and also that is afflicted by conflict. political up see walls. we've tried to balance these stories, the good, the bad, the abilene, and he's the people who allow us into their lives, dignity, intimacy as we tell their stories. ah, this is al jazeera ah hello, i'm fully back to bo. this is a news hour on al jazeera live from doha, coming up in the next 60 minutes with coffee, 19 cases rising around the world to record levels. some governments are choosing a lighter restrictions compared to last year. a surgeon fighting between ethnic groups and yan mars military forces thousands to flee to thailand. and tony chang

on the time near mar border where the piece is holding of the main border crossings for fighting is broken out for the downstream. also the sour, the indian government cuts for and funding to a charity founded by mother theresa and china has filed a complaint with the un, a space agency against the lawn musk. we'll tell you why. i'm devin ashworth sport . australia's cricket says have retained the ashes, the home side crushed england in melbourne to take an unassailable 3 meal series leaves. ah, thank you very much for joining us. as we count down to the new year 2021 is ending exactly the way it began. corona, various cases are on the rise again, all over the world, driven by the army con variant in the us present biden says the health system is

prepared to handle the rise in infections and isolation. time for patients without symptoms has been cut in half to 5 days. the u. k for now is not adding new restrictions even as it's been reporting record infections in the past you days. but conversely, france is tightening measures, is implementing a work from home policy and placing more restrictions on unvaccinated people. though it's holding off on a curfew for new years eve while will be speaking to kimberly, how can our white house correspondent about the situation in the u. s. very shortly, but 1st we go to john hall for a view of the situation in europe. soaring in the u. k. jonah no further cove restrictions in england before the new year, despite the rising number of cases it that's right. good news, of course, for business and hospitality, and those who want to go out and celebrate new year's eve in big groups. the prime minister's decision based on an examination of the data with his chief medical and

scientific offices, that data pretty watering. really a 113000 new infections on christmas day alone. but i think the overall sort of cautious approach indicated he will feel, by the fact that hospitalizations whilst rising, rising with anything like the same trajectory and deaths of remained fairly stable and they'll be looking as well. of course, at data that has come from south africa, a lot of it corroborated here that suggests that if you get on because you're less likely to be hospitalized, if you are hospitalized, you spend less time there and that i see use he there. and in this country 10 now to be full of people who are unvaccinated, so the advice remains get vaccinated, get boosted and continue to exercise of the personal responsibility of the problem is that scientists disagree a large section of the scientists who advise the government still saying we need more restrictions. the government they say is we're working on incomplete data. i'm

certain data and they say the problem is, of course, if hospitalisation is in debt to suddenly shoot up in the new year by that stage it will be potentially too late to rain them in with hurriedly rolled out public health measures. and what's the situation like elsewhere in europe, germany and france? i know i introducing new restrictions. well, they're the big. they're the new movers in the last couple of days, some countries and gone further. of course, before christmas. remember that europe tends to lag 2 to 3 weeks behind the u. k, particularly into in the sort of various phases of this pandemic, largely a function of airline routes and demographic demographics, i guess. but they would have been watching. what's been happening here since omicron emerged, the u. k introduced travel restrictions, they introduced travel restrictions. the u. k. introduced limited measures to buy time for the booster program. that's largely what is now happening in germany and france, germany introducing all sorts of measures to curb gatherings over the new year. but

with a focus on getting the booster program rolled out and front cutting that delay between having a 2nd dose of ac, seen in the booster from 4 months to 3 as a se. everybody watching those figures that day to that i talked about here and really hoping, i guess that alma com does in fact turn out to be less severe. that the vaccine program does continue to be a useful means and effective means of limiting and controlling it. i mean, the end that we all end up finding a way to live with this new form of the virus. if it does turn out to be less severe than previous ones. jonah, thank you for that. update your whole life for us in london. in the us, the centers for disease control has shortened the recommended time. people should isolate when they've tested positive from 10 to 5 days. let's bring in our white house correspondent, kimberly how get live in washington. what's behind the cdc? cdc decision kimberly, to change guidelines about isolating and contain will,

staff shortages in the last shell. the problem is, is that so many airlines, government workers, you name it, are experiencing staff shortages for a number of reasons. in part, this is due to a vaccine mandate and some people choosing to leave their jobs. but to at what we're seeing now is the fact that so many people are being falling ill due to the i'm a con variant. and as a result, this is also leaving a large number of people who have been exposed, but not necessarily sick. so what the guidance is now in this was at the request of the travel industry that has been decimated and seen thousands of flights cancelled in recent days. is that there was this request to the public health officials that this be reduced from 10 days to 5. and that people can return to work with a negative test to address these shortages. and so worst the situation like across the u. s. right now. it's not good. there are a rising number of cases,

particularly what is alarming to many americans are these break through cases. in other words, people that follow the rules, they were double backed, they were even boosted, and they're still getting this highly contagious. very now the guidance is still that the disease is less severe if you are fully vaccinated and boosted, but it is alarming to so many americans that thought they were protected. so what we're seeing is a large number of people cancelling their holiday plans and really scaling back their activities. and in some cases we're seeing certain schools decided to go back online instead of returning to the classroom. it's having a devastating effect on many people's plans moving forward, but it's particularly disappointing, given the fact that this is sort of something people thought they were putting behind them. now in terms of leadership on this very quickly, the u. s. president did appear here at the white house, very briefly, to speak to governors, but we have nothing for the president on his schedule today. and that is also alarming for some americans who believe he should really be out in front of this.

especially when cases are spiking so high and hospitals are so strained. ok, kimberly thank you for that. kimberly help it is on white house correspondent in australia. meanwhile, mandatory p. c. r test needed for interstate travel, putting further pressure on health systems, sa, concrete force, from the countries sunshine coast calls are backed up for kilometers at testing centers across sydney. some people are waiting up for 6 hours for tests with results taking days to be returned. some states require mandatory cover tests before the allow people to travel from other parts of australia that includes queens and south australia and tasmania. but that's putting pressure on a health system already inundated with rising number of infections. they're asking people to test before they come to the hospital, but of course at choose the p c r testing. and now i'm believably long,

and the delays in getting test results are getting to point where they're unworkable. so if you've got people who are showing up who are unwell and people who are at high risk of serious illness, they're the ones you have to find early hospital pathology. you this in sydney, you sent out a premature text advising nearly 500 people. what they were negative, the covert 19 when they were positive it blaine, the incident on a clinical era. what's important is mistakes like that from the pathologist. don't care again. what's the good news is it was picked up and, and those people who were given that incorrect information have now been informed. and i know that you, southwell, south of been in contact and made it very clear that there is like, that are on acceptable. then he said, wells government has put in place more restrictions, including manage re masks, to be worn in doors, due to the surgeon cases, but is ruled out returning to a state wide lockdown. we would expect that pretty well. everybody in new south

wales at some point will get on the chrome. we're all going to get on the chrome. and if we're all going to get on the chrome, the best way to face it is when we have full vaccination including a booster. that's like queens that have ignored requests from other premieres to drop the mandatory p c. r test. for those wanting to travel into site or the last week around 400000 people cross the border and on tuesday, queens and recorded the highest number of dully infections. that numbers expected to rise over the new year. break sarah clark, queensland, australia, on 2 other world news now in myanmar a military offensive against ethnic korean armed groups is intensify. the army that sees power in a co in february has been accused of committing atrocities against villages. thousands of fleeing into neighboring thailand. tony chang has more from the ty, bought a town of may sot it's a lot quanch's day. we have had a few little clashes. we heard her some bangs inside miramar,

but the fighting seems to have moved in from the media border area. that's what the tie military were telling us. they seemed a lot more relaxed, very different from yesterday when we saw her fighting really right up to the river more that the, the border itself and villages pouring across. we even saw an attack helicopter operating along the border. a lot of villages said that that was the thing. they were really most scared about. the air strikes that had been coming in or to the places they lived there. still on the tie side, there are more than 5000 people who came across in the last couple of weeks that we spoke to a couple of them who said they still don't want to go home. they're still concerned, but they want to monitor what's going on. across the board, so they want to make sure that everything is secure. nonetheless, it does seem to be a little bit quieter to day. so i think everything in the border area seemed a little more settled in the town of me, a wadi there was bought, a trade going across so some semblance of normality returning. meanwhile,

officials in indonesia say they will not offer refuge to a group of ra, hang out on a stranded boat. they say the vessel will be turned away, but they'll help repair it for a sinner, providing food about a 120 people, including children on board. well, hang a muslim refugee strand, myanmar sales to countries such as militia thailand, any leisure to seek refuge from persecution. video, he made progress. the i got unload at remove his job is to secure the country's border. the ra hinges are not indonesian citizens. we can't just bring them at land even as refugees. this is in line with government policy number. while i speak to this man and meet about this, he's the indonesia director for amnesty international. and he's joining us from jakarta. very good to have you with us. so indonesian authorities are saying they can't bring in these refugees, these were hang a refugees in are now 10 attempting to send them back. first of all what, what is your reaction? because this is not legal under international law. is it?

yeah, it is not legal and i think in the name of the session to send stricken bo, to malaysian water is on considerable to push the boat back or is, is a violation of international obligations of indonesia. i think international law clearly imposes. busy obligations on states including indonesia, to protect human rights, off refugees arriving on their shores. they are about a 120 people on this particular boat. i understand what more can you tell us about their, their condition? well, their condition, their health condition is, is, is worrying at being 51 children and 60 woman. this is really in a, in a in distress of tuition. so i think we are very worried about the conditions of their life threat life and that threatening situation. and i think the government of indonesia shouldn't be too ill of the thing that they have done last year when

they allow almost $400.00 refugees from myanmar to come into the country and to treat them properly as rude, local facilities of refugee and for a quote for the new case in beer and in the recent order, i think we, we, we thing indonesia is taking the wrong decision by sending them the highest is that it will put them at risk and dangers at see where are they sending them back to right now? because malaysia and thailand have also been pushing back rowing a refugee, so where do they end up? exactly, exactly. that exactly. the reason why we, we, we condense such decision, i think indonesia is aware that melissa has more, you know, a restrictive policy, 2 words refugee boat, they have many times and send them back to the ocean to the high seas and put them

in danger. and so there is no reason for indonesia to send the boat a malaysian waters and from the previous experience again in the systems you know, it. 2 seems to be able to, to, to allow them to, to enter in the nation territory and treated them according to indonesian precedent regulation. where anyone racing flag hell. asking for help in at sea, have to be assisted or have to be rescued by indonesian search and rescue team. and the today's decision by indonesia to reject them and send, distract them both to malaysian waters. i think he's against international law and on human rights. as you mentioned last year, hundreds of ro hang a whole fred persecution in myanmar arrived in indonesia. what sort of assistance have they been getting in, in, in, in indonesia and what sort of support system is there for them? well, at least firstly, shelter, shelter. it's very important for them to after being at sea for weeks or even 4

months. and secondly, foods supplies and also brings applies to clothes and so on. i think that could be done out with the, with the, with the new case in, in, in, in, on sunday and last sunday i've spoken with indonesia minister o horen affairs. there seems to be reluctance due to depend on me and i think it's not enough. they just say bad to me is, you know, is not allowing indonesia to, to treat them or to, to, to, to, to disembark the passenger. so produce the futures boat in indonesian territory. i think indonesia can still apply, you know, strict rules off health protocol in order. busy to prevent the disease or despite of the deceased without pushing them back to the high seas. thank you so much for talking to us about this or small a, meet indonesia direct if you have an international. thank you for your time.

there's lots more ahead on this al jazeera and use our including holding on to a controversial pass will tell you why some people in italy are reluctant to demolish fascist monuments to dams claps in brazil, leaving dozens of cities and towns flooded. and in sports, a close shade for manchester, united english re a lead action coming up later with jim ah, 1st the 8th round of talks to revive events 2015 nuclear deal has resumed in vienna . yvonne's foreign ministry wants guarantees that us sanctions will be lifted on even oil sales dos. jibari has more from vienna. there is certainly a sense that to this could be the most critical round yet since the european signatories to the nuclear deal triggered the dispute mechanism in january of this

year. because the u. s. loves to deal and iran with reducing commitment to the nuclear agreement. the russian ambassador to the talk says that this could possibly be the final around the e. u coordinator, who's hosting the talk said that time is of the essence. and of course, they're going to have to be difficult decisions made in teheran and washington for there to be a conclusion to these talk. and of course, the reading delegation, who arrived in vienna on monday morning. and they are saying that they're here because they know that their talks are leading somewhere, otherwise they wouldn't be here to begin with. i spoke to the deputy foreign minister from iran, who is the head of the negotiating team from the iranian side. and he had the following to say about where things stand after the 1st they concluded that am i wasn't, that was in my opinion, it's been a good beginning all sides. emphasize the importance of lifting sanctions. and the issue of verification and guarantees should be on the agenda. so based on this,

it was a great the 1st issue that's going to be on the agenda in this round is the issue of guarantees and verification. and then the working groups will continue their work in the area of lifting sanctions in the banking and financial sexes. the main issues iran has now and they're hoping that that will be one of the main things address this week in the 1st few days of a round is best selling of a raining oil on the international market. since the u. s. imposed sanctions on iran in november of 2018. the radians have only been able to sell their oil to 6 countries, which guy got special waivers from the americans. they haven't been able to be paid for that because their banking sector is under also strict sanctions. and that is one of the main issues right now before that the iranians were selling nearly $3000000.00 barrels of oil per day. they were opec's, 4th largest producer. syrian st media is reporting israeli forces of carried on as strike on a major port in the city of latasha. it's not clear if anyone has been injured. the

reports haven't been independently confirmed. it's as seconds reported as ready as try can syria this month. while a judge june has the details in serious major port, city of latasha, the sound of air strikes thunder in the distance. as fireballs light up the night sky. this is the result of his really missiles, according to syrian state media. the syrian government also reports that residential buildings, a hospital shops and containers were all damaged in the attack. details that could not be independently verified. the port of the talk here is in the west of the country and handles most of serious imports. this is the 2nd report, it is really airstrike there this one the earlier attack happened on december 7th

and also targeted the container facility. it was reported to be the 1st on the facility since the start of the war in syria in 2011. is missile strikes on the talk yet were larger than the previous ones. israel's military has not commented on either of the airstrikes but it has previously confirmed conducting raids against iranian targets inside syria. mamma, jim's room, a visit of russia's supreme court has ruled that one of the country's most prominent human rights organisations. organizations should be closed down and loyal international documents abuses committed by the former soviet union. prosecutors accused a group of distorting history. it also faced charges under the criminal laws on angels memorial international says the accusations are politically motivated and has said it will continue its work. now recent violence committed by far i schools in italy has ignited

a national debate on fascist monuments across the country. expert fe, few people are questioning whether the statues of those who push for races causes in the past should be demolished. adam rainy reports from rome. the nearly 80 years after his fall, benito mussolini obelisk still towers into the roman sky. it stands outside the photo italy co, formerly known as the fordham saline. it's here the dictator built a sports complex to cultivate the new man of his fascist regime. people have mixed feelings about these monuments establish with the present. that's your seeing all the stadiums in these monuments forces us to face the past every day. by not forgetting the past it, make sure that we won't repeat it as store. yes. so toward i, if this is attending history and architecture and it needs to stay as it is this stadium bill under mussolini direction, is a reminder of the importance of sport for him. he thought as a way to build

a national identity, fascist also saw sport as a way to prepare the population for war. and inside the complex of fresco of mussolini still graces the walls. prime ministers have given speeches here in recent years under the gaze of the former dictator who collaborated with hitler and the holocaust. across the country monument to fascism are everywhere. some pay homage to saline for public works. others glorify the regime for creating an italian empire. experts say that, unlike germany, italy never had a reckoning with its fascist past. decades later, italy also stands apart from a global movement pushing to tear down statues and flavors and those who fought for racist causes. even one of italy's oldest anti fascist organizations is against demolishing fascist monuments and malta simply she's ego air for it wouldn't be too

simplistic to do that in a distraction from the real work. we haven't raised any of our history even bed parts from ancient rome. we have made a point of explaining it and that's what we should do with fascism historian and i am on it says there seems to be an acceptance of these monuments. there is a sort of normalization or legitimate zation of fascism who will should explain to people that there was a brutal or a gene that was the tougher ship. and even if we leave monuments, we should the knowledge that that is not them all. chris is something else a common reframe in italy, is that fascists were brutal, but they did good things to. with that idea, mind it's likely there. monuments will stand for years to come. adam rainy al jazeera rome time off for a check on the world, whether his car was hello there. let scott in south america enter. renshaw,

rain that's been falling on and off since november has led to severe flooding across the brazil's north eastern state. that hasn't been helped by heavy rain from a weather system, but that has pulled away. it is looking dry here, but the rains going to pick up across bolivia and southern areas of peru. we could see some flooding issues here. now we take a closer look at coastal areas of brazil that where the system is working its way towards the southeast. it's drying up slightly. here we are seeing some showers, but the heavy rain can be found down south. we're gonna see rain roll into rio with, from the storms lasting through the weekend now from one extreme to another. it's the heat that's posing a problem further south places like you're a y m power guy as well. as for patagonia, we've had wild fires burning here for several weeks, and a change in the wind and the heat has made it difficult for firefighters to contain those blazes. we are going see temperatures push up in the south some cases like by her blanket, nearly touching 40 degrees by wednesday. that was we move to central america. it's

largely fine and settled for much of mexico with a few showers in the south. but there's plenty of sunshine and dry conditions across the caribbean with 20 degrees in kingston. and still ahead on usa, we revisit a neighborhood in order to buy these juice lamp has become a major flash point in the palestinian israeli conflict and installed one of football's biggest stars gives his thoughts on peter's proposal to states are well cap every 2 years. stay with us, we're back after. ah frank assessments this crisis or use continue to weaken luca shenker, even though perhaps he believed in the beginning that they will expect for informed opinions. lighting politicians will now be under incredible pressure from the young people. that is one of the most hopeful things that come out of this critical debate. do you think it should be facilitated?

not sure. okay, it's a great, it's a really simple question. let's give samuel a child swans the inside story on al jazeera in the country with an abundance of resource rate. already won indonesia, his firms forming. we move full to grow and frank. we balance for rena economy, blue economy, and the digital economy. with the new job creation law, indonesia is progressively ensuring the policy reform to create quality jobs. invest. let part wind. this is growth and progress in indonesia. now, lou ah,

logan. you're watching the news hour on al jazeera with me for the back table. a reminder of our top stories, villages in myanmar have been trained to neighboring thailand as fighting between government and ethnic ran forces intensifies. the violence was triggered by a military raid. last week. indonesian officials say they will not offer refuge to a group of ro hang out on a stranded boat. they say the vessel will be turned away, but they will help repair it 1st in a providing food was 1st haunted by fishermen on sunday. and in the us, the centers for disease control has shortened the recommended time. people should isolate when they're tested positive from 10 to 5 days present. joe biden says health system is prepared for a soaring number of call the 19 cases, but as admitted the response hasn't been sufficient. while i speak to wafa sadder about this, she's a professor of epistemology and medicine at columbia university and is joining us live on the news. our thank you so much for being with us. so this,

the cdc reducing isolation period for gov. it positive people saying the change is motivated by science? is it what are your thoughts about this decision? well, i think and we, we do have evidence as of now that says that people are with coping 19 are most likely to be infectious, meaning that are most likely to transmit to others in the day or 2. prior to that very know, those are prior to developing some things as well as in the one to 2 days after they've been diagnosed. so it's that period around the time when they diagnose the few people are most able to transmit to others. and i think that's the reason why the cdc has opted for shortening the period of isolation for peer for people diagnosed with coping 19. however, it should be kept in mind on day 5 after diagnosis. if a person still has sense and they,

she is continuing isolation. so there's only applied or people who a day 5 after diagnoses do not testing. but does it apply? well, what about the variance? i mean, does it have promptly pride to people who have the only con variant, which as we've heard, is highly transmissible. what about those with a delta varied i think what we know is that this likely this period of intense risk of transmission is likely to happen around the time a bag. no, just we don't have enough data on, on the chrome as of yet, but there's no reason to think that it might be, it would be much longer than it was with delta. but i think again, the 5 days offer some buffer in terms of making sure that people's risk of transmitting to others as the crease substantially. again, they must be, isn't the magic without any symptoms of they 5 to rig isolation. and also people, even if they leave isolation and they fight, they should wear

a mask or the following 5 days. let's talk about the mac on very and which has been behind this steep rise in cases.