tree gift to britain looks decidely down in the dumps. we'll try and cheer it up. live from our studio in singapore. this is abc news. it's news day. — bbc news. in berlin — where major restrictions have been announced for anyone who's not vaccinated against covid19, banning them from all but essential shops — in an attempt to fend off a fourth wave of the virus. the german chancellor angela merkel says vaccines may become compulsory from february. cases of the new variant, omicron, have now been confirmed in 2a countries. here's our medical editor fergus walsh. red alert in germany. intensive care staff at this bavarian hospital lit the wards red to warn germans of the threat from covid at its worst wave of infections so far. the government has announced a ban on the unvaccinated entering bars, restaurants and non—essential shops. translation: this is - the situation we are confronted with and it's also cleared what we need to achieve first. those who have not been vaccinated yet need to do so. and they could go further, with plans for vaccination to be made mandatory as early as february next year. germany's wave is being driven by the delta variant but omicron is continuing to spread globally with cases confirmed in more countries, including india and france. here, omicron and any future variants will be combated with yet more boosters, year after year if needed. all these jabs will be so—called mrna vaccines from pfizer and moderna, but the focus right now is getting this round of boosters in arms. the prime minister had his at the hospital that saved his life last year. i'm lucky, here we go. saint thomases, in london, where he was admitted to intensive care with covid. what ever omicron may or may not be able to do, it certainly will not negate the overall value of the boosters, so everybody should get your booster as soon as you are called forward. pfizer, like the other vaccine makers, is already working on an omicron specific covid vaccine which could be ready in three months. welcome. in a rare interview the boss of pfizer told me he thought regular boosters would be needed. if we have to make a guess based on everything i have seen so far, i would say likely it will be needed annual vaccinations to maintain very robust and very high level of protection. yes! in the united states 5—11 —year—olds are now being immunised against covid. therapy dogs providing a useful distraction. a decision on this age group in the uk may come before christmas. they would receive a third of a standard dose. it all means bigger and bigger profits for pfizer. revenues from its vaccine will exceed £26 billion this year. what would you say to those who regard it as immoral to cash in during a pandemic? i believe we have saved the global economy trillions of dollars. i think it's a strong incentive for innovation for the next pandemic, that people will see if they step up to the game to bring something that saves lives and saves money, there is also financial reward meanwhile the uk has approved a new antibody drug which dramatically cuts the risk of severe illness. initial tests suggest it will work against omicron. it's notjust vaccines but treatments which will end this pandemic. fergus walsh, bbc news. meanwhile in south africa, the new coronavirus variant omicron has now become dominant and is driving a sharp increase in new infections. over the last week the daily number of new covid cases has increased fourfold, from less than 3,000 to more than 11,500 — three quarters of which are omicron. still — deaths and hospitalisations are rising at a lower rate. our africa correspondent andrew harding has more. it's summer time here in south africa, but a shadow looms over the beaches and holiday season. a fourth wave of covid infections is spreading fast, driven by the new variant. are you worried about this new variant, omicron? the new one, i am worried. i'm worried. we don't know what the new variant's like. what the symptoms are, how bad the symptoms are. how it could affect us now and it makes you really scared. at their laboratory here in durban the scientists who first identified the omicron variant are racing to unlock its secrets, and now the first hints are emerging of what the mutations on the virus mean. i think the epidemiological evidence is that we think you're more likely to get reinfected if you've had covid before, so that is because of the mutations on the spike protein. we don't know much about transmissibility but i think looking at the mutational formation we think it may be more transmissible than even delta. in terms of clinical problems, we have no evidence that this is a more severe virus than let's say delta, alpha, or even beta. that bears repeating. although hospital admissions are rising sharply here, it won't be at all clear at least for another week or two whether the omicron variant is more severe, more dangerous. in the meantime, above all in rural south africa, another problem lurks — vaccine hesitancy. this builder tells a visiting health worker that he won't get a jab even with the new wave of infections. do you find it frustrating, people saying no? it is frustrating because we believe that if all of us have already had vaccinated, we will be safe. as this virus spreads fast now across south africa the real problem here is not a lack of vaccines, it's the fact that younger people seem very reluctant to get a jab, which is where these activists come in. trying to persuade the public in a country where so far only a third of adults are fully vaccinated. the guys said they would like to get their vaccination after we had a talk. success. that's a success and we thank them by clapping hands. one small victory, but south africa has a fight on its hands. andrew harding, bbc news, durban. to the uk now — where the governing conservative with the governing conservative the ruling conservative party with the ruling conservative party hoping to hold the seat taken by the death of former candidate minister. conservative party facing a test of its popularity after allegations of sleaze. our correspondent matt cole is at the count. we don't have exit polls as such but what we are getting on the ground, people have been out and about in the constituency during the course of the day, reports that turned out in this by election could be very low. some people have been in polling station suggests maybe as a few as 11% of eligible voters. if that were replicated across the whole of the constituency that would be an incredibly low turnout indeed. counting is under way behind me. these are where the ballots are all being counted now. they've been under way for about an hour and ten minutes now. the far side of the gymnasium you could see the shutter doors, that's with the boxes are being brought through. they are verified and brought to the table behind me for counting. we expect potentially we could get a result around about 2am, that's in the uk so that's about three hours from now. if turnout is low as some are saying it could be sooner than that. the conservatives did win his seat in the last election with the majority ofjust under 19,000 over then there is rivals labour. it would take quite something to overturn that but if turnout is as low as people say it could be a lot closer than people have thought it was going to be. on that majority, it will be quite, difficult to overturn, if that happens given the low election turnout, how much pressure is this putting on boris johnson? i think there will be a lot of questions for borisjohnson if this seat were to be lost. people have been running up on the doorstep issues with his leadership for the claims in the last 48 hours of seo about christmas parties that may have taken place at downing street over last christmas when covid would've prevented them. those claims and counterclaims are not going away at the moment. borisjohnson did a big speech a week or so ago to the confederation of british industry here, it didn't go down too well. he made references to the public cartoon character peppa pig. he stumbled, lost his place in his speech, his performance as a prime minister has been questioned here. if the seat is held those questions won't necessarily intensify as a consequence of what happens here but in the unlikely since it scenarios laws expect those questions arise with a one borisjohnson is always held out for his being a winner of election. if that power seems to be slept the questions about his leadership could really intensify. we will have results in a by election in the next couple of hours so do be sure to turn into bbc news for that. let's take a look at some of the stories in the headlines... the us has reinstated a controversial migration policy that orders asylum seekers to return to mexico while they wait for their applications to be processed. the programme was introduced by the former president, donald trump, and criticised by the biden administration, which revoked it earlier this year. but in august the supreme court ordered its resumption. jeffrey epstein�*s former housekeeper has testified that two underage girls who appeared to be 1a to 15 years old — were driven to his palm beach home on the instructions of ghislaine maxwell. he was speaking on the fourth day of ms maxwell's sex trafficking trial. juan alessi said the two girls were jane — the first accuser and virginia roberts, now virginia giuffre. the army is being brought in to help people in scotland in the aftermath of storm arwen. across scotland and northern england around 16 thousand homes are still without power — nearly a week after the storm hit. the majority are expected to get their power restored by the end of the week. angela merkel has been given a ceremonial send—off in germany after 16 years in office. it comes days before parliament is due to officially elect social democat olaf scholz as her successor as chancellor. today's military ceremony, known as a "grosser zapfenstreich", is the highest tribute paid by the german army. let's listen to some of what mrs merkel had to say. asi as i stand here before you today i feel such thankfulness and humble. humble forthe today i feel such thankfulness and humble. humble for the role that i was allowed to work in for so long, thankfulness for the trust that i was given. trust is the most important thing in politics with him and for that i wholeheartedly thank you. angela merkel�*s choice of music for the choreographed event raised some eyebrows. it included this communist—era hit by the "godmother of punk" nina hagen, handpicked by mrs merkel herself. asked about the song — "you forgot the colour film" — mrs merkel said it harked back to her younger days in east germany. if you wanyt to get in touch with me i'm on twitter — @bbckarishma you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme... protesting indian farmers — who forced prime minister narendra modi to repeal controversial farm laws — say their fight is far from over. it's quite clear that the worst victims of this disaster are the poor people living in the slums which have sprung up around the factory. we feel so helpless. the children are dying in front of me and i can't do anything. charles manson is the mystical leader of the hippie cult suspected of killing sharon tate and at least six other people in los angeles. at 11 o'clock this morning, just half a metre of- rock separated britain i from continental europe. it took the drills just i a few moments to cut through the final obstacle, - then philippe cossette, a miner from calais, was shaking hands and exchanging flags _ with his opposite . number from dover. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore, our headlines german leaders say covid jabs could become mandatory from february and have announced tough restrictions on the unvaccinated. south african officials say the omicron variant is driving a sharp increase in covid infections. thousands of farmers in india whose protests forced prime minister narendra modi to repeal controversial farm laws, say their fight is far from over. they remain camped on the outskirts of delhi, where they've been for more than a year, protesting against legislation that would have overhauled the agriculture sector. one point of contention, the farmers want the government to provide a legal guarantee of a minimum price for the crops they sell, known as the minimum support price, or msp. the bbc�*s india business correspondent, arunoday mukharji, spoke to rakesh tikait the most prominent leader of the protests — on what's next for the farmers. you can watch more of that interview in our special report on the farmers protest that captured global attention on talking business asia, shown at these times this weekend. india's capital, delhi, has ordered the closure of schools and colleges from friday until further notice due to a spike in air pollution. it comes after the supreme court criticised the city's authorities for reopening them last week despite "very poor" air quality. schools and colleges had been shut for nearly 15 days. for more on this i am joined now by professor nathan grills from the nossal institute, melbourne school of population and global health. he is a public health physician in india and hasjust returned from delhi. great to have you on the programme. with the latest news that the supreme court is going to get schools to shut again, you've just returned from delhi, can you give us a sense ofjust how bad the pollution is there right now?— ofjust how bad the pollution is there right now? thank you. it's been _ is there right now? thank you. it's been ongoing _ is there right now? thank you. it's been ongoing for— is there right now? thank you. it's been ongoing for a - is there right now? thank you. it's been ongoing for a long i it's been ongoing for a long time it isjust it's been ongoing for a long time it is just one week it's been for three orfour time it is just one week it's been for three or four weeks now. this happens every time in most years. you get headaches, watery eyes and it's really difficult to function as you go out to exercise with up to guess i'm aware also that i can afford to be in a hotel that has air purifiers and a lot of the population in delhi don't have the same luxury to be able to prevent the effects of the pollution on them and their families. . . pollution on them and their families-— pollution on them and their families. . ., �* ., ~ families. nathan, you've talked about the comparison - families. nathan, you've talked about the comparison between| about the comparison between indians battling covid and living with pollution. saying that they are almost as bad as each other or that pollution could potentially be an even bigger problem than covid. that's right. i think we know that from the studies from the global and disease report that show about a million people every year die of air pollution, outdoor air pollution, outdoor air pollution in india. in fact there's been a lot of deaths from covid is well and probably similar levels in last 12 months in india for that for hundred and 70,000 have been recorded. this is a problem that goes on every year at not just during a pandemic. it's quite similar levels every year dying from air pollution, outdoor air pollution as covid. but also they overlap as well. if you have comorbidities that you are likely to succumb to covid. we know that air pollution does because it lot of diseases, high blood pressure, lung conditions, different cancers if you have those conditions you are more vulnerable to covid as well. i think covid gets a lot of attention because it's think covid gets a lot of attention because its dramatic and it's a pandemic but this is and it's a pandemic but this is an issue that is been ongoing for india and other countries but particularly india and particularly delhi. it needs to be addressed in the long—term. indeed and certainly for the people living there it is something they're going through all the time. how can people ease the symptoms of this, living through it as they are? it's difficult, a wicked problem is we say in health it has many sectors that it affects. the solution lies across sectors of our state come across jurisdictions, across sectors of our state come acrossjurisdictions, it's very difficult to deal with, it needs to be addressed long—term notjust needs to be addressed long—term not just a short—term needs to be addressed long—term notjust a short—term response when the pollution gets worse. in the short time i would say go home, don't go to school, couege go home, don't go to school, college is a close. that's very difficult on the back of the pandemic when schools are being closed for up to months to two years. the closing schools again or colleges, that has an impact on mental health and wellbeing of the whole society. particularly often in poor parts i think things can be done of wearing masks and mass done of wearing masks and mass do help to decrease the pollution sickening. it works against the pandemic and it works against air pollution. thank you so so much forjoining us on newsday. so much forjoining us on newsday. now before we go — last night — new york saw the lighting of the rockefeller christmas tree, with fifty thousand led lights, and topped with a nine hundred pound crystal star, of course. but — spare a thought for london — where the traditional gift of a christmas tree from norway has received quite a cold reception. the 21 meter tall has been ridiculed online, with one twitter users asking "where the rest of it is" whilst another asked whether the uk "had gone to war with norway". it's fair to say that it's not the most festive of trees. but — no need to fear — surely even the saddest tree can sparkle during the festive season. benjamin bradley — presenter of the netflix series �*holiday home makeover with mr christmas' gave me his reaction to london's sad tree. yes, it's a rather sad and meagre looking tree when you to other trees in other countries and particularly the rockefeller trees which is the pinnacle of all christmas trees i believe, yes. when you look at that and given the fact that you are the king of christmas, i think it's fair to say, what would you do to spruce up london's christmas tree? i did look at it _ london's christmas tree? i did look at it and _ london's christmas tree? i did look at it and yes, _ london's christmas tree? i did look at it and yes, i _ london's christmas tree? i did look at it and yes, i looked - look at it and yes, i looked at it rather closely. being that it rather closely. being that it is norway's tradition to just string the lights vertically as they do, that's a little challenging. and then there are other elements on that tree that would help it fill out a little bit. i do believe they could drill some holes into the trunk and insert some additional branches would be helpful because a tree does look a little bare on its backside. i also thought that it's very possible that they could pull the lights out as opposed to following the dimensions of the tree for that maybe state the lights and pulled them out to get the tree a little broader effect during the evening hours at least. ornaments would help but i know that's not particularly traditional for you guys. that's not particularly traditionalfor you guys. yes, it needed a few more years of growth, i'm afraid.— growth, i'm afraid. finally six customers — growth, i'm afraid. finally six customers in _ growth, i'm afraid. finally six customers in 2,000 - growth, i'm afraid. finally six customers in 2,000 staff - growth, i'm afraid. finally six| customers in 2,000 staff were stranded in an ikea store after a snowstorm and were invited to sleep in the beds that were on display. the group slept in the showroom where there are any number of beds and mattresses to go on for that they were free to pick whichever bed they wanted, has a poor try it before you buy a? they even got to rate the canteen. that's all the news we have at this hour. to with bbc news. good morning. this week it's been quite a fickle weather story to tell, undulating from cold and crisp back to milder and sometimes wet. and that's the story with that first thing this friday morning. milderfor all of us but by the time head towards the weekend once again we turn back into that cold bright story with some showers turning increasingly wintry on the hills. but for the here and now we have got these weather fronts pushing in from the atlantic. into colder air, so for a time we will see a wintry mix. however, behind it you can see this pizza shaped triangle of yellow colour, that's the milder air checking in behind those weather fronts. so an early wintry mix rain, sleet and snow to clear from the southeast corner but then a legacy of cloud behind much of england and wales in northern ireland for the perhaps northeast england and much of scotland are bright with some sunshine before scattered showers arrive during the afternoon generally, a milder story widely we will see temperatures into double figures but by the end of the afternoon for something a little heavier into south wales running along the channel coast will continue to drift its way eastwards during the early parts of friday evening. then into saturday the wind direction changes to a northwesterly driving in a rash of showers behind which at the risk of turning increasingly wintry once again into the far north of scotland. so it's going to be a chilly start to saturday. and we see this area of low pressure dominating with the wind direction swinging around to a northwesterly once again, the wind direction will make a difference with the feel of the weather. we're going to lose that milder air and the blue colours are set to return as we head into the weekend. once again, noticeably colder for all. so we start off on saturday with some early showery rain once again easing from the southeast and then a case of sunny spells and scattered showers was up some showers will be of sleet and snow perhaps even for some at lower levels as temperatures sit around 4 or 5 was up for the south of that with a little more sunshine perhaps not quite as cold, seven to 9 c be high. seven to 9 c the high. quiet today on sunday better chance of seeing more on the way of sunshine with a few scattered sharp showers perhaps just drifting in and out the north sea coast was up noticeably cooler once again for all of us that's it. take care. this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour as newsday continues, straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur. if money is power, then one of the world's most powerful institutions is probably one you've never heard of. located in oslo and worth more than a trillion dollars, norway's sovereign wealth fund owes its existence to the country's vast reserves of oil and gas. it claims to be an ethical investor, so there was some

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