[000:00:00;00] hey ah, ah, this is al jazeera. ah! hello and welcome. i'm pete adobe. you're watching the news. i live from doha. coming up in the next 60 minutes, south africa's president test positive for cobit 19 after delivering a eulogy at a memorial for f. w to clerk. i'm afraid we're now facing an emergency in our

battle with the new varied on the crew. the u. k. prime minister raises the corona virus alert level as he faced his bitter condemnation about the staff christmas party during last year's locked up. the u. s president declares a major disaster in the state of kentucky after molten 30 tornadoes devastated several regions and spain's wetlands are under threat, made worse by farmers tapping into the water supplies illegally to keep their livelihoods going. and i'm far as smile with the sport from our special studio on the tao. how waterfront mercedes a they will appeal after their protest against max 1st happens world championship. when in abby darby or reject it, ah, you're doing a day after delivering the eulogy for the former president, f. w to clerk, south africa's current president, settle, run, a poster, has now tested positive for cupid mind. tea in his office released

a statement saying he felt unwell after the states memorial service in cape town on sunday. he's being treated for my old symptoms. mister rom, a person has been vaccinated against the virus for me to mila jonas live now, from johannesburg, for me to how is he doing well, according to the president c, as you said, they, his experiencing mild symptoms, and he's being monitored by military doctors. they say that he's doing well, and while he's in isolation and his duties will be performed by the deputy president or the prison presidency rather, hasn't expressed any deep concern around him testing positive. but to this does come just after that eulogy that he gave at the memorial for the former president f w de clark. so he was around people and also off the back of a west african to a we've visited several countries. so those who have been around the president have

been told to isolate and have been tested, but they've also used this opportunity to remind south africans to get vaccinated saying that the president is just as vulnerable as everybody else. and this is your chance to get out and get vaccinated because that's what's going to keep you safe more generally for me to what's the all me chrome picture like across the country. while experts are saying it's likely that army crow infections will overtake the delta variant at some point we're looking at about a $15000.00 average daily cases in the last 7 days. specifically, almost a 50 percent positivity rate. and what that means is that 30 percent of people who go out and get tested for cova 19 have a positive result. so expose, continue to say that they are alarmed by the rates at which the variant is craving,

but they've also continued to say that they are observing mild cases of infection. they do one more time to come out with the information around just how severe illness might be. but we are hearing more and more fun. these authorities that there is increasing a case of mild infections. the number of people at hospitals isn't particularly alarming at this point. about $5500.00, that's about less than 8 percent of i. c u high q bids, have been taken up by people who need that kind of treatment, but they expect to continue to watch and be waiting for more information. and exactly what on the card might mean for south africa. as we watch the positivity rate grow for me to thank you very much for me to me live there talking to us from the bureau in job book. well, the u. k. government has raised its current of virus threat level to for that's just short of the highest level that fits at 5 officials. a warning the spread of the army chrome variant is pushing the u. k. back into risky territory. the new

threat level won't immediately affect existing rules and regulations, but a move to level 5 would bring with it more restrictions and will be triggered if the health system becomes overwhelmed. the prime minister boris johnson, urging people to get a 3rd vaccine shot. no one should be in any doubt. there is a tidal wave of omicron coming and i am afraid it is now clear that 2 doses of vaccine are simply not enough to give the level of protection we all need. but the good news is that our scientists are confident that with a 3rd dose a booster dose. we can all bring our level of protection back up. a fortnight ago, i said we would offer every eligible adult a booster by the end of january to day in light of this on the kron emergency. i'm

bringing that target forward. by a whole month. everyone eligible, aged 18 and over in england, will have a chance to get their booster before the new year pull. brennan is our correspondence outside one of the main london hospitals for sale and use our pool. hi, they welcome back to program 22000000 people in 18 days. very ambitious commit that target it's going to be extremely difficult. i mean if you look back at the height of the jabbing efforts here in the u. k, particularly in england, they were maximizing at around 800000 a day. and now for us, johnson once a 1000000 a day at the time when we're running up to christmas, as he says, there's a tidal wave of alma crohn on the way at ra, ready still in as the 5th, a sorry, 4th wave of the delta variance. and so as we enter this holiday period here in the u. k, it is going to be an enormous challenge to meet the,

that the expectations and ambitions of the prime minister. but that said, the, any chess has been going to try and i'm standing outside guys, hospital where people have been here since 7 o'clock this morning. i'm going to quickly step out the way. so richard, the camera man can look around. people are literally queueing out of the gates of this hospital in order to wait for their booster jobs. there are well as couple of 100 people at least here. there is another tent on the opposite side of this building on the, on the far side of this building where there are more a booster jobs being administered. in fact, that's where i got my booster jap. earlier on this month at people here, i can tell you from experience are going to be waiting at least an hour. i'm but they are willing to do so because of the urgency of the situation. and as the prime minister said, in that same address he gave on sunday night, even if alma cron doesn't lead to as many deadly outcomes as the delta variance, the fact is that it's predicted on them some modeling to be to cause twice the

number of hospitalizations as under the peak of the delta variance, and that is what they are very worried about the overwhelming of the an h s. and hospitals pull, which is going to play us owned by aetna from las trust the u. k. foreign secretary . because even at the g 7 meeting in liverpool, which wrapped up roughly this time yesterday, let's trust the u. k. for our secretary, what she wanted to say about the g 7 was overshadowed by so called christmas gate. and the government's desire, i guess, to be able to get on to the moral high ground over telling us what we could or what we should be doing. these are the army kron and getting vaccinated. let's listen to her being questioned by one of the u. k. reporters who was there in liverpool for a secretary of how can the prime minister look so outraged at the idea of christmas parties at down the street when the one our photographs of him hosting one, which lowest seem to think, show him, potentially breaking the law. and what does that do to britain standing on the

world stage in our credibility amongst allies? the cabinet secretary is conducting a thorough investigation of days, ah, events at that took place there. you'll appreciate that. my thank is, has been on the very serious issues that we face globally. i guess, paul, in one sense, the key question is not whether there was a christmas party at 10 downing street. and then, boris johnson's advisors were filmed, laughing about, it taught 4 days later, and then that was leaked just last week. that doesn't really matter in the scheme of things. what matters is where the people will react or how they will react to this conservative government telling them how to behave. it's gonna be a really difficult week for this conservative government. not only has it had 5 weeks, essentially,

of being buffeted from all sides by various different missteps and mishaps a lot larger the summer than caused by boris johnson's mishandling of the situation that i go all the way back to. aaron patterson at this m p who was found to have been taking money effectively to represent companies and, and introduce companies into parliament. and he was eventually sac, but not before the, i'm sorry, he eventually resigned but not before the prime minister kind of thrown his weight 1st behind her and passing and then withdrawn his support. but look, boris johnson, some of his issues are factored in by his supporters. you know, they know he's a towel, head slightly chaotic prime minister and he takes them with him because of his popular appeal. and the fact is though, that are people going to trust him when it really comes to matters such as this big matters of national health. ah, i pick the cues here suggest there is a,

a large number of people who are adamant that they do want to get their booster shot. but there is a, a cor, somewhere around 1015 percent of people who still remain on vaccinated in this country. and how to go about persuading those people to get their vaccines. and when you have some like boris johnson who doesn't necessarily have the big moral weight of another leader perhaps, is a big question. bull. thank you so much. sure, paul brennan, they're talking to fly from outside guys. hospital in london, the australian states of queensland is opening its borders to domestic travelers that are fully vaccinated. it's been closed for 5 months while the state pushed the locals to get to jobs. leo harding as this report. oh, home for the holidays. these lucky travelers were able to return to the state of queensland and australia after being locked out because of the pandemic. we haven't been on a plane for either a month. i was just wondering that they'd fought in world war and the bridge.

in july, queensland clamped down on travel, shutting its borders as the delta variant of coven 19 made its way through the country. the local government set a goal of getting 80 percent of its population age, 16 and above vaccinated before borders would open again. that target was reached just in time for some families to be reunited for christmas. and mr. if it was my son and daughter, know you had been a little 5 years and i was planning to get married in 2020, and grace we were all going. but of course we couldn't do that. so they, they got married in september this year, and we're now welcoming heim, after foggy. so we thought he thought, but not every one is so lucky, international travel into the state and country still requires 2 weeks of quarantine. officials say that will change once the vaccination rate goes up to 90

percent. it's been over 8 months since i saw my family. and luckily i can get back for christmas, but my brother is still overseas and can get back into queensland. there have been protests across australia against the push for everyone to get vaccinated. but for those that have these hugs and kisses try to make up for time spent apart. leah harding al jazeera plenty more ahead here on the user for you, including north and south korea. have been technically at war for more than 70 years. find out what they plan to do to change that. and thinking outside the box, palestinians living in the occupied westbank turned to solar power to improve access to electricity. and in sport, we talk football and cats are 2022 with a man who's managed teams at 5 previous editions. the will come ah, the number of people killed in kentucky after dozens of tornadoes hit the region is

likely to pass 100. president joe biden has declared a major disaster and promised aid for 6 states. kentucky is the hardest hit region . height of castro has the latest from the time of may field. this is what the mayfield candle factory looked like before the storm. this is what it looks like now. i saw on site a backpack that was left behind and a pair of shoes. and it represents that the tragedy of it is a tornado. as read on this area of kentucky, we learned of a telephone that was recovered. a cell phone that i recorded 27. miss messages. we've lost father's mother's brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and others, teens from department of homeland security and the federal emergency management

agency or fema are now on the scene. but the likelihood of finding more survivors diminishes by the hour fridays. tornado destroyed everything. it touched in mayfield. this used to be the historic town center. now it is leveled that was once a doctors office back there churches now nothing but rubble. this trailer was picked up in the sky and dropped here like a toy and people's personal belongings from their homes. their photographs of their family members, now litter the streets. david hargrove digs through what remains of his law. office volunteers are helping him recover client files. he didn't expect to also find this . i've had this desk for since my daughter's been born in, you know, all things they draw for you and i had it under a glass and that's the i found most of them. there's still no power or running water,

but the recovery work is in full swing. 10000 people call this town home. i can't even tell what's what right now cuz saw piled up. it's like a like a war zone that happened here. and though it's unreal. oh, words came describe what i say or i know of my home town. the loss of life here is the greatest shock. knowing some of the ruin homes belong to the factory workers who will never return. parts are heavy as the clean up continuous heidi jo, castro, al jazeera mayfield. kentucky. tornadoes in the u. s. during december are extremely rare, though not unheard of over all about 1000 are recorded annually, mostly in central us states along an area called tornado alley. the peak months are generally main june when dry, cold air from canada moves to the south meets warm, humid air, coming north out of the gulf of mexico. in winter,

there normally isn't enough warm and humid air for tornadoes to thrive. but this time, spring like temperatures fed the storms, the current, lanier, weather patton in the pacific is responsible for some of this. however, sciences expense warmer winter's to become more common. as the planet continues to heat up and higher temperatures are already blamed for shifting tornado alley to the east, potentially putting more people in the path of the storm systems. joining us now from london, history, norman lecture and politics and international relations at university college london. julie, welcome back to the news or how difficult is it's for a federal government, i. e, mr. biden. to handle this properly, what's, what's the balancing act they've got to come up with? well, peter, it is indeed a balancing act. the president, in times of the natural disaster like this, needs to respond quickly, needs to show empathy and needs to get federal resources out where they're needed

and requested. but also needs to balance that to make sure that it's not seen as exploiting the moment or using it for political gain. and so far, biden has been trying to hit that mark just right. he gave comments on saturday afternoon, right after the day following the tornadoes. spoke very openly about the fact that this is a time for americans to come together. this isn't the time for divisions between democrats and republicans, spoke openly about his prayers and the perm his parents of him and his wife for the victims, and also indicated his willingness to go to kentucky directly. so he's trying to hit that right note right now. bite and of course known for his empathy, being able to connect with those who are suffering and we can expect to see him leading into those qualities over this next week. is the key thing here when it comes to optics. julie, the timing of this a us president has got to be seen talking to the nation. they've got to get in front of a microphone in front of a camera, even if the official declarations saying this is a disaster. which releases money,

which in effect in a short time way, changes the legislation around who can spend, what money, where and when. but if the president actually goes public and talks about people feel better disposed to the presidential reaction. well, that's certainly a big part of it. and again, that's one reason why we saw bite and trying to get out in front as much as he could on saturday. get in front of the cameras, get on the microphone and get those comments out. and we've seen previous presidents do this as well, dating back to george h. w. bush obama for different disasters. we of course saw indications were that respond from didn't seem as forthcoming on george w bush with being as lagging a bit in his response to katrina, which hurt him politically. so biting again. this isn't the 1st time he faced this kind of situation. he visited the storm victims after hurricane ida back in the fall as a vice president. he was also called out or not in some of these situations as well . so he knows the importance of the timing. he knows this is not a time to be sitting back and waiting for the moment to respond that the time is

now when he sees the suffering that's happening is as everyone has some nice pictures and images, but he has to deal with corona virus. he has to deal with ami kron as well. so that's, that's kind of a double whammy when it comes to potentially where his opinion poll ratings might go. and also he's got maybe got a 3rd 20 here, which is his vice president, common harris. she is across the board very unpopular or maybe not unpopular as people don't respect. so they kind of say will. who is she? where is she? that's right. peter. nearby himself is facing low approval ratings right now. a new post came out over the weekend, showing low approval for inflation in the economy, of course, as well as on gun violence and crime. and of course, ongoing concerns with coven. as you noted, commonly, harris also has not been as visible as many. i hope she would be or thought she might be. so the democrats right now are trying to figure out how maybe they can project a bit more leadership coming out of the executive branch. again,

biting won't want to exploit this moment, but he is usually good in these moments in terms of connecting the people on the human level. again, not to distraction those other issues, but just to respond to what quite clearly is quite an emergency situation or the optics surrounding tornado alley. now, clear of them they might have been, had it not been for cove it in as much as to ask the question a different way, i guess. our american sick and tired of the big issue, the elephant in the room. corona virus on micron having been politicized. now for the best part of 2 years with any one, if any american politician goes towards politicizing this, this particular natural disaster. it might be came over for that politician. well, that's right. as we saw from covered, again, a crisis that for many states became more of a unifying, a crisis name to kind of rally around. we saw that to be very polarizing in the us . we don't want to see that happening with natural disasters. there's been some,

i hear movement to try and link all natural disasters to climate change. biden has kind of been monitor and his response to that saying each disaster is different. we kind of need to look at what's happening even while recognizing climate change in the background. so there is some of that and political movement always in the background. but again, we saw how quickly things can become so divided in the u. s. ban something like this. i think biden will be watching his words and training carefully to trying avoid something similar. and we will keep following this developing story. julie, great to have you here again on the news. i thank you so much, julie norman, that from you cl, talking to was from london to cargo ships, have collided in the baltic, had happened and mortars lying between denmark and sweden, swedish maritime authorities. say 2 people on board. the danish vessel are missing and the ship appears to be upside down. they say the other ship is from the u. k. it is still functional and the crew are safe. in italy, rescue workers are searching for any more survivors in the rubble of several buildings that collapsed on the island of sicily. they recovered 4 more bodies

after digging for 30 hours. 7 people and i confirmed it to are still missing. the buildings came down off for a gas leak explosion on saturday. in the town of robin himself. south korea and australia have signed a defense deal worth more than $700000000.00. south korea will supply australia with artillery weapons supply vehicles and radar equipment. it's the largest defense deal between australia and an asian nation, and comes to time of heightened tensions between australia and china. the delivery of an important commitment of our government that we might. it's an important further chapter in the defense industry story for a strider. as we continue to build our sovereign capability and career is an important partner in that journey, both in our security arrangements, but also in the building of our sovereign capability in defense manufacturing. south korea's president has hinted

a formal end. the war with north korea may be on the horizon. north korean troops invaded the south in june of 1950 in the bid to unify the peninsula with support from the then soviet union. and u. s. lead force entered the war in support of south korea than china joined in, in support of the communist north. millions of koreans were killed in the fighting, which lasted for 3 years. it ended with an armistice, but in the us, china and north korea. but south korea didn't agree to it's and no peace treaty has ever been signed. 71 years later. so them young ang are still technically at war. let's talk to b. j. kim. he's an affiliate professor at the hancock, university of foreign studies and a former south korean diplomat. he joins us from sole b. j. kim, is this piece in our time? or is it step changed towards what might become peace in our time? what might become? i would say because this is an agenda,

the president when jane has been working with ever since 2018 when trump and kim joel were meeting. that's the time when the president, when jane began airing, the idea of introducing the declaration of the end of the war and his term president, monday's term is ending. this coming may march presidential election in this country. so this is one of the leg is he wants the stablished before he steps down here before he leaves his office. so for him, this is a very important agenda. but the thing is, the fact that this has not been materialized ever since. it's an introduction of the idea, it's a $1018.00 tells us it's pretty much a banking task. it's not a, not a given results that we can expect. why is he pushing this and why he giving so much of his time to it? because every reputable opinion poll has been conducted on the years particular over the last decade says the same thing. the majority of south koreans are not

into this at all. exactly. but this is the key agenda for progress of government and pro with government right now. we have to remember the president when jane has approval rating of about 40 percent. that's pretty high as the departing president, the korea, most of the presidents come in probably 7080 percent of for whole rating at the beginning of their term at the, you know, the 5 year term by the time they leave their office, the number drops around 20 or 10, but the number for the moon remains around 40. that means at least 3040 percent of people may actually support the idea. but as you point out more it's more important is more than half of the korean like the idea. but just the parting progress, the president's was to be remembered that someone who worked on establishing peace and permanent edits. and so that's why he and his team have been really paying close attention and have been working very hard on this so far to oversimplify. it

may be just a touch as well, and forgive me if that's what i'm doing, is there another dynamic here in south korea, which is they look in on the north korean leadership. and they just say, what's in place at the moment simply cannot be trusted. yes, exactly. the concern of the korea believe, you know, if you declare the end of the korean war, what could happen is the north korea and china could say, well, we need to see with your all of us troops, the warheads, now formerly ended, what the, why do we need us troops stationing in south south korea and after that, if somehow us trips leaves the country, that's the best, you know, security protection that we got south korea. and we will make it totally in that case. a lot of people will lot of people see in death scenario. that's going to be a very, very dangerous scenario. you have to rely upon the mercy of north korean regime that doesn't work in the minds of most of korean, at least more than happy. okay,

we'll leave it there. thank you so much. b. j. kim. thank you. still to come here on the news for you. now tony bennett becomes the 1st is really prime minister to make an official visit to the united arab emirates. and in support can next year's wilcox produce a break for arab teams with biggest stage flowers here with that story. ah hello there. let's have a look at the weather across europe over the next few days. and it's looking much finer and dryer across southern areas in particular for that south west corner. and that's going to come as a relief to places like northern spain and southern france where we've had severe flooding caused by torrential rain. now the flood waters remain, but it does clear up rather nicely. if we take a closer look at the iberian peninsula,

we are going to have plenty of sunshine coming in for spain and portugal. that band of rain is going to ease down towards the south taking the wet weather to the canary islands. by the time we get to wednesday. but for much of italy, it's a dry a picture to get up in the north and for the balkans, we are seeing that wintery mix pushed farther to the east with a heavy snow in serbia, it's gonna fall heaviest in bulgaria, by the time we get into choose day, some strong winds, still affecting parts of croatia, but much of the wet and windy weather swirling off to the east. now farther north, it is a much milder picture across central parts. we are expecting some heavy snow, however south eastern areas of germany. and once again, we got that wet and windy weather pulling into western parts of norway. but the scandinavia it is getting miles across sweden and denmark, with temperatures picking up slightly in the days to come. ah,

stories of determination and joy. oh, i will not be long cut down the kiddo jean of you. i remained listening v. i located luca, short documentary by african filmmakers from miley wanda and cameron, desert libraries. the young cyclist and happy africa direct on al jazeera ah, inculcate a culture of knowledge, openness, and pluralism worldwide, and to reward merit and excellence and encourage creativity. the shake ahmad award for translation and international understanding was found to promote translation and honor translators,