threats to our planet on al-jazeera. hong kong's leader declares a health emergency as she raises the threat level posed by the corona violence. hello i'm sam is a down this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. at least 21 people die as a powerful earthquake strikes eastern turkey will have an update from rescue organizers more than 18 years after 911 the legit masterminds of the attacks appear in court the u.n. warns of food shortages in east africa after billions of locusts swarm.

in the last few minutes hong kong's leader has raised the threat level posed to the territory from the outbreak of the corona virus on mainland china at least 5 cases of the virus have been confirmed in hong kong the city's threat level is now at emergency. of 3 tears in relation to the response level serious an emergency level had to be made to serious now today i'd like to announce that we're going to escalate it to the highest level that is emergency. adrian brown is live for us in hong kong is looking at the latest developments there so let's start with the latest statement what does that mean for the territory now to be at an emergency level. well she is going to set up not just one but also for taskforce to look at different ways of trying to

contain this crisis she's also saying that all mainland people come all citizens coming from from mainland china whether by road rail sea air will have to sign health declaration forms on their arrival but of course that is dependent on people's honesty declaring where they've really been in china have they been to hand a lot of people are saying this is something that you should have done in fact several weeks ago when this tale of this crisis started to become apparent but she's done that now it is also going to extend the current lunar new year school holidays until february the 17th so yes i think it's a final ignore lodgment today that hong kong does not regard this as a crisis she has confirmed what many people have suspected all along that this thing is getting much more serious the mood in hong kong is is subdued it's flat

there is no panic that has to be stressed but there is a deepening sense of unease about where we are now heading we've been hearing also today from one of hong kong's leading microbiologists the reason why he's important is because he played a leading role in the efforts to try to stop contain the spread of the sars virus 17 years ago and he says that this current virus has an attack rate of 83 percent which sounds quite scary and he's also suggesting that everyone going out in public now in hong kong should wear a face mask many more people wearing face masks than this time yesterday it has to be said and he's also urging the. government to do what it's now done which is to you know extend the leave for students and pupils at schools and universities in hong kong this of course is is really a very testing time for president xi jinping because he really is under pressure on so many fronts right now the elections in taiwan didn't go the way he wanted them

to also you know his trade negotiations with the united states he's had to make very important concessions and of course the protests here in hong kong are still going on 8 months on and now he's having to convince the times what seems to be quite a skeptical public in china that his his government is capable of trying to contain the spreading virus but of course because of the extensive censorship you have in china that tends to breed skepticism at times like this. and how easy is it right now to implement screening given that it's difficult to detect the virus right long incubation period not always very obvious signs. no you're absolutely right and the microbiologist i was referring to earlier on made this same point today he said

that you know someone arriving from the mainland on a friday will seem perfectly healthy and not develop any symptoms until you know 3 or 4 days later this fire is has a pretty long incubation period so people who may be sick don't show signs of illness until several days later that is the big worry about this virus something similar happened with sars but this particular virus seems to be a lot more deceptive the problem for hong kong sami is the government can control some things but it can't control hong kong borders china and of course there are a myriad ways for mainland people to enter hong kong and of course some of those people coming into hong kong have come from other cities like just across the border or i will leave it there for now thanks so much adrian brown scientists are working to find out more about how the new corona virus spreads and its threat well you know mohammed takes

a look what we know so far. viruses are everywhere in plants birds animals and in humans but most don't stand a chance of adapting and spreading the natural world's defense systems fight them off and vaccines help as well but every now and then a virus gets through jumping the species barrier from say a pig or a bird to target instead a human coronaviruses are a large family of viruses common in animals until the end of last year just 6 were known to infect people the ruhani corona virus is number 7 now 4 of these strains cause illnesses like the common cold unpleasant but for most of us not life threatening but the others are killers the highly contagious severe acute respiratory syndrome all saws broke out in china over 2002 into 2003 and it killed almost 10 percent of those who became infected it's thought to have spread from the

civet cat to humans since the middle east respiratory syndrome mers was identified in saudi arabia in 2012 more than 850 people have died it sorts have come from the camel now both have caused panic both killed but both have been contained this new strain is a killer too and can be passed from human to human but are though it seems at this stage to be less contagious panic is rising as it spreads within tarna and across time as borders to the threat of a global health emergency looms. search and rescue efforts are underway in turkey after a powerful earthquake struck in the east late on friday at least 21 people have been killed and more than 1000 injured buildings collapse near the epicenter of the magnitude 6.8 tremor in the eyes of providence emergency crews searching for people trapped in the rubble. now the epicenter was in a town of about 4000 people in this sparsely populated province that's about 700

kilometers east of the capital. that was the moment the earthquake struck interrupting live broadcast many people ran outdoors for safety those with damaged homes are still afraid to return better touched amir is the u.n. coordinator for the acute search and rescue association he's praised the quick response to the earthquake by emergency services the biggest challenge here is the temperature conditions as it is overnight with a chill feel for chill factor it gets to about minus 10 or more degrees celsius and people that were trapped in the rubbles or i 5 facing quite low temperatures other than that most buildings in the area are made by made of concrete and mud brick the mud brick buildings obviously collapse much sooner and. the likelihood of reaching

a live victims or reaching confirm live victims under a mud brick buildings is is a little bit lower than that of concrete buildings which will tend to collapse with some voids with where through which the victims can vary through so the building structures and the temperature low temperatures are the 2 biggest challenges faced by all the teams on the ground 2 provinces were hit by the earthquake and those and a lot both have fully functional airports i believe both going house style wide body aircraft so that deployment of search and rescue efforts were not a problem mobile communications were up or running if not they were not even the destructor for a little bit as far as i recall and so for a earthquake scenario their response and the coordination communication has been pretty much text but in this case the us democrats of wrapped up their final day of opening arguments in the impeachment trial of president donald trump they accuse him of being the ringleader in an effort to push ukraine to investigate political

rival joe biden later on saturday white house lawyers will get their opportunity to argue in trump's defense shutdown serial ports from washington d.c. so ordered senate it's adjourned on friday democratic party house managers concluded their opening arguments against donald trump over 3 sessions they meticulously presented their case the trump abused the office of the president in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage against his democratic rival joe biden by attempting to blackmail the ukrainian president president trump tried to cheat he got caught and then he worked hard to cover it up only his will goes he is a dictator this must not stand and that is why another reason he must be removed from office and that the president obstructed congress as it proved his alleged wrongdoing by withholding evidence and intimidating potential witnesses. it's

simple the president abused the powers entrusted. by the american people in his skiing to suppress evidence and skate accountability and orchestrate a massive cover up any did sell in plain sight and his obstruction remains ongoing now it's up to the president's lawyers to make their case we're going to rebut and refute and we're going to put on an affirmative case tomorrow unlike the democrats the white house lawyers are not expected to use all of their time they will be assured morning session on saturday but their arguments are expected to start in earnest on monday donald trump has made it clear that he wants his case made in weekday t.v. primetime and not during the weekend the white house will argue that it was in the national interest to ask the ukrainian president for an investigation into biden and his son and potential conflicts of interest why did hunter biden hold

a lucrative position at an allegedly corrupt ukrainian energy company despite having no expertise in the area while his father was vice president why they opened up the door as wide as a double door on the hunter by joe biden. i guess they figured that was it their way of getting ahead of it we will address it in addition they will argue that it is the democrats who are abusing their power as they seek to overturn the results of the 2016 election and influence the next and violate the constitutionally mandated separation of powers between congress and the president the sense here is that it's still very unlikely that any witnesses will be caught so the white house is still on track for an acquittal of the president before the state of the union address on february the 4th ever time see al-jazeera washington . now u.s. media saying already a recording from 2018 this emerged in which donald trump appears to demand the removal of washington's than ambassador to ukraine marie of all of it was recalled

last april that's almost a year after the record it was drained in which a voice that sounds like trump says take her out if it's authentic it would support democrats' argument that trumps associates tried to remove your on the bridge that was because she was seen as an obstacle to investigate from joe biden. still ahead on al-jazeera the death of a young man in libya highlights the conditions of migrants being held in detention camps and the dispute over drilling rights in the eastern mediterranean is heating up we'll have the details. of. how they are shouldn't be talking about rain in viet nam at this time of the year so that really shouldn't be there but it is all the same more usually the showers in the rainy season in an easier or visible nasa satellite picture course

in the forecast you might find and elsewhere in borneo in sort of ways either not so much still concentrated really in sumatra and they come back into jobs which puts jakarta again at risk of flash flooding but anywhere in western java could well be at risk and that's what the orange is here that's indicates the high tops on the storm a heavy one now the rain i mentioned in vietnam is still there in the forward showers it's going to be exceeding its average in many places to b.r.c. should be a dry months and the same story is true down australia for queens into maybe new south wales these shows you see on the satellite picture will repeat themselves the next couple days it could be particularly wet again flash flooding seems likely not so much in new south wales there will be a few showers down here in the mountains but sydney says he agrees just reflects passings under storms and melbourne remains dry and still are a far as building in victoria new south wales which will not change because this weather isn't coming that fast science you notice the wind direction from new

zealand the cow was in christchurch very balmy 32. on counting the cost a nation representing point 3 percent of the world's population but 5 percent of carbon emissions and australia give up its addiction to call bullshit promises to go carbon neutral by the year 2050 plus we're looking at 11 and how long before it has turned to be i am counting the cost on al-jazeera. unprompted and uninterrupted discussions from on london broadcast center. on al-jazeera.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera time to recap our headlines now hong kong's leader carrier has raised the city's alert 'd level to emergency becomes a response to the corona virus outbreak in mainland china in 5 confirmed cases of the disease in hong kong a doctor treating patients in china's province has died from the corona virus the death toll has now climbed to 42 since the outbreak began last month search and rescue efforts are underway in turkey after a powerful earthquake struck in the east late on friday the magnitude 6.8 trauma killed at least 21 people and injured a 1000. military judge in the u.s. says it's his decision not the government's whether to win whether interrogation techniques used on $911.00 suspects will be described as tortured during bad trial

that could affect how their cases are treated evade this comment says the 1st week of a pretrial hearing wrapped up of guantanamo bay president jordan was there it's the 1st time psychologist james mitchell has testified in court about his work for the cia after september 11th and mitchell was both combative and proud of his work as a contract interrogator what he called life saving questioning techniques lawyers for the $911.00 defendants called torture meaning they shouldn't be convicted much less executed in his mind the coercive physical pressures which includes but. not everything is the critical defining element the fact that people are being held in isolation for years incommunicado from their families. told that they're going to die there and

lack all ordinary protections of a person in prison is outrageous mitchell testified he waterboard khalid shaikh muhammad and abu zubaida something he said he found upsetting but he said stab cia interrogators regularly crossed the line forcing detainees to kneel backwards with a broomstick behind their knees depriving them of sleep food and clothing or in the case of lucci letting rookie interrogators slam him into a wall over and over for practice both the defendants and 11 relatives of people killed in the attacks listened to mitchell's testimony on friday they watched mitchell and mr lawyer walton grease tangle over how solid is treatment in detention at guantanamo i wanted to establish the basically triple roles that he

had right. intelligence collection the briefer and psychologists right. and to. illustrate or at least they have a foundation for. why that is so. damaging jim mitchell has been trying to show all week that he was one of the good guys during a period of high fear and anxiety in the united states the military judge in this case has yet to rule whether what mitchell and other interrogators did to detainees in fact constituted torture that decision could one day affect how both prosecutors and the defense lawyers prepare their cases for trial rosalyn jordan al-jazeera guantanamo. the death of an eritrean teenager in a tripoli detention camp this week has highlighted the plight of more than 40000

africans living in makeshift centers in libya most have been detained while attempting to cross to europe aid agencies say conditions are appalling 30 birth lee visited one detention center near the libyan capital. driven by poverty or pushed by fear and persecution either way most migrants escaping their homeland mostly in sub-saharan africa end up here on the coast of north africa libya can be the start of a bright new life or the beginning of a nightmare in the capital tripoli thousands wait each day for the chance of manual work the money they earn is used on a mediterranean crossing to europe sent back to their families or to buy food they come with a dream but the reality of life here is far from a dalit and there's there's i came here to make money and it's better than staying in your own country because here your mind is more free but now there isn't work like before you sometimes don't even have enough to eat they won't openly say they

want to go to europe that would provoke arrest but most not all want to joshua made that crossing and spent 6 years in europe before being deported from austria last year his dream was to become a rap artist but he found only hardship and difficulty in europe i can make money evil people are living abroad so i decided to work my morning. and go back to my country and establish my talent because i'm a good musician. but you can tell from the drain faces that optimism among many african migrants is in short supply these africa workers do their jobs that they don't want to do they earn just a few dollars a day but it's still more than they can earn in their own countries they often live in basic deprived conditions but even so in some respects they are the lucky ones these migrants are some of the estimated 40000 detained in libya most were arrested trying to cross the mediterranean sea to europe at this center in zawiya west of tripoli there are almost 500 detainees some of whom have been held for 4 years many

of applied for political asylum or settlement in europe it's a place of bad living conditions and broken dreams 16 year old adel de brett see on a skate political persecution in eritrea with a dream of a new life his life ended in a detention center in tripoli when he died in mysterious circumstances aid organizations say that getting explanations and access to migrant centers isn't easy it is a sovereign state and where we can advocate to. improve the conditions close the centers and find alternatives to this approach but. in the state that the country is in right now. it's very very difficult undertaking. the cash strapped internationally recognized libyan government says it's doing its best under the circumstances but can't adequately help its own people who've been displaced in the conflict let alone migrants that's no comfort to

a large who is from nigeria she's been in detention for nearly 4 years 3 of her 5 children have been born in centers and she's being caught trying to reach europe 4 times my kids are going through a lot of going through crises. strikes going through their roots going to see they are gone. and that's makes i'm not proud of my. own. my shame of myself because i kept on asking myself why am i brought them to this award. but the migrants have learned to cope with hardship in limited choices they've had to the so-called crossing season with karma sees in the mediterranean is approaching and many will be making the choice of either sticking with what they have or gambling on a dangerous voyage and the unknown prospects in a europe which is not as welcoming as it once was tony berkeley al-jazeera tripoli . now with a week to go until briggs's leaders from the e.u.

and britain have formally signed the withdrawal agreement the presidents of the european council in commission charles michel and sort of on the lion put their signatures to the document in brussels it was later signed by u.k. prime minister boris johnson in london britain's former departure will start an 11 month transition period to discuss a trade deal an irish judges agreed to the extradition of a truck driver wanted in connection with the deaths of $39.00 ve in the means migrants amun harrison will be sent to the u.k. to face charges of manslaughter in human trafficking unless his lawyers will feel the victims' bodies were discovered last october inside a trailer that harrison allegedly delivered the container was found in essex just outside london. turkey and greece are bracing for a standoff in the eastern mediterranean over a turkish plan to drill for gas in cypriot waters turkey backs the northern turkish

speaking part of cyprus john seraphina's has more from the greek capital athens. more tension in the eastern mediterranean as cyprus accuses turkey of using stolen data to position a drilling ship similar to this one precisely on top of the potential gas field in its waters grease 2 is bracing for the potential appearance of turkish exploration vessels in waters east of crete and it's threatening to sink them yes. he could have joined egypt israel greece and cyprus in the east made gas for him to develop gas fields but has chosen instead to be a habit transgress out of international law the east med gas forum countries are planning to build a 2000 kilometer pipeline to sell gas to europe turkey has reacted by drilling in cypriot waters without cyprus permission and threatening to do the same in greek was his last year turkey and libya marked out a corridor of territorial water claimed by greece raising tensions further can

trick sustain such an ambitious foreign policy that at the same time adventure has opportunistic. dangerous and not fully. in supported or not at all actually supported by most of the great powers i think that this will not and very well that's my prediction for the future if you go by the book by then i think if it's not off the book that pipeline passes it to the turkish maritime zone and they could sit down and. we have a pool full of i don't know 200 miles or 100 miles across is this like turkey is already a major transit land wise off for many pipelines it's also a major transit point offshore if it is built the pipeline will carry about 2

percent of the gas in europe consumes and might manage 4 percent it isn't a game changer europe will still rely on russia for about 40 percent of its gas but it would be a political statement that europe wants pipelines built by europeans that cross european territory marking out territory though is the problem turkey has not signed the international law of the sea and claims areas of the mediterranean that greece and cyprus also claim under that law europe denounces the turkish view as illegal but that doesn't seem to be deterring turkey and tension is set to rise further jumpstart ople us al jazeera athens. now billions of locusts across kenya somalia and ethiopia have triggered calls from the un for international help kenya is facing its largest invasion in 7 decades the insects that only way to include every day and have destroyed thousands of kilometers of crops the u.n.

is concerned this will further threaten food supplies in east africa and seasonal rains last month caused the local population to both. dominic version is the director of united nations food and agricultural organization is emergency in resilience division he spoke to us from the kenyan capital nairobi where he's responding to the local situation i mean the locusts worms are spreading throughout africa as a matter of fact there is being a cycle on december cycle on one that is brought very humid conditions to the eastern africa creating very favorable conditions for the locusts to erupt for now we have seen the development of locusts they already impact on some crops and especially on rates pastorate are so essential for the past already that it's you know are many in the region but not the problems that locust are getting matcher

saw that there are actually there are yes eggs on them laying eggs that would be very soon and that will lead to a new generation of locusts which this time will come the time for the planting of the next in the region that will come around march april so it means that at that time we run the risk of really having the crop that's risky and therefore where the situation where the 11900000 people who were already severely couldn't secure in kenya formerly are in talks with feed their security situation further. at least 13 people have now been confirmed dead after a violent storm that's battered parts of eastern and southern spain storm gloria has brought to rancho rain heavy winds though fall and hail since sunday flooding farmland and damaging cities meteorologists say the worst of the storm has passed

but there are fears more people may have been killed after reports of people went missing in northeastern catalonia and the bella react islands. i'm sam is a dan with a look at the headlines here in al-jazeera now hong kong's leader carrie lamb has raised the city's threat level in response to the corona virus outbreak in mainland china have been 5 confirmed cases of the disease in hong kong and out of the 3 tears in relation to the response level serious an emergency level had to be made to serious now today i'd like to know that we're going to escalate it to the highest level that is emergency. or doctor treating patients in china's hu bay provinces died from the corona virus that's the region where the outbreak began last month the death toll has now climbed to 42 search and rescue efforts are

underway in turkey after a powerful earthquake struck in the east late on friday a magnitude 6.8 tremor killed at least 21 people and injured hundreds. and this was the moment the earthquake struck interrupting the live broadcast many people ran outdoors for safety those with damaged houses are still afraid to return . u.s. media say inaugurate cording from 2018 is emerged in which donald trump appears to demand the removal of washington then ambassador to ukraine very your vial of which was recalled lie straight from that's almost a year after the recording was made in which a voice that sounds like trump says take her out and irish judges agreed to the extradition of a truck driver wanted in connection with the deaths of $39.00 vietnamese migrants

a man harrison will be sent to the u.k. to face charges of manslaughter and human trafficking unless his lawyers win an appeal the victims' bodies were discovered last october inside a trailer house and then as deeply delivered. billions of locusts across kenya and somalia and ethiopia so triggered calls from the un for international help kenya is facing its largest invasion and 7 decades the insects skinny the only way to live every day destroyed thousands of kilometers of crops it's counting the cost now. the prime minister's. mission is to. make this country the greatest place. i know the final run into the departure for me he used.

to maria this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week australia mining and climate change. this is called the fright. that was a strength as prime minister 3 years ago and after 30 years of uninterrupted economic growth thanks to the extraction industry he would say that now with the president bush fires is it time to rethink its dependence on coal. and the thing.