mainstream has been a policy implemented here, system an asset shift the focus, the pandemic has turned out to be a handy little pretext. the prime minister of it clamped down on the press covering the way the news is covered. the listening post on a jazeera ah. ready hello again, peter toby here indo how the top stories on al jazeera senior us and taliban officials have begun talks in cat up. it's the 1st in person meeting since american troops left afghanistan. i saw in afghanistan is high on the agenda after a suicide bomber killed 60 people on friday. natasha graham has more from doha. from the americans point of view. what this meeting is, is

a continuation quote of pragmatic entanglements with the taliban on issues of vital national security. what it is not according to a u. s. official is quote, granting legitimacy or conferring recognition to the taliban. the u. s. official goes on to say that we are very clear that with regards to conferring legitimacy to the taliban, it will be based on their actions and that the taliban needs to establish a sustained track record. now the taliban comes to doha with money and security on its mind. afghan is heavily reliant on international aid. there is a, an evolving humanitarian crisis there. and they're dealing with security reeling now from it to bombings that killed dozens of people in the last week. coming in to the meeting, a taliban official said that we're ready for quote inclusivity,

but not selectivity. and that the international community needs to respect the wishes of the afghan people. the chinese president, she ging ping, has again promised that there will be a course peaceful re unification with taiwan. he avoided previous rhetoric that included using force against taiwan. but in the past week, nearly a $150.00 chinese wall plains of approach, taiwanese aerospace room on hand tony the lease is in the complete unification of our country, must be and can be realised. unification is the hope, a full chinese people. if china can be unified, whole chinese will enjoy a happy life. if china can't unify, every one will suffer. about 2000 refugees and migrants are in hiding after escaping from a libyan detention center at um 6 people was shot and killed by gods during the chaos on friday, over the past week or so, thousands of migrants had been rounded up in a major crackdown. saudi arabia says who the rebels of laws to drone attacks from

yemen towards an airport in the kingdom south. both drones were said to be carrying explosives. the 1st launch on friday, wounded 10. people react says the 2nd was intercepted by air defenses. early on saturday. the iranian foreign minister is making a visit to syria foreseen, amir abdulla on arrived in damascus on saturday for talks with government officials is the ministers latest stop on a regional tour that's included visits to moscow and be root. iran's 1st president abdulla hassan bonnie sada, has died in paris at the age of 88. vanessa was part of the inner circle of the late ayatollah khomeini. in the early days of the iranian revolution, he served 16 months in office before being impeached. eventually fled to france with aid arrest. iraq's prime minister must offer. alchemy says he'll do everything he can to in short fair elections. the country is holding a parliamentary vote on sunday. the czech republic has entered its final day of

voting for a new parliament. polls show the prime minister, andrea babich will maintain his support despite a scandal about his finances. and abolla case has been identified in the city of benny in the democratic republic of congo, just 5 months after declared his latest epidemic to be over. a 3 year old child tested positive and subsequently died from the disease about $100.00. other people who may have been exposed have now been identified more than 50 people have died and almost 70, a believe to be missing after a boat sank on the congo river. rescue crews in mon gala province have been on the scene since the vessel capsized almost a week ago. the scale of the accident has taken several days to emerge. a volcano on the spanish island of la palmer is continuing to spew out lava after began erupting nearly 3 weeks ago. 6000 people had been forced from their homes, and more than 1000 buildings had been destroyed. those are your headlines. the news continues after the bottom line. i'll have another quick summary for you at half

past. see that? ah hi, i'm steve clements and i have a question. will joe biden's democratic party blow up his vision for america's future? let's get to the bottom line. ah, with the democrats in control of the white house, the senate and the house of representatives with razor thin margins, but still the majority. why is it so hard for them to agree on an agenda for the country, u. s. presidential biden's, massive build back better act, expose the major rift in the democratic party. the act calls for the rich to pay more taxes, bites global warming, and makes education more accessible. with that agenda, you'd expect the republicans to be fighting it. but lo and behold, it's joe biden's own party that he has to worry about. democratic moderates don't

want to go too far. they don't wanna spend too much. and progressives are wondering why they aren't going further. they wonder out loud what the republicans would do if they had the once in a lifetime opportunity to control the legislative agenda. meanwhile, the republicans have been able to sit back and watch the fireworks as a democratic party wages a tug of war with itself. so what does the future hold for the democratic coalition and for relations between its left wing and its middle, we're going to look at both sides of the coin today. and we'll start with vast, secure political adviser to one of the most famous progressives in the senate, bernie sanders of vermont. he's the founder of a more perfect union, which advocates for progressive policies in the united states. fans is great to be with you. let me just start out and ask, you know, right now we're kind of at a fevered pitch in this divide between house and senate progressives, and house and senate moderates if you call them or conservatives within the democratic party. and i guess my question to you is to, you know, working in knowing bernie sanders, who nearly became it. i remind people that could have begin become president united

states. how deep is that division and divide within the party why they may of exist? who are seeing it play out, but it's actually a divide that is tilting in one direction. stephen is tilting towards the progressive. so if you look at the composition of the house and the senate, you have upwards of 95 percent of the members and the democratic party in both the house and senate who are very much aligned with president biden and bernie sanders on this one. but there's the small minority faction, a vestige, i think of the recent decades of a corporate friendly approach, a neo liberal approach. so my call it, the debt is hesitant to make some of the deep structural changes that i think we need to do. i mean, so, so in that, that ideological fisher is playing out and the fight is over, whether we deliver a bill that would benefit working americans that that's what that's was transformed about this bill. 100 percent of its benefits were going to work. working americans in the form of child tax cuts or child care, home health care paid leave

a free community college. things that would really reduce pressure to reject things that would really make an impact for people who are suffering on the bottom. half of the class divide in america, and so the fight is over whether those we're doing quite well. feel any empathy or solidarity with those who are not doing well. what is an acceptable investment now? is there any wiggle room given where we are now, or are we at the bare minimum in what joe biden has put forward? really, when you take the priorities and you just add them up a, you know, center sanders put out a 6 trillion dollar proposals. that if you really, really are serious about climate change over the next 10 years and doing something about it, child care, free community college reducing prescription drugs, you go down the line of all of the benefits of this bill. and you say you have them up and you want to do them for real. it's 6 trillion dollars. now obviously center centers is also a pragmatist. he, he is worked in this senate for a long period of time. he understands his colleagues and says, okay,

there's got to be a negotiation. you know, in the negotiation, min coin in is case isn't being driven by president bernie sanders. it is going to be driven by president joe biden. so let's figure out where's the president's agenda? what are the things that he campaigned on that he made promises on in the last deliver that in the president came forward and said 3 and a half trillion. yep, that sounds about right. that's where i think all of the things that we, i promised the american public i can deliver on at that number. and while i, you got basically everybody in the center of the house generally agreeing to it except for a couple of set. holdouts and you know, the president might unfortunate has been, has been hours and hours over the past few days, trying to wrangle senator chris kirsten system of arizona and center jo mansion of west virginia is the last 2 old. are they really, they are dictating the debate and my frustration is that those 2 individuals did not run for president of the united states. they did not throw in their hat in the ring. president joe biden did, and it is it. i believe that we should play politics as

a team sport. here we should legislate as a team and followed the president's example and follow his lead, quite frankly. and that is what the progressives are actually holding to. so we would obviously want to go higher and bolder than what president minus announced. but at the very least, it is, it seems like our responsibility really say, let's do the president says, you know, look, i live may be an unfair question, but you and i both know that the senate is a peculiar place and you know, sometimes the feisty mis upfront, you know, is, is, is, is replaced by, you know, behind the scenes. people get along quite well. has bernie sanders is senator sanders worked on sen, management, mansion, sen, cinema. has he gone on the boat, the famous jo, mansion boat have? they tried to find ways outside this divide to say, hey, you know, let, let's get beyond this and find her think, what is the nature of the politicking behind the scenes that we may not be privy to that are either hopeful or not. yes, so 1st of all, very sanders is gonna dimensions boat or any other boat because he's not big

socialize or that kind. however, don't take that to me that the he isn't in conversation with joe mentioned for short. that is the case he has been talking to joe mentioned on the senate floor and in a lot of other venues over the past few months. they have been candid with each other about their disagreements, but you know, center sanders been very clear. i supported you to be here in this caucus 1st for senate because i understand that we need to santander from west virginia democratic center for west virginia. we need to hold the majority, but we also have to deliver a job like at least be a good negotiating partner in good faith, meet me to where you think you can go and you know, to his frustration to center centers, frustration, you know, there hasn't been a lot of beat to the bones and he's asking, you know, what are the details, what are the things that you would support? what are the things that you wouldn't support and, and had that hasn't come out. so center standards of view has been, well, a president biden, and senator and schumer, the majority leader, can do you know, a job on trying to bring jo mansion along. he's also happy for that to be the case

. sometimes maybe other people might be better messengers with, with jo mansion in any case. let's just get a deal done. i mean, when the process mechanics are and they've been going on for so long, people are frustrated about increasingly you see the poll numbers and jump right in dipping because they're just annoyance that you know, we put you in power. let's, let's see the fruits of that and i hope that something can get done soon. so look, i have this, this job where i talk to everybody. i talk to republicans, different dimensions of it. democrats, different dimensions. the republicans, i talked to say they've got their forks and knives out waiting for the 2022 election. what are the consequences of what, i'm sorry. what else is new or? yeah, exactly. so me, and they've been kind of left out of, you know, a lot of this divide, right? so the battle is between wings of the democratic party, rather than between republicans and democrats on this. but when it comes to the election, they're hoping the dysfunction, that is, it is evident right now about the vision and aspirations of the democratic party is

something that they can run against. is that a good strategy from your viewpoint for republicans? what are the consequences about about on one side or the other jo manchin or, or, or the progressive wing of the party winning? what, what are the electoral dimensions of this for 2022. they're also $2.00 to $2.00 points on this. steve. one is think about in the last presidency of donald trump on legislating. how did it work? remember, it was senate republicans as a majority party for some of that who were saying, hey, let's just deliver on the things that donald trump was. so they went to reconciliation and they passed huge tax cuts. they passed a ton of judicial nominees, and they delivered on many of the things that president trump wanted because they were in the majority. and that in the senate and in the house. and that right, is that what is good for the goose should be good for the gander here. now, democrats are in power and they should be able to deliver for their president of

the united states. now, i think as you flash fort in 2022, you're right to say that the republican strategy with trump off of the ballot is really kind of leaning on making people cynical, skeptical, upset over dysfunction and dc. that is, after all, how donald trump himself got elected. he is raid railing against drain, the swamp and, and making people feel like government just doesn't work and screwed up. and democrats as the party that has generally believed in the public good in the public . he tele, are the ones having to make the argument the government can work. and so that, that is the fight right now is that we have this opportunity. we did it during coven right. over the last year there's been checks that went out to the american public. there are shots and arms. there are good things happening on, on some scores. now is the opportunity to address the structural inequities in american society and show the democrats are willing to take on the fights against big corporate actors and deliver for the american public. i think it would do a of a lot of good for the democratic branch heading in 2022 and you are the party

associated with, hey, that they believe in government. they say it's do good things for me. let's see. it didn't happen or didn't happen. look, i just shared with our audience how razor thin democratic control of both chambers of congress a really is to day. and so when you look at that, you know, on one hand, i sort of on this, you know, on the other half the coin when i talked this, you know that, that, that bernie sanders is where he is in the budget committee. joe mansion is where he is in the ha, energy committee, other committees resources, power is part of that. but, but would you be willing, would the progressive wing be willing to say, hey, we need to, you know, purge the party of this and accept a minority status in this to basically get a greater coalescence if you will around shared principles. or do you think there's gotta be some given take so that you can, you can talk to a democrats in west virginia, arizona, and others that may feel, you know, that they need to be in a slightly more moderate position. how do you deal with the size of the tent? so these are all good questions. i start from the premise here are my principals,

at least in how we navigate this. it be one thing, it progresses, we're pushing things that are deeply unpopular in west virginia and arizona. in fact, we're giving to a mansion, a gift. if you want to go and poll reducing prescription drug prices, expanding child care, expanding home care, expanding and taking out a whole bunch of new climate jobs, you want to go pull all of those things in west virginia show me the results because i promise you they will do quite well. and so what we're offering is an agenda that i don't think is politically detrimental to the case in west virginia and in arizona. that being said, we also have to reach agreement and even in trying to reach that agreement. if you look at the rest of this caucus, you have people like john tester from montana. you mark warner, a conservative democrat from virginia. you have all kinds of voices and all of them to a person have found a place of collegiality and agreement. and it is really just now to people who are

hijacking in my view, the agenda that isn't for them to dictate because it should be the president if the, if you are the democratic party of a democratic president, you negotiate with them and you agree at this president made certain commitments, he ran for office, he promised these things now we have to deliver on them. and again, like i said, these are, these aren't even hard folks. these are very politically popular. yes. people, west virginia, do you think the, the wealthy are not paying their fair share? they trying to skirt taxes, should we make them pay their fair share? it's going to be off the charts. and so that, that is my profession. we've offered both the popular agenda. we've offered the compromise, we've offered the presence of the united states to say this is where the deal is and yet you have 2 people in my mind, wrongfully trying to hijack it. do issues of inflation or, you know, increasing the size of the debt matter in the progressive caucus, or do they say, hey, look what donald trump did in terms of this. and we just need to not be aware of those elements of economic gravity down there. i unfortunately,

i hate to say this david's the dishonest debate. i mean, i think joe mentioned knows that because if you want to worry about inflation, he's tying it to, oh, there's a lot of spending here. well, yes, there's 3.5 trillion on the table over 10 years, but guess what, steve, that is all paid for it all paid for it through making the wealthy pay their fair share in their a whole host of ways and include, you know, cap gain, the individual tax rate, corporate tax rate, maybe i increasing iris enforcement. there are a whole variety of objects on the table that pay for the full expenditure. so there is no impact on this inflation that we're talking about. and in my mind, when i hear the words inflation labor shortage, i hear people wanting to spouse arguments of the corporate class as specious arguments of a corporate class to say, oh, we don't like this stuff that you guys are doing that the corporate class is fine with increased defense spending and not paying for that. in fact, we had a bill that's right up in front of said center right now, $770000000000.00. and if you want to project that out over 10 years,

that's double what we're putting on the table for wording people. and so in my, my, you got a lot of dishonest debate about this. you have a corporate law, so we got a labor shortage, wasn't my mind? no, we have labor demand, we have people out there who are struggling. say i am not getting a fair wage at my workplace and you know, it could help me child care at home because then i could maybe take this job. you an increase my wages that would help a lot if you could help me take care my ailing parents that would have a lot if you could reduce my prescription drugs. that would help a lot. i see a class to my going on in this debate. steve, people who are doing quite well are making speeches, argument, and we're having to fight basically for the lobby of the american people as it were, because they don't have a voice in this debate. and unfortunately, i think that those who do have a debate, who have lobbyists, are controlling a narrative that i think is just bologna fashion care political adviser to progressive sen, bernie sanders and founder of more perfect union and advocacy media project in washington, d. c. thanks so much for being with us. appreciate you mean the time to had this conversation with his dad?

nice to see you. now we're going to turn to jonathan caught a long time adviser to one of the most well known conservative democrats, senator joe mansion of west virginia. he's now a partner with the political consultancy capital council, jonathan, you know, senator mansion are better than anyone else. i know other than his wife, and my question to you is, what does he, who is he doing battle with? is he primarily focused on other democrats in the party is rivals to his vision? or is he looking at mitch mcconnell and the republicans as, as, as contenders to that vision that he has? i don't think he looked at anybody in the senate as his rivals. mean, i've seen him walk the halls and talk to nearly every senator. he considers almost all of them friends, he wants to work with them. he tries to find a way to work with everybody from you know, ted cruz to elizabeth warren. he teams up with em. when he can, so i don't think he views anybody's as his rivals, but he has a vision for what he thinks is best for his state of west virginia,

which is always top of mind for him. and then what he thinks his best for the country, and that may differ from a lot of the democrats, but as he always said, he's a west virginia democrat, not a national democrat, or a dc democrat. so how many democrats within the democratic party? cuz that's what we're getting at today is really the dividing the party. how many people are with him? a, in that vision of pragmatic, centrist, some fiscal responsibility. you know, let's have infrastructure, but let's not spend the whole bank. know how many of the caucus are, are quietly there, or overtly there versus say a o c's side of the equation, or bernie sanders side of the equation. i think there are a lot more moderate, pragmatic, centrist in the senate than one thinks i. i know that those, especially in the house, those numbers have grown way out, shining what the progressives have made up on how side. but i think in the senate, you probably have 20 to 25 fiscal, fiscally responsible democrats. i would say, any member who were any senator who used to be a governor is always fiscally responsible because they know at the end of the day

they have to pay their bills. but you also have a lot of senate democrats like john tester, chris kuhns hom carper agi hassan happened cortez mast oh, who are in that air in that area with him. and i think you saw that when he brought together the infrastructure team that end up getting a bill that got 69 senators to support it. that's rare in dc these days. now, i would say the argument from the more liberal wing of the democratic party is that this is not a normal moment. this is not a time for incrementalism. this is a time when the wealth gap, the racial divides, the inequality divides. have never been greater in america. we've saw everything from the pandemic and how it hit the country unevenly. we sit now see a lot of people even denying no science. we saw the george floyd murder and the aftermath of that. that something has to be done. that's big, and we have a lot of people who would be great contributors to society, but they don't have the means or wherewithal to do it. because essentially, to few people in the nation control, most of the wealth. what the senator mansion value in that argument and what does

he not agree with? i think he agrees with all that. i think he thinks this is time to do, big bold things. but i also think he knows that this is going to have a lasting effect on the country. so he went, wants to make sure we get it right. he said in the state in the yesterday we spent $5.00 trillion dollars in the last, you know, 18 months. that's a lot of money. he wants to make sure that money is going where it's needed most which is wide today he said, we have to make sure that those who need the money the most are getting it from these programs that we're passing. so he just wants to make sure we do it the right way and he's not saying stop. he's not saying, wait until 3 years from now. he saying what? take our time. there is no rush. there is no deadline. this is not another self imposed deadline. we have time to do this, we have time to do it right so that it's good for those who need it most for the next 20 years. so what in that argument it that joe mansion emmett? you are also making ah, is sen. bernie sanders,

who's chair of the budget committee, was also a leading contender to, to be possibly be president united states. he lost to joe biden, but, but you know, he was major player. what do you think he is not hearing? i don't know. i know that bernie initially said he wanted the 10 trillion dollar bill and he wanted the 6 trillion dollar bill and he want then he was okay with $3.00 trillion. i think the way senator mansion approaches that is, let's figure out what we need to spend money on and who needs to get it. and then we'll figure out how much it cost. bernie sanders has seemed to take the opposite approach of. let me just spend as much money as i can and will fit it in. they just have 2 different views on how to govern. and i don't think that's ever going to change. but when you kind of look at the explosion of the budget going on and you look at what has happened historically with $28.00 trillion dollars of total debt. republican presidencies have contributed 62 percent to that amount. democrats have contributed 30 percent. so my question is, most people think about republicans as being fiscal conservative and democrats is

tax and spent. why are democrats so bad at marketing? i don't know, but that stat tells you that democrats are more fiscally responsible than republicans. and like center mentioned said he's okay, spend in the money, he just wants to make sure we have a way to pay for it. and i think he actually does. i mean, he wants to get rid of that trump tax cut, which added trillions to the debt and republicans now of a sudden don't want to pay for it. look, is it a party that can put itself back together? we should paper over all of us, or should the nation should the citizens of the democratic party take this seriously and know how? ah, i mean, you will a party divide? no, i think this is a big 10 party, i think bad to be a governing majority. you have to have people from west virginia and new york. chuck schumer is a great leader for the democrats, and that's why he has mark warner and joe mansion and leadership. and he also has bernie sanders and elizabeth warren because he wants to listen to both sides.

here's the thing was with warren, can't get elected in west virginia. joe mansion probably couldn't get elected as a democrat in massachusetts. that's why we need to make that probably the most truth. i have her. i think that that's accurate, but i think that's why we have to have a big tent party and break everybody in. and i think the democrats are doing that. you know, look, you know, i know the senator and i know a lot of folks across the way and, and when i have spent time with him, i've had other democrats come to me and say, are you gonna go take a shower now after, after your time with the senator mansion. ah, my question is, do you think democrats, your democratic party friends understand that that bernie sanders would not be chair of the budget committee? if you did not have that seat in west virginia, that you would not have in control off all, you know, both houses of congress and the white house. probably. if you did not have a, a person in that seat, that the fragility of presence means you have

a fragility of presence. and that means that that one vote gives you a lot of other opportunities to put your story to put your aspirations in front of the u. s. citizens and then see how they're going to go with it. that, that i just find it interesting that, that many democrats are willing to say with regards to sen cinema of arizona, senator mansion that they're not real democrats. so we don't want them and accept defeat or even accept the split congress. is that what you find out there? i think there are a lot of democrats who take that approach. i think it's a lot in the progressive community would like to purge the party of a lot of moderates. but as a democrat, i like to win. and i like to be in the majority because it means you get to govern and actually pass your priorities. i am much happier when democrats have 50 or more votes in the senate, and mitch mcconnell is not dictating the senate schedule than i am this way. so i hope they understand that to govern you, you need to lead and have

a big party. and these people are all in party to mention has been a democrat his entire life. before some of these progressives were even born. he's been fighting for the same principles in the people of west virginia, and he's kind of continued to do it for a number of years. while jonathan caught long term friend, advisor, and former communications director for senator jo mansion. thank you so much for joining us today. thank you. so what's the bottom line now that the democrats are in power? they control it all, but they can't take full advantage of that power because they are really super divided about how socialists they want to be some say that america's deeply divided society with its huge wealth and inequality. gaps that fall along racial divides, need a bold fixed. now, others argue that the cost of that shift will undermine the nation's economic standing. so should they just put their foot on the gas and go bold, or should they hold back? by the way, the republicans didn't hold back when they were in power, no matter what happens with the internal democratic party fights on how to transform american society. the really big political battles are going to be within

the parties, not between them. democrat versus democrat and republican versus republicans. and that's the bottom line ah. on kathy, the cost is the world to dependence on coal and are invested about get a bailout venezuela launch is the digital volleyball. i'm attempt to revive its currency and back to the seventy's. thank place you making an unwelcome return. counting the cost on al jazeera ah, holding the powerful to account. as we examine the ulysses ro in the world on al jazeera in the country with an abundance of results, great bar and want indonesia, his friends for me, we moved pool to grow and frank,

we balance for green economy, blue economy, and the digital economy. with the new job creation law, indonesia is progressively ensuring the policy reform to create quality jobs investment. let it be part linda. this is growth and progress in indonesia now. ah, ah again, pete, adobe indo. how you top stories this half hour senior u. s. and taliban officials have begun talks and casarez the 1st in person meeting . since u. s. troops left afghanistan, the acting afghan foreign minister as, as the 2 countries discussed, opening a new page and the u. s. will offer vaccines to cobble the taliban delegation will later meets with e. you represent tips. natasha, good them is in doha.