As a surge in cases of a more contagious Covid Variant is worrying Health Officials there and now here at home. Thanks for being here, everybody. Happening rival at this hour, President Biden is meeting with nato allies in brussels. The president will soon be meeting with turkeys president on the sidelines of this summit. This is President Bidens first inperson gathering with nato leaders where this morning he is calling the alliance critically important and a sacred obligation in stark contrast to his predecessor. This all comes ahead of bidens highly anticipated meeting with russian president Vladimir Putin on wednesday in geneva. Lets begin with jeff zeleny live in brussels for us now. The president has already had some tough words just today for russia and china. What did he say . Reporter well, President Biden has been repeating that message everywhere he goes throughout his European Tour here about the rising aggression from russia and the rising threats from china. Hes doing the
and as borisjohnson weighs up his options, the uncertainty continues. vicki young, bbc news, westminster. an add on to the covid situation. new zealand will delay its reopening plans until the end of february as the government tries to stop a rapid spread of the omicron variant there. the country had originally planned for its citizens to return to non quarantine travel by january. and while that date has now been pushed back, anyone now entering the country must stay in quarantine facilities for ten days instead of seven. a little ratcheting up of the restrictions there. tensions and anxieties on the eastern border of ukraine. the tensions and anxieties along the eastern border of ukraine continue to grow as russia has for weeks been massing troops and tanks there.
consumer prices rose more than 36% in december as the cost of transport, food and other staples ate into household budgets. most central banks raise interest rates to help cool inflation, but turkey has gone the other way. opec plus is expected to stick to its plans to increase output in february when it meets today. the group of oil producers has been gradually unwinding record production cuts of ten million barrels per day about 10% of global oil output agreed in march 2020 to counter the hit to demand from the pandemic. but there have been some changes at the top. joining me now is our middle east business correspondent, sameer hashmi. it isa it is a new year, so we will look at how the omicron variant is affecting the reopening plans for many economies in asia in particular, two years on from the outset of the