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President Biden pledges 500m more vaccines to developing world

The US is to donate 500 million more doses of the Pfizer vaccine to developing nations from next year

President Joe Biden made the pledge at a virtual Covid-19 summit on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, promising an "arsenal of vaccines". The additional jabs will see the total US commitment on vaccine sharing exceed one billion jabs. We'll hear from Lily Caprani, head of Advocacy for Health at UNICEF, Peter Maybarduk at the not-for-profit consumer advocacy organisation Public Citizen, as well as Thomas Cueni, Director General at the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations. Also in the programme: after Canada's most expensive federal election in history, the electoral map is largely unchanged. Guest Takara Small with CBC talks us through the agenda of the new government. Lebanon’s inflation rate has become the highest in the world, according to the latest figures from the Lebanon Central Administration of Statistics. Tala Ramadan, a journalist in Beirut, explains how ordinary people in Lebanon are trying to get by, as fuel, food and internet connection become ever more scarce. A multi-billion dollar project to build a new electric train line to link Egypt's Red Sea and Mediterranean coasts, due for completion in 2027, is being described as the Suez Canal on rails. Plus, the east African nation of Kenya has become the first market in which video streaming platform Netflix has launched a free service, in a bid to persuade people to sign up to a full subscription.

All through the show we'll be joined by Takara Small with CBC in Toronto, and Lien Hoang with Nikkei Asia in Saigon.

(Picture credit: Getty Images)

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50 minutes

Broadcast

  • Thu 23 Sep 2021 00:06GMT

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