thing to the west, this is how it was created in the 1st place, a consequence of molten lava beating the atlantic ocean. jonah haul al jazeera la palmer. all the news, of course, on our website there it is on your screen. the address onto 0 dot com. ah. type a quick check of the headlines here now to 0, the number of people have died from coven 19 in the united states is now past 700000, nearly 70000000 people. that's a 5th. the population have still not been vaccinated, even though the jobs are widely available. california is become the 1st, you are state to make it compulsory for school children to be vaccinated against cobit 19. the governor gavin newsom says the move could go into effect as early as january. the mandate is pending approval from the us food and drug administration, the 12 to 15 year olds. the white house,

as the year's president and members of his democratic party have made progress as they tried to rescue job biden's economic agenda in a rare move. biden has met with his party members on capitol hill out of there was rosalind jordan as more now from washington, dc. if it comes down to whether members of congress in the president's party can agree on terms on both the social spending flash environmental bill, as well as on the infrastructure spending bill, if they can work out their differences on one, the actual price tag for the 1st bill because there are some in the senate who say that bills just simply too expensive at $3.00 trillion dollars. as well as work out the idea that there's going to be a guarantee that that bill is going to be passed. if more liberal members above the house of representatives actually decide to vote for the infrastructure bill. so there's a lot of horse trading that goes on here. the united nations has told ethiopia as

prime minister, it doesn't accept the country's decision to expel 7 of its senior personnel. ethiopia says the officials are being told to lead because their middle than the internal affairs of the country residents. no small colombian town say an influx of mostly haitian migrants is pushing them out of housing. they're trying to catch boats on their way to the north of the us, but far fewer people a day can lead and arrive. president biden wants to increase the us. we settlement ceiling to 125000. it's a huge jump from the 15000 cap. son is a law by the trump administration. georgia former president, macau soccer really has been detained just hours after arriving back in the country for the 1st time and years earlier. he said he went to support the opposition in saturday's election. those were the headlines. the news continues. he analogy 0 after talked to other states with thanks to watch. in fact, when freedom of the press is under threat in hong kong, talk genuinely about your thoughts towards the beijing government step outside the

mainstream. has been a policy implement hearing system access, shift the focus, the pan down that has turned out to be a handy little pretext. the prime minister clamped down on the press covering the way the news discovered the listening post on a just 0. ah, he's widely praised would the voting her professional life to serve her country? south africa? melody pam door has held several positions in the government under different presidents minutes of education, minister science and technology minister, homer there's administer of higher education to and in may 2019 presidents or, or i'm a poser appointed pandora minister of international relations at south africa's top

diplomat, she faces many challenges from a country paying was some of the consequences of the us china trade war to the diplomatic struggles brought about by the unequal global rollout of code that 19 vaccines as well. leaders gathered in new york for the 76 un general assembly. south africa's message was clear. it is an embankment on too many t that more than 82 percent of the world's vaccine doses have been acquired by wealthy countries. while less than one percent has gone to low income countries. unless we address this, as a matter of urgency, the pandemic will last much longer. a new mutation, so dividers will emerge and spray. and that's where we caught up with south africa's minister of international relations and co operation melody. pandora talks

loud, 0 ah melody. pandora, foreign minister of south africa. thank you for talking to al jazeera. let's begin with the global fight against that pandemic. the figures are staggering. 6000000000 people vaccinated throughout the world. less than 2 percent had been vaccinated in africa. now this is a vaccine disparity that the secretary general has described as obscene. what can be done about it? it certainly is, and it certainly doesn't reflect the promise or bad global leaders had made at the beginning of the pandemic. that once there's a vaccine, it should be a public good. it's certainly not been treated in that way. it's clear from evidence to day that a number of wealthy countries pre booked doses of the vaccine, and in fact,

many have a surplus which they should be providing to the poorest countries in the world to ensure that all of us are vaccinated. at the same time, or soon after each other, that's the only way. or we're going to begin to have a strong protection against the cert pandemic. if we leave her a large number of poor people, unvaccinated, we're just going to develop more variance or we're going to be a threat to each other. because we trade, you know, we are a global community. so i think her world leaders really need to a cup as the most powerful nations that have the surplus, and they have to be ready to support the rest of the world to vaccinate. this is the only solution to this problem. i mean, the world leaders set themselves a target of 70 percent vaccinations by next year we're in september and this

figures not even 10 percent yet. it's not been reached at all. there are countries on the continent that have hardly begun their vaccination programs or sub africa's a little way ahead are cuz we had prepared early on. but we've also shared what we have with the continent, but we're not a wealthy country. of course, in comparison to parts of the conference continent, we're better off, but we're not wealthy by any means. countries that are talking of a booster shot are the ones that should be hanging their heads in shame. because they really should be ensuring that at least the majority of the african population have one dose provided. i mean, there's other forms of a parent inequality. for example, the u. k has still got south africa and it's read the list. despite the fact that south africa's doing a lot better than a number of countries that had been removed from that red list. what have you come for this time for this period?

it's an absolute puzzle to me and i've been speaking to colleagues from the u. k. we've approached the high commission in pretoria and we know really getting clear answers or one of the insights i got this week was when one of the officials at the embassy indicated that they've been getting information from some scientists in south africa, not from the ministerial advisory committee which has the top south african scientists. but some scientists who disagree, or with data that out government or has been publishing. i found this absolutely astounding. the you case a very good friend and partner to south africa. but i am really shocked at this read lister read listing of south africa. i'm also horrified to learn that travel agents have been told that even sub africans who are vaccinated. as long as south

africa's on the read list, they will be regarded as having an authentic vaccine. this is a either it's madness actually and doesn't go well with who we know. busy the u. k to be it also has dire economic consequences for both countries and we have of great interest in tourism, in the u. k. from mass of africans. we also have for a lot of, so you k taurus to come to our country or both countries. leisure industry has been it very hard by the pandemic. can. you would think both of us would do all that we can to revive the sector because it is such a lucrative generator of jobs and public revenue. so i've been really astounded, and i find thee a position adopted by the government of the united kingdom, inexplicable, to be quite honest in his sir speech to the un general assembly president grammar

poser identified 3 countries of concern. he made the plea for western sahara for people to have the right of self determination for the palestinians to get there in state and fall the embargo against cuba to be dropped at. would it be correct to say that these are the countries and international priorities in terms of its international diplomacy? while they're certainly a concern for south africa in terms of access to human rights and self determination, which as you know, was a long struggle for south africans and the people of sahara. we were a good friend to us in the course of struggle or the people of palestine as similarly. busy and of course, cubans even sacrificed their lives on our soil in southern africa. so we are concerned, i'm at the denial of opportunity for,

for those 3 countries. you mentioned there that these countries supported south africa in its struggle to obtain human rights. we have that being solidified in the durban declaration, 20th anniversary of the durban declaration. and yet you still have a number of countries, including the us, including israel, boycotting at this conference as this would appear to cat against that promise to abolish racism would have not what is really, really disappointing factor. several countries decided to boycott our round table and did not participate in discussions on the a resolution that was unanimously adopted. i've been looking at to the list of countries that over time have boycotted, various events associated with the struggle against racism. and the number has

grown from a bar to think her name countries to 21. now says clear that there's some one doing work, mobilizing against the durbin declaration, and it's positive intentions, which are action by the world to combat racism and all forms of intolerance. so i cannot understand why such an objective would be regarded as antithetical or 2, or rather more developed countries, several of which were the cause of the very racism. we're all trying to come back today. we're looking at a double standard. so we not, i think so, i think lack of world lack of courage, we've seen with black lives matter and the lack of responsiveness to addressing a racial inequality in the united states and inadequate response to ensuring that the conduct of the security services is improved vastly with respect for human

rights and individuals. so i think what you're seeing and is an inability of some governments to directly confront these difficult questions in a racism is not an easy or prejudiced to combat, but is something that democratic government should never rest at addressing. i mean, what many observers find a standing is that recent events in the united states, for example, you mentioned black lives matters, movement. it's rise. the nationwide protest at one saw because of a police violence against african americans. and yet the u. s. still boycotts an anti racism conference. it appears to be no rational and away maybe it's an intention to say we don't think we have a problem. i mean we can all. busy see it, but perhaps if you ignore it or you pretend that it goes away, but it reads, it said and will continue to do so. we're trying in south africa. mean we're,

we're not innocent by any means. and have our own problems of a racism and all forms of discrimination, including a violence against fellow africans. but these are matters that we are confronting directly and talking to our population about, you know, inculcating in them a sense of social cohesion and an understanding of the responsibility we have as a constitutional state with the bill of rights to protect others. and not to regard those who come from another country as being different from south africans. so you either have a government that is bold and that will confront these issues as present from a poor said as all you have for governments. that shy away may be because the problem is too awful for them to believe they can grapple with it. you mentioned that south africa's dealing with its own issues as well. we saw the fault lines

expressed following the rest of former president. zoom her where you had his supporters clashing with others in july, you had, you know, and read through many parts of of the country. how is it possible to ready kate, these fault lines had still appeared to remain between people. i'm mom, i'm not surprised that south africa would have such problems. it only has 25 years of, of democratic practice. so it's very new to democracy. and that which we're trying to build is something that not everybody's familiar with or would support. president roemer poyser has been, i think, very courageous in confronting or corruption in south africa up to clearly in the public sphere and inert, putting in place structures that would assist in and in revealing the extent of corruption and the abuse of public institutions. you don't set about that

or with people just happily saying ok, go on. and i think there's a lot of opposition to what he's trying to do. and or my view is that those who are encouraging this insurrection attempt at that we saw in july, a people who are actually against as fighting corruption and indignant in south africa. are you seeing some kind of deep state movement that's in place? i think there are people, there's evidence or that there was a lot of use of social media that are very poor. people were encouraged to go on to the streets and to lose businesses or businesses were spoken of as of racial institutions. you know, white monopoly capital is the phrase they use um and you know, the sense of you are wronged by these businesses. go out and destroy them,

and you will be rich and, and have a job. and of course, over 50000 people lost their jobs as a result of this looting and, and, and rioting. so clearly are people who are lied to, and i think as they reflect on what happened in july and what they did, they realized that some one has actually tricked them out to what extent as well. and this is a delicate question, giving south africa's past in terms of ethnic rivalries. is that what we appear to see in july as well was almost re run of the m. was it lou nationalism that preceded the mighty 4 elections? it is. is this an ongoing issue, or is it a coincidence? i think that term, you know, there's a fragility around ethnic city, given our history and the ethan, a city and ethnic identity were abused. and there's been in the past 10 years,

some marshalling of ethnic nationalism. or, you know, you had t shirts, i'm a 100 percent zulu and stuff like that, which we, you know, had to discourage. so there is that, but i don't think it's a phenomenon of the entire sub africa. i mean, it's important to recollect that this looting we saw was in 2 provinces out of 9. so it wasn't the whole of south africa in flames. and you know, thank god for that and what was really a great to see was the sub african ordinary public standing up and seeing that in our name. you mentioned there about an the fight against corruption and it was one not present remo poses campaign promises to eradicate corruption, yet he has his critics who still say that he's not doing enough. how do you come to

that type of criticism, world investigations or underway people are being arrested. they're being tried by our court said judicial function and the commission, or of for those under commissioners. it's called on state capture. it's work is underway and i'm sure we'll have a report by the beginning of next year and more prosecutions will follow. so it's through serious attention to all the wrongs that were done at that you wage at this particular battle. but corrupt people don't reveal themselves. you name the daylight and say he look at me, i'm corrupt. so you also have to ensure that you build appropriate or capacity in your crime, intelligence and your intelligence and security services. so that you have the ability to catch these people out. we also would be helped, of course, by the international community, as you know,

and with some of the corruption that we had a number of multinational corporations that are, you know, or have headquarters in the north. we're party to, to some of these corrupt practices. and we find this not just in south africa, but in other parts of the world. so i think her, we have to begin to hold up aspects of the private sector to account as well. i think that's a very important issue. the investigations that we've heard with regard to former president zoom, for example, do indicate that an involvement. yeah. off these multinational corporations in terms of inflicting at form of corruption within a society. yeah. well, being party to it, encouraging it payment of bribes or for significant contracts, or getting very large contracts and then executing a very poor job. ah, there's money that we're now getting back through the courts for poor services are

provided a to a very estate owned companies are we're beginning to claw back and we're determined that we will do you think it's possible to rebuild the trust of the public that was so shattered during the years of prison sooner. well, i think if you're transparent, if you're accountable and you take action, you will rebuild trust. but i do get a sense that the public is fed up. so it's going to be in a long, harder job to persuade people. but i, i believe through practical example, they will come to realize that government is serious and intent on repairing this. you mentioned as well the problems that south africa still faces 25 years into democracy, massive unemployment. and all of these issues still trying to get health to all the population. it seems that there remain

a myriad of issues despite more a quarter century of democracy. while we're talking racism in the united states of america after over 200 year south africa is just $25.00. and you had the worst form of racial social engineering at that you seen in any part of the world. a party was mastery of social engineering, of the worst kind. and so it will take time and we won political freedom. we didn't when they can amik freedom. we don't have control of the or either large leaves of the economy. we have to grow the economy and i believe we've got to invest much more in sectors that will make a friends to g d p growth in south africa just on the broader kind of diplomatic friend we've seen recently, the formation of alliances, which of em pushed away others, it would be argued such as the u. k. u. s. australia deal at the expense of france

. and so that brings a part of brick, her massive alliance, very important. but all these different alliances does do they create a problem on the global stage in terms of creating a unilateral rather than multi lateral basis. as the u. s. has been accused in recent weeks. i think her, if they work toward a development agenda, been they exist for the good. but if they work in a manner that seeks to compete with each other and destroy one economy and have another being, you know, the largest in the world and everybody else. you know, should disappear, then you have problems. are the biggest task i think the global community has before it is to encourage china and the united states of america find each other. because if they don't to favor trade war, it affects all of us. so it is, i think

a very, very important that those leaders sit down around the table, work out what the issues of concern are and what the likely remedies might be. because them sorting out their problems is absolutely imperative to, as he cannot make success. so that level of conflict worries us at that point because it impacts on everybody. i don't think the associations are a difficulty. it depends on, on what they do. i certainly, if i had a contract with you and you went and contracted with someone else without even telling me, you're not happy with my, i wouldn't regard you as a good friend, or you'd have to really explain to me why you did that. so i think that was most unfortunate, i don't think it was well handled and, and the u. k. usa and australia have to look at how they repair relations with

europe. because i think europe, apart from france was quite offended. and it was really the man of doing or rather than the actual action itself. so i do think her for me. yes, there are all these associations, but there are points at which we do come together. you have g 20, where we have very strong development focus and then there's g 7 where we are a guest. and there may be a more limited a set of issues that we look at, primarily finance and economy. but g 20 this far broader agenda. then you have a bricks where again, we're looking at within the 5 nations, how we work together to advance our development priorities. and even the building of the near development bank of bricks has been a very positive step. because in the midst of the pandemic,

we were able to secure some loans from the bricks bank that assisted us in managing some of the fall out at that occurred. as a consequence of the hard shut down. we had to implement the acknowledging that we, on the fringes of the un general assembly, an issue that south africa has been pushing for years. united nations reform. you have a scenario, for example, where the security council has a 5 permanent members giving then a greater power than other members of the united nations. is this a problem and is it's a soluble, is definitely a problem. i mean, how do you have a membership organization of over 100 members and 5 have are huge veto and immense power. and it's a clear invitation to transformation and democratization. and i think this should be addressed. this is what sub africa and the african continent has been arguing

for, for some years. we're not saying we have the solution, but we are saying a current format is undemocratic, yet that the solution to, to the cern. lack of balance within the united nations once again would appear to lie with those who are profiting most from it. it's very difficult for other countries like south africa to be able to introduce the type of reform that would transform the united nations into a more democratic body than it is at present. well, one of the lessons i learned from the struggle or in south africa was that those who believe their lease powerful can in fact be very powerful if their numbers come together with the clear go. so i think the a broader membership of the united nations needs to embrace the notion that we need to transform and democratize should they do. so as a membership,

i don't think her a few countries can stand again against them, no matter how powerful they are. but the has to be a popular voice that clearly articulates the need for change and consistently works at ensuring concretely, there is negotiation that spells out the character of the change. but if a few of us i just calling from the sidelines will all is be this way. south african foreign minister and melody. pandora, thank you for talking with ah, pitches don't lie. that's the beauty of television. journalism i've always wanted to make the audience feel something to create an emotional connection with the story. sometimes you have to go to great lengths to do just that.

ah, when we made a film on the right of ours, we covered it without fear or 5. we saw 1st hand the fee, the pandemic, of course, and the behavior you laid on the truck when you realize what's going on the police investigating and write it out with the government expelled me by. couldn't hide from the truth as a tax on press freedom escalate. i worked the al jazeera because i hold the line. i'm drew ambrose. mm. the yeah. is it tipping point? scientists are telling us right now that we have just 12 years as the world's leaders failed to agree upon a solution or taking that has into their, with now

with a pool and that it kills people. now it's already killing both fries with people's voice cornell jazeera ah, the u. s. a boss is 700000 deaths from kobe 19 as nearly 70000000 americans remain unvaccinated. ah, hello, i'm darn jordan. this is al jazeera die from dell are also coming up. doesn't matter whether it's in 6 minutes, 6 days or 6.