ah ah ah . ready this is al jazeera oh, you're wanting to lose our life from our headquarters in del himes, adding abigail coming up in the next 60 minutes. a new study suggest the on the kron variant is milder than delta. but concerns remain over rising infections. hudson on a show, russian president says he wants to avoid conflict with ukraine and the west. in his annual end of year news conference. a hong kong university removes the pillar of shame,

a famous statue marking the tenement square massacre will hear from its sculptor plus the un relief it works. agency says it's on the verge of collapse and can't meet the needs of palestinian refugees in lebanon. and on pita, favorite to more premier league matches have been postponed. as coven 19 continues to disrupt global sport. and in the india food consecutive game is postponed for the brooklyn smith's because of the pandemic. ah! hello welcome to the news our. the ami kron variance is proving to be less severe than previous strains of corona virus, but people are still needing hospital care. germany has registered its 1st death. those cases of the variant increased rapidly and us health regulators have now authorized they 2nd pill to treat those sick with the virus. studies from the u. k

. are suggesting that the army chron variance holds a reduced risk of severe disease. but health experts, they are still concerned over how fast it's spreading. and a study by the african center for disease control suggest the variance is up to 80 percent less likely to cause hospitalization than delta and south africa's approved the single shot. johnson and johnson vaccine to be used for booster jobs as well. let's go live to family miller. she's joining us from breath. johannesburg. forgot to tell us more about this study in south africa and what we've learned from it's well, so far experts is saying that based on their observations, in terms of the number of people in hospitals and the number of people who bought the death rate at this stage they say that it potentially or mccartney is list of causes less severe illness. now, what they're doing is comparing the numbers and the data they have available now to the 2nd and 3rd waves experience in south africa. they continue to say that yes,

it's very infectious. and that the, the, the number of people contracting the cobra 19 continues to rise. in fact, the numbers are fluctuated in south africa, but according to the africa, c, d. c, the increase. so the average increase in new infections in southern africa, alone over about a 4 week period has been 203 percent. so yes, they continues to be that concern around just how contagious this variant is. but because the south africa lay experts and sciences and authorities, here are things few people in the hospital and when they are in hospital, they stay for a very short time. and they're also seeing very few debts. the highest number at this point of the 4th wave in south africa has been 99 deaths in one day, and that is far less than what was experienced previously. so they are cautiously optimistic, but also they're saying in south africa there's a particular context. it may be around the vaccination rate,

which is at 44 percent, not terribly high, but you've also got people were previously infected and may have the antibodies to fight off the new variant, even though there was concern about an escape around immunity. but they're saying that this is a particular context and what happens in south africa may not necessarily apply to every other country, but this could potentially be good news in terms of the new variant, not causing severe illness as previously anticipated. and you mention other countries. finally does. so what is the latest with the spread of army kron in other countries on the continent? well, so that recon experts are really emphasizing the importance of vaccines and thus also applies to countries across the continent. amount of a population of more than a 1000000000 people, just 11 percent of so far received one job of any type of vaccine in just the last day or 2. nigeria destroyed more than a 1000000 astrazeneca vaccines because did,

which there's shelf life, the issues that transportation access and the expiry dates all of these impact, what other countries across the continent, what is doing south africa almost has in excess of an x in excess of vaccines where they are putting a stop to orders because there is also vaccine hesitancy. this is also been seeing in other countries in africa where they've been about 15000000 doses of exceeds distributed across the continent, but just a 72 percent uptake. there are countries like morocco, egypt, south africa that have made headway in terms of vaccinating people. but countries like a retreat with the, the, the, the cdc in africa says that they don't have any available data around any sort of vaccine rollout. so that really is a mixed bag around how africa is tackling the issue around vaccines. but again, it comes down to vaccine inequality saying that africa has been sidelined and this

is something it's still trying to tackle. ok, thank you so much for mr. miller reporting from johannesburg. now, some babylonians, living and working in south africa, had been forced to cancel plans to head home for christmas when he can't afford to pay for the mandatory hotel quarantine. as a result, south african bus companies are struggling for business. jillian wolf reports from cape town. usually at this time of year, these bus seats will be packed with them barbarians heading home to spend christmas with their families. but not this year. after new quarantine restrictions were introduced in zimbabwe to curve the spread of the omicron variant of coping 19, it's also bad news for bus companies. augustine's business would normally send for buses a day each carrying around 60 passengers. now it's just one. sometimes with this he was 5 on board, kinda covered study glenda and these, this legacy is, will carry on the book. i don't know if you saw one of these is coveted

giving all good. okay. what else cared? little bit windows remotely getting put under so on his wall is that, am i gonna have it won't be this year. it was hoped. the festive season would help businesses recover financially after the pandemic shut south africa borders from much of last year. micro me said is affected business a lot because quite a, quite, quite the number of people on the limit able to travel. and i also am on the side. we can not be able to make our plans for the holiday on the during that we have to especially the issues of credit in a if you get into current in mouse, it's gonna take about 14 days and then the whole it is all or it over the recent ruling requires incoming travelers to quarantine and government approved facilities at their own expense. it's a cost many zimbabwe and migrant workers in south africa cannot afford. here in

south africa, the minimum wage around 20 want to grant an hour and us dollars the currency. this is above wait, that's a $1.46. imagine just how much people would have to say in order to both travel and quarantine. if the exchange rate that makes it impossible for most workers to go home. it also means and bob way struggling economy will not get it's desperately needed annual influx of foreign currency. those than barbarians who do make the 24 hour long trip home or using up their savings and borrowing from others. some say they really have no choice. you can never, augustine married, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years, we bought senior clayton's yours. did you go to? and you'll also what children, what the you see now is the last. see them and be there must see us. you see. so that's why we decide to plug in now for those fortunate to be going home tomsman

with family despite having to quarantine 1st far outweighs the financial burdens of wind for them when they return. gillian wolf, al jazeera cape town, to china, now we're more than 13000000 people have been ordered to stay home in the eastern city of g. on that, after more than $200.00 coven 19 infections were recorded since the beginning of the month. the countries on high alert as a gears up to host the winter olympics in february or corresponding katrina, you reports from china's capital, asian chinese authorities had imposed them most severe lockdown in almost a year. 13000000 people living in the northern city of she. anne have been ordered to stay home from midnight on thursday. only one member of each household is allowed out to get food every 2 days. and only certified essential workers can head out for work. here some of the measures prompted crowd to rush to grocery stores and markets. earlier this week. more than $200.00 cases had been reported in the

city since the beginning of the month. the outbreak of the delta variant began with just 9 people and quickly spread or leukemia. the trajectories of the ny cases were complex, involving transportation services and public places, including hospitals, commercial complexes, restaurants as goes. hundreds of thousands of tourists flocked as she and a former capital and historic hub to see the terror caught a warriors every year. now, almost all transport in and out of the area has been cancelled. residents must apply for special permission to leave. the city authorities are currently conducting that 3rd round of mass testing so far, no cases of the on the con, variance have been locally transmitted in china. but officials here on my alert the beijing winter olympics opens in february, and chinese leaders have promised a safe and secure games. west spectators will be able to attend or receive

spectators, however weren't be attending. china has maintained it 0 tolerance approach to the virus and borders has been closed since march last year. the was that during the winter olympics there will be a large number of olympic affiliated in the reduce from different countries and regions. coming to trainer, there is a high possibility that a certain number of covey 90 in positive cases will arise. more than 80 percent of the country's population have received 2 doses of current of ours vaccines. officials are now encouraging people to get a 3rd shot. but some studies are found that chinese vaccines have lower efficacy and protection rates against the on the chrome strain. bating has not approved the use of some other vaccines such as pfizer or astrazeneca, katrina, you out 0, they doing caused a lot of reviews and says he hopes that russia will achieve collective covered 19, heard him unity next year, his earned citizens to get an oculus during his annual end of year news conference

futon went on to reaffirm that the nato expansion into eastern europe was unacceptable in his eyes. oberon covering a story for us joining us from london. so it was a pretty wide ranging annual end of year press conference by bruton, but russell's cover situation feature and quite permanently pl. yes it, did. it suddenly dominated the early questions that, for sure, i mean, this is an audience at some 500 journalists from right across the whole of the russian federation and international news media as well. at a conference center in moscow, it's largely unscripted. and president putin answers questions about a wide range of topics from war memorials in vulgar grad for the price of housing in front of our stock. but it's the current of virus and ukraine, which, which were the 2 big topics and on the current of virus president to 10 very family through his weight behind the vaccination program. and he set the level of vaccination in russia at the moment simply to low 57 percent. he said in russia had

had the 1st jobs, and by the end of the 1st quarter of 2022, he wanted that figure to be closer to 90 percent. he nodded to the anti vax movement. he sort of acknowledged that there is clearly a contingent within the russian population that are hesitant about having the vaccine. but he's, i mean, and he said, look, that had to be education to try to get these people to, to take the vaccines. it made reference to the soviet era, but he said look in soviet days, we could simply order people to have a job. it would just make them do it that those days ago. and he said, and he said, what we needed now is to education. he said, he mentioned the transparency of the russian health system, and i think he helped me by putting isn't personal weight behind the vaccination program by personally urging russians to go out and get the job. he hopes to turn those relatively low uptake figures around in quite short order. and paul, after will really weeks of hearing from both the us as well as nato on the threat

to ukraine, from russian forces. what was it like hearing pollutants perspective on this? and what did he have to say, danny? very often in the west, we are bombarded with the media from our own region. and we don't always get to hear the perspective from the other side and over we have heard from president putin, in snippets. and in news conference is not on a level that we've heard in this news conference to day way in the 4 hours. he has much more time to expand on, on what is sentiment is and of all the issues that he spoke about, the ukraine and the, and the possible expansion of nato. those are the 2 issues which really made him bristle if i can describe it in those terms. you know, he talk about history. he said, look, you know, we were promised by nate. so back in the 19 ninety's that they would be not one inch further east that they would go. let's have a listen to just how strongly he expressed his sentiments. motion destabilization,

yet would it be to go? what of our actions will depend not on the negotiation process, but on the unconditional security of russia that's for today and towards the historical perspective. but in this regard, we've made it clear and explicitly so that further nato movement eastward is unacceptable. what's unclear is it we who placed the missiles near the usa borders? no, it was the usa who came with it's miss alice to our house there on the doorstep of our house. there are going to be talks between us and russian diplomats in a week's time after christmas about the situation in ukraine and on the border. there is a large military build up of russian forces that estimated between 70 and 90000. and with the us military analyst saying it could be easily ramped up the way of our $150000.00, a pretty short notice. so the potential for a mishap, leading to a larger conflagration, is clearly that. but president putin,

very keen to say that, look, it's up to the west and to nato, to set out vestal, rather than for russia to count town hall, brenda, and reporting for london. thank you so much, paul. plenty more had on the houses are in his r, including this dozens killed in malaysia after a some of the worst flooding of recent times. we follow the clean up operation. 8th, highly boost for afghanistan. as the un security council pays the way for more aid into the country and in sport, more frustration for p. s g, as their star defender heads for more time on the sideline. ah, but 1st, hong kong university has removed a statue commemorating the victims of the 1989 tiana man square massacre, which is censored in china. the so called pillar of shame was made by

a danish sculptor to symbolize the lives lost during the military crackdown. i said, beg reports, taken down under the cover of darkness, boards were erected around the monument, which was then covered up 8 meters tall. the pillar of shame depicts 50 torn and twisted bodies piled on top of each other. it symbolized lives lost during the military crackdown on pro democracy, protested beijing's tenement square on june 4th 1989. but since october, it had become an issue of dispute, the university demanding it be taken down. in a statement, they said that decision on the age statue was based on external legal advice and risk assessment for the best interest of the university. they, i did, the university is also very concerned about the potential safety issues resulting from the fragile statue and just like that, it was taken away and put in storage dealing with modal up on the house on we moved

to hong kong alliance has gone to hong kong university students union is also gone lot and to day, given the pillar of shame has gone through yet. maybe they just want to raise our memories of the 1980 9, 10 am and crept down to so we must preserve men inside against forgetting nikolai long. in previous years, students gathered in june 4th to remember the events each animal square. authorities have now banned lighting concerns about the coven, 1900 pandemic city. what the commit party wants to impose here is a kind of an age. yeah. what happened in china and more than 30 years ago, the move follows a controversial national security low in hong kong last year. that was the session, the version terrorism and foreign confusion to intervene in the fifty's affairs. it spot, protest and criticism of beijing containing freedoms that were promised to hong kong when it was handed back to china by britain in 97. for now there is an empty

space with the monument once stood. but for many, even though the pillar of shame has been removed, the memory of what took place cannot be raised. i said bake g 0. jens girl sharp is the sculptor of the pillar of shame. he says he's been trying to arrange the safe return of the artwork for months without success. this is the rudest rain case and i think is the kind of attack the good fan is because i offer them for 2 months, 3 months, i have offer them to move and i and all that and a lot of letters and we're in the press and he said, we will go down town and keep it that way and put it back to europe without problem . and then here in the middle of nowhere to date for christmas in the darkness, they make a lot of gas around it. and they're not workers. and i think this is

not really enough fans to do this kind of thing. this is kind of source, this is bruce a way to do that and take a look only when you have seen. and i can see a big part of discovery is still intact. in some way i can see the this, the think part of this kind of stuff that i'm sure this is not able to do to take it down this way that do that without damage that. so cross, there is another discount. so and this is robin because it's my problem to private property and i lay some rude about that. so i see you make a crime. would take it down the private property also for an artist. so i think they have a big problem with doing that. australia will begin withdrawing its truth from the solomon islands after days of unrest last month. more than 200 peacekeepers from fiji. papa new guinea and new zealand were also deployed as a request from the islands government in november,

protest or store in parliament in a bit to toppled the prime minister. china has announced that will send a team of advisors and provide equipment to the pacific island nation. a parcel. the philippines continue to suffer from the aftermath of typhoon ry. at least 375 people have been killed. millions are homeless without food and clean drinking water. but as barnaby lo reports, the government has declared a state of calamity. a move expected to get aid to victim soon. one week since typhoon rides smashed into the central in southern philippines. some the worse devastation is still being uncovered. far flung towns almost completely flattened. local said, a storm was reminiscent of typhoon high and in 2013. what are the most powerful in recorded history. but last weeks covered a wider area. hundreds of thousands of families across several provinces are now in evacuation centers was some of opted to rebuild their homes out of scrap materials

. president of be good to tirty has declared what he calls a state of calamity in order to release of $200000000.00 in government once. the declaration of the state of columbia, the relation to the school and de lived under her habilitation edwards, of the government than the private sector. this will also be unaffected mechanism to gone through the process of woods and the monitors and areas. horn governments have also pledged support with canada, the european union, and south korea each donating between $2.00 and $3000000.00. they nodded. states is providing $200000.00 in immediate assistance. more help is on the way to victims of typhoon right? but all indications are that recovery will take time. power and communication lights are slowly being restored, but there is an urgent need for food and clean drinking water. find

a below al jazeera, manila, ruskin, teens in me, and mara recovered 3 bodies after a landslide and a jade mine authority say at least 70 people are missing. they were swept into a lake in northern kitchen states. the areas of the centre of miramar, secret of jade industry were miners often work in dangerous conditions. landslides have caused hundreds of deaths in recent years. and the death toll from major flooding and malaysia has risen to at least 37. the floods triggered by days of heavy rain have also displaced nearly 70000 people. in behind state, several towns remained cut off, florence louis reports from carrack, malaysia, central peninsula. the water levels in this river in pa, hung state malaysia may have gone down. but the destruction caused by the floods is evident. water overflow down to highways, making some roads impossible for days. pa hung is the worst hit state. with around

40000 people displaced. some towns are still cut off, accessible only by boat. but in some areas, flood waters have begun to receive, and people are starting to return to their homes to count the cost of the damage to rebuild their lives. the 11th, if you will. of course i am disappointed of what the government has in hope. if i'm relying on friends, what else can i do? water rose quickly and unexpectedly, leaving many was barely enough time to save themselves, much less salvage their belongings. the damage is extensive. vehicles have to be written off. furniture appliances thrown away. people here estimate ill take 2 weeks to clean their homes, and that task has been made more difficult because water and electricity supply haven't been restored. non governmental organizations, charities, and volunteers, have been turning up to distribute aid a plantation near by,

had sent its workers and tractors to help with the clean up. you know what our fellow? because in, for, from the serial ourselves, we know to people here. they're like our brothers and sisters. that's why we had to help us. if we don't who will. the relief centers are full. some say they're worried about the risk of contracting cove at 19, but there's nowhere else to go. i not to jonah for months pregnant with her 2nd child, says she's grateful. they got out alive a for the aid night, some providers and i do want to roast a chest level. i was really scared because that never happened before i messaged my family to ask them to get help to me, but they said emergency rescue had been deployed to places. there were even more badly affected officials of warned that could be more flooding in the coming weeks . with the monsoon season set to run through to february florence li al jazeera car up for home state malaysia. the un security council has unanimously adopted

a resolution allowing humanitarian aid into of gone asked on the council voted to apply a sanctions exemption, meaning governments and aid agencies can now send money an goods to the country for the 1st time since the taliban took power, millions of afghans desperately need food and medicines. chrissa salumi reports from the united nations is will not cook as by the un security council, paved the way for more aid to afghanistan unanimously. passing a u. s. sponsored resolution, explicitly stating humanitarian assistance and other activities that support basic human needs and afghanistan are not a violation of international sanctions. china supported the resolution after pushing back against an initial draft, requiring case by case aid exemptions. thank you. i'll hunt you through the current situation in afghanistan is out a critical stage facing multiple archers and complex challenges. the most important

task is to help africa understand, mitigate the humanitarian crisis, the soonest, and to stabilize unrestored economy. your hobby in the u. s. insisted the un emergency relief coordinator report back to the counsel every 6 months to ensure the aid does not benefit those on the sanctions list. it is essential for the security council to receive regular updates on the implementation of this resolution. such information is critical through enabling sufficient oversight to ensure that assistance is reaching the intended beneficiaries. by mitigating diversion, after the resolution passed, a spokesman for the taliban welcomed the measure, saying, we appreciate it. it can help afghanistan's economic situation. he also called on the international community to speed up the removal of crippling economic sanctions . the u. n. has warned that half the population doesn't have enough to eat. cash

flow has been an issue since the taliban took control of the government, leading the world bank to freeze nearly $10000000000.00 and assets. civil servants haven't been paid and months aid groups. welcome the resolution. it is a very important us that in the sands batts, b sanctions. i had an impact on, on the capacity to, to bringing assistance to ringing. i 9 shows us to port that credit cheese to our people in the services that we need to up to support right now at this moment. the ones humanitarian chief martin griffith's called the resolution on milestone the rare agreement among council members. evidence of the shocking level of need and suffering and afghanistan, kristen salumi al jazeera, the united nations, still had on the answer in his our these all is, are changing live. i'm with some of the job in northern bikes on and i'll tell you

about the efforts to cultivate more of them. coming up in sport, there's major concern among premier league managers over issues relating to govern 19 and player welfare. ah, how they welcome to look at the international forecasts. could catch them raining, cut out this weekend. yep. that's the 1st time for around 7 or 8 months, so it will be notable. but hang your hat on that. there is this line of cloud here that is thinking further southward, some wet weather, possibly on that as it moves further southwards, we'll see temperatures in re are dropping from around 25 celsius to around 17 degrees. we hang on to that 25 here in doha. you can just make out the still larry of rain to started to push in, or too much, but a chance to some wet weather coming in as we go through the next couple of days.

further north sprinkling of showers for some but nothing too much to speak a penny a shout. meanwhile, across the tropical belt of africa could even see some showers still wear into southern parts of kenya. southern areas of uganda, much of the democratic republic of congo cor, seeing those showers northern angola still very wet, wet weather. they're coming backed out across much of zambia, zimbabwe, and the shower, starting to pear park now for central and southern parts of mozambique. still a few showers there into the east side of south africa, but the where to weather will tend to push a little further northward. as we go on through sas day rain, really setting ines into central parts of mozambie and also added jessica. ah, why? i've always been fascinated by space, but the story, the space race isn't just about the men who wish their lives to travel and see unknown. but the ones.