struck morkel more quickly with detail coverage everywhere you look, there is this struction, though, so survive. good fellow. light will never be the same again from them from around the world. he told of the ground and cried out and going to prison. the question the jury has to decide now, should she ah, andy reports more than 250000 grown of iris cases as the amazon variance spreads globally and warnings from the w. i chose that the virus remains dangerous despite it's reduced severity. ah, other given al, this is al jazeera live from dough half, also coming up. inflation in the u. s. hits a 40 year high supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic push up prices for households and businesses. lebanon's,

public transport operate is block roads. anger mounts of a rising cost of fuel and a d valued currency. fuss real estate giant to ever grant finds the demolition of dozens of buildings as more property developers in china struggle to pay off debt. india has reported almost 250000 new current of ours cases in the last 24 hours. it's highest numbers since may last year. the country has followed the global trend of a shop increase in on the con infections. that hospital admissions and deaths are lower than previous waves. 380 people have died in the past day compared to a peak of more than 4000 last year. that natal joins us now live from new delhi. so part of the are the restrictions that are in place not working.

so the consensus among the authorities is that given how virulent the on the corn variant is cases are going to keep rising and rising foss. now at this point, most of the country has been under some form of restriction for several weeks or night curfews and in the national capital where we are, there's also a, we can cough, you authorities have all to suspended election rallies, but there are growing concerns over large religious gatherings over the next couple of days, there are several festivals being celebrated across india. some states have put a gas cap on gatherings, but largely these are going on, for example, in the state of west bengal. about half a 1000000 devotees are expected to show up to celebrate a festival bed. now that state has already become a major hot spot. it's capital cold cut that has the highest positivity rate in the country. you were almost 2 out of 3 debts are,

are positive. the other concern is the confusing policies and mixed messages from the government. not earlier, the government said that close contact off corbett 19 patients don't need to test unless they are high risk. one of the top epidemiologist advising the government publicly said that everybody's gonna get cold 19 because of omicron and that it's just like a common chord, not the health ministry has clarified that that's not the case. but this flip flopping has led to a lot of people letting down their god. okay, have new, as we're saying earlier, i mean the number of cases is, is hitting all time highs, but the number of deaths relatively low compared to the peak last year. so was the toll then on the health care system. so hospitalizations and deaths are not rising as fast as coven 19 cases,

but they are inching up slightly now. we spoke to the head of indiana's largest corbett 19 facility, and he said that most beds are empty. and very few patients need ice you or need to be in need ventilators and that there are adequately prepared sin. the concern is that, you know, authorities believe that about 5 to 10 patients would need hospitalization. but an absolute numbers in a country like india that could easily overwhelm in just threadbare health care infrastructure, especially in a smaller towns and in the rural parts of the country. the other concern is that a large number of healthcare workers have been falling sick, leading to staff shortages. so now the government has asked doctors who have been exposed to call with 19 because of their work to continue to show up to work and not quarantine. while okay, thank you for that. have name is how they live from new delhi. the white house has

announced measures to expand testing for cove at 19 in schools. many students, parents and teachers have struggled with a mix of online and impulse learning. that's become the norm. since the pandemic began in chicago, a stand off between teachers union said that government led to classes being suspended off just one week. john hanjin reports chicago's on again off again. schools are once again back in session across the u. s. many public schools began the new year in the classroom with students and staff alike braving the omicron outbreak. but here schools delivered a lesson in whiplash. we just never know from day to day, week to week. how things are going to be and, and it doesn't allow our children to feel, feel secure, safe, and what's going on. chicago's public schools opened then closed for a week as union teachers battled mayor laurie lightfoot over covered safety measures voting, then opened again on wednesday. for dave and andrea roofing 2 years of cove. it has

taken its toll. my 8 year old. ah, she's because she's missed out so much. she now she has anxieties about going to school. and this past week, in particular, when there is a school closure, we didn't know what was happening day to day. there was, there were a lot of emotional breakdowns here and elsewhere. a big enough outbreak will still shutter individual schools with you as hitting a new record for daily coven cases this week. the biden administration and out new measures to keep classrooms open. they include dramatically expanding testing for the virus in schools. the additional tests would improve access to an increasingly scarce commodity. these $10000000.00 additional test available each month will allow schools to double the volume of testing they were performing. in november, the president is clear, the nation schools can and should be open. even so, keeping schools open remains a challenge. in new york city,

students walked out in protest of what they called unsafe covered conditions in fort worth, texas. so many teachers are sick or quarantined that classrooms are being combined everywhere. it seems education in the covey or a remains of struggle. but in chicago, the battle between the city and union teachers has made the classroom an emotional roller coaster parents just being on the sideline, not having a voice. just our fate in the hands of others has been incredibly frustrating. and to be honest, it's probably going to be the reason why we leave chicago. the rule things might find a school district with a more predictable schedule. but with coven entering its 3rd year more contagious than ever for the foreseeable future, there's no escaping the global pandemic. john henderson, l g 0, chicago. inflation in the united states has hit levels not seen in 40 years with a 7 percent increase on the previous year. the white house blames global supply

chain disruptions due to the pandemic, but other se, stimulus programs, the main reason for the search and prices. my cat reports from washington dc. price is for groceries rent another needed items continue to saw. the owners of small shops are particularly hard hit, as they see their customers beginning to treat what were every day purchases as luxuries you can see had the money flows. you can see, and when people are not getting the extras when they're getting coffee trip coffee instead of cappuccino, you can see it. you can see how they pay it. bad. they're paying in coins, be increase in prices, is now being felt at every gas station. and in every grocery store. i just think we're a little more careful. i notice it in almost every product. fruits vegetables, which we buy a lot of daily products. i can't really see anywhere

that the prices have gone down, but they've gone up bottlenecks in the supply chains of distributors or the primary reason. and these, and turn on the direct result of stopping shortages. as the pandemic continues to rage world wide. at the stage though, the head of the federal reserve and so there's no need for panic, that this is a temporary situation. we will use our tools to support the economy and a strong labor market and to prevent higher inflation from becoming entrenched. it's a similar message coming from the white house, which points to a dropping unemployment rate as evidence that economic recovery is underway and is adamant that the supply chain issue will be resolved. we are well positioned to attack the challenges of prices and cost had on our end. that's exactly what the president i and this administration are doing. but republicans continue to blame

stimulus measures for overheating the economy. one thing is clear, it's impossible to predict the ongoing economic impact of the army kron varian surge, which the nation continues to face. i don't believe we've seen that peak yet. here in the united states. the rise in price increases reflect a harsh reality. that in the pandemic, it's not just people who get sick, but the economy as well. mike hanna auto 0, washington to lebanon, now where the public transport workers are on strike. as the country struggles with an economic crisis drive is have blocked roads across the capital. they route, they're angry or the increasing fuel prices than to shop devaluation of the currency. the lebanese pound has lost more than 15 percent of its value since start of the year. the crisis has been caused by growing national death and political deadlock within a 100 joins us now live from bay ruins zayna. so what's happening there?

well, there's anger, there's desperation. many lebanese are struggling to put food on the table. we are at one of the main intersections embedded with and as you can see, public transport workers. they're blocking roads, they're trying to paralyze the country in the hope that this time around the authorities that will listen and hear their demands. they've carried out to general strikes in the past, but nothing really has happened. these drivers tell us that they can no longer make and meet the increase in the global fuel prices is aggravating. lebanon's financial challenges because this is a country in need of dollars to purchase fuel and the local currency has sharply depreciated in recent days. in fact, it has lost 90 percent of its value since late 2019. but in the past 2 weeks alone, it lost 15 percent of its value. so the official exchange rate was $1500.00. today,

it's more than 30000 and the lebanese people are learning our earning, excuse me. the majority of the lebanese people are earning in the local currency, so inflation is high. people are unable to make ends meet, and they're hoping that protest action like this will pressure the authority to do something about the crisis. then as you say, there be general strikes before. so to protest is this time sort of heavy hope. i guess that their demands will actually be met with meaningful reforms with change people are not optimistic. the government, the new government was formed 3 and a half months ago. and it hasn't convene in the past 3 months because of a new political crisis in the country. and the government needs to convene in order to come up with an economic recovery plan. they need to put together a state budget. all these conditions that are required by the international monetary fund in order for a financial bailout package to be reached. because like i mentioned is the need of

hard currency. it's in need of dollars and as long as there's no dollars, then the currency will continue. it's freefall, you know, people public transport, for example, the cost of public transport increase by 400 percent. if you are to fill your car with gas, you're going to pay more than the minimum minimum wage. army soldiers, internal security forces their salaries. now we're 30 or $40.00, so there's a lot of anger, but politicians are doing nothing to mitigate the impact of this crisis because it will require reforms. and reforms means that they will lose their control over the states resources. for now, thanks for that. and how do they live from beirut? still come here on al jazeera, the u. k. prime minister is on the pressure with senior members of his policy called on him to resign. the he admitted attending a drink, scattering joe and hook down and will speak to the world health organization is it urges the world not to get complacent about the spread of the only comm variant.

ah hey, there, good to see you. here's your weather in a minute. 15 wednesdays. rain will become thursdays, snow for is stumble, 2 degrees. we've got a wind at northwind coming down the boss 1st. so that's dragon down your temperature not only dare but through the gene as well. so i think just the high of 6 degrees and we've got wet weather coming into the left and this will be pulsing heavy rain at times. back to the stumble, i think maybe a centimeter of snow. so not bad last february. you had that huge down, not going to see it this time around, but where this, your temperature is also both by day and night will be below average after italy right now. and we're in the clear, we are still hanging onto our bore a wind. so what that means for creation, we could see when goes up to 165 kilometers per hour. that's some damaging when

further to the west, we go both for portugal in spain. we're in the clear say for a few showers in valencia with the high of 14 degrees. and you know, for norway, we've got high temperatures, that's melting the snow, but also heavy rain here. so that's given us the risk of flooding right across norway also has a high of 10 degrees. well, and it's farther reports in africa right now, and we're seeing that weather dropped down for northern areas of algeria and need to know has a high of 13 degrees on thursday. and now you're in the know as soon the frank assessments this crisis please continue to recon luca sion, even though perhaps he believes in the beginning that it was informed opinions like the whole edition will now be under incredible pressure from the young people. that is one of the most types of things can come out of this great story on our jazeera

. ah ah, there was an arduous era reminder of our top story. this, our india has reported almost 250000 new crew and various cases in the last 24 hours. the highest figure since may last year, but deaths and hospital admissions are far lower than in previous waves. inflation in the united states has increased to 70 percent compared to a year earlier. that's the highest figure in force and use. the government is blaming supply chain problems, while others point to stimulus programs, chance for work as a lebanon. our own strike with dr. is blocking roads across the country. they're

angry about increasing fuel prices and a sharp devaluation of the currency. let's get more now on our top story. the world health organization says more than 15000000 people contract coven 19. just during the past week. and that's higher than at any time during the pandemic is more than 50 percent up on the previous 7 days. and the w i chose as the number of deaths is rising. let's be clear. why law me kong caused less severe disease done delta. it remains a dangerous bite us, particularly for those who are unvaccinated, almost 50000 birds are so weak is 50000 does tore many. joining us live from geneva is tara cesar of ich, a spokesperson for the w h. o. thank you very much for joining us. so, so we're heading record numbers in terms of infections and, and while deaths are rising comparative to the number of infections now,

it remains relatively low. so. so how concerned is the ws show how, how worried should we be? both should be a very much a or it does the director general has said the and you just played a $50000.00 a week is something that we can not just accept. so older. busy the number of deaths is not rising. debt exponentially is a number of infections. we can see more people needing a hospital care and that was another burden a to, to house systems around the world. we need you to close the gap in vaccination. 85 percent of people in africa has not been vaccinated yet. an army is particularly a dangerous for people who are unvaccinated. we need to continue that and we need to try to reduce risk of infection and try to prevent those issues. and that's ok. i mean, nobody is arguing that 50000 deaths is, is good. i want to talk to you about, you know, these moves. spain, for example,

is saying that with the falling death rates, because the 19 wants you to think about moving away from detail tracking that we've been doing to a more sort of flu like monitoring system as we're talking to our india corresponded earlier. who was saying there was some discussion at some point that close contacts of positive cases wouldn't need to be tested. that has since been changed but, but this idea of, of maybe not tracking it as closely. i mean, what, what are your thoughts on that? well, we understand very much to all the difficulties that countries around the world are facing with the increasing number of infections. and we have to be also flexible. we can, for example, reduce the number number of days of, of clarity. if we combined that which testing, we can look into surveillance measures and how we can ease that. but control measures really have to stay in place. we have to do everything we can to, to try to, to prevent people needing

a hospital and people die. and that is basically only to give you a level keep behavior to reduce that risk and on a country level try to box. and they told us who have not been submitted yet. and on a global level, really try to get that talk. see equity that will bring vaccines to those who have not been offered at that primary protection. yet. do you think people are becoming at least, you know, in places where there is a high rate of vaccination? do you think people are becoming more complacent about on the chrome but fortunately we see that people are tired of the situation that we're in the world and we all. busy we would all like this to and as soon as possible, but unfortunately this is not time to keep up right now. we need really to do everything we can. we know this one is really dangerous for people who are the barber hoops and those who are fascinated so that people who actually didn't simply should go and get their primary doses and try to reduce that transcript.

it's understandable. that's people. a little bit of 19 stories, but for people who are losing their dear was people who attracted and instructed about by the virus. we have to think about that and tried to really do to, to reduce suffering as much as possible. i think it's the that the w h o technical advisory committee on covered 19 vaccine said that a vaccination strategy based on repeated boosted doses of the original vaccine is unlikely to be sustainable. so what does that mean for the world? i mean, do we wait now for better vaccines or, or do we wait to get the virus? but 1st that we should, and this is what our committee saying, we should really try to make the best use of luck since we have. and that's again, bringing vaccines to those who have not been bucks needed yet. and $36.00 countries in the row have less than 10 percent of their population vaccinated. so far,

on the other hand, what we also need to do, and this is what committee has said, that we have to look into next. vaccines dos who will be better at preventing infection and transmission. in the meantime, we can also look into composition of current vaccines chart to try to made a more adopted to parents various. so the number of things that, that, that could be done, and we need countries and manufacturers to work on data that would give us a best possible options to, to make recommendations on that. but to surely, we can use vaccines that we have. and we can look into better vaccines or better compositional functions. all right, hey, thank you very much for your time, my spokesperson for the debbie. i tell them tara, just heritage. the british prime minister is facing growing calls for his resignation. after apologizing to the nation for attending a party at his official residence during the height of the corona virus lockdown in

2020. at the time the government was enforcing strict measures confining millions of people to their homes. and yosemite has more. ah, horace johnson has never been under such pressure from his learned party, the opposition of the people who elected him. he set out to try to defend himself. the key question, did he attend a party for around 40 guests in his back garden that appears to have breached cove at restrictions? first, he tried to address the british people. i want to apologize. i know the rage, they feel with me and with the government i lead. when they think that in dining street itself, the rules are not being properly followed by the people who make the rules. and when i went into that garden, just after 6 on the 20th of may, 2020, to find groups of stock before going back into my office 25 minutes later to

continue working. i believed implicitly that this was a work event. with hindsight, i should have sent everyone back inside after months of deceit and deception. the pathetic spectacle of a man who's run out of road death, his defence, his defense, that he didn't realize he was at a party ha ha is so ridiculous that is actually offensive to the pretty ha with the whole country was locked down. he was posting boozy party in town express. is he now going to take a decent thing and reside johnson didn't say yes or no. i want to, i want to repeat that. i thought it was a, a work event and apologizing again and telling opposition leader care stammer. he should wait for the results of an inquiry into revelations of several parties in

downing street and whitehall. i regret very much that we did not do things differently or that evening. stammer repeatedly rounded on johnson, the party's over prime minister. the only question is, will the british public kick him out? police party kick him out or will eating the decent thing and resign yet in johnson's constituency, in north west london, many who watched wouldn't accept his apology. i'm angry and i just think he's a man and doesn't take responsibility for what he's done. typical boy thought thing for it to be expect. vega me is found to come back with with, with something what, whether or not it's true or noise, but it's probably not true. this crisis is being called part again by the media. johnson is trying to write it out much rest though with the outcome of the inquiry into downing street and whitehall parties, and what the police do about the latest revelation. for with more rest though,

on whether the conservative party decides johnson is now a liability and has to go. and through simmons al jazeera organizes of the australian open tennis championship. having tutored novak talk of it in the official draw, despite uncertainty over his visa status, the jaw took place although later than it schedule time. okay, which is visa was revoked. last week, at the questions about his vaccine exemption, or the decision was overturned in court. the immigration minister says further action could be taken. the united nation says it needs nearly 4000000000 dollars this year to help the victims of the war and yemen. un estimates. 13000000 people are at risk of salvation is calling on the iranian back to these and saudi back government to negotiate an end to the 7 year conflict. a property crisis in china is deepening with a growing number of developers in debt. firms have come under intense pressure of

to beijing, curbed they're borrowing. real estate giant ever grand is struggling to pay back $300000000000.00 and loans. and as katrina, you reports from daniel in highland province. the company is now fighting the demolition of dozens of apartment buildings some called it china is hawaii, the island province in the south, a tracks tens of millions of visitors every year. and property developers have flocked here to accommodate them. real estate giant ever grad constructed this artificial island, complete with hotels and theme parks, but had got crisis has caused many of its projects to come to a halt. these 39 unfinished apartment buildings would used to be completed soon. now the local government has called for them to be demolished, citing environmental concerns. the order has sparked confusion among local people.

yellow jay holla, these buildings have already been constructed ledgers, and now they want to demolish. don't allow me. personally, i think is a big waste of resources scanning cover. young's eyes are you out isn't what if you tear down these buildings, it will just create more pollution. it also cruising the owners of other apartments here to panic because they're afraid this will be next. the unfinished project was backed by a former marriage, john chee, who is now serving life in prison for bribery. there are almost $3000.00 apartments worth more than $1000000000.00 there. it's just one of hundreds of stoled ever ground projects in china. but the demolition of those $39.00 buildings would deal. another major blow to the already embattled developer ever grant is $300000000000.00 in debt and defaulted on offshore bonds last month. regional governments have taken control of the developers projects in some areas and

confiscated land and others. it's far from alone. in recent months, the chinese government has begun curbing over borrowing in the property sector. and a growing number of firms are now in distress. shamal keiser modern land and gong, jo, r and f are among those struggling with loan re payments. analysts say beijing is sending a message, it looks like they are more concerned about that and a sustainable growth. so i guess in the long term, this is more of a change for the better on and i guess it's safe to say on the kind of aggressive expansion period has basically ended from china. the crisis in the property sector is weighing on china's economic growth. and experts expect to slow down to continue for months, possibly years. every grant is doing all it can to keep its business and projects here afloat. it's paid more than $30000000.00 in fines to the local government and

is appealing against the demolition of these $39.00 buildings. katrina, you ought to 0, dan joe, china. i can always find much more on our web site. the address for that is al jazeera dot com ah, this is al jazeera and these are the top stories. india has reported almost 250000 new crone of ours cases in the last 24 hours as the highest number since may last year. the deaths and hospital admissions are far lower than previous waves. had natal has the latest from new delhi. the consensus is that given how ryland the or macro.