saying brings his personal story to life. al jazeera correspondent, my own private bollywood. ah, japan becomes the latest countries have been foreign visitors in response to the new cove at 19 variance. ah, know that i'm how am i here? dean? this is al jazeera life and doha also coming up more very, very mild symptoms. the doctor who 1st detected the omicron variance says patients of suffered only miles symptoms so far.

supporters of leftist opposition candidates. your moral castro celebrates in honduras as she leads in sunday's presidential election. and the corruption trial, a former georgian presidents because successfully is to resume these facing 6 years in prison. ah, japan is banning foreigners from entering the country in an attempt to control the spreads. often you omicron variance prime minister from your cuz she does says the band will take effect on tuesday. and other measures are also being considered. you know, army good ongoing schema. so we are responding to the army con variant with a strong sense of urgency in my country, we've suspended the entry of foreigners from south africa and 9 other countries from yesterday at midnight. as the new variance spreads further around the world, we can see doing additional measures to strengthen our border control measures.

second, i'll announce when necessary petition or the south african president has demanded an immediate ends to the travel bands that he's described as unjustified and discriminatory against his country and its neighbors. meanwhile, the world health organization has warns the omicron variance is likely to spread globally. and poses a very high risk. it's urged countries to speed up their vaccination. rollouts around a dozen countries have now confirmed cases, all the new variance g 7. house ministers will hold an emergency meeting later on how to response. tony chang is in band call can, has more on the measures been taken by some asian nations. well borders in our close to foreign business people and foreign students, many of whom were celebrating after being allowed back into the country several weeks ago. for some japanese nationals will be able to return

a quarantine protocols are going to be introduced once again. so japan really stepping back very quickly there that did cause a different markets across asia this morning, although they appear now to have started. we've seen this other reactions in the region, the philippines, imposing a ban on a rivals from 14 countries, including 7 european nations, particularly those were the only kron variant has already been detected thailand and the indonesia have band 8 arrivals from 8 southern african nations. they appear to be watching very closely what's going to to be going on, no detection yet of cases in any countries other than hong kong or of the owner con barion. but i think people here will be very wary. they have just started to open up, particularly here in thailand. we're the, the tourist industry has been absolute. the devastated by the last 18 months and

the shutdowns they announced in bank over to over the weekend, they were going to be lifting the entry requirements slightly. this of course is going to set everyone on guard again, but i think if the thai government can do anything to keep those gateways open, they'll be trying to do so. so the terrorists can eventually return a south african doctor who raised the alarm of the new variant says her patients have shown mainly miles symptoms so far. from me to miller reports no. from johannesburg. angelie could see the south african doctor who 1st to take the new symptoms in patients who had contract coven 19 while she says the symptoms up until ya cases so far have been mild. so what is interesting is that, that the clinical symptoms are not the same. then with delta, extreme tightness, and fatigue, and the young people that was how we 1st detected with a bit of her body i, campaign, and headache. very,

very similar to what you will normally see with any viral infection. so the africa has to take to just over 50 cases of the new variant and enabling, but swan or 900 people have been infected. they've also been cases in belgium, israel, and other countries. so i to say it may take up to 2 weeks to better understand the variance to determine how easily it spreads and how well vaccines work to protect people. because these more than 30 mutations, that might, it might escape the immune system, or it might escape the vaccines. what we have seen so far is people that has been vaccinated specie we're far, is it around? we had the last short in august this year did contact the virus and it's miles very, very much symptoms. there are no known admissions to hospitals. hill people, the contract, the new variant. what is your view then on the global reaction to this variant

being detected in south africa? extremely premature. and you know, it is as if they went into a frenzy and each and every one out there on biking, a great, a high about this. and the question is, you know what, why we have, we have won't that we are going to see a 44 or a wife. we have to sit, they will come at variance. we did say that the variance will mostly come from unvaccinated. i v p. people who's not controlled on the medication or never been to taking any medication. that's not, that's something that's new. well, scientists say the variant is behind a sharp rise of cases in the halting province. how the spread of the disease is managed should be carefully considered. an increasing number of experts say the law downs and travel bands don't work and that instead damaging economies and causing unnecessary panic,

then says the focus should be on ensuring everyone in the world has access to vaccines. south africa, india and other countries have been for months, quoting for payton waivers, to allow for vaccines to be manufactured around the world. so far, just 70 percent of africans have received a job with very low vaccine access, with the inability to be able to fully make our own vaccines and to be able to get out of this. been driving fast enough in a timely manner with the vaccine about it. witnessing and the stigmatization of certain countries in africa related to the variant. this is not a good look for the global not what we need is cooperation. what we need is global solidarity. and what we're getting in return is actually of a punitive approach to how we can actually will manage the spending 2 weeks from now. when we might see a different picture, we might see a total different clinical picture from, from us what we experienced currently. but, but for now, we can't even say escaped the vaccine efficacy. we can't say that while travel

bands are often used by time to better understand new variance and the spread of the coven, 19 virus. some scientists in south africa, a calling it's a futile exercise. for me to mila al jazeera johannesburg. aah! in honduras, the left one candidates humor castro has clone victory and sundays presidential election. castro says that voters have reversed authoritarianism. the supporters to, to the streets of the hunter and capital to celebrate her historic when governing national party also announced that its candidates had one manuel ruffled. hus more now from the honduran capital. it's a bit of jovial environment. people very much happy celebrating and we're val, uh, we've already heard from us your motto, counselor herself,

who came out and spoke to her supporters stopping short of declaring victory would say that today, the people of honduras have one and promise. i've got a minute reconciliation saying that it's early as tomorrow she wants to meet with the under other candidate to form a government of reconciliation. a government that truly serves all of the people of honduras. this election really does have the potential to be a pivotal one, not only because the of the potential for the us to an area where we could see a 1st woman president of honduras, but because of a backdrop under which these general elections are taking place. one of the most, one of the worst migrant crisis in the history of the country, a poverty rate that's reaching historic levels, it currently sits at somewhere around 75 percent. and regardless of your political background here in honduras, many people are simply happy to see the exit of the controversial president won orlando land is a president whose administration has been marred by allegations of corruption

misuse of public funds and ties to norco trafficking, to, to drug trafficking to the united states, his own brother, a former member of congress, now serving a life sentence in the united states for drug trafficking. so many people in this country are hungry for change. the conflict in ethiopia as t gray region is expanding to areas including neighboring, ne, and afar, where most in ports come through. i'll just cirrus mohammed, ta, ta ta, a cool list. the 1st journalist from an international media network to gain access to the reach. and since the fighting began national anthem, i didn't, i didn't, i hadn't. medina, is that after? yeah, let it, we are now with the city of she for a strategic city that separates the regions of a far and i'm hora. it's also not far from the t grey region, but it was the main stronghold of the t great front, which controlled this strategic area. the manifestations of the fighting a very clear around. this was a major fighting for there's been

a large number of killings and a large displacement movement. the situation is still a chaotic and difficult. everyone around us has been turned into an armed person. that could be militia members, a federal soldiers. i'm still, most of the residents are civilians. this is the strategic shift for a city which was the center of the fighting between the fighter of the t great front and forces from afar supported by the federal government. mom about our call . jeff for the other. so heads, ornell, jazeera schools, a uganda are set to be open since then our fears, some students may not go back to class, will explain why class claims mensray designer friendly veto and find her of white speech and upload as dies. the age of 41. ah,

how i was saying some very heavy rain recently into indonesia, big down polls coming through here actually is java 169 millimeters the frightful in 24 as associated with the seasonal rains, of course, further north and ne monsoons been driving some very heavy right across southern parts of vietnam, all the way across into the malay peninsula where we saw 178 millimeters of rain falling in southern thailand. still a wet hair as we go on through tuesday to see the pockets of heavy arrange to sliding across the gulf of thailand and that wet weather eventually punching its way out into the abdomen. sea will bring some very heavy right into the eastern side of india. as we go to the latter part of this week, heavy rain also making its way toward sir west job or as he go on through our wedding, stay southern parts of smarter. also seeing some live, he downpours and we have seen lobby downpours, flooding rains recently across eastern parts of australia,

courtesy of la nina. staggering amount of rainfall here and say $300.00 millimeters of rain for coming down to just 24 hours. that wet weather becomes a little more widespread as we go on through tuesday punching its way across the good parts of queensland. northern parts of new south wales also very disturbed, but treading dryer by the end of the week. ah. from the al jazeera london broker center to people in thoughtful conversation with no host and no limitation, lead to the press of color, it was a struggle. it would be much easier for me might feel that white people ought to go into a thing, a songwriter in the other people. wait a minute, you get why don't you stop what you're doing and made one studio be unscripted on al jazeera

lou. the me this is just a quick reminder, all the top stories this are hundreds is last one can that it's humor a castro has claimed victory from the presidential election. the governing national party is also a nice, it's candidates, have one. japan is founding foreigners from entering the country after the discovery, if you only con, variance minister fully because she says other matchers are also being considered se. let's take a closer look at how other countries are attempting to control the spreads of the sea cope with 900 variance passengers traveling to the u. k. from all 10 of these,

southern african nations needs to core and teen. others are going further. morocco is halting all incoming air travel from around the world for the next 2 weeks, and that follows israel's decision to ban all foreigners from entering that country . also for 2 weeks, eligible cabinets is also approved. a controversial for monitoring technology to trace people who are infected with the variance. harry forces reports now from occupied east jerusalem. getting in while the getting was good. sunday was the final day of relatively unrestricted arrivals at israel's main airport. you rules me no foreigners save those with special exemptions will be allowed into the country. in the world, harshest response to the army cron variant is ready returning home. we'll have to current into 3 days. it's vaccinated. 7 days, if not, and be diverted to quarantine hotels. if they've been to red list countries in africa, at the weekly cabinet donuts for the 100 a holiday,

while ministers voted on measures destined to ruin many holiday plans, shoved dick, but now we need to tighten up our borders in order to keep israel open internally. i understand that we need to change vacation destinations and go into isolation of unreturned. this happens in my family as well. restrictions on the countries borders. it's not an easy step, but it's a temporary and necessary step. in another controversial move, the security service will once again trace transmission by monitoring people's phones. although, unlike earlier in the panoramic, the government says this will be reserved for confirmed cases of the army chrome variant. they made it impactable list of course will be 1st felt in the tourism industry, not just in israel, but here and occupied east jerusalem. and in the occupied west bank as well. a tentative recovery built on the reopening of the borders to tourist just a little bit earlier this month has not been thrown into doubt. to receive all ready arrived can finish their trips,

but soon the supply of customers will dry up again. it was the beginning that was the beginning of what we hoped to be the return of the tourist industry and the return of tourists to, to israel. and again, this is another clap in the face, further into jerusalem's old city shopkeepers who'd only just reopened the contemplating bringing down the shutters again. i don't think is will i thought because her, 1st of all, this could be that in every way around the world. not only in this country and for the tourist who got in, heightened concerns about getting back out. this is not good news parsing cause i hope we can get home what is available if the plains and i come here. i don't know if they're going to go back the government's message better, close the borders early and reopen after 2 weeks. been close them late and regretted. recent experienced, though, tells of temporary restrictions being stretched well beyond there and dates. few here a betting that the tourists will be back soon. eric will sit al jazeera,

occupied east, jerusalem. aviation expert told curtis as the founder of air safe. don't. com. he says it could take another 2 years to get the tourism sector back to what it used to be. while the ation industry may actually not be affected as deeply with especially the latest variant of the current or virus. in part because throughout the pandemic, aviation has been a key factor in transporting equipment and people to her as needed for vaccination and for medical care. but more to the general point with respect to travel, it's been a slow recovery in part because so much of travel is international and origin. and even if you have some countries, for example, united states, which is fairly open with respect to domestic travel, there are still rebel relatively high barriers to entry for free travel from overseas. and especially the more, let's just see the part of the travel industry that actually contributes

a disproportionate share of the revenue business travel that's been particularly effective, not just from the individual travelers. but from all the ancillary activities that may go on, let's say, around an international conference or an intervention convention, it still has not recovered globally as much as the industry but expect. and i fully expect, even without the latest, very. and it will be sometime in 2022 or even 2023. before that spectrum returned to something resembling the norm of 2019 the trial of former georgia president's week. and 2nd, surely, if that's a resume in the capital, simply see he's being held in jails and returning to georgia from exxon last month . he faces 6 years in prison for corruption during his time in office. let's get more now from robin forest walker. he joins me lie format, tbilisi. robin clearly protest on going behind you there. just talk us through what the atmosphere is like in the ga capitol right now. light

here outside tbilisi city cause its been feverish. and at times chaotic for about an hour earlier, both roads, the main, all 3 roads and i'm standing on the central reservation of both in and out of the city. the roads were closed off, causing traffic may hand and the security trying to clear the roads of opposition supported self because that could be narrow. escape being sprayed myself, i saw some arrests being made, but as you can see behind me, one of the roads still shot with hundreds of people gathered outside the court. i guess hoping to catch a glimpse of their former president, although it's likely that he would have been seen by the back door to the court hearing where his he's be making a statement early in which he said he did not recognize this comedy scenario that

had been pre written in advance, but at least he had a chance finally to have his day in court because previous attempts to bring him before court were unsuccessful. the government explaining that it wasn't safe enough to bring in there. but that undermining that, their insistence that this is going to be an open, transparent, and unbiased proceedings that gets into the opposition here, outside say no, this is a politically motivated prosecution of our former president. and that's why they're here coding as much chaos as they can to make that point. and robin, just for the, for international audience, just talk us through how we got here. i did ga, come to be divided into this 10 situation over the prosecution of the former president when the 2nd really is a very divisive president. in his time, he came to power in the roads revolution in 2003,

and he did an enormous amount of reforms and that's what he's credited for. he's also credited for having abused his authority and office having become something of a bully. and in fact, he's on trial today for abuses of power, for exceeding his authority at being protested back in 2007 and for rating television station, an opposition television station, which now goes happens to be the main government pro government broadcast. but he was in exile for many years and he came back at the beginning of october, smuggled himself into the country and with swiftly arrested ones. he don't those charges and since then it been on hunger strike. i mean, it's a, it's a drama every day with these accounts of the president of the former president will hear what he attend trial. will he survive his hunger strike a deal? he he'd become very sick and he was finally transferred to a military hospital. so we called so we no longer president,

but still creating enormous problems for the current administration, which he says i come up to him. i was undertaking a political vendor to get him in his heart and when they were in power. okay, robin forest here, walker that live from to dc. well, then thank you for your socialize can. maxwell is set to go on trial in new york in the coming hours. she's accused of enabling the crimes of late sex offender jeffrey epstein, who took his own life full awaiting trial. maxwell insists she's innocence and claims. she too was a victim gabriel and was on though has been following the story from new york. a. how much did you lane maxwell know about geoffrey epstein to alleged sexual abuse of under age girls? that will be the central question in the trial of the 59 year old british socialite, facing charges of sex trafficking and other crimes. and he is going to be the invisible presence hanging over there. and that is why i think

that she is going to have to explain something that everybody really wants to know . what was his hold over her? what was that relationship? a big unknown on the trial is how far the judge will allow the prosecutors to probe and epstein and maxwell's high profile social circles that included many household names from politics, industry, and entertainment. one being britain's prince andrew and his accuser, virginia roberts, who says she was trafficked by maxwell to the prince per sex. when she was a teenager is likely not going to be called as a witness. he denies any wrongdoing, but prosecutors are expected to call at least 4 other women. all epstein accusers who are going to tell the jury, maxwell groomed them for sex with epstein, one when she was as young as 14 years old. it's a trial with all the trappings of a salacious, drama, sex power, money,

and fame. but victims rights advocates hope that the jury does not get distracted by that and instead keeps their focus on the women who say they were abused by epstein. and that it could have only happened with the help of maxwell. this is an example of one of the most horrific and long enduring patterns of sex trafficking and child exploitation. there are so many victims, and what's particularly disturbing about the case is how open are they operated and how many people knew, and how many people they involved in this exploitation scheme. maxwell has pleaded not guilty and denies all the charges. her legal team will try to cast doubt on the allegations and the testimony based on evidence that happened more than 20 years ago. the trial is expected to last 6 weeks. if convicted maxwell faces up to 80 years in prison. gabriel's ando al jazeera new york schools and uganda are

set to reopen in january nearly 2 years after they closed because of the pandemic. but the u. n is warning many students and teachers may not want to returned the classroom. catherine, so it explains why timothy sir, will go is a high school student, but he has not been in class for much of the last year and a half. uganda closed it's learning institutions in march 2020 because of covet 19 . some classes were reopened earlier. this year, but only for 3 mans. settle, go is now landing to fix computers. so he can start a business. he says he'll go to school in january, but many of his friends may not. some friends of mine. really though, i'd be good some walk through some one that in your dean, somewhere in there, me, mechanic, in way cause and some of my friends totally the in do

things and we are there we're up. they alive with e. g. government officials, talis, they're working with teachers and other partners to make sure that at least the basic facilities are in place before january, but a little time left and not enough money to prepare and sweating safety and the well being all the details and the land as we need them to be alive. we're talking about the opening, but we have no t taken it into other factors from $0.40. we're looking at now. what is, what is it that has been prepared asked level, the infrastructure level. in some neighborhoods, volunteers try to keep children busy. uganda has had one of the longest school closures in the world, and it's the only nation in africa. less students are still at home, but this is a classroom of

a privately own school in the city. other schools have been converted to business and leaving spaces for rent. many schools are in a bad state, and some teachers stelis that they may not be able to provide a safe environment for students to come back. some aid work is see you, kunda is facing a learning crisis that could take many years to fix. many children have been out of school for 2 years. they are lost in truth. they are engaged in some other an interactive. it is like tied label. some of them have sufferers, her cycle psychosocial effects. some of them have been abused, getting all that character to come to school, getting the schools ready to accept the children and help them learn. getting that is us back and getting the system ready for all of it. is a big challenge. some students have been starting on line or with private tutors, but many like say rugle can't afford that. and once school starts, it may take

a long time for them to catch up catching, sorry, al jazeera compiler. internationally renowned fashion designer virgil ablow, has died at the age of 41. he was the 1st black, artistic director at louis vuitton of law, who recently showcased his work. here in doha was hailed for his stance on social and environmental issues. katya lopez, what a young reports. ah, he was a high end designer and visionary who rose to the top of the fashion industry. virgil ablow was often described as a renaissance man in the world of fashion. as voice taunts 1st african american artistic director, he push boundaries, redefining the designs of luxury brands. you can't talk about st. we're specifically luxury street. where without mentioning the name ver, to at wow, it's impossible in the more than 160 years that louis baton has existed as

a fashion house. he was there 1st wack read of director styles once unthinkable on the catwalk like mixing sneakers and camouflage pants with tailored suits and evening gowns became a blueprint for other designers. a combination of luxury and street were also attracted a new and younger market. ablow was born in the us state of illinois to immigrant parents from gonna his mother, a seamstress taught him to so and even though he did and how formal fashion training, he understood the industry and the role that plays in modern culture for more than 2 years. the founder of the label off white had been suffering from an aggressive form of cancer. despite his illness, he kept active. earlier this month he traveled took a tars capital for his.