on al-jazeera. the u.s. is always of interest to people all right the world people pay attention to focus on now does it is very good to bring the news to the world from here. oh. now it's the white house's turn president donald trump's legal team presents its defense in the next phase of the u.s. impeachment trial. i'm stan grant this is al jazeera live also. full protesters are killed in iraq with protests underway several cities across the country. china's president says his country is facing a grave situation of the corona virus outbreak that imposes more travel restrictions. rescue workers in turkey is searching for survivors after

a powerful earthquake kills at least $22.00 people. lawyers for u.s. president donald trump presenting his defense at the senate impeachment trial by have 3 days to counter democratic arguments that he abused his power in dealing with ukraine has trump's accused of press rink years to dig up dirt on former vice president joe biden are not holding military i aid president donald trump's legal team have maintained that he is innocent they were accusing the democrats of intentionally neglecting the contents of the phone call transcript between trump and his ukrainian count the transcript shows that the president did not condition either security assistance or a meeting on anything. the paused security assistance funds

aren't even mentioned on the call. second presidents alinsky and other ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that there was no quid pro quo and no pressure on them to review anything 3rd president selenski and high ranking ukrainian officials did not even know did not even know. the security assistance was paused until the end of august over a month after the july 2005 call forth not a single witness testified that the president himself said that there was any connection between any investigations and security assistance a presidential meeting or anything else 5th the security assistance flowed on september 11th and a presidential meeting took place on september 25 without the ukrainian government announcing any investigations finally the democrats blind

drive to impeach the president does not and cannot change the fact as attested to by the democrats' own witnesses that president trump has been a better friend and stronger supporter of ukraine than his predecessor those are the facts well the white house legal counsel of also accused the democrats of using the impeachment ties to interfere in the upcoming u.s. presidential elections they're asking you not only to overturn the results of the last election but as i've said before they're asking you to remove president trump from the ballot in an election that's occurring in approximately 9 months they're asking you to tear up. all of the ballots across this country on your own initiative take that

decision away from the american people. let's go to harvard yard castro now who's standing by on capitol hill in washington d.c. there's just been an adjournment here in the in this trial which jumped out at you today. will stand in fact that we are adjourned already only after 2 hours of these arguments is something that indeed stands out because it's in a quite contrast with those long arguments that stretched on for 8 hours at a time over the course of 3 days on the part of the other side the impeachment managers trying to convince senators to find the president guilty of about a structure of justice and abuse of power and we saw the president's attorneys today on their 1st day of their side of this arguments telling senators from the beginning that they were going to be more concise they had criticized democrats for being too repetitive for not being respectful of senators time and we saw that play

out in fact because we are now adjourned until monday when we jump back into day 2 of the opening arguments on the president's team and they did have very narrowly focused arguments today they said they were going to rest the case for president's innocence on 2 factors one his attorneys say that he did nothing wrong they point to the call transcript in which the question of security a did not explicitly come up they say that the president was acting under his due authority as u.s. president always in the nation's interest and the 2nd factor they're saying is saying that democrats have or are the ones that are trying to interfere trying to invite foreign interference in an election in fact one of the president's attorneys said that if president trump were to be convicted and removed from office then that would be the greatest massive most massive election interference in the history of

the nation with democrats essentially trying to undo what they say the election of the president from. from 2016 ultimately here it likely will be the fate will be the the duty of the american voter to determine the president's ultimate political fate here because we know of course that if they it would take a 2 thirds of the senate to vote to find the president guilty and remove him from office and because his own party the republicans have the majority in this chamber reaching that hurdle for removal is a very unlikely scenario yeah and given the party that there are 2 juries here if you like one in the senate that you sign will want you to quit but how is this risen idea at all with the public is really indication yet that they've been listening to this and swayed in any way particularly the rusted on drum budget. sure well there has been a poll out in fact recently a washington post a.b.c.

poll that said i found that a slim plurality of american voters said that the president should not be removed from office 47 percent of the respondents there said he should be removed 49 percent said he should not and another interesting number that just came out is in fact the president's approval rating is at the moment higher than it's ever been in the history of his presidency with a 44 percent of americans thinking he's doing an overall good job in office so head scratching certainly for the democrats who perhaps are hoping that this impeachment would be damaging to the president's popularity but what we're seeing playing out is now again americans in this very polarized political environment digging in to their 2 sides and certainly while the left may be more fired up after hearing those impeach managers' arguments to have the president removed those people who are key and in the middle the moderates really up to them and it will remain to be seen exactly how they react to all of this party thank you. we've on down to the

news and 4 more protesters have been killed in iraq as security forces crackdown on anti-government demonstrations one person died in the capital and 3 in nasiriyah police moved on to the streets surrounding towns from the square after a large group left camps in an area of the capital they have been occupying since october most of those leaving are followers of populist clerk. who withdrew his support for the protests our correspondent in one town has more from baghdad. without warning the souther is packed up their tents and left square the focal point of iraq's anti-government protest movement the book led by influential shia muslim cleric knocked out al assad that is the largest in parliament and it had been here in solidarity with the protesters since it began in october for some left behind the departure is nothing less than a betrayal my goodness look at the bottle what. it seems our demonstration has been

stolen from as they could attack us any moment we are careful but we will either dine or keep the square i won't leave until my demands are met but no i am disappointed father protected us with his followers. this others have political power and they offered the protest movement political influence and physical protection that may now have gone. this other say they are disappointed with the reaction of some of the protesters to a rally by tens of thousands of iraqis they organized in baghdad on friday demanding the withdrawal of u.s. troops from the country they say although they support the protests they can no longer be a part of them this other suppose the presence of u.s. forces in iraq some of the protesters are worried that the southern wrist might hijack the movement to advance their own anti u.s. agenda it's a division the souther is fair could lead to conflict until now since the so the

once the protest of just continue because we want. to come to the end that a new independent government will come in order to roll the county till the till we have a new elections with the new new decision. so but if a kind of clashes started inside the sequence it will harm too much so we don't like to be a part of this class clashes. the news that saddam has moved his supporters out of the square is concerning to many who remain inside is this the beginning of the end of the protest movement that's the question on the lips of many of the protesters now they're already very angry because they've had to temper that at the beginning of the protest movement and they wanted a complete overhaul of the political system that actually now tempered that saying

they want a new prime minister who can call elections and even that hasn't happened. in talk risk where it seems the future of the protest movement is now at stake imran khan al-jazeera baghdad. we're going to tell you to lebanon now where security forces have used water cannon to stop protesters marching to government headquarters in the capital the demonstrators want an overhaul of the political system and an end to corruption a new government was formed on tuesday after months of demonstrations but they say it's just more of the same and linked amnesty international is really just a riot in security forces following a haas crackdown on protesters resigned a hold of these live for us now in by route sign of what's happening where you are . another night of violence behind me is the government policy you can see the security forces the anti-riot police the

water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowd the crowd managed to break through the metal barricades that you can see it behind me there is a lot of anger we are in day 101 since the protest movement began to topple a ruling class which is refusing really to give up power or refusing to heed the demands of people in the streets in fact i'm going to show you that they heightened security measures in central beirut using concrete slabs carved why are all blocking all entrances at leaving. parliament square in central beirut now authorities say that these measures are necessary in order to order but if you talk to people here they will tell you this is a ruling class which is afraid of people so another night of violence this is becoming more and more frequent and if you talk to people here they tell you that.

where most of us believe that it is time to keep the pressure to keep trying to make our voices heard you can see the back. people are signing on every. day arguments where the way to try to make their voices heard so i thank you for that so i know how to live for. at least 3 people have been killed during intensive airstrikes by the syrian government on the last rebel held area in the north a woman and 2 children were killed in the right in the town of. province activists barrel bombs were also dropped from helicopters on the town of kufa north of aleppo more than 350000 people have been displaced from the region since early december. so a hit on al jazeera and one year on the families of those killed in brazil's worst mining disaster.

hello it is feeling generally more winter nassar out the middle east although the cloud and this cold here goes through iraq and that's with a lot of the rain falls snow of course in the mountains that's a nice ways through but usually following these things you get quite a wind across iraq dancer's ago which is quite cold to the max in baghdad is 60 next when they're hot is 80 and you could almost add wind chill i know it seems wrong some part of the world with a give 18 degrees it does feel comparatively cold is there for a couple of days got a strong wind there were a few showers in amman and yemen they've gone now so it's dry it's just a feeling is in a bit of a wintry it's too dry and levant by the way for a couple of days at least the weather is more active in the west and then the cloud that spreads from it will bring little rain into morocco coastal out and this cloud

might say can you see a scattering of showers inland now dearie tunisia and in libya in the next couple of days what otherwise north africa is fairly dry down the rift valley the rush hours seasonally the rain is heavy dango through tanzania and it has been in madagascar there has been flooding recently it looks at the showers or rather we can have a spinner there that's a tropical slightly diane that's just gone through. so it's on its way out into the ocean. the 21st century began with extraordinary economic growth across much of latin america. but since this whole today in 2008 there's been a political shift to the right on a continent where socialism once thrived to. a chill and politician goes on a journey to meet leading leftwing ficus to understand why that politics have lost

ground so dramatically. in latin america a giant in time oil on al-jazeera. and this is al jazeera these are moderate top stories this hour lawyers for u.s. president donald trump the journey until monday having finished their 1st session outlining their defense part of the senate pietschmann trial they have 3 days to county democratic arguments said he abused his power in dealing with ukraine china's president says his country is facing a grave situation over the outbreak of the coronavirus sea jinping warns the virus is now celebrating the military is being deployed to the epicenter of the outbreak

that's killed $41.00 in. security forces in lebanon refuse water cannon to stop protesters marching to government headquarters in the capital they want an overhaul of the political system and an end to corruption. china's president says his country is facing a grave situation over the outbreak of the coronavirus sea jinping warns the virus is now accelerating the military has been deployed to the epicenter of who by province the local government is urgently appealing for more supplies including masks and protective suits who had city where the outbreak began will ban all non-essential vehicles for monday a doctor treating patients in the province has become the latest victim of the virus well the total number of those killed is 41 with close to 1300 others infected in china malaysia is the latest country to report cases of the virus infections of also reached europe with 3 patients confirmed in france in an effort

to contain it spread the chinese government has expanded its travel restrictions now affecting more than 40000000 people scott hardly has more from budging. like the past several days the people of china again woke up to news that the corona virus has claimed more lives and more people have become infected. living with his family in new han ali warry moved to china. 25 years ago we spoke to him in skype are you worried even further down the line that this this quarantine could last a month 6 weeks so this is like a war you don't want to. so i just read the. first. oh. well we don't go out. on monday right so there's already all these concern is shared by people here in beijing and they're worried about the disease i always wash hands before and after me use and every time i go out i wear a mask back inside this time we didn't realize all serious to situation was but

we've learned and doing much more actively now and the government of responding quickly and we fully support them 17 years ago the chinese government was criticized for acting too slowly when the sars virus killed nearly 800 people well most of whom a province the epicenter of the corona virus is now under lockdown there is concern about the people who traveled before restrictions were put into place this as there's growing evidence that people might be carrying the virus without showing symptoms unwillingly passing it on to others the detail in park here in central beijing would normally be teeming with people out celebrating the 1st day of lunar new year but like right across china the festivities here have been canceled over concern of spreading the virus nationwide measures are being put into place on airplanes trains and buses to detect infected people the people of all han are being told that starting sunday no cars will be allowed on the streets of the city center hundreds of military medical personnel have been sent to han to help with

the growing number of cases and this is in addition to the more than 1000 civilian medical staff who have already been sent in from around china will haunt hospitals are overcrowded and some who've been treating patients have been infected. so as the people of china have a muted celebration it's still far from clear what impact the coronavirus will have on the chinese new year ahead scott either al-jazeera beijing in hong kong or at least 5 cases of the virus have now been confirmed in a news conference on saturday its leader kerry lamb raised the threat level on the territory as a result of the outbreak. our response has reached emergency level personally into department to meetings and we have a command center so we can get the views from the experts and come up with strategies and initiatives when we deal with this public health event i think you'll understand that we need to be quick in making decisions when we can make decisions for the society of hong kong maybe in brown as in hong kong he explains

what these emergency measures will look like. hong kong's chief executive has decided this health crisis is serious enough to raise it to the emergency category now that followed a meeting with her key advisors including some of hong kong's top medical experts that meeting was convened just after kerry arrived back from davos in switzerland where she'd been attending the world economic forum now in addition to the various measures announced today carol lam didn't decide to impose a temporary closure of the border between hong kong and china even if she had wanted to it's doubtful that her political masters in beijing would have allowed it instead she's decided to embark on other measures including requiring all visitors from the mainland to sign and fill in health declaration forms this will apply to people entering hong kong by rail train plane and boat she's also going to extend the school holidays for universities kindergartens and schools until the middle of

february also flights and train services between who hanna and hong kong will remain suspended and of course all official lunar new year celebrations have been cancelled the french consulate in move on says it's working to provide transportation for its citizens to leave the city and in france and so new cases have been reported natasha battle is there. the french health minister and us prison has confirmed there are 3 cases of patients with current virus in the country now we've learned a little bit more about those cases there's one couple a man and a woman who came from china they are tourists we understand you came on holiday to paris when they fell ill they had flown in from han and in fact they've now been hospitalized we understand that their case isn't too serious because they are remaining under strict surveillance there's also a man of 48 year old who also had come from china he had visited with recently he

fell ill and he is in the southwestern city of bordeaux we believe he works in the wine industry now the mayor of bordeaux has said that he that about 10 to 12 people have come forward to say that they have been in contact with this man who works in the wine industry they also work in the wine industry and of course they will have their health checked by the relevant authorities the mayor of bordeaux has said in fact the chinese new year celebrations in the city in southwestern front have been canceled as this health scare continues now the french health minister says that these cases in front of the 1st in europe that doesn't mean that there aren't any elsewhere she expects other cases to be found but she believes that these 1st cases have been confirmed in france because french authorities have been very quick to test the patients and very quick to announce that they had this virus. search and rescue efforts continue in turkey after

a powerful earthquake struck in the east light on friday at least 29 people have been killed and more than a 1000 injured buildings collapse near the epicenter of the magnitude 6.8 trauma urgency crews are searching for people feared trapped in the rubble now the epicenter was in a town of nearly 4000 people in the spouse the populated province of a lawsuit that's about 700 kilometers east of the capital ankara serious and impossible there has been then sent this up to. turkey is present reza faith and on and leading members of his cabinet are here you know to make a survey in the street where we are where we have 2 buildings that have collapsed and under which there are still some people stuck under the wreckage prison talent came here in the late afternoon and joined in financials in some funerals and sent his condolences to the people and during the funeral he said turkey turkish

government will do its best in order to cover. all the losses here we are seeing the ngos delivering blankets and some other things to people who are in need because some of the buildings are dumb and still some people are afraid to get inside their buildings and we are hearing that mostly the kids are very afraid by the way so risky works are on their way right behind us there are vehicles trying to trying to move the wreckage and just how often hour ago one more person was pulled from the wreckage and she that person was alive and the 1st one was was taken to the hospital by the ambulance so right now there are exactly 40 people who were pooled pulled her from the wreckage and the rescue team say that they believe there are 19 more people remaining on the wreckage in 5 buildings. that

have collapsed last night. the death of a teenager to try a migrant in a detention center in libya this week is again highlighted the flies before 2000 people living in the camps and they're often shift and many are run by groups many of the people living in the board while trying to make the dangerous crossing to europe. the conditions pulling. a senior palestinian diplomat who's called the troubled ministrations so-called deal of the century a fraud the u.s. president says he will release his long awaited middle east peace plan ahead of a meeting with israel's prime minister on tuesday and palestinian officials scorn on preliminary details of that plan. this is actually the fraud of the century the fraud of the century now that's the. they're speaking about jerusalem being israel's capital no palestinian state no 96 of them borders the next station of the jordan valley and the dead sea shores and extension of the settlements the

legal system israeli settlements that that means. destroying old terms of her francis provided for to achieve peace between palestinians israelis robbing the 2 state solution of the radar screens and above all cancelling everything relating to international law and international interest that is why those opposition leader wang wydow has arrived in spain the latest stop on the tour of europe he's trying to get support for his new election seasons country the spanish government and more than 50 other countries recognized as venezuela's president nicolas maduro is refusing to leave office wider has already visited the u.k. france and switzerland defying a travel ban. people are making or marking the years since brazil's worst ever industrial disaster with ceremonies at least 259 people were killed when a dam collapsed sending a tide of toxic waste into the city of ramadi this week brazilian prosecutors filed

charges against the mining company that owns the dam and some former executives the charges include environmental crimes and murder but many of the families of the victims say this too waiting for justice but more ruppel always in burma dinner and he says people are very emotional. it's a very somber day here in broome of the you know there are many activities taking place a lot of emotions playing out on the streets of the city as as a march is taking place for actually just behind that march you can see behind me the people that are moving from one end of the city to another they're heading to a church to hold a ceremony to remember the lives lost again 270 people that were killed in that disaster exactly one year ago here in the city of ramallah and this isn't the only ceremony this isn't the only event that's taking place over the last few days there have been marches that have taken place in the city of bologna so all share with people moving in caravans that was planned march but because of the heavy rains of

the flooding here in here in the region people have taken automobiles to arrive and grandmother you know to pay their respects to the fallen now we're talking about those rains even now we're having a little bit more rain coming down right now this is adding to to the trepidation that people feel this is adding to the anxiety that people feel because not only are they remembering this tragedy this disaster that happened exactly one year ago it brings up fears that another disaster could could take place once again given the heavy flooding that's taking place in you is no stranger to the heavy rains and flooding but the amount of rain that's fallen this year is very very much present on people's minds there have already been at least 5 casualties over the last 5 days due to the flooding and there's fears that the existing mining dams around the city of ramadi you could that are in fact at risk could could at any moment collapse once again. well bolivia's interim president says she will run of the

upcoming election despite initially suggesting she wouldn't be 9 years he says she hopes to unite the divided country the voting may will be a rerun of october's disputed election that saw a former leader of a morale that was reelected he resigned and fled to mexico after weeks of violent protests. this is al jazeera these are the top stories lawyers for u.s. president donald trump have adjourned until monday having finished their 1st session outlining their defense as part of the senate impeachment trial they have 3 days to count the democratic arguments that he abused his power in dealing with ukraine before more protesters have been killed in iraq as security forces crackdown on anti-government demonstrations one person died in the capital and 3 in nasiriyah police moved into the streets surrounding tahrir square after

a large group left camps in an area of the capital they'd been occupying since october but most of those leaving a follower is a populist. withdrew his support for the protests osama bin divided has been talking to those still out in tahrir square in baghdad. protesters here have been telling us that they would be disappointed by the decision friday night by mccall who said the subjects in the protesters leave they made numbers due in this protest and after that it was a crackdown by security forces a number of bridges. that they are barricaded by the protesters also the major little qassam highway was also cleared by the security forces and protesters have been pushed back not just hit but on the outskirts of baghdad as well. security forces in lebanon are also cracking down on protests there and they've been using water cannons and tear gas to stop people marching to government headquarters in the capital the demonstrators want an overhaul of the political system and an end

to corruption and you government was formed on tuesday after months of public pressure that they say is just more of the same. china's president says his country is facing a grave situation of the outbreak of the coronavirus siege and being warns the virus is now accelerating the military is being deployed to the epicenter of the outbreak that's killed 41 people so it's a risk you are continuing in eastern turkey after a powerful earthquake struck on friday at least 29 people have been killed more than 1000 are injured buildings collapsed near the epicenter of the magnitude 6 point i try to emergency crews are searching for people feel trapped in the rubble . was a big head lines news continues here on al jazeera right after inside still. mohamed

bin solomon the and jeff pays all steer powerful men now linked by a scandal saudi crown prince is accused of hacking the phone of the american billionaire mother came to him denies the allegations an investigation has begun and could it mean for ben solomon and how vulnerable anyone else speak to such cyber attacks this is inside story. hello everyone i'm come all santamaria so we have the world's richest man we have one of the middle east's most influential leaders and a message between the 2 which will almost.