scott lucas is a professor at the university of birmingham.rom brussels in belgium, we have a senior fellow at the eckardt institute and joining us from taiwan's capital is louis feingold. a warm welcome to each of you. the world seemingly in the throes of a democratic backtrack , rise of populism, rise of authoritarianism. democracy is perhaps on the way, and this is a good conversation to have, isn't it? >> hey, i'm a big fan of democracy. i am a big critic of countries that restrict political rights, that put people in prison, that provide the basics for some people but not for all, but this is not the way in my opinion, to conduct marcus lee -- to promote democracy. the way you promote democracy is by ensuring a place for political participation for all in the country and by discussing with people in other countries how you can work with them. so society groups, journalists, activists, students -- in other words, it is in the spirit of cooperation. democracy cannot simply be shouted from the rooftops. it has to basically be developed on th

harry ferguson a professor of social work at the university of birmingham, thank you. england says it hopes to reconnect every home before the storm hits. in the last hour, the business minister, greg hands, said it was completely unacceptable that some homes were still without power. mr speaker, we have removed the compensation limit to allow customers affected to claim up to £140 per day if they are without power. and i'm glad to say, mr speaker, that 99.8% of those affected by the storm have had their power supply restored so far. but, mr speaker, this isn't good enough. it is completely unacceptable that around 1600 were still in this position as of this morning. but the situation is improving each hour. the remaining areas affected are in the north east of england, predominantly the wear valley surrounding eastgate, where i was, mr speaker, on wednesday. i have been assured by the network operators that all efforts are focused on having power restored to those households in the next day. we will get more on that next storm to hit from darren with the latest weathe

francis davis is professor of religion and international studies at the university of birmingham.is. and you as well.— christmas to you, professor davis. and you as well. happy christmas. thank ou and you as well. happy christmas. thank you so _ and you as well. happy christmas. thank you so much _ and you as well. happy christmas. thank you so much for— and you as well. happy christmas. thank you so much for taking - and you as well. happy christmas. thank you so much for taking time j thank you so much for taking time out of this important day to talk to us. what was the central message from pope francis that was different from pope francis that was different from what we might have heard in the past? he from what we might have heard in the ast? . , from what we might have heard in the ast? ., , ., ~' ., ., from what we might have heard in the ast? .,, ., ~ ., ., past? he was thanking all of those workin: in past? he was thanking all of those working in humanitarian _ past? he was thanking all of those working in humanitarian and - past? he was thanking all of those working in h

let's bring in our guests in birmingham, in england, scott lucas emeritus professor at the university of birmingham from brussels in belgium. we have peter newman, senior fellow at the institute, and joining us from taiwan capital of ty, pay is asia political risk. unless ross find gold, well warm welcome to each of you. so, if i could solve the scotland, said the world, similarly in the throes of a democratic back track, a rise of population rise of all thorough terrorism. democracy is perhaps on the way and this is a good compensation to have, isn't it? i'm a big fan of democracy. i am a big critic of countries that restrict political rights that put people in prison that provide the basics for some people, but not for all. but this is not the way in my opinion, to promote democracy. the way you promote democracy is by building up institutions . it's by insuring the states for political participation, for all in the country. and it's by discussing with people in other countries, how you can work with them, civil society groups, journalists, activists, students. in other words, it's in the spirit

bernard smith, i'll desert the weather. garad is an expert on some ali politics from the university of birmingham and he explains how this escalating dispute could come to an end. the president has no unconstitutional powers to sack the only person who can site the prime minister is the poem parliament and, and on a majority of votes. however, and the president is to quote, custodian of the constitution. i'm the god of the fundamental principles of the country and the prime minister has been accused of stealing a land from him and some other naval novel. false. i am aaliyah's and obstruction of law. and on top of that he has been accused valuable. are the mandate of implementing the election has lapsed, which was and 20202021. and the president and the prime minister. both of them are calling for national and conciliation. the ball is in the hands of and federal been been states. i'm villa somalia and to sit down again and, and, and, and, and map out the way out and, and plan to, to, to, to implemented the election. the upcoming election, which has elapsed, which was on 2022 and $1.00 but lapsed

a university of birmingham paleontologists says the big is seven inches long, it was laid between 72 years ago. it's head between its eggs resembles that of a bird embryo. dion: how does it stay preserved so well? spencer: amazing right now. it's good news, we needed. the steadiest rain has moved through the north bay. we have more pockets of downpours developing offshore. storm of light intensity. could be moderate through tomorrow, what road race, -- wet roadways, breezy at times. for most of the evening we will have a steady stream of showers, moderate rain moving through. the storm will break up into pockets of rain, showers. notice another wave of rain comes in, thursday into friday,, for tonight, low temperature is mainly in the mid to upper 40's. highs tomorrow are in upper 50's. low 50's in some areas, cooler than the coast. on we go to the accuweather 7 day forecast. wednesday, thursday and friday. little bit more intense on saturday, christmas day with cold air. you could see some light snow. on sunday, another level 1 with old showers. it looks like every single day we wil

welfare, i spoke to tom brownlee, assistant professor in applied sports sciences at the university of birminghamwe look at the premier league over the past ten, 12 years we only see and up and “p ten, 12 years we only see and up and up when we look at all of the metrics that fitness coaches and coaches and managers are interested in. the total distance has been covered in great and a high—speed distance and the amount of sprinting is increasing year on year and that's why we look at premier league. when we think about fixture congestion defends levitz, there is a thirst for christmas football but those two things go together and create a perfect storm for making it quite challenging at this time of year. quite challenging at this time of ear. �* ., , quite challenging at this time of ear. ~ , quite challenging at this time of ear. . ,., , ., quite challenging at this time of ear. , ., ., ., year. always complaints from manager is about how — year. always complaints from manager is about how the _ year. always complaints from manager is about how the fixtures _ year. always complaints from manage

. >>> joining me now is a professor of infectious diseases at the university of alabama birmingham. to you, doctor. first off, let's focus on this alarming rise of hospitalizations for kids. up nearly 70% from last week. how concerned are you about these numbers, especially as schools, classrooms are set to reopen in the coming days. >> right. i'm extremely concerned like everyone else who has been sounding the alarm, particularly about the low vaccination rate in the kids that we're talking about who are being infected, as i said before, we're around 8% coverage in alabama for this age group. it's really worrisome. remember, this is a function of simple math. the explosive rise in cases is really fueling what normally might be a relatively small proportion of kids who are experiencing these severe outcomes. but you put the gigantic numbers of cases together with the small number affected plus the proportion of unvaccinated and i'm really worried that we'll be in for a tidal wave of admissions, particularly for kids in the coming weeks. >> how do you advise parents who want to send t

jean more razz sew, profess solve of infectious diseases at university of alabama birmingham.ers to test three days prior to departure for the united states. this would cut that down to one day. this is something the government is considering. what are the considerations, though, that you think they could be debating here? >> kate, it's a great question. we have been emphasizing since the beginning of all of this that more testing is better, more frequent testing gives you more assurance if you're negative and can mingle with people. if you're positive, you can intervenerly to isolate yourself and even get treatment if you need it. i think the spirit of testing closer to departure is a good idea. it would make sure you're clear to go on the plane. the challenge is you need to have these tests be accurate, they need to be available and they need to be affordable. that is a very high barrier to get organized 24 hours -- within 24 hours before your departure for another country. i hope it happens. i think it would be incredible. it's a very tall order to combine those three param

my son's bail the following sunday, and then we had plans and already reached out to university of alabama, birminghamal to actually have my son transported by chief black to uab birmingham to receive treatment. however, when we got there, the chief came back out from the jail and said, we can't release your son because now he's under the custody of the sheriff. >> what do you think happened, mrs. foster? >> it's -- i don't know. i don't trust the story. they told us what had happened, and it just was so unbelievable because we were just so ready to move forward. i believe that glenn probably was grievously injured, and they just did not want us to know something was wrong. >> ben, what questions do you have for officials tonight? >> what happened to glenn foster from the time he got into that vehicle until the time he got to the hospital, we intend, don, on having an independent autopsy to give this family and the public the answers they need to know about why is it when a black person is having a mental health crisis in law enforcement custody, it leads oftentimes to a death sentence. >> authorities

david kimberlin at the university of alabama at birmingham. thank you both for being here, dr. hoyen, as we heard, millions of kids are scheduled to go back to school five days from now. is that a good idea? >> at this point, as i think was just noted, there's a lot of variability around what different parts of the country are seeing. i know here in northeast ohio, we're a little bit behind places like new york, new jersey, houston, in that we were still kind of getting over our delta surge, since we were the last to surge with delta. as we are now coming into this omicron variant surge. and so, i think that, again, we know how to keep children safe in school. we know that masking is effective. and if, you know, kids are symptomatic, of course, they should stay home. if they've had an exposure. if you're able to do testing, again, there are many layers that we can add to keep children in school, as we move through the next few weeks. as we know, it's not only the safest place, but it's the place that they need to be. the last two years have really taken a toll on our children. a

gene marazzo from the university of alabama in birmingham. thanks for being here, doctor. our correspondents laid out kind of perfectly how it has shifted. i'm curious how you describe what's happening right now in so many places in the country. >> i think, kate, that there is sort of a feeling of dread, at worst anticipation, at the mildest. i think there is no question based on what the united kingdom is seeing that we are almost certainly going to be in for what we're seeing already, which is an early surge, or i should say an early stage of the surge that is probably going to be informed my omicron. elizabeth pointed out something very important. it is reassuring that these infections seem to be less severe, but that's really only true probably if you're a healthy person who's been immunized and ideally immunized with three shots. if we have enough of these infections, which it looks like we're going to, our health care system has, again, the potential to be really overwhelmed. and honestly, i'm really concerned that physically and emotionally our health care workers an

and here now to talk more about this and more, associate dean of global health at the university of alabama at birmingham, dr. mike saag. great to see you. they're looking to earn a spot in the national championship game. if you're someone going to one of these bowl games this week, what's your advice? and if you're one of the teams, what's your advice? >> yeah, for those going to the game first ask the question are you vulnerable, do you have an underlying condition that could get you in trouble if you got sick. and if so, at least wear a mask. the teams played all year for this moment, not just for the bowl championship series but also just the bowl games are what people play for. and so it's very disappointing when these games get canceled. for the teams that are going to these games, they're trying to keep them as safe as possible. most teams including alabama allow the players to go home for christmas. they're now coming back together. they're vulnerable in the sense that they could have been exposed while at home. but everybody's hopeful that the covid epidemic will spare these teams and allow them

joining us now, director of infectious diseases at the university of alabama at birmingham. doctor, i want to get your take on what dr. walensky from the cdc said just a few moments ago. >> it really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate. we really want to make sure that we had guidance in this moment where we would have a lot of disease that could be adhered to, that people were willing to adhere to, and that speaks specifically to when people were maximally infectious. so it really spoke to both behaviors as well as what people were able to do. >> is that clear and consistent to you, doctor? >> i think it is not really either. and i say that feeling that as always the cdc is in an unenviable place, right, trying to walk this path between the science, which is really incomplete, particularly with omicron, and the very challenging reality that we are facing as we try to keep business as usual. right? we are really in a very difficult place in terms of the number of people who are infected with this variant. i can tell you that from a health ca

one child like curtis who just left the university of alabama at birmingham regional neonatal intensive care unit after he was prematurely delivered at 21 weeks one day. the youngest child to be born ever. another child though may not survive if they were even delivered at 32 weeks. viability was completely invented by the court in 1973 as the standard and is impossible to actually track. america has not forgotten about these children get we have not moved on and we have not just accepted roe v. wade. because when we see a child as this one is at 15 weeks, we actually see a baby. shockingly enough. 48 years ago the supreme court may have decided that a woman has a right to an abortion, but we never lost track of humanity. abortion is not just a medical procedure. it's the taking of a human life. i talked this morning with an abortion survivor, and yes, they do exist by the thousands. she's ins. her 40s are just children of her own now. she survived a botched abortion and was actually delivered alive during an abortion procedure. she was taken by a nurse to the nicu unit of that hospital

professor alan mcnally is director of institute of microbiology and infection at birmingham universityon keynes lighthouse testing lab. we can speak to him now. we have been hearing of record case numbers come up with more records to come, and of course you can't really record cases without having the testing capacity. how sure are we that we have enough? inaudible. can you hear me 0k? inaudible. can ou hear me 0k? , can you hear me 0k? yes, i can. given the — can you hear me 0k? yes, i can. given the way — can you hear me 0k? yes, i can. given the way that _ can you hear me 0k? yes, i can. given the way that covid - can you hear me 0k? yes, i can. given the way that covid cases i can you hear me 0k? yes, i can. l given the way that covid cases are rising, do we have the capacity for testing to keep up with demand? i think the numbers that have been quoted _ think the numbers that have been quoted recently, round about 800,000 test per— quoted recently, round about 800,000 test per day, capacity with the possibility of that to go up towards 1 million. _ possibility of that to go up tow

professor alan mcnally is director of institute of microbiology and infection at birmingham universitye and effective than lateral flows. i think this has been slightly dostorted. slightly distorted. lateral flow tests are excellent at detecting people with levels of virus that would equate to the infectious state, but pcr is very good at picking up very low levels of infection, so very early or very late stage infections. but actually lateral flow tests are good enough. if you have symptoms, a lateral flow test will be able to tell you whether you have covid or not. there is no argument about that, there is enough published data now to show that. my point about the pcr test, at the moment in some areas of the country the epidemic is now doubling every 1.5 days, and it takes two to three days to get a pcr result, so you have to question why we're doing all be pcr tests if it takes double the _ amount of time to get a result back than it does for the epidemic to be doubling. so you could switch to test sites delivering lateral flow tests there and then so the patient gets an immediate r

of whether or not it is or more or less severe. lawrence young is ever ologist at work university, joins us via skype from birmingham. experts seem fairly certain that this army con, varying to the virus, has the ability to spread very quickly. but there is some uncertainty over the severity of the illness at what impact is that having on their, on the policy response of these, making the policy response quite challenging. in many respects, we know it's spreading very rapidly in the u. k. case number's a doubling every 2 days yesterday the u. k. had the largest number of new cobra 19 cases in the whole world. and we estimate about one in 50 people in the country are, are effected, and that's going to increase every day, doubling time of to days. these you is the one you just mentioned, which is the degree to which i'm a con will, will result in severe disease whilst a data from south africa, africa, including data today. so just still suggest it might be mild, but we don't know that in a u. k. population. the big concern is if you have millions of people infected, a small proportion of a 1000000 of people getting into hospital would ove

understand that differences amidst the universality to congratulations to all of the 2021 winners of the special award. in 1998 my father traveled from birminghamalabama to stand before a circuit court judge. this proud, proud man a man who grew up in the jim crow south who one timed worked on the broward track in alabama man who was perhaps as? to why he couldn't -- placed his pride in his back pocket and delivered an oration that left not one dry tear in the courtroom. he begged someone to save his son. what other choice did i have been to climb out of the hole that i had built myself? everything i've done since that day has been supported. thank you mom and dad thank you ruby mario horton and al ramos. i love you. thank you. thank you randall horton. a thread from cathy park on what he was describing the end times and looking forward to preeminent historian here in the united states of america who received the american book award for the donning of the apocalypse the roots of white supremacy similar colonialism and capitalism from the 16th century. now i say picking up on that thread because just as there are those today who would is to do b

birmingham earlier month. police, can you come to the door? the person they are after is accused of being a member of a criminal gang that stole £4 million in fraudulent claims for universalined to recover as much money as they can, and there's a lot to reclaim. a record £81; billion was lost due to fraud and error last year. in response, the government is now going to spend £510 million tackling the problem. among other things, the money will be spent hiring almost 2000 fraud investigators. it is about developing the prevention techniques upfront. we've certainly learned a lot during the pandemic, but there are other elements at the moment where we are going through all of the claims that were made that we potentially tagged at the time as being fraudulent or where we didn't have evidence and we are going back over those. having a look at your statement, won't you, because you have had two claimants go in from your wages, haven't you? the pandemic led to benefit rules being relaxed while there were record numbers of claimants to be paid quickly. but criminal gangs exploited the system, stealing identities and making bogus claims. ministers hope this new investment will d