public call situation despite the recommendation is made by the truth and reconciliation commission for this former warlord, liberia has become the frontline of a drug war. it cannot afford to lose. he says it's a battle he will fight out of responsibility and killed for his past crimes and for his country. ah, the 2nd time this month, the u. s. and russian leaders talk by phone at a time of rising tensions between moscow and the west. ah. and i want money by you, this is alex, is there a line from dough also coming up, karen of ours cases inching to to 1000000 globally with the u. s. alone accounting for nearly half a 1000000 cases of defying

a lockdown, braving t gas, thousands protests against diminishing c dawn. and as the clock winds down on 2020 long, we looked back at some of the sights and sounds of the yag ah the u. s. and russian presidents have spoken for the 2nd time this month in a bid to de escalate tensions over ukraine. the white house says the cold between joe biden and vladimir putin lost at 50 minutes. they held a virtual summit back in december on the 7th, and vowed to stay in contact on the issue. russia has repeatedly denied its planning to invade its neighbor, despite massing tens of thousands of troops along the border. as to correspond, john, hindrance who is live for us in washington dc. john,

give us the details of this conversation between putin invited well, last time this call happened on december 7th. it was the russians who came out 1st with their read out of that called owning the narrative of it. this time it was the white house jen. saki, the press. secretary issued a statement saying, president biden urged russia to de escalate tensions with ukraine. he made clear of the united states and its allies and partners will respond decisively if russia further invade ukraine. president biden expressed support for diplomacy. and then you went on to say that the president reiterated that substitute process, and these dialogues can occur only in it, in an environment of de escalation rather than escalation. we also now have a response from the russian side. there was a news conference in moscow in which europe who shock of assistant to the president said one conclusion was underscored if the security and negotiations are successful, it should naturally lead to certain normalization of relations and perhaps an

improvement and bilateral relations. the conversation was entirely focused on the issues of security guarantees. he said and went on to say that us bilateral, both presidents agreed that this would be continued at a us bilateral agreement. meeting in geneva, one in between russia and nato in brussels, and one between russia and european leaders in vienna. those are all going on between january 10th and 13th. we do know what the demands are on the us side. on the us side, they want russia to discontinue the surrounding on the ukraine's easter eastern side of a 100000 russian troops. president biden said if russia continues this, these actions have it goes into ukraine. further that there would be strong economic measures increased aid to ukraine and they would fortify nato. ready

allies on the eastern flank, so strong rhetoric from both sides, russia has made its own demand, essentially asking you that nato not expand into ukraine nato. when the united states response that has been, each country has its own right to determine whether it wants to enter nato essentially. but russia is looking for a buffer. it seems, and the united states and nato are interested in allowing ukraine to possibly participate. and that alliance, russia is very set against it. ok many thanks for that, john hendrick by 1st in washington dc. let's get a little more analysis with louis navarro. he's a fellow with the foreign policy research institute previously served as the last u. s. senate chief of staff to joe biden. he joins us from washington, d. c. thank you for for your time. what did you make of today's conversation between piece and bite and what is this that each side wants? well, this is a crisis of the kremlin making and is what is unclear in all of this is what

constitutes in vladimir putin's mind, of the security of russia and normalization that does not require a treating its neighbors such as ukraine and georgia as satellites and implicit in all of this and in explicit in one of the demands of the kremlin, is that the ukraine and by extension, any other country, such as georgia, that might be interested in joining nato to be denied that. and the administration is made clear that that is not acceptable, that sovereign nations are precisely racked. and therefore, there will not be a determination made between the kremlin and 3rd parties as to the destination or the, the, the desires, if you will, of the ukrainian and georgian peak. why the sudden flurry in diplomatic activity

that between the us and russia in recent weeks they've had 2 phone calls, one, let chill summit over an issue that has been brewing for some time. i mean they, she's the, you describe their ongoing well, i think 2 things have sort of set this into motion. and the 1st is in the united states and his desire to repair its relations with germany as a key made to ally chose to or abandon sanctions against nordstrom to that combined with the withdrawal from afghanistan, which i think in vladimir putin. mine is one of the most good seminal moments in the decline or of the u. s. sr and the ascension of the west. i reviewed it by the kremlin, as potential in indications of the softness of resolve rather than simply the fact that the binding ministration is seeking to strengthen its

relationship with a key nato member. and secondly, i was following through on a negotiation established by his predecessor ad. so i think that term, the right of the russians, by placing these troops on the border, sought to precipitated crisis, sought to force a back down by the administration and its later allies. and instead, what they have found is that now after 2 calls in the rob to this next set of discussions that the u. s. is organized western europe to agree to even stronger sanctions and have it ever been in enforced before. and more importantly, perhaps, that forward deployment into poland been to the baltic states as well as defensive military assistance for ukraine are all on the table. and these are precisely the sort of actions that russia doesn't want to see happen. and so i think that is why

couldn't initiated this call. a touched on it, but how far do you think the u. s. is willing to go to prevent a full on war between russia and ukraine? why i think the united states and nato are prepared to do whatever they can to avoid a military conflict with russia. that said a vladimir putin. whether you were talking about the occupation of, of 20 percent of georgia or its occupation of eastern, of the don boss, or its occupation of the crimea. you know, have initiated these military actions unilaterally and offensively. and then have the blue gall today. she suggested somehow the west is threatening of security money. thanks for your time. louis navarro fellow with the foreign policy was such

institute speaking to us that from washington global corona virus cases have hit a record high over the past 7 days, with almost a 1000000 detected on average each day. the u. s. is the worst effected accounting finelli one in 3 cases in the world health experts, a warning americans to pass a severe disruption in the coming weeks as the virus threatens hospital schools and other sectors. such as being driven by both the delta and ami con variance. but hospitalizations and deaths remain well below previous peaks. europe is also seeing a massive rise in cases with its leave from spain and the u. k. o reporting reco daily infections in the past week. or massive jumps and testing results can be attributed to the christmas period. hospitals are still on the huge amounts of

pressure or challenge reports from london. dady cases, a skyrocketing hand, cobit hospitalizations in england, or event flyer, since february, alarm bells ringing. there's an ami kron surge is about to crash over the already struggling national health service. so if we keep them increasing, especially it, of course the pressures are, again, my thing week on week when you've got workforce, as i've said, that's already up to 550 for nurses on many more. and so 5 saying then of course, the pressures are building and building and building. so what will it be like in january, contingency plans are being put in place to cope with existing hospital capacity becomes overwhelmed with new temporary boards built the house patients. 8 temporary hub, being built at hospitals around the country, each one with a capacity of $100.00 bed more sites being planned for an extra $4000.00 beds if

needed, its hope that none of this will ever be used. but if there just in case london is preparing for new year's eve, but with the big fireworks display cancel for a 2nd year and on, the kron keeping people in doors celebrations will be much reduced on the continents, new infection records a beat, and almost daily italy logged a 126000 on thursday up from wednesdays. 98000 testing center. is it becoming overwhelmed and temp as a fraying i've been doing since 9 30 am. i'm exhausted. it was madness to book in it to me 2 days to be able to cases the only available spots were outside central rooms on vin without wafa, which i came here. and i spent 5 hours in line 5 hours. greece is brought forward new restrictions which have been planned early, january new year's eve aside bars,

night clubs, and restaurants will be forced to close at midnight with no standing customers and no music as dismay of a hospitality sector. what other blood must this? this is in their gather, certainly for us in the restaurant sector. it is a disaster. that's the key word he. but on the other hand, you can't go against the health situation. i can't say i want to stay open and work while people are dying. greece, italy at the u. k. have all seen record numbers of cases in recent days. and it's likely there are more records to come, where we challenge out a 0 london south africa has announced that it's midnight to for a m curfew will now be lifted as the countries believed have passed the peak of its 4th corona virus wave. the spike was driven by the on the con variant, which was 1st identified by scientists in the country. the government says it will also let alcohol shop stay up and post 11 p. m. if their licenses allow it.

now much of the well as late as coven waive is being blamed on the new on the con variant, but delta, which emerged earlier in 2021 still remains a significant challenge. come out, santa maria explains you may have heard dr. ted ross, the head of the world health organization, talking about the twin threats of delta and omicron, but whether it's a twin threat to you and your particular part of the world. well, that depends gonna shape and maps festival from now world and day. so the read map is showing army kron infections or at least way all micron is more prevalent, pretty easy to see. and no surprise that down in south africa. that's where we 1st saw our micron, also, australia, india, and russia. but i would draw your attention to europe, have a look the u. k. yes, we know there is a prevalence of our micron in the u. k, but the rest of europe is not as badly affected. it is dealing with delta change to the blue map, actually i'll change back and forth. have

a look at the change across europe between the all micron and the delta maps. you can say there is a lot more delta to deal with in europe as there is a in south america and pots of southeast asia. now, just to give us a slightly different take of chosen 9 different countries here. and we're looking at their share of different infections. the red is omicron, the blue a delta infection. so starting at the top, south africa has got a rate of 96 percent on the crowd. now maybe that's a good thing. having more cases of the milder variance further down the list, let's look at the united states, for example here, which is sort of got a 6040 splits between the 2. but i think what's interesting and i'm gonna try to draw a box around all of them. here are these european countries, italy, france, and germany with rights of 80 to 90 percent of delta. the more concerning variance, if i can put it that way of coping 19, and maybe that's why they are restrictions, are

a little bit taiser in those sorts of countries. the question now is, is all micron, perhaps the lesser of 2 evils? the u. s. has condemned the killing us at least 4 protest as by security forces in sudan. they were shot in under man where thousands of people rallied against the recent military takeover. to miss races in the capital. cartoon approached the presidential palace in the military to stay out of government fans during a transition to free elections. mohammed val has laces. earlier in the day or the impression was that to this day sir, protest was a, a less violent and the numbers of what justice less than during the, the, the previous occasions. but, you know, as the day progressed, it became clear that because security forces prevented the protest as an on demand to reach cartoon to cross the bridges into thing. central cartoon or the mate. the

major consultation took place in on government itself, particularly in their street, called shara albin at. thus where the goals are protested were killed. 4 of them, according to medical sources, and also sources from the side of the year of the revolutionaries, the resistance committees, it, it's a major situation. they'll not only those 4 that have been killed, but also an unknown number of people injured. and that, that the indication of the, the, the big size of this, or of this sir dangerous situation is expressed by, has been expressed by the doctors unions who called on their colleagues to go to the hospital in sharon, are buying the street of a, by an adult, so in the under man hospital to help or with the treatment of the, of those who have been injured in the, in the, in the, in the consultations. also even the state, the cotton state ministry of help has issued me

a similar as statement calling on doctors to go to those 3, those 2 hospitals to help with the year. the treatment of the wounded a lead on al jazeera, the death of 8 soldiers in molly, and why it's the latest set back on the country's road, back to civilian world. a to you to all the soil and south africans. a tribute to archbishop desmond to see it as his body lies in state as a cathedral in cape town. ah, ah, look forward to burly to scully's with sponsored boy cattle at ways. hello, thank you for joining in. here's her weather story for a show. good to see you. we've got another cold snap in northwestern india. this is impacting roger stuff. what's not pradesh and punjab we're temperatures. we'll get

to about a degree or 2. and then after a dry stretch of more than 2 weeks, that rains gonna dance back into town when they do so, some showers for tonight with the high 31 degrees are disrupting the weather pattern. there after the southeast of asia, the northeast spawn soon pepin up in intensity, so solid bands of rain over malaysia. we had that extreme flooding and call them poor. we could see some repeat scenes of that rain fills in across sumatra and also that ne monsoon cutting across central parts of the philippines. some driving rain for sebu with a high of 27 degrees, other shot of cold air coming to the korean peninsula. so sol, just a high of minus 4 on friday and where we have those low temperatures in precipitation, we're going to see snow and my, my, it's going to pile up quickly, especially for western areas of honshu, about 60 centimeters to be expected. ok back to those temperatures for sol. short lived cold snap here. so mine is 4 on friday by saturday. you pop up above freezing to a high of 2 degrees to start off. 2020, to enjoy the season. oh,

the weather. sponsored by katara always a sun. ah father. ah, mutual love, the arts the stage is set to mortal lies feeding memories ah, in a magical race against time i witness our time mission on a lou . ah,

you're watching out as a reminder, our top story is this our, the u. s. and russian presidents have spoken for the 2nd time this month, and a bit to deescalate tensions over ukraine. joe biden told vladimir putin that the u . s. would respond decisively if russia invaded ukraine. global current of ours cases of it are record high over the past 7 days with almost a 1000000 detected on average each day. the u. s. is the worst effected accounting from any one in 3 cases in the world. the u. s. has condemned the killing of at least 4 protesters by security forces. and so you don't. there was shot it owns are man with thousands of people rallied against the recent military. take a group of ringo. refugees who spend days out see in a damaged boat. have been rescued by indonesian authorities. the boat was towed by a navy ship off the coast of ha province, a 120 people, mainly women and children,

disembarked in the port city of croon. okay. where they've been given temporary accommodation. they have been trying to reach militia at least 8 soldiers have been killed in western molly and what the army describes as a targeted attack becomes as talks aim to ending the country's political crisis, come to a close attack and seen as yet another setback for any return to civilian rule. fidelis and bar reports. delegates arrived in the capital by michael for the talks organized by molly's government, dominated by military leaders. before the forum is aiming to pay of the way for the return of civilian rule. falling last year's co. marley's transitional government experts, delegates to make concrete proposals for ending the political crisis and to prevent further sanctions from the regional organization. a course major 2nd.

now committed antenna directly international community needs to listen to the molly and void it. this is our country. they can't wish for the good of our country more than we do. so similar b, molly has a long history of national consultations to discuss problems. i recommend solutions . but this time, you position aren't attending, insisting it was a waste of time yet demanding a swift will turn to democratic rule. but some delegates disagree. listen, it will say it is not possible to hold elections. the people of molly have suffered political instability since gaining independence from france. 61 years ago. in august last year, the military toppled president. he brought him boca cater after weeks of street protests against corruption and insecurity. another cool you may disrupted the

military's pledge for elections in february. no group has claimed responsibility for wednesday's attack in narrow town on the border with mauritania. there what? until victim info is the dish. we need to dialogue with the new exchange with them to disarm their hearts and minds as long as we don't do about as soon as they have occasion, they will attack one of your brother attacks by and groups in the restive. so how does that region have killed thousands and displaced millions, despite years of efforts by international forces to defeat them, it's feared for the attacks we caused yet more instability. fidelis member, our da, 0 a bull joe. out there has been told that an agreement to rely of iran's nuclear dale with well, powers is still far off. the 8th round of talks between diplomats commenced in vienna on monday. so says close to the negotiations. say there is

a deep disagreement surrounding terence demands for us sanctions to be left and immediately they say the talks are going in a good direction at that. they lack the momentum to achieve results within a reasonable time frame corners in south africa. ha, paying their final respects to anti apartheid hero desmond, teacher, cape towns 1st, black archbishop has been lying in state in saint george's cathedral in the lead up to his funeral on saturday. to lean wolf reports from cape town. oh, honoring desmond tutu with song and praise oh hundreds flocked to saint george's cathedral where the archbishop once preached his message of peace and reconciliation. inside the revered anti apartheid hero lies in states. people of all ages, class and creed sharing the hope of passing on the icons,

torch to future generations to come. it was a big person, it changed a lot of lives and even affected a lot of logs. and i feel it's important that you have your paternity to come through per your respects and your carry that message forward and to future generations will always remember, you know, how to treat each other a little earlier in the day, his coffin was welcomed by the congregation he arched with the family 1st care to prayer, other mourners to follow. the cathedral is engraved in south africa's history books as the people's church for keeping its doors open to all races during the apartheid era. the pulpit became a platform of power from where the freedom fighters spoke out against all injustices and oppression. eventually helping topple the brutal regime and bringing democracy to a nation. desperate for the end of white rule,

the nobel peace prize winner will lie in state allowing mourners to pay tribute and reflect upon his legacy until his funeral on new year's day. or he was everything to us. people reign, excite people, and reigned robin island. if the country was bending, he was a hope at the time and hasty to hope to day the simplicity of the services mirroring his selfless nature. crowds are expected to flow into cape town, saint george's cathedral, until the archbishop is finally laid to rest. and with just a simple glance, you can see that they represent the very ramble nation that desmond tutu fought so hard to sir. i'm also not that the i'm no more but i just hope that the younger folk are children will take heed from what he's done and i am try and stand fool, fool, fool, fool for the truth. stand for what is right and it will turn out

better for them. o, a faith in the nation's youth, the desmond to to so deeply shared join wolf, al jazeera cape town. the usa and colorado, hundreds of homes have been destroyed off to wind driven wildfire and gulf to cities. near denver, spain described as a life threatening situation and tens of thousands of people have been told to evacuate immediately. that what was have been reports, the strong winds have brought down power lines leading to several grass 5 in the area as we count down to 2022, he has to look back at some of the biggest stories out there as cabot in the last year. let's walk down pennsylvania avenue in the u. s. capital building under c cannot. however,

her from our responsibility to validate with what is known to guilty is just me. i'm on democratically elected leadership team as the military stage to the general thought is a bit less. they couldn't be more wrong. taliban has taken the final departure of the u. s. military officer. 20 years. i believe this is the right to switch. a violent day over dangerous days still ahead. no well in gaza. feel safe

with. i'll just be right. will not be silenced. ah, bill about him is ripping around the world. you see that right at that by the present via for lack of political will. selfishness and music. the new all the comb barian to spread it. 2022 must be the year we end, the funded paid read at a much no planet. there is no plan and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah blah, i'm deeply sorry. ah, the philippine government that's called the quite the guess that security rebels,

especially with general have a say they don't want it. there was always like, only were brave enough to see only who are brave enough to be with . this is al jazeera, these, your top stories the u. s. and russian president. so.