latest on the volcano eruption in the canary islands, as fears grow that lava flowing into the sea could create dangerous gases. hello and welcome to the programme. at a virtual summit on the sidelines of the united nations general assembly, president biden asked world leaders to pledge to vaccinate 70% of the world's population against covid—19 by september next year. he said america would buy an additional 500 million doses of the pfizer vaccine, to donate to poorer countries. research underlines a stark contrast — richer countries have vaccinated much of their populations, while poorer ones are lagging far behind. our health editor hugh pym has more details. wealthier nations are pushing on with boosterjabs, but it's a different story in low—income countries in africa and around the world, where vaccination rates are much lower. that divergence has been criticised by the world health organization, and there've been growing calls for more vaccine doses to be diverted to those most in need. they're going to come together, and they're going to attack the problem... a leading advocate for vaccine supplies to africa said action was needed by the richest nations. promises do not translate into vaccines and jabs in people's arms. commitments are not jabs in people's arms. people are dying for want of a vaccine. now, i spoke at the who meeting, and on that same day, a member of my household had just died, a 30—year—old woman, because she was unvaccinated. new research suggests that, by the end of this year, there'll be around 1 billion surplus vaccine doses in the g7 group of the wealthiest nations, including the uk and the european union. of those, around 100 million doses will be past their use—by date by december. as of now, estimates vary, but it's thought that only around 3% of the population of africa have been fully vaccinated. that's simple waste. people hate waste. lives could be saved as a result of having these vaccines. the former prime minister gordon brown, now who ambassador for health financing, says shifting vaccines is in everyone�*s interests. if the disease spreads in africa and in low—income countries, and if it mutates and there are new variants, it's going to come back to haunt even the fully vaccinated here. nobody's safe until everybody's safe. the g7 summit in cornwall injune pledged a billion doses to poor countries as a big step towards vaccinating the world, but critics say the process has moved too slowly. today, president biden, at a covid—19 virtual summit, promised to double the us contribution. this is a global tragedy, - and we're not going to solve this crisis with half measures - or middle—of—the—road ambition. we need to go big. but will a pledge to "go big" actually deliver? african countries, and others, will want to see vaccine supplies arriving at a faster rate before passing judgment. hugh pym, bbc news. i've been speaking to unicef�*s head of advocacy for health, vaccines and pandemic response, lily caprani in new york. she told me that these pledges need to be turned into action. well, it's right — we've seen new pledges made today on top of many pledges made earlier in the summer at the g7. and it's worth acknowledging that the us has shown great leadership and again, today, is really trying to raise the ambition of global collective action so that everyone in the world who has enough supplies of vaccines can come together and make sure they get to the lowest income countries where they're needed. but you're also right that pledges are not enough. we need to turn those pledges into action immediately. in the lowest income countries in the world, where there are still doctors and nurses and midwives who are not vaccinated against covid—i9, they cannot afford to wait until next year. they need to be protected now and the communities that rely on them need them to be vaccinated now. so, today's pledges are very promising, but until we see those vaccines arriving, we just cannot stop calling for action. lily, what is holding rich countries back from being able to deliver these vaccines on time to the countries that need it? well, we know that there are still more people in the world who want a vaccine than there are vaccines. it's a difficult time for every country that's trying to protect its population. but we also know that there are enough vaccines to be able to protect, at the very least, all vulnerable people and all front line health care workers in every country. so, the message to the high—income countries is, we understand you need to protect your own populations, you want to be able to deliver booster shots. don't do that at the cost of donating vaccines to the rest of the world as well, because we're not going to be safe anywhere until everybody is protected. in fact, my family, yourfamily, any family is going to be put at risk as long as we allow countries where there's low vaccination coverage to potentially see new variants emerging. so, we just can't afford to wait. wise words there from you, lily, certainly, and echoing the sentiments of gordon brown in the report from hugh pym just now. but will this pledge do you think convince other countries to do their part? well, we've certainly seen lots of global leaders come together today convened by president biden at the covid summit here at the un general assembly. we saw many pledges of commitment to global action. now we just see that translated into reality. we also know that there will be follow—up, more meetings later in the year and next year so unicef and all of our partners that are working through covax to try and achieve this very ambitious goal of vaccinating 70% of the world by next year, we will be following closely to make sure these commitments turn into reality. every day that they don't, people's lives are at risk, health care workers are at risk and communities that rely on fragile health care systems in poorer countries could see themselves go without protection. lily, i want to ask you just how much of a problem are vaccine manufacturers in all of this. what more can they do to help solve this problem? vaccine manufacturers are trying to manufacture as much supply as they can, but of course there's a queue, there's a long line, and we know that covax, unicef and all of us trying to deliver vaccines to lower income countries, we are in the queue. sometimes we don't know where we are in the queue. so, we will call on the manufacturers and the higher richer countries to become transparent, share more information, help us get information about how we can expect the supplies to arrive, and also consider giving covax their place ahead in the line. at the moment, we are necessarily getting supplies as fast as we need them. plenty more information on our website on this story. including an article by our population correspondent stephanie hegarty on the imbalance of the world's vaccine supply. just head to bbc.com/news or download the bbc news app. let's look at some other stories in the headlines. the five permanent members of the un security council are meeting to discuss how to respond to the taliban takeover of afghanistan. britain has been calling in advance for a unified response, but russia and china both appear more willing to recognise the taliban government than either the united states or the uk. the united states and france have attempted to defuse the row sparked by the security pact announced last week between the us, australia and britain. joe biden and emmanuel macron agreed over the phone that france would reinstate its ambassador in washington. they also agreed to meet in person in october. colombia says 19,000 migrants, most of them from haiti, are stuck in a coastal town near the border with panama. the authorities say it's been overwhelmed. many of the migrants are trying to reach the us. panama only allows 250 people per day to cross the gulf of uraba, near the border between the two countries. closing arguments have started in the new york sex trafficking trial of r kelly, the r&b singer accused of grooming and sexually abusing women and underage girls. earlier, the musician declined to testify in his own defence. the jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict later on thursday. there's less than six weeks to go before a crucial climate conference, known as cop26, will take place in glasgow, scotland. one of its goals will be to persuade industrialised nations to phase out their dependence on coal. now, if you were watching newsday yesterday, you might remember the story we told you about china promising to stop funding coal—fired power projects abroad. but many economies around the world are still dependent on the fossil fuel — like india, where new plants continue to be built. so how do fast—developing nations satisfy the demand for energy, while trying to curb emissions? our correspondent rajini vaidyanathan reports now from the east indian state of odissa. india's coal belt helps power this vast nation. more than two—thirds of the country's energy production still depends on it. such is the demand that the country is planning on building, or expanding, dozens of mines in the coming years and also continues to import coal. there's pressure on india to reduce its emissions, but cutting coal use is a tricky balance. a major pollutant in the country, the dirtiest of fuels, coal is also a major source ofjobs in these communities, which are some of india's poorest. india cannot live without coal. our country is a developing country. coal is one of the major resources for indians. if we stop the coal production under the pressure of the world community, then how can we maintain our livelihoods? and how can india meet the energy needs of the population of more than 1.3 billion? a growing middle class is driving that demand, although the average indian still uses far less energy than the average brit or american. india is already shifting to cleaner sources, like solar. experts say the country needs more investment to make the switch to renewables. india has already set out some of the most aggressive renewable energy targets in the world. the more rapidly we can get more investment, more capital, more money into solar, wind, bioenergy and so forth, the quicker we can keep shifting away from the older energy infrastructure. but making that shift means reaching communities like these, where the oldest and most basic forms of energy are the only option. jhuna is one of the tens of millions of indians who still don't have access to power. "there's no electricity, there's no water. "if we don't have coal, we can't cook. "if it's harmful, what can we do about it?" she tells me. "we have no other option. "at night, we burn coal and keep it in the house "so we also have some light." what people here want so badly is what so many in the west have long taken for granted. in india, progress comes at a price. it means cutting the cord with coal could take time. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news, odissa. if you wanyt to get in touch with me, i'm on twitter — @bbckarishma. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme. the volcano on the canary islands continues to erupt, as fears grow that lava flowing into the sea could create dangerous gases. benjohnson, the fastest man on earth, is flying home to canada in disgrace. all athletes should be clean going into the games. i'm just happy that justice is served. it is a simple fact that this morning, these people were in their homes. tonight, those homes have been burnt down by serbian soldiers and police. all the taliban positions alongj here have been strengthened, presumably in case i the americans invade. it's no use having a secret service which cannot preserve its own secrets against the world, and so the british government has no option but to continue this action, even after any adverse judgment in australia. concorde had crossed the atlantic faster than any plane ever before, breaking the record by six minutes. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. our top story. during a virtual summit with world leaders, president biden has promised to donate half a billion coronavirus vaccines to poorer countries but the world health organization warns they need help now. as we've been hearing, the us and france have attempted to defuse the row sparked by the security pact announced last week between the us, australia and britain. the white house says president biden acknowledged during a phone call with president macron that there could have been more discussion in advance of the new accord, which saw australia pull out of a contract to buy french submarines worth $37 billion. this whole episode caught many by surprise, not least france, but also members of asean — the association of southeast asian nations. the ten nations which make up asean were not consulted over the deal. i've been speaking to ben bland, director of the southeast asia programme at the lowy institute, an independent think tank based in sydney — and he's been telling me how this has all been received. well, there's been a pretty mixed reaction. there are ten member states in asean, with different interests. we've seen a warm reaction from the philippines, which has welcomed the potential for australia to build this new nuclear submarine capability, but we've seen heavy notes of caution from indonesia and malaysia. so different reactions, but i think across the region, there is a sense that people want australia, the us and other allies to balance out china's growing military might. but i also think a lot of governments are concerned that the actions we've seen with aukus and the submarines might prompt china to counteract what the us allies are doing and lead to an escalation towards conflict. there's an ambivalence which i think reflects the complexity of the situation for a lot of south—east asian nations. south—east asian nations are often stuck in that really uncomfortable position of being between the us and china. how concerned do you think that there could be the possibility of real conflict in the region as a result of this agreement beteween the us, australia and britain? this agreement is in the first place about submarines, and then about more technological co—operation in the military domain between the three nations, which are already alliance partners in any case. so i don't think this in and of itself is transformational, but what it does do for many is it crystallises this sense of two blocs forming, china on the one hand and the us and allies on the other. i think that adds to the fear there's an escalation which will increase the chance of conflict perhaps accidentally. so it's about the direction of travel, and this being a significant moment to understand where we've been coming from and where we're going, rather than this announcement in and of itself changing everything. fairenough, ben, but do you see countries in the region beefing up their defence capabilities now as a result of this? in particular, i'm thinking china, that already has extremely strong defence capabilities, but also other countries in this part of the world. china's already been expanding its navy at an incredibly rapid pace. more ships, more submarines, more advanced technology, more drones, more autonomous military equipment, but we've also seen something similar on a smaller scale from southeast asian nations. vietnam has bought submarines from russia, indonesia is looking to modernise its navy. but i think you can't really compare the scale of that with what china is doing, givien its size and its might. but there's call and response when you look at military build—ups, so i would expect that as australia, the us and others responsible to china, china will also respond. we have to remember with things like nuclear submarines, this is a 20—30—year time horizon for the roll—out of these very complex vessels. this is a long game that's already been under way, but it seems like it's intensifying and that's what's concerning nations who don't have the finances to match the military spending of either china or the us. that's why they want to see a balance. a free trade deal between the uk and the us, widely touted as one of the benefits of brexit — will not be happening any time soon. the prime minister boris johnson, who's held talks with president biden at the white house, insisted there was �*every prospect�* of a major agreement in the future, but said that the focus for now was to help british exporters. our political editor laura kuenssberg reports. the most solemn dedication of the pact that spans the atlantic, lives lost side by side. memories fade maybe, but what shape does a 21st—century relationship take? it does not, not now, mean a trade deal, promised when a very different president sat in that cream armchair. the white house dangles co—operation, but a big pact is not in sight. we're going to talk about trade a little bit today and we're going to have to work that through. on capitol hill this morning, there seemed more interest in awkward questions about royal spats. on your question about the royal family, i get a free pass on that one. a swerve. relations seemed friendly, but all the hand holding in the world won't make a trade deal come any faster. ministers have even been considering trying to pursue trade ties through different routes. what we are wanting to do is make solid incremental steps on trade. the biden administration is not doing free trade deals around the world right now, but i've got absolutely every confidence that a great deal is there to be done, and there are plenty of people in that building behind me who certainly want to do one. downing street maintains the relationships made great strides forward, but the disappearing trade deal has been noticed at home. can i begin by offering my commiserations to the prime minister, after he flew away to the us and made absolutely zero progress on the trade deal that he promised us? british hopes of a quick trade deal with the united states had already faded, but this visit has confirmed it simply isn't a priority for this white house. but borisjohnson will leave the united states tonight still confident this frantic few days has been worth it. there's been progress on security and particularly on climate, persuading the united states to put more money towards tackling climate change, and that's a message borisjohnson will hammer again in new york at the united nations tonight. in that effort, the uk seems to have the us in its corner. the relationship between a prime minister and a president, central to any government, a partnership that can disappoint or delight, but always defines. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, washington, dc. lava is continuing to flow from the volcano that erupted last weekend on the the spanish island of la palma. there are fears that when the lava hits the sea, it will create toxic gases and explosions. danjohnson reports from la palma. it's possible the wind direction has changed today because we're starting to see more ash falling in other places. this is la laguna, a villagejust outside the restricted zone. these are the roadblocks where police are keeping people back from the villages that have been evacuated. occasionally, a few residents are allowed through to get the last of their belongings. but in the main, there are more roadblocks and more roads that are disrupted because of where the lava is flowing. some roads have been completely smothered. others the police have closed to keep people back. and you can see how much ash has fallen here and it is coming down the whole time. sometimes really fine volcanic dust, sometimes thicker particles. if i hold out my hand, you might be able to actually see it falling from the sky and landing. and that's happening continuously. that's why we've got the masks and we've also got eye protection as well. one other problem has been trafficjams because of the amount of roads that are closed. the traffic is building up with people trying to get through, and there's a risk that this side of the island actually gets cut off by the lava flow. that will probably happen at some point. so, we're starting to see how everyday life is being disrupted here and this eruption is causing problems notjust for the people whose homes are directly at risk. and the big question is how long will this last and what will the future impact be? we've seen banana plantations which are the main source of industry here, we've seen banana leaves covered in ash. will they be productive in future? but for now, the emphasis is still on the volcano that continues to erupt and the sky is looking a bit darker today, with that ash cloud continuing to spread particles right across the eastern and southern tip of la palma. and finally we take you to syria where displaced children have been composing letters of peace. this paper roll spans 75 metres, it's being held up by syrian children in idlib province, who've written messages and drawn pictures of their hopes and dreams. the roll has toured many of the camps across northern syria housing children displaced due to war. that's all for now. hello. wednesday wasn't a bad day at all for the greater part of england and wales. but, quite a significant but, there's a different kettle of fish at least for a time through wednesday and parts of scotland and northern ireland, where you had to contend with the weather front which is bringing this increase in cloud and at times bits and pieces of rain. through into thursday, we're going to see quite a vigorous area of low pressure dragging its way over towards southern parts of scandinavia. notice how tightly packed those isobars are. the wind will be a real feature across the north of mainland scotland and especially through the northern isles. it isn'tjust the strength of the winds, there will be showers if not longer spells of rain. here, we have the gusts and you'll see i'm indicatimg they are 65, possibly 70mph as we get on through the daylight hours of thursday morning. even further south, the gusts really quite significant. wednesday's weather front just producing the odd bit and piece of rain and sufficient cloud across wales for a time and then slumping to the southwest of england. all the while the low pressure moves away from scotland, pulling its frontal system with it. a weak linkage back towards more cloud and rain getting towards the western side of scotland. but with sunshine through wales, the midlands and eastern england through the afternoon, 22, possibly 23 degrees. much of the weather action across the northwestern corner of scotland as we bring new weather fronts in with a low centre close to the eastern side of iceland. through friday, the windsjust beginning to fall back to the west and the southwest — a relatively mild direction. any suggestion of the cold air behind tonight's lowjust over the northeast of scotland, that will be pulled away and will all be flooded into this moisture—laden west to south—westerly air flows as you get on through friday. anywhere facing those western shores could well pick up enough cloud for the odd bit of rain, but again, some brightness and could be looking at 22, 23 degrees. come the weekend, it won't be west and southwest it will be south and south—westerly winds which will pump it really mild air up and across the greater part of the british isles. it's not wall—to—wall sunshine, nor is it dry for everybody. there will be a scattering of showers, but for the time of year, i suspect it will feel very pleasantly mild.

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