we understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world. so no matter what you see al-jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you. al-jazeera. al-jazeera. you're watching the news hour life from headquarters in doha i'm ted who gave that coming up in the next 60 minutes and now it is time to bring our forces home after 2 decades of 4 american and nato forces are expected to leave afghanistan together president biden is due to announce this timeline shortly. the police officer who

fatally shot a black man in a minneapolis suburb during the weekend has been arrested she's being charged with 2nd degree manslaughter indios worst hit state imposes new covert 1000 restrictions maharastra is around a quarter of the country's infection. bernie madoff who orchestrated the largest financial fraud in u.s. history has died in prison so mile u.s. president signs a controversial law to extend his term by 2 years despite threats of international sanctions. to the news our plans for the u.s. to withdraw its troops from afghanistan by next month are being delayed president joe biden is expected to announce in the next few minutes that forces will leave by september 11th now under a deal signed with the taliban the troops were to pull out by may the 1st at the peak of the war in 2001 there were more than 100000 american troops nearly 10000

foreign troops some 36 countries are still serving as part of a nato mission and the u.s. contributes the most followed by germany and its defense minister says she'll meet with officials from the u.s. u.k. and france to coordinate their eggs. well a delay in the withdrawal raises questions about talks with the taliban and afghan governments which are set to resume in turkey b. taliban has said it won't take part until all foreign troops leave but some bring in karen hawkins she's our white house correspondent kelly and we are waiting for the president to speak any moment now on the troop withdrawal. that's right as we await the president we've had a little bit more of an understanding about the process for this new deadline because of course there was a deadline in place may 1st put in place by his predecessor donald trump but now u.s. president joe biden moving that deadline to the anniversary of the september 11th attacks on the twin towers in new york as well as the pentagon now what we know

from the white house press secretary is that some of the reasoning for this is because the president now believes the threat to u.s. national security has changed that it has metastasized she said no longer is it concentrated in afghanistan but now in places like somalia where al shabaab is at work also a nurse for in syria and al qaeda in the arabian peninsula now the u.s. president making the decision to withdraw the roughly 2500 soldiers that remain in afghanistan after close consultation with security experts the president asked for a review he asked for that review not to be sugarcoated he wanted to hear different points of views he welcomes debate and ultimately he made the decision that because the terrorist threat has evolved because we have done exactly what we said we would do when we went to afghanistan to deliver justice to those who attacked us on

september 11th because he believes that the more that if that more time does not does it would not result in a military solution that now is the time to leave. now the u.s. commander in chief making this decision in close consultation with u.s. allies that includes the european union nato and also the united nations we also know that he has been in discussions with at least 15 members of the united states congress now what is not clear in all of this and we are waiting to hear more from the president is what kind of a footprint will remain in afghanistan the white house press secretary dodging questions about the number of clandestine forces all only to say that there will be a diplomatic footprint that will remain in afghanistan and also that if there are is a resurgence of the taliban that they will confront that threat if in is necessary but what she did say is clear is that the u.s. president has made a decision that the open ended timeline for u.s.

military in afghanistan has come to an end ok you can really will speak to that when the president speaks thanks so much. here is particle hain she has more from the pentagon it's been long believed that u.s. military leadership urging president joe biden to keep at least a small contingent of troops in afghanistan specifically to be able to have counterterrorism operations there's a big concern in this building about just how well and how long afghan forces will be able to continue their current level of readiness but yet the commander in chief has given the or giving them the order they have to be out of afghanistan by september 1st that's just under 5 months from now there are only $3500.00 u.s. troops there so far they're not giving very many if any details here in this building about just what that drawdown will look like but we do expect we'll get more details in the weeks and months ahead.

it's day 13 of the trial of the former minneapolis police officer derek cho ven chauvinistic use of murdering george floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than 9 minutes in a case that triggered world wide protest amending racial justice the defense argues floyd died from heart problems and a drug overdose a pathologist is among the witnesses taking the stand attorneys are expected to wrap up before the end of the week. and in a minneapolis suburb the officer who shot and killed an unarmed black man on sunday has been arrested can potter has been charged with 2nd degree manslaughter she is well as the brooklyn center police chief had resigned on tuesday and video captured on body cameras show kim potter using her gun instead of her taser when trying to arrest dante right at a traffic stop there been protests for 3 nights in a row of demonstrators ignoring a curfew to demand an end to racial injustice chabris hansie is following the story from minneapolis so potter being charged with 2nd degree manslaughter tell us more

about that. one second to. the minnesota the relevant minnesota statute is when someone creates an unreasonable risk and consciously takes charge and says of causing death or great bodily harm to another the maximum sentence is not more than 10 years or a flight of not more than $20000.00 it's unclear whether this will be the only charge leveled against paula to clear the investigations at the stage but it is the 1st child that has been leveled against ben crump who is representing the family of dante right released this statement well we appreciate that the district attorney and. justice for them say no conviction can give the right family their loved one back this was no accident this was an intentional deliberate. use of force ben crump they're referring to the opinion polls his former boss the chief of police

of brooklyn center who is now resigned who said as far as he was going to the video proved that this was a mistake that part of it meant to use had taser and instead reach for. the child's rights dead that has already been treated with a great deal of incredulity by the family of dante right. and she had the trial the jury trial in recess right now for lunch just talk us through what we've seen. on day 13 and what we expect to see the rest of the day while the defense it is the defense's case today is that. yeah you know it's interesting when you came to me you said that we expected the the defense to be that floyd died because of his drug problems because of his preexisting health conditions what was interesting was when the defense secretary produced their forensic pathologist he didn't say about that was the cause of floyd's death he said floyd's death is

undetermined and remember all the defense has to do is raise reasonable doubts in the mind of at least one juror that it may not have been. kneeling george floyd for 9 and a half minutes because floyd's death it could have been something else with it up to prove it so we have this this pathologist saying well you know one of the preexisting conditions the drug use the blood pressure the heart disease that was also you at all about carbon monoxide the potential for floyd having inhaled carbon monoxide from the tailpipe of the police car nearby where he was being pinned down so he said look it could it could be any of these these factors and in the end that that could be the result and that's all that they have to do is get out in a jurist mindset that was the case we're looking forward to the cross-examination now by the prosecution this afternoon what's really interesting about this but all interest of the defense are produced is he himself is the subject of a lawsuit he's currently being sued by the family

a 19 year old black man who died after being smothered by several police officers in maryland. as the chief medical examiner of maryland he said well that had nothing to do with that you know that wasn't the cause it's interesting we're not quite sure yet whether that will be introduced as evidence us the credibility of this witness because that lawsuit is ongoing but yet another fascinating wrinkle in this case yeah another trust answer and because she had thanks so much for the time being. let's listen to ted sample jones is a professor of law at the mitchell hamline school of law he's joining us from minneapolis thanks so much for speaking to us on al jazeera so you just heard shihab our reporter talk us through the defense's strategy and they seem to be shifting the focus the jurors focus to floyd's use of drugs and also his underlying health conditions and saying well vats may have been the cause of death what do you make of that strategy. i think it's their only hope it's the best strategy got is to really focus on cause of death and it is the probably the weakest element in the

prosecution's case so you see the defense today really for the 1st time having a chance to put on its own evidence its own expert showing trying to poke holes trying to raise some doubt about what actually killed mr floyd what else has stood out for you in the way the defense is making their case. i think the defense tried over the last couple days to make some case that the use of force was reasonable that it use of force expert on yesterday but i really think that fell flat the prosecution's case there's just too strong so i think at the end of the day the defense's only hope is to really focus on this cause of death issue and they're experts at a is doing a better job although as your correspondent said it's not been cross-examined yet yes so what do you expect to happen or what are you looking out for when the prosecution cross-examines this witness and then later today. i think they will again do what they've done previously as they will show the video of shoguns neons lloyd's neck and say how can you say that had nothing to do with this how can you

possibly say that was not the ultimate cause of death and yesterday we saw one of the witnesses who has a use of force expert he tests testified that chauvin was justified when he knelt on george floyd's nick was that damaging at all to the prosecution. i don't think it was 1st of all the prosecution's called several use of force experts who are very strong and very convincing at the defense's use of force expert was much weaker and he did not hold up very well in cross-examination i think the prosecution's crossed of him yesterday it was devastating and just a final question for you final thoughts if we may and i don't mean to put you on the spot here at all but we now know that kim potter. she's been charged with 2nd degree manslaughter over the killing of an unarmed black man on sunday what's your reaction to that and what do you think are going what will be the repercussions of this on the city in minneapolis that there are children trial takes place. it's

a very hard time for all of us here you know i do think that show a little of that being convicted but then you still have the other 3 officers who were involved in floyd's death hoole to go to trial this summer and then now you have kim potter and those are going to be much tougher cases to prove the case against show it is very strong the case against these other officers it's different circumstances with potter and different levels of conduct for the other 3 officers in floyd's case those are really much tougher cases so we've got a long road ahead of us still yeah all right sounds like it thank you so much ted sample johns for us he came to us from minneapolis thank you. hunter morehead on the al-jazeera news hour including this a long road to recovery bleak for cost for those living in the shadow of a caribbean volcano that continues to erupt. we'll take you to india now where the health care system is really struggling to

deal with a dramatic rise in coronavirus cases there were more than 180000 new infections and a 1000 deaths on tuesday well tough new restrictions are coming into effect in the worst hit state. are india correspondent elizabeth purana reports from new delhi. a long line of ambulances outside a hospital and the state of inside a patients struggling to breathe and waiting for a bed to become available. is one of many states but the hospitals are overcrowded and they don't have enough equipment or health care workers to deal with the current caseload. the ambulances bring in to patients who are on oxygen supply some of them are critical and they are admitted forced as soon as the beds with ventilators are available the patients who are on oxygen supplies to the venturi masks are given that in 108 ambulances. as patients wait for beds the families of the dead mourn for their loved ones nowhere is the situation as bad as in the state

of maharashtra where migrant workers crowded bus and train terminals after more restrictions were announced the closing down of all but essential services has seen many daily wage earners lose their jobs they want to travel to their home states afraid the government might shut down public transport as it did last year. but it's the common man who suffers the most i have come here from the pradesh i have no ration card or any of the local documents only those who are local and have a russian card will get groceries outsiders don't get anything at all hobble migrant workers feed themselves that's why they're leaving for their villages. state's leader has said he had no choice but to impose the restrictions with this disease is spreading at the very heart of fine bass i see how defying the cost reduced number of cases in the state is the highest so far. is 125000000

people will only be allowed to go out to work and shop supplies and food and groceries and medicines until the end of april as and when this is the world's biggest surge in cases the health ministry says it will foster track and merge and see approvals for the pfizer and johnson and johnson vaccines that's amid continuing reports of that same shortages in the country which produces 60 percent of all the vaccines in the world elizabeth al-jazeera new delhi. south africa a local study on the johnson and johnson covered $1000.00 vaccine showed no major safety concerns and yet it has decided to suspend its use over issues raised in the us that it could be linked to blood clots the single dose vaccine was the only one being administered but it does have other doses on order from pfizer. she says the pause is adding to worries about getting south africans inoculated. so that's

because health minister as william kizzy has said that the country can't ignore what the f.d.a. has decided with regard to the suspension of the use of the johnson and johnson vaccine the health minister the government as well as experts have also said that the doesn't appear to be a course all relationship between the vaccine and blood clots and that it has an identified any specific safety concerns but at the same time the south african health products authority has recommended that the implementation study that south africa is in the in the middle of using that johnson and johnson vaccine to vaccinate $290000.00 out workers so far that study should be paused so that the data can be reviewed the health minister has said he expects this to be resolved in a couple of days and he's confident that south africa can continue to use johnson and johnson to vaccinate at least to continue or broaden

a vaccination program that so far is focused on health workers the concern for many south africans though is that the rollout has been slower than expected primarily focusing on an implementation study and also that south africa hasn't received vaccines that have led to the slow rollout and also in this particular case is now committed financially to both johnson and johnson and pfizer and the government should anything go wrong with either vaccine that south africa can't be refunded. reese is a member of south africa's ministerial advisory committee on covert 1000 she says the pause as a matter of precaution. in the south african setting where we live in this 300000 doses we haven't seen this rare condition but because this has been seen in the united states and they're evaluating it now it was thought wise that we just put

a temporary hold while the u.s. has more investigation we don't know globally nobody can say at the moment whether this is what's called causal i.e. is it the vaccine that's causing this rare condition or is it other factors that pertain to the individual that might have contributed to this condition such as smoking for example now we're going to be rolling it up to millions of people and if you see a rare side effect it might be real it might be associated with vaccine but it might just be that once you're all things up to billions of people such conditions will occur that's life and that's nature and that's people's health so you need to be able to differentiate whether this is just a coincidence and not causal or whether it really is associated with the vaccine so so that's what's being looked at at the moment but i think that what the f.d.a. has said is that they're being ultra cautious i think many regulators i'm i'm i

chair the regulator that richie here in south africa as well we're being very cautious about safety signals and evaluating them that's good news that's reassuring for the public on the other hand as you say is confusing for the public because they say go go go no go that is computing we need to be able to be a short one. so korea has reported its highest daily rise in cases of covert 1000 since january more than 700 over the past day health experts are warning a 4th wave is looming as clusters spread from greater seoul to more than a dozen regions and cities this despite strict social distancing rules the government has been criticized for a slow vaccine rollouts wrote mcbride has more from still. it's just seem to be a troubling trend that is happening literally across south korea and it is being blamed in part at least on the weather in the last week or 2 we have seen an awful lot of spring sunshine that has led to

a lot more south koreans travelling which seems then to have resulted in these clusters we have a similar pattern at the end of last year back in last november there was a spell of good weather we had an awful lot of domestic travel which then seemed was being blamed for what became the 3rd wave of infection here in south korea last december so the authorities here are concerned that we could be on the verge now possibly of a 4th wave and it has to be said that we're still talking about relatively small numbers and there is still largely quite good compliance and cooperation everybody here still wears a mask but the authorities here have accepted that there is a level of fatigue after more than a year of this and that we are seeing that translated now into a certain relaxation basically people aren't taking the kinds of precautions that they once did so we're now in a very relatively slow methodical organized rollout of vaccines but we didn't start

vaccinating here in south korea until the end of february when a population of 52000000 only one of a quarter 1000000 people so far have been vaccinated in the authorities here were not expecting to get anywhere near herd immunity before the end of the year which means until then we have a population that is relatively vulnerable to any new waves of infection brazil senate has agreed to launch a congressional inquiry into the government's handling of the pandemic it's the most severe political consequences yet for presidential year both scenarios approach to covert 19 he's repeatedly downplayed its impact on undermined restrictions imposed by state governments virus has killed more than 358000 people in brazil. argentina has reported a record number of new cases more than 27000 but with millions struggling to put food on the table the government is reluctant to impose more restrictions so risible reports from one of cyrus. food is

a human right see this people in the center of what a sight is they gathered in argentina's capital to demand more government help to act as we said it us is poverty rates are on the rice and millions of people are struggling to survive. we understand the way out is with work in the we're in a complex situation but there are resources the government will have to choose whether to continue paying for foreign did it would take care of those people that can barely make ends meet the pandemic poses a major challenge for argentina the government is already assisting over $10000000.00 people with food and cash handouts but the economy has deteriorated rapidly the country is struggling to paid for in debt and still every day around 20000 new infections are confirmed. there is an evening curfew here in the capital and access to public transport is limited but authorities are reluctant to declare

another full lockdown like they did last year fearing the consequences that my come from closing the economy completely but i'm not against there's no social margin to shut down everything there are lots of people that don't eat meat if they don't work the government has fewer tools than they did last year and that's why it's crucial the exploration the vaccination campaign they cannot focus only on restrictions because there is no support and there is need on the street even though argentina has one of the strongest public health care systems in latin america is to to sions and workers here are under stress they're rising factions in the past we have most hospitals in one outsiders or i think in some low place and they're already transferred places to other areas north of hope but i demand that they're all well because i've been waiting for hours to go inside an emergency room and don't you know he's a construction worker and says he rushed to the hospital because he was feeling ill . oh my throat hurts my back hurts i have difficulty breathing i've been waiting

for a while to see a doctor but experts say this is the beginning of a 2nd wave with a long winter ahead and scars resources are evaluating when is the best time to shut down. i just want to cite us. the former financier and convicted fraudster bernie made off has died aged $82.00 in a us federal prison he pleaded guilty in 2009 to orchestrating the largest financial fraud in american history cheating tens of thousands of people out of billions of dollars he was given a 150 year sentence the bureau of prisons made off died of natural causes bill black is a former federal regulator and professor of economics and law at the university of missouri kansas city he says made victims who are often members of his own community. made up lied about everything including the size of this fund so

that you can see the numbers it's largest 50000000000 but that involves completely phony transactions that didn't actually have a party on the other side that was being defrauded so the best guess is somewhere in the range of $17000000000.00 and it wasn't just individuals it was major charities it was major universities in such so. it had a broad impact in particular on the jewish americans because this was a variety of what we call in criminology affinity for aud it's easier to defraud people that you have something in common with because they're more likely to trust you bernie made off with jewish and he mostly target in fact he overwhelmingly targeted jews and indeed he went after jewish charities and incredibly

famous pious jews like any of the cell a nobel prize winner that you know no one if you were jewish could believe that he would seek to defraud those kinds of people and that added of course to his ability to defraud the u.n. and some world leaders do not support the somali president's decision to extend his term in office they say president mohammad that the life armado is undermining the peace process on stability of the country he signed into law a bill allowing him to stay the spite opposition from some members of parliament his mandate had ended in february prompting protests and calls for him to step down catherine soy has this update from neighboring kenya. a lot of somalis are saying that what the president has done is problematic on so many levels so he signed this

motion into the last night but ideally what's supposed to happen according to the law is that once the lower house passes such a motion they have to forward it to the upper house the senate for approval or rejection so that stage has been skipped we also have had from the speaker of the senate of the upper house who said that they would have rejected this motion anyway because it was unconstitutional there's also a lot of reactions from different quarters we've had from a coalition of opposition presidential candidates and some leaders of the federal states particularly jubal land end point land all of them saying that they reject this decision they reject any extension of the presidential term saying that president from joe just wants to clean on to power we've also had from somalia is key donors the e.u. the u.s. and the u.k. all of them speaking on this in the same tone very strongly worded statements

basically saying mr president if you continue with this we are going to rethink how we do business with you it will be business as usual talking about perhaps saget it set targeted sanctions on some individual seeds to be stumbling blocks we're keeping an eye out on the live picture out of washington d.c. that is the white house in fact we're expect the president to come out any moment now and he'll be discussing plans to withdraw american forces from afghanistan by september the 11th so we'll cross to it as soon as we see the president there. let's listen to what president joe biden has to say on afghanistan i'm speaking to day from the roosevelt the treaty room in the white house the same spot where on october of 2001 president george w. bush informed run nation of the united states military had begun strikes on terrorist training camps in afghanistan it was just weeks just weeks after the

terrorist attack on our nation that killed 2977 innocent souls that turn lower manhattan into a disaster area destroyed part of the pentagon and made hallowed ground in a field in shanksville pennsylvania and sparked an american promise that we would never forget went to afghanistan in 2001 to root out al qaeda to prevent future terrorist attacks against the united states planned from afghanistan our objective was clear the cause was just our nato allies and partners rallied beside us and i supported that military action along with the overwhelming majority of the members of congress more than 7 years later in 2008 weeks before we swore the oath of office president obama and i were about to swear

president obama asked me to travel to afghanistan to report back on the state of the war in afghanistan i flew to afghanistan to the coun our valley a rugged mountainous region on the border with pakistan what i saw on that trip reinforced my conviction that only the afghans have the right and responsibility to lead their country and then more and less american military force could not create or sustain a durable afghan government. i believed that our presence in afghanistan should be focused on the reason we went in the 1st place to ensure afghanistan would not be used as a base from which to attack our homeland again we did that we accomplish that objective i said among with others we'd follow some of ben laden of the gates of hell of need be that's exactly what we did and we got him it took us close to

10 years to put president obama commitment of in a form and that's exactly what happened with some of bin laden was gone that was 10 years ago think about that we delivered justice to bin laden a decade ago and we've stayed never again to stand for a decade sense sense then our reasons to remain in afghanistan become increasingly unclear even as the terrorist threat there we went to fight a volved over the past 20 years the threat has become more dispersed metastasizing around the globe el shabaab in somalia al qaida in the arabian peninsula new server in syria isis attempting to create a caleigh fight in syria and iraq and establishing affiliates and multiple countries in africa and asia with the terror threat now in many places keeping

thousands of troops grounded and concentrated in just one country at a cost of billions each year makes little sense to me and to our leaders we cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in afghanistan hoping to create ideal conditions for the drawl and expecting a different result. i'm now the 4th united states president to preside over american troop presence in afghanistan 2 republicans 2 democrats i will not pass this responsibility on to a 5th after consulting closely with our allies and partners with our military leaders and intelligence personnel with our diplomats and our development experts with the congress and the vice president as well as with mr ghani and many others around the world i concluded that is time to end america's longest war it's time

for american troops to come home when i came to office i inherited a diplomatic agreement duly negotiated between the government of the united states and the taliban that all u.s. forces would be out of afghanistan by may 1 2021 just 3 months after my no duration that's what we inherited that commitment is perhaps not what i would have negotiated myself but it was an agreement made by the united states government and that means something so in keeping without agreement and with our national interest the united states who began our final would draw began it on may 1 of this year will not conduct a hasty rush to the exit will do it we'll do it responsibly deliberately and safely and we will do it in full coordination with our allies and partners who now have

more forces in afghanistan and we do and the taliban should know that if they attack us as we drawdown will defend ourselves and our partners of all the tools at our disposal our allies and partners have stood beside a shoulder to shoulder in afghanistan for almost 20 years and we're deeply grateful for the country she is they have made to our shared mission and for the sacrifices they born. the plan has long been in together out together u.s. troops as well as forces deployed by our nato allies and operational partners will be out of ghana stand before we mark the 20th anniversary of that hannis attack on september 11th but but will not take our eye off the terrorist threat will reorganize our counterterrorism capabilities and the substantial assets in the region to prevent reemergence of terrorist threat to our homeland from over the

horizon will hold the taliban accountable for its commitment not to allow any terrorist to threaten the united states or its allies from afghan soil the afghan government has made that commitment to us as well and will focus our full attention on the threat we face today in my direction my team is refining our national strategy to monitor and disrupt significant terrorist threats not only in afghanistan but anywhere they may arise and there in africa europe the middle east and elsewhere i spoke yesterday with president bush to inform him of my decision or he and i have had many disagreements over policy throughout the years were absolutely united in our respect and support for the valor courage and integrity of the women and men of the united states armed forces who served i'm immensely

grateful for the bravery and backbone that they have shown through nearly 2 decades of combat deployments we as a nation are forever indebted to them and of their families you all know the less than one percent of american serving our forces remain the 99 percent and we owe them we owe them they've never backed down from a single mission that we've asked of them i've witnessed their bravery firsthand during my visits to afghanistan they've never wavered in the resolve. they paid a tremendous price on our behalf and they have the thanks of a grateful nation will not stand vall that ghana stand militarily our diplomatic humanitarian work will continue we'll continue to support the government of afghanistan we will keep providing assistance to the afghan national the fences and security forces and along with our partners we have trained and equipped

a standing force of over 300000 afghan personnel today and hundreds of thousands over the past 2 decades and they'll continue to fight valiantly on behalf of the afghans at great cost the support peace talks as we will support peace talks between the government afghanistan and taliban facilitated by the united nations and will continue to support the rights of afghan women and girls by maintaining significant humanitarian and development assistance and we'll ask other countries other countries in the region to do more to support afghanistan especially pakistan as well as russia china india and turkey they all have a significant stake in a stable future for afghanistan and over the next few months will also determine what a continued u.s. diplomatic presence in afghanistan will look like included how will ensure the

security of our diplomats and look i know there are many who allowed lee insists that the plan was he cannot succeed without a robust u.s. military presence to stand as leverage we gave that argument a decade. it's never proved effective. not only had 98000 troops in afghanistan and not we're going down to a few 1000 our diplomacy does not hinge on having boots in harm's way u.s. boots on the ground we have to change that i think. american troops should be used as a bargaining chip between maureen parties in other countries you know as nothing more than a recipe for keeping american troops in afghanistan and definitely i also know there are many who argue that we should stay stay fighting in afghanistan because withdrawal would damage america's credibility and weaken america's influence in the world i believe the exact opposite is true we went to afghanistan because

of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago that cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021 rather than return to war the taleban we have to focus on the challenges that are in front of us we have to track and destruct terrorist networks and operations that spread far beyond egg afghanistan since $911.00 that's a sharp american competitiveness to meet the stiff competition are facing from an increasingly assertive china have to strengthen our alliances and work with like minded partners to ensure the rules of international norms that govern cyber threats and emerging technologies that will shape our future are grounded in our democratic values values not those of the autocrats we have to defeat this pandemic and strengthen the global health system for prayer for the next one because there will be another pandemic you know will be much more formidable through our

adversaries and competitors over the long term if we fight the battles for the next 20 years not the last 20 and finally the main argument for staying longer as what each of my 3 predecessors have grappled with no one wants to say that we should be in afghanistan forever i think insist now is not the right moment to leave and 2040. nato issued a declaration affirming that afghan security forces would from that point out have full responsibility for this country's security by the end of that year i was 7 years ago. so when will it be you know the right moment to leave one more year 2 more years 10 more years 102030000000000 dollars more in a bunch of the truly we've already spent not now as how we got

here and this moment there's a significant downside risk to say maybe on may 1st without a clear timetable for departure if we instead pursue the approach where america u.s. exit is tied to conditions on the ground we have to have clear answers to the following questions just what conditions require to be required to allow us to depart by what means and how long would it take to achieve them if they could be achieved at all and at what additional cost should trade i'm not heard any good answers to these questions and if you can answer them in my view we should not stay the fact is that later today i'm going to visit arlington national cemetery section 60 and that sacred memorial to american sacrifice 6 insisted section 60

is where our recent war dead are buried including many of the women and men who died fighting in afghanistan and iraq there's no there's no comforting distance in history in section 60 the grief is raw it's a visceral reminder of the living cost of war for the past 12 years ever since i became vice president i've carried with me a card that reminds me of the exact number american troops killed in iraq and afghanistan. that exact number not an approximation around off number because every one of those dead are sacred human beings who left behind entire families and exact a county of every single solitary one needs to be had as of the day today there are 245-2488

u.s. troops in person now who have died in operation enduring freedom and operation freedom's sentinel our afghanistan conflicts 20722 have been wounded. i'm the 1st president 40 years i know that amazed to have a child serving in a war zone and throughout this process my northstar has been remembered what it was like when my late son beau was deployed to iraq how proud he was the service country how insisted he was to the player of his unit and the impact it had on him and all of us at home and already have service members during the dirty in afghanistan today whose parents served in the same war we have service members who are not yet born when our nation was attacked on 911 war in afghanistan

was never meant to be a multi-generational undertake we were attacked we went to war with clear goals we achieve those objectives and ladan is dead and al qaeda is degraded in iraq and afghanistan and it's time to end the forever war thank you all for most need may god protect our troops may god bless all those families who lost someone to this endeavor. president joe biden speaking from the treaty room at the white house saying it's time to end america's longest war it's time for america's troops to come home he of course is talking about afghanistan biden saying that all u.s. troops will be out of gonna stand by $911.00 there were draw will begin on may the 1st and will be completed before september 11th also the president saying that will be done in full coordination with the allies and partners in afghanistan let's

bring in our white house correspondent kimberly halkett listening in and he also did say kimberly that he does not want to pass the responsibility of the afghan war to a 5th president. that's right and the u.s. president since he took office has been reviewing the policy in light of that recognition he is the 4th commander in chief to preside over this war and as a result when he asked the questions about why and what conditions ultimately would allow for u.s. soldiers to leave he says he didn't hear any good answers on why the united states should stay so as a result he has made this decision and you heard it from him there he is honoring the grima put in place by his predecessor to begin the departure of u.s. troops on may 1st with the completion of that withdrawal to be done by the 20th anniversary of the attacks on the twin towers in new york and the pentagon that

ultimately spurned the invasion by the united states in the 1st place to attack those training camps where the attack on the united states is was initially planned so we know that as you mentioned this is been done in close consultation with partners and allies we also know that the afghan president was consulted as well as the congressional leaders in order to come to this decision but what was really notable from all of this was the emotion that was in the president's voice as he discussed this particularly when he talked about the sacrifices the families have made while his own son who has is now deceased served in a different conflict in iraq you can tell that he was speaking with emotion and understanding what the cost has been the human cost has been to so many americans and why they now want to see this war come to an end it's not just the dollar figure some true trillion dollars but you heard the president talking there about

the more than $20000.00 that have been injured the more than 2300 that have been killed in afghanistan and that's why he is now headed to arlington now. cemetery will hear will honor those war dead as he now as the commander in chief has made the decision to withdraw u.s. troops and kimberly interesting lee he spoke about all of this leave the withdrawal of military personnel from a gun a stun but he also did say the diplomatic and humanitarian work will continue but not giving much detail on what exactly that means. and the white house press secretary did the same and i think it has something to do with the fact that there are a large number of clandestine service members that are working in the region and those numbers are never given to the media or to the public or made public and then you also have to remember really from almost the beginning the united states has

had a very large contractor presence there in other words sort of paramilitary forces that are not part of the traditional military and so as a result it makes things a little bit unclear those numbers have also at times been very difficult to decipher what we do know is that there will be a different mattick presence there is a belief that there is a need for that to continue because there is still much work to be done you heard there from the president he says that the the united states will continue to support the afghan government as it works on bringing about peace with the taliban but they recognize that there are some challenges but they believe that this can be done in the coalition of the partners and allies and that they can do this with a diplomatic footprint not a military one. ok can really thank you so much for that update from the white house let's take the song of mark perry who is joining us from washington d.c. as well he's a senior analyst at the quincy institute for responsible statecraft that's

a think tank working on new foreign policy via diplomatic engagements and military restraint thanks for speaking to us what's your reaction to what the president had to say. well i think his message to the american peoples your emotional is your white house correspondent. and it's going to be very welcome when the american people are growing tired of this war they want to go out speaking with retired military officers to those still serving this is going to be this is going to be very welcome if not if not over do this could have been done 10 years ago and should have been done 10 years ago i thought it was an excellent statement and very convincing here's the thing though the secretary of state earlier on said that we have achieved the goals that we set out to achieve but some people would say you know that's a statement that raises many questions because what goals have been achieved in afghanistan and especially when the president from when a front from one biden was vice president back and trying to 16th well the initial

goal in 2002 was to put al qaeda on the run don't don't like the taliban from from power in kabul and we did that. in a military officer i was i was speaking with this morning said you know we could have gotten in the spring of 2002 and we should have but in the spring of 2002 we changed the goalposts we changed the goal and we changed the goals that we had as a country we're going to build a new afghanistan we're going to build an afghan structure a new educational system we were going to do nation building and that was a mistake it's not something that the united states is particularly good at and we put it in the hands of the military to do it here we are 20 years later it just hasn't worked right and where do the things that go with the peace talks between the taliban and afghan governments currently stalled and the taliban saying they

won't have any peace talks until all foreign troops leave. well it's going to be a difficult process but i didn't ministration who's dedicated so it's a process that there is going to be a lot of pressure on the taliban to come back to the table is that every refused to do for the last 2 weeks and to talk to no students directly into figure out what the future of afghanistan is it's not it's not going to be easy and it probably will not be without violence but the afghan people are now going to be responsible to their own security again afghan government is going to be responsible for its own people security and that's the way it should be and should have been at least 10 years ago the intelligence community 2000 seem to think so in the u.s. because a new intelligence report just out on tuesday offered really a grim assessment of i'm gonna stand on the prospects for peace saying this that the afghan government will struggle to hold the taliban at bay if the coalition withdraw support and now of course we know that the coalition and nato allies will

also wind down their mission following the u.s. is the says and so do you agree with that assessment from the intelligence community are you concerned by the statements and by the assessment. you know i read the intelligence assessment. by the ministration took the intelligence assessment into account when it made this decision it still believes that despite the obstacles that we're facing the lobbyists leave there are they're not going to be easy to overcome but despite these obstacles having 2500 or 3500 american troops in afghanistan is not going to change that equation what's going to change that equation is the afghan people in the afghan government so this is their country it's their future we can help them we will help them but we're not going to carry the burden of the conflict well anymore they're the ones going to have to do it if after 10 years in a trillion dollars in building the afghan security forces doesn't work and we have

the best trainers in the world then it's not ever going to work that's going to be a difficult future yeah but it's now in the hands of the afghan people and just one final question for you what do you make of what the president had to say when he said diplomatic and humanitarian work will continue but again not offering much detail on that what are we to read into that statement but i don't think that we're going to see the bottom line funding go well back in programs that we're going to please change and they may actually be increasing and i think that we're going to see more diplomatic activity involving turkey and pakistan and afghanistan as neighbors and this is already begun and the pressure is going to be on to florida diplomatic instead of military solutions that's the way it should be mark perry thank you so much for giving us your thoughts on al-jazeera my pleasure now ukraine's defense minister has warned that russia is preparing to store nuclear

weapons in crimea. speaking of how to find emergency nato meeting which will discuss russia's increased military activity along ukraine's border as bernard smith has the latest from moscow. russia's defense minister says 2 armies and 3 born units have been successfully deployed to the western borders of russia those are the borders with ukraine he says there are military exercises and those exercises will continue for another 2 weeks if there ever was any real threat of some sort of russian incursion into ukraine that has been significantly diminished by the phone call made on tuesday night from joe biden to vladimir putin in which president biden offered president putin to meet at a summit meeting later rome in the year but is being viewed here in moscow as washington blinking 1st in the standoff over the ukraine it's called a very important step according to the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of

the upper house of russia's parliament and the kremlin spokesman says the offer of a summit will be studied although vladimir putin has now already called finland's president finland the host of the last summit in $28.00 between russia and the us that was between president donald trump and vitamin puts armenia's prime minister says he will resign later this month to allow for a snap elections nicko passion yun has faced growing calls to step down since armenia was defeated in last year's war with azerbaijan the country lost parts of the disputed on borno karabakh territory which it had controlled for more than 25 years china has described its recent military exercises near taiwan as combat drills as an unofficial u.s. delegation arrived in taipei president joe biden sent a former senator and 2 former deputy secretaries of state to meet the island's leadership the visit comes at a time of tense relations with china just one day off to taiwan launched a new warship to boost its defenses on monday 25 chinese fighter jets on bombers

entered taiwan's airspace and what type a says is the biggest incursion yet. china taiwan affairs office insists the military drills were necessary. the military drills have sent out the signal that china's efforts to contain the forces pushing for taiwan's independence and the collaboration between taiwan and the us are not just word of mouth no matter what efforts to contain china by using taiwan as its pawn are doomed to fail in the face of the staunch determination and the strong capabilities of the 1400000000 chinese people willing to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity south korea's president wants the international tribunal for their law the scene to examine japan's decision to release water from its focus nuclear plant it plans to dump a 1000000 tons of contaminated water into the sea from the facility which was

damaged in an earthquake and tsunami 10 years ago. thanks for watching the news hour on al-jazeera barbara starr as well here in just a moment but much more of the day's news but by for now. when the cold 19 pandemic hit iran. a filmmaker cut the drift from his crew began documenting life from the lock down a move on growing international sanctions. an intimate portrayal of isolation in one of the world's least understood countries

coronavirus locked down iran people in power on a. talk to al jazeera. you tell me what the government you represent is now illegitimate and we listen we do not sell the fence material any country. conflict and yet we meet with the global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on al-jazeera the castors alleged to distribute communist party since the 1959 revolution and its power is handed over to miguel diaz kind of we look at the situation in the country today is the end of the name but continuation of the legacy all of the beginning of real change in cuba special coverage has rolled castro steps down on al-jazeera joint africa's largest trade and investment and rwanda and to african trade gives me access to more than 1100 exhibitors 10000 visitors and bias and more than 5000 conference delegates from more than 55

countries participate in trade and investment deals with 40000000000. as business and government come together to explore business and networking opportunities at the international exhibition brought to you by the african export import bank and their premium partners the only a.t.f. 2021 transforming africa. it's time for american troops to come home president biden says it's time to end the americas for ever war but promises it will not be a hasty exit from afghanistan this is the u.n. says nearly 1800 afghan civilians were killed or injured in just the 1st 3 months of this year. alone barbara starr you're watching al-jazeera lie.