the uk has announced record covid infection figures for the second day in a row — as the world health organization says the new strain — omicron — is spreading at an unprecedented rate. presidentjoe biden has said that the omicron variant has now arrived in the united states. here in the uk, counting is under way in the north shropshire by—election — which was triggered by the resignation of the conservative mp owen paterson. he was found to have broken lobbying rules. a bad result could heap more pressure on prime minister borisjohnson. scientists estimate last year's catastrophic wildfires in the world's largest tropical wetland — the pantanal in south america — killed as many as 17 million animals. they identified the species of three hundred reptiles, birds and mammal carcasses after walking more than 100 kilometres across mapped sections of the region.

london is currently being hit hardest by the wave of new infections, with the highest and fastest rising cases. hospital admissions are also on rise too. with so many people becoming infected at the same time, there are concerns about staffing levels. our health editor hugh pym reports from st george's hospital in tooting. in intensive care, staff know that a covid wave is coming their way again. patient numbers have already started creeping up, and they have been warned to prepare for more in a few weeks�* time. we have been told to try and plan for at least as bad as last winter, which was quite a massive pressure on our resources in terms ofjust the space we have and the staff we have. this is the non—covid part of intensive care. covid patients are in bays leading off this area. of” who are seriously ill here with the virus, the hospital says nine have not been vaccinated.

tammy, who is a matron here, says it is difficult to be —— concerned about the pressure on staff to take it's really hard, the staff feel it has created a stretch on our staffers and resources already. it adds to the strain they are feeling. i it adds to the strain they are feelina. . ,., , ., ., feeling. i am so proud of the nurses and _ feeling. i am so proud of the nurses and doctors - feeling. i am so proud of the nurses and doctors who - feeling. i am so proud of the| nurses and doctors who work here in the health professionals and all our support staff because they have been absolutely incredible. and how are you feeling?— how are you feeling? there is bri . ht how are you feeling? there is bright and — how are you feeling? there is bright and use _ how are you feeling? there is bright and use elsewhere - how are you feeling? there is bright and use elsewhere in l how are you feeling? there is l bright and use elsewhere in the hospital with doctors calling patients about new covid pill. we are offering patients the opportunity to receive medication to resistjuice the risk of hospitalisation. the dru: is risk of hospitalisation. the drug is being _ risk of hospitalisation. the drug is being dispatched from the hospital pharmacy by

courier for the first time today. to vulnerable patients who have tested positive. they will be able to take the pills at home. will be able to take the pills at home-— at home. this is a serious challenge _ at home. this is a serious challenge for _ at home. this is a serious challenge for the - at home. this is a seriousi challenge for the national health service this winter. the next possible _ health service this winter. the next possible step for managers is postponing routine operations.— is postponing routine oerations. ., ., operations. people waiting for treatment _ operations. people waiting for treatment which _ operations. people waiting for treatment which is _ operations. people waiting for treatment which is not - treatment which is not life—saving but important for the quality of life may have to wait a bit longer so that is quite likely to happen if the pressure keeps increasing. we want to minimise the impact of that. ., , ., , ., that. frontline staff are looking _ that. frontline staff are looking ahead - that. frontline staff are looking ahead to - that. frontline staff are - looking ahead to christmas with apprehension and concern about the possibility of another winter covid surge so they are pleading with people to do their bit to getting a booster jab. now on bbc news, the eco prime minister. leaders of the 620,

we are drowning, and our only hope is the life ring you are holding. the western world is responsible for 76% of carbon emissions. you don't need my painl or my tears to know that we're in a crisis. no city, no community and no ecosystem will be spared from the reckoning that lies beyond 1.5 degrees of warming. not everyone gets to make choices about life and death. we here are privileged today to do exactly that. the pacific islands are facing an existential crisis. extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels are already forcing people to relocate and threatening to create a generation of climate refugees.

what's happening here is a bellwether of the planet's future. as the world met for the cop 26 in glasgow, i travelled to the pacific islands to meet women on the front lines who are leading the fight against the climate crisis, from elders relocating their villages. .. they told us to go, go. you just worry about your life. ..to a younger generation leading with practical approaches... so mangroves are the real eco heroes and the eco gems. ..from the first female leader in the pacific islands... building up islands is a possibility that is going to take a lot of money that we don't have. ..to the only current serving female prime minister... there's very low emissions from the pacific— and yet we are most impacted. ..who carries the expectations of a generation of young women looking for representation.

fiame naomi mata'afa became samoa's first female prime minister in 2021. the pacific islands region has the lowest female representation in politics in the world. this year, she'll be attending the cop 26 remotely. climate change is an existential threat to countries like samoa. i don't think it changes, you know, whether i'm the minister of the environment or the prime minister because it's essentially threatening, you know, the life of the planet. if we recall that cop in paris, that's where there was a special call for leaders to come to, to the cop, you know, it was quite an effort to make sure that the leadership was there. and that has also been

the continued call to all the following cops, up to the latest in glasgow. because we are on the frontline in the pacific region, it appears more distant perhaps than in other places. but i think it's been said of the pacific that this is really the measure of, you know, where climate change is at. we have to adapt, we have to go down that path, the alternative is unthinkable. as one of the largest islands in the pacific, fiji has played a leading role for its smaller neighbours in many climate—related projects, including home relocation. lity comes from the village of tukuraki that was hit by back—to—back cyclones. it led to her entire village being relocated and rebuilt further up in the highlands.

whilst the new village is finished, she told me that many of the villagers still return to the caves that offered them shelter from previous storms. this is the cave. if he bigger cyclone comes, the house will fall, - which we worry about. we worry about your life. you don't know about all living all your life. - just come here and live. you know, when we 20, - 30 people still have one night or other nights, you i don't worry about this. only the thing we worried about is the hurricane - would be finished. we save our life here. so you feel safer in the cave then any village? yeah.

just this one house has left. just this one left? yes, this is my son's. oh, yes, it is open. one part of the house i'm taking away, this side. i the bed, all the clothes, we lost the money had l hurricane come everybodyjust got up and left. i couldn't do anything so bad. because we were afraid. only the main thing to do was to go. - they told us i do not worry about all the things, -

your house, nothing. just worry about your life. it took several years and almost one million fijian dollars to move 100 people from all tukuraki just a few miles down the road. and it was an emotional move for people as well. people tie their identity to their land in the pacific islands, but relocation is only going to become more common with more climate—induced disasters. can we go back to our home islands with nothing? and for my country, the answer to that is no. it's hard to understate the urgency of the crisis in places like the marshall islands. the current projected rise in sea levels threatens 40% of building structures in its capital. kathy kitchener is a poet and the daughter of the former president, hilda heine. she'll be attending the cop 26 as part of the island's delegation this year.

in 2014, she captured a global audience at the un when she read her poem written for her baby daughter. because we won't let you down. now seven years old, her daughter payneham is still facing the same threats that her mum and grandmother are fighting. i am transitioning from this poetry creative side to exactly what you focus on now, which is the kind of more practical solution. even a poet is now moving into public policy. so even if somebody is like what is this poet doing here? hello, senator heine, how are you? in terms of the marshall islands right now and climate change, do you think adaptation is possible?

the government is working on our adaptation plan and looking at building up islands as a possibility. i mean, it's going to take a lot of money that we don't have, but that might be the only option we have at this point. are you in the marshall islands having conversations about migration, about climate refugees, about actually moving people right now? as 2a islands with communities, and so if we were to build up islands, which island can we build up? because we cannot afford to build up all the islands. and if we were to relocate people, which islands do you relocate people to? especially we have a culture where certain lands belong to certain families, so these are really hard questions. i personally would like to see my granddaughter continue to live in the marshall islands

and have the same opportunities i had to learn our cultural protocols, that she can learn her unique language and culture on the same stretch of sand her brothers and sisters learned on. and i don't think that's an unreasonable expectation to have for our people. a large part of the negotiations of cop 26 will be on how to mitigate global warming to 1.5 degrees. but in samoa and the pacific, there's an equal urgency in securing money to adapt to living with the already devastating effects of climate change. i don't think, you know, there was a consciousness and people weren't talking about climate change when i was a young child. but you did begin to see it

in terms of the impact that it had. you know, because this is beachfront and we saw that encroachment and we saw the people moving. perhaps we didn't give it the name climate change, but we saw the impact. you know, it's very sad that for us in the pacific, there's very low emissions from the pacific and yet we are most impacted. and of course, because we are island states and samoa's in a more fortunate situation that we are volcanic, so we have high ground, but the echo islands, you know, there is significant impact of the sea rise, even to the extent where the sovereignty of nations, because their land is literally going under the water.

fiame is launching her country's own climate policy as part of samoa's efforts to meet the paris agreement. a key part of it will be on accessing climate funds. this is the amount of money worked out at cop26 that the big carbon emitters contribute to help pay for the climate damage suffered by smaller emitters such as samoa. as we are meeting here, the world community is meeting in glasgow, scotland, for the cop 26, and one of the things that they hope to achieve in glasgow is the rule book, which is essentially how we will go about addressing the climate change challenge and the commitments that countries will make. this is the indication of our commitment to climate change, and i hope that they will not only be words written on a page, but that we will carry out the intent of the words therein.

applause. we do not want that dreaded death sentence, and we've come here today to say try harder, try harder. in glasgow, cathy has been navigating the negotiations as part of the fight to secure the billions needed for the marshall islands to adapt for its future survival. so we need funding right now for adaptation. we need that funding to be accessible. we need to be...and we need it to be scaled up. so we need a large amount of money. we have studies thatjust came out that gave us preliminary costs for adaptation for basically ensuring that our islands are safe in the present and those costs are in the several billions,

and so the financing that we need is a scale in which we can't meet, you know, and we didn't cause any of it, so we shouldn't have to pay a single cent for it. it's now my pleasure . to introduce tina stege, the climate envoy ofi the marshall islands. we would love to hear youri thoughts on what you would like to see from the | outcomes of cop26. we have advocated for a balance between mitigation and adaptation finance. our belief is that finance is critical to rights and to success here in glasgow. we're really on the front of the very front lines with no higher ground to retreat to and so we understand, as do all of our brothers and sisters in the pacific and in islands around the world, the stakes of this fight. so, the uk prepared this session so that the pacific could talk directly

with the president of cop26. i know this is particularly important for the pacific. i hope we will see progress on all of these issues, prime minister. and finally i want to say to you that my team and i are straining every fibre to ensure that we are able to say with credibility that we have kept 1.5 within reach. can i also thank you and the uk delegation for providing the opportunity for the pacific, including many of us who were not able to travel to glasgow. we are still experiencing disadvantages of size and a much reduced voice and cannot help but feel continually being marginalised. a five—year common time frame is the only outcome aligned with the ambition mechanism of the paris agreement. remember, we are negotiating for the survival of our islands.

as negotiations continue, many activists in the pacific are taking actions into their own hands. in fiji, anne—marie is known locally as the pacific's greta. when i think of the climate crisis, iam panicking. my family and i are really panicking on... you know, when i look at my three—year—old sister, eunice, i question what will be herfuture look like if faith and i don't do something now, raising awareness, sounding the emergency alarm, and i question, like, is our actions really worth it today? are there enough women voices that you look around in the pacific islands that are speaking up about climate change?

the prime minister of samoa gives young girls my age and older women, you know, that chance to be leaders. and it gives us that, you know, that platform, that space for us to be in decision—making, platforms to raise our concerns and to, you know, inspire the upcoming generations. as a teen climate activist and as a girl, a young lady, i also get criticised and, you know, discriminated by men because they want to listen from boys and men. the climate crisis hits anyone. it doesn't hit a specific gender. it hits everyone. you know, women, we are underrepresented in every decision—making policies or platforms so, yes, it really affects women and girls. one of the projects anne—marie

has started with friends is a mangrove planting group. they've been responsible for planting over 10,000 mangroves. a mangrove is a shrub that grows in salty water terrain and its special because it has these meshed—up roots, which mean that it acts as a buffer to the sea. they also help suck up over six billion tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere annually. so mangroves are the real eco heroes and the eco champs. this is all the mangroves that we planted back in 2018. and it starts from this seedling and then it will eventually end up as a mangrove forest. so, are mangrove planting like a real solution to climate change or are they more of a plaster? there's a lot of solutions towards the climate crisis. and because here in fiji we, you know, we can't leave our classrooms to go for a march or strike or for some reasons, so this is our way of striking for the government to,

you know, relook at their plans and to move on from abstract solutions to tangible oriented solutions, which we need is concrete action. you know, it gives me hope that, you know, we continue to plant, we continue to walk the talk and, you know, that's really important. and if one thing that i've learned in my three years of activism is that you cannot allow anyone to walk your talk. climate change disproportionately affects women, especially those from indigenous communities. i wanted to ask fiame how much this affects her approach as the only female leader in the pacific region. when you look at politics, it's representative government. and, you know, i do encourage women who may not necessarily be thinking about a political career, but that, you know, they continue and especially

demonstrate leadership, in whichever area or sector that they are active in. and perhaps somewhere down the line, you know, they might see that the political option is something that they could step into. when you live in a country where the women's minister is a man and you don't see the representation, it becomes a disconnect of what you can see, and that's the case in samoa as well — the women's minister isa man. yeah, well, i don't necessarily have a problem with men being ministers, you know, for women, because we've had a few. in fact, i think i've been the only woman minister for women. you know, as long as they are able to recognise the policy needs of gender issues, then i think that's the important thing.

and, you know, given that there's so many more men in our parliaments and governments, it's so important to get the message through to the male leadership as well so that they can become champions of gender equality. if you could look on balance and think what are the positive outcomes and the sort of negative outcomes of events like cop26? i don't know whether it's just the nature of how things are with human beings that when you're pushed, you take your extreme position, then how you navigate to bring those extremes, you know, to come to a middle ground. you know, with covid, we've seen such a strong collaboration.

that's a very clear example and demonstration of what we can do when people feel... when they're pushed to act, so we can do it. you know, the world can move, it can collaborate, it can respond very quickly. thank you so much, prime minister. the success of cop26 won't be known for the next few years, but if the world continues to warm, failure will be obvious. hearing no objections, it is so decided. applause

hello. thursday brought an east—west split to the uk weather—wise. well, certainly in terms of where we had the blue sky or where we had the grey sky. across parts of eastern scotland and down the eastern side of england, some were treated to a largely sunny day from dawn until dusk, where it was the reverse across some western areas. a view from wales, cloudy from dawn until dusk. it's the cloud that's going to win out for friday and the weekend.

high pressure, lots of settled weather to come, but trapped underneath this high pressure, plenty of cloud. now, where there will have been some clear spells overnight — parts of eastern scotland, northeast england — a frost to start friday, but also some mist and fog around, and particularly through parts of yorkshire, the east midlands and east anglia. some dense patches in places, perhaps affecting travel, and some may lingerfor much of the day in a few spots. you get the idea for the forecast, though, for friday with lots of cloud around. the cloud thick enough to produce a bit of drizzle here and there. breezy with it through the channel islands into parts of south—west england, south wales. through here, though, there could be a few sunny spells, as there will be towards parts of scotland and again north—east england. temperatures on a par with thursday, although just tending to go a little bit lower, and that's a trend that continues through the weekend. friday night into saturday morning, a lot of cloud around, some mist and fog. again, the clearest skies in scotland, so this is where we're most likely to get a frost as the weekend begins, but there could be a few pockets, too, towards north—east england. with that area of high pressure i showed you earlier, a lot of settled weather over the weekend. a lot of cloud, it'll be mainly

dry and again temperatures just starting to edge down a few degrees over the weekend. and still quite breezy on saturday through the english channel, channel islands, far south—west of england. could be a few brighter breaks here as there may be towards the far west of wales, more particularly into scotland. elsewhere, a good deal of cloud, fewer temperatures in double figures at this stage, it's mid to high single figures. and plenty of cloud around again on sunday, could be drizzly in a few spots, but there's also a chance of seeing one or two brighter breaks here and there. now, for the most part, temperatures in single figures. it will brighten up into next week, but the trend is for things to turn even colder as we go through the rest of the week in the lead—up to christmas. apart from that, what exactly is on our way christmas weather—wise, remains to be seen.

hello. you're watching bbc news. very good to have your company. i'm rich preston. our top stories: votes are being counted in a crucial british by—election with the challengers claiming a big upset for prime minister boris johnson. a second day of record covid cases in the uk with the us president, joe biden, urging americans to get vaccinated or get their booster shots. counting the cost of last year's wildfires in south america: as many as 17 million animals may have lost their lives. and omicron causes trouble in the world of sport with football and cricket matches postponed around the world.