keep that stretch of a beautiful weather. go on for wellington, a bit more cloud covered though on tuesday. that's it. see sir. ah ah, this is al jazeera. oh, hello, i'm marianne. was you welcome to the news our live from london? coming up in the next 60 minutes while well comes in the new year, but many celebrations are again, muted by the ramp and spread of cove at 19 a still parting in india though, despite restrictions and a rapid rise in infections that under ins of homes are

engulfed in flames off to strong winds. find fast moving wildfires in suburban, colorado, and we'll look back at some of the major sport stories of the year, including m right. economy is incredible. when at the us open, ah welcome to the news, our people around the world a bidding farewell to 2021. but for the 2nd year, running many new year's celebrations are being held in the shadow of the corona virus pandemic. as the on the chrome variant of covered 19 runs rampant gillian wolf reports now on the scale back celebrations everywhere in the world. and how cove it has crashed. the posse yet again. oh zealand was one of the 1st to ring in the new year. neighbor estrella didn't hold back

with tens of thousands of people gathered around sydney harbour bridge in a tribute also to the front line workers in the fight against coven 19. ah! in north korea, there were fireworks taiwan, 2 lighting up a night sky. but elsewhere, there were bands on big gatherings in china where 2 years ago corona virus 1st emerged, events were canceled with the nation on high alert and the city of she an under locked down soccer la chicago. since the 1st report of taste more than 5400000 people have died around the world. and with the only chron variant taking hold, many governments have re imposed restrictions to try to ease the strain on overwhelmed hospitals. even in those countries where gatherings are allowed, many people have chosen to stay home the one with shared by people around the world

. this new year is the 2022 is better than the lawsuit and sees an end to the pandemic. joint wolf al jazeera will, so this is the same live and the russian capital moscow. where is just ton midnight and fireworks lighting up the sky over the kremlin in his new year's message. present that to him, of cushions. thanks russians. that resilience during difficult times and expressed his support to all those who have lost relatives. during the pandemic. with french government has introduced new measures aimed at reducing the spread of the omicron variant. every one in paris is now required to f faced mosques outdoors . capitals also canceled the new easy fireworks display on the shore, silly se. the authorities of called on people to avoid any large gatherings, but no official curfew has been imposed. and then in germany,

the newly appointed challenge lavarez used his 1st new year's speech to try and rally the population against the corona virus, olaf sholtes called on germans to get vaccinated even his protest continue against restrictions. germany announced 41000 new cases on thursday. the up i appeal to you again get vaccinated. i know that some a skeptical, they fear it will have negative consequences. but to day, almost 4000000000 people worldwide vaccinated without major side effects. of the u . k reported another record number of new infections on friday with more than a 189000 registered at british promised that bar, as johnson has not bad new years eve celebrations in england. instead encouraging people to take a co, the test. if another u. k. is facing a shortage, a rapid antigen task hills her urging people to get vaccinated as soon as possible . the people who think the disease can't hurt them. look at the people going into

hospital now. that could be you look at the intensive care units and the miserable needless suffering of those who did not get that booster. that could be you. so making your new year's resolution far easier than losing weight or keep your diary . find a walk in center or make an online appointment. get that job and do something that will make 2022. a happy new year. russell or challenge joins his live now from london. so, more cause for caution from the prime minister to the numbers back him on this approach. well look, there is, of course, plenty of bad and here it is. there are a record number of coven infections, pretty much every day. there are now 12395 people in hospital with coven in the u. k. there's no sign of the peak yet with double the infections

at the moment that they were at the previous peak. previous waves peak back in january cases and hospitalizations, rising across all age groups, except for young children. are there any silver linings? well, yes, there are the latest data. the latest studies seem to suggest that microphone is about a 3rd less likely or the 3rd is likely to leave. you leave you in the hospital as the delta variance, and if you are triple job, then you are 81 percent less likely to end up in hospitals than you would be if you hadn't been vaccinated at all. those are the kinds of stacks that is chairing all cheering for us. johnson and making him hope that he has chosen the right position in stopping over or not having type of restrictions on people and celebrations over the christmas new year period. he's

a bit of an outlier in that because other parts of the u. k. have chosen to tighten down and they're looking at what's happening in the, in england and being very worried indeed. okay, so then how these calls for sensible celebrations being taken out by the public or a couple of hours away from midnight. what fit lie count while i'm on the embankments on the thames, this normally in any usual year is absolutely rams. with people who be coming down here. so you wait for the fi works that will light up the thames at midnight. now we have been told that that is not happening this year, but there are plenty people here coming down there with the expectation that something is going to happen. london is a busy city tonight. i've been out walking the streets. the restaurants of gold pubs are full and people are out there in the mood for a celebration of some sort. they all are allowed to. as i said in england,

there have been no new restriction. so there is nothing to stop people coming on doing it. other than the edge from birth johnson to play cautiously this year in other parts of the u. k. scotland, wales, and northern on it. it's not the same night clubs, the closed gatherings in any large number off a bit. and there is the fear. i think that it's been expressed that people might be coming from scotland, wales, and northern ireland into england to come and have a party that is being discouraged. all right, from london roy challenge. thank you. well, united states is recorded its highest number of cases yet in a single day. more than 647000 with nearly one and a half 1000 death. get more in this now from john henderson and washington. so virus setting new daily records is, is there an end in sight that as right, it was 30300001 wednesday,

marion 562 on thursday. and then that new, astonishing number of 647000 setting new records each day. but columbia university researchers have a model that they say suggest that this particular serge, the omicron surgeon, the virus will peak at least the united states on the week of january 9th. that's the good news. the bad news is that during that 7 day period, they believe there will be $2.00 to $5000000.00 confirmed cases. and consider that that number could just be a fraction. some researchers believe that the official numbers are, are actually $4.00 to $5.00 times are too small. in other words, that it will be 5 times that number. so you're talking about millions upon millions of people by the time this virus peaks. and that's if the researchers are right that it would peak on the week of january 9th. meanwhile, thousands of flights have been cancelled here in the united states. part of that is

whether but the other part is this surgeon, omicron virus, some flight attendants and other airline workers are getting sick. others of them just don't want to work. so they're not accepting incentives. big incentives, in some cases, to work overtime. vaccines and boosters have. 4 blunted this surge of the virus here, and that's allowed the biden administration to hold off on issuing new mandates and focus on the economy is instead, which of course has been devastated by oma crime. this own comes, of course, on new year's eve as we're waiting for celebrations in new york and elsewhere. the biggest one of course, normally being in new york with that one has been cut down significantly. be, even though it's outdoors because of the risk of people you know, can be spreading the virus throughout that area. and of course, new york is one of the many hotspots here in the united states. our own fearless gape elizondo will be there later tonight to give us updates. but meanwhile,

that the concern there, a lot of critics are saying they shouldn't be holding those events at all. thank you. john. andrea in washington. elsewhere, daily infections in india, more than doubled in the past week with experts varying the countries entering the 3rd way fuel by the on the chrome variant. well, the 16000 new cases reported on friday is the highest number of daily cases since october. the authorities are imposing new restrictions to prevent mass gatherings in some states night cause he's been imposed in all major cities. despite that nero new rivals have flooded the beaches in go. have new metal has one out from you deli . the situation here is quite alarming. the government says we are in the initial phases, off is called way, but insist that it is better prepared. in fact, new jelly where we are and we're actually outside in just largest core with 900 facility. the government said it can handle up 200000 new cases

a day and 300000 test daily. at this point because of how far the infections are rising, most of the country is under some form of restriction. delhi has been put on yellow, a lot of schools and cinemas, and jims are shot restrictions out there on restaurant and public transport. one by which is in just financial capital has also seen a huge 3rd. and the government there has put a cap on gathering vaccination, though. we'll also get a big boost because starting monday children about 15 will start getting jobs. and many people will also be eligible for boosters, which will start or later in january. at the same time, they are worrying signs that people are not necessarily following corporate protocol. for example, there are images of market that are crowded, where people are not social distance, nor are they're wearing mom. the other place where over 19 protocols are not being

followed. i lecture valley, you know, they're continue because india is headed for the state elections early. 2022. it's a top reminder. what happened this past summer when the death of variance was infecting millions of people in india every day as election valleys and villages gatherings continued. well, at least 13000000 people in the china says his yana spending the new year on district lockdown at struggling with the highest number of cases recorded in any chinese city this year. with 1200 cases this month, government is under pressure to bring the numbers down before the winter olympics opens in february, katrina, you reports from beijing in a suburban neighbourhood in the city of she. anne instructions from a loudspeaker tell residents not to leave their apartments unless absolutely necessary. 3 year old long dough is making the most of the opportunity to stretch his legs. members of his family are only allowed outdoor to take corporate 19 tests

and collect delivered supplies. they are among the 13000000 people who will spend new years eve, under strict locked down one. mm hm. yes. my son is very young and doesn't understand a lockdown or a would the increasing case number's money. yeah. he only knows that many people outside are sick and he would go out, we could be infected, shall he panics a bit and feel scared. and he tells me i don't want to be infected and going to quarantine miguel without big his mother junk. so when is a kindergarten teacher? she was shocked to receive notice of the locked down last week. more than $1000.00 cases have been reported and she and since the beginning of december, it's the worst outbreak. china's faced in months and the most severe measures and persons to woo hon lockdown last year. a policy allowing one member of the household to buy groceries every 2 days was scrapped earlier this week. after infections continued to rise. some residents have taken to social media to complain

about a lack of access to food and other essential goods. the complaints prompted authorities to offer free food deliveries. they say the problem is with delivery and not supply tall thong to junker. the supply of daily necessities is she on is sufficient. on the whole, the commerce ministry will take further measures to ensure a stable supply and the process of daily necessities. it's been 2 years since w h. o. officials and china were 1st notified of the mysterious flu like illness emerging and will hon. and 2 years since dr. lee, when leanne sounded the alarm about the outbreak before be silenced, and eventually dying from the corona virus himself. since then, officials responsible for mishandling information in the early days of the pandemic had been punished, and most of the country's population has been dull vaccinated. but it's still unclear how the coroner virus originated. china has defended it 0 tolerance

approach to corbet. 19 officials here say close borders and heavy handed measures had kept total infections to about 100000 death to below $5000.00. but international experts have question to government figures. beijing is under increased pressure to control this latest outbreak and lifted the she unlocked out before the winter olympics open in february for junk. so when at her son they have little choice but to try to stay fit and healthy at home fe. long dos, favorite sport is swimming. but he doesn't know when he'll be able to do it again for real. katrina, you al jazeera, they take. oh, south africans of welcome a governess decision to lift them coven restrictions thereafter. infections dropped by almost 30 percent last week. and nighttime coffee has now been scraps and alcohol in shops of alco. shops will be able to stay open. past 7 pm. government

believes it's past the peak of a full wave of infection fuels by on the chrome. it quickly became the dominant strain in south africa where his 1st identified causing a search of infections. in mid december, doctor eric 5 building is an epidemiologist. at the federation of american scientists, he joined his fine scott from washington. can i start by asking you about developments there in the u. s. states like your can the district of columbia, which actually had high vaccination rates. now seeing a steep rise in infections. you bracing yourself january? yeah, thanks for having me. this is a very good question. i think the whole of us is bracing ourselves of what, how further bad it can become us. for example, pediatric hospitalization in new york city as actually a one year high. and the pediatric hospitalizations are still climbing and may exceed original spring. a 2020 possible ation rate in new york city. if the trend

keeps going up and throughout the whole country, you know, including in the, in florida where they previously just recently had a very strong delta way burned through hospitalizations or climbing their to altogether were in for a really rough january. even if some cases, some predict cases may fall by mid january hospitalizations will still continue climb and that overwhelming the hospital system and, and many other services will be what will actually crush a lot of health services. and that is very, very worrisome when it comes to the, the protection of health services actually everywhere in the world. what is your response to the early evidence suggesting that on the call is less severe compared to previous variance? now, why could that be dangerous or misleading? yeah, so i think 1st of all there's 2 points,

even if it is slightly more milder to factor. the virus doubles every 2 days, 3 days. mean even if it was half a mile, which is, it's not that mild. you quickly can swamp that out by having a doubling of, of cases. so literally any benefit of mild is swamped out in matter of 2 days. that is the effect of an exponential rise. and when you have exponential rise in cases, ultimately, that will spend more people to the hospital and kill more and actually may more with long coby and i want to point out long covey. their study to show long covert is the trojan horse of the pandemic. that although you may not get hospitalized or die for everyone, you will actually have long term neurological effects and the milder symptoms so far the milder on the lung. but that there is no evidence of milder on the brain.

and i think the long term brain damage in neurological damage is what will actually cause so much more long term suffering. so we cannot, this is count that trojan horse, silent epidemic up long cove. it could be damaging to the individual's health and economies. the cause. people had hoped that 2021 would mark her return to some sort of normality, often near celebrations last year were but either scale down or canceled. we think pretty much the same thing playing out this year. will this virus ever really go away? i think the virus will eventually go away, but the virus i want to mention mentioned, it's not just a pandemic of a virus. the pandemic of failed and poor leadership and failure to recognize the science. it's not the same as spring of 2020. we have vaccines. yes. but vaccines are only of good as they are rolled out. we have and 95 math. yes,

but they're only as good as public complaints. we know that the virus is now airborne, but that knowledge is only as good as the mitigations. we do to improve indoor air quality, ventilation or air disinfection, and we don't have that in most schools. or many schools and office buildings are poorly ventilated and have very bad air quality and of which is perfect for an airborne buyers. so we can end this, but we have to get real with the reality. this is a airborne buyer, so we have to mitigate against it. and they have to multi layer strategy of obviously vaccines mass air into air quality. and hopefully the endo air quality is agnostic of your political beliefs of vaccines. are math because it is something that should be able to protect everyone. we just have to get with the reality and install hepa filters. you the in other just infection on top without the reality

the virus independence will still continue. and this is where we do not want to be in the cyclic system with this and demick, we have to go as aggressive as possible to bring it down to as close to 0 as possible. and then we can return to normality from washington, d. c. r. 5 building, thank you for joining us. safe it or is much more to that for you on this news out from london or quiet in times square on the pandemic, is affecting one of the wells most famous new year back and fighting to save her daughter the battle to stop afghan children being sold into marriage, the rest of the family can eat ah, may or in colorado says he saw houses exploding before his eyes as the last 8

battle. some of its most destructive wildfires on record. almost 600 homes have been destroyed, with tens of thousands of people forced to flee their neighborhoods to towns near denver were hardest hit by the eyes which came on, usually late in the year, nor fanned by high winds, nor bud manly reports. this is the moment a huge fire came rolling down the foothills of boulder, county and colorado. the false moving blaze engulfed hundreds of homes. local say they haven't experienced anything like it's you know, this is the 1st time i've really been involved in anything like this and i'll tell you it is really scary. ditches and things in the trees. oh, they're all up in flames. like there's embers everywhere. so it makes me very frightened, of course, with the wind that it's going to continue to spread to other home strong winds and dry conditions of fueling the flames. official say some of the fires response by

falling power lines which ignited prairie grass is a state for emergencies being declared and tens of thousands of people effectuated from the towns of superior and louis phil. many a getting stuck in traffic jams, i say try to escape. this was a disaster in fast motion all over the course of half a day. nearly all the damage, many families having minutes, minutes to get whatever they could, their, their patch, their kids into the car, and leave or the last 24 hours have been devastating. we currently have thousands of individuals in the south part of our county. and in the areas of superior lewisville who have been evacuated, we know that there are structures, both homes and businesses that have been burned in loss of speaking about hundreds of structures in boulder, county, tens of thousands of people have been left in the dark with power lines down or

destroyed. patients in critical care, a being moved out of hospitals because of the threat from smoke, wins a gradually weakening, giving fire fine to some respite. but the billowing smoke could be a bigger hazard as it travels across colorado. laura about manly al jazeera can now speak to jennifer boesch, an associate professor of geography and wildfire experts at university of colorado . can i start by asking you what you have been hearing and witnessing there? yes, this firm started just a couple miles from my house and i don't have power still. so i'm in my office talking to you, you know, i can see the smoke billowing very dark smoke, which means that it's from urban structures. it's been a scary a couple of days for us on the front range here in colorado. if you say it's been a scary couple of days, are you?

are you planning to stay where you are at the moment because you've been putting on a hundreds of homes destroyed and tens of thousands have been forced to flee a you? do you have any plans to move? no. so the, the, the wild thing that happened is, we've actually gotten snow in the past few hours. and so that's really helping the firefighters to put the fires out. and the winds have died down. so were expecting that the firefighters are going to be able to contain this fire, but it's been, it's been a wild ride and seeing winter wildfires. i mean that should be an oxymoron. so we've, we've seen fires in the last 24 hours that have been very unusual and very remarkable for what has created this situation and there's 3 ingredients for fires. one is a warm climate, the 2nd it feels to burn. and the 3rd is an ignition source, and we had all 3. we had a very wet spring that grew up grasses,

then essentially try it out, drink very warm and dry fallen winter. in fact, the period from june to december has been the warmest on record since the early 1960. so we've had very dry fuels, and the ignition source is still under investigation. there's some thought that it might be power lines or it might be another source, but i can tell you 100 percent that it's. ready not anything, lightning or natural, it's either infrastructure related or it's human caused. and they're still trying to determine that. but all 3 of those things, climate, fuel and ignition have created the conditions for this fired happen. and then with 100 mile an hour winds, which we saw yesterday, that fire burned through entire neighborhoods and burned from grappling perry into urban and suburban neighborhood where no target burned to the ground in pasco is being evacuated to scenarios that we haven't really seen before. of course that was the very unsettling for you and,

and other residents there. you have been studying wildfires for 20 years now. is that right? can you tell me what changes you've observed in that time? yeah, so in that time and i would say even going back earlier, so we know it's 1980 the amount of forests that burned across the western us has doubled and that is linked to our warming climate. we know that warming temperatures are contributing to this and we know that our fire issues are getting longer. in fact, we probably should stop calling them a season because they are now happening. we're seeing fires all year around. so that's very different. and i've only talked about, you know, putting out fires one other time and that was last year. so we're seeing very extreme conditions that are contributing to very late season and winter wildfires. thank you very much, jennifer abolish, associate professor chauffeur wildfire experts at university of colorado. thank you

for joining us. thank you for having me and see if so i have for you on this program. businessmen are sending 8 across the type order to me and mar is fighting eases between government troops and ethnic koran rebels. after $28.00 days at the $105.00 wrangler refugees went out to leave the thinking on can indonesia and in, for these jockeys in argentina or the thing around will explain more about that race wrong. ah, it's the weekend. it's a new year. hello, everyone here sir. forecast for europe in africa will begin in europe. paint the colors on the dark or the orange, the higher the temperature,

and that warm air continues to be pumped in rate across the continent. a pretty while, when you look at this, not for the 1st day of january, we don't have one temperature here below freezing, happy new year by the way. now in terms of the other, whether we're going to see those winds pick up across ireland and britain, a few scattered showers as while heavier abouts of rain and snow for that southwest of norway. but again, these temperatures, brussels 14 degrees. but the further south you go, higher temperatures, we do have so cordoba $22.00, valencia at $21.00. we're going to get strike with some heavy rain for the northwest of spain on saturday. also high temperatures through the balkans and also north of this is walls. so vienna, prague, 12 degrees, budapest, 13, and we do have some showers working their way across the boss versus is nothing major for it's them both with a high va, loving degrees, also some showers through the levant as well. that's knocked down the temperature in ramallah to 12 degrees on saturday. that wind through the mediterranean is really digging in across northern parts of africa.