by the recommendations made by the truth and reconciliation. permission for this former warlord liberia has become the frontline of a drug war. it cannot afford to lose. he says it's a battle he will fight out of responsibility and killed for his past crimes and for his country. ah . south korea's government of pardons, former president par june. hey, who's been serving a 22 year sentence for corruption? ah, play you're watching al jazeera ally from do how with me fully betty ball, also coming up guilty of manslaughter. a u. s. cord convict a white police officer who shot dead, a black man at

a traffic stop in minnesota. i'm a crohn is come on real fast, but it will be over soon. the us and europe report record covered 19 infections where there seems to be more evidence the on the con variant is milder than other strains. and vladimir putin put nato in his side. the russian president claims the alliance for creating tensions. ah, thank you very much for joining us. south korea's government has pardon former president park you and he has been serving a 22 year prison sentence for corruption. the justice ministry says the move is aimed at overcoming national divisions. park was convicted in 2017 of colluding with a friend to receive billions of dollars from major companies. she was the country's 1st democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office. will i speak to

robert kelly about this is a professor of political science and diplomacy at pusan national university, and his joining is vice kite from bull st. thank you very much, mr. kelly, for being with us. our present moon gen one j in had previously ruled out a pardon for parker and hey, what made him change his mind? you think why as this come now? i think it's really her advancing age and her her health issues. she had both physical and mental health issues. since impeachment, i mean, she's pretty clearly not going to have any kind of meaningful political role in korean life or she's allowed to go home. it's appears going to happen. i think she's now on her seventy's and she's really struggle and she's been in prison. she just had surgery in her shoulder. and right now was cold in the rest of it. right. because also because she's older, she's just not really going to play. and he had a meaningful role, she won't be a disruptive force or going sort of challenge or, and peach or something like that. so i think this is something of a sort of humanitarian gesture. i think it's probably a good idea. it's probably okay. there were huge mass protest calling for park to,

to step down in the wake of the corruption scandal she was involved in. and she was deeply unpopular. how, how is she viewed today by south koreans? what would be their reaction on hearing about this? pardon? yeah, that's actually a really good question. i'm actually really not, not sure i was quite popular today. i mean that's, that's the most important answer to your question is that she still is broadly seen as sort of this corrupt figure, who sort of probably never really belonged in the office. didn't really understand the gravity didn't really understand very well. the gravity of the, of the off that she held, and i really what he's disappointed that she's gone there are some diehards or some pulled out. i don't know, maybe 2025 percent of the population that thinks that she was removed inappropriately. this is some kind of like north korean coup or something like that or whatever that, that the current president sort of pushed out. so you could take the presidency. that's out. pretty small, minority opinion. again, there are some di hurts. i think most of the country just think that jesus are, you know, sort of corrupt figure who, who's, who's best to just be sort of pushed out of the way and then kind of forgotten. she's nearly a polarizing 3 is previous presidents, you know,

will stay in jail for much more contested figures, but the i, my sensational disorder be forgotten as she yes, she goes into harm. but she was involved in a vast corruption scandal which exposed the links between politicians in south korea and big business. the head of conglomerates. did anything change in the wake of that scandal? and pox conviction. not as much as you would think. i mean, korea, large conglomerates are still really influential in korean life, and they're still regular concerns about who they're getting money to create a pretty strict campaign finance laws, which is one of the reasons why these kinds of corruptions cannot keep popping up. what i mean though, the larger issue of sort of getting the large corporations a big table, a mega corporations, out of korean politics. that is, she still really remains to be resolved. i think there's a lot of perception out there. the korean puppets would be cleaner if these corporations in the state were farther apart, but they're pretty deeply interwoven and have been since from korea miracle period

in the sixties and seventies. my wife has a hard part because the korean state help to get them off the ground, you know, back back during a miracle period and moon jane came into power after park and campaigned on a promise route. i corruption in high office. how is he done? has anything been achieved? yeah, that's also really a little bit, but more j himself has been sort of victim of some of this stuff. i mean with some of mon jane, some of the people around him on his staff are actually sort of been under sort of correction allegations. and this is some in dublin, both of the presidential candidates for next year. and this was like, we were saying this is really sort of our regular, my grand politics. i think 3 of the actual score judged by transparency international in the n g o that she ranks corruption. i my credit scores dropped a little bit funny if i recall munching and campaign a few years ago as things are going to significantly bring it down. and that has not happened. i mean the, the basic, the basic structure issues that are got part in so much trouble that we have not

really changed that much again because of the close of business on the state here. rob a county. thank you very much for talking to us about the thank you for your time. thank you. and he was state of minnesota, a white police officer has been convicted in the killing of a black man in a racially chance trial. kimberly potter shot and killed 20 or dante right during a routine traffic stop. in april al jazeera john hendern report from minneapolis. find the defendant guilty fine. the defendant guilty again in minnesota, a white police officer is convicted of killing a black man. kim potter lowered her head as she was found guilty of 1st and 2nd degree manslaughter for fatally shooting 20 year old dante wright. as she was taken into custody with no chance of veil, her husband shouted his support as police ought to arrest right on a warrant. after an april traffic stop, potter says he resisted arrest and she fired, which he thought was

a taser. the weapon she drew with her gun powder, expressed remorse and tear filled testimony. i remember yelling taser taser taser and nothing happens. lou, the shooting came as protestors, some of them violent filled the streets of minneapolis. during the trial of derek shaven, a white police officer ultimately convicted of killing another black man george flor protesters rushed to the scene of the right, shooting. as the verdict came inside the court house rights family celebrated outside the moment that we heard guilty, i'm manslaughter. one emotions every single emotion that you could imagine just running through your body at that moment. am i kind of let out

a yelp some residence to expressed relief? i'm really excited. it's a good day. it's a good christmas gift. florida. bill mill moved me in for a family of da say right now that he got his justice. i feel a little more at ease at ease lead. definitely when efforts have been, i was scared to even get in the car. minnesota's attorney general seemed to feel vindicated. we have a degree of accountability for dante's dep. accountability is not justice. dusted, justice is restoration. justice would be restoring dante to life and making the right family whole again. justice is beyond the reach that we have in this life. for dante but accountability is an important step, a critical necessary step on the road to justice for us all. that road he says is a long one. potter faces a maximum of 15 years sentence on the 1st degree charge and 10 on the 2nd. but

guidelines call for substantially less than any case potter is likely to spend years in prison. as potter awaits sentencing, on february 18th, outside the court house were looting and arson followed george floyd's death. in the summer of 2020, the streets were mostly quiet. john henderson, al jazeera minneapolis. the corners are spun demik now, and the only con variant continues to drive record surges of coven 19 infections across the world. in the past 24 hours, several countries including francy, u. k and italy all reported their highest case number since the start of the pandemic. new studies seemed to add to suggestions that only chron is milder, and those infected are much like less likely to end up in hospital. but scientists are urging caution australia has shortened the window for booster cove in 19 shots for to 4 months from the 2nd dulls omicron, her strong holiday gatherings and travel plans into disarray. the mayor of new york

has killed 5 the cities. famously. izzy of celebrations, only $15000.00 fully vaccinated. people will be allowed to gather in time square. kimberley lozano reports from new york on 42nd street in midtown manhattan. the lines had covey testing sites are long all day from morning until night demand for tess, far outstripping supply. new york city is the u. s. epicenter for the army. kron variant case is exploding to nearly 20000 positive cases a day. more than 90 percent. being attributed to ami kron, it's driving everyone to get tested. when i was in line, we had people going abroad. we had people who had to be tested every week and a half. we had people like me who were exposed. we had people who didn't feel wealth. officials so far have declined to impose any more locked downs, but are scrambling to ramp up new test sites. officials here are urging new yorkers

not to panic, saying this isn't march 2020. when the city was put on lock down and morgues were filled with coven victims, the mayor on thursday said he would scale back the new year's eve celebration in times square from 60000 spectators 215000. but he's yet to cancel it altogether. i won't be really clear. will everyone give me a tough few weeks, but it will only be a few weeks. i'm a cron is come on real fast, but it will be over soon. i am adamant, and i've had this conversation with mayor like to adams. i know he feels the same way. we are not shutting down. we are not falling back. we're going to fight our way through this. but it's not just here in new york, less than a month after 1st arriving in the us. army kron. and now, when identified in all 50 states in neighboring new jersey, more than 15000 new covered cases reported on thursday,

nearly double. the state's pandemic record, the mayors of new jerseys to largest cities, newark and jersey city both tested positive in washington, d. c. a surge in new corona, virus cases colliding with a rush and holiday travel at the cities, main trained terminal. travelers are nervous. a lot of people at my work have just tested positive. i've still testing the negative, so definitely the past few days, in particular with the record highest and a lot more hesitant about travel america is right in the middle of another coven search. this one called army kron, which seemingly everyone rushing to find out if they have it. gabriel is on dough. how does either new york or the latest study suggests the ohm icon variant is milder than other strains. the you case how security agency says people with a very interest made it to be up to 70 percent less likely to be admitted to

hospital. imperial college estimates people infected with omi, called a 40 percent less likely to be in the hospital for a night or more compared to the delta variant. very early data from the university of edinburgh indicates a 2 thirds reduction in the risk of hospitalization. on to say a new study from south africa where the strain was identified showed that people infected are 70 to 80 percent less likely to go to hospital. let us bring in catherine bennett. she is chair in a p. m. ology. at the institute for house transformation, a deacon university, and he's joining us from melbourne. thank you very much for being with us, miss bennett. what is your reaction 1st to these findings? how encouraging are they and could this be the, the beginning of the end of a pandemic? well, the way this particular variant is spreading makes is really important. good news. we had been hurtful from the early days. what the numbers come out of south africa, who had the 1st, i guess real experience of this and good days. you're reporting,

we're now seeing it repeated in other settings as well. so with the rapid rising cases in places like a straight area we've, we've never had even up to 30000 active cases at a time now where over 50000. and so it's really taken off quickly. so the severity is really critical. we need to understand that what this rapid rising cases case numbers this we haven't seen before in many countries where we've really, really started to keep the virus on in check. what that now could mean the hospital . so you haven't yet seen the numbers, you know, little diver just gives us a way of looking ahead to look at that planning to try and understand the relationship, the new relationship between case numbers and hospitalization. as you say, the case numbers are going up in many countries in france, italy, how should health authorities and balance this, this mild disease, the milder very,

and it would, it would appear versus managing case loads. we've seen record numbers of infections in many countries. now that's right, but we also have to be aware that the degree of infectiousness is fair. it means that, well, the things that we've done in the past to work, keeping people and keeping that physical distance. we know that vaccination also helps reduce the to be illness and so the high rates in some countries really will help even if people haven't yet rode at the business. but we know the base just to make a difference to the transmission potential as well. right. but the report also because yeah, the report also says that the booster has a very short lived antibody response against symptomatic infections. so i mean, does that mean will so also have to get a 4th job poster. israel for example, is considering this right now. yeah, absolutely. i mean, that's what they're watching closely. the booster not designed for on the chrome,

but seem to work, but only gives you that short period. it looks like in terms of antibodies, we don't know what that means in terms of the t. so response and other factors that are still hoping protect hospitals from being overloaded. so we get to really understand that. and the other thing we don't understand is how having an infection with on the chrome and being double does. so triple does model. so to protect people, these ways have happened so quickly. we don't yet have days are on, on, on recording fiction, in countries with high vaccination rights to understand what that combination might do to turn this around more quickly. so every day we're watching the days to learn more, but the short term effect on, on the booster is certainly a concern. and one way, way trying to balance out not just when you roll out the whole status, but also how we're getting the vaccines to countries that still haven't had a primary cause. and a thank you so much for talking to staffing bennett from deacon university in

melbourne. thank you for your time. thank you. a head on al jazeera, dozens killed in myanmar after some of the voice vetting in recent times, and fiction or future. some predicts terrifying outcomes from facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence. ah hey there, here's your headlines for the americas. nice to see. we've got a lot of rain through california. we could set some daily rainfall records for not only los angeles, but also palm springs toward the u. s. southeast. it is as settled conditions here, a lot of sunshine coming through tallahassee with the hiv 21 degrees and also for eastern portions toward the northeast. things looking fairly settled here are getting blasted, those still with snow and when for newfound lag, we do have

a dangerous cold snap coming to western canada, the pacific northwest on friday. not so bad. vancouver, 3 degrees. i'm going to put this several days out now and here we are next wednesday, a painted on the colors, the dark of the purple, the lower the temperature, vancouver mine is say, look at that cold air across the canadian prairies, a prolonged stretch, probably haven't seen a stretch of coal, this long in about 50 years. central america, unsettled conditions across hispaniola. also in puerto rico on friday. and now for the top end of south america, we do have some pretty big storms north of rio de janeiro, south of salvatore, in the forecast for you on friday. you know, for pedagogy a teachers here are running above average photo arena at 18 degrees and commodore a reba davia in the sunshine with a hive 27 on friday. enjoy that? said sousa. ah.

coveted, beyond with taken without hesitation, often died. wow. defines how well the longest you babies were toys. i did it, not in your baby. it's neglect. could babies to back, people empower, investigates, exposes, and question. so the use and abuse of power around the globe. on al jazeera lou. ah, you're watching al jazeera, a reminder of our top story. south korea's government is pardon former president park you and hey, who's been serving a 22 year prison sentence of her option?

she was the country's 1st democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office . a jury in the u. s. has found from minnesota police officer kimberly potter are guilty of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a black man. 20 year old dante wright died after potter shot him during a routine traffic stop in april. and the you case help agency has found the only con variant is minder than the delta strain. early data suggests it's up to 70 percent less likely to cause hospital admissions. booster protection drops after 10 weeks. not military tensions between russia and the nato alliance for featured prominently and present vladimir putin end of year news conference. speaking to about 500 journalists in moscow, hootin rejected the idea of russia should provide security guarantees to the west. he says, nato should be the one giving assurances because it's created the tensions. po brennan has more. it's a cold cold christmas in terms of russia. nato relations,

as evidenced by these russian troops undertaking, firing exercises near the border with ukraine. and of all the topics covered in president putin's annual news conference. it was the questions about ukraine and possible nato expansion, which saw him visibly bristling. where by buddha, guarantee it, i thought would we have made it explicitly clear that further later movement eastward is unacceptable. what is unclear about valley to go? are we putting missiles next? the united states borders unique knows this, it is the united states to has come to us with their missiles. they already on our doorstep, him a yes natured good, and their response to a question from a u. k. news channel, he highlighted the historical context of the grievance. silly banashali yard no doing, we're no was to discuss not one inch to the east is what we were told in the mighty mite is and what happened? we were duped. we were brazenly trick that there were 5 waves of may 2 expansion law. that's what we're talking about. you have to understand. it's not us who are threatening and we didn't come to the borders of the us or the u. k. you came to us

ukraine, gained its independence from the soviet union in 1991, although it's cultivated close ties with europe. some parts remain deeply connected to russia by history and language. in 2014, when you are my dad protest, ousted ukraine's pro russian president, russia swiftly annex the crimean peninsula and supported pro russian separatist groups in the eastern region of dumbass. but ukraine's express wish is membership of nato and the european union and ambition reiterated this week by presidency. lensky, my brother in law, yet we want to unblock the don best priest process as soon as possible to return crimea to gain membership with the european union in the upcoming years left. and to get a very clear and very specific time frame from nato. and we want to get it in 2020 to the kremlin, has tabled security proposals, which would effectively block ukraine's ne to ambitions. russia has also deployed tens of thousands of its troops near to the ukrainian border. mm. diplomats from

the united states and russia. we'll meet to discuss the proposals in january. nato was in an awkward position here. an attack against one night to remember is considered an attack against or so while defending ukraine's right to freely apply for nato membership. the alliance knows that grunting membership could bring nato troops face to face with russian soldiers across a buffer front. instead of these ukrainian soldiers practicing with us supplied javelin missiles. it could be american troops firing them for real on russian soldiers firing back pull brennan, archers, era. at least 5 people have been killed in more than a dozen injured in several explosions in the capital of nigeria is born o state. it happened me an air base, in my degree where president, formidable harry was scheduled to land for an official visit. the city and surrounding area lena center of a 12 year conflict with the armed boot vocal, harass the saudi led coalition. fighting in yemen,

say they have destroyed 9 locations where who the rebels were storing weapons airstrikes took place across the capital. santa will the forces deny accusations. they hid weapons in a sports complex. the rebels have repeatedly launch drones and miss sanitized into saudi arabia. since the conflict began in 2015 now to malaysia, where at least 37 people have now died from flooding, nearly 70000 are displaced in penang state. several towns remained cut off. flooring 3 with 4, some 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 overflowed onto highways, making some roads impossible for days per 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 element, if you will, of course i'm disappointed with the government hasn't heard this. i'm relying on friends. what else can i do? water rose quickly and unexpectedly, leaving many with 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 holes. 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, did not off elegant because he knew from this yourself. we know to be bull 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 by night. by, by does that do? what do you rose to chest level? i was really scared because that's never happened before. i messaged my family to ask them to get help to me, but they said, emergency rescues had been deployed to places. there were even more badly affected officials of one 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 hung state malaysia. amazon has reached a legal settlement that pays the way for its workers to freely organize unions without retaliation. the agreement was finalized with the us national labor

relations board on wednesday. it includes allowing employees to use break rooms and parking lots for unionizing activities, and amazon will notify all of its hundreds of thousands of warehouse workers out there right now with a week remaining in 2021. we're looking back at some of the biggest stories of the year and looking ahead at what might shape the news agenda in 2022. and there are concerns about the growing adoption of facial recognition technology. government say it's for security, but others predict a terrifying future. rob reynolds explains in this dramatize zation of a potential dystopian future technology watchdog group the future of life institute portrays killer autonomous weapons. using facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence to commit crimes, attack military and civilian targets, and spread terror all without direct human involvement. if it's not science fiction

technology experts say you can actually create a drown that you say, just go hunt this specific individual and kill them remotely. and i think it's an extremely dangerous situation to be in visual recognition technology or f r t doesn't require billions of dollars or dozens of super computers. we're talking about being able to do something with commodity hardware with freely available tools. that stuff has been around for, you know, a few years now. and there's no reason why that couldn't be used by folks, even, you know, who don't have the technical expertise. the prospect of non state actors employing the technology is troubling. but countries are already using mass surveillance, f r t in the us police f r t to identify specific black lives matter. protesters then scrutinize their social media accounts and check for outstanding

warrants. other countries have massive networks of interconnected cameras. london is a city that comes to mind, it's one of the most, you know, it has one of the widest networks for surveillance. and they have a processes in place to manage some of that. china uses f r t to curtail human rights. in china, there are specific a ways in which they're trying to recognize the weaker minority so that they can again surveil and curtail their movements and harass them and put them in concentration camps. and so, ah, there are also positive light saving applications of the technology. for example, in auto safety, most people may not realize, but many new automobiles now have a camera that's built into the car. that axis is observing the driver. and those sorts of technologies can be used then to help you know, recognize that somebody's using drowsy or you know, is to repair,

to driving those sorts of things. like many technologies that have burge and in recent decades, f r t is largely unregulated in september, a united nations report singled out a i enabled f r t as posing special threats to human rights. the un human rights chief michelle bunch. a lead called on member states to issue an immediate moratorium on artificial systems until researchers fully assess what she called the catastrophic risks they pose rob reynolds al jazeera ah logan. i am fully battle with the headlines on al jazeera south korea's government is pardoned. former president, june hale has been serving a 22 year prison sentence for corruption shows the country's 1st democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office a former

u. s. police woman has been found guilty of manslaughter for killing a black man during a traffic stop in minnesota. kimberly potter shot 20 old don.