president trump has offered condolences at the synagogue in pittsburgh where eleven worshippers were killed by a gunman on saturday. protestors from one jewish organisation said he was not welcome until he denounced white nationalism. but the rabbi of the synagogue said donald and melania trump were welcome. bangladesh and myanmar have agreed to begin the repatriation of rohingya refugees next month, despite a warning from un officials that conditions are not right for their return. and this video is trending on bbc.com... the world's tallest statue, standing at 182 metres tall, opens in india. the statue of unity is twice the size of the statue of liberty, and has taken more than 3000 workers nearly four years to construct. that's all. stay with bbc world news. now on bbc news it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, with me, zeinab badawi.

my guest is a former business executive—turned—politician. he is saulos chilima, the vice president of the small southern african state of malawi. he was president mutharika's running mate in the elections in 2014. now he has left the ruling democratic progressive party, and says he will run against him in the presidential elections next year to, as he puts it, save the country from destruction and corruption. why is he criticising a government of which he still is a member, and if corruption is really as bad as he describes, why doesn't the vice president use his influence to stop the rot? vice president saulos chilima,

of malawi, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. why are you running against the very man you stood with in 2014, on a joint ticket? times change. and, first of all, it's a constitutional right in malawi for any person above the age of 35, and who has got the right qualifications, to contest for office. i am not saying that you are not fit to run for president. i am just enquiring why you have turned against peter mutharika, and yet you were campaigning with him on a joint ticket only in 2013. only in 2014.

i don't think it is turning against him, it'sjust i would like to exercise my constitutional right and contest the office of president. so you want to exercise your constitutional right. are you also exercising and discharging your duties right now as vice president? well, the vice president's office is a delegated office in the constitution, so as i sit here, and when i go back home, i still am going to go about my office, report for duties, and because the office of the vice president needs to be run by a team of supporting technocrats, and headed by an individual, i am still in that office. so do you have meetings with president mutharika? not afterjune. not sincejune, which is when you left the ruling dpp party? absolutely, absolutely. do you meet any of the cabinet ministers? not officially, except when we attend functions together sometimes — it could be cultural events or church functions. and when you meet, you say hello, because we worked together before.

but you are still drawing your salary as vice president, even though clearly you are not discharging your duties? well, iam. you said you haven't met the president since june? i haven't met him, not at all, but what i'm saying is the office is there, the office has not been vacated. i am still in that office, and therefore i am available to provide counsel, to respond to enquiries by citizens, to respond to enquiries by different organisations. there is meetings, and there is guidance provided in that office. but you know the suspicion about why you have not left the government? no, what is the suspicion? i will give you an example of some of the things which have been said online by malawians. why is mr chilima not resigning, to show he wants change? he is using the money and tax money provided to the vice president to run his own campaign. is that not corruption?

another says, if i were in his position, i would publicly apologise to malawians that i am part of that failure. you are in a very difficult position. accept that. well, maybe yes, maybe no. look, i don't think that it's entirely correct to say that i am using government money to support the utm activities. that's not correct. that's your new party that you set up injuly, the united transformation movement. it's a misrepresentation to suggest we are using taxpayers‘ money to run our activities, because it's not taxpayers‘ money. but you are receiving a salary. well, the salary is there, and i have a contract which runs up to may 2019. which is when the elections are due. number two is the security details provided by the state, because i am still vice president. has president mutharika asked you to go?

no, he hasn't. it's odd, because three cabinet ministers say it's difficult to understand how saulos chilima can discharge his responsibility to advise the president, or collective cabinet responsibility, when he has clearly taken a stand that is opposed to and challenges the policies of the current cabinet government. well, again, that is strange. i don't think that the policy of the government is to promote corruption. that is what we're fighting against. and speaking against corruption, speaking against nepotism, is actually not quite speaking against, you know, a government, or government policy, rather. it's speaking against the evils. so i would disagree with insinuations to the effect that i am speaking against government policy. it's not government policy to promote corruption. but you are not obviously part of collective responsibility. don't you feel uncomfortable yourself, saying i am vice president, but actually, president mutharika, i have left your party?

i'm going to stand against you next year, but yes, i'm ready to report for duty to you? well, i don't feel uncomfortable at all. like i said, the office is there, and i am in it, and i still work. you are staying put. absolutely. so you brought up the issue of corruption. the information minister, kondwani nankhumwa, says the vice president is the second—most—powerful person in the country, and has been there for five years. the question is, where was he of all this time, to come out now and expose corruption? interesting — because over the four years, this is 4.5 years, i have spoken against corruption at different times. i am champion of the construction transparency initiatives back home. we look at contracts and things in that arena. i have rebuked poor workmanship. i have spoken against ethics — poor ethics, rather, when i presented a public lecture

at the university of malawi. these i was speaking when i was actively involved in government affairs, so it's incorrect to say that. but if corruption has reached what you have described as an embarrassing level, you are in a very influential position to do something about it — number two in the government. why didn't you stop the rot? you see, first is you engage, and say look, there is a problem here, can we do something about it? and you speak, you know, publicly, with these pronouncements. stopping it means that when you make a recommendation, it's taken on board. i am not the final decision maker. i can only make recommendations. who is the final decision maker? it is the president of the country. you can't imply that the president

of the country is guilty of any corruption. no, i'm not. you are not saying that. but he has condemned corruption just as much as you have. he insists that all the accusations that are made about corruption are complete nonsense. he says we are fighting corruption. if we all work together, we can stop the scourge, but not one person. so, i mean, he is on the same page as you are. well, the corruption story in malawi is an interesting one. nobody disagrees that there is corruption, from the president to opposition leaders, to businesses, to the donor community — everyone. i will give you an example. the malawi economicjustice network says 30% of public services get propped up by corruption. what i would say is, are we really, seriously fighting corruption? that is the question we should be addressing, and that's where we're coming from. we're saying i don't agree that fight is ongoing, but it should be. i don't want to go and start making allegations against people here, but we do know that there's cases of corruption back home that are not

being pursued because the people are protected within government, they belong to the ruling party. well, i mean, the anti—corruption bureau that exists in the country has been looking at various allegations that have come up, you know, contracts and money missing and so on and so forth, and it is said quite clearly, at least in peter mutharika's case, that he has not benefited personally from any kind of wrongdoing. i mean, malawi, as you say quite rightly, is still reeling from the cashgate scandal of 2013—2014, under the former presidentjoyce banda, when tens of millions of dollars went missing, officials and politicians all caught up in that. but the thing is, as the president says, you've all got to come together to try to rid this scourge. why can't you work with him, rather than standing against him? first and foremost, the cashgate story, we need to look at it

on a continuum. i think you can't pinpoint a particular period between this day and that day. it's been going on forever, for years. and the fact that there is a need for collective efforts is also true, and we agree with that. however, if we're going to selectively pursue corruption cases, then we're not living our commitment, we're not living our promise. we need a situation where, from top to bottom, the body that is suspected must be brought under investigation, and if the case is proven, prosecuted and sent to jail. that is the only way that we're going to be seen to be really living our promise. otherwise it's rhetoric, and some of us tire of the rhetoric, and think we must take drastic action. so just sticking with the corruption allegations that have swirled around former presidentjoyce banda, and i'm not saying that she is guilty in any way, and in fact

she has returned to malawi to contest the allegations. but her record is poor, and we know that donor countries withdrew funding to malawi, aid which accounted for about 40% of malawi's budget. president mutharika reminded everybody in june only that when his government came in, he says there was absolutely no money. the government was literally bankrupt. the deficit the previous government was as huge as the national budget, arrears in billions, both local and international loans, and so on. so why then have you met withjoyce banda in september and talked about how you have a common vision? look, first and foremost, let's clarify a bit about the donor aid. it's not entirely correct to say that the aid was withdrawn. yes, budget support, as in direct budget. well, that's what the president said.

donors who are providing 40% of our budget left us. the money still comes in through other channels. off—budget financing is there. billions of dollars still comes into malawi. but the point is her presidency, even if she wasn't personally culpable, was very tainted. sure, right. meeting a former president is not an issue, and having a vision as two different people is also not an issue. and pronouncing the fact that people have got a similar vision, or they see the same picture, i don't think it matters whether they are, you know, convicts or not. their brain is still there. no, she isn't. i am not saying anything personally against her. but i'm just putting it to you, here you are saying i am really against corruption, and we're not doing enough, and yet you applaud a president under whom there was this rampant corruption, as we know from the cashgate scandal, and you say we have a common vision with her. well, you just said that she is not

a convict, and she is not under the law. but she presided over great corruption going on. what i am saying is she is not a convict. she is not answering corruption charges at this stage. was her record good on tackling corruption? well, i can reserve that. you can reserve it? i can tell you — you know what happened? the donors pulled out. tens of millions have gone missing. look, to say that her corruption record was poor, i think it's an unfair conclusion. but to say that under her regime we uncovered serious or massive plunder, that is correct. so the point we should be making is, did she do enough? is the answer yes or no? the same under stephen says that not enough has been done, but we are fighting it.

absolutely. the point being, i am saying, having a common vision does not necessarily mean that you do everything the same way. the reason anybody who has got a monopoly of first and foremost the knowledge of the issues, the problems in malawi. the solutions people can own because these are what the individuals want to bring. if we say, for instance, we need to sort out security because over the last three, four, five years we have had problems with the deficit. that is a problem, how it is resolved is dependent on individual administrations. i will ask you about policies in a minute. all of this boils down to what the president said about you, mr vice president, you want to be president. that is what he says all this is about. really?

well you do want to be president, don't you? i always put an if, if i go through the conference and i am nominated. that is that i will contest. it might not happen. you might not contend for the utm? i would like to go through a democratic process. this is one of the parties you created. i am one of the founders. you may not be the presidential candidate. if someone else comes up, so be it. elections in may next year, does that give you enough time to build a solid base when you have the established parties, particularly in the south and central regions, the ruling party with its stronghold in the south and the mcp malawy congress party, stronghold in the centre? what is important is what i am offering. let me put it this way, the elections

next year first are not changing one president or replacing the ruling party. the message we are taking across is this is the future of the country. therefore, we in the utm think first and foremost, we will reach out to as many places as we possibly can and we believe our message is right. we also have the know—how and expertise to communicate in a language that resonates vary well with the people of malawi. it doesn't matter whether there are six months left, we'll give it a very big shot, our best effort in order for us to penetrate. by the way, there are certain parts of the country that are already excited. euphoria is one thing, but making sure we succeed is our mission. i will say you have an uphill struggle, you have the strongholds of the ruling party and the main opposition party that polled 28%

of the malawi congress party in 2014, quite a substantial sum. looking at what needs to be done, malawai is a poor country, the united nations says that 71% of people people in malawi are in extreme poverty. you have said that one of your eye—catching policies is you will create 1 millionjobs in a year. do you really think that is possible? the ruling party says that is just pure fantasy. well, it is very possible. we should look at the economy and see what has been the progression? sitting here today, we have described as the law human development country, this is the un human development index, low income country, according to the world bank. development country according to 0ecd. and of course, the statistics from the national statistic office will say the poverty levels are going higher. now, creating 1 millionjobs in that environment is a challenge.

but unemployment is also one of the highest. therefore, we are looking at the fact that there is high unemployment, as an opportunity. there is sectors that today are idle, there is the agricultural sector, which employs close to 60% of the people, which we think can absorb people there. economists said creating 1 million jobs within a year might be a tall order, especially considering the macroeconomic environment, where will the jobs be created, in the public or private sector? your answer is the agricultural sector? it will be a multi sector intervention.

agricultural will be one, construction another, the civil service will the third. there are high unemployment rates in the public and private sector because instead of employing, companies are laying people off. we are proponents of a million jobs because we need first of all, to create a critical mass. we need to create a base that is going to consume what organisations are going to be... it is whether or not it can be done. nobody is disagreeing with you that it would be wonderful but your set a high bar for yourself. i have done so because it can be done. i believe it can be done and it will be done. are you going to campaign on that? i'm going to do it. in 2019, we will come back and say here is1 millionjobs. 18 million people in malawi and you will create a million jobs? the government has been applauded, it has built some key

infrastructure, emphasised that, some impressive roads. i should say that the imf and the world bank have said that the president has done very well, encouraging progress has been made in human development in recent years in malawi. it also said last year that malawi is one of the ten countries in africa that improved the most last year after implementing regulartory reforms which have made doing business easier. the imf has said growth is up 4%, inflation is getting under control. he's not done such a bad job after all. pat yourself on the back that you have been part of that government. i do not want that credit, it goes to one person. the imf has just slashed growth projection to 3.3%. still not bad. performing well. good or bad, good or bad, we think we should be a lot better than where we are today. that is what i'd like to say.

talking about agriculture, you talk about expansion, something that comes up perpetually when we talk about malawi. around half of the export earnings are from tobacco. that is not a great thing, obviously people say smoking cigarettes is very harmful, the who would like to see end of smoking. it is a cash crop, not a food crop and there is a lot of food insecurity. plus, there is lot of child labour, 38% of children between 5—17 work somewhere in the malawian economy and a lot of them on tobacco farms. they get nicotine poisoning handling the tobacco leaves. terrible. what is your policy on tobacco, then? do away with it? no. i think you cannotjust say do away with it. we are mindful of the anti—smoking lobby and the dangers associated with tobacco in terms of the nicotine, etc. we are also aware that we need

to diversify away from tobacco and that is being done. will you do more of that? we'll have to do a lot more of that but you cannot wish away that industry because it has got an impact on other sectors — transport, suppliers. you set the bar high yourself with the millionjobs, why not tobacco? we have two diversify, no two ways about it. it won't happen tomorrow. like the1 millionjobs, i won't do that in one year because you got to diversify away from tobacco so you improve on your export earnings. finally, you are distinguished in business. you are ceo of air tel communications in malawi, what makes you think that you can succeed where you think others have failed in malawi? first and foremost, success is a choice.

thank you for saying i was successful. i would like to see this, when i got voted into power in 2014 over as chairman of public sector reforms and the results are there for all to see. we started very well and we continue to say that for us to succeed we need a political driver, which i was graciously appointed to, to steer that program forward. we have recorded some successes. it is pointless to nominate them here, but the point being is that there is a good record performance and with the labour of passion and the zeal and the know—how that i possess, i do not see why we cannot turn around the economy. i certainyl think we can do a lot better. if i was given that opportunity, i would do it and perform wonders. i can say that. vice president of malawi, saulos chilima, thank you very much indeed for coming on hardtalk.

thank you. hello there. if the cold weather isn't your thing, then you'll be glad to know by the end of the week, and certainly into the weekend, it'll be turning much milder, but also wet and windy with it, too. so more on that in just a moment. this morning starting up again on quite a cold note for many areas. further west, though, we've got these weak weather fronts bringing more cloud, some spots of rain, so here a less cold start. for central and eastern areas, a fairly widespread frost. there'll also be a little bit of mist and fog across southern areas, but at least where

you have the frosty start, it should be dry, with plenty of sunshine in central and eastern areas. these weather fronts further west will produce little bit of rain for western scotland and northern ireland, and the other one affecting western parts of england and in towards wales. but eastern scotland, central, southern and eastern england should remain dry all day. and we start to build in the southerly breeze, so that'll push temperatures up to around 11—13 degrees across england and wales. still quite a cool one for scotland and northern ireland. into wednesday night, we'll start to see some rain pushing up into the south and the south—eastern areas of england. meanwhile, there's weather front across the west starts to meet with it, so by thursday it looks like it'll be quite wet, cloudy, for much of eastern scotland, eastern england and wales, and by the end of thursday that band of rain will be confined to more eastern areas. with skies brightening up further west, barring a few showers. a cooler feel to things across central and eastern areas, but still holding onto double—figure values the south. then we look to the atlantic on friday. now, this deep area of low pressure contains the remnants of hurricane oscar, and it'll arrive across the north—west of the country

later on friday. but actually, friday not a bad start. a chilly one, mind you, but it will be bright, with plenty of sunshine. across western areas, though, the cloud, the wind, and eventually the rain will start to appear. but it'll be a little bit milder pretty much across the board, with double—figure values for many of us. and then, through friday night, it really will be quite stormy across the north—west of the country as that low passers—by. into saturday, a windy day with outbreaks of rain, and for sunday we see a secondary area of low pressure moving in, to bring another spell of wet and fairly windy weather to our shores. so it really will be quite wild to end the week. this is saturday's picture, then. plenty of sunshine across southern and eastern areas, and here it should stay dry all day, albeit quite windy. the further north and west that you are, we'll see widespread gales, a spell of pretty heavy rain at times, as well. but it's a gusty day across the board, especially so, though, across this north—west corner. but look at these temperatures, importing some very mild air from the south—west. temperatures 14 to maybe 16 celsius. another wet and fairly windy

but mild day on sunday. a quieter one on monday, but we'll still have southerly winds, so it'll be very mild in the south. welcome to newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. the headlines: president trump visits the scene of the massacre of 11 jewish people in pittsburgh despite some protestors saying he is not welcome. bangladesh and myanmar agree on the return of some rohingya refugees, but the un warns that it's not safe for them yet. i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme: indonesia orders inspections of all boeing 737 max 8 planes as the lion air recovery operation continues. this is now the grim ritual that's taking place here at the port. these coastguard boats coming in, bringing back what they have been able to recover from the wreckage.