in the interest mission chronicle of a pandemic people in power on al-jazeera 'd. safe and highly effective u.s. regulators are set to approve johnson and johnson's single shot coronavirus vaccine paving the way for a global roller. hello i'm down in jordan this is not a 0 live from dakar also coming up dharma becomes the 1st country to receive doses under a un that scheme aimed at making vaccines available to less wealthy countries. protesters marched in myanmar as the military appointed foreign minister flies to thailand for crisis talks. plus in a landmark ruling a german court sentences

a former syrian intelligence officer to prison but 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 coded 19 it could get emergency approval for use in the u.s. by the end of the week well 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 variants of 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 ghana 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 sara kyra

deports on the kovacs. 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 cause not programs about equity and sooty 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 school that is only financed now so we can reach in 1002 countries the most vulnerable population the all the 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 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 prioritize contracts with kovacs and ensure fair distribution

worldwide so far 200 term 1000000 doses of vaccine have been globally. but however of those just 2 countries and 80 person in just 10 countries more than 200 countries are you 2 are 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 most affected and those that some most vulnerable sort of. well as you mentioned trials of the johnson and johnson vaccine have shown it's highly effective let's take a look at why that vaccines being watched so closely well unlike most covered 19 vaccines this one only needs one dose which could help speed up inoculation campaigns. it could also be stored in the fridge unlike the vaccines on pfizer and madonna which need to be kept up ultra cold temperatures that makes it much easier to transport in rural areas and under developed country it's unfair to him as vice

president of vaccine research and development at blue biologics he says the johnston johnson job could be a game changer. going for one immunization is a great thing that happening because for a mass vaccination you don't want to have the trouble of bringing people back to get the 2nd vaccination so they are the only company that went for one back to the nation and look for the sickest and they show that they will have a decent that because surely they cross the line of the expectation of the end of their water or licensure so on friday we will see how the exact data looks like and probably with the advisory committee at the it will be all looking forward to see more details about that in addition are all other vaccine in fact shawn if it gets here start one vaccination but for short period of time

because we did not we have to administer the 2nd vaccination so they only got the need that a priori one or one vaccination was injected i'm sure that if you look at the data there is a good data to support at some point of time some other vaccine that can go for one vaccination ritual and then you bring people back for a 2nd immunization after you have done more work and they expanded the vaccination . and biotech firm a dentist says u.s. regulators are now testing its new coronavirus vaccine aimed at the south african variant the mutated strain is considered among the more dangerous variants because it evades some of the blocking action of antibodies that means the variant has party reduced the protection of the current generation of vaccines modern is considering using the new job as a booster or combining it with the original inoculation chile 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 has the 5th highest vaccination rate in the world more than 3000000 people who were not late in chile this month a latin america at its embassy in yemen is in santiago and she explained how chile has been able to roll out its fascination campaign so quickly. the 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 up 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 framework is complicated and especially when there's competition worldwide to acquire them so

tulli 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 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 there was a days 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. military appointed foreign minister is in thailand for talks off of this month's coup it's part of regional efforts to resolve the crisis which began when the army on the 1st of february protest has continued to demand

the release of the elected leader. and running across the country scot highlight reports. and take you protesters gathered in front of the indonesian embassy in years gone calling for regional involvement as tensions grow across myanmar. 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. 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. naive as a man must i just didn't like to see on countries not to recognise the cue government if they do recognise it the will be a vote it is reported to be planning to send of pictures to monitor a new b.n. more election promised by the general but the protesters are urging arceo 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 decide out of people which is trying to protest as they can to. lead to that we will be. in 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 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 scotland al-jazeera bangkok. the un human rights council says sri lanka is unwilling to be held to account of its international crimes and rights violations a highly critical report says tamil and muslim minorities are being increasingly marginalized sri lanka's government accuses the council of meddling and its domestic issues bennett smith reports. only 12 years after the end of sri lanka's civil war the pain is still roll but those who sons daughters and husbands disappeared. this was a protest earlier this month they want answers accountability and justice. but not getting any because the united nations human rights council says the highest levels of sri lanka's government is in denial about past crimes the spaces were seen in friday and that and the media which have grown significantly is now rapidly

shrinking the independence on the story the human rights commission of. the national police commission and now the key warning as the indignity eroded by the recently adopted prentiss constitutional amendment the president got a bye rajapaksa was defense secretary at the end of the civil war is brother mahinda was president 100000 people were killed in the 26 year long war between tamil separatists and the government both sides are accused of crimes including murder and torture. and now the u.n. says minority groups are facing more discrimination this protest in february was a rare combined march of muslims and tumbles with a long list of complaints including trying to get education in the tunnel language and oppressive police surveillance of muslim lanka's government rejects all the allegations made in the report including claims he uses divisive rhetoric. because constitutional guarantees as i mentioned before fundamental rights of all the

citizens. and anyone can converse under the fundamental right and our whole 3 longer in the last few years as well as today we have all our programs economic social law and the many official programs all are equally enjoyed and implemented from the not to the scout leader not the raja's son was taken away by the military at the end of the war she's no idea what happened to him but is convinced he still alone her story is the same for thousands of other families and the border that the on an island ended up with what we see now is that they're trying to make is fed up and stop the protests so we can trust them we will have to go to the international community to get our children back as we have realized that there is no point going

to the government here the un's high commissioner for human rights has urged member states to consider prosecuting alleged crimes in sri lanka to try and get answers for the thousands of people like leila bernard smith al-jazeera. time for a short break here now jazeera when we come back the long delays in late mail how donald trump iraq cuts 7 road trust in the u.s. postal service more in that state. it's time for the perfect gentleman. sponsored point qatar airways however there we have got some rain in the forecast for central parts of china over the next couple of days and it will be heavy and it's already to cause some localized flooding there we go with i think nick cloud spilling over towards the east coast some very heavy downpours quite a strong wind blowing in from the east china sea there that rain makes its way

across south korea into the far south of cue she will see that rain just peping up the queue she was we go on through friday that could cause some localized flooding showers to into the far south of honshu but it should stay largely dry central parts tokyo to around 10 degrees celsius we have got some dry weather in place to say coming in across the philippines over the next couple of days following on from our recent spell of flooding we have got some showers from time to time but for the way of sunshine and showers scattering the showers into malaysia but more big downpours coming in across indonesia adding to the flooding concerns that we have for java in particular the heavy showers continue here as we go on through friday just picked up by this storm just out towards the timor sea want to see showers into southern parts of india and also in just flank raver the next few days much of india is fine and dry but showers up towards northern parts of pakistan.

sponsible qatar airways jump into the story there is a lot going on in this and julian and global community when i don't have all the misinformation i think we are more afraid than we are aware be part of the debate don't ever take anybody's one word because there's always a difference when no topic is off the table we have been disconnected from our land we have been disconnected from who we are good enough to keep the new and the to be part of today's discussion this streamed on out is there a. welcome back a quick recap of the top stories here at this hour

a new research shows the johnson and johnson vaccine is highly effective in preventing severe cases of cope with 19 the single shot job 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 that screen 600000 astra zeneca jobs arrived on wednesday at the u.n. that scheme will see more than 2000000000 coated 1000 doses delivered to the developing countries. and men miles military appointed foreign minister is in thailand for talks following this month's who is part of regional efforts to resolve the crisis tessa's in myanmar continue to demand the release of elected leader aung san suu kyi. the white house says president joe biden will speak with saudi arabia's king solomon before a u.s. government report into the murder of the journalist published it's widely expected to implicate the king's son prince mohammed bin sol month 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 mike hanna has been following developments from washington d.c. . the report was given to members of congress in a redacted form a couple of years ago there was great shock among those members of congress and it is widely believed that the report did hold the crown prince directly involved in the murder of the washington based journalists now that's similar to the

conclusions talent out by a u.n. report that was concluded as well that the crown prince was involved in the murder of jamal khashoggi so this is certainly a very sensitive issue when it comes to the relationship between saudi arabia and the united states and certainly this report being made public will have a major impact on those relations biden administration has made very clear that it is going to what it calls recalibrate the u.s. saudi relationship basically returning it to what it was like before the 4 years of the trump administration under president tran u.s. relations with saudi arabia were based very much on a transactional nature based on arm sales among other things president transit dealing with the crown prince at will along with his son in law and close adviser jared krishna all of that is changing now the bidens administration for example insisting that the phone call to saudi arabia will be on

a counterpart to counterpart basis that is a phone call between a president and a king a 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 as the world's 1st prosecution of state sponsored torture by president bashar al assad's government the money came reports from berlin. 10 years ago a yard guard was working for the syrian intelligence services now he's starting a lengthy prison sentence in germany the prosecution sand that in 2011 he knowingly brought dozens of protesters to a notorious jail outside damascus to be tortured his defense lawyers said he theer 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 asset forces both men and left syria and come to germany as refugees the 2nd man unwashed ruslan 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 dominic kane al jazeera perlin so let's bring in joshua landis is director of the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma joins us via skype from oklahoma city or joshua good to have you back with us here on the program so this is the world's 1st successful prosecution of state sponsored torture under syrian president bashar al assad's government how significant is this case joshua and what

does it mean for victims of torture who fled syria. it's very important it's point because obviously these victims of torture are going to get some justice it's also important because this is a syrian on german soil who has abused other syrians and it means that people can be arrested anywhere in the world and thirdly it's very good news for syrians who are applying for asylum in any country particularly young syrians who have not served military service because if they're sent back forcibly to syria they'll have to serve military service and this man and how he had a copy of who was arrested was or was accused of taking people to prison where they could be tortured although it wasn't proven that they need them were tortured but that means that simply serving in the syrian army is tantamount to carrying

out crimes against humanity so anybody who is going to go back to do national service in syria can appeal ok for asylum basis that he's going to be forced to do to torture people so how much is this case like 8 to 7 legal precedent in bringing perpetrators of war crimes in syria to justice because pasta efforts to prosecute members of assad's government for war crimes as you know have repeatedly failed well there have been a number of successful prosecutions of opposition people who've fled and been accused of war crimes but not of the assad regime but there are a string of them now that are up and in france and germany other places and and based on this case we're going to see a lot of them convicted. we know that syria is not a signatory to the rome statute of the international criminal court and russia and

china have repeatedly vetoed attempts to give the i.c.c. a mandate to set up a special tribunal for syria does this case prove then that perpetrators can still be brought to justice despite those blocking efforts by russia and china absolutely because this is taken out of the hands of an international court this is done by german courts in german law and the french ones will be done similarly $980.00 national court and this means that the perpetrators of crimes can be arrested anywhere so it will mean you know it potentially this could could even implicate heads of state who travel abroad who have committed you know in will be charged with crimes against humanity joshua landis good to talk to you thanks talking to our jazeera. player. amnesty international says it stripped russian opposition leader alexina valmy of the prisoner of conscience status the rights

group says the internal decision was made in relation to some of the ban these past comments which push the boundaries towards hate speech he's previously promoted nationalist and anti immigrant policies the valley is currently in a moscow jail and amnesty says it will still continue to fight for his freedom australia has passed a new law requiring tech firms like facebook and google to pay for news in a move that could have global implications the legislation had been fiercely opposed by the tech giants with facebook last week blocking australian users from viewing or sharing news content it back tracked out the talks with the government canada is considering drafting a similar law. the u.s. congress is trying once again to help the struggling postal service recover from years of financial losses the government funded agency has long been a reliable mail and possible service for americans but on going down every delays have led to plummeting public trust others attest to reports from washington when

lori cash of new york took a job with the u.s. postal service 22 years ago it was for the security of a government job and a chance to work closely with the public to be able to service the public and do something that i know is helping people every day has just always that apparent to me but lately she's been hearing more complaints from customers dealing with delayed mail who have met someone mail a package in one city and it takes 3 or $45.00 days to get to the next city over only 38 percent of 1st class mail was delivered on time in late december according to postal service court filings that means everything from medications to bill payments are arriving late and it's a problem that persists people have got their bills delayed and they've sent them to companies or utilities companies utilities are then charging late fees. small businesses that once depended on the u.s.

postal service to ship products are also suffering marilyn boutique owner fares on jagger says many of the gift orders she received before christmas weren't delivered in time even pathway past the holidays we would get e-mails where is my gift that it received the big get delivered to the recipient she now uses private shipping carriers though they're more expensive the u.s. postal service lost more than $9000000000.00 in business in 2020 but the delivery delays that drove away some customers will likely improve after the agency's long running money troubles will be harder to happen because its costs routinely exceed its revenues the man tasked with finding a solution is postmaster general louis to joy a trunk mega donor who implemented cuts to the postal service at the height of the pandemic and in the lead up to last november's mail in voting the joys latest plans

for the agency reportedly include reducing services for local mail and raising postage rates by nearly 10 percent we can do so much more her our communities than what we do now so if he's not willing to look outside of what we currently do if he just wants to cut what we have and turn it into a business then he does not belong in the postal service because you can't run the service with that closed minded attitude everyone agrees the u.s. postal service cannot continue on its current footing but the visions for how to help the d.n.c. defer even as most believe the service is worth saving heidi joe castro al-jazeera washington france scientists are calling for a troll a fishing to be paused because a record number of dolphins more than 400 have been found dead since the start of the year research as and laura shell on the atlantic coast said the animals were disease free but were bruised and showed other signs of trauma they're asking for a winter moratorium on the use of large fishing nets which can reach up to 10

meters deep. europe's most active volcano has been putting on one of its most spectacular displays in recent memory not not on the italian island of sicily has been spewing lava and ash into the air for more than a week okinawa just say this level of activity is rare but poses no serious threat to nearby populations. a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera new research shows the johnson and johnson vaccine is highly effective in preventing severe cases of cope with 19 the single shot job to get emergency approval for use in the u.s. by the end of the week. and don has become the 1st country to receive vaccines through the international.