separately, but under the same flag, you know, i can't do a story about parachuting and not jump out of a plane as we climb up. the teams mentally prepare for their jam. i try to do the same then minutes later, once the earth is just a blurb below it's time to free fall. ah, the u. s. and europe report rec, hold cove at 19 infections, but more evidence suggest that the alma called buried is milder than of the strains . ah, hello. so robin, you're watching out there. a locked my headquarters here in doha, coming up in the program. south graham government pardons, former president part good hey, has been serving

a 22 year sentence for corruption also guilty of manslaughter. a us court convict say form a police officer, the killing a black motorist. plus i must have been job aid in a mongrel forest. just off the arabian sea, and i'll tell you how the lack of fresh water is killing species of mangroves here . ah, welcome to the program friday marks a month since south africa announced the 1st case of almo chrome, which continues to drive rec, hold surges of k with 19 infections across the world. the variant has thrown holiday gatherings and travel plans into disarray in new york. the man has scaled back the city's famous new year's eve celebrations. gabriel alexander has more from new york on 42nd street in midtown manhattan. the lines had covered testing sites are long. all day from morning until night,

demand for tests for outstripping supply. new york city is the u. s. epicenter for the army. kron variant cases exploding to nearly $20000.00 positive cases a day, more than 90 percent being attributed to ami chron. it's driving every one 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 have declined to impose any more lock 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 time 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 i 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 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 cities main train terminal. travelers are nervous

. a lot of people at my work have just tested positive. i have still testing 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 covey search. this one called ami kron with seemingly everyone rushing to find out. if they have it. gabriel is on dough, which is either new york in europe. italy has been public celebrations, phone years, eve, after record number infections. the government says masks must not be worn out. doors under the new rules, people who have been vaccinated will be barred from entry 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 area region will be banned from leaving their homes between one and 6 in the morning. and that includes the city of barcelona, the bulk of more how europe is being impacted. health services across europe on

a war footing. taking the fights on the cross by giving boost to 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 restaurants to remain open. president emanuel micron took to instagram to urge people to avoid spreading the virus from you on honey. with 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, smart as regularly washing hands, respecting this and saying, ventilating rooms regularly with fresh air, isolating and testing ourselves. as soon as we have symptoms, smart epistle, newsome, b, u, k. health security agencies,

the latest body to crunch real world 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 transmits ability of our microns very high infections could rock it 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 as 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 as 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 restrictions in england, london's christmas markets are 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 so far the day to suggest some work on his milder than previous

variance. the case health security agencies, as people with the very interest to mated to be up to 70 percent percent less likely to be admitted to hospital imperial college. i found people infected with um, a crown of 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 show that people are infected, 70, to 80 percent less likely to have been admitted. catherine bennett is chair epidemiology at the institute for health transformation at deacon university and melbourne. she says, alma, crohn's, rapid growth is a warning sign. the way this particular variant is spreading makes is really important. good news. we had been hopeful 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 thing

repeated in other settings as well. so with the rapid rising cases is 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. and so it's really taken off quickly. so the severity is really critical. we need to understand that what a rapid rising cases case numbers this we haven't seen before in many countries where we've really strive to keep the virus on in check what that now could mean for hospital. so you haven't yet seen the numbers. the now hospitals either us, it 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. we also have to be aware that the degree of infectious discipline area, main 1st. well the things that we've done in the past, we're keeping people a pass keeping that physical distance. we know there's 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. or at least 37 people have died after a very cold fly 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. very was overcrowded with many as 500 people. south korea hers, pardon, form of present park gonna hey, who's been serving a 22 year prison sentence for corruption, ark became the country's 1st democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office in 2017 lexia. bryan reports park young hays removal from office and raised in 2017. was a dramatic fall from grace. let saw her go from south korea's president to prisoner

. she's been serving a 22 year sentence for corruption at the government's pardon. we'll see her released on december 31st along with around 3000 others. how are you putting on your credit score? we have included former president park and he and former prime minister hung shook to the list to overcome unfortunate past history and cries of covert 19 about it. realized peoples unity and provide a chance to take a new step forward to the future. park is currently in hospital and analysts believe that's played a part in her imminent release. i think it's really heard dancing age and her health issues. she's her physical and mental health issues. since impeachment i'm, i'm, she's pretty clearly not going to have any kind of meaningful political role in korean life. she's allowed, gomez appears going to happen. hawk was one seen as political royalty the daughter, former president part young. he,

she served as acting 1st lady after her mother was killed in 1974 joe young. so yes, i got one in 2013 parkin. hay became the country's 1st female leader scoring a decisive victory for her conservative policy. but she suffered a shop drop in public support after more than 300 people, mostly children ground when a fairy capsized in 2014 just 2 years later, another political scandal engulfed her administration after an old friend choice and so was alleged to have used her influence over the president to meddle and state affairs, hundreds of thousands of people gathered every weekend to demand parks resignation . there was celebrations when she was impeached, thrown out of office, and later jailed for collusion with joy to receive billions of dollars from major companies. the scandal also landed heads of 2 conglomerates and prison. what

occurred in the blue house during her reign was unacceptable. ah, but, and there are corruption, indeed, but, um, overall i, i personally didn't feel that she was deeply involved into this, into the entire scheme. and so on. she has been jailed. she's in poor health. i feel like the time is right to let her go and give her the pardon. at the moment of the palmer, i feel upset as a citizen, i feel that it's regrettable that such a decision was made all of a sudden when it would undo what was achieved through the candlelight vigils. almost all of south koreans, former presidents have been implicated and corruption scandals. leaning back, the only living ex president aside from park is also in prison. he didn't receive a pardon alex here brian al jazeera still had hill the al jazeera. we'll have more of the violins that took place in the occupied westbank after israeli settlers attacked palestinians thousands of civilians,

leanne strikes along me. most border with thailand as a long running conflict escalates the stories after the break. ah hey, there your weather story begins in australia. nice to see everyone. we could have a developing tropical cyclone targeting that top and on saturday. whether this is a site clone or not, it's going to be a mess. so lot of rain and also some went meantime toward the southwest, sir bacon in the heat. so we're talking about you perth. this could be some record breaking heat on christmas day. the record is $42.00. got you in for 43 and the all time. december temperature record is 44. you're in for 45 wall above the average of 29. now for new zealand, we've got some sunny spell, some scattered showers too. so this will impact giz been with a height 23 degrees. the ne monsoon once again do in it stain driving rain into

central the northern parts of vietnam. we've also got some rain over a hi nan on saturday as well now for northern sections of china as about this bitter cold. it's digging further toward the south. like at shanghai, it's a high of 4 degrees. we'll come back to this in a sack, but we got to talk about that winter wall up for the north west of hope. kado could see 50 centimeters of snow within a short period of time. so visibility will be a concern or paint the colors on right now the dark or the purple, the lower the temperature, beijing minus 4. but this is a short lived shot of cold air. your above average come monday, 5 degrees and sunshine. that's it says in ah ah, they traveled thousands of columbus in very the do type work is with exploitation in the forest waiting. when i went to investigate one out 0

i al jazeera where ever use all. ready the. ready news the book about watching, i'll just 0 with me. so rama reminder of our top stories. new york is scaling back as famous me as the celebrations. the city has become the epicenter of the common break in the us has been biden's pledge to some 500000000 coping, 900 tests across america to ease the shortage. at least 37 people have died after

very cold fire in bangladesh and the death toll is likely to rise. dozens of people suffered injuries as many as 500 people on board. south korean government has passed and the former president parkin, hey, who's been serving a 22 year prison sentence corruption. the justice ministry says the decision to release after almost 5 years behind bars is to help heal national divisions. palestinian authorities say the northern village of bought a car in occupied west bank has been attacked by israeli settlers demonstrations earlier in the day turned violent and is where the soldiers use tear gas against the palestinians. how he fought it, force it has more from west jerusalem. this is an extremely serious incident in the northern part of the occupied west bank in and around the village of burka, 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 was very close to burka or we could go there. there was a shooting attack attributed to palestinian islamic jihad, in which a part, a jewish settler was killed. his family, leading this raley, 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 core staying on. and it is from that number. we understand that there was a significant attack on this village. these argue that coalition,

fighting in yemen, says they've destroyed 9 locations where who the rebels were storing, weapons, and strikes, took place across the capitol center. these pictures show the aftermath who the forces. denial is ations. they had weapons in a sports complex. the rebels of repeatedly launch drones and missile attacks into saudi arabia since the conflict began in 2015. in the usa, former police officer has been found guilty of manslaughter for killing a black band during a routine traffic stop. kimberly porter short 20 roll dante ride. last april. john hender reports not 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 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 she 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

on manslaughter. one emotions every single emotion that you could imagine just running through your body at that moment i'm, i kinda 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. they'll move me import a family of the say right now that he got his us is 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 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 an arson followed george floyd's death. in the summer of 2020, the streets were mostly quiet. john henderson, al jazeera minneapolis the behinds as a form of baltimore city, prosecuted and is currently a legal analyst. she says there's still a lot more to be done to achieve racial justice in the u. s. it's just rare that police officers are even charge. what for a killing, let alone convicted if they are charged for it, killing and then even after being convicted, it's even rare still that they get any significant jail time for that conviction. i

don't think that any police officer tonight to be quite honest, the scanner concerned because kim potter was convicted of manslaughter. i think that where the change will come about it's not going to necessarily be in the court . it has to be true, least reform in this country. what justice looks like is people like dante wright would still be living today. he would not have been stopped and killed because he had an air freshener hanging above his window in his rear view window. and his car, that's what one of the things that justice looks like justice looks like police will not be get jittery when they stop the black person for basically anything and then ends up killing them. justice will look like when police are basically treating black people the way they would treat a white individual. because most of these cases where people end up get the best ration. disproportionate numbers are black people, so there is a long way that we have to go before we have justice in this country because justice means what they are and what is just and that's not what's happening right

now. but that has to happen systemically throughout the police departments within this country after police reform that we can even have when the federal level, which that appears to be also lacking in this country. that japan is the latest country to announce that it works and government officials to the beijing winter olympics. it's a mixed boy called with japan, still sending several olympic officials to china, including the president of the tokyo 2020 games the u. s. u. k. canada and australia have already announced diplomatic boycotts in protest against alleged human rights abuses against muslims in shing trying. thousands of civilians are fleeing attacks along the most border with thailand or tillery and as strikes if it areas near the tiny town of may sort. the amount military is talking rebels from the current ethnic minority. they want to several ethnic groups wanting grace rule told me, michael, but curtis is the asia director at the center for 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, them yama. so it's possible for the mom are army to, to, to launch these attacks, clear skies and not wet weather. the 2nd reason, of course, is that the correct in particular have been hom bring formerly or informally, some of the resistance groups that have been set up to counter the could. and i think the, ma'am, our army is going off to them with something bigger. the army has not been able to stabilize the country, has all been able to damp and down the ferocious resistance, the tenacious, rob, or 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 we're willing, 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 drive 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 greater numbers of internally displaced. people moving closer to the borders of india and thailand, bung with that will thailand in particular. and i'm, what we're seeing just in the last few days is 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. that thailand will try to send these people back, but increasingly, thailand's coming under pressure to provide cross or the humanitarian aid taken from the united states. which wants to see these areas looked after in terms of humanitarian aid. the bucket on our tens of thousands of people had to move in land . the sea water encroaches on the land and underground water supplies is largely

due to rising sea levels and there are warnings. the country could have 2000000 climate migrants by 2050 a sama binge of his reports from the south of the country. a 600000 hector forest is focused on natural defense. again, salt, water intrusion and rising sea levels. this is that he generation nature, region nation, conservation to say the number of trees and forest cover in the industry were delta has increased in the last decade. the diversity and focus on mangrove is dying. most of the 17 major creeks from the river no longer provide fresh water. that means no filled or new soil, and necessity for the carbon capturing roots of the mangrove plant. the climate vulnerable synth province was successfully rehabilitated hundreds of hectic mangrove. but it's not enough. a lot about your mangoes get bell a previously we had 8 species of mangroves,

but now we are left with just 4 species due to fresh waters, not being available to of this surviving species. only made it because they adapted to sailing water. they gave 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. parkinson's rank among the whirl stopped in countries and the threat from climate change. the climate action network believes by his son 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, see 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, plenty of ally and 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 to its 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 pitch in to help their mothers. we couldn't speak to their mothers as in this remote part of pakistan. we were not allowed to film the women. everything which can hold water is utilized here, but even that's not enough. right. one of our honda millennium there is no washer in the whole village and we can't find 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 mud skippers are in phoebe as fish who in their attempt to live on land,

provide nature's filtration for the mongrel forest. they have adapted for generations to the changes around them. but unlike them, humans in towns like gayety, but there have had to move multiple times because of encouraging sea water. and unless drastic measures are taken to replenish the river, delta the floods and droughts will continue to cross the pakistan economy and estimated $12000000000.00 a year from missouri del to sierra tetra, suddenly focused on christmas celebrations, have begun in bethlehem the biblical birthplace of jesus christ who called the new cove in varied mccomb has been fewer events this year. the town and the occupied with spain has been almost deserted because international travel was slowed ah be watching al jazeera with me. so he'll robert, reminder of all top news stories,

new york is skating back its famous new year's eve celebrations. the city has become the epicenter of the i'll become outbreak.