with exclusive interviews and in depth reports, i get on my break the wind and just b, g 0, teens on the ground to when you are award winning documentaries and lives on air. don't lie. ah, i'm a crime is come on real fast, but it will be over soon. the us and europe report record cove at 19 infections, but more evidence suggests that the army called barriers is milder than other strains. ah, the harmony watching all their lives. my headquarters here in doha also coming up south korea is government pardons, former president park and hey, who's been serving 822 year sentence, a corruption violence or ups in

a village in the occupied west bank after israeli settlers attack palestinians and guilty of manslaughter. the u. s. court convicts a former police officer for killing a black motorist. ah opened the throne friday marks the months in south africa, announced the 1st case of alba crawl, which continues to drive record searches of cove at 19 infections across the world . the variant has thrown holiday gatherings and travel plans into disarray in new york. the mayor has scaled back the cities famous new year's eve celebrations gabriel alexander report. so 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 were exposed. we had people who didn't feel wealth. officials so far had 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, everyone can be 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 states pandemic record. the mayors of new jersey to largest cities. newark in 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 city's main train 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 ami kron with seemingly everyone rushing to find out. if they have it. gabriel is on dough. how does either new york in europe, italy, has been public celebrations, the new year's eve after reco number infections. the government says masks must not be worn out. doors under the new rules, people who have been vaccinated will be borrowed from entering museums, exhibitions and amusement parks. infections in spain, so to a new record on thursday, with almost 73000 cases reported people living in the castle lonia region will be banned from leaving their homes, being one and 6 in the morning. and that includes the city of barcelona need. barker has more on how europe is being impacted health services across europe on a war footing. taking the fight to omit crone by giving boots to vaccinations,

to hundreds of thousands of people at day. the variance fueling a new wave of infections across europe. in the french capital long queues formed outside pharmacies and covert testing centers in the run up to the christmas holidays. elsewhere, french police increased their checks on people's health passes, allowing for now at least the city's restaurants to remain open. president, my new micron took to instagram to urge people to avoid spreading the virus and send me you want me 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, mosque, regularly washing hands, respecting this and think ventilating grooms regularly with fresh air, isolating, and testing ourselves as soon as you can help security agencies, the latest body to crunch real well. data on the severity of the disease,

concluding that someone with omicron is as much as 70 percent less likely to be admitted to hospital. but because the transmitter ability of microns very high infections could rocket to the point, large numbers may still end up in hospital. we do know with only crime that it does a spread a lot more quickly, is a lot more infectious than delta. so any advantage gained from reduce risk of hospitalization needs to be set against that. and when we know, for example, if her, if a much smaller percentage of people are at the risk of hospitalization, is that a smaller percentage of a much larger number? there 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 covert vaccine are not enough to offer strong protection against omicron a boost as 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 covert of restrictions in england, london's christmas markets a quiet footfall as down hawkish, british government ministers want clear cut evidence of a risk 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 barca, al jazeera, london, australia, shelton, the wait time for booster shots of the been to increase protection against on the chrome people there can now get the 3rd dose full month after the 2nd shot.

australia has the record infection numbers, although hospital admissions remain low. prime minister scott morrison has ruled on returning to a lockdown so far, the data does address on record is milder than previous variance. the you case health security agencies, as people with the very interested to be up to 70 percent less likely to be admitted to hospital imperial college found people infected with overgrown a 40 percent less likely to be in hospital for a night or more compared to the delta variant and very early data from the university of edinburgh indicates a 2 thirds reduction in the risk of ending up in hospital. on tuesday, a study from south africa showed that people infected are 70 to 80 percent less likely to have been admitted. catherine bennett is chair epidemiology at the institute for health transformation, the deacon university in melbourne. she says on the comes rapid growth is a warning sign. the way this particular variant is spreading makes is really

important. good news. we had been hurtful from the early days watching that the numbers come out of south africa who had the 1st, i guess real experience of this and good days reporting. but we're now seeing it repeated in other settings as well. so with the rapid rising cases in places like a stray area we've, we've never had even up to 30000 active cases at a time now where over 50000. so it's really taken off quickly. so the severity is really critical. we need to understand that what a rapid rising cases case number's this we haven't seen before in many countries where we've really, really strive to keep the virus on in check. what that now could mean for hospital . so you haven't yet seen the numbers you now. hospitals either just gives us a way of looking ahead to look at that planning to try and understand the relationship, the near relationship between case numbers and hospitalization,

where we also have to be aware that the degree of infectious and fair and main 1st . well, the things that we've done in the past, we're keeping people apart, keeping that physical distance. we know this 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 rolled out the boosters. but we know the business can make a difference to that transmission potential as well. south korea government has pardon former president park going hey, who's been serving a 22 year prison sentence for corruption law. the justice ministry says the decision to release or after almost 5 years behind bars. it aimed at overcoming national divisions. park was convicted in 2017, to 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. robert kelly is a professor of political science and diplomacy, pusan national university. he explains some of the reasons behind parks amnesty.

she had both physical and mental health issues since impeachment. and she is 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 struggle and 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 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 belonged 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 more gym the current president sort of pushed out from you could take the presidency. well, that's out. 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 into harm palestinian authorities say the northern village of broker in the occupied west bank has been attacked by israeli settlers demonstrations that earlier in the day turned violent and israeli soldiers use tear gas against palestinians hurry force, it has more for west jerusalem. this is an extremely serious incident in the northern part of the occupied west bank in an around the village of bircher which has been exceptionally tense. in recent days, the municipal government of the biggest close town nablus has said that hundreds of israeli settlers attacked the village under cover of night,

the dozens were trying to get into individual homes. as part of that, a cemetery was also attacked. stones were thrown, dozens of palestinians injured, a significant number of those also injured by rubber coated steel. bullets were told, there were clashes between is ready, soldiers, and villages. during the course of the day, all of this happening in the hours after a major rally by settlers near the illegal outpost of homage which is very close to broker or we could go there. there was a shooting attack attributed to palestinian islamic jihad in which a pad jewish settler was killed. his family leading this rally at which some 15000 people it's estimated were in attendance. most of them going home as the rally came to an end, but a significant hard course staying on. and it is from that number. we understand that there was a significant attack on this village. at least that is that people have died after

a very caught fire in bangladesh. dozens of people suffered injuries rescue teams managed to save a number of passengers, but local sources say the death toll is likely to rise. the ferry was over crowded with as many as 500 people. well, stella had here on al jazeera, how female journalist of gunners found the struggling to keep their jobs under the taliban rule. and fiction all future, some pretty terrifying outcomes from facial recognition, technology and artificial intelligence. those stories after the break. ah, ah, look forward to burritos, guys. with the sponsored play cut on airways. hey there, here's your weather in a minute 15. hello everyone. good to see you quite the temperature, divide west versus east london double digits at 10 degrees, moscow minus 9,

and then caught in the middle here we've got warm and cold air fighting it out and eventually that cold air will win out. so for example, probably goes from 10 degrees on friday, down to just 3 on saturday for that southeast corner of germany could see some ice secretion about of fingernails, worse of some dangerous conditions there. and these high temperatures are coming out of costs for ireland and britain seen a scattering of showers both on friday and also saturday, more organized. rain can be found across siberia. we got rounds of it's ago. so very soggy. weather pattern here was been a high 15 degrees, could see some pretty intense downpours for northwestern sections of italy, concentrated rain for croatia, and may just get a sprint of rain. 4th, herana with a high of 10 degrees temperatures on the way up for its symbol. but this 2 is coming out, it costs those winds picking up through the boss for us. could see them gus to about 50 kilometers per hour. well, in this weather report in africa right now,

those winds driving down temperatures in cairo as one and hard toom hard to just a high of 29 degrees. that's below average for this sum of the year. and now you're up to date. see you soon. ah, the weather sponsored by katara always doing the debate, 90 percent of the world's refugee have come from a common impacted countries. the climate emergency is putting more pressure on cities across the world and amplify your voice. it's not really the future 8. now, this is not a lock concrete, it cannot lose hope. we know what to do and we have the tools to do to get back with all the paper. the stream on al jazeera lou,

the me book about you're watching, i'll just 0 with the whole realm. the reminder of all top stories, new york is scaling back. it's famous new year's eve celebrations. the city has become the epi center of the come break in the us. president biden pledge 272500 1000000 in 1910, across the country to ease of the shortage. the u. k. france and italy have reported reco numbers of infections as cases continue to search in europe data from the case health security agency says, however, but people with alma called up to 70 percent less likely to be admitted to hospital south korean government of pardons for president park good, hey, who's been serving a 22 year prison sentence corruption? the justice ministry says the decision to release or after almost 5 years behind bars is help. he'll national divisions. thousands of civilians are fleeing attacks

along the most border with thailand, artillery and as strikes of hit areas near the tight town of may salt mammals, military as towns in rebels from the qur'an ethnic minority. they will have several ethnic groups wondering, rachel told me now the conflict to the guy. it's in the military coup in february. my color of the curtis is the asia director at the center for human, dia, humanitarian dialogue. he says the military genta is struggling to gain control and contain rebel fighters. i think it's 2 things. i think 1st of all, it's the dry season and this is traditionally the fighting season and mama so it's possible for the e mail, mommy to, to launch these attacks. clear skies and not wet weather. the 2nd reason of course, is that the korean in particular have been harboring, formally or informally, some of the resistance groups that have been set up to counter the could. and i think the member army is going off to them with something bigger. the army has not

been able to stabilize the country, has all been able to dampen down the ferocious resistance, the tenacious rav a resistance that has sprung up. and even when they arrest the leaders of the so called people's defense forces, new leaders emerge. and so while in public, the army is saying that, you know, we're winning, we're arresting lots of people. clearly they've not been able to gain control, not just of these areas to the east and ethnic areas, but also in areas in the lowlands, in the drives and in the north west of the country, where traditionally there wasn't very much fighting at all, but now it's very serious and it's clear, but then they're having difficulty gaining control, that they will be great and numbers of internally displaced, people moving closer to the borders of india and thailand and bung with that will thailand in particular. and, and i'm, what we're seeing and just in the last few days is for more than 4000 people came across. so wanted to cross the border into thailand, from the korean areas where the latest fighting is. we must anticipate that this

problem is going to get worse than that thailand will try to send these people back . but increasingly, thailand's coming under pressure to provide cross order humanitarian aid leaking from the united states, which wants to see these areas looked after in terms of humanitarian aid. hundreds of women have marched in sudan after allegations women were raped during anti military protest last week. and says it received reports of 13 women rate by security forces on sunday in attending this march in didn't say the military wants to frighten them and stop them demonstrating on the streets. in the usa form a police officer has been found guilty of manslaughter or killing a black man during a routine traffic stop. emily potter shot 20 year old dante right. last april. she's on face the up to 15 years in prison. john 100 reports 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 bail, 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. on 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, jovan, a white police officer ultimately convicted of killing another black man, george floyd. 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 on manslaughter. one emotions every single emotion that you could imagine just running through your body at that moment i, 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 thus a right now that he got his justice. i feel a little more at ease at ease. 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.

dusted, justice is restoration. justice would be restoring danty to life and making the right family whole again. justices 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. the international community is maintaining pressure on the taliban government in afghanistan to honor its promise to respect the rights of women and girls. females

the media industry saying is getting harder to keep that jobs, but, but broad reports not from the capital cobble. many weeks after the taliban takeover zara and b has been dismantling the tv station. she found it carefully packing away studio equipment in the hope of one day restarting it in the in the future, we'll have some opportunity to reopen it. of course we'll try to re open it started 4 years ago with a staff of 50 banu tv was run by women making programs for women. it was seen as evidence of the more progressive policies, if the previous governments, i was really happy, especially the day that i said, now our game comes through. and now we have some, some station that is running by foreman by them. unfortunately, it's the end. can see the tower

a thorough man was born at the stations journalist splitting her time between reporting and studying at college. now she does neither. but that's how i could come with them. dustin, i feel we achieved something under the last government. but with the taliban rules, i think the percentage of female journalist is going down day by day. another recent directive means women will no longer be able to play leading roles in television dramas like this one that's still popular and streaming online. it appears the taliban is against women featuring to prominently in the media, but the government says across the board, many women have returned to their jobs and it stresses that its rules are still far less strict than those imposed by the 1st taliban administration. 25 years ago, this old women radio station, for example, is thriving, producing current affairs and educational programming. but its growth in audience

could partly be the result of the decline and on screen competition. and because many girls now have to study from ho. ringback this ism of this government's remains time will cut out to get to know why they cannot bash it, but they are trying to create an environment where women feel suffocated. i don't believe the taliban would stand by any of the promises about keeping up the pressure. the international community says it will judge the taliban government on its actions. many women here it seems of already reached their own verdict. robert bride al jazeera couple amazon has reached a legal settlement that pays the way for workers to freely form a union without retaliation. the agreement was finalized with the us national labor relations board, as the company faces growing pressure to improve workers' rights and includes allowing employees sees break rooms and parking lots for unionizing activities. up

to 1000000 employees could be involved well, with just a week left in 2020 while we're looking back at some of the biggest stories of the year and looking at to what might shape the news agenda in 2022. now there are concerns about the growing use of facial recognition technology. government say it's for security, but others predict a terrifying future. rob rentals explains 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 promotional. 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. that stuff has 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 mass surveillance, f r t. in the u. s. 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 our 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 harassed 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 actually is, is observing the driver. and those sorts of technologies can be used then to help you know, recognize that somebody's doing drowsy. or, you know, is to impaired, 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, what channel is there with me? said hill robin in doha, reminder of our top new stories, new york escaping back, it's same as new as 8th celebrations. the cities, the epicenter, the omicron outbreak in the u. s. president biden has pledged to send 500000000 cove at 19 tests across america to ease the shortage. the u. k. fronts initially have reported record numbers of infections as cases continue to search in europe and data from the u. k. health security agencies as.