and says he's initiated high—level talks with the us. translation: if we are plunged in a conflict? i but we don't want that. it is not our choice. this is why i responded to president biden�*s proposal. hello and welcome. tighter restrictions against coronavirus have come into effect in some european countries, amid concerns over the highly infectious omicron variant that continues to spread rapidly. there's a fear that a wave of omicron infections could overwhelm health services , despite preliminary studies suggesting that omicron is milder and that the risk of being hospitalised is up to 75 percent lower. we'll look at mainland europe in a moment, but let's start here in the uk. over 1.3 million british people were infected with covid in the week ending the 16th of december — the highest level of infections