you check the one, the cut, cut of gateway to whoa trade. ah, the ah, hello, you're watching out there. i'm emily, anguish, reminder about top stories this more than 2000 flights have been cancelled globally on christmas eve. the light is blow served by the only con very to the corona virus move tons united and delta airlines say the virus has taken a toll on a stop. at least 39 people have died after a ferry hope fire in bangladesh rescue chains managed to save some passages. the local sources relieve the death toll is likely to rise very was overcrowded and

carrying up to 800 people. and believe in the northern indian state of order rec, and have launched a heights page investigation following a meeting of hindu religious leaders. video from last week's event showed them a cooling for genocide and use of weapons against muslim christmas celebrations had begun in bethlehem. and the biblical birthplace of jesus christ. the the outbreak of the new very until mccomb has made fewer events to see the town has been very quiet. is israel, which controls travel to be occupied with the bank as effectively suspended, foreign tourism because of the pandemic? following this story is needed. abraham, who is live for us in manger square. hello, they need it. what's the mood been like in bethlehem this year? if we compare its emily to last year,

the mood is much more festive people last year weren't even allowed to attend. the christmas celebrations here at the manger square, an old ceremonies were restricted to religious ones. but this year, people have come out, many of them holding balloons and their children. and coming to see the patriarch, the latin patriarch of jerusalem move entered the nativity church just about an hour ago. and his arrival to the nativity church announces that beginning of the christmas celebrations, old an old. this is a happy season for many palestinians, but it's lacking an important element to which is tourism. usually the city would be bustling with foreigners, were coming in to celebrate christmas, because as many paulson is would tell you, this is the capital of christmas. this is where everything else started since they believe that jesus bryce has been born here. but it's been tough for people living here the past 2 years since the pandemic has started. i want to talk more about

that here with my guest loda loda. a boy it's off, was an activist. laura, if you could give us an idea how difficult, where are these 2 path past 2 years for you? well, these 2 past year were really difficult for everyone. i mean, in the whole word and specially in palestine because i think that the lockdown we had under the old, the restrictions that we had because of the occupation because of a other restrictions. i mean, the pandemic wins. so we were like under 2 locked down into the jails, let's say open jails. so there that was really hard because we are used to receive a lot of people, a lot of tutors. i have a lot of friends from the whole world and like, 2 years ago and many of my friends celebrated here christmas with me. they came from the hole where like europe, from latin america, from the united states. and this year, a lot of them wanted to join and share this happiness. enjoy with it's really

different because i mean, the panoramic has affected the lives like the whole word. and israel is the one who decides and controls access and travel to the occupied to us bank. how does that make you feel that the policy is there not have any control over that board? well unfortunately, yeah, this is the hardest thing because as a public, i do believe that i have a policy and identity. i have like this is my city, this is my country, and i'm not, i'm not really able to move. it was like, it was freedom in my country. i can't invite people to share this joy and happiness of christmas and receive the love of jesus and during christmas. so it is hard because israel is putting a lot of restriction, especially entering to the palestinian, $33.00 by the checkpoints, and from the airport itself also. and the latest restrictions like prevent the

people to enter from the whole word. we don't have to. yes, it's very sad. i mean there are people comparing to the last here, but i mean like, huge will. we are used to receive many people because christmas is joy, happiness, and it's all about cheering this happening to enjoy. and how does it feel being from bethlehem? we know so many people think of it, that's just the city in the bible and not many people know how life if it's here. how life has it been for you as a palestinian christian living in best lab? well, to be honest and at some point we were used to it, you know, like it's ok. we have the nativity here like 5 minutes away. but would you meet a lot of people? there are millions of people that wish to live here because it's a whole the side, very holly side. and i think we have a very like a great luck to live year beside these important side all the ones. and i do believe that it's an important part of the very politically and bridget from the

religion side of course. and many people do wish to live here. so i think we have a mission to spread the mission of, of peace and love spread. because this is the city of love and peace. thank you so much laura. i thought she is an activist. then she calls this the city many people here were saying they're proud to be from bethlehem. they say this is the capital of christmas. thank you very much. need abraham from the capital of christmas. church scholars across the philippines have been eager to worship students. the government needs corona virus restrictions ahead of christmas. until recently, services there had either been online or with very limited attendance on a low reports from manila. inside and outside a crowd of worshippers. as far as the eyes can see, for most filipinos christmas is a sacred holiday that is incomplete without attending church,

often daily in the week leading up to christmas edition on a nightly christmas mathis, or an important filipino or the shot. there were even some last year, despite the damage, although very limited in deference. i could just very, very happy with the philippines, cobra, 100 situation has improved considerably. daily infections have only been in the hundreds for weeks now. and with most curves lifted, the one place filipinos have not been hesitant to congregate. is here, filipinos are the most developed catholic in the world. each year during the christmas, even churches are filled with the people freed on for 9 days of masses. last year. however, corporate 19 restriction fourths this tradition move mostly online. the services are still streamed, but churchgoers believe praying as

a community could be more powerful, especially during this challenging time. the country is not just really from the pandemic, but it is suffering from the aftermath of typhoon right. this is really about us continuously continuing the spirit of christmas, which is the cost over to this discussion of the, of those who are offering and those who had been devastated by the highest, particularly in supporting victims of type food right has become an urgent concern . church leaders hope this christmas, their flock can extend a helping hand warned to below al jazeera manila to the u. s. now, in a former police officer has been found guilty of manslaughter for killing a black men during the routine traffic stop. kimberly pato shot to 20 year old dante wright last april. she's now facing up to 15 years in prison. as john henry

reports from minneapolis signs at a santa 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. i the weapon she drew with her gun potter expressed remorse and tear filled testimony . i remember yelling taser taser taser and nothing happens. mm hm.

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 of 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 the say right now that he got his justice. i feel a little more any eddies. like 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 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 face is 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 just to wake left in 2021. we're looking back at some of the biggest stories of the year

and looking ahead to what might shape the news a gender in 2022. there are concerns about the growing use of facial recognition technology. government say it's for security, but others predict a terrifying future. reynolds 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. and i think it's an extremely dangerous situation to be facial 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 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 processes in place to some of 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 harassed them and put them in concentration camps. and so i, there are also positive lights 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 is doing drowsy. or, or, you know, is to repair, to driving those sorts of things. like many technologies that have virgins 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. for more analysis on this story, let's bring in sylvia de con kai, who is the co chair of the human rights and the digital age group at the netherlands network for human rights research. she joins us from rotterdam. thanks for being on the news. alice sylvia. there's plenty to break down in this store, amiens' quite a complex issue. what, where do we draw the line with his kind of technology? good afternoon. thank you for having me. well, it is very conflicts because also there are many applications of face recognition technology as the report results are showing that the main line i think lies in what makes these application in application of face recognition of

worth the infringement with our fundamental rights. so we really need to consider whether surveilling citizens during their normal afternoon shopping or the weekend out in the evening is worse. and i didn't define them is worse curtailing their freedoms, simply because there is the possibility that maybe some criminals might be upper handed or some, let's say suspicious behavior might be identified. it might be disproportionate. so say proportionality is an excellent line. and a guest then that's very difficult to regulate both on a national level and then internationally as well. yes, it's not an easy technology to regulate as many a machine learning or ai related allegations are looking at. for example, the european context from the perspective of privacy and data protection. the

existing regulations can also offer already some protection. so do european convention for human rights, the charter for fundamental rights. and the g p. r and the european union is also working at the a. i act that there is a draft being discussed. that also includes provisions on face recognition. and it's not just from a security perspective, is it sylvia in a way is consumers need to be aware of some of these things as well. what might we not know about facial technology recognition from a consumer perspective? absolutely, that is correct. and many producers of the internet of things, devices are your teeth. so the smart home devices are looking into incorporating face recognition into their products as long as they have a screen or a cameras. so that can be a fridge coffee, bob smart speaker, or a smart tv now,

and they're doing so we the purpose of personalizing the service. and however, these technology is also being used as a starting point to unlock a new applications such as emotion recognition. and that can be particularly tricky . experts are divided about emotion recognition, whether it can be a reliable science or almost absolute of science. and that can be used then the emotional recognition into the users in their own house. to serve them advertising, they can be exploited theme of their emotional state. and clearly when someone buys a smart fridge or a coffee bother is marked something for their house cannot. they cannot envision this kind of applications and certainly is frightening. thank you very much for breaking it down. press sylvia to conquer the co chair of the human rights in the digital age group. thanks for your time. thank you. let's still head on al jazeera

. we'll hear from taught news coach. he wasn't impressed with what the premier league had to say about the current situation affecting the season. jim, it will have all those details and know next ah, joined the debates non exempt wolf, ricky, geez, have come from a common impacted country. the climate emergency is putting more pressure on services across the world and amplify your voice. it's not really the future 8. now, this is not a lock, can get it. we cannot lose hope. we know what to do, and we have the tools to do all the stream on al jazeera ah mother nature's gift cultural landscapes. a strong infrastructure governance for rising. where investors are

willing to flourish with even supplied by tradition. do we're beautiful possibly with are offered ah ah, it's not for sport has jammah. thank you emily. a 3rd a premier league matches been postponed from sundays of full round of fixtures. everton white be traveling to berkeley because they don't have enough players available. would use a cave in 19 cases and injury with many teams hit by a rise in korean, a virus cases, the leak held a virtual meeting with managers on thursday to discuss the congested fixture list,

a player welfare and other key issues. baton and los antonio conte believes the meeting was a waste of time. st. gotcha zer, i'll try try to, to speak and her or to ask her about to solution. but i think it, her everything was decided and no, i think her, yes, thee and her and it was a one. as you can as big. you can ask her what you want. but every thinker was her . every decision was her taken well now joined by associated presses. sports correspondent, rob harris. say rob is county right there. was this meeting a waste of time? well that's certainly what we're also here from the crystal palace manager, patrick vieira saying he's not too sure the point of the meeting actually was and everything seemed determined beforehand. the managers or perhaps getting a sense of what some media might go through it. i'm with the primarily not getting

for clarity on situations or just how things can come about, but is really a difficult situation for the premier league in terms of what to do. there are so many different complaints now connected with these games being postponed. and we're now up to 13 matches across 2 weeks, being gay called off by the premier league over these corona virus cases. and not all positive cases in squad. in some cases it might well be the unvaccinated players that having to isolate due to the national regulations of coming into close contact with some one. but it really has created a bit of an imbalance, save this festive period now where there would normally be 3 games in a week for every team. but some teams are now going to have bought some day off because their opposition, in some cases has those corona virus cases. so they will get a bit of extra rest, but there's no talk necessarily of them. any solutions indeed, being presented by the managers in terms of what they want. and of course, these fixture, les,

are set up long in advance all agreed by their club leaders. speaking of managers, man cities, boss, pat, why? the idea suggested that players could perhaps go on strike. you think there's any chance of that happening? well, it does come down to this issue. i have a play a welfare and particularly the number of matches that they are having to 15 to take leave the last couple of years with brace disrupted by the corrosion of iris next year. obviously a slight change. they do get more of the summer off with the woke up being in the winter. but there's a lot of international fiction at the end of the season to endure in the season. it's very unlikely to see how the players can go about launching a straw. you know, so the unified set of demands, even at this stage again, is the chief exact the chairs of the clubs who do sit round the primarily board room table. but his side long get involved. one of the tv slots going to be how many games are going to be sold at through the year to be shown on television in the u. k. and when should fixtures be? so children addison, the liverpool, captain,

ben expressing concern to just about the bird and put on players. and it's not just the physical burden on their bodies, but the mental burden to with so many top level competitive games. and so few slots, even as we look towards the end of the season in mid week to even pick all these games in burn the are now going to have 4 games in hand out of this we can do to those postponement. and on top of all this was coming up the back to the end of a week when faith is being talking. yes, again about trying to get by annual well cuts rather than every 4 years. so that would be an extra additional burden on the players. just briefly, rob, do you think to level the playing field? you talked about imbalance? should the lead just pulls well, the permanent got desperate to try and get as many fixtures played as possible because once the season starts to be pause or the lengthy break that it comes back into the discussion about rebates, the broadcast, as we had during the 100 day shut down and it really is a problematic situation with right of ours in the u. k. at the moment,

1700000 cases, they estimate over the last week in the country, the permanent record 90 and the premier league will be saying the place to have an obligation to, to get vaccinated. only 77 percent are fully vaccinated in the primarily 16 percent yet to receive a single dies compared to salary where it's about 98 percent molig. 94 percent of plays fully vaccinated. so as it stands now, unless the government puts on hold, the privilege is determined to play on the there's many fixes of possible despite this disruption. and finally, rob some premier league teams will at least close to the africa cup of nations in january, with the latest on the global ral, about releasing players while he's done. now this be releasing play is of the start of next week, the 2 week period before the start of the tournament. but yesterday, the world's leaves for representing organizations like the premier lee wrote a fee for an calf to say actually we don't want to place more clubs being released

until the following week until january, the 3rd. that would be only 6 days before the start of the tournament, that complaining that it's starting earlier than usual. and they're also concerned about promoting virus protocols encountering. but the tone of the letter perhaps go down badly in parts of african football because the world leaks for and do say you get in these plays for nothing, basically incense of that being paid by the clubs and that helping to generate the revenue for ask and football while lamb going out to play in the african. but of course clubs in countries like england, you benefit from players being developed in africa, so they get the talent. but this is a rumbling round that when to build up the stuff of the app calling with clubs determined as well, not to lose their ret players too early for liverpool. they could get that plays for an additional 2 games if they aren't released until the 1st week of january, for the african combinations. and as such, an influence potentially on things like the title, rice,

but no word back yet from calf over how they're going to respond to this demand from the world leaks for while we will await that response associated press, correspondent repairs. thank you very much for your insights that get states in the ambia, washington. god spence, it in where he says there's no way the league was going to counseling iconic christmas day scheduled because of covered 19. the wizards are among as 75 percent of seems affected by we and the health and safety protocols. and on thursday, at washington played without who at best arches, including a dork score, bradley bail against new york knicks, washington. it didn't confirm if either player tested positive the was, is, overcame the setback. and so when by 7 out, i had a few that is all your support from me for now and have more for you later, including a bit of build up to the boxing day ashes desk. and i tell you what my money ease on the are these. i know you don't like to hear that jim, but it's how i feel. all right, that's all from us here at the news hour. but don't go anywhere. i'll have more of

the day's news in just a moment. stay with us. ah, african narratives from african perspectives now. but now we're about as big dealership, a short documentary by african filmmakers from the democratic republic of congo. and wanda, there was never going to be letting an obstacle just funding front of you euclidean what made you the intimate connection between myself and dwanda, diggers, and merchants, and certainly africa direct on al jazeera. there's a lot more to al jazeera than tv with our website mobile app, social media, and podcast. al jazeera digital is a world of award winning online content and portal bring view the very best of it.

they're trying to broaden the people to levy to go somewhere else. but the truth is that they've got nowhere else to go. so if you miss it online, caps it here. me sandra, got them on out. is it a, a with a ah,

al jazeera, with ah ami calling dan bins, holiday plans, hundreds of flights canceled just before christmas. as corona virus infection serge, globally. ah, hello, i'm emily anglin. this is al jazeera live from doha. also coming up and over crowded ferry catches fire in bangladesh, killing at least.