al jazeera bringing you the news and current affairs that matter to. counter 0. the are. emergency measures in china millions in lock down and transport links suspended in the race to contain a deadly new virus president she wants a situation is grave. i mariam watching al jazeera live from london also coming up on the program the protests his attempt to storm the government's headquarters in beirut but that machine back quite tear gas and water cannon. in iraq at least 5 demonstrates is there a shot dead as security forces moved in on protest sites. the president did absolutely

nothing wrong and donald trump's lawyers defend their boss at the u.s. president's historic impeachment trial. our top story this hour president xi jinping saying china is facing a grave situation as the world's most populous country scrambles to contain a deadly new virus at least $41.00 people have died off to contract in the new strain of corona virus it can cause flu like symptoms and in extreme cases it's a shortness of breath and pneumonia more than 1300 people have been infected on the chinese mainland with hospitals struggling to deal with the outbreak around $50000000.00 people overall are affectively living in quarantine off the transport links with suspended to and from the city of one han which is the epicenter of the outbreak but also there are measures in place in surrounding cities but the virus has already crossed borders 38 cases have been reported in 11 other countries along

with the chinese territories of hong kong and macau scott starts off our coverage now from beijing. 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 and all the worry moved to china 25 years ago we spoke to him skype are you worried even further down the line that this this cornton could last a month 6 weeks so just like. and it was. so i just read the. first. of all we don't go out. on. this or it's 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 in doing much more actively knowing 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 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 daytime 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 have been treating patients who have been infected so as the people of china have a muted celebration it's still far from clear what impact the woman coronavirus will have in the chinese new year ahead scott either al-jazeera beijing. but in the chinese territory of hong kong chief executive has declared an emergency that closing schools for 2 weeks and i think screening measures for those are arriving from mainland china. our response has reached emergency level i will personally have into department to meetings and we have a command center so we can get the views from the experts and come up with strategies in initiatives when we deal with this public health vent i think you'll understand that we need to be quick in making decisions then we can make decisions for the society of hong kong and adrian brown is in hong kong now explains what

these emergency measures will look like carrying 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 long 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 kerry 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 hannah and hong kong will remain suspended and of course all official lunar new year celebrations have been cancelled. in other developments the french automaker p.s.a. group says its repatriating employees and their families from the central city of la on where the virus was 1st found they'll be quarantined in another chinese city before they are actually brought back france is the only european country to report cases of a virus with 3 patients confirmed say 2 of them did not exhibit any symptoms when they arrived government has established a hotline for people who've returned from china and do have symptoms. syrian and russian warplanes have launched more as strikes against rebel held territory in a province and also in neighboring aleppo these latest writes come

a day off to government forces captured 2 strategic villages about 350000 syrians have been displaced since early december. well in iraq 5 more antigovernment protests as have been killed as police moved in on protest camps security forces clashed with protesters as they cleared the main camp and tahrir square in the heart of the capital baghdad which has been occupied since october it comes off the populace total souther said he no longer endorsed the protests $18000.00 of his followers to the camps osama bin laden is in the capital baghdad forces more on the reaction from protests as to those government efforts to end the sit in. this is when the flashpoint of scroope saturday's protest where protesters have been trying to stop the government forces opening up the offer a ridge this is the bridge that leaves do you square and we've been meeting people and talking to people who feel that they've been betrayed by the sudras who left.

they are saying they're going to continue their protests there have been multiple reports of injuries and some are saying that people have been wounded by not just live fire but also by tear gas canisters that the government forces are aiming towards their head. we are protesting against their corrupt government the iranian government so to speak they doesn't represent us we didn't vote for them the militias they are. each they are iranian they are iranian cocked militias we called on the united nations to intervene and help us from them so if you see they are assassinating could not be on the killing. of a lot of our activists political activists are disappearing every day we want their health of our of the world the. very heart of

there is the. wrong. word reaction. to the. many. other places around. since right in the security forces have been opening up the roads and bridges this is one of the towns with. him in the words there you square those are the allegations by the by the protesters here who say that they will continue their protests they're going to stay there until their demands are met. and a similar sense of defiance on her in lebanon it's been $100.00 days since protesters 1st rose up against a government demanding an end to corruption and a spiraling economic crisis there's no sign of ending either and last few hours protests of trying to storm the government headquarters in the capital they were pushed back by take gas and water cannon have been

a xena's have been struggling to contain the on rest but protest is accuse the entire political class of being corrupt saying the holder has more from outside government headquarters in beirut when it came up operation is underway. another night of unrest anti-establishment protesters at this time tried to storm a government palace over recent days they tried to storm a parliament building they managed to briefly breach the security behind us they moved a metal fence and now as you can see security forces are trying to hide in security reinforced security around government how those people are and a few 100 protesters were involved in the confrontation security forces that were very careful this time around they did not use rubber bullets they have been criticized by international human rights groups for using excessive force for firing rubber bullets at close range but this time around they did use excessive

amounts of tear gas as well as water cannon so they managed to disperse protesters quite quickly in fact they deployed hundreds of anti-riot police. the lebanese army you can really see feel the change in tactics for this new administration the scene for more militarized let me just show you what they've done around the parliament square they have set up concrete a place concrete slabs a barbed wire a closing really every road leading to parliament square in really a message of the fire and so we are staying in power but this is angry this is causing a lot of anger a lot of protesters say you cannot hide behind those walls we will continue our struggle on out the developments in washington white house lawyers finding donald trump a senate impeachment trial say the u.s. president has done nothing wrong in his dealings with ukraine the 1st time trump's legal team is address the trial and they'll have 3 days to make their case was

accused of a of abuse of power and obstruction of congress. castro how small the opening argument of president trumps a turning saturday focused on 2 main points that trump did nothing wrong when he asked ukraine to investigate former vice president joe biden a potential rival in the upcoming u.s. elections and that it's the democrats who wish to steal back the white house by hurting trump politically 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. polling this week shows trump's approval rating is the highest it's been since he

took office 44 percent of americans say he's doing a good job higher than when the ukraine allegations 1st surfaced and most instances when there had been political crises of course the president's popularity is a numbers go down in this case i think the president will actually be strengthened by this and especially after his acquittal acquittal is likely given most members of the senate jury are republicans and it takes a 2 thirds majority to convict get potential new evidence against trump continues to emerge harness and indicted ukrainian american businessman says he shared this audio recording with investigators they were a little over a year after the all of them were. to go ok that's the way it appears to be trump's voice ordering the firing of the u.s. ambassador to kiev democrats say corrupt ukrainian officials had wanted her gone those same officials then began smearing biden if you really want the truth you

want witnesses you want documents we hope our republican colleagues will agree with that democrats hope to convince at least 4 republican senators to agree to open the trial to new witnesses including some of president trump's closest advisers who have not yet testified the senate is expected to vote on that question next week if their answer is no then president trump could be acquitted within days time i do joe castro al-jazeera washington. more to come pain and grief and brazil as it marks the years since one of the world's worst mining disasters. and then rescued from the rubble of a hunt for survivors in eastern turkey after a deadly 6.8 magnitude quake.

hello there plenty of rain across northern sections of australia and of course we're still seeing some showers and thunderstorms really through these eastern section of new south wales and into queensland but it is to the north again see some pretty hefty totals over the next few days this area particularly in the northern territory we could be picking up about $100.00 and millimeters to nearly $400.00 in some areas and then into cannes as we go sunday on into monday just look at that yellow color vasser is where we could be saying about 400 millimeters of rain this of course could lead to some localized flooding the showers the thunderstorms continuing through more eastern sections of new south wales and time which is generally not too bad meanwhile into western australia look at this time which are 31 celsius in path on monday the next few days are proving very hot there are warnings out by the bureau of meteorology certainly for monday $39.00 celsius this is well above the average about 10 degrees above the average for this time of year but with them going to front coming through it will actually begin to bring

these temperatures down and so you can see by thursday if anything is actually below the average that we had up towards asia plenty of showers here in fact some very heavy amounts of rain particularly through southern areas of china working their way across into areas a japan as we head off into monday this again could lead to some low class flooding . a unique perspective on nigeria we have so much more with those dots know how to monies this most that we of. through the eyes of a celebrated african photographer to pollution in the torrential us moment in still being us what it is today. but 3 years on how has life changed. rewind ga 30 on al-jazeera.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera live from london alcopops stories president xi jinping says china is facing a grave situation in efforts to contain a deadly new strain of the coronavirus disease already killed 41 people and it spread beyond china's borders in lebanon protesters in beirut have been pushed back by to gas and water counted off to trying to storm government forces and white house lawyers defending donald trump at the senate's impeachment trial say the u.s. president has done nothing wrong in his dealings with ukraine. a rescue charity says that's been in 6 distress calls from vessels carrying migrants across the central mediterranean with 72 people say from an overcrowded wooden boat in the latest operation 59 people were rescued by the charity rescue ship the ocean viking

they were attempting the dangerous crossing from libya to italy doctors without borders says there are now $223.00 survivors on board the vessel meanwhile libya's national oil company saying that it's lost more than $250000000.00 in oil revenue in less than a week after many of its major facilities were seized tribal groups loyal to military commander took control of several coastal export terminals and southern oil fields just this month well that was production to fall by more than 70 percent after has been attempting to take control of the capital tripoli from the un backed government for almost 10 months meanwhile the french newspaper le monde is reporting new claims of saudi and russian influence in the libyan civil war in december officials from the un recognized government accuse moscow of deploying russian mercenaries to fight alongside holy fata according to these must work for a private russian security firm called wagner group and according to the newspaper

a source says the firm has received funding from saudi arabia among says wagner group employs anywhere between 302000 people it was created. at the beginning of the conflict with ukraine in 2014 and has also reportedly sent less than refight is to syria sit done in central africa jason pack as an on resident fellow at the middle east institute and founder of the consultancy libya analysis he says the story is consistent with russian policy well there's every reason to believe that the story in the moment is is accurate it follows in a chain of such stories and the russians are willing to use whatever leavers they have so they use some diplomatic lever's they give drones when that gives them influence they've used training to help us forces before and this use over the past 9 months of mercenaries is only a continuation of the reconnaissance and training that they had given previously i think the wrinkle in the lamont story that's worth pointing out to your viewers is

the question of saudi payment because we've known about both 300 or a 1000 but the idea that there are multiple huffed are backers working together and even ones that don't traditionally coordinate like the saudis and immoralities coordinate about libya matters all the time but the idea that saudi and russia are coordinating in such a direct manner that's a very interesting wrinkle to look at how they're influencing the conflict the leader of israel's blue and white party benny gantz is heading to the u.s. on monday to join prime minister benjamin netanyahu for discussions with president on all trump needs the largest single party in the israeli parliament but neither he nor his political rival netanyahu have been able to form a ruling coalition despite 2 elections last year and a 3rd scheduled for munch the 3 men are expected to discuss trump's only way to peace plan for the middle east you know while a senior palestinian diplomat has dismissed that peace plan as fraught chief

negotiator says the deal breaches international law this is actually the front of the century defraud or the century but that's the. they speaking about jerusalem being israel's capital no palestinian state no 96 of them borders the next station of the jordan valley and the ditsy shores and extension of the settlements legal system israeli settlements that that means. destroying all terms of her francis provided for to achieve peace between palestinians israelis dropping the 2 state solution of the radar screens and above all cancelling everything relating to international law and international agency. rescuers in turkey are searching for survivors from friday's earthquake that killed 29 people and injured more than a 1000. the figures will rise as rescue teams continue to search through the rubble of collapsed buildings the 6.8 magnitude quake centered near the town of several in

southeastern turkey and assume there is a nearby aliceville. this man is happy and relieved as his relative is pulled out alive from the straw poll she had been stuck on or the rock and debra's of a collapsed building for nearly 20 hours after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit turkey's ison province of. it is my mother the son rushes back through the rubble there are still 4 more people stuck down there. there have been more than 400 aftershocks in the region hundreds of emergency teams and security forces have been mobilized to provide aid and assistance. and the onlookers some of them are all macarius while others hope to hear from loved ones and so i think all buildings have to be replaced by new ones we need to tell each structures risk areas have been working here looking for and survivors buildings that have collapsed like this one were either badly

constructed or older the damaged would have probably history of earthquakes men to say turkey needs to do more now to ensure building safety turkey is among the world's most suspect reactive countries and sits on several active full lines dozens of minor earthquakes and aftershocks up here nearly every day. themselves don't kill just know when they're going to happen but it's the engineers and construct a duty to build compatible buildings for now on the 5 buildings have collapsed but there is no record of the damaged buildings in eleazer yet that's why many people are afraid to go inside their homes and live in the freezing temperatures it will be difficult to seek shelter in sports halls or other large places. al-jazeera and turkey a quick update from myanmar at least 2 people have been killed after artillery shells hit a village in the country 7 others were injured in the attack on king twang village

and western rack and state the victims were all civilians. and now to brazil where demonstrations are taking place commemorating the 1st anniversary of one of the worst tragedies in the country's history 270 people were killed when a mining dam in the city of goma dania collapsed today brazilian authorities continue the search for the bodies that were never recovered by no rapid i reports from burma dania. emotions are running high in plymouth the new brazil the demonstrators are marking the 1st anniversary of the 2990. a tragedy that claimed the lives of 270 people didn't see. on january 25th of last year it happened here. but this could have happened anywhere there are several dams at risk in the region but this is hypothesizing that should not exist anymore. some have arrived in through

a deal to pay their respects to the victims some have come to demonstrate against bali the mining company that managed the collapsed dam. are here in search of closure. each object lost a sister when the dam collapsed and like other victims however their bodies were never found. is just as. we count the hours and the minutes waiting for the final call to say they found this is all very sad but the saddest part is not being able to get. a proper funeral. firefighters from the city of say the collapse of the dam was so violent that people caught in the path of the mudflow were torn apart. in the media so. the volume of the mud flow was there i didn't see it all that volume broke apart houses and cars look good people who were hit directly not found with their bodies in one

piece in many cases we found anybody sometimes and sometimes a spinal rib a leg pieces of skin we had many cases of people found this way. over the past 12 months search volunteers have scoured more than 30 kilometers of mud flow while the majority of the victims of the disaster have been identified there are still 11 bodies missing according to the below the fire department 95 percent of the disaster area has been searched but that only includes digging 3 meters into the ground there are sections of the mud still where the debris is a steep a 17 meters authorities from the state of maine as you guys have vowed to continue searching until the bodies of all the victims are recovered. perhaps then can the community of them i can you finally close a painful chapter of what is regarded as the worst mining disaster in brazilian history. when measured up and. now on

sunday italian voters are heading to the polls in regional elections the results in a mere romagna and belong here are being watched closely the signs as the weather for deputy prime minister mattel selvin in his right wing likud party are likely to claim power when next holds parliamentary elections and again go reports on this now from. a few minutes ago italy's former deputy prime minister paid a visit to tully and to his young family home to be let in the premise he said to find out if their families youngest son was a drug dealer but the humiliation of a family targeted over a rumor was live streamed of a tale salvini social media page without any evidence to support the allegation. it is a tactic that has seemed to believe part of this quest to click bait his way to

popularity there was ever a time where the leak could dominate italy it would be now even some familiar faces such as from a prime minister silvio berlusconi also lending his support. historically has always been left wing it was a base for the resistance during fascist italy and it's proud of that tradition but right wing parties have been trying to break out of it in the long live. longer live longer live democracy long live the league are crucial to. capturing these left wing. if they manage to win. meaning is convinced labor pave the way to become prime minister. that would actually almost seismic change the political landscape. was strong on slogans but little offered in the way of detail it against the odds. the

league has powered through in the opinion polls part of the just behind the center left candidate but it has not gone unchallenged i pushing back has been the phenomenon of the so-called sardine movement left wing activists fearful of a far right takeover have been loudly voicing their opposition at the direction it is taking. the saudi movement the rise of salvini and his politics is in a warning from the past but. in this type of populism has the same roots as fascism we've always into the narrative because there wasn't an alternative but for my 1st demonstration in bologna he managed to cause a reaction all the italy. the saudi activists hope that they can assure in a new wave of politics that focuses on dealing with people's grievances rather than using populist tactics if they can take all the might of

a hard right party that has seen its support swell over the past 2 years easily see its power consolidated across the country sunny diagonal al-jazeera italy. that was more in everything right here including the spread of the corona virus al jazeera dot com. let's update you on that story out of china president xi jinping is saying that the country is facing a grave situation as it struggles to contain a deadly new strain of the current a virus that's killed 41 people around 50000000 are living in lockdown after china cut of transport links to some 17 cities 38 cases have also been reported in 11 other countries meanwhile hong kong's chief executive kerry lamb has declared an emergency closing schools and heightening screening measures for those coming in from the mainland. our response has reached emergency level ole

personally into department 2 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 vent 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 now to lebanon protestors in beirut have been pushed back by to gas and water cannon after trying to storm government headquarters it follows the announcement of a new cabinet this week aimed at ending months of unrest the demonstrators are saying the measures don't go far enough and they have vowed to keep up the pressure on syria and russian warplanes have launched more airstrikes against rebel held territory in the province and also in aleppo the latest strikes follow government forces capturing 2 strategic villages about $350000.00 syrians have been displaced since early december. 5 more anti-government protesters have been killed in iraq

where police have moved in on demonstration camps security forces clashed with protesters as they cleared the main camp in baghdad's tahir square which had been occupied since october and also comes after schacher said he no longer backed the protests. and then white house lawyers defending donald trump at the senate impeachment trial say the us president has done nothing wrong in his dealings with ukraine this is the 1st time that trump's legal team have addressed the trial where they now have 3 days to make that case trump is accused of abuse of power and obstruction of congress those the 2 articles of impeachment. that's it for myself in the team here in london rewind is up next focusing on the work of a celebrated nigerian photographer stay with us for that. on counting the cost a nation representing point 3 percent of the world's population but 5 percent of carbon emissions in australia give up its addiction to cold promises to go carbon

neutral by the year 2050 possibly looking at lebanon how long before it turned to be and then counting the cost on al-jazeera. hello and welcome to rewind. today with pulling back to 2013 when filmmaker katherina schroeder has been given a fascinating glimpse of nigeria by one of its most respected photographers george of saudi back then you'll see george's lens was focused on subjects ranging from oil pollution in the niger delta to the cultural legacy of nigeria's traditional monarchy.