with learning, like global i, i will show you how climate change ended or mental conservation is taking shape around the world and how we can all make a difference. knowledge grows through sharing downloaded now for free. mm mm. ah ah, it says data ebony news live from berlin cove at 19 clouds, yet another christmas assert and the army cron variant of the corona virus is disrupting holiday travel. airlines are facing

a shortage of staff and that's leading to thousands of flight cancellations. also coming up 3 decades and billions of dollars in the making, a powerful new telescope is set to blast off into space in a few hours time. scientists hope it will provide a view of the cosmos never seen before. and it is christmas eve, mass po process is every one to look beyond the lights and decorations and remembered the worlds nadia's. ah, i'm rebecca written. welcome to the program. a surgeon cove at 19 cases, driven by the army crown variant, has been disrupting the holiday travel plans all across the world. thousands of flight so been cancelled globally because of the impact of the corona virus on airline employees and on passengers. despite base people are trying their best to maintain the christmas spirit it. twas the night before christmas

but instead of the usual last minute christmas rush, the streets here in london have fallen silent. the u. k broke their record of coated cases for the 3rd day in a row, recording about 122000 infections. numbers have climbed so high that some estimates predict one in 10 londoners have the infection. the surgeon cases has dampened the christmas chia and left many industries struggling with staff shortages as sick workers. a forced to isolate it's a problem that has hit airlines, particularly hard flights around the world, had to be cancelled on christmas eve. adding another layer of stress to people's already precarious holiday plans. we were really concerned last night when i saw on

the new that they had can thought a 100 white and i'm like, oh my god, we won't be able to get home. but luckily we kept checking the white bed a chicken, the white that has got here, and everything was fine. so we were really grateful for that in spain, he don't have to be traveling far to face disruptions to everyday life. just stepping outside your front door. now means having to wear a mask the prime minister announced the decision after 2 consecutive records in daily cases. it's come as an unwelcome surprise to many wears when the more when we got off the train and i saw every one wearing their mask. i remembered that it was the 1st day of the mandates and i thought, what a drag again with the mask. it's a bit suffocating, a bit claustrophobic. i'm not very happy before we go. no, nothing were gone. linda. gala. though it may not be the coven free christmas that so many had hoped for people

a doing their best to make sure some of the festive spirit remains. let's get more from peter to in hong. he's a professor of medicine at the university of california in san francisco professor . welcome back to d, deborah. it's nice to say ali cron is turning out to be far more infectious or what is the knock on effect in terms of the sheer scale? can we expect that everyone across the world perhaps is going to come and contact and not just come in contact, but actually contract this virus in the coming weeks and months? well, that's what some people are thinking, rebecca, that it's so transmissible up to 4 times as much as shelter that it would be hard to escape. but nevertheless, i think we could try to mitigate damage. i'm. we're most worried about unvaccinated folks. and folks with co morbid conditions, it's still going to result in a lot of hospitalizations, even though it's probably less you know, severe to the general person as delta was. he mentioned vaccinate vaccines there,

but studies just released in the last few days shy that back seems to be much less efficient than previous variance with one relatively large study in the u. k. suggesting even with a boost day, you're only really protected for around 2 months. what do you say that, what does that mean for people? well, it all depends where i'll go. push is. if your goal post is prevention of infection, then sure you can look at the vaccines that say, 2 doses, you know, 2030 percent a booster or probably doesn't give you much more. but i'm not for that long. but if you look at the outcome of serious disease, hospitalization, and death are the vaccines are really spectacular that and as an infectious disease doctor, if you told me at a choice between just preventing infection or serious disease, i'll choose serious disease at any time. absolutely. does that mean that we're

going to be having those to shots every couple of months? well, again, it comes back to what our goal in society is. so i can give you all the science and tell you that this vaccine or a booster might only last 10 weeks before it wins in efficacy against infection. but if we reevaluate and think that we were thinking mainly a possible capacity and the ability of hospitals do, you know, take care of sick people, then maybe after, at some point we'd be able to accept that, you know, with 3 doses, maybe i will be good enough with prevention of people going to the ice, you are dying and we will accept the sentiment of disease in the in society. i'm sure everyone certainly hope so. professor. hater chang hung in san francisco. thanks very much for your time. merry christmas. merry christmas. your record, thank you ma'am. many of europe's hospitals are once again being stretched to their

limits and staff and more burnt out than ever. despite that, they're still trying to bring some joy to patient spending christmas on the wards, data please, christine one where reports from the age tis the season, but much of the jolly has gone. there are more masks than santa hats. a never yet. another variant, a never covered christmas at this hospital in the belgian city of the age. vaccines mean it's better this time around, but they're not sure how long that will last. this time last year this hospital was overwhelmed with cove at 19 patients. it got so bad. some of the i see you patients had to be airlifted to neighboring germany. the situation is under control for now, but the straw here are bracing for our micron. this is the cold at ward and stuff here all hoping for the best. but they are preparing for the worst and keeping

a nervous eye on, on a cron infection numbers. we're hoping that it won't be tossed full because we know of so that we don't have all, all the stuff we would need if it was very, very big. and we will do our best health workers have had a grueling couple of years. the hospital psychologist says the uncertainty is making it difficult to cope is on the whole lack of bargaining bethel birth late is i don't see that people, the nurses or doctors or are afraid to dig that they're more anxious that this might gone for ever as we'll keep it there. this or a petition just won't stop asked because in the end one very in chases the last a lot and it comes in race, acre dog, suffolk, which is very exhausting. cancer is sassy to rule, they presume. tie it as they are. nursing staff will, as they always do,

try to lift the spirits of those in hospital this christmas. but that's particularly tricky with coven patience. they are isolated and can't have visitors . that there will be a special surprise on christmas morning. they have some a kiss who are writing from cough every year that since i'm here since years and years. so writing liter caught for people. and the morning of christmas we full to coffins a on the left owns a neil. i was a meal and they get it and they have a little cow thing. hello i the thing about you start have created an oasis of com and key here, but they know it probably won't last long. outside infections are spreading fast. ok, let's turn on to some of the stories making headlines around the world in bangladesh, at least 39 people have died after a crowded ferry caught fire in

a river near jello. copy some 250 kilometers south of the capital deco lay. same, most of the victims died in the fire, others drowned after jumping overboard to try to flee the flames. badging has denounced a law assigned by us president joe biden banning employ imports from china's changing shin jang region of allegations of forced labor. the chinese foreign ministry says the bill quote violates international laws and interferes in china's internal affairs. in germany. a court in moscow has fined google and met her the parent company of facebook. more than a $100000000.00 for their repeated failures to delete content that russia teams illegal. rational forties of increased pressure on big tech companies in what critics claim is an attempt to gain tighter control over the internet. sign to say there's never been anything like it. a revolutionary new telescope is set to

blast off into space in a few hours time. the james web telescope, named after a form ahead of nasa, is expected to bain back you close about the origins of the universe. the new i in the sky is the successor to the legendary hubble space telescope. it's 6 and a half meter mirror makes the hubble look tiny by comparison. the james webb, the biggest telescope ever sent into space, is made up of 18 segments plated with a raise, a thin gold coating. the instrument has to be folded up to fit into the rockets nose cone. the telescope will scan the heavens using long wave infra red light. ah, astronomers will be able to look back towards the big bang,

nearly 14000000000 years ago. back to the origins of the universe and the formation of the 1st stars and galaxies. the new telescope could also prove decisive in the search for extraterrestrial life to it can probe so called exile planets. nearly 5000 have already been discovered orbiting distance sons. the james web will monitor how exxon planets move in conjunction with the stars trance. it's like this mean it can take a virtual fingerprint of the atmosphere of these remote worlds and assess for the 1st time whether they hold the building blocks of life. before the research can begin, there will be a delicate 2 week operation in which the telescope has to unfold itself. never before has a satellite been launched with so many moving parts and nothing can be allowed to

go wrong. it will be 6 months after the launch before the telescope is ready to gather it's 1st scientific data. ah, i've francis has celebrated the annual christmas eve mass. it's unpaid as the silica despite a shop rise in coven cases. the traditional midnight mass was held at the earlier time of 7 30 pm and focused on the plight of workers and the weld. cool. oh, the choir echoes over a reduced crowd to the 2nd year in a room. and estimated 2000 people attended the pope's traditional christmas eve mass compared to only 200 last year. the 85 year old pontiff focused his message on

addressing global poverty, saying that people who indifferent to the world's poor offend god include saying you that is the sign. a child, a baby lying in the dia, poverty of a manger hewn and had just a poor child, wrapped in swaddling clothes. with shepherds standing by monday, by 30 i thought that his way god is in little noisy. ah, francis also used his 9th address to remind people that serving others is more important than spending a lifetime in pursuit of success. but the corona virus pandemic still cast a shadow over the service. ah, just minutes before the mass began will be in italy, announced another reco daily talley of you covered 19 infections because despite the shop rise in cases, the fateful outside would just happy to be celebrating. again. this is the 1st time

in the last 2 years that we've been able to gather both as a family and to attend mass because of that pandemic. so we are very excited and grateful. unlike luncheon, the pope will once again deliver his traditional irby at all the message from the balcony of saint peter's basilica on christmas day. ah! you're watching daily news that so update this out. don't go away. up next is thoughts live, the story of 3 women rowing across the atlantic station for that we'll have mornings for you at the top of the hour. i'm rebecca. it is in berlin. thanks so much for watching. bye dusty boot muddy ties and drones. we deliver urgent life saving boxes.

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