why people like dying for go on al-jazeera understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world so no matter what you will be using current affairs that matter to you. rockets hit the u.s. embassy in baghdad the 1st direct strike after months of close calls. to syria lie from headquarters and. also ahead donald trump lashes out at a former advisor john bolton who's apparently undermined his main defense of the senate impeachment trial of. basketball fans gather to pay their respects to kobe bryant after she his daughter and 7 others were killed in

a helicopter crash. china confirms more deaths from the corona virus outbreak the world health organization has sent its chief there for crisis talks. hello the us embassy in baghdad has been struck by rockets the 1st direct hit after months of near misses 3 rockets landed inside the compound in the heavily fortified green zone one struck a dining area during meal time and 3 people were hurt or only hours earlier iraqi security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to clear anti-government protesters from vera camp in the capital killing one person the crackdown began off to be influential shiite cleric. drew his support for the demonstrators. let's talk about this with imran khan he's joining us from baghdad 1st on the u.s.

embassy in the rockets not the 1st time the embassy has been targeted but perhaps the 1st time it was directly hit iran any claim of responsibility. no claims of responsibility but if we take a look. has been. linked to iran the mobilization of forces indeed the u.s. has already said all of the attacks in september. the mobilization forces iran this particular actually managed to get inside the embassy if you will to the initial perimeter of the embassy where those 2 rockets landed is actually quite deep inside the embassy building the residence so that's going to be very concerning to the u.s. the united nations and the u.s. of. the deal and provide security. 'd agreements however this is going to be as i say very concerning to the americans

. all these iranian but however there's been no claim of responsibility. but we've seen these types of attacks in the past when they have got close to the embassy we've seen. the u.s. against. these targets here and all of this is happening at the same time. trying to clear government protesters from. not only in baghdad but elsewhere what are you hearing about the protest movement today what happens next. continue to take place. in the cell phone gunman went into one of the parts and they started burning tents to try to get those protesters away hey it's going to get out of the way so you get a glimpse about 2 square is that right. oh you got this thing the police

the protesters what's happening is there's this kind of. protesters here for exactly a square are going to come on the square where they are throwing rocks at the police riot police they're firing back. in the last hour we have actually had live fire take place as well now the idea is to try to hold the protests is going to the authorities. the protests is a very just trying to keep. all the parts as we've been so. lucky to keep going until the problem of the protests is. all they dispersed from that area these protests have been going on since a lot of the bridges. the main roads have been shut and that's concerning for the iraqis indeed. has had a sense of frustration in his speech at one point he did say either there's

a government in iraq or there is. now donald trump has criticized his former national security adviser who appears to be undercutting the u.s. president's impeachment defense the new york times has obtained a draft copy of a book written by john bolton he reportedly wrote that trump told him to tie ukrainian military aid to an investigation into his political rival democratic hopeful joe biden so this holly geisha is at the center of efforts to remove trump from office bolton has said he's willing to testify at the impeachment trial and here's what trump said in response on twitter i never told john bolton that the aid to ukraine was tied to investigations into democrats including the bidens in fact he never complained about this of the time of his very public germination if john bolton said this it was only to sell

a book. and the leader of the democratic impeachment manager adam schiff tweeted this the president blocked our request for bolton's testimony now we see why bolton directly contradicts the heart of the president's defense if the trial is to be fair senator as must insist that mr bolton be called as a witness and provide his notes and other documents peter mathews is a professor of political science at suppressed college in the u.s. and he says the president can't resort to arguments about national security concerns to prevent bolton from testifying so many presidents have used the national security come of age to actually hide the truth which was not a national security issue in this case on the usenet is not a national security issue if it's what bolton saying is true we need to be exposed so we can actually clean up our democracy and abide by the rule of law it's all about the rule of law is the president by the law or easy not under the law like everyone else i believe the 2nd is true and this bolton to us will make a big difference i think they should go forward with it i think this is

a lightning bolt this very well could be the smoking gun that we'll see if we get bolton bolton can actually testify and if they'll if the senate will vote to bring him because he wants to be subpoenaed so he can testify but i think there's a good chance if this comes out even more and discuss more in the news as it's being done that the american people will say look we want to have witnesses especially john bolton now that he's such a person who is very close to the center of all this action and we want to know what the evidence is and we can have evidence on this you have witness so i think there's a good chance that a few republicans might bolt change their position and vote with democrats to require a subpoena or bolton. basketball fans around the world are mourning the loss of superstar and being a player kobe bryant who has been killed in a helicopter crash in california his teenage daughter and 7 others on board also died reports in calabasas just outside los angeles. kobe bryant's helicopter crashed and disintegrated on this hillside in calabasas outside los

angeles witnesses said there was heavy fog and poor visibility in the area at the time of the accident. resident paula dolan heard multiple explosions before the helicopter went down wired one bang one it was in the air and then a 2nd their 2nd bang as it was just sunday and then i heard a huge crash on board with a 41 year old retired superstar and his 13 year old daughter giana as well as 7 others including the pilot police have not released their names there was a white speculation as who that energies are however it is being entirely inappropriate right now to identify anyone by name until the coroner has made the identification through their very deliberative process and they've made made note of patience and next of kin. the cause of the crash is unknown the helicopter

a sikorsky $76.00 b. has a robust safety record federal crash investigators will search the wreckage and war our team will be looking at the history of the pilots when whatever crew was on board will be looking at maintenance records of the helicopter bryant's prowess thrilled fans in l.a. and beyond for 2 decades. a crowd has gathered here below the crash site many people are wearing lakers colors purple and gold some people say it's as if a piece of their lives have been ripped apart even more than you can imagine and you can put in words just the passion and the grit in the sweat and blood and he's giving to lausanne just for the basketball family his i can say of young words see them with an eye it all everyone loves dumb l.a. is very sad right now he is just human he was not great player that's

a reason why i got into baseball kind of and that's why i haven't changed and it's still like unbelievable for me to say that kobe bryant is not here with us anymore it's just tragedy it's just it i'm no words honestly. president donald trump tweeted bryant was one of the truly great basketball players of all time the loss of his beautiful daughter giana makes this moment even more devastating president barack obama an avid basketball fan said koby was a legend on the court and was just getting started in what would have been just as meaningful a 2nd act amid an outpouring of sorrow from players from across the spectrum of sports players from the euston rockets and the denver nuggets held a moment of silence before their game on sunday players looked down shaking their heads he leaves behind a sport that is grieving

a city in mourning and a legacy of greatness that will be remembered as long as basketball is played robert oulds al-jazeera calabasas california. well the chinese prime minister the chief chang the premier that is has met medical staff and residents of han the epicenter of the corona virus outbreak lead is now on his way to beijing to meet the head of the world health organization as the number of people killed by the virus rises to 81 more than 2700 are infected since the disease emerged last month and the chinese government has announced its budget saying nearly $9000000000.00 to fight the outbreak and its extended bellew or new year holiday until next sunday scott heiler has the latest on beijing's efforts to contain the outbreak. and the government here as we heard is has taken it to the top levels of government on how they're going to deal with the coronavirus

situation actually the premier he's the 2nd most powerful government official here in the country premier league is in charge now of the government's efforts to control the coronavirus situation to give you an example of how these mechanisms go into place that try to prevent the further spread of it we're in front of a hospital here in central beijing there are 220 year olds inside 20 something year old inside man and a woman they traveled from who province about 4 or 5 days ago they've been in the hospital since that's because when they went to a hotel they took their temperature and it was elevated so they've been put in here we spoke with the woman on the telephone and she said she's going to be in here for probably another 10 days so it's that 14 day incubation period sometimes can be asymptomatic that really has raised the concern about the spread of this virus so this gives you an idea of just how seriously and how conservatively the government is taking the situation here. still ahead on al-jazeera coming up in just a moment the arms race a report finds that china has grown to become the world's 2nd biggest weapons

producer. never forget the plea from the last survivors of the nazi concentration camps 75 years on details coming up. ahead of them all still is on the way across into western areas of europe in the meantime we're still dealing of course with the aftermath of what was gloria that now well as it takes another stills as want to sway to the eastern side of the mediterranean but look at all this cloud piling in across the west but we're still seeing scenes like this this is the southeast of france you can barely see the look at all this debris all of this washed up in those. really strong winds that came through nickols the trench rains as well just look at it it's unbelievable to think that actually that is the coastline as. we continue through monday it's pushing in

across much of western falls into the low countries southern areas of the u.k. and some very strong winds again we've got wind warnings across areas of france right there crawls into germany not generally throughout much of spain as i say but if you want care in the eastern side of the mediterranean into when she flows across into turkey of the next couple days and we have no pushing on. that still not that cold hovering about freezing on cheese day full. at about 7 degrees celsius in london so down into northern africa we've got a fair bit of cloud on those coastal areas but the winds a fairly brisk air as well so feeling that cold just 16 and robot for the next couple of days maybe 18 on tuesday but feeling cooler than the average. of the still navigating dangerous rapids from the time we depart to the time we finished scared to the fish and dicing with death. i'm afraid of cooling i'm afraid

of dying but if i don't go accompanied my family to meet the men who go to the stream just to make a living. you have to be a school swimmer otherwise it's a risk and you told vietnam on al-jazeera. hello again the top stories on al-jazeera this hour the u.s. embassy in baghdad has been struck by rockets the 1st direct hit after months of near misses one hit a dining area during meal time 3 people were injured. when president donald trump

has denied claims reportedly made by his former national security advisor john bolton according to the new york times bolton was told by trump to a military aid to ukraine to an investigation into joe biden. won a basketball is greatest players kobe bryant has been killed in a helicopter crash in california the former los angeles lakers player and his daughter were among the 9 people who died bryant was 41 years old. now protesters in lebanon are planning to try to block politicians from getting into parliament to debate and vote on a new budget the country's economic problems have become much worse since its political crisis began last october sara hierarchs reports from beirut's. ali is struggling to find a job after being made redundant last year he's one of many victims of lebanon's financial crisis worried for his future he's been taking part in anti-government

demonstrations doesn't come out the government needs to put its hand our had it has to look after us enough they're fighting corruption we just want to live the biggest challenge facing lebanon's new government is its naked lapsing economy it's keen to ratify used soon as possible the 2020 fiscal budget agreed upon by former prime minister's saddle how to use government last year now going on is one of the most indebted countries in the world with a public debt burden of 150 percent of its gross domestic product or g.d.p. its projects a deficit of 7.4 percent of its g.d.p. far larger than the a point 6 percent originally planned this year's budget is $10400000000.00 it plans to cut government spending by $666000000.00 member of the finance and budget committee alone says the budget focuses on reducing government expenses and improving its deficit but will have to address the so again it's a restructuring of the debt the way or another will have to go into ending the

deficit of electricity and go for international help in order to secure some liquidity while the boat is due to go ahead opposition members say it's unconstitutional. there are a lot of violations this new government has no right to adopt the budget before it gets a vote of confidence in parliament. after government says the budget set last year is binding and it must push ahead with it quickly to save time and money not everyone believes though that last year's budget plan won't work with the current situation in the country i look at it as being a very thing really thinking about why. because it's just reading an expected axis yanni total. exceeding total expenditures which is not very realistic which is not acceptable last week newly appointed finance minister as he

was in a set of priorities to secure $4.00 to $5000000000.00 the soft loans from international donors to buy wheat and medication the budget is the 1st symbolic practical step. practical but there's that have to be other steps after that lebanon has a lack of foreign currency and it imports at least 80 percent of its needs since october demonstrators have been calling for sweeping reforms to deal with the crippling economic crisis and widespread corruption. and let's not bring in sara she's joining us from beirut there she was a sarah will talk us through the process today and tomorrow because it's a highly significant session. yes the pats a camera can just gone over there slightly you'll see that there are protesters there some m.p.'s are trying to get through to the parliament and they've been blocked by the protesters that just gives you an idea of how angry protesters here are they don't want this they don't win this vote to happen there are several reasons for

that which we'll speak to one of the protesters later but this vote is due to take place in less than an hour on this but it was also approved by the previous government and the former prime minister saad and how do you see this thing has been delayed a number of times and they finally decided to be able to meet today now pretty sisters here here because of course saying they're very angry at the economic situation the government is seeing this budget over at least ratifying this budget as the beginning of a rescue plan for the country which is in a middle of an economic crisis now one of the things that the opposition members have been saying is that this meeting is actually not considered legal and this is one of the reasons why the protesters ahead now most of the protesters have turned up they wanted to create a human chain they said around parliament square 'd are you saying here there are some more m.p.'s are trying to come through in the protesters are trying to go

about them let's just have a listen and. oh yeah he's here every. morning all right the nation by have a right to stay here at this busy line who says that he's here for a reason say why you here what is the reason why you are trying to stop the invasion he gets into parliament polje to the court and order to $6932.00 with $31.00 mainly $69.00 states with the parliament and assured in a session and the only thing that they should be doing is giving the. today. they're separating the constitution as they like they're not listening to people. what they're doing is they're binding. governments and. we're basically here to say the constitutional facts are not going to stay on the problem and not if its budget from the film a couple of lines an issue because they're tying their agenda. how do you hold a whole cabinet and what they're trying to do is implement it financially now not

even politically. going to control them financially and that's what we're doing right now so are you saying that you're seeing that this is just to keep. on so we get early elections and we get the previous parliament out this is going to continue to be. their policies. that just gives you an idea as to why the protesters are trying to stop this from happening the new government is very keen to get this through they say it's really important they need to reduce government spending as much as they can with this new budget now this budget last year with the previous government they had 60 percent deficit and i'm saying it's 7 percent. they're also quite keen to try and get some international. all right. new research suggests china is now the world's 2nd biggest producer of the stock

international peace research institute looked into 4 companies and found a clear shift from a decade ago when china relied on arms made elsewhere so it says beijing is producing a wide range of weapons including drones that have been used in conflicts in libya and yemen and it estimates that china is now selling nearly $70000000000.00 worth of munition every year those weapons are largely going to pakistan bangladesh. me and maher speak to tang and he's an international politics and economics commentator he's joining us from beijing thanks for your time with us on the al-jazeera and that report by sipri however those highlights the fact that there's no real transparency when it comes to official statistics from china why do you think that is well most of the entities they're referring to are state owned ditties and therefore they're they're not subject to

the same kind of reporting requirements the swedish institute as well respected it's been issuing ports since the mid sixty's they have kind of compiled what they think is the case there's been no official comment from. the chinese government as to its veracity though and the report also the say that this is a clear a shift from a decade ago when china was relying on imports what do you think is behind the shift. well quite frankly i mean there's been a number of shifts in military policy within china 1st off they've reduced over that period domo 600000 troops but they put more money into modern rising the army the 2 aircraft carriers are in production the one they had bought those are big ticket items as are rockets getting the higher advanced rockets and keeping up with the kind of drone technology that you were for earlier but remember although

china may be rising in the ranks of manufacturers in terms of arms exports a very very small amount compared to the u.s. . and e.u. but but the concern there particularly when it comes to exports is that by a beijing has not signed on so many of the arms control regulations including the arms trade treaty and by the u.n. general assembly in 2030 and it hasn't signed onto it just yet so what does that mean in terms of holding china and weapons exports accountable do you share people's concerns. well manufacturing exports are 2 different things that i want i want to stress here the fact that china is a major arms manufacturer does not translate that there are major arms exporter as i said there are miniscule amount in when you compare it to russia the u.s.

in particular the u.s. now in these arms control negotiations you'll note that that has not prevented the u.s. from selling massive amounts of arms in fact the world armaments are up 4.3 percent a lot of that is being fueled by the us which has the top 9 no i'm saying top no not top 9 out of the big 20 who are exporting and that in terms of companies so right now it's it's really incumbent on the world to come to some sort of new understanding about how these things most of china's exports are going 95 percent are going to asia and africa they're not going around the world it's not a kind of sell to anybody kind of situation as you have in other places europe in america. even though the report does say that they are selling or providing weapons to libya and yemen but we'll leave it there in our tank and we thank you very much for speaking to us from beijing now nearly 200 holocaust survivors are at

a ceremony in auschwitz birkenau camp in poland 75 years after it was liberated these survivors are laying wreaths at the execution wall of what was nazi germany's biggest death sites more than a 1000000 people mainly jews were killed there between 194-1945. with their numbers dwindling this could be the last major anniversary attended by those who lived through the camps horrors so a whole reports what was once a factory of death has for 75 years been a factory of remembrance some of the artifacts of 1100000 lives most of them jews but also poles roma jehovah's witnesses homosexuals and prisoners of war . these are the places where they froze and starved where they were experimented upon huddled together and killed this is what is left behind but only a dwindling few who know how it felt 94 year old leon vine tribe

was 18 when he was separated from his family at auschwitz you can imagine a son of their love of him my father i have 4. sisters i was the fear. is. how exhausted i was 8. months of remember one will think of what happens with my mother my sister. i didn't. talk. the same as a guest chamber is killed. and the amount of. internet there are fewer and fewer survivors left to tell their stories the bricks and mortar will survive them of course as a visual reminder to the millions who visit each year but quite soon that living

connection to the horrors of the holocaust will be lost is the 1st time is there the head in the history of mankind such work happens here in our this in their field killings to kill a whole nation for 3 quarters of a century those who survived have been around to tell the world that what happened here must never be allowed to happen again when they are gone birkenau will be left with one ultimate purpose that no one should ever be allowed to forget jona whole al-jazeera auschwitz birkenau death camp. in libya at least 11 soldiers from the un recognized government have been killed near misrata forces loyal to warlords valley for half that were trying to advance on the town of grain misrata libya's 2nd largest city it's home to groups who oppose. after long since offensive to

seize the capital tripoli in april last year a spokesman for halftime says there is no political solution to the conflict. went to moscow and before that we went to several other countries he would not searching for a solution we know that the solution is of the the solution is in the ammunition and in the hearts of our men still we always try to listen to the international community and the mediators until the world is fully convinced that we are fighting criminal and terrorist groups. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera the u.s. embassy in baghdad has been struck by rockets the 1st direct hit after months of near misses 3 rockets landed inside the compound in the heavily fortified green zone one struck a dining area during meal time 3 people were hurt only hours earlier iraqi security

forces used live ammunition and tear gas to clear answer government protesters from their camp in the capital killing one person the crackdown began after the influential shiite cleric. withdrew his support for the demonstrators. donald trump has criticized his former national security advisor who appears to be undercutting the u.s. president's impeachment offense the new york times has obtained a draft copy of a book written by john bolton he reportedly wrote that trump told him to cranium military aid to an investigation into his political rival democratic hopeful joe biden this allegation is at the center of efforts to remove trump from office bolton has said he is willing to testify at the impeachment trial. on the chinese premier league has met medical staff and residents in the center of the corona virus outbreak is now on his way to beijing to meet the head of the world health organization and the number of people killed by the virus rises to $81.00 more than

$2700.00 are infected since the disease emerged last month the chinese government has announced its budgeting nearly $9000000000.00 to fight the. extend of the lunar new year holiday until next sunday one of basketball's greatest players kobe bryant has been killed in a helicopter crash in california the former los angeles lakers player and his daughter were among the 9 people who died bryant's was 31 years old protesters in lebanon are physically blocking politicians from getting into parliament to debate and vote on a new budgets of the a budget was discussed and demanded by the previous administration and many anti-government protesters have rejected it it's. yesterday for the headlines there are more news coming up 1st at all thanks for watching but i talked to al jazeera let me talk about 2 of the biggest problems facing and they all the endemic

corruption together we listen so if you really put place china's enemy the world in the world and that's really then yours we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories the back to 0.