who will decide who is eligible to run in these elections that we held on june 18th the candidates will have to meet a number of criteria including they have to be between the ages of 40 and 75 and they have to be rainy and nationals and of the country's majority religion the candidates we've seen so far come forth have also been the former defense minister as well as former president mahmoud ahmadinejad all in the hopes of trying to be to stand in this election the 2 most high profile candidates that we've seen so far is you see who has been within the country's branches of government since he was at the age of 20 he was a prosecutor he was appointed in 2017 after he was defeated in the presidential elections by current president hassan rouhani by the supreme leader to the head of digit to sherry now if he is approved which we believe he most likely will be he

will have to resign from that position to run in the presidential election. so this is a desert let's have a recap of what's happening on this busy news day israel's i'm going services one person has done it one person has been badly wounded in tel aviv after 30 rockets were fired from gaza one of them fell into the middle of a street nearby buildings were damaged by the shrapnel. protests are underway in the palestinian territories as israel continues to bombard gaza from the the ground the crowds have gathered in the occupied west bank where the past and present injustices has been building and abraham has more now from upriver in the occupied west bank. palestinians have been telling us over the past days that they are protesting because they believe that the neck is still ongoing it's not just an

incident that happened 73 years ago but that all of what happened over most of what happened in 1948 is still ongoing now when it comes to live under occupation the lab grabs expansion of illegal israeli settlements the settler attacks that are intensifying against palestinians the house evictions. a funeral to be held for 2 palestinian women and 8 children killed in an israeli strike early on saturday morning their home in the refugee camp was hit. and israel of gaza from the the ground has continued through the morning 140 palestinians have now been killed since the offensive began on monday all right york state's all the headlines how it will be here with more right after the bottom line .

hi i'm steve clemons and i have some questions is joe biden's plan to lift patent protections for corona virus vaccines really such a great idea and will it really get vaccines to billions of people around the world pronto let's get to the bottom line. when he was running for president last year joe biden promised to waive intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines then last week he actually threw his support behind an effort at the world trade organization to make it happen touching off a political firestorm at home for supporters of the idea it shows that washington understands the pandemic doesn't respect borders that the developing world needs help and that

a crisis this great demands big efforts like waving ip to solve it for the critics they're wondering why biden would pull the rug out from beneath the innovator's of miracle vaccines produced in an amazingly short period of time they say this decision won't help people get vaccines more quickly and that there are lots of ways to globally produce distribute and deploy vaccines to the rest of the world without giving away intellectual property protections and to american trade protectionists it's blasphemy to give western secrets to medical producers in india china and russia of course it's not a done deal and many rich countries like germany opposed by inside so in the end is it just a symbolic move and what will the consequences be today we're getting 2 distinct perspectives on the debate in the 2nd half of the show we're going to be joined by the chief u.s. correspondent of the financial times at lewes but 1st we're talking to dr michelle mcmurray heath the president and c.e.o. of the world's biggest biotech lobby known as bio the biotechnology innovation organization before that dr murray heath was a top executive at. johnson and johnson michel it's great to be with you today look

i think a lot of people are feeling pain and frustration as they see so many in india and around the world suffer with the ravages of kovac and in their minds big pharma firms which they see as making lots and lots of money are sitting on property rights that if they were extended could help relieve that pain and suffering and death around the world tell me how you feel about that equation. well let's start with the end goal everyone shares the goal of making sure we get as many code vaccines out to every corner of the world to every person who needs them as soon as possible we are in a race against kobe variants and so it's incredibly important not only that everyone get backs unaided but that we do it very very quickly know when to say until we are all safe this is uniformly shared amongst our companies and i think amongst public health professionals around the globe where we differ as is 2 of the

fastest way to actually get that done and what stands in the way right now between shops and more arms is not intellectual property many of our companies have licensed their technology to manufacturers around the globe i was recently in a conversation with the head of the vaccine manufacturing association in india and he was saying what we need is not more access to ip we have lots of the top leading back seen any factures licensed their technology to indian manufacturers but we can't get our hands on the raw materials because a well meaning steps like the defense protection act which is really stopped a lot of the raw materials needed to manufacture vaccines at the u.s. border preventing them from being exported out to others and the fact that the u.s. has been really demanding that the manufacturers reserve their supplies from the u.s. population 1st these are well meaning policies you can understand the incentives behind them and the logic behind them but now that we're facing

a global crisis it's more important for us to share and that's actually why the biotechnology innovation organization has put together a group of proposals that would get us to the destination that we actually call share to really make sure we're sharing the raw materials as well as the backseats to everyone who needs them i want to hear more about that in just a moment but i but i would like to play a clip from dr titus gabriel the director general the world health organization who's commented on this i want to ask you about you know the ecosystem that has led to the generation of these vaccines and why he has the perspective he does let's listen to dr gary s's. we are on you not unprecedented crises that requires unprecedented action cases on a record high almost 100000 people out of dying globally each week and we have

a chronic buxom crisis the world trade organization provisions food ip we've designed precisely for a situation like this so michele i know that the w.h.o. director general understands that we've been through this period where there's been essentially a miraculous set of vaccine options that have been developed in you know very very short period of time and that we're not through this tunnel what do you think is going on here what why you suggested share others have suggested a global marshall plan that would deploy this that that wouldn't touch intellectual property why are we looking at the intellectual property as the conveyor of vaccines as he describes it that you know some people argue could undermine that innovative ecosystem that's created all these options. well let's start with this premise that this these are unprecedented times that call for unprecedented action

and that's exactly what you see from the manufacturers and the invaders you know in the 1st 13 months of this pandemic our company started over 960 research and development programs targeted at trying to you know prevent coded or stop code that we've seen the emergence of their picks and vaccines we talk a lot about the top 10 that are either not been approved or close to being approved but there are actually over 190 back scenes in development that kind of we're best response to any public health emergency is exactly what we want to see and we don't want to do anything to undermine that response by shaking confidence and the ip system that has served us so well this is we need to make sure that we are handling this pandemic without undermining our ability to respond to the next pandemic because we never know when that will come so there's that 2nd i understand his frustration because he's been trying to stimulate global leaders to take part in

kovacs which is a w.h.o. supported effort to universally of around the globe who resources from from wealthier countries use those resources resources to purchase back scenes at very low cost and then distribute them around the globe so that the poorest countries would receive kobe back scenes for free and yet what what he see is a lack of response our company our countries have not stepped up to the plate the biden administration took a huge step but i reversed in the previous administration's stance and actually pledging to participate in kovacs the u.s. had been absent from the table up to then and yet we've only paid half of our financial commitment to kovacs so we only pay $2.00 of the 4 $1000000000.00 the u.s. has pledged to help perch. so we really need to really take part in our global commitment we need to step up to the table and help all of the countries that are

in a position to help distribute vaccines around the globe and i think look at the doing . and saying ok if this is something that you care about that this is something that's important then you've left us no choice but to talk about it because we're trying to bring everyone to the table and thus far we failed so maybe it's a negotiating tactic on his part look i know that your background that you have worked in research labs you work at one of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the world johnson and johnson a lot of people listening to this show we're going to know astra zeneca johnson and johnson pfizer and these are the big firms and they see and feel that these firms are making you know lots of money in the middle of this crisis and that there's something that doesn't feel right about that one of the reason i want to talk to you is that i know that bio is comprised of small firms that are not receiving government money that are making investments in bets around that i'd love to get your perspective and tell that story because i think it's been neglected in the

discussion about property rights and why would they do what they're doing if they didn't have you know a property right element in moving their assets and you know their intellectual assets to try to solve this crisis. all right so let's talk about 1st of all what some of the largest companies have done you know johnson and johnson has publicly pledged that they will sell their vaccine at cost but if there has pledged that they will sell their exene at not for profit rates so you have the largest companies in our ecosystem really stepping forward and saying if you are we have the capacity to help we will but the small companies are the life blood of our innovation even foster has has partnered with a very small company bio intact to produce their back scene and we have companies like madonna who are incredibly small before this pandemic started those 960 research projects i talked about 90 percent of them 90 percent of our global response to cohabit has come from our smallest biotechnology companies but

a 50 percent of those companies are u.s. based because the u.s. has the investment ecosystem to drive that kind of response more covert research has been done in the u.s. and then in the rest of the world combined because of our robust ecosystem that helps match innovators to investors and that's precisely because we have the ability to say you know the carrot for all of these efforts is the opportunity to purchase ants make your money back even though $9.00 out of 10 research and development programs in biotechnology fail so the odds are against you but at this point we're saying the deck is stacked against you if we also take ip out of the equation what happens in your view if a coven 20 comes down the pike cove a 20 meaning the successor coronavirus. pathogen that might might come along down the pike if something like an intellectual property wave wavers. protocol gets

established. well we can almost turn the clock back and imagine what it would have looked like you know when we started those 190 covert bechstein projects there was absolutely no way to predict which of them would be successful in fact some of the front runners that we hoped would work actually did not pan out to be successful and so we need to have a huge set of bet pay placed in in if we have any hope of trying to combat a pandemic so when the next one comes i don't want the investors that made those 190 seem research and development programs possible to say you know actually i don't want to take that i don't think it's worth my investment it's not just about the scientists being committed to trying to find solutions it's not just about our companies being committed to the science into innovation it's also about the

confidence of investors and so we need to maintain a company and we want to have the ability to respond further down the line we've run this nash this natural experiment already europe has really roaded their biotechnology ecosystem over the last 30 or 40 years and we've seen that they have not been able to generate as much response to code as the u.s. companies so why are we going to repeat that mistake and so i mean i ask you to take your you know professional medical professional hat off for a minute and talk as a politician you know a global politician and gauge and for there's my next guest at a loose when this announcement of a tweeted out something very impressive he said you know this is going to be great for america's brand in the world this sends a signal that america is back that it's reengaged and after years of seeing that brand sink into a kind of narcissistic. position you know with with a lot of disregard that's why i've added

a lot of words the street there but his point is it is sent to signal about american concern for the rest of the world like nothing. else can do i'd like to hear your thoughts about that just very briefly and is there an alternative where america could send as equally a powerful message to the world that it really cares for the world and still kind of ride this interesting question about what to do with property rights. if america was truly back and america truly expressed their caring for the world we would be fully funding kovacs we would be leading and calling on other countries to fully fund kovacs we would be donating what is estimated to be an excess of 300000000 vaccines doses that we will have sitting around in excess in a few weeks to countries around the globe and we would be opening up our raw materials to make sure anyone around the globe who is licensed to produce a coma back scene would have over 200 gradients they need to produce

a single vaccine that is american leadership that is really saying let's solve this problem and as quickly as and as a mission early as possible it does nothing to hand needy countries a recipe book with no ingredients the lack of manpower needed to really fuel and safely produce these vaccines and undermine not only these very fragile will supply chains for all of these $200.00 raw materials but then also to put the accountability and drop rate back in their laps and say here go take the 6 to 12 months it takes to stand up your own backseat manufacturing facility go find the raw materials that barely exist and good luck make it on your own we need to do more than that we are such a leading light in the world and we need to expect more of ourselves and we need to actively help or dr michelle mcmurry he's president and c.e.o.

of the biotechnology innovation organization thanks so much for sharing your views with us today thank you for having me steve now to get more perspective on the issue of patent waivers for the coronavirus vaccine we're joined by edward luce us national editor and columnist for the financial times based here in washington d.c. once upon a time edward was also the india bureau chief for the financial times as well and we know india is going through a bit of hell at this. moment on this very subject you have been positive about president biden's commitment to join those nations that want to waive intellectual property waivers with regards to grant i respect seen particularly with regard to helping india and other developing nations that are real trouble do you think this is the solution. no no no single act the biden administration or its western partners takes is going to be the solution in and of itself but i think this is part of the solution which we can get into in a moment i do think it's a very important. politically symbolic and geopolitically symbolic gesture from the

biden administration to the world to expect american leadership on this it is extremely rare if ever that you see an american president take on big pharma it just doesn't happen this isn't something that you get up in the morning as president think that's easy i'll do that it just doesn't happen so the fact that i think he's been prepared to take on big pharma and do something that they don't want is going to be noticed and does send a very important signal of the seriousness of his intent right you up he wanted that intent and it does seem time and if fascinating article in the financial times this week you swatted him as well the president for not coordinating better with our european allies on this so what are you trying to hit and criticize on that element well the announcement last week was followed very quickly by

irritation from i'm going to merkel from my manual my craw and from the european commission in brussels and i think what this indicated is not just that they have a more conventional stance on ip protection which going to market in particular. but that they haven't been consultation with america's allies in europe on this the been a huge internal debate on this you mentioned in your introduction. biden promised in the campaign to wave. on these vaccines so this shouldn't be a surprise but the devil is always going to be in the details and this is a global act this isn't just an autonomous american act it has to be. approved by consensus that the world trade organization which means that america's partners france britain germany the swiss a big pharma producer are going to need to be on side so i think there was a little bit of. there was probably a little bit of. absence of diplomacy and ground preparation by the biden

administration you know there's been a lot of focus on big pharma just as you just shared there's also little farm as we just heard from dr mcmurray heath that the biotechnology innovation organization you know their little firms like grid stone which is involved in some oncology approaches which it has found useful in attacking the coronavirus in various efforts that they're making can be called you know vo which is working on d.n.a. platforms to deal with h.p.v. virus deal with other brain cancer issues of what the kind that beau biden died from also finding a way to attack the coronavirus vaccine across a wide spectrum so when when small companies are hearing that their intellectual property rights may be waived. they may be waved across other efforts that they were making and these aren't government funded companies how do you feel about that dimension because i worry that these little firms are having the rug ripped out from underneath them after years of investment in work to try to develop things

that would help mankind but it's not a you know it's not run by the government these are private firms you know that should be no theological position on intellectual property protection those are things that shouldn't be any you know clearly living in a different universe and those who think it should always be robust and draconian living in a universe most of us don't want to live in so clearly in the real world we're going to have tradeoffs between the incentives to innovate the rewards you get from innovation but also on occasion such as this one and overriding public interest. in waiving property intellectual property protection the details of what biden is proposing are not clear if you look at the original demand from india and south africa that's a very sweeping the licensing they're proposing of not just sort of not just m.r.i. they design it because more traditional vaccine but a much more sweeping across the board of all the equipment ecosystems around them i

don't think biden is proposing that and even if he were i don't think that's what would come through a. consensus building process so i think the companies that ought to be most concerned about whether this is going to hit their bottom line probably. and their big suppliers. you know i think that part of the framing of this is that some of those that who advocate waving property rights see this as big companies trying to keep profits while lives are being lost and i think that framing is working for a lot of people in the world why do you think the alternative argument is. as compelling that these companies this ecosystem private public partnerships in really less than a year came up with miraculous vaccines many options in a remarkably short period of time and that's never happened before in history and

so that's the alternative argument that doesn't seem to be selling as much as the other side of it and it's a good argument i would quibble with some of the details of it the miraculous this is built on a lot of public research as well as private sector innovation as is so often the case the national institutes of health. within the pentagon oxford university of course the other side of the atlantic many science bodies publicly funded science bodies and universities have been part of this giant effort to develop these vaccines and then of course there was operation was a spate which had very generous contracts just as regardless of whether the vaccines would cost regulatory approval that gave huge commercial confidence for these companies to ramp up then of course liability waivers so you know the idea that this is sort of pharmacies going to quit the genius in his garage just having a light bulb going on in his head and now we're punishing him for being

a genius is not really how this process works there are brilliant people in the private sector there are also brilliant people in the public sector funded by taxpayer money and taxpayers don't tend to claim patents you know at the end i have this famous spike protein that's a key part of the vaccine it gave it to me it didn't pay isn't it so the taxpayer is not getting any dividends from the shareholders of madonna and i i don't think that's balanced by taking a global health emergency and you're one of the best observers are global affairs and america's place in the world that i know and just finally i'm interested this fact that you know as it looks like right now we're going to have a schism. with germany and france in one side maybe the americans and who knows on the other so this you know the deadly t. o. is a consensus based organization so this may fall flat on its face while people continue to die in india and elsewhere around the world what should we do if in fact that

intellectual property waiver effort by joe biden just gets stuck in a log jam what should we put on the table if that will lead to goes nowhere oh i think even if it does go somewhere we've got to put all of the above on the table and i agree with michelle very strongly that the budget ministration should be putting a lot more into kovacs as should the europeans the should be an old. approach to this pandemic that involves taking a lot more seriously globally than we've seen so far and if the by ministration stopped at this the 3b34b it's pledged to kovacs and the pledge to you for the trips waiver for vaccines then this would be empty gesture. diplomacy it's got to be part of a much broader sort of tool kit of emergency measures most of which we've yet to

see so i would agree with strongly on that point well edward luce u.s. national editor for the financial times thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us today thank you it's a pleasure so what is the bottom line it's easy to see the issues of vaccine patents in black and white either you're on the side of the angels and want to give away intellectual property freely for the sake of humankind or you're on the other side this side of the devils and you value cold hard cash over human lives even in the middle of a pandemic that just keeps spreading but like many debates it's really not so simple if washington was interested in equitable vaccine distribution why isn't it doing more to get vaccines to poor countries why not announce today right now a global marshall plan for vaccines and do the play. doctrine in the air lifting in the mass vaccinations to every corner of the earth the world can't wait for a long world trade organization debate on patent protection the only thing we know for sure is that this pandemic with new variants erupting around the world is

testing humanity in scary ways every single day and that's the bottom line. it's time for the perfect gentleman. sponsored by qatar airways where the spring rains are just got particularly violent in the middle of china its correct season lay and it does cause flooding in the yangtze and every now and again rare event of

a tornado this is tornado damage in rouhani you may have seen video of it on the news it's not a particularly common event but it might be repeated as the the orange indicates the heaviest downpours likely to be accompanied by thunderstorms and that stretches out to the south korea and into good posture pat the seasonal rains are definitely with us as they should be they are drifting sayas which is more nor will they shouldn't cause finals there at the moment down towards hong kong or wet and at least on monday. across to india and with the incoming monsoon we have spawned a tropical cyclone it's rapidly strengthening but the full cost isn't as good as it usually is have to say this is current figures it's offshore but the rain is all the way down to the south and it's significant right in the way fired currently 6 meters backslide is a move north in the next couple of days but where it goes isn't a certainty one model takes it into good sort out the other one takes up the

science coast of pakistan either way will be impacted with strong winds and heavy rain. sponsored by qatar airways. i have in my hands and so how with the top stories on al-jazeera buildings in gaza hazing media outlets including al-jazeera media network and the associated press have been evacuated following a warning from the israeli military journalists have to leave their offices so after being told the building will be targeted in one hour this is the building that has been threatened. well israel says i'm.