on just the joy applicant, lines of trade and investment in south africa into african trades that gives you access to more than 1100 exhibitors and 10000 visitors and buyers and more than 5000 conference delegates, more than $35.00 countries participate in trade and investment deals with $40000000000.00 as business and government come together to explore business and networking opportunities at the international exhibition brought to you by the african export import back at the premium partners. the atl 2020 was transforming africa. o the year with the news our analogy 0. here's a reminder of the top stories fighting and i've got

a son is escalating between the taliban under resistance group in the pens, your valley, north of the capital capital, been the only province to hold out against taliban rule despite being entirely surrounded police in new zealand have shot and killed a man after he stabbed 6 people at a supermarket, but the government is calling an eyesore inspired attack. already say the attacker was on a security watch like us president joe biden has not arrived in the state of louisiana for firsthand. look at the damage brought on by hurricane ida. torrential rain brought widespread flooding and power was cut through a 1000000 people after the storm hit the u. s. gulf coast last weekend. while the u . s. hasn't only been dealing with historic flooding this year, but severe droughts and wildfires to fire fighters are currently battling a huge blaze which is threatening home near lake tahoe, california. while the dixie fire, which is still burning,

destroyed much of the town of greenville last month. large parts of the u. s. southwest are dealing with what's been labeled a mega droughts to decades of extremely dry conditions are being made worse by low amounts of winter snow, which usually melson replenishing the land. and in stark contrast, winter storm already brought unusually cold weather and snow to texas. and other southern states in february let's speak to andrew dorothy who is joining us live from washington d. c. he's the director of international governments relation that the nature conservancy, thanks so much for speaking to us on al jazeera. so i mean, look at these overlapping weather disasters as they're being described, taking place in the united states. andrew, to what extent do you think this is the wake up call that people and the government need? oh, there's no doubt. this is a wake up call. we're having crazy weather this year, right?

but we have crazy weather last year and we had the weather the year before. so we sort of need to reevaluate what's normal, where is what's crazy. because what we're seeing is, you know, we've always had weather with climate change basically puts normal weather on steroids. we're seeing much more intense impacts, whether it's droughts and wildfires and keep waves in some places as were flooding cases. right. and what's your assessment as to how this is being dealt with on sort of a governmental level? well, we little bit to start school perspective. we've known about this problem and trying to address it 30 years ago, the un, the countries, the world decided it was a problem that required a global solution and, and climate change treaty. when the scientists were saying this was going to be a problem. so here we are 30 years later and all the predictions about the weather events that we're going to be home for are coming true. so 30 years later,

the science is a lot more precise or a lot more favorable to fixing the problem is a lot more promising and the impacts are a lot more obvious, but the politics still need to go up. we've got some really positive development to me now in europe and new administration in the u. s. is promised probably reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent over the next. we need to see the whole world to do that over the next decade. if we're going to reward the worst impact to be able to adapt to that, to the climate change impacts that are already locked into the system. all right, and when the un laurens that basically i'm quoting here at the bottom line is that we have 0 years left to avoid dangerous climate change because it's here that's according to reports on climate change, as you know was which just came out in august. i mean, how, how worrying is that development and do you think that it's falling on deaf ears? most of the world has figured out that we need to solve this problem. so the

question isn't, do be solved if, if we reduce who's going to suffer the most. one of the real challenges in the climate change on is that it tends the poor and the marginalized to suffer the impacts that they've been least responsible for. if you look at the impacts of hurricane trina, it was the poor residents who lived in poor parts of the city or have access to private transportation who got dock. and it's the same in poor countries outside the states, whether it's unusual or africa. look at some of the projections around agricultural where the population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods. there are some pretty worrying trends. the good news is about a set of solutions and the cost of implementing those solutions, whether it's renewable energy, fossil free fuel cars, or range of other changes to or to the way we grow or food, or all possible, technically, triple and economically affordable. ok will hopefully be there. thank you so much.

andrew joyce for speaking to us from washington d. c. now the u. s. and china have failed to reach agreements on climate change during talks in town. join us climate envoy, john kerry has been meeting with chinese officials. beijing rebuffed coals to make more public clutches on climate change before you when meeting in november. katrina you follow the not story from basing? this was us climate envoy, john kerry, 2nd visit to china. this year he's urging begging to do more to combat climate change and help to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius the century. the 2 countries of the world's biggest carbon emissions, china alone produces more than a quarter of global emissions. washington, once paging to reduce its reliance on coal, china aims to become carbon neutral by 2060, but it continues to build coal fired power plants, meeting in the port, city of chin gin. john carrie told chinese officials, climate change was more important than politics. we're all going to be dealing with

this certainly for the rest of our lives. and i think a challenge is as big as any that we face on a global basis. baton is top diplomat said, the worsening bilateral relationship between the 2 countries was threatening climate corporation. the bought in administration has attacked china's human rights record, its behavior in the south trying to see, and it's handling of the pandemic. chinese foreign ministry says washington should stop viewing china as a threat and pertinent and work instead to ease tensions. climate activists say china's leaders are also skeptical of the u. s. his commitment to fighting climate change. so i hope they can prioritize the global environment. the climate change agenda will not move forward as easily as it did a couple of years ago in china and us can't reach an agreement. is very bad news for the international community. john kerry and his chinese counterpart shed and who are expected to meet one more time ahead of the you and climate summit in

glasgow. in november. lithuania has recalled it's ambassador to china following a dispute over taiwan. in july, lithuania became the 1st european union member to allow taiwan to set up an office under its own name rather than chinese type k, which is often used by other countries. beijing reacted angrily by recalling its ambassador china views, self governing taiwan as part of its territory. in now the european union and astrazeneca have reached deal to end a legal battle over the slow deliveries of code, 1900 vaccine shots. the pharmaceutical giant will now deliver 300000000 doses by march next year as agreed a year ago. that you accused astrazeneca of acting in bad faith when it provided doses to the case from plants in europe before fulfilling orders for the block. the columbia and health ministry has said the new covered 1900 straight new spread to

43 countries and regions. the very end which was 1st identified in the country in january as being closely monitored by the world health organization. and according to the health ministry, 39 percent of the confirm cases under treatment were infected by new australia seeking a seeing record levels of new covered 1900 cases on death swap. new zealand numbers are declining after a search and the delta variant. me want south korea is extended social distancing measures ahead of a holiday there. and taiwan gets its 1st batch of pfizer vaccines. here's got hiler with a look at the co with 1900 situation across the asia pacific region needed vaccines arrive in australia's new south wales state as it marks its worst day of the pandemic with a record 1431 new covered 1900 cases and the most deaths in a day at 12. the half a 1000000 pfizer jobs arrived in sidney. the country's largest city. the shipment

came from singapore in a swap. arrangement. australia will deliver the same amount back to singapore in december. a similar deal has been struck with the u. k. that will bring $4000000.00 more or 5 vaccines to australia this month. the next fort not is likely to be worth in terms of the number of cases. but as i've said, it's not the number of cases we need to be focusing on, but how many of those cases end up in our intensive k will to hospitals and how many people we have vaccinated as quickly as possible. more than half of australia is under a stay at home order, along with sydney, melbourne in the national capital camera have been in weeks long walk downs. and in new zealand, some progress in its battle against the outbreak. fueled by the delta variance a large drop in new cases from the previous few days. we need to continue to keep those testing rights up to give us the confidence that we catching any kind of that, that may be in the community. and then finally decided that these results today are encouraging. but as dr. michael ne, his seed the job is not done. we must continue to be vigilant and get on top of

this ap rec, this low cobra, 1900 outbreaks across south korea. officials there have extended social distance in curves for a month. this ahead of a thanksgiving holiday later in september. sorry, that report to take you live. so we do see that it was secretary a few hours at lincoln military initially can stand on a standard listen and a new diplomatic mission began. i laid out on the main elements of our plan for this next chapter. here's where we are. as of today, 1st our new team in doha is up and running. second, we're in constant contact with americans who remain in afghanistan and may still wish to lead. we've assigned case management teams to each remaining american citizen who's expressed an interest in leaving as you know, starting in march,

we sent 19 separate notices to american citizens and i can stand encouraging and then urging them to leave most of the remaining american citizens, our dual nationals whose home is afghanistan and whose extended families live there . so it's no surprise that deciding whether or not to leave the place they call home is a wrenching decision. we're also in touch with, with others working to help at risk people leave afghanistan. that includes our foreign partners, news organizations, private foundations. there are a lot of extremely complex logistical issues to address and coordinate. we're working through them as quickly and it's methodically as we possibly can. let me say a few words also about those afghans who applied for or maybe eligible for special immigrant visas. there had been questions about the backlog. that's why the applicants and why more of these men and women weren't already out of that kind of

stand by the time the evacuation operation began. so let me give you a little bit more context on this. when we took office, we inherited a backlog of more than 17000 s i the applicants. the program was basically in a dead stall. there had not been a single interview of the applicant and couple in the 9 months prior to us taking office, going back to march of 2020 co. 19 of course, was a major impediment. as you may know the process for approving a special recruit. visa is not a simple one. there are 14 steps laid out in a statue pass by congress. these are congressional requirements. they involve multiple departments and agencies, not just the state department. the most time consuming steps often aren't handled by this department. we were determined to fix this within 2 weeks of taking office . we restarted the s i v interview process incredible. on february 4th,

one of the very 1st executive orders issued by president biden directed us to complete a review of the entire of the program to identify causes of under delay, to find ways to process the applications more quickly. and effectively. i directed additional resources, significant additional resources to the program, including adding 50 people to the team in washington to process applications. we also sent morris, i the adjudicators for embassy and coupled doubling the resources at our embassy and kept working on the cases. and all of this was in the, in the spring time when our embassy one on order departure in april and many embassy personnel return to the united states. we sent more counselor officers pickable to work on processing as the applications. as a result of these and other steps, including working with congress. by may, we reduce the average processing time for special and visas by more than a year,

even in the midst of a college search in june. we continue to issue visas and we went from issuing about 100 special, confuses every week in march to more than 1000 every week in august and july, some of the remember we launched operationalized refuge with relocation flights to bring afghans eligible threats ivy's as well as their family members to the united states. and of course we negotiated 3rd country sites, those that study candidates, as we process their applications. we continue to process is benny as the applications as possible. we're exploring alternative ways to process applications . so applicants don't have to wait in afghanistan until we're finished, but instead, if they can go and get their get to a 3rd country for additional processing before coming to the united states. we've also now learned from hard experience that the s i b process was not designed to be

done in an evacuation emergency. there are lessons here that we need to learn. we will learn, even as our work continues, ways to make the program we're on more efficiently more effectively. one final note on the s i d, 's. i want to thank the many veterans of the worn afghans, stan, who are working individually or through veterans service organizations to help afghans who help them state department officials conferred with the veterans groups throughout the evacuation operation. i just spoke with several of them along with denise mcdonough, this circuit, veterans affairs who are using their voices, their networks, their resources, to do all they can to help their friends and comrades. we will partner with them on how to help us. i be candidates and if you understand they have ideas that will be incorporating into the planning and work that we're doing. we have a relocation task force that is up and running right now. and the information,

the ideas that we're getting from the veterans community are being put into that process. and simply put, i shared our gratitude to them for their incredibly important and passionate advocacy. helping these afghans is more than a priority for us. it is a deeply held commitment and it's an ongoing one. we're going to do everything we can to keep it in the days, weeks and months ahead. 3rd, our diplomacy with allies and partners continues to intensify. that diplomacy is already produced. the statement signed by more than 100 countries and that you want security council resolution that makes clear the international communities expectations of a taliban lead government. including freedom of travel, making good on its commitments on counterterrorism. upholding the basic rights of afghans including women and minorities, and forming an inclusive government and rejecting reprisals in a couple of days on sunday, i'll be haven't heading to doha, where i'll meet with kentoria leaders to express our deep gratitude for all that

they're doing to support the evacuation effort also the chance to meet with afghans, including our local employed staff members suitable for now safely and no ha preparing for their journey to the united states. and how can they are pride and thanks to the diplomats troops and other u. s. government employees indo half, who are doing truly heroic work around the clock to keep this process moving forward as quickly and mainly as possible. from there, we're heading to ramstein interface in germany, where again, i had a chance to meet with afghans a waiting processing. and the americans who were staffing that effort also meet with the foreign minister mosse of germany, and will hold administered, meeting on afghanistan with him live and then virtually with, with other partners. it'll include more than 20 countries. that all have a stake and helping to relocate and reset alaskans and holding the taliban to their commitments force. we continue to maintain channels of communication with the

taliban on issues that are important to us. starting with the commitment to let people leave afghanistan, should they choose to do so. 5th, working closely with our partners cutter and turkey to help get the airport capital up and running as quickly as possible. 6 on the amount of cherry in front of the us treasury department is issued specific licenses to allow us government agencies, contractors, and grant recipients to continue to provide critical life saving you mandatory and a to the people who understand despite sanctions on the taliban, consistent with our sanctions, this aid will not flow through the government, but rather through independent organizations. 7th, we've heard from many private companies, embryos, foundations, looking to help welcome afghans arriving in the united states. some of already made very, very significant pledges. that's terrific. it's also not surprising. that's what we

do. united states stands for us fans apart from many for our global leadership in private, philanthropy and welcoming immigrants and refugees into our communities. that's part of our dna. we're issuing a call to action to other companies. organizations that want to help africans starting new lives in the united states. we will help you find a way to make an impact. last night i had a chance to go out to the dulles expo center. some of you may have visited where i saw the incredible operation that we together with d h s d h s usa id are running to welcome new app can rivals when they 1st touched down in the united states. many thousands of people have fled, fear, and desperation, and now hope for a better life and future here with us. and our people made that happen earlier today had a chance to meet with our team,

from embassy capital back home in the united states. i spoke with employees across the department at all hans town hall these past few weeks have been very intense. they've demanded a lot from a lot of people here at the department. people who rose to the challenge and continue to give their all i talk to colleagues counselor officers who were on the line shoulder to shoulder with a marines, including those who lost their lives. literally pulling people into the airport and into safety and ultimately on freedom. and again, we talk a lot about the numbers and we throw a lot of statistics around. but each one of those was a mother, a father, son and daughter, a parent,

a grandparent. and i have remarkable pride and what are people did? what our service members did with our other colleagues across the government did to help them, as i said, the other day, particularly for those who gave their lives in this effort. some of us may be the most exceptional among us are called upon to do a life's work, a life service in a short period of time. and those 13 did a life's work of service in a very short period of time. and what i told him our own colleagues here today, for part of that effort, no matter what they do going forward in the i hope many, many years that they will continue to serve. they to have already done a life's work of service in a very, very short period of time. we're not stopping our work to help americans and at risk staff. can she get it? and we're going to do everything we can moving forward, continue this mission,

and also to learn from it. we ought to ourselves, we are to the american people to reflect on what we did, how we did it, what worked, what didn't, what we can do better will deliver on that too. and with that, i'm happy to take any questions. thank you. thank you for being here today. i want to ask a question. one is about the headlines of the day and the other one is the wider she just mentioned. the 1st one is we have reporting today, the telephone co founder and will love to the broader will lead a new government to be and i would really like your reaction to this. what does the us government think about this new specific government? and i know that you have mentioned, you know, certain criteria and principles, but i really would be super keen to get your take on this specific government. and the 2nd one is, i would like to ask you about accountability and you just said he just talks about

reflecting upon what happened, what went wrong. and this is not to, in any way diminish the work of the department and anybody else. i mean, as a person, but you and others interested ministration. i said there will be a time in place for that kind of accountability, national security adviser to follow specifically refer to it as a hot watch. so where is the state department in that process? and is this going to be in a format of a formal investigation? what is that going to look like? thank you. thank you. so with regard to the government, we've seen different reports of government information. i've not seen anything of final or dispositive of what that government looks like, who's in it, who's not. so i'm going to reserves, comment and judgement until we see that that may be coming up in the hours ahead and the days ahead, but i haven't seen anything final. but i'd say 2 things about it. first,

as we said, and as countries around the world said, there is an expectation that any government that emerges now will have some real inclusivity and that it will have non talent in it who are representative of different communities and different interests in afghanistan. so we'll see what in fact emerges. but i have to tell you that as important as what the government looks like is more important still is what any government does. and that's what we're, that's what we're really looking at. we're looking at what actions, what policies, any new afghan government pursues. that's what matters the most so or the expectation is to see and passivity in government. but ultimately, the expectation is to see a government that makes good on commitments,

that the tall about have made, particularly when it comes to freedom of travel when it comes to not allowing us to stand to be used as a launching ground for terrorism directed at, at us or any of our allies and partners when it comes to holding the basic rights of the african people, including women and minorities when it comes to not engaging and in reprisals. these are the things that, that we're looking at. and again, not just us, many countries around the world. the 2nd part of the question, we are committed to looking at everything we've done from, from day one, through the present. and to, to draw, to draw lessons from it. i think that there also needs to be including across the state department, a look back at the entire 20 years to understand

the entire course of this or an engagement with afghanistan and to to ask the right questions and to learn the right lessons from that. so we'll have more, i'm sure, in the days and weeks ahead about what process where we're going to be engaged in, but we are committed to doing that. are artificial. have the other day that the majority ask and to our special immigrant visa recipients were left in afghanistan. i'm wondering if you have a specific number on that. when you said today, that one option would be a 3rd country for processing to cut through the bureaucracy, or you have taxpayers giving money to do that. how does that work? is that just a theory on paper or are things actually in process to get them out right now for some or did you see some back?

a few things on this. so i think as you know, we have evacuated roughly a 124000 people. many remain at the so called the pads as they're being processed and then moved into, in any case started the united states or in some cases to, to, to other places. and given the, the premium that we put on getting people out as quickly and safely as possible. but now the premium on, once they're out and either at a lily pattern, some cases already in the united states. then really digging into exactly which categories they may fit into with a locally employed staff where they, where they live, ease afghans at risk potential, p one or p 2 parolees, etc. all of that work now is,

is what we're doing. so i can't give you specific numbers. what i can tell you is this of the roughly 124000 people have been evacuated. the vast majority, the vast majority, 7580 percent are afghans at risk? and of those, some significant number will be s i these either people who already hold and s i v . these are, or those who are actually in the pipeline. some number will be potential p one or, or, or p 2 refugees or, and some other number will be afghans at risk prominent in one way or another who may not fit into any of those categories. we're working through all of those numbers now and again, i think we'll have more to stay on that in the days and weeks ahead as we actually worked through. but the bottom line is the overwhelming majority of people who came

out about can stand where africans at risk in one way or another, including a significant number of s. i d 's renee. yeah. that you were talking to remain that you were talking about and potentially bring to 3rd come for processing. what does that look like? what are you doing right now to get those? that's ivy's who were left behind. so a few things on that. there are a lot of things happening from the political to the practical to enable us to continue to bring people out of afghanistan who wished to leave, including, of course, any remaining american citizens who want to leave including s i. d 's including afghans at risk including also 3rd country nationals who may be there. the political.