is very similar to ten days of isolation without tests. president biden announces new measures to tackle the omicron variant, promising free testing and 10,000 new vaccination sites. london s high court orders the ruler of dubai to pay more than $700 million in a divorce settlement to his ex wife, princess haya ofjordan. and we take you back to a time when mobile phones looked like this to explain why the first ever text message has live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it s newsday. hello, and welcome to our viewers in the uk and around the world. it s 8am in the morning in singapore, 7pm in the evening in washington and midnight in britain, where from today, new guidance is coming into force across england. it will allow people who have tested positive for covid 19 to reduce their self isolation from ten days to seven. it comes as the prime minister, borisjohnson, confirms they ll be no new restrictions before christmas, but warned measures will come in soon
tests. london s high court orders the ruler of dubai to pay more than $700 million in a divorce settlement to his ex wife, princess haya ofjordan. and, we take you back to a time when mobile phones looked like this, to explain why the first ever text message has just been sold, for $120,000. hello and welcome to our viewers in the uk and around the world. within the past few hours, president biden has been setting out his plans to step up the fight against the 0micron variant in the us. the federal government will distribute 500 million free covid tests in the new year, something it s never done. it s also drafting in military personnel to support hospitals which are already feeling the pressure, as the 0micron variant takes hold. president biden again implored americans to get vaccinated but he said lockdowns are not yet on the horizon. we start our coverage of covid with this report from our washington correspondent gary 0 donoghue. more than two million people a day are tr
the victoria and albert museum in london is a treasure trove of beautiful artworks. some three dimensional wonders and some masterpieces so realistic you could walk into them. which is precisely what s about to happen in the painting gallery where, in amongst the turners and the constables, a kelly and a lewington are about to get stuck into some very modern art. there s a dancer and she is wearing pyjamas? or is that fashion these days? spencer chuckles that s the fashion. that s the fashion? don t you know don t you know about fashion? why aren t you wearing that? i ve got three sets of those. spencer laughs this is sonzai an augmented reality performance you can see using the hololens headset, and specifically designed to take place in this space. it s the brainchild of roland lane, who had dancer maeva berthelot s performance captured in a volumetric space and a cgi landscape built around her. it s also worth, if you can, taking a step back, maybe here, to see the who
welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. we start with the one issue that is on the minds of so many around the world at the moment, how to deal with the rapid rise in coronavirus cases, caused by the highly tra nsmissable omicron variant. we still don t really know if the rise in cases seen in the uk, us and other countries will translate to a similar rise in deaths or severe illness. and that uncertainty is one reason governments are finding it so hard to find the right response. on monday we ve seen more countries announce different measures in an attempt to keep case numbers manageable, while still allowing society to continue. in the us, president biden has announced a major increase in testing capacity, with half a billion rapid tests to be made available for free. israel has become the first country in the world to offer a fourth vaccine dose. it will be given first to the over 60s and to medical workers. and in england, people who test positive w
now on bbc news, saeeda mahmood, born and brought up in southern afghanistan, explores and introduces a remarkable set of films shot in the 1950s by american glenn foster, and his afghan assistant hajji mehtabuddin. this is precious. i love this sweet. and ijust ate half of it and kept another half because i thought i will never, ever have them again. for me, this is a diamond. reminds me of my childhood. and the golden time. i was so excited to discover these films. my family had many photographs, but we lost them when we fled the afghan wars as refugees. most afghans have no pictures of their past. nothing to show their grandchildren. it is a terrible gap in our lives. these films, kept safe for half a century, are the only ones i have ever seen that have survived the wars. they show my afghanistan to me, the real one. a land full of life and hope. they tell a special chapter of our story that s almost forgotten. half a century ago, an american, glenn r foster, from calif