the important service they provide to the city. we say we need to take america to try to bring people together trying to deal with people who've been left behind me. ah, me. south korea's government pardons, former president park hewn, he who has been serving a 22 year sentence for corruption. ah no, i'm fully ratty. boy, you're watching al jazeera ally from doha, also ahead guilty of manslaughter. a u. s. coord convexity white police officer who shot dead, a black man at a traffic stop in minnesota. i'm

a crime is come on real fast, but it will be oversee the us and europe report record cove. in 19 infections spread, there seems to be more evidence. the army con variant is minder than others. strains. i'm sorry, been job it in a mongrel forest. just off, you reviewed. see, and i'll tell you how the lack of fresh water is killing species will run growth. ah south korea's government test. 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 has a country's 1st democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office. robert kelly is

a professor of political science and diplomacy at pusan national university. he explained some of the reasons behind parks amnesty. 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. and korean life, if she's allowed to go home, it's a peer is going to happen. i think she's now in her seventy's and she's really struggled. she's been in prison. she just had surgery in her shoulder. and right now with cove it in the rest of it, right? because also because she's older, she's just not really going to play any kind of meaningful role. she won't be a disruptive force or going to challenge her and peach or something like that. so i think this is something of a sort of humanitarian gesture. she still is broadly seen as sort of this corrupt figure is probably never really belong in the office. didn't really understand the gravity didn't really understand very well. the gravity of the, of the office that she held and i'm really disappointed that she's gone. there are some die hard and pulled out. i don't know, maybe 2025 percent of the population. i think that she was removed inappropriately

. that missed some kind of like north korean coo or something like that, or whatever that, that they were, the current president sort of pushed out from you could take the presidency. well, that's a pretty small minority opinion. again, there some doctors, i think most of the country just think that she's just or you know, sort of corrupt figure who, who's, who's best to just be sort of pushed out of the way and, and, and kind of forgotten. she's nearly as polarizing curious, previous presidents will stay in jail who are much more contested figures, but i my sensational disorder, be forgotten as she yes, she goes in for a time in the u. s. state of minnesota, former police officer has been found guilty of manslaughter. in the killing of a black man during a routine traffic stop. kimberly potter a shot 20th dante wright. last april. she now faces up to 15 years in prison. john hendern reports from minneapolis. find the defendant guilty find 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 happened to 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 can imagine just running through your body. at that moment. 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 if what a family of does say right now that he got his justice. i feel a little more eddy eddystone. but 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. duster of justice is restoration. justice would be restoring donte 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 hendern al jazeera minneapolis with the army con, very, and continues to drive record surges of covered 19 infections across the world. in the past 24 hours, several countries including francy, u. k. in italy,

all reported their highest case number since the side of the pandemic. new studies seemed to add to suggestions that all micron is milder and those infected are much less likely to end up in hospital. but scientists are urging caution australia has shortened the window for booster cove at 19 sharp to 4 months. from the 2nd dose or a cron has drawn holiday gatherings and travel plans into disarray, the mayor of new york has killed back. the city is famous, new year's eve celebrations, only $15000.00 fully vaccinated. people will be allowed to gather in time. square. gable is under reports from new york on 42nd street in midtown manhattan. the lines in 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. ah, i am adamant. and i've had this conversation with mayor like, 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 u. s. army kron has now been identified in all 50 states in neighboring new jersey. more than 15000 new covey cases were reported on thursday. nearly double the states pandemic record. the mayors of new jerseys to largest cities, newark and jersey city both tested positive in washington, d. c. a surgeon. new corona virus cases colliding with a rush and holiday travel at the city's main train terminal. travelers are nervous . a lot of people at my work have just tested positive. i have still testing no negative 3rd a little past few days in particular with the record highs of a lot more hesitant. travel america is right in the middle of another covered surge

. this one called army kron with seemingly everyone rushing to find out if they have it. gabriel xander al jazeera, new york. italy has also banned public celebration is for new years eve. the government says masks must now be worn out. doors and higher quality masks will be required in cinemas seizures and on public transport. under the new rules, people haven't been vaccinated, will be barge, mentoring, museums, exhibitions and amusement parks. infections in spain soar to a new record on thursday with almost 73000 cases reported. people living in the catalonia region will be banned from leaving their homes between one and 6 in the morning. that includes the city of barcelona. meanwhile, the madrid region is focusing on better testing, pledging to hand at 12000000 rapid tests, silver christmas eve rocker reports on how europe is dealing with the army, convert variant health services across europe on

a war footing. taking the fight to armor chrome by giving booster vaccinations to hundreds of thousands of people a day. the variance fueling a new wave of infections across europe. in the french capital long queues formed outside pharmacies and coven testing centers in the run up to the christmas holidays. elsewhere, french police increase their checks on people's health passes, allowing for now at least the cities restaurant to remain open. president emanuel micron took to instagram to urge people to avoid spreading the virus and semi you want this year once again because of the virus. i asked you to have a lot of vigilance. this means continuing the protections against viruses. you know, mark regularly washing hands respecting this and think ventilating rooms regularly with fresh air, isolating, and testing ourselves as soon as we have the u. k. help security agencies the latest body to crunch real well. data on the severity of the disease.

concluding that someone with alma chrome is as much as 70 percent less likely to be admitted to hospital. but because the transmits ability of microns very high infections could rock it to the point, large numbers may still end up in hospital. we do know, we don't recall that it does a spread a lot more quickly, a lot more infectious than delta. so any advantage gained from reduce risk of hospitalization needs to be set against that. and we know, for example, if, if a much smaller percentage of people all at the risk of hospitalization is a smaller percentage of a much larger number that could be still significant hospitalization. our best way to, to deal with this, the best way to protect ourselves is through vaccinations and in particular the booster program. it is now even more important to come forward and to get boosted. the analysis also concluded that 2 doses of a covey vaccine are not enough to offer strong protection against all micron. a

boost is vital and reducing symptomatic infection and serious illness. although data suggests protection starts to wayne after just 10 weeks. 3 jobs also don't stop people from contracting and spreading the disease at an alarming rate. despite no new official cov restrictions and england, london's christmas markets, a quiet footfall, his down hawkish, british government ministers, want clear cut evidence of arrest to the national health service before backing any new restrictions. evidence that may take days to become clear in the hospital data . what happens in the british capital, where omicron cases are at their highest will sound the alarm for the rest of the country. and given the numbers here, the rest of europe to leave bark al jazeera london still ahead on al jazeera thousands of civilians, me and now tell of a strike along man mars border with time. and as

a long running conflict escalates. and a victory for work is an amazon which could pave the way for huge changes to labor relations in the us. ah hey, there are welcome to your world weather report. we've got some rain for northern iraq. hello, everyone. nice to see that's also impacting flood stricken areas of the country ribbon of cloud draped over northern portions of saudi. i want to take you to saturday. now we'll focus on the golf because we've got this wind coming down from iraq. so for q weights, bahrain and cats are, we'll see wind gusts here of about 50 kilometers per hour. and there's a potential some rain may sneak in, 2 spots in cats are on saturday. we'll keep tabs on that. of the pakistan. prepare for temperatures are about to go down. not so much on friday lahore at 19 degrees,

but we take a peek at the next 3 days. just a high of 16 on monday, while below average post steps are going up is, is stan ball. i'll be at a bit breezy on friday, that wind coming through the boss for us at about 50 kilometers per hour. through the equitorial belts in central africa, we got our storms plentiful storms come in and go and especially around late victoria and further toward the south. the batch of some pretty potent thunderstorms in southern mozambique will transfer to southern madagascar over the weekend unsettled for that eastern portion of south africa. so some showers for durbin, but sits, are mostly cloudy, day in cape town, with a high of 23 degrees on friday. that sure weather report see again soon, take care. ah al jazeera world takes a road trip across spain. spanish, people love to tell you the yard and wavy come from it,

and i am no exception. one woman's journey seeking her heritage, covering new insights into christian spaniards of wisdom origin. it's a story that seems to have been her brush from history in search of migrants on al jazeera. oh wow. ah, welcome back. a recap of our top stories on al jazeera south korea's government is pardon to former president park you and hey, who's been serving you 22 year prison sentence for corruption. she was the country's 1st democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office. a jury in

the us house found former minnesota police officer kimberly porter a guilty of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a black man. pato wisc or killed 20 year old dante wright during a routine traffic stop in april. and the u. k. is health agency has found the only coin variant of corona virus is milder than the delta. straight valley data suggests it's up to 70 percent. less likely to cause hospital admissions, most of protection drops after 10 weeks. in other world news dare reports of air strikes in myanmar along the border with thailand. artillery and air strikes have hit areas near the tide. town of may sot thousands of fled fighting between nan mars army and rebels from the qur'an ethnic minority as get the latest from tony trying holes hauling the situation from bangkok. tony, what more have you heard about these attacks, sir, near ty, myanmar border? well these are a fresh tanks which we've been hearing reports of in the last 24 hours are focused

on the town of lake, a gore, very close to the town of minnesota and me already on the other side of the border with me on most important board a town like a core or if we understand was the the center of an attack several weeks ago by the mill. the burmese military, the mere military who were looking for members of the government in exile that spiraled into fighting, which we understand is escalated in the last 24 hours into artillery shells. attacks from both war plains and attack helicopters are the people who fled across the border. we understand 3000 have now come across into thailand or they us were telling tie meteor over night that they do the, the play at the air attacks have been fairly indiscriminate. her had been aimed just in the general area of the town. $3000.00 her fled across the border and we

understand more than $20000.00 an hour hiding in the jungles around the town. here, the conflict stony between me and mice, our army, and the korean national army is of course, a long running one. i tell us more about what causes ladies escalation and the root causes of this long running conflict. well, it seems that mir mazama went in on the 15th of december with the intention of seizing a couple of members of the n. u g. the national union govern, which is the government that's been set up in exile along the border where they seized a number of people. but this is a town which was controlled by the k, a knew the korean national union. they seem to put up a fairly fierce resistance or reports that they took a number of casualties, a and a number of prisoners from the mir mom military. they appear now to have pushed back or not only with troops on the ground, but also with those a to air attacks. and this is something we've seen very consistently since the

military coup in february, where the mere mar military have met resistance. they have gone back into areas afterwards and absolutely crash that resistance. we saw that earlier in the year than in lloyd gore and karen areas we've seen fighting with the korean. and earlier this week, up in sa, gang in central miramar, where there were reports or serve airships. and fighter planes being used against the military. it is a very disturbing a development. i think a lot of people very concerned that these attacks are being used frequently and fairly indiscriminately. but of course, the mere mom military while it faces a lot of resistance along its borders from many different ethnic groups, faces no challenges in the air. thank you for that. tony chang live there in bangkok. a fairy in bangladesh has caught fire killing at least 30 people. dozens of people suffered injuries, rescue teams, manage to save a number of passengers,

backlog or sources. say the death toll is likely to rise. a fairy, this packed with 500 people to pakistan now where tens of thousands of people have had to move inland as see watering coaches on the land and underground water is largely due to rising sea levels. and there warnings the country could have 2000000 climate migrants by 2050 osama bin janet report some southern pakistan a 600000 hector forest is why fi selves? natural defense. again, salt, water intrusion, androids, and sea levels. this is that he generation nature, region notion, conservationist, see the number of trees in forest covered in the industry were delta has increased in the last decade. the diversity in pakistan's, mangroves is dying. most of the 17 major creeks from the river no longer provide fresh water. that means no silt or new soil, a necessity for the carbon capturing roots of the mangrove plant. the climate vulnerable sense problems are successfully rehabilitated. hundreds of hectic

mangrove. but it's not enough. a lot about jo mcgrooves get better. previously we had 8 species of mangroves, but now we are left with just for species due to fresh waters not being available to of this surviving. p. c's only made it because they adapted to sailing water. they gave us the fresh water creeks which provided a fertile delta, are now sea water, creeks, dams, and excessive water use upstream leaves little water for the south. despite laws, entreaties the river agriculture is destroyed by sea. water partisans ranked among the whirl stopped and countries and the threat from climate change. the climate action network believes back to sun, could have around 2000000 climate migrants by 2050 in coastal communities. a 1000000 people are believed to be at risk from the decrease in fresh water. people here have been telling us the thousands have left it and says 2 homes. due to a lack of water. and villages like this are slowly dying. f. c,

water encroaches drown water tables for hundreds of kilometers. people angry at the government's lack of solution. see they can only pay for rain while i jo. bonnie: i'm of the water is a huge problem and our children have to walk 10 kilometers to get it because of this out of a 1000 homes, only 4 or 500 are left and families are scattered all over the migration towards cities added pressure to bring water and lack of opportunities are causing social problems as well. women who work in the fields have children and run households are under tremendous pressure. young girls have to pigeon to help their mothers. we couldn't speak to their mothers as in this remote part of back a son. we were not allowed to film the women. everything which can hold water is utilized here. but even that's not enough. why one is out, my god. i mean, they know that there is no water in the whole village and we can't fund drinking water anywhere. i have to come and refill multiple times a day. if i take one container from to swell, maybe we have enough water to cook,

but there isn't enough water to drink. these much skippers unimed previous fish, who in their attempt to live on land, provide nature's frustration for the mangrove forest. they've adapted for generations to the changes around them. but unlike them, humans and towns like gayety, but they have had to move multiple times because of encouraging sea water. and in less drastic measures that taken to replenish the river delta. the floods and droughts will continue to cross the pockets on the economy, an estimated bill $1000000000.00 a year. summer majority l 0, suddenly pockets. and in part 2 of our special series on pakistan's water challenges osama bin drive, it takes us to the himalayan mountains where mountain glaciers ppos of risk for communities who rely on them to provide water. you can see that report starting at 2 g m t on saturday. now japan has announce it will not be sending a government delegation to the beach in winter olympics. instead,

they'll send the president of the tokyo 2020 summer games and the head of japan's olympic and paralympic committees. the u. s. u. k. canada and australia have announced diplomatic boycotts in protest against alleged human rights abuses in china, including tours, wiggle muslims in shame. job. 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 unit nice in activities. and amazon will notify all of its hundreds of thousands of workers warehouse workers of their rights. shannon list reran is an attorney who specializes in labor issue. she says this is a huge win for workers in the u. s. it's a big deal. it's a big issue because not everyone realize it's just about us labor law, but you have the right to work collectively to join forces when your coworkers to

try to improve conditions your workplace. whether or not you have a union that is protected activity under the n r, a national labor relations act. so this is very significant for amazon in particular because there have been a number of attempts by amazon workers to form unions recently. very well publicized that there was a union organizing drive in a warehouse in alabama. there have been other attempts to drive it's very hard for workers to, to do that and overcome the forces of employers who don't want unions. so this is, this is the big victory because it will allow the workers to communicate with each other and take action to try to convince their coworkers that a union would be a good. it allows them to talk with one another about forming a union without fear that they're going to be retaliated against by the employer.

employer can't do something like call the lease on them, which is something that you see happen sometimes in these organizing dr. 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. there are concerns about the growing adoption of facial recognition technology. government say it was security, but others predict a terrifying future. rob rentals experience in this dramatize ation of a potential dystopian future technology watchdog group the future of life institute portrayed 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. promote little and i think it's an extremely dangerous situation to be 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 and stuff. it's been around for, you know, a few years now, and there's no reason why that couldn't be used by. i folks, even, you know, you don't have deep technical expertise. the prospect of non state actors employing the technology is troubling. but countries are already using mast surveillance f r t in the us police used 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 that. china uses f r t to curtail human rights. in china, there are specific 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 i know 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 actually 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 bachelor, 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 her again, i'm fully battle with the headlines on al jazeera south korea's government, his bond and former president vacuum, hey, who has been serving in 22 year prison sentence for corruption? it was part of a current, a was part of current liter, when giant moon j in new year, amnesty park was the country's 1st democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office. a fairy in bangladesh has caught fire killing at least 30 people who

doesn't suffered injuries. rescued teams managed to save a number of passengers, but local sources.