizens the health workers people with school mobility you know but we need much more taxes and financing so we can vaccinate everybody just like if you walk in the rich world countries receive the lifesaving vaccines next we'll include some of the poorest countries in the world including haiti democratic republic of congo and afghanistan where the kovacs program will cover 20 percent of its $38000000.00 population the global race for doses has met the high income countries can more easily do deals with vaccine

manufacturers than low income ones so the world health organization and unit urging those companies to prioritise contracts with kovacs and ensure fair distribution worldwide so far 200 term 1000000 doses of vaccine have been are globally. but however those are just 2 countries and 80 per hour in just 10 countries more than $200.00 countries are you single goes after a year of disruptions due to the pandemic there is hope this is the beginning of the path to recovery for those nice defected and those that some most vulnerable sort of jersey. but as you mentioned trials of the johnson and johnson vaccine have shown it's highly effective so let's take a look at why the vaccine is being watched so closely unlike most covert $1000.00 vaccines this one only needs one dose which could help speed up inoculation campaigns they can also be stalled in afraid just like the vaccine some pfizer and

modernity which need to be kept in ultra cold temperatures and that makes it much easier to transport in rural areas and under developed countries let's bring in ali for to him he's a vax knowledge ystem vice president of vaccine research and development of blue willow biologics he joins us via skype from ann arbor in michigan ali good to have you back on the program again now the johnstone johnson vaccine has come on the market behind many of the other major players but it does have some significant advantages is it likely them to be again change or do you think. you know i think. more going for one immunization is a great thing that happening to me because i thought a mess vaccination you don't want to have the trouble of bringing people back to get their 2nd vaccination saw they are the only company that went for one back to the nation on earth and look for the biggest see in the be sure that they will have a decent the ficus you know surely the across the line on the stick the action of

the end of the f.d.a. if the order of 4 licensure so then on friday we will see how the exact data looks like and probably go with the advisory committee at the f.d.a. it will be looking forward to see more of the deals about this yet and the as you were saying there we know it's just a single dense vaccine and doesn't need to be stored at super low temperatures so what could this mean then for the global vaccine rollout particularly as we saw there the world health organization's urging countries to donate to its kovacs program for poorer countries. yeah i think that's the one vaccination is going to give advantage to vaccines in addition are all other vaccine in fact have shown if it gets here after one vaccination but for short period of time because we did not we have to administer the 2nd vaccination so they only if it got

been either a priori one or one vaccination was the n.g.a. i'm sure that if you look at the data there is the data to support at some point of time some other vaccine that can go for one vaccination. and then you bring people back for a 2nd immunization after you have done more work and expanded events initially so i think that. this this came came as you know meeting that a letter e a requirement to sure if it gets the are in this regimen so basically other companies can go back and do the same thing and show that they will have i think a sense that one even is asian ok and you can set up elite only there has been some data though to suggest that despite its high efficiency which you just mentioned there the gen j. vaccine is not as effective against the 1st variant found in south africa what impact could that have. well that's the really the 1st for

all of the vaccines the south african isolate the one of the area that is very different and therefore it has escaped or to some extent some of the care but it's by the vaccines so they think a c. in the case of j.n.j. was 57 percent in south africa but for instance know about sure that they heard of a in a 49 percent if it a c. had we just hear out of last week about the us that has any kovacs seen that they actually are the coverage was not as expected and therefore of the putting it out of south africa so therefore we are talking about a race between our vaccines and the different variants especially those that. get. a gift or out of the coverage of our vaccine like we've seen

here to the british or the u.k. . verdean which is still have ific a c. are with the existing vaccine so therefore there is an issue or no that would not have a point that i would like to make is that one of the one vaccination and that is that great and is easier for men as well as the nation there are some are possible this advantage in this case they're what we call maturation ok immunity sports need to be mature rated to where sure and a 2nd vaccine nation would give it more or maturation and more ethnically and more of that assistance and therefore a erosion of dual vaccination so for there would be ok thier of them but yeah allie i'm sorry we have to leave it there and if i to massacre only thanks so much for talking to us here on al-jazeera think that china has now vaccinated more people than all the countries in africa combined it was the 1st country in south america

to start its campaign and now. as the 5th highest vaccination rates in the world more than 3000000 people who are not connected in chile this month when i lived in america at its embassy in human joins us live now from santiago the c.e.o. so this is one of the good news stories to come out of latin america when it comes to code 19 how has chile managed to surge ahead and its vaccination program. yes indeed it is good news very welcome it that the it has been a combination actually of 3 factors one very very strong political will a very aggressive energy put into acquiring these vaccines on the part of the president who was a billionaire businessman before he was a politician so he knows how to negotiate especially in the international market also economic solvency chile has been able to pay for these facts seems out front and 3rd the use of some very very savvy lawyers because as we have discovered it's

not so easy to purchase millions of vaccines in this quantity the legal prey look is complicated and especially when there's competition worldwide to acquire them so dearly apparently was able to come up with these very almost airtight contracts with pharmaceutical companies 3 or 4 of them at least even before the vaccines were approved and they have been arriving by the millions and so so far i've had my job most of the people i know have and by the middle of the end of june if things keep going as they are now the whole country should have been inoculated which would be really the cia and the cia it's worth reminding our viewers that just last year there was strong criticism of president sebastian pinera his handling of the pandemic what seems to change since then. but one of the things that changed was the health minister he wasn't all that popular although he was recognized for having done a very good job in bringing ventilators. to chile but that was it there's

a new health minister but probably the biggest criticism was more along the lines of what the government did not do as efficiently in terms of economic aid to the people who needed it most because of the economic fallout caused by the pandemic and that criticism persists to this day however at least the hope that this will be the big the pandemic the infection rate will go down quickly and things can get back to normal as soon as possible is at least helping to raise have a stampeded his popularity or a tennessean human there in santiago in a sea of thank you for. me of mars military appointed foreign minister is in thailand for talks after this month's coup it's all part of regional efforts to resolve the crisis which began when the army seized power on the 1st of february protesters continue to demand the release of elected leader unsung suchi and ronnie's across the country scott hyla reports. and protesters gathered in front of the indonesian embassy in years gone only for regional involvement as tensions grow

across me and more. this as the military appointed foreign minister visited bangkok for crisis talks meeting his thai and indonesian counterparts as well as thailand's prime minister pray. that's all part of stepped up efforts by the regional group of nations called aussie on to find a way out of the crisis following the february 1st coup and i'm not going to be as a man must i just didn't like to see on countries not to recognise the cue government if they do recognise that the dignity of asean will be eroded ossie on is reported to be planning to send officials to monitor a new b.n. more election promised by the general but the protesters are urging asio to recognise the november polling the put their deposed leaders including on santucci in office. one group earlier organized a protest at the bangkok indonesian embassy calling an aussie on to get more involved we asked. to decide between

the military 100 wish oppressed people right now decided to people which is trying to protest as they can to. lead to one no that we won't be. a tree again this is not the 1st time that has reached out to thailand since the coup about a week after the takeover myanmar's military leader min on length sent a letter to the thai prime minister asking for help on the democratic process and. a former military chief also rose to power by overthrowing a democratically elected government in 2014 he stayed in office after 82001000 election political rivals called it badly flawed. so while the protesters are maintaining their pace of protests and strikes they are also stepping up pressure on regional players to engage with the crisis al-jazeera bangkok. break here not just iraq when we come back we're in the u.s.

city bucking the trend to use stadiums for cope with 19 vaccinations and opting for a more personal approach more of that status. places say the weather is looking pretty good now across a good part of the u.s. we have got so warm that down towards the south can you believe temperatures dallas getting up to 20 degrees celsius but just a week ago we were struggling to get anywhere near freezing and we got to hang on to the decent temperatures as we go on through the next day or 2 those cool off a little in dallas to around 12 celsius for thursday but still just about above the the seasonal average with a little more clout in as we go on into thursday has to fall in temperatures with some outbreaks of rain the rain just pushing up towards oklahoma see some wetter weather there into louisiana as well north of that generally fine and schreiber got

some snow meanwhile around the mountain states western parts of canada so some right statement snow coming in across the pacific northwest into basi easing over towards alberta but to the south of that it is set l.a. see some decent sunshine over the next few days as we go on into friday and say that wintry mix moving across the rockies also some wintry weather over towards the mid atlantic states by this stay south of that we see some wetter weather that is easing down towards alabama with that rain moving through not too much rain in the forecast across the caribbean at the moment and slightly fine in try but a few showers for the western side of the caribbean. mount vesuvius is one of the most dangerous active volcanoes in the world. but not everyone feels living in its shadow with good food so perhaps there is something like medic about lascivious the people who don't live in tampa most of the. world

goes to the red so near naples. to understand this unusual love of. living with a volcano on al-jazeera. welcome back a quick recap of our top stories here this hour new research shows the johnson and johnson vaccine is highly effective in preventing severe cases of covert 19 a single shot jab could get emergency approval for use in the u.s. by the end of the week. ghana has become the 1st country to receive vaccines through the international code bechstein 600000 the astra zeneca jobs arrived on

a wednesday the u.n. backed scheme will see more than 2000000000 cope with 1000 doses delivered to developing countries. and me and most military appointed foreign minister is in thailand for talks following this month's who is part of regional efforts to resolve the crisis testers in myanmar continue to demand the release of the elected leader and sang suchi. by the white house says president joe biden will speak with saudi arabia's king sound on soon before a u.s. government report into the murder of the journalist is published it's widely expected to implicate the king's son crown prince mohammed bin sound man in killing former president donald trump and his administration refused to release it. the president is taking a fresh approach to how he engages with foreign leaders around the world and different from the prior administration and that means he will not hold back and he will speak out when there are concerns he has about human rights abuses about. the

lack of freedom of speech or the lack of freedom of media and expression or any concerns he has at the same time we have a long relationship with saudi arabia they are being attacked in the region and that is certainly an area where we continue to work with them on but i expect we'll have more to say when we get post the release of that report well mike hanna joins us live now from washington d.c. marks or president biden had said he would speak to the saudi king rather than the crown prince how much was this a clear indication that things are going to be very different when it comes to u.s. saudi relations. or the biden administration has made very clear that this relationship is going to be very different than it was and trump the white house has already announced that there will be a recalibration of the relationship as it puts it beginning with that is that president biden will speak to the king he will not speak to the crown prince mohammed bin someone now this was a situation in the trump administration where both president trump and his close

adviser jared dealt almost exclusively through the crown prince the biden and ministration making very clear that it is a peer to peer call that means a president speak to kings and therefore president biden will speak to king solomon but this just indicates the change that has happened since the previous administration into this one this administration looking at reviewing its entire relationship with saudi arabia which includes for example reviewing all the weapons sales that were concluded during the last 4 years and mike what more do we know about this classified report on the killing of jamal khashoggi i mean clearly this is a very sensitive issue between both sides. very much so well this classified report was made available in a reductive form to members of congress and many members were absolutely shocked about the contents all indications are is that this cia report did find that 100

been solomon was involved in the murder of the journalist jamal khashoggi now this was a conclusion also reached by a u.n. investigator back in june 29th teen this obviously has implications massive implications on the saudi a u.s. relationship and it's indicative perhaps that president biden appears to want to speak to king solomon but for this report is made public clearly he's setting the way for the publication of this report which if as most expect it to be implicates the crown prince in the murder of a u.s. based journalists it's going to have very severe implications on the relationship indeed mike hanna live for us there in washington d.c. michael thank you now there are grave concerns for a group of rangar refugees adrift in the andaman sea with no food or water about 90 people including children are on board and rights group the project says at least 8

have died the boat left southern bangladesh about 10 days ago and experienced engine failure it's now somewhere in the andaman sea which is part of the indian ocean and bounded by the coastlines of me and thailand it's exactly occasion is still unknown. and more than a 1000000 reaching the refugees are living in crowded camps in bangladesh naseem a cartoon and her family live in cox's bazar the world's biggest refugee camp 25 year old son is on board the missing vessel. how is my son is my son eating is he getting treatment i have been told that my son did not carry any medicine he only took 4 liters of water with him is my son alive i don't know if anything happens to him or if he is hungry. at least 41 refugees drowned when their boat capsized in the central mediterranean at the weekend the united nations says there were among at least 120 people who left a war ravaged libya on the 18th of february to try to reach europe that capsized 2 days later and rescuers took the survivors to an italian town 3 children are among

the missing this is the 2nd deadliest shipwreck in the center and maybe the randian in 20. bringing the number of that missing some 860 people that's why you are nice you are and i you i am jointly are calling european states to raise you when strengths in europe search and rescue them now former syrian intelligence officer has been handed a 4 and a half year jail term by a german court for being an accomplice to crimes against humanity is the world's 1st prosecution of state sponsored torture by president bashar al assad's government the money came reports now from berlin. 10 years ago a yard guard it was working for the syrian intelligence services now he's starting a lengthy prison sentence in germany the prosecution saying that in 2011 he knowingly brought dozens of protesters to

a notorious jail outside damascus to be tortured his defense lawyer said he feared being punished himself if he refused to carry out his orders the court in corpulence rejected that convicting him and jailing him for 4 and a half years. this is this s. to show that this is the 1st step the road to justice is long and one of the goals is to bring bashar al assad and his inner circle before a court this is a relief but it's also not the end it's only the beginning. this is the 1st trial of alleged atrocities carried out by the forces of president bashar assad as such lawyers for the victims in this case hope it will set a precedent. this is what's important is we have a verdict the crimes by the assad government in the secret prisons crimes against humanity this is the 1st verdict worldwide. a view that seems to be shared by many in government in berlin another element that distinguishes this case is that the

german justice system has prosecuted convicted and punished a known german whose victims were not german for crimes that were committed outside germany in doing so prosecutors have invoked the principle of universal jurisdiction for such serious crimes the fine. trials outside syria are a glimmer of hope but also a clear signal to victims that we and the international community recognize it's an issue which not only concerns germany but many of our partners to signal to victims is that justice will be done a yad algarve stood trial alongside another former member of the acid forces both men had left syria and come to germany as refugees the 2nd man on watrous line was a senior intelligence officer in 2011 he's accused of multiple murder rape torture and other serious offenses he denies the charges and his case continues dominick

kane al-jazeera perlin. now in the u.s. cities of open mass vaccination sites in stadiums normally used by n.f.l. football teams as the government ramps up distribution but one city has rejected calls to use its stadium instead taking a more personal approach to the vaccine rolled out. the reports now from philadelphia. earlier this month at levi's stadium in san francisco home to the 40 niners professional football team was opened and people weren't celebrating touchdowns right in the lab but instead cope with 1000 vaccinations health officials transformed the stadium into a giant vaccination site and expect to be able to administer up to 15000 shots a day far more than can be done daily at a hospital pharmacy or community center so far 7 n.f.l. stadiums have been opened as mass spec's nation sites all over the country with more next month the n.f.l.

has told president joe biden all $32.00 stadiums are available but notably one city has taken a different approach this is lincoln financial field home to the philadelphia eagles football team it's a huge distillery inside seats for more than 67000 people and over 170 different private suites and outside more than 22000 parking spots in theory this is the perfect place for a mass vaccination site however the city of philadelphia has said no thanks in january philadelphia teamed up with a start up company run by a college student with no medical qualifications to administer vaccines at a mass vaccination site it was plagued by accusations of mismanagement and fraud and shut down 3 weeks after it opened after stanford when you look at these vials of down a vaccine. what is it represent to you. live the. city

officials have since redoubled efforts to take vaccines to neighborhoods with people like dr a list stanford the founder of black doctors couvade 19 consortium. black people in philadelphia make up 44 percent of the population and over 50 percent of the covert deaths but in the early stages only made up 10 percent of those being vaccinated that's gone up considerably to over 20 percent we're not there yet at all and so that's why it needs to continue the vaccination effort in these communities and we want to go to them there are so many places that are set up that are not easily accessible that people perceive as barriers to get vaccinated and so we want to be the way we always were going to the people city officials say they might use the stadium in the future but will need

a lot more doses of the vaccine to make it work if we were to set up one of the states that lincoln financial field the only way we could do it only we could support it is to pull doses out of the community out of those pharmacies out of those community health centers and that's not something we're willing to do at this point for a city bucking the trend of mega vaccination sites saying bigger isn't necessarily better when getting the shots to those who need them the most keep rosendo. philadelphia. the international olympic committee has named bruce been as the preferred candidate to host the 2032 and big games the australian city will now and the talks with brad organizes well the i.o.c. president thomas bach clarified that no decision has yet been made as for this year's olympics organizers remain optimistic they'll go ahead as planned despite continued worries about code 19 and no public support in japan in the torch is due to begin its relay around the country next month. kubo not mature to now go hope

lights our way that's the concept of the relay we would like to embody that slogan we would like to have an immaculately prepared start the situation is tough but so many people have high hopes and expectations for the tokyo 2020 games i'm heartened by that. time for a quick check of the headlines on al-jazeera new research shows the johnson and johnson vaccine is highly effective in preventing severe cases of covert 19 the single shot job could get emergency approval for use in the u.s. by the end of the week. donna has become the 1st country to receive vaccines through the international kovacs again 600000 astra zeneca jobs arrived on wednesday a u.n. backspin will see more than 2000000000 code with 1000 doses delivered to developing .