mm hm. and then international intercourse, him excellence award boot now for your hero, across the globe. breathtaking efforts to clean up the planets. there are underway in milan. companies are turning to a radical solution, a bio dynamic cement, toxic pollutants. so this really is a living building that's constantly interacting with his environment or thrice visits the frontiers of the battle for the environment. scientists here in iceland, pioneering a new technique to reduce emissions, earth rise, look for new ways of preventing air pollution on al jazeera, the you all with of impressed the people around the world. people pay attention to what we thought here. and i'll just, he was very good at bringing the news to the world from here. ah, hello, i'm mary m. as in london,

our main story now the u. s. justice department is released a heavily redacted version of the document that justify the f. b. i search of donald trump's home officials entered the for the president's florida. stay on the 8th of august. it's part of the probe into whether he'd illegally remove documents from the white house. an affidavit was used to gain approval for the search. alan fisher has more from washington. well, this is the document. people have been waiting for 38 pages. there was so much demanded crashed. the department of justice's court document system no of the 30 pages more than $21.00. have been redacted either in part or completely, but at least the case for the from the f b i to put before a judge to ask for a cert one, how did we get to this point? or you remember the earlier this year, there was discussions between donald trump, his team, and also federal investigators and the national archives about returning documents that the national archives said were missing. 15 boxes were returned. investigators

went through that and they found sensitive documents that don't some, arguably shouldn't of had. so end the affidavit, the said, look, there are documents being held at micro logo that aren't being stored in the proper way. there is the potential that some of these documents, if they were to fall into the wrong hands, could cause real damage to the united states. some of the documents could well detail, human intelligence assets, so that would put lives at risk. and there is the potential that there have been at least 3 criminal acts caused by the way these documents are being stored and the documents that are being stored. so what reaction are we had from donald trump? will he put out a statement on the social media network? he said that the affidavit is heavily redacted, with 3 exclamation marks. nothing mentioned on nuclear, a total public relations subterfuge by the f b i and the d o g, a close working relationship regarding document turnover in capitals. we give them

much, but of course the argument isn't about how much was given. it was what were the documents that were held back by donald trump, and why did he do it? will he know face criminal action? while that is a question that will be debated ferociously at the department of justice in the coming days in our landline and as strike on the capital of ethiopia, northern take regions killed at least 4 people according to the head of a local hospital. the city of mckelly has been at the center of a conflict between the government and local to grind forces which started more than 2 years ago. to grind tv showed images of damage, buildings and injured people being attended to by medical personnel. central government denies any civilians will kill and says it only gets military sites. ground fighting between federal forces into crime rebels resumed early this week ending a month long cease fire focused on is declared a national emergency. often months of record monsoon rains, large parts of the country been devastated, causing what the government is described as

a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions. 30000000 people have been effected on more than 900 killed since june. in that would know how to come to us. my 4 houses have been destroyed, it was hung, then i have to wade through this water to get to the market, buy groceries. i've wounded my feet, walking through it out of i said we're trying to flush water out of our home through a motor or using 10 boxes. if the water is everywhere, as you can see, no one is coming to help us. oh, here in the u. k. millions of households, the pricing for an 80 percent rise in the energy bills from october. on average. this means the increase from around at $2300.00 a year will go to just over $4000.00 surgeon food fuel and energy costs is being blamed on the worn ukraine. and the effects of the corona virus pandemic. the drug company, madonna, is doing pfizer, and by on tac. accusing them of coping its technologies made a corona,

virus vaccine. the us firms as its rivals cove at shot infringes on passions. it filed several years ago, the mo, done, or, and fi. the bottom tech vaccines are both based on m r n a technology which medina claims its own. and r n a uses a genetic code to fight a virus and bring you more on that story in the news, our interest less than 16 minutes from now. the bottom line coming up next the me hi, i'm steve clements and i have a question. this president joe biden have a strategy for the middle east, and if so, what is it? let's get to the bottom line. ah, and joe biden made his 1st trip to the middle east visiting israel, saudi arabia,

emmy, occupied palestinian territories for decades. the regions really been under firm american control, but more recently, china and russia had become more present and present throughout the region in many middle eastern in north african countries, as america's own engagement seems to slowly fade. so what are the results of his ford a visit to the region, and what can we expect on issues ranging from a deal with iran, nuclear weapons, to the prospects of a palestinian israeli piece deal today we're talking with steven cook, senior fellow at the council on foreign relations and author of false dawn, protests, democracy and violence in the new, middle east. steven, it's great to be with you and i want to play for you a short sound by president biden on this trip. let's listen to the president. we will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by china. russia were ran. we'll seek to build on this moment with active principle mercury leadership. and then at the, at the end of this, the president says,

and the united states is not going anywhere. now, typically when somebody is making a big declaration that they're not going anywhere, they're usually means that there's fears that they are leaving. what's, what's going on with the u. s. in the, in the region before. so thanks for having me. and i think that the, the biden administration really hasn't decided what it's pastor is in the middle east after now 18 months in office. you'll recall that when bitin 1st took the oath of office, there was lots of discussion including from senior members of his administration about de emphasizing the middle east secretary of state, tony blinking, talked about spending more time on other regions in the world, and that the middle east had taken up a lot of resources of the united states of the previous 20 years. what they didn't anticipate, whereas that there were going to be geo political and domestic political shocks that were going to drive president biden back to the middle east. and his visit to saudi arabia, in particular, had everything to do with russia's invasion of ukraine and a spike in oil prices. and thus the spike in gasoline prices for american consumers

at the pump. first, the administration came in saying that the me that the middle east isn't so important. now it's saying it is important and we're going to stay. i think what the actors in the region, the cut there is the saudis, the morality is the israelis egyptians. they want more than just words. they want proof. they want actions that the united states actually is going to stay in is going to be an anchor of stability and security in the region right now as a result of the president's visit. they don't seem convinced. okay, i think you and i have been at this now for decades. i've been reading reading steven cook's books and counts on foreign relations papers. thank you and, and i think that this, the sense i have is that when america wanted to do something in the middle east that, that the big anchor nations in that region largely fell and align to day. it feels as if you know, that, that whole kind of quid pro quo, even the transactions are up for grabs,

that saudi arabia is looking as much to china and russia to hedge its bets against the united states. are the big stakeholder countries you've written about like egypt, like saudi arabia, the other, you know, the main weather vanes in the middle east looking at the u. s. as the great power and the way they did 2 decades ago. definitely not. um lets keep in mind that between the defeat of saddam hussein's forces, after the invasion of kuwait in 191991. and then 6 months later, the fall of the soviet union, up until very recently, the united states was the only major external power in the middle east. it could drive events in the region, the saudis, the egyptians, even his railways, didn't really have another option. suddenly, over the course of the last 5 years, you have a return of the russians to the region and you had increasing investment on the part of the chinese and increasing chinese presence in the region. way back in the 19 ninety's, the chinese were barely even present. now they are major,

major actors in the region and the saudis, egyptians israelis in a moratti's look at the chinese and say, hey, there's a lot of opportunity here. we're not entirely convinced that the united states is going to play that role. that it once did. and we want to have the russians and the chinese at the table, so that as a result of the president's visit, the saudis didn't say ok, we're gonna open the spigot and let the oil flow. they said, look, we have an agreement with the russians through opec plus, and market conditions will demand, how much oil we put on the market. it's very different from the kinds of things that we've seen from the saudis in the past. so it's a remarkable thing to think about russians in the region to think about russian troops in libya, russian advisors in egypt. and i knew that were always russian activities in syria . but there were sort of big limits to where they could go. what's rushes grand strategy in the middle? well, russia is not necessarily interested in the middle east because of the middle east, per say. what russian president vladimir putin is after is to weaken the united

states in the west. and the middle east is adjacent to europe and the united states has been the major actor in the region. so by intervening and syria and rescuing bashar are said, he made an impression on other leaders in the region. in contrast to the way in which they viewed president obama's actions when there was an uprising in egypt in which after just a few days the president ice, they started talking about america's 30 year ally in egypt about a transition from power ferocity, mubarak that difference where the days supported are set, are not made an impression on the leaders in the major powers in the region that the russians were competent, non ideological, and making a play for leadership in the region that undoubtedly, undoubtedly those actions made. the russians seem a more attractive option than united states,

and suddenly the russians are selling more weaponry to the egyptians than they have since the early 19 seventies. this, saudis have struck a much better relationship with the russians ever since. ah, russia is there to stay and it is using its position not only to kind of elbow out or out maneuver the united states, although the russians hardly have the same kind of powers, the united states, but also by its presence in north african civically in libya. it poses a threat to europe. it's able to sow distrust and concern and a division between european countries as well as between the united states and its european allies. you were one of the most, um i think pression, but also just just brilliant writers about the arab spring and egypt. what came out of on that movement? i'm just interested in what is the state of america's democracy efforts in the region? my sense is that a lot of people who stood up for their rights,

their values to sort of change their course of their governments felt abandoned by the united states. that we were good at, offering promises and, and ra, support about democracy. but at the end of the day, we're missing an action. tell me where i'm wrong. well, no, we're not missing in action. i think that i'm a, the, the changes that had happened in the arab world were truly inspiring. but when the united states stepped up to help, there was only really so much that the united states could do. changing these societies, changing the political parameters in these countries, and really up to the people within these countries. as an i point out my book faust on those people who rose up ford, demanding rights and democracy. they were up against very, very powerful forces who were determined not to allow them to succeed with very little that the united states could do in order to prevent that from happening. all that being said, and ever since president trump came to office,

the united states has evinced very, very little official interest in supporting those voices around the region that want to live in work democratic and open countries. president biden spoke very forcefully about american values during his campaign in the early stages of his administration. but it's been mostly rhetorical. the administration has been precious little on the question, even of just basic human rights. if you look at the repression that people are forced to endure around the region and how basically silent this administration has been, i think the calculation has been there's really no missing why so many people were frustrated with the saudi trip because it was very clear that president biden did not want to do a president, trump did, and make saudi arabia the, his 1st visit outside the country and to go and not address human rights issues. and so he ended up going with a lot of photoshop pictures of, you know, president biden sitting there with a gas can in hand. but when he brought up jamal car shoji and his murder as we know

by agents of the saudi government and, and according to our ca, at the direct instruction of mohammad been some on been some on and others basically said, hey, are you, you know, this, this is this is ridiculous, look at abu ghraib, look at your record in human rights in the region. and so where is that? is that visual, which i mean, we used to talk about the importance of abu ghraib and how it was going to be a terrorism recruiter. with your mind, the american brand and credibility on these issues is that still something in the minds of many in the arab world, that it doesn't give us standing to talk about human rights. we don't have a lot of standing to talk about humor. it's not only because of our rape, but because of the questions we have here in the states, but the status of our own democracy in there's a sense that we need to get her to like january sick, january 6, toxicity in this country, practicing the polarization. the questions about the integrity of our elections are

things that observers from other parts of world and in particular in the middle east, are watching and find it. hey, disturbing that the united states would lecture them about human rights and democracy in change when united states hasn't got its own house in order that is really hampering our ability even if the administration was interested in this issue. but i will tell you that from the very beginning, president biden painted himself into a corner that was very hard for him to get out of because there was always going to be a time where he was going to need saudi arabia. and it was important for him to speak out about the murder of jamal showcase. but by saying i won't deal with my mom had been summoned by saying we are not going to sell weapons to the saudis, no matter what, by basically closing off avenues of dialogue with the saudis, we pushed the saudis away. and then at a moment of need,

the saudis were able to make the prisoner, i'd say, to look quite weak. and that he did look quite weak when he showed up in rod for those meetings with the crown prince and other saudi officials who didn't in the end do what the president had wanted to do, take accountability for the american rights record, pump more oil. ah, a and slowly move away from the russians and the chinese, none of those things have happened. i mean, it's remarkable in the strip that president biden's goal of lining up allies against the russian invasion of a sovereign nation. it's her twin ukraine. he basically came back with nothing, i kept thinking, well, maybe it's going to come out and maybe in one or 2 weeks. so it doesn't look as reactive to president puts right. but virtually nothing has happened in terms of winding that up. has this got to be one of the most ineffective trips by a u. s. president to region trying to get, you know, allies to support us? well, it does seem to be that it is all been one way that the united states has essentially

compromised its principles. ah, the united states is selling patriot missile batteries to the saudis, but the saudis are not upholding their end of whatever deal that was struck in react when it came time and august. 3rd, where the opec plus meetings, the saudis said, we're going to release $100000.00 more barrels, boil, minuscule, minuscule amount. we'll see what happens in the, in the fall. but it does not seem that the saudis are willing to consider the president's position, but said diplomatically, well, look, this is a little bit of an unfair question, because you've already said there is no coherent biden's strategy where the middle east. but if there were a coherent bite strategy toward the middle east, how important is israel palestine to that? because israel palestine is a feature of the reason just like iran to feature the region. there are these issues of the region. i can't tell. i mean that the senator biden, i knew the vice president biden, i knew,

would never think of not talking about occupied territories and settlements, but you didn't hear much of that when he went to israel. and so are we bypassing that or just putting on on hold to basically where would it fit if there was a, you know, steven cook coherent strategy in the movies? where would israel palestine be? what's, let's just start with the fact that the president goals in the middle east have been quite limited. get back into the joint comprehensive plan of action, the j super i the, the iran, there we go, which, which may happen and to get the saudis out of yemen. full stop. i think when it came to palestine and israel, the president did go to bethlehem. he did meet with mahmoud abbas. of course the timing was terrible since after the murder of awe of serena. barclay, your, your colleague, grant a in, in the united states sort of weasely got out of saying, well, she was murdered by israeli fire, but it was unintentional. and that really satisfied, satisfied no one. i think when the president was the vice president, he oversaw negotiations between israelis and palestinians and came to the

conclusion despite his long history of supporting in 2 states, which although he's a long been a staunch supporter of israel. i think he came to the conclusion that these negotiations weren't going anywhere and that he didn't wanna invest his efforts in a 2 state solution given the, the myriad problems that he has on his plate. but of course, you know, there has been a lot of progress in israel and its neighbors over the course of the last 2 years. i'm going to ask you about that. the abraham quite a little while it was, i mean, and you never hear the administration talk about the brand, right? except for the fact that you still have this central problem that is going to continue to be a source of instability. and so, so source of importantly, societal opposition to these agreements between governments to normalize relations with israel. in the end, it may not matter, but at the same time, it doesn't help the region that this conflict remains unresolved. and in fact may be an resolvable at this point. so you can have a coherent,

middle east strategy and sort of contain the israel palestine dimension of it is what i'm hearing you say. well, that's what i think the trump administration believed. and i think by default, that's what the biden administration please. i think that i think that the 2nd there's some exclusion of violence. and i don't mean a 4 day war between ascending islam jihad and the ide. yes. i mean, you know, societal unrest in the west bank in the gaza strip. people will start speaking differently about it. but until then i think people have convinced themselves that there can be a lot of progress in the region without really addressing the palestinian problem. don't touch me a minute about the abraham courts because i think for most people who aren't following this region every day, the abraham accords sound like this construct. they do the, you know, it's something it was planted. they don't know if there's any fruit from it. how's it going? who's in it? is it going to expand? have relations genuinely changed between say the u. e and israel are the saudis

gonna line up? tell, tell us a little bit about that. well, let me just start by by way of anecdote. um, in march i was in dubai and nobody and i could hear the sing song of hebrew everywhere i turned weather is in the hotel elevator in a mall or wherever i was going. i ran into his rallies in en route. i got on a plane, i got on an ale. all these really airline in dubai flew over saudi territory and landed in television in my child, retired decades. we both been dealing with these as and i, i never thought that that would ever happen. it was rather, it was rather extraordinary, so there has been progress on. there's a lot of tourism, it's mostly in one direction. there's been a lot of link ups of business concerns, a lot of security cooperation which was already happening before the abraham accords. the indian government now once in, on the abraham, of course. so there has been progress on the question is, will it go beyond the current signatories will go beyond the u. e. bahrain and rock

. i don't even put sudan really in that category, given the, the instability in sudan and not really knowing what's going on there. and the big issue is, what are the saudis going to do now they took a modest step when the president was, was in reality, they are going to allow israeli airliners traveling east to india to asia. aah! to traverse saudi aerospace. but it strikes me that with all of the kind of speculation about the saudis being next, it's a much different context for the saudis to normalize relations with the israelis without a file resolution to the palestinian problem than it is for, for example, of power bahrain use or the amana, i hate to be sectarian because it's not in my nature. but is this becoming a sunni league of interest with israel versus shia? standouts is, is this another proxy for the iran saudi conflict, which is also in iran, western conflict and would just love to know from you as we sit what i think is on

the precipice of a possible return to the j. c. p. o. at least that's the way things are looking right now. how does that either stir things up more or actually begin to a different track for stabilizing? what i do, i do think it's, you know, you, you do hate to be sectarian because you don't want to reduce sayings to, you know, penalty nellums is there that there's definitely an element there. look what initially drove saudi immorality, bahrain e, israeli relations that have been under the table on the security front, you know, in some dark room in a basement in i man was the thread of iran that they all proceed. and importantly, going back to what we were her previously talking about, the sense that the united states was not committed to their security instability, particularly with regard to iran, that the united states was off on this idea that you could have a nuclear deal with the iranians and this would begin a process of the iranians coming into the region and sharing the region. and so,

so they were responding really to lot of that kind of thinking. but of course there are a lot of other air seats or sunni majority. i would say to you are opposed to the abraham accords because of the palestinian issue. who's going to win out here? are the benefits of normalization without settling palestinian conflict? are they going to out way the opposition to it or the other way around. so for the saudis are making it clear that those benefits will not outweigh the importance of the palestinian issue, at least for saudi arabia. i know many people consult with you where, what is the state of the j. c. p. o. a. and i guess the obvious question is, you know, one of the iranian concerns which they publicly expressed is how do we have any, you know, understanding of solvency of this. if you bring in one president who wants it, the next president comes in and says dismantle it. because i mean, the truth be told the parties that did not live up to the agreement where the

united states, not the iranian, that's right. we all know that we violated the deal that we did with them, not the iranians and it. so the, so in that, in that case, how do you put that back together in any way that will survive 2024 and whoever comes out the other? well, that's right. and, you know, the iranians are not alone in this. if you talk to the saudis, you talk to him, right? he starts israel, he starts regions. they're very, very concerned about these 180 degree swings in american foreign policy. is it the j. c. p. o, a. is it not the juicy pa? are we important? are we not important is oil important is all not important. i think when it comes though, specifically to the jcp for so let me just put out on the table. i am getting very tired of trying to spitball this, you know, those you know, really aren't talking. right. i think what we know is that the state department has said we're close, but there are a lot of hang ups that continue. and one of them is what you point out is that the iranians need some assurance that we've made apparently to out what i get in and breathe the deal. once again, let me ask you finally about china and china's grand strategy in the region. china

seems to be in every region the world it seems to with belt and road initiative. but, you know, debt relations, you know, debt deals that it has around the world. china seems to be present in the way the united states used to be present around the world in the 1950s. so as you've kind of dealt with these various countries, this is china a as big a factor as i sort of feel it is. well, it's certainly the single largest investor in the region, but that doesn't the middle east unique. it's the single largest investor in almost every other region of the world with perhaps the exception of north america, but even could be, ah, it's significant in north america as well. i think, you know, we're talking ourselves into a sort of cold war. 2 point. oh, you're here in washington. i'm here in washington. a lot of discourse about the chinese threat. i don't actually see it so much in the middle east. yes. the chinese are investing, they want relations, but they don't want to get wrapped around the axle in the way that the united states has in the politics and security of the region. they want to benefit from the security that the united states provides. and they can have relations with all

the important countries of the region to serve their interests. so yes, china is a rising power with a lot of ambition, but in the middle east, as of yet, they're not seeking to challenge us position. they're seeking to extract from the region what they can to pursue their economic goals, which is the continued rise of china throughout this century. steven cook, senior fellow for the middle east in north africa, counts on foreign relations. thanks so much for being with us today. it's a great pleasure to be with you, steve. so what's the bottom line? the middle east, this full of both promise and of danger. the legacy of colonialism, superpower, proxy wars, and rivalries between leaders make the region one that struggles with its place in the world. for things to change, we need to see things like the palestine, israel stand off being resolve or relations with iran, normalizing with the rest of the world. but neither of those things have happened for decades. how would we actually know if there's progress when social and political visionaries in the middle east rise and rebuff?

russia, china, and the u. s. at their efforts to control and show that there's a better way forward for their citizens. then we'd know that's not to say that the great powers won't be around. they will be in both the u. s. and china both have a lot to offer. but as long as these powers see the region only through a military sales lens, or is a security threat or the gas station, and not for their people, their talent and the consequence of their region beyond oil and weapons, they're going to get it wrong. and there are strategies for the middle east like that of the united states the day are gonna fail. and that's the bottom line. ah hm .

in safe going home and then international anti corruption excellence award boat now for your hero, hulu. hello, i.