plan for the best is planning to prepare for the worst. as soon as the storm passes, we re going to put this we re going to put the country s full might behind rescue and recovery. let s go right to meteorologist bill karins. bill, you ve been tracking this thing relentlessly. i know you got an update from the national hurricane center. as expected, downgraded to a tropical storm. so it made landfall, 150-mile-per-hour category 4 yesterday, 1:00 local time, and it s taken all the way until now to become a tropical storm. so it s finally weakened down. in other words, about 99.5% of the wind damage has already been done, so that s not going to be a big concern going forward with the storm. will will be some minor tree damage in possible areas, mississippi with power outages. let me give you an update. 60-mile-per-hour winds, 90, 95 miles south of jackson, mississippi, and it it s heading to north around 8 miles per hour. i ee moving pretty slowly. it s kept rain in the s
as you ve been hearing, the uk, france and the united states have all registered new coronavirus records as the omicron variant continues to spread rapidly around the world. the uk recorded nearly 219,000 new infections in the latest 24 hour period, the highest daily figure so far. prime minister borisjohnson said that despite the huge increase in covid cases there is a substantial level of immunity in the population. but the weeks ahead are going to be challenging and some services will be disrupted due to staff absences. in order to combat this, around 100,000 critical workers in the uk are set to take daily covid tests from january 10 in order to reduce the spread of the virus to colleagues it will be for key industries including food processing, transport and the border force. but business leaders had been calling on the government to cut the self isolation period for people in england who contract covid 19 from seven days to five, in an effort to curb labour shorta
news. good evening. this is your update from the bbc sports centre. liverpool shrugged off missing three players due to positive covid tests to beat newcastle 3 1 this evening and move a point behind premier league leaders manchester city. newcastle took a surprise lead thanks tojonjo shelvey s long distance strike which found its way through, shelvey scoring against his former club. it wasn t long before liverpool hit back, diogojota pulling them level. and four minutes later, who else but mo salah put them 2 1 up. and how about this for an early christmas cracker from trent alexander arnold! no stopping that one as liverpool cruised to a comfortable victory, keeping the pressure up at the top while newcastle remain second from bottom. it s more points dropped for chelsea this evening. they were held to a 1 1 draw with everton at stamford bridge. mason mount gave them a second half lead. everton s jarrad branthwaite equalised soon after in a match where they had few chances.
also in the programme: we report from yemen as the war reaches a turning point. houthi rebels are gaining ground in the seven year conflict a war that s caused shocking levels of suffering and forced many into makeshift desert camps. the people here are suffering because of the fault lines that run right through the middle east. and barbados has spent its first day as a republic with a president not the queen as its head of state. we ll be live from the capital. there s evidence the omicron variant of covid was present in europe days before international travel restrictions were introduced and before it was first reported by south africa. a lot to show you on the pandemic. let s start with bbc health correspondent laura foster. we had thought that the first cases came to the netherlands over the weekend, but it now transpires that there were two test samples between the 19th and the 23rd. why am i telling you those dates? that s because south africa reported its finding
the appeal without fanfare. whenever you think of the mask mandate, series of personal attacks on the 33-year-old judge she was appointed by donald trump and understand some folks are troubled with the new carpet boosting by 50% in two weeks, this turned into democrats say they don t care about public health are posted personal freedom the partisan warfare, one other thing the media crossover is a band, anyone can continue wearing a mask on planes, trains and buses for whatever reason they want but that i suppose is a less exciting story. i am howard kurtz and this is mediabuzz . had the first television interview with pierce morgan and glenn greenwald for trying to buy twitter. the pundits were quick to pounce on a harsh debate. must be clear about this, this decision will have a mass gratification for public health and the spread of covid in this country. if they want to pass a law mandating masks on planes i suggest they pass a law blood to do that or try to do that