for dateline london. hello, and welcome to a new year of the programme which brings together bbc specialists with foreign correspondents who write, blog and broadcast to audiences back home from the dateline: london. this week, pragmatism versus extremism in faith, politics and health. joining us, jef mcallister, us broadcaster and international lawyer, ashis ray, who s been explaining the british to indians for almost half a century now, and in the studio, damian grammaticas, who s been based in delhi, beijing and brussels for the bbc, and who s now at westminster. welcome to you all and happy new year. now, covid pragmatism is that the news year resolution adopted by some world leaders? in the uk, faced with the highly infectious variant of covid, 0micron, borisjohnson has resisted imposing fresh restrictions in england. this despite a wave of staff absences, including one hospital derriford in devon which had 500 of its employees absent on a single day. instead, 100,
hello, and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. more than 150,000 people in the uk have now died, within 28 days of a positive covid test. another 313 deaths have been reported in the latest daily figures. the uk is the seventh country to pass this number of official deaths afterthe us, brazil, india, russia, mexico, and peru. 0ur health correspondent, catherine burns, reports. how do you begin to imagine 150,000 people? it s almost the entire population of oxford, a city, like others, where the pandemic has caused so much pain. the first death within 28 days of a positive covid test was recorded in the uk on the 6th of march, 2020. five weeks later, more than 10,000 people had died. sabir hussain mirza was oxford s first muslim councillor. mostly, though, he was a family man married with ten children. they relied on video calls when he went to hospital. we would be like, come on, dad, get better quickly and come back. but one day, sabir stopped answerin
hello. tennis star novak djokovic is facing fresh controversy after photos have emerged of him in public, without a mask, at around the time his lawyers say he tested positive for covid 19. australia has banned him from entering the country to defend his australian open title because he has refused vaccination. his lawyers say he doesn t need one as his infection was confirmed by pcr test on 16 december and he has since recovered. djokovic posted these images to his twitter page on 17 december. he s pictured at an event the day before commemorating his own personal stamp. it s unclear whether djokovic knew he had covid when these photos were taken. he s currently in an immigration detention centre ahead of an appeal hearing on monday. the bbc s shaimaa khalil reports from melbourne. the world s top tennis player is spending the weekend in an immigration detention hotel. and his supporters have turned up for a third day. this is novak djokovic arriving in melbourne on wednesda
living in flats in england may no longer face the cost of paying to replace dangerous cladding on their properties under new government proposals. the plans, set to be announced monday, would instead ask developers to pay up for work on buildings of around four to six storeys high. 0ur political correspondent ben wright reports. for around 500,000 homeowners living in potentially unsafe and unsellable flats, the fall out from the grenfell tower fire has been traumatic and costly. leaseholders having to take out loans to strip out cladding and repair medium sized blocks of flats. me and my neighbours know we re living in unsafe clad flats so the main cost has been sleepless nights, worrying about that, but also worrying about the potential bill that is going to land on our doorstep of tens of thousands of pounds. but on monday the minister responsible for housing, michael gove, is expected to say the government will expose and pursue companies responsible for the crisis and ea
tennis star novak djokovic is facing fresh controversy after photos and footage have emerged of him in public, without a mask, at around the time his lawyers say he tested positive for covid 19. australia has banned him from entering the country to defend his australian open title because he has refused vaccination. his lawyers say he doesn t need one as his infection was confirmed by pcr test on 16 december and he has since recovered. djokovic posted these images to his twitter page on 17 december. he s pictured at an event the day before commemorating his own personal stamp. it s unclear whether djokovic knew he had covid when these photos were taken. he s currently in an immigration detention centre ahead of an appeal hearing on monday. the bbc s shaimaa khalil reports from melbourne. the world s top tennis player is spending the weekend in an immigration detention hotel. and his supporters have turned up for a third day. this is novak djokovic arriving in melbourne on wed