more than $300 million. hello, you are watching al jazeera, and these are the stories we are following. the u.s. envoy for iran says washington is ready to meet with tehran over its nuclear activity, but the white house is warning sanctions remain in place and the u.s. is preparing additional measures if the talks failed to reach an agreement. world powers have been shuttling between the two at talks in vienna and at salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal, but robert mellon told al jazeera direct

discussions are the best solution to such a complicated issue. >> we are prepared to -- we are prepared to meet with them face-to-face. we think it is far superior to indirect negotiations when dealing with something this complex with so much mistrust and so much potential for misunderstanding. we have said we will meet with them at any time, any place. they are the ones not prepared to do it, which we think is a mistake. >> u.s. president joe biden has held talks with his russian counterpart, but moscow denies it is building up military forces on the border of ukraine. at least 49 people have died in the southern mexican state of chiapas. most of those killed were migrants from honduras. several countries expand booster

vaccine programs to contain covid-19 variants, and the who continues to oppose it. they will have organization says the priority should be to get everyone vaccinated. at least 41 people have been killed in burkina faso during an and verge -- an ambush on convoy. those killed were believed to be part of a government-backed security group. it comes a day after the government resigned after his failure to tackle violence in the region and farmers in india have officially ended a year-long protest after the government abandoned controversial agricultural reforms. the government has made several concessions guaranteeing farmers a minimum price for their produce. those are the headlines. stay tuned now for "inside story." ♪

>> why is the u.s. president hosting a global summit on democracy? joe biden says he wants to defend human rights and fight up. as a -- fight authoritarianism. but countries such as russia and china were not invited, so what is this meant to achieve? this is "inside story." hello, welcome to the program. the united states portrays itself as one of the world's greatest democracies. as leaders travel the globe to spread democratic values, but president joe biden says democracy is under siege from

authoritarian regimes, so he is holding a two-day virtual summit to try to get democracy a boost. it was criticized even before it began. the white house invited around 110 countries, but russia, china, iran, and hungary were not on the list. biden called forth china's wrath by inviting taiwan, which it regards as a breakaway province. joe biden urged participants to reverse what he called an ongoing recession of democracy around the world. >> in the face of sustained and alarming challenges to democracy, universal human rights, and all around the world , democracy needs champions, and i wanted to host this summit because here is -- here in the united states, we know as well as anyone that renewing of your democracy and strengthening our

democratic institution required democracy require constant -- renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic institutions requires constant effort. >> china hosted its own democracy forum this week. leaders in beijing say their one-party government is more of a democracy than the united states, and critics of the u.s. say it is in no position to lead on democracy while continuing to support autocratic rulers abroad and restricting human rights at home. let's bring in our guests in birmingham in england. scott lucas is a professor at the university of birmingham. from brussels in belgium, we have a senior fellow at the eckardt institute and joining us from taiwan's capital is louis

feingold. a warm welcome to each of you. the world seemingly in the throes of a democratic backtrack , rise of populism, rise of authoritarianism. democracy is perhaps on the way, and this is a good conversation to have, isn't it? >> hey, i'm a big fan of democracy. i am a big critic of countries that restrict political rights, that put people in prison, that provide the basics for some people but not for all, but this is not the way in my opinion, to conduct marcus lee -- to promote democracy. the way you promote democracy is by ensuring a place for political participation for all in the country and by discussing with people in other countries how you can work with them. so society groups, journalists, activists, students -- in other words, it is in the spirit of

cooperation. democracy cannot simply be shouted from the rooftops. it has to basically be developed on the ground. my problem -- i'm all in favor of what the biden administration is doing trying to repair the united states after the catastrophe of the trump years. he has shown an example to others that america can in fact be democratic. great. i'm all in favor of calling out countries and actually trying to organize, to build up the possibility for people to be able to get space to protest within countries to claim their rights. but the case of democracy is not something you can impose from the outside. we have got to walk the walk in terms of constructive action. for example, the anticorruption strategy put out by the white house this week. you walk the walk, you do not simply talk the talk with a two-day event which will quickly be exposed, i think, to criticism and perhaps even ridicule. >> before it even starts, one

could say the summit itself is not democratic. the guest list is selective and excludes many. >> yes, it does, but i think that is in the nature of things. that is one of the problems with this particular initiative. it is worth pointing out there was a similar initiative by america 20 years ago. madeleine albright started a thing called "the community of democracies." they had exactly the same problems joe biden has now, namely deciding on who is a democracy and who is not. there are lots of countries in the world that america wants to work with and that i think america should work with that are not perfect democracies. a lot of countries in the middle east -- jordan, morocco -- that are now feeling excluded because they do not fit into that particular category. on the other hand, there are countries that you should not necessarily include in the current roster of democracies like poland who are included, so it creates a division that is

not necessarily helpful and that would create a lot of difficulties as we are trying to construct a pragmatic alliance to counter the rising influence of china. >> what happened to madeleine albright's community of democracies, as a matter of interest? >> everyone spoke well of democracy and human rights, but it became clear quickly that despite being democracies, all of these countries had very different interests. guess what? three years later, the iraq war happened, and america's credibility as a beacon of democracy basically was finished, and no further events took place. >> interesting. joe biden's version -- no turkey, no pressure, no china, only a rack and israel as far as the middle east is concerned. does this not create this division, bolstering this cold war mentality, as china would have it?

>> china not being invited is not a surprise, and the criticism that china and other countries are making of the event is also not a surprise. yeah, the u.s. and other western democracies obviously are a bit selective in who they consider their friends and who they consider worthy of criticism, and sometimes those definitions are a little bit unclear. they get mixed up. frankly, i am in agreement with my colleagues as far as the efficacy of this event. i expect within a few weeks or a few months people will forget about this event simply because it is coming at the end of the year. there has already been a busy few months of multilateral or bilateral meetings that have attracted attention, and there are other forums that already cover this issue. pretty much the only thing i can

say in biden's defense is he talked about doing this, and on some level it is good to actually see our leaders carrying out the commitment they make, but other than that, it is really hard to see any tangible or long-term results come out of this meeting. >> china doesn't seem to be very cross about it all. it seems to be hitting a nerve. it held its own summit and claimed its own modular democracy and issued a paper titled "china: the democracy that works." >> f not going to get much reception in the united states, of course, or probably other western democracies. this two reasons for china's reaction, one being that taiwan was given an invitation to participate, and the other is the presumption that the whole event is aimed at china or china's growing influence around the world, so of course, china

is going to react this way. the amount of state media coverage or statements by government officials in china in recent days has frankly been enormous, but the efficacy of china's reaction is causing a route as well. >> especially when you consider the democracies being affected and chinese posturing against taiwan. >> and no amount of summits or sanctions, which is a tool that the united states has been using against chinese officials with regard to a number of human rights issues -- obviously, this does not change the policies, decisions of the chinese leadership. same thing with this summit. the u.s. and other countries attending could criticize china

directly or indirectly, but again, it does not change the policy decisions of the chinese government. >> one thing i thought was interesting, the chinese minister of foreign affairs said a single yardstick should not be used to measure diverse political systems in the world, that democracy is not the only system that works. what do you make of that? >> look, at the end of the day -- well, let me say something specific about china. behold initiative by china this week, the idea that chinese -- that china is a democracy, you can take that apart very quickly. the document collapses by saying it is a one-party system but we have multiparty participation. no, you don't. they say they have democracy and development -- well, no. we can pick apart the pr of the chinese very quickly, but i think there is something important to make as a response just so this does not become the u.s. versus china, which is not

productive, and that is i think we can all agree that no matter if a person lives in beijing, london, or washington, if they are in brazil, south africa, syria, they deserve the right to security. they deserve the right to be able to participate in their political system. they deserve responsible governments, they deserve not to be abused or detained. i think we can agree with that. for the idea of china to simply say that there's not just one way for democracy -- fair enough, but that is not what we are talking about here. we talking about a basic regard for your own people, basic rights, if it is through a constitution or through legal practices that are defended, and china should not be allowed to get away from that. >> right. the thing is, one may well wonder how it is the u.s. takes it upon itself to promote something that it is struggling to defend at home given the rise

of populism there and trump's ascendancy and refusal to accept the democratic election and so on. >> yes, and i think that there are two mistakes that america and americans -- the american political class always makes. the first mistake is that they confuse their own perception of their own country with the perception that everyone else in the world has. americans probably see themselves as beacons of democracy and liberty in the world. unfortunately, large parts of the rest of the world disagree with that, rightly or wrongly. they don't have the same view of america that americans have of themselves. the second mistake is that american governments and american presidents always believe that they are starting with a blank sheet. joe biden believes he can go around the world and lecture about democracy because he is not donald trump, but for most people outside of the united states, trump, biden, obama --

this is all america. there is a continuum, whereas american presidents believe they are starting with a blank canvas, and that is not the case . for most people around the world, what happened in january of this year, the storming of the capitol, is still part of what america represents, even if joe biden subsequently became president and represents a different vision in his view. for many people outside of america, it is still the same america. >> the thing is, we are all being critical of biden, but he said himself that democracy does not happen by accident, we have to defend it, we have to fight for it, we have to strengthen it, and we have to renew it. isn't that what he is doing now, trying to do, anyway? >> yes, i think he is trying to be more humble, and i think a lot of what he says is quite good. does it resonate, do people even listen to him? i do not necessarily think so. i think the way that democracy

promotion typically works, the way all the activities typically called democracy promotion where america is promoting an abstract concept i do not think are particularly successful. as scott said before, you have to break down democracy into different things, into the rule of law, into transparency, and to enter corruption, into parts of development that are accountable to people. if you promote these things, you are moving towards democracy, but you are not necessarily promoting an abstract concept. whenever you are promoting an abstract concept, i do not think it is particularly successful, and that is the problem with this initiative. >> the former u.s. ambassador to poland said we have seen this movie before and it does not end well. in the 1930's -- it is the 1930's all over again, he said, and there is no more urgent task and for democracies to renew themselves. >> yeah, let's get away from talking the talk and walking the walk.

it is to be credited that if you talk about what has happened within the united states within a year, despite a great deal of opposition, say, from the republicans and trump vests -- trumpists, you have one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in decades, there is a nearly $2 trillion bill that will -- that might get past. it is to be credited that the bided administration is taking action on climate change. the idea that america is perfect -- of course not. the credit where you can have an initiative within the countries -- it is should be credited, however, in other countries, what they are doing to try to build up security. this is not simply an american process, so again, with respect to this idea democracies are under threat, this is not the 1930's. this is the 21st century. we have specific challenges,

which are raised by powers like russia and china. we have specific challenges with authoritarian leaders, dictatorial leaders, some of whom will be at this summit. one could talk for example about the transfer of authoritarianism from brazil to the philippines. problems that are now transnational because if we don't have action, which goes beyond the mouthpiece of democracy to talking about climate change, dealing with pandemics, and, yes, dealing with the global threat to political activism, then again, you can talk about the 1930's -- those days are gone, folks. deal with here and now. >> the fact is that around the world in many countries, democracy is associated with western hegemony.

>> the interesting thing there is that speaking from asia, what the reaction is to certain recent events or even to this summit from countries in this part of the world -- i mean, a good example is the military feared that occurred in myanmar at the outset of this year, and people look to ozzy on -- people look to asean to take leadership, but their history is not to criticize politics of member countries. to this point, the limited response was not to invite military government to attend the annual meeting, and that was a big gesture. when it comes to the diplomatic boycott of the olympics, we see a mixed reaction from countries in asia. some of them, especially the closest u.s. allies, might participate at some level, but at least in recent hours or

days, the reaction from south korea, for example, has not been so enthusiastic to join the boycotts, and when it comes to democracy summit -- again, we do not see leaders in asia -- outside of china, of course -- with their reaction, but in the more democratic countries in this part of the world, the ones that are flawed for the ones that we can safely say are not so flawed, they are not that enthusiastic about this summit but were really to do their part here in asia to help spread the ideas that the biden administration will be talking about during the summit. >> here's a question you need half an hour for, but i can give you 60 seconds. what is the nature now of 21st-century democracy and why is it under threat? >> the nature of 21st-century democracy is still the nature of 20th-century democracy are or even 19th-century democracy or 18th-century democracy and that is that me, my children, other

people, their children, generations to come are able to participate in their society politically, economically, socially, that they have the ability to do so, that they are protected from abuses of power. why are they under threat? inside and outside democracies, there are men and occasionally women who want power. they want power not for everybody before themselves, and to get that power, they will deny rights to people within their countries. they will put them in prison. they will deny the vote or it will be a meaningless vote and they will threaten other countries to try to extend that power. the idea is that we are always vigilant about this because democracy should not just be a word. democracy should represent something which is precious in our day to day lives, which is the ability to express our opinions about things we do not like, to uphold the things we do like, and to do so in a community with others where we are free to do so without

looking over our shoulders at someone who would deny us those rights. >> this fear of populism that seems to be around -- what actually is wrong with populism? does it not bring with it a democratic renewal? >> well, it can, and there is a scholarly debate about the term populism. in the united states, for example, a lot of populist movements were in fact left-wing movements that sought to empower people working on the land, working in agriculture, etc., but the meaning has, of course, shifted, and what it stands for today is typically far right movements that are seeking to bypass democracy that are basically saying that they are representing the views of the people regardless of if they actually do, and that especially the protection of minorities, which is so important an element of democracy is less important

than the suppose it will of the people, so they are creating a situation where they are essentially pitting groups of people against each other, claiming to represent the majority, and that is very dangerous because democracy is about the will of the people for sure, but, as scott lucas said, it is also about security and protecting minorities. it is about the fact that if i have an outside point of view that the court of law is protecting my minority point of view as much as it is protecting the views of the majority, and populists are trying to deny that and trying to make that less important. >> a year of action in theory follows this -- well, it does, it follows this summit of democracy. can it mobilize sufficient for any political will for change, do you think? >> very, very unlikely. we talked about some examples of countries during this program

where the international community or at least the western democracies have concerns about the trajectory of the rule of law, of the democracy, of the security of the person, and again, sanctions or criticisms, multilateral joint open letters, things like that rarely have an effect. it only has an effect when the economic impact on the leaders themselves might be very direct, but cases like that are quite rare. united states and -- we have to be realistic. it is going into the midterm election cycle. how much time is president biden going to have for this initiative? how much time will vice president harris have for it? the day to day issues of diplomacy that consume the u.s. state department as you say, ok, which other countries are going to help the u.s. take leadership

in coming months -- again, it is very hard to be optimistic. >> do you think democracies have a capacity for self correction? >> yes. if i did not believe that, i would go and hide in the bunker and just wait out what is to come. the fact of the matter is when you talk about democracies, you are talking about people. you are talking about people at the grassroots who are concerned about health, concerned about education, concerned about their jobs, concerned about a roof over their heads, and to get that, they need an effective political system. there have an democracies who have not self corrected. one thing i would say about the 1930's which is relative today is we saw a lot of democracies that were in decline then, but the fact is for all those abusive leaders we have talked about on this program, in countries around the world from america to iran to syria to algeria to brazil, we have seen

people call for rights and continue to march. they have marched in russia even when they were threatened with persecution. they have marched on to me tomorrow when they were threatened with prosecution. that will to be empowered and to have some type of control over one's life and community is never extinguished, and when that is never extinct, there is always hope for democracy. >> it has been a great conversation. do appreciate it. thanks for participating. thanks to all our guests, peter neumann, russ feingold, and scott lucas. thank you, too, for watching. you can see the program at any time by visiting our website and join us at any time on facebook or twitter. for me and the whole team here in doha, it is goodbye for now.

qqqqqqqaaiiiayyykkkkkkkkkkkkkkkx

woman: there's so much involved in working with clay on so many different levels that i find it totally fascinating. when you're throwing, if you're really into it, you can lose yourself completely, but it also centers you intellectually and emotionally so that you are totally one with the clay. a lady who came and stood in front of me and said, "you know, i'm not really artistic," and i looked at her and said, "yes,