so so the risk far away from freezing, so the risk of some icy patches, particularly for eastern parts of england. different in the morning, more in the way of sunshine for england and wales. more cloud coming in for scotland and northern ireland. the showers replaced by longer spells of rain in western scotland in the afternoon. still dry for eastern scotland. temperatures near normal for the time of year.

hello this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines. india launches one of the world's biggest covid vaccination programmes — the government hopes to inoculate three hundred million people in the coming months. president—electjoe biden sets out plans to speed up immunisations in the united states — promising to vaccinate 100 million people within his first 100 days in office. germany's christian democrats have elected armin laschet as their new leader — a key moment in the race to succeed angela merkel as chancellor. now on bbc news global questions, as president electjoe biden takes the oath of office to become the 46th president of the united states what will be his priorities? dealing with the pandemic tops his agenda. hello, i'm zainab adawi. welcome to global questions. joe biden says america is back

and he'll repair global alliances fractured by donald trump. the us�*s reputation has taken a battering after pro trump protesters hammered their way into the country's seat of democracy. can america ever be great again? that's global questions. america's place in the world. well, to bring you this edition of global questions, as always, our two panelists and our questioners join us via video link from all over the world. let me tell you who's in the hot seat this week giving the answers. and we have two veterans and the cream of us politics. valerie jarrett was the longest serving senior adviser to president barack 0bama. she was co—chair of

the 0bama transition team. valerie trained as a lawyer and worked in a number of civic organisations in chicago before moving into politics. and richard haas is a highly respected former us diplomat who's currently president of the council on foreign relations. he was a senior official in the us state department under president george bush and was adviser to secretary of state colin powell. richard has written a new book called the world a brief introduction. big topic there. richard, welcome to you both. and remember, you, too, can join the conversation. it's hash tag bbc global questions. and let's get right down to our first question is from des kimara in quebec, canada. but i believe you're originally from sierra leone. 0k, fire away. thank you. thank you very much. until 2016, america is seenl as the target for democracy. as the father for democracy.

however, with the trump - administration and its policy, foreign and domestic, its democratic recipesi and political hegemony has been given a whack moving _ forward with the biden administration. - are we going to see america telling foreign countries have any issues i with democratic issues to respect the will of the people? _ richard haas, has america lost the moral high ground, can't go around telling people what to do. look, i'm not surprised to hear that question from des or anybody else, and i think in the near term, what the united states has to do is put its house in order. we've got to once again be a democracy and an economy that others respect, they admire and more to emulate. in some ways, the most persuasive thing we can do is to be is to succeed, and that will have influence in and of itself. i do think, however, it's important the united states recover its voice to point out massive human rights

violations where the rule of law is ignored. but obviously our ability to do that successfully will depend upon, again, what we're doing at home. is that cliche? in order to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk. the united states has to resume walking down the rule of law path down the democratic path. and if and when we do and i think it's a question of when, then i believe we will once again be in a position to be a persuasive, important, influential voice. very quickly, richard, implicit in your answer is the fact that you think america has lost respect in the world as a result of the trump presidency? 0h, absolutely. and it culminated in the events of january sixth. the united states showed a dimension to itself that the rest of the world didn't recognise, but it did knock us off the hill. you know, various presidents from john kennedy to ronald reagan talked about us being a shining city on a hill. well, we were anything but shining.

so, again, if we are going to regain our voice and gain some influence, we have to we have to rediscover the the essence of american democracy and put it back into practice. valerie? well, i agree with richard. 0ur finest hour is when we lead by example. that's when we have the power to tell folks around the world how they should behave if they want to be a democracy is when we're acting like a democracy. and i think, des you put it mildly, when you said we've suffered a whack, i think we have suffered a really a defining blow to our credibility. and it will be up to president biden and vice president harris to reestablish our position in the world. and they're going to have to earn back the trust of our allies who we have alienated. they're going to have to demonstrate to the people around the world that we have earned the right to say this is how a democracy should behave by behaving that way ourselves. des. have you lost respect for america?

why did you ask that question? well, the reason why i asked i the question, i compare foreign policy to an oxygen - mask flying in a plane. you put your mask first, - notjust put in it, but properly before somebody else. so if american policy, domestic policy is not up to scratch, - how can you tell, for example, uganda, you're going - to be having elections l to as they are harassing the opposition leader to respect the will of the people _ is like the pot calling the kettle black. - all right. thanks very much indeed. des there in canada. let's now come back to here, london, where i am to richard friedman. richard, what do you want to ask our panelists? does china's place in the global supply chain and our need - for their goods, mean that america and the rest of the world _ is powerless to stand up against the litanyi of crimes against humanity? like the hong kong

cybercrime and intellectual property theft? _ richard haas, there's been a lot of china bashing under donald trump. what do you think might happen under a biden presidency? well, i actually think there'll be a significant degree of continuity, american perceptions across our political spectrum have changed towards china. and the reason is not that america has changed, but china under xi jinping has changed. this is a more repressive china. the state role in the economy is growing rather than shrinking. it's militarily a much more powerful china and it's a much more assertive, even aggressive china. and i think the biden administration will have to react to that and might do so differently. it will do so differently. it'll do it more with allies and focus more on human rights and so forth. but there's no honeymoon in us chinese relations. again, this is a very different china. the question about supply chains in particular, if we don't like dependency on china and then we have to offer an alternative, and i think it's going to it behooves us working

with others to come up with alternatives. if we don't like, for example, chinese 5g networks, well, we have to offer an alternative. and that might mean things in the united states or working with europeans or asians. but we have to come up with alternatives. the best way to make sure that china does not emerge as dominant is that we outcompete them. and i think in our history and in our capabilities, we can we can do that. but we have to, again, almost like the answer to des's question, mr friedman. we have to put our own house in order. american competitiveness will be critical if we are going to be in a position of standing up to china. ok, so the mood music will be different from the trump presidency. but actually, in terms of policy, you're saying thatjoe biden is going to pursue a fairly tough policy with china and make it more of an emphasis on human rights violations against the weakest and that kind of thing? that's your point. 0k.

more of an emphasis on human rights, a little bit more concerning with with allies. but but, yes, this is going to be a fairly robust policy. all right, valeriejarrett. i mean, when barack 0bama was president, obviously you were in the 0bama biden white house. you knowjoe biden very well. 0bama talked so much about the tilt to asia. are we going to see a tilt to asia underjoe biden, do you think? 0h, most definitely. and i would remind your audience that the reason why president 0bama and vice president biden were so supportive of the tpp, the trade agreement that would have bound the united states and 11 countries, not only would it have opened up a huge market for us companies to trade in asia, but it also would have isolated china and we would have set high standards in terms of everything from human rights to the environment and business trade policies. and it would have isolated china. and so whether or not it is possible to re—enter those conversations is yet to be seen. but i know that president elect biden understands the potential

of that market for all us companies and also appreciates the fact that we have to collectively hold china accountable. it's not something that any one country can do alone. all right, richard, do you liked what you heard from our two panelists. i think that the right things i wonder whether that is i the political will to. really take on china. and i think that possibly they are at the size now| where they're too big for us to even do it. i i think the amount of money they've invested in africa - and around the world, they might. actually we might have lost it now. that's my fear. all right. 0k. thanks very much indeed. can i can ijust intervene there and disagree with that pessimism. sure. it's not too late. china is not ten feet tall. it's not too late. there's many things we can do in africa, latin america, europe and elsewhere to push back against the belt and road initiative.

we have many things to offer, in some cases, things that china can't begin to offer. so i don't see a case for strategic pessimism, particularly in picking up on something valerie said. i think it would be fantastic if the united states were to try to negotiate entry into the trade systems that have emerged in asia, because i think that would give tremendous collective strength and leverage vis a vis china. so we could say to them, you want access to these markets. here are the standards in your behavior. you have to meet. richard, come back to you. you slightly reassured there? that sounds about right. that sounds what we need to do. we need to actually outcompete them land outfox them in a way and investl in our own systems. and it's not only it's not asia, it's china. | and asia is a very large place. |and there are lots of very good | company countries that actually we want to trade with. but china isjust a bit - of an outlier, in my view. all right. let's go to nairobi, the capital of kenya, to sally 0tunga. sally, go ahead, please.

the previous administration have been characterised - with very many shortcomings that we've seen. _ so my question is, do you think that there are policies - from the previous administration that need to be upheld? - 0h, let's keep this on foreign policy, let's come to you on that, valerie, as a democrat, i mean, some democrats have applauded donald trump on some of his policies. the abraham accords, for instance, where you've got ties. established between key arab countries and israel, for instance. are there some good things that donald trump did on the world stage? they don't actually come to mind right away. i think what you'll see is president biden will take a hard look at our foreign policy as well as domestic policy, and reverse many of the policies that president trump has put into place. i think they are contrary to the core values of america and inconsistent with the relationship we want to have around the world.

the isolationist approach is not one that's going to be able to tackle the huge challenges that we have on the world stage on everything from climate change to tackling a pandemic. so immediately, for example, i think that president biden has made it clear he would want to rejoin the world health organization. he would want to rejoin the climate paris climate accord. these are huge global challenges that, again, we can't go alone. and there is a philosophical difference in terms of president biden's approach to global politics and global issues and challenges and opportunities. quite the contrary to what we've seen from president trump. so you honestly, valerie, cannot think of a single good job that you're struggling? i'm really struggling. maybe richard has. richard. can you help valerie out? she's struggling to

come up with anything. i've got a few. i think i've been a pretty persistent and strong critic of the trump foreign policy. but i can mention a few things that i think are, well, we're right to do and worth keeping when we've talked about a more sober policy towards china, not thinking that simply integrating china into global arrangements would improve chinese behavior for the better. so i think that's one sign of you mentioned the abraham accords. i think we ought to build on that, see if we can't get ultimately saudi arabia to normalise with israel, the us, mexico, canada trade agreement, basically nafta plus. that's obviously something that is worth keeping. one area where i think the trump administration got it right and reversing the 0bama administration was the decision to provide arms, defensive arms to ukraine. that was right and will be continued. but i don't debate valerie�*s larger point. i think this has been an unsuccessful foreign policy. it's left the country in the world worse off. and i think the broad there'll be broad differences and departures from what we've seen over the last four years and what we're going to see.

sally, what do you think about what you've heard? can you think of any policies from the outgoing administration that you think should be applauded on the world stage? actually i was also i struggling with this. and that's i was asking this| question because i'm trying i to think for the last four years i that he's been in power, i've not seen something concrete that - i could say that should be upheld, but probably wanted to know- from people what they were working, know what they really living the united states, some i of the policies that they could have enjoyed as a result _ of the previous administration. all right. so for our next question, i'm going to go to one that we received on social media from syndron, from chennai in india. and he says, does president elect joe biden, he has said he will bring the usa back into the paris accord. so will the us take the lead on climate change again? and does this show a willingness to re—engage with the rest of the world value? we've kind of touched on that slightly, but will the us actually take the lead on climate

change in the world underjoe biden? yes, i expect we will, and i think the fact that president elect biden has chosen john kerry, his second the secretary of state under president 0bama and vice president biden to lead this effort to have a seat on the national security council, first time ever that this has happened is intended to signal not just to the united states, but importantly to the world, that we anticipate that this is a top priority or will be a top priority of president biden. and having john kerry at his side, who has an extraordinary reputation with our allies around the world, will enable us to get back to the table and seize a very important leadership role. but acknowledging the fact that this is not something the united states can do alone or even lead alone, we need to make

sure that as we had nearly 200 countries who were part of that accord, that we are delivering on the promises that were made notjust by the governments, but by the private sector as well. we know here in the united states that there were charges led by people like former mayor bloomberg to galvanize our mayors and governors and business community to make strong commitments. and we want to build on the momentum that was started under president 0bama. and i am absolutely confident that with president biden and with john kerry working on this issue, we will make extraordinary progress over the next four years. 0k, richard. well, look, this will obviously be one of the foreign policy and domestic priorities of this administration, reentering the paris process will be the least of it. i think the real question will be what sort of our regulatory policies are introduced in the united states, what sort of policies are introduced to increase research and development and public support for green technologies? but the short answer is yes.

i think this will be climate will no longer be not only will you not have an administration that opposes serious work on climate issues, but i think what you'll see is it won't be compartmentalised. climate change policy will be seen throughout domestic and foreign policy. so this will be one of the planks, if i can put it that way, of mr biden's approach to the world, i would predict. so you both think that america can take the lead, recover its standing on the world stage when it comes to climate change? you both think it can underjoe biden, again, by leading by example. if not, we can automatically take back our role. we have to demonstrate that we have the right to do so. and i'm confident that president biden will do that. all right, great. so we're going to go down under to ben al—assaf in canberra, australia. and ben, thank you so much for being with us at this unearthly hour that we are recording, as far as you're concerned, in australia. so thank you.

what's your question? my question is, given the prominence of the black lives matter movement i and more progressive views - within the democratic party, do you think us foreign policyl will be impacted in any way by the diversity and inclusiveness within biden's administration - and possibly by pressure i from the progressive voters who helped to elect him? thanks very much indeed. i just want to interject here one fact which is quite startling about the biden incoming biden administration. it's the first cabinet to have gender parity in the united states and a majority of people of color, 54% in senior positions and a majority of people of colour, 54% in senior positions in the cabinet are people of colour. so ijust thought i'd put that out there and come to you, valerie, for your answer to ben's question. well, i begin with the premise that diversity is a strength that president elect biden and president elect harris made it very clear that they would have an administration that reflects that rich diversity of our country because they think

they will make better, more informed decisions that way, people with different life experiences that represent the fabric of america having seats at the table is a priority, as it was in the 0bama administration. and i expect that work to continue. i think that the democratic party has always had a big tent and room for everyone. and what president biden, president—elect biden has made clear is that he intends to be the president of all of america, not just those who voted for him, but everybody, and that he will be listening broadly, but he will be staying true to his core values. and he's made it clear that those core values are to make sure that we build back better. and what he means by that phrase is that when we emerge from this global pandemic, we will make sure that we vaccinate people fairly. we will make sure that the jobs that have evaporated for the least people who were least able to lose theirjobs are able to recoup. women have been devastated byjob loss in this pandemic.

people of colour have suffered disproportionately from the pandemic in terms of health outcomes and also in terms ofjob loss. and so as we rebuild, we do have to rebuild in a way that is fairer and more equitable. and so do you put a label on that as being progressive? i put a label on that as being fair and mindful that the american dream should not be available just to just a few, but it should be available to everybody. and i think that that is the lens that is the true north through which a president biden and a vice president harris will look at their responsibilities, not just of leading our country, but how they interface with the rest of the world. 0k, richard, so will joe biden be under pressure from the progressive people who voted for him, or you want to define it as well as this very diverse, inclusive cabinet? and will that alienate the 70 odd million who backed trump? not a whole lot. 0n foreign policy. the executive branch has the lion's

share of our influence over foreign policy. progressives are more represented in congress, but congress definitely takes a back seat when it comes to foreign policy. i don't think priorities for progressives are domestic rather than foreign policy. so i actually think you'll see, if anything, a more traditional american foreign policy. in that sense, joe biden is part of the post—world war two post—cold war mainstream of foreign policy. and i think you'll see large elements of that. where i think there may be some pressure is the balance between how many that what the calories, the resources, the time, the effort of the administration need to be focused internally on the home front. and how much does that leave overforforeign policy? but by and large, i think i don't think it makes sense to see american foreign policy through this prism of progressives versus moderates oi’ conservatives. i don't think it really works that way. all right. thank you. so now let's go to camille vialet

in new york, in the united states for our final question. camille. due to the current _ tumultuous climate in the us as embodied by the recent attacks on january sixth, committed - by americans at the capitol. will president biden need to focus on domestic issues before even i attending to foreign policy? we've slightly touched on that. but let's go to you, richard. let me give you two answers. one is one should think of domestic and foreign policy as two sides of one coin, and that coin is national security. so the two are actually need to be done together and need to be integrated. and i think you'll see that. second of all, you don't have the luxury when you're president basically saying to the rest of the world, hey, world, wait, just hang out for a while while we sort ourselves out, out. and when we're ready, we're going to go rejoin the world. it doesn't work that way. so i think from the get go, the biden administration will have to focus internally and focus on foreign policy. i just think the balance giving covid given what happened onjanuary

sixth, given our infrastructure needs, our schooling needs questions of racism and police reform, i think the balance of resources, time, financial, what have you will be focused internally. but as we began, our conversation with that has international repercussions. that has international implications. all right. thanks very much indeed. and final word to you, valeriejarrett and. isjoe biden going to be so busy trying to heal the divisions in the united states that he's going to have no time to do anything on the world stage? well, here are some good news. we have a president who has the experience, the intellect, the discipline and the team to multitask. as we just said, the president can't afford tojust focus on one thing. you have to focus on multiple fronts at once. we are all interconnected. the united states had a horrendous attempt to overthrow our government,

storming the capitol, trying to reverse the fair and clearly illegal election in our country. and that is unprecedented in our country. and so, yes, there is much work to do to rebuild the credibility and the confidence of, as you said, those 70 million people who didn't vote for him. but i am confident that he can do that while he is reestablishing our credibility on the world stage. that is the job of the president of the united states and to assemble a team that is organised in a way to move down multiple fronts, some of which are independent. but as richard said, many of which require an overlap of cooperation. and that's good news, i think, that we have to look forward to. thanks very much indeed. valerie jarrett and also to richard haas. and also my questioners, that so from this edition of global questions america's place in the world, i think we've highlighted some of the challenges that are going to be at the top ofjoe biden's in—tray when it comes to foreign policy. thank you to all of you. wherever you're watching or listening to this programme, don't forget, if you want to be part

of global questions, then or submit a question to our panel, please e—mail us on global questions at bbc.co.uk until the next time from me in abu dhabi at bbc.co.uk until the next time from me and the rest of the global questions team. goodbye. it was a snowy scene across eastern part earlier today, the snow was not falling added will look different through the weekend, this is when the weather comes from, milder air, showery airstream but the thicker cloud that brought the rain and snow earlier has pushed into the north sea. this is the way that we will see pushing in from the west,

already seen some sunshine in wales, probably dry there. this is the we have been left with is the snow cleared, that was the radar, the blue as the rain, the white is the sleet and snow, moving into the north sea. if you show us following to the north west of england and northern ireland, the bulk towards the north—west of scotland, longer spells of rain here. a little sunshine in between, still cloudy for the eastern parts. when stunning west or north—west, bringing showers to the north—west of the uk but temperatures making double figures in south wales, south—west england and five in east anglia will be have had the snow. this evening and overnight more showers from the north—west briefly pushing into parts of englund and wales with clearer skies returning later, quite chilly with temperatures not far away from freezing so the risk of some icy patches for eastern parts

of england. a different look to tomorrow morning for eastern areas of england and much of englund and wales and will be dry and sunny, a few showers was to the north—west early, soon moving away and more close to scotland and northern ireland, more shells into northern ireland, more shells into northern ireland and western scotland replaced by longer spells of rain in the afternoon, eastern angler probably dry with sunshine. temperatures 6—9, near normal for the time of year. enter monday wet weather moves north across scotland, a few showers was elsewhere, the crowd cloud moving in and rain through the afternoon, temperatures steady 7—8 on monday. the weather from the south—west a sign of things changing because this weather front, low pressure will dominate during tuesday and wednesday and perhaps into thursday so i signal the weather is turning more and settled

into next week, the wind picking up, rain at times and bringing the threat of flooding. this is bbc news with the latest headlines... calls for more support for the uk's travel and tourism sector — after the government imposes tougher restrictions on arrivals to keep out new strains of coronavirus. stricter covid restrictions come into force in scotland, with changes to takeaway and click—and—collect services. a sanitation worker becomes the first person in india to receive a covid vaccine, as the country begins to vaccinate more than 1.3 billion people. president—electjoe biden sets out plans to speed up immunisations in the united states, promising to vaccinate 100 million people within his first 100 days in office. our plan is as clear as it is bold — get more people vaccinated for free. and in half an hour,

stephen sackur speaks to lawyer alan dershowitz, who was part of president trump's