in criminal contempt. and after a diversity row — can this year's nominations help the golden globes restore its reputation? live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news, it's newsday. hello and welcome to the programme — key information about the severity of the latest covid variant has begun to emerge from south africa. the country was the first say early indications are the number of deaths — and people needing intensive care — is lower than at the same stage in previous waves of the virus. our africa correspondent, andrew harding, reports. behind their masks, south africans have watched the omicron variant sprint through this country. but although hospital admissions are climbing here, the early data is now being widely interpreted as encouraging. take the number of people needing oxygen or intensive care in the city where omicron was first detected. in the past three weeks, about two out of every three patients admitted were cases of severe disease. and right now we have only one out of four cases that is severe, in marked difference. so it looks like, at this stage, you know, early data, and one doesn't want to over interpret it, but the signs are certainly looking good. and that applies to other important indicators too. this was the first wave, right. the second wave. this graph shows the death toll from the past three waves. and this is us here now? yes, exactly. comparing this fourth wave in south africa with other waves, we see less mortality rate than the other waves. so if we just make a comparison, i would say there is no need to be worried. we do need to be careful when comparing south africa and britain. the population here, for instance, is far younger. on average 13 years younger. and there are far fewer south africans over the age of 60. still, doctors and scientists here are cautiously optimistic about this new variant. south africa's president cyril ramaphosa has just tested positive, but is said to be experiencing only mild symptoms. as for the travel bans, imposed so quickly by britain and other nations, calls for a rethink are getting louder. over a period of time, this is going to have a devastating impact on business, on the whole of the airline industry, and it's going to be, you know, hugely difficult to recover from this if this goes on much longer. only a quarter of south africans have been fully vaccinated. omicron may help change that. but what's clear for now is that people here are taking this new variant in their stride. andrew harding, bbc news, johannesburg. another country where the omicron variant is spreading rapidly — is the uk. according to the government there are now an estimated 2 hundred thousand new infections every day. and that's set to keep rising. the response? widening the availability of a third, booster vaccine, to everyone over 30. our health editor hugh pym has the story. they were queueing for boosters in plymouth this morning, and there were lines of people hoping to getjabs in solihull. in hungerford, some had come a distance to have their booster today. we've come from near portsmouth, so about an hour and a quarter. and are you hoping to get a walk—in booster? we were hoping to but we've just heard there is a 3—4 hour wait. i am part of the vulnerable group and i wanted to make sure i get it done. i don't want to ruin my christmas either — that's the main reason. maybe we won't make it today then. - we'lljust keep trying. the opening up of the booster programme in high demand and many the opening up of the booster programme in high demand and many areas. the opening up of the booster programme in high demand and many areas. people the opening up of the booster programme in high demand and many areas. people in the opening up of the booster programme in high demand and many areas. people in the the opening up of the booster programme in high demand and many areas. people in the sku for walk—ins were told earlier it could be a four hour way. that has now come down to bed. but the message for managers in goodis but the message for managers in good is if you want to be sure of your booster, book it online. the ability to do walk—ins depends on capacity at each local site. the prime minister warned again about the potential threat created by the new variant. sadly, yes, omicron is producing hospitalisations and sadly at least one patient has now been confirmed to have died with omicron. so i think the idea that this is somehow a milder version of the virus, i think that is something we need to set on one side. the head of nhs england, with the prime minister today, said vaccination sites would operate sometimes 2a hours a day with port ups and tents required. this is a huge challenge for the nhs and for the country. the prime minister has told us, and public health experts have told us, that the rate at which the omicron variant is spreading presents a serious threat and i have no doubt that the nhs�*s amazing staff will step up. with a surge in people booking in england the website crashed at times. si is the new target offering every adult a booster by the end of this month achievable? gps have been told they can set aside some routine work to focus on more vaccinations. at this practice where there is limited space for people after theirjobs they limited space for people after their jobs they say there must be a clear message. we theirjobs they say there must be a clear message.— theirjobs they say there must be a clear message. we do need the government _ be a clear message. we do need the government to _ be a clear message. we do need the government to get _ be a clear message. we do need the government to get on side i the government to get on side and make _ the government to get on side and make it very clear to the public— and make it very clear to the public that there are consequences. for example, there — consequences. for example, there will_ consequences. for example, there will be less gp appointments available and you will have — appointments available and you will have to wait longer for the people will also have to wait — the people will also have to wait longer for hospital appointments and may even have their— appointments and may even have their routine operations pushed back _ back. pharmacists are concerned they say to step up the vaccination effort they must be allowed to drop a routine form filling and less urgent work. we have business as usual, we need to look after our patients if this red tape and unnecessary things are not managers can be very hard. we need to release our staff and workforce to be able to look after this and reach the deadlines. as well as cues for boosters there was very high demand for lateral flow tests with ordering online temporarily suspended though officials said there were no shortages. the scale of the booster challenges acknowledge and all the uk's nations. since some areas military assistance has been draughted in. senior sources say the end of year target is ambitious and delivery may take longer. hugh pym, bbc news. much more about the omicron variant of covid—i9 on our website, including this guide to how you can detect if you are infected. just log on to bbc.com/news and click through to our special coronavirus section — or download the bbc app. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines.... the us olympic and gymnastics federations have agreed a $380 million settlement with the victims of larry nassar. the former national gymnastics team doctor was jailed for life for sexually abusing hundreds of young female gymnasts over three decades. it's believed to be the largest ever for victims of sexual abuse in the us. diplomats from britain, france, and germany have warned that the 2015 nuclear deal is at risk of becoming "an empty shell", given the pace at which iran is accelerating its nuclear programme. they accused tehran of raising new positions inconsistent with the agreement and wasting precious time at the talks in vienna. the former myanmar prime minister aung san suu kyi will return to court later on tuesday to face charges of possessing illegal walkie—talkies. this will be the latest in a series of cases brought againnst her by myanmar�*sjunta. the first verdict last week saw her sentenced to two years in prison for breaking covid rules and inciting unrest. russia has vetoed a united nations security council resolution which would have formally linked climate change and global security. the resolution proposed by ireland and niger, would have resulted in global warming being listed as an international security matter, requiring the un to make it a central part of its conflict prevention strategies. more than 100 people are still missing in the us state of kentucky, after the series of devastating tornadoes at the weekend. officials said at least 64 people had died. in the city of mayfield — one of the worst—hit areas — a candle factory was destroyed while more than 100 people were working inside it. president biden will head to kentucky on wednesday to see the impact of the disaster. nomia iqbal reports from there. people would normally be back in work, but instead it's a third day of rebuilding their lives. the town's doctor would be seeing patients. instead, he is trying to save his surgery. we're trying to clean out a path to it to get a truck in here, to maybe get some equipment out that could be salvaged. his staff have managed to find computers and stethoscopes. dr williams, he's really close to the town and the people here. he's been here for a long time now, so a lot of people are relying on us, so that's why we're just trying to clear everything out and get to the patients as soon as possible. the scale of destruction is staggering to see in person. entire homes have been wiped out. residents here are used to tornadoes. they get bad weather alerts. but nothing prepared them for this. elsewhere, emily got out of her home in time. she says it's a miracle herfamily survived, and this town is relying on miracles. we went down to my grandmother in law's and stayed in their hallway for shelter. ijust held my kids tightly and prayed. a rescue operation is ongoing at the nearby candle factory after two people were found alive in this debris by their mobile phone signals more than a day after the collapse. president biden plans to visit kentucky this wednesday. this administration has made it clear to every governor, whatever they need when they need it. when they need it. make it known to me. we will get it to them as rapidly as we can. he's offered support to help residents recover and rebuild. many tell us that could take years. nomia iqbal, bbc news, kentucky. if you want to get in touch with me i'm on twitter — @bbckarishma you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme... fresh calls for an overhaul of indonesia's disaster warning system, after at least 45 people died in the eruption onjava island. saddam hussein is finished because he killed our people, our women, our children. the signatures took only a few minutes, but they brought a formal end to three—and—a—half years of conflict — conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. the foreign audience of world leaders, the presidents of bosnia, serbia and croatia put their names to the peace agreement. the romanian border- was sealed and silent today. romania has cut itself off - from the outside world in order to prevent the details - of the presumed massacre in timisoara from leaking out. from six at the white house to a trial for his political life. the lewinsky affair tonight guaranteed bill clinton his place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached. this is newsday on the bbc, our headlines... new evidence from south africa — appears to show the latest coronavirus variant causes less serious illness and death than previous waves of the pandemic. kentucky's governor says a hundred people are missing in his state alone after this weekends tornadoes. presdeint biden is to visit kentucky on wednesday. one of the most senior members of donald trump's inner circle could be charged with contempt in the next few hours by the us committee investigating the january 6th attack on the capitol. mark meadows — who was president trump's chief of staff — is refusing to give evidence but he has given the committee thousands of emails and texts — and they released some of these over the weekend. one emailfrom meadows said... that the national the committee says mr trump's former top white house aide "is uniquely situated to provide key information". hugo lowell is a congressional reporter for the guardian's us newspaper and joined me a short while ago with the latest on the story. january with the latest on the story. six committee investir the january six committee investing the capital attack targeted market metals from the outset of their investigation. he is one of the first subpoenas they issued including document production and a deposition behind closed doors. and meadow started to co—operate to some degree last month, he produced about 9,000 documents. he said he produced text messages, emails, even a powerpoint that talked about ways to stop the certification ofjoe biden as victory taking place onjanuary victory taking place on january six. victory taking place onjanuary six. and then victory taking place on january six. and then what happened was the committee went and tried to subpoena the call records from his personal cellphone for that which cooperation broke down and meadow stopped cooperating and meadow stopped cooperating and the result is him being recommended for prosecution. does he have a solid legal argument in saying that he doesn't want to co—operate or testify before the committee? not particularly is the answer. he is relying on a chain of executive privilege. that is the from section for president during security matters. in this instance if president trump telling his former aides do not comply because he believes the conversations he had with his aides onjanuary six are privilege. but like i said, that privilege is exerted by the current executive, it's the power ofjoe biden. he won the power ofjoe biden. he won the presidency so he gets to decide what his executive religion what is not covered by executive privilege. so for meadows to turn around and said i couldn't testify because of executive privilege is not a particularly strong claim and frankly will be decided in the courts if he has a leg to stand on. , on. indeed. if indeed he is recommended _ on. indeed. if indeed he is recommended for - on. indeed. if indeed he is . recommended for prosecution what happens after that in terms of the timeline of events?— terms of the timeline of events? �* ., ., . . ., ., events? i'm told according to several sources _ events? i'm told according to several sources post - several sources post investigation and that he january six committee today is expected to recommend him for prosecution unanimously. this is going to be a real stand on case for prosecution. the way it works is once they discharge a contempt of congress report it goes to a full house of representatives. democrats control the house and so we expect that to also be approved at which point federal law dictates that a grand jury has to be impanelled and they will decide whether to hand out in indictment. to give you a sense of where this is going though you just have to look at steve bannon, trump's former strategist who was indicted on two counts of contempt of congress when he refused to comply with his subpoena. the only thing with meadows is it is produced documents. california is to re—institute a statewide mandate to wear masks — because of climbing rates of coronavirus infection due to the omicron variant. officials say rules on face coverings in all indoor public spaces will come into force on wednesday, and will last for at least a month. there are fresh calls for an overhaul of indonesia's disaster warning system, after at least 45 people died in the eruption onjava island. many more people are missing. the volcano at mount semeru spectacularly erupted on saturday, ejecting ash clouds and lava. it appears that messages were sent to local administrators but they did not result in an evacuation order. indonesia is part of the so — called pacific ring of fire where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, occur. so what makes it so dangerous and why — even now are events so hard to predict? earlier i spoke to volcanologist heather handley about. volcanoes are very dynamic regions on the planet. we do have similar techniques to detect in earthquakes with up if you think about magma is molten rock moving from deep underground to the surface it often cracks and breaks those rocks that are brittle and not irst hard crust of the surface. so we can detect earthquakes, that's one way we look for volcanic activity. other ways now are getting more sick for us to get it injected so we use a lot of satellite observation. from these it's not is not is hazardous to get on the ground, updating the crater of active volcanoes we use a lot of imaging techniques and this can also be detecting gas from satellite data so emissions, changes in the movement of the surface, by very small amounts. so that there are lots of different ways we can look at how volcanoes are changing their behaviour, we can monitor gas on the ground and whether that changes in what it's made of, what's coming out or its temperature. so there's lots of way we can track volcanic activity and try and see any changes in activity. specifically in the case of the eruption in indonesia this weekend, how did that go wrong in terms of relaying information to the people who needed to get out of harm's way? i'm not too familiar with what the mechanisms of communication were from the local authorities. volcanoe. in its last phases been active in something like 7a of its 80 years. and it's been active in its current irruption basins 2014. so that they were used to regular eruptions of the smaller size compared to the bond that happened recently that was much bigger. the challenge is the top of the volcano in the crater there is a hard plug of lava which acts like a plug to keep some of the pressure in. what they think or believe happened to trigger this recent erruption is when aspen a lot higher into the atmosphere come about 50 km or nine miles into the atmosphere and created these deadly flows. it may have been triggered or was more unstable due to a storm and rain event. when you've got these domes of lava in the craters of these volcanoes, the ones that have lava domes, these can collapse suddenly and the challenge there is to try to predict or recognise when those changes are going to happen. until very recently, the golden globes were seen as second in hollywood only to the oscars. but — they've become rather embroiled in controversy — after it emerged, earlier this year, that none of the people voting for the nominations is black. that led to many hollywood agents saying they would advise their stars against working with the globes' organisers. nonetheless, the nominations came out on monday. so we thought we'd take a look at the favourites. with seven nominations each — �*belfast�*, a film made by kenneth branagh, set in the northern ireland of his childhood — and �*the power of the dog' — a western starring benedict cumberbatch. other high proflie actors up for a statuette include will smith, for his portayal of richard williams, the father of the tennis greats venus and serena. kristen stewart, lady gaga, olivia colman, leonard di caprio, and nicole kidman are all also in the running. but with the usual host broadcaster nbc not televising the ceremony this year — it's not yet clear if anyone will actually turn up to take home a prize — or even if the studios and stars will be a part of it. the person whose job it is to organise the awards accepts that they might be a little less celebrity—driven than before — but insists they have made progress. for eight months, we have worked tirelessly as an organisation to be better. we changed our rules, bylaws, added a new code of conduct and restructured our governance. we also have 21 new members, the largest and most diverse in our 79—year—old history. not only have they brought in a fresh perspective, but ideas that will help us continue to evolve. so — the golden globes say they've changed. but have they done enough? here's toronto—based culture writer amil niazee. the big story today isjust how quiet hollywood is in regards to these _ quiet hollywood is in regards to these nominations. usually a huge deal, huge star power up front to get ahead of these types of nominations, and the fact that, you know, it's sort of dead air on outlets like twitter right now says a lot about the irrelevance of the golden globes from just even this february when that blockbuster piece came out about how there are no black members in the hfpa. can't imagine will see the type of star— can't imagine will see the type of star power they golden globes— of star power they golden globes usually attracts on its red carpet a lot of people won't _ red carpet a lot of people won't show up to collect the words. _ won't show up to collect the words, it's pretty early to see any outright rejection but i think— any outright rejection but i think you will not see the type of star— think you will not see the type of star power associating themselves with the globes as a normally— themselves with the globes as a normally would or celebrating these — normally would or celebrating these nominations. these are usually— these nominations. these are usually a _ these nominations. these are usually a precursor to the oscars _ usually a precursor to the oscars. you have people like kristen — oscars. you have people like kristen stewart, lady gaga, hugely— kristen stewart, lady gaga, hugely favoured to collect oscar _ hugely favoured to collect oscar nominations getting that early— oscar nominations getting that early nod and the fact that no 1's talking about it i think says— 1's talking about it i think says a _ 1's talking about it i think says a lot about hollywood's relationship to the golden globes— relationship to the golden globes right now. and it's an ic wand _ and before we go — a bit of charity, on ice. the portland winterhawks hockey team hosted �*teddy bear toss night�* this weekend. after the home team scored its first goal, fans threw more than seven—thousand, five—hundred animals onto the ice — for a good cause. the teddies go to local charities and children's hospitals. it's a festive tradition, going back more than twenty years. that's all for now — stay with bbc world news. hello. well, tuesday is going to be generally quite cloudy, perhaps damp in a few places, nothing spectacular. it is december after all. you can see a lot of cloud on the satellite picture, but this little gap in the cloud that's over us right now has actually led to some clear spells across parts of northern england and northern ireland, too, perhaps the north of wales. so, i think these are the most likely areas for fog to form early in the morning. the very far north west of the uk, wet and windy first thing. the south of the country, really quite mild. look at these starting temperatures. ten degrees along the channel coast. so, this is the weather map for tuesday. we have high pressure to the south, which will continue to build through the course of the week, but weather fronts are grazing the north west of the uk. so, for ourfriends in the western isles, it's going to be wet and windy at times. we are expecting some rain or so in orkney and shetland. perhaps a little bit of rain around the lowlands and southwestern areas of scotland, but i think eastern areas, in fact all along the east of the country, i think there will be some brightness around. and temperatures typically around 7—9 degrees, but southern areas, london, cardiff, plymouth with the cloud and the murk hanging around, that mild air from the south, it will be around 12 degrees in one or two spots. here's the weather map for wednesday. so, again, high pressure in the south, weather fronts grazing the north, but increasingly these weather fronts will bring less rain as we go through the course of the week. so, more than anything, it's just an area of cloud with some dampness here across parts of scotland and northern ireland. it's because high pressure is starting to build in from the south. and look at these temperatures. double figures right across the board midweek. now, this high pressure is going to anchor itself across the uk thursday and friday, and i wouldn't be surprised if it stays here, well, right up till christmas quite possibly. this means generally settled conditions across the uk, light winds, some fog in the morning. still mild on thursday, but i think gradually what we'll find is these temperatures, even though we'll have high pressure, gradually these temperatures will ease down into single figures by the time we get to the weekend. but i think it's going to stay mostly settled for the rest of the week. bye— bye. 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. wherever we live in the world, our home country and its dominant culture will have done much to shape our identity. from the history we learn in school to the statues in our city squares, we are embedded in a national story. but what if that story is deeply misleading?