Life well planned. The freeman foundation. By judy and Peter Blum Kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. And by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Katty im kerry k in washington and this is announcer im kerry k in washington and this is bbc world news america. President trump fires his secretary of defense is the latest in a long line of Security Officials to be shown the door. Azerbaijans president tells the bbc heat sees no end to the fighting. Their opportunities to compromise ahrinking as we are getting those territories bk by force. Katty bbc world news america. Welcome to welcome to bbc world news america. President elect joe biden is preparing to make the transition to the white house as the u. S. Surpasses 10 million coronavirus cases, mr. Biden said his number one priority is to defeat the pandemic. Today he announced his task force. He made this plea to americans. President elect biden a mask running to most potent weapon against the virus. Todays news does not change at reality. It does not matter who you voted for or where you stood before election day. It does not matter your party calming your point of view. We could save tens of thousands ofives of everyone would just wear a mask the next few months. Katty the Vice President and all of us got good news. Today it came from the u. S. Pharmaceutical giant pfizer. The Clinical Trial suggest the new Covid Vaccine can give more than 90 of people with the coronavirus. How important is this announcement . Joining me now is the dean of Brown University school of public health. Thank you very much for joining me. I want t say what you have just tweeted. We all need to keep to facts in mind. We are entering the hardest days of the pandemic. The next two months we will see a lot of infections and deaths. There is light at the end of the tunnel a today that light got a bit brighter. Be safe and mask up. How do people reconcile those two things . Part of the problem of where we are in america right now is we have had a complete failed federal leadership. The president decided he would not even try to handle the virus. We see a spread of the virus across the nation and 100 thousand americans being infected and 1000 americans dying every day. 100,000 additional people will die between now and inauguration day. That is the bad news. I think wean avoid that if we do some things now. The vaccine news is very good. Our new President Biden is good news because hes putting together a scientific approach that can make a big difference. Hard days for the next couple of months, but i do think things will get better in early 2021. Katty is the vaccine use better than you might have expected . It is better them i was expecting. Last week i was speaking to a group of journalists and i said my optimistic view was that the vaccine might be 60 or 70 effective. And i hoped it might be as much as 80 . I was not expecting pfizer to suggest it might be 90 plus in terms of its efficacy. If that is what pfizer is achieving, i would not be surprised if other vaccines are as effective. Lets see what the data shows us. This is good news and better than i was expecting. Katty who do you think will get these vaccines . I think we will start with alth care workers and first responders. People on th frontline of the pandemic. I suspect high risk individuals will follow. Elderly people with chronic diseases and then the rest of the population will come next. This is the kind of information we need out of the government. Trump administration has not done a great job communicating and mr. Biden and his team will need to lay out that list. I expected to look Something Like that, but we will need to know who is in line and what the timeline is. Katty is there so risk that people might hear this news about a vaccine and think, it will be fine. I dont need to wear a mask anymore, i can have dinner with my friends because i know there is a vaccine around the corner. There is at risk. I want to be careful about my enthusiasm. My abuse yes and is about where we will late in the spring and summer. If we are not careful we will have more people infected. It would be particularly trac if people stopped being careful and got sick now. Just be careful for a few more months and it can make in enormous difference. Katty tnk you so much. It is nice to have some good news to report on on the story. Thank you. Two days after the announcement that he have lost the election, President Trump has fired his secretary of defense, mark esper, after the two clashed. He has been replaced by christopher miller, who serves the National Counterterrorism center. Joining me to discuss is the former supreme allied commander of nato. Thank you for joining me. There are three months left in this administration, wifi or the defense secretary . Why fire the defense secretary . There is no sense to why you have seen the civilian leadership gradually bleed out and gradually depart because they know the administration is coming to an end. Two then decapitate the organization at the very top, summarily, with no preparation, and then to select somebody, i dont know colonel miller well, i think it will be issues he will have to overcome. He was on active duty as recently as sixrs ago, so he will need a congressnal waiver to achieve the post in a serious way. Secondly, President Trump may have to get rid of the secretary Deputy Defense to make chris millercting. To go to the dark end of the spectrum, you will bring somebody into has no knowledge of how to deal with the nuclear codes, for example. Asou know i spent two years as chief of staff and senior military assistant to don rumsfeld. That stuff is hard and complicated. It takes time to understand it. That is just but one example of the turbulence in the system at an unsettled time. Katty it just underlines that this is not the normal transition. This is not what normally happens in american transitions. Lets talk more about the transition. You served a supreme allied commander at nato in 2009 22013. You understand your nato allies. 20092013. You understand your nato allies. What do you think they will do . This is not just me talking to my middle my many friends across europe, at the very repeatable polls in a wide variety of countries, donald trump does not enjoy a great deal of support in almost all of the nato countries. Conversely, former Vice President biden is extremely wellknown and well. I will give you a practical example. Vice President Biden came to a dinner we were hosting for the 28 Foreign Ministers of nato and he walked around that table and he could talk about tiny iceland or germany and tell a story about someone he knew in his time there. We forget before you was Vice President he spent a couple of decades running the Foreign Relations committee in the senate. He is known, hes liked, hes respected, all of that will be helpful in his transition. Katty it was described to us as a correspondent in brussels, it would be a sigh of relief in european capitals, but what about china . Its less clear to me the differences in strategy for a biden presidency compared to a Trump Presidency . . Do you think there will be a change in the way joe biden deals with china when he becomes president . What i hope happens and what i suspect will happen, because i know virtually everybody in the National Security and Intelligence Committee thats around him as an advisor. Which, as you know, i am not. All of them understand the need to construct a coherent strategy for dealing with china. What we have now is a hodgepodge , a transactional set up the thames to a dress trade on one moment and cyber on one and intellectual cyber threat. We need to step back, evaluate what china is trying to do and construct a strategy to deal with it. I think a Biden Administration will do that and the pieces will fit together far better than they have over the last four years. Katty ok, thank you for joining us. It is an interesting time in american politics. We will watch where happens in the white house and with the Biden Transition Team over the next few weeks. It has been six weeks since armenia and azerbaijan began their war. In that time, three ceasenow thn has told the bbc that he does not see a possibility for peace. Nagornokarabakh is controlled by ethnic armenians. Both sides have been accused of indiscriminate shelling and of killing civilians. Our inteationa correspondent was asked if there was any compromise he could offer for the sake of peace. Or compromise is there to do . What compromise is there to do . Their ability to compromise is shrinking. We are getting the parodies the territories back i force. If they behave visibly, we can work on some forms of selfgovernment. With this Prime Minister of armenia, i dont think that there is any possibility for peace. Do you intend to fight for any square inch of nagornokarabakh and the surrounding seven territories . I said from the vy beginning that if he personally says, armenia withdraws its troops from the three remaining regions and gives us a timetable, we will stop immediately. We dont want to continue this war. We want to stop. Humanitarian territory in the city. He could be in a position to see the area. What will be the fate of the citizens inside . That is not up to me to stop. But you could cut them off. They are cut off by their by your forces, how can they survive . We will take care of them. We will provide them with everything. With food,ith water, with everything. We do not attack civilians, unlike them. They attacked with ballistic missiles, destroying a civiln compound. Our own bbc colleagues have seen when they were in the court when they were there, they witnessed random shelling of the town, an apartment block aride block destroyed. Shortly afterwards more shelling. They characterized it as indiscriminate shelling of a town without clear military targets. This is not hearsay, this was witnessed and filmed by the bbc. I doubt this witnessing. I doubt it. They were there. So what if they were there. It does not mean anything. That could be fake news. Why would any journalist going there decide to say fake news. Because it was a bias approach to the conflict. The cousin of the propaganda and international media. So you cannot be guilty of any wrong, everything is false news . Absolutely. Katty the president speaking. This term of fake news is worrying because that means people dont trust what reporters are seeing with their own eyes on the grounds. The ease head of brexit delegation the eus head of brexit delegation says they are doubling our efforts to reach a trade deal. They are expected to last all week. The transition period for leaving the eu expires on december 31 of this year. The party is claiming a victory in the second parliamentary election since the end of military rule. Sundays election was viewed as a referendum and the National Equipment democratic party. National league for the democratic party. There were accusations of genocide against the minority. The number of people who died in honduras has doubled to 57 after storm eta hit central america. Two major rivers have overflowed , causing widespread flooding and trapping tens of thousands of people on the roofs of their homes to await rescue. The storm left a trail of disruption after it made landfall in nicaragua on tuesday. Guatemala, around 150 people died. 30 people have been arrested across austria as part of an investigation into suspected islamist. Prosecutors said this operation was not linked to the terror attack in vienna, in which people were killed. You are watching bbc world news america. Still to come, increased temperatures are leading to severe droughts in zimbabw, and they are causing one community to drink water from a dangerous source. We will have that story. Katty a village in india is celebrating Kamala Harris historic victory as the first south Asian American to win the Second Highest Office in the u. S. Her mother immigrated to america when sheas 19. Here is more. There has been huge interest in the u. S. President ial election here in india. Firstly because its personal. Vice president elect harris is the daughter of an indian woman purred her late mother was woman. Her late mother was born in the indian city and she has spoken of how used to come to the indian city when she was a child. She would go on long walks with her grandfather and they would discuss democracy. It was those conversations that had a profound impact on who she is today. Now, there have been peoplin her ancestral village in south india that have been celebrating. Kamala harriss aunt and uncle pulled still live in india. They have spoken of how proud they are. Katty temperatures in Southern Africa are rising at twice the average global rate. It has had a devastating effect on the climate, with severe droughts and a water crisis. It has forced people in one community to go to incredible lengths to find water. As the bbc reports from the capital. A prolonged drought has forced some intdangerous territory in the search for water. In this settlement, committee boreholes are running dry. Community boreholes are running dry. Every day since June Community members have been streaming into this nearby graveyard. The young and the old, plastic containers in hand. After a four hour wait, its 15yearolds monachus turn at the well monicas turn at the well. Its frightful that we drink this. We prefer this one because its cheaper. The hundreds of people who crisscross the cemetery every day seemed unaware of the dangers of contaminations from the decomposition. The water from these shallow wells is used for everything. Laundry, bathing and even drinking. When you have your situation, you get used to it. Then all of them come and its just like any other water. So when they drink it, no one gets sick. This is a perfect example of the change. We are told the water used to extend beyond and reach up to the trees. Some would say the water crisis is not just about Climate Change, that it also reflects a leadership failure. The capitals taps only work a few days a week. Some have had the city is in f providing piped water to some of these communities. Water shortages have left people vulnerable, not just to disease, but abuse. Young girls tell me the stories. There was a boat to fetch water. I complain when a man put his bucketfront of mine. He said i could draw water when i dated him. When i refused he kicked my bucket and pelted me with stones. No one helped me. Experts say by the end of the century Climate Change will have reduced rainfall in zimbabwe by 20 . A stark warning to the world of what can happen when water sources dry up. Katty to india now, where the coronavirus pandemic could be having a damming effect on a potential deadly disease. The number of people taken to the hospital for tuberculosis has fallen by more than 35 . But that means thousands of cases could be going and treated. With a danger the disease could spread again. Here is more. An end to the lockdown brought relief. He was finally able to have brain surgery to stop the spread of tuberculosis in his nervous system. But this lifesaving surgery turned into a nightmare because the drugs to treat tb ran out. Any interruption in treatment means no supply. I cannot you a happened, no one in my family could sleep for five nights. There was a worry others could get infected if my treatment got interrupted. His wife and familyated everyone, from Civil Society to the government. Any gap in treatment can cause a relapse or for it to become drugresistant. India wants to get a hold of this medication. There are a number of dropouts. People are considered missing because the treatment has stopped due to the pandemic. The biggest fear now is that they can transthe disease in their community. India has the highest death toll from tuberculosis in the world. About half a Million People die every year. I think we are still far away from elimination. My concern is that, are we going to losthe games we made in the last 10 years gains we have made in the last 10 years . Now with the arrival of covid19, i suspect we will go further back. There has been a drop ofe than 35 in the number of patients reporting to hospitals for tb treatment since the start of the pandemic. The public system is still 100 managingovid were worried about covid. Private sector has become more difficult to access. It has becom there are fewer patients. I am worried that tb is not caught between two bad options. Most tb patients depend on the state for treatment. Only a few have access to private medicare in bigger cities. The government claims to be on track to eradicate tb by 2025, but its challenge has just gotten bigger. Katty the effects of covid are undetected. We said goodbye to a fixture of american televisions for nearly four decades. Alex trebek died of pancreatic cancer, a native of canada, he brought poise and class to his duties as host of jeopardy. Millions of people tuned in each night to watch him challenges three contestants. He provided clues, and they then had to guess the answer in the form of a question. The format was as reliable as the host himself. But predictability does not mean it was easy. As i learned firsthand. What about you . Katty i also went with gone with the wind but did not risk enough money. 200 will take you to 8000. Katty i was never going to catch up with chris. I didnt. Chris wallace one that episode of jeopardy. At t giphy came second to chris wallace, that was not too bad. It was one of the most terrifying things i have ever the shows producers said they will air a back catalogue of his episodes throughout christmas. They have not made any plans for replacement, after all, who could fill those shoes. Alex trebek will be missed. I am katty narrator funding for this presentation of this program is provided by. Language specialists teaching spanish, french and more. Raymond james. The freeman foundation. By judy and Peter Blum Kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. And by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Narrator youre watching pbs. Vo ready to w the best of anytime, anywhere, on nearly any device . Its easy with the pbs video app. Simply download the pbs video app on your mobile or streaming device. Now you can watch the latest pbs episodes, or catch up on the shows you missed. And when you support your local station, you can get pbs passport, giving you access to more episodes, more specials, more of what youove get the pbs video app now d stream the best of pbs, anytime you want, anywhere you are. A platform where. People can go to in order to share their experiences. When i was 18 and joined the marine corps. And its been an amazing journey ever since. This project can help bring us together. To understand whatt really means to be an american. To join in. Go to pbs. Org americanportrait join us, and be a part of history. Judy good evening. Im judy woodruff. On the newshour tonight, joe biden and Kamala Harris begin their transition to the white house as the trump team refuses to concede defeat. Then legal battles loom despite virtually no chancof changing the results, the president s lawyers file multiple suits to challenge the election. Plus, a potential treatment as the pandemic worsens worldwide, a glimmer of hope emerges from a vaccine trial showing promising results. All that and more on tonights pbs newshour
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