separate the spin from the facts the misinformation from the johnson is so clear and tends to bring an engineer. with the listening post on out 0. the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu withdrawals his request for immunity from prosecution in 3 corruption cases. one child to 0 on life from a headquarters in doha i'm dating obligato also ahead china counts 106 coronavirus deaths as the u.s. and others moves to fly their citizens out of the outbreaks at the center of. a week of rain leaves parts of madagascar submerged beneath muddy waters more than 30

people have drowned thousands are displaced. and tension in the air waves britain is about to decide whether china's weiwei will be allowed to help build its 5 g. mobile network. hello the israeli prime minister is withdrawing his request for immunity from prosecution benjamin netanyahu issued a statement on facebook saying proceedings in parliament would have been a quote circus and he didn't want to take part in what he calls a dirty game while he's in washington for talks about the us president donald trump's middle east peace plan netanyahu was indicted on charges of fraud breach of trust and bribery in november he's denied any wrongdoing let's talk to michelle betteroff mitchell barack excuse me he's the c.e.o. of global research that's

a political consultancy he's joining us from west jerusalem thanks for your time on al-jazeera so what does that say yahoo have to gain right now by withdrawing his request for immunity from prosecution. well i think we have to listen to what he says which is that it has become somewhat of a circus meaning that connected is not a deception that really hasn't been in session for quite a long as week as 2 elections. israel is in the midst of its 3rd election we're in the middle of an election campaign and a lot of people even people that may believe that you shouldn't get immunity for that. belief that it's not a knesset's place right now to call itself back in session to discuss the immunity issue because when the middle of the cafe if you know the saying let the people decide but at this point you know it seems like the question. is become somewhat of a political one even though the justice ministry and the attorney general separate

from the 5 minutes ago he just feels that this is electioneering so he had originally asked for the immunity used to at least hold off until the election where he was going to make his case to the people and the same people a lot of the comments he says a service where it's become part of the election writing that i'm sensitive to getting together mean are they going to go is there something to be said about the timing of all of this as you're saying just hours before the knesset was actually due to vote on this it happens in an election cycle while netanyahu himself is in washington. unveiling the trump peace plan in a couple of hours time. correct so this is this is typical nixon yelling that he's doing and then only did as usual for what he thinks is a historic opportunity he slide and flew to washington he's met with presidential he's supposed to meet with the new. president with met with the opposition leader bendigo there was supposed to be

a meeting together but they separated that the fact is he's talking about has sort of activity which will change the pace of israel in the middle east and you know the opposition party is worried about whether he sits on bribes or not or whether he violated the law which is a reporter i think in the. issue is always that what i'm doing is for the future of the state of israel for generations and therefore you know. so the timing there is a 1st for him and that shows him really being a diplomat not only lastly he has if he were leaders here for the better because that aggressive about which so he looked like a state in the last place he looked like a state and that's what he i think he kind of makes looking at that but by calling it right before he had he just general said it's not important anyway what you say i'm going to pull my request and he can debate it anyway and on the issue of the election any indication that he will actually be in court before the election takes

place. you know that's the question that everyone has been wondering now for close to a year and certainly for 6 or 8 months the attorney general came out with the recommendation to indict and then with the pretrial hearing ordered to limit their indictment hearing that he was given so that the big question is where does the attorney general you know what the attorney general have to do if these are the very difficult but 1st of all the size of the appointed by the prime minister and literally being part of the prime ministers you know not staff but certainly a point when he's got to decide does he do it at all which is probably what the you know he has a legal right to do it and this has been going on for a long time but he risks looking at a fear in the election and then this could become an election issue where the basically the attorney general i see attorney general's decision to put that entire if there is an indictment again in the last seems pretty clear that one cannot be

administered in the government of israel if he's under indictment but one can be the prime minister is sort of a loophole nobody knows that was what the extended purpose was but a minister had to resign either so that so how would they be fought out because this is how i mean you say that there is a loophole so how how the best way to clear battle be fought out is i mean can netanyahu who is indicted form a government should he win the next election or is it as benny gantz says no one can run a state and at the same time manage 3 serious criminal cases. well maybe betty down the road a car seat you know refrigerator or indicted for the courthouse but. the question is whether legally can form a government that was a question that was posed to you know the attorney general even the supreme court and people have waited on it there's a reason the people should be able to decide that let's not look at the legality of this but it could be but nobody in israel i think really wants that in the i was

going to be elected in the courts are going to feel better and for me that matter if that is the will of the people when they say i was going to do what he's going to lay out how this is a bit of play if he's just going to do what he always does it's business as usual he said i continue to promote this trying to explain by next week will probably already have him by lawyers from the west bank and gaza due to the trouble so he's going to be in a whole different situation not only have the 2 weeks in a row looks like a major statesman by having the world leaders here by gore watching says but by next week i think the issue will be confessed and fixating israelis inside of israel from the palestinians who will again be seen as not only rejecting another possibility for statehood between israel and in the region but also increasing violence. and increase violence it never works in their favor it's particularly now an election within the right and that is we got to do what the palestinians well

must say about the israelis and we will wait to see what that report a peace plan details later on to mitch mitchell beareth we thank you for speaking to us from west jerusalem. now breaking news on the corona virus outbreak in china and hong kong leader caroline has just announced that high speed rail services to and from the mainland are being suspended and they're having the number of flights it appears to be an attempt to further isolate hong kong from the virus which has killed 106 people in china it's infected more than 4 and a half 1000 press conference. was underway a little earlier on meanwhile research johns hopkins university in the u.s. are mapping the outbreak the big red dots indicating the highest number of infections mainly said over province and elsewhere in the world cases have been confirmed in southeast asia australia the u.s. and europe thailand's just reported 16 infections while 2 more have emerged in

canada scott heiler is in beijing and tells us more about what restrictions china is putting in place we're looking at almost $50000000.00 people on a lockdown in central china we're hearing too that some of the train service here into beijing is going to start to be limited even further now this is a concern because we're looking at you know an extended lunar new year but it's coming to an end toward the end of the week and when you look at the train stations here a lot of people are coming back early even though the holiday has been extended because they're worried that there's going to be even more restrictions on the train service here into the capital so that's a concern to the what's becoming to look like an airlift by some nations of their citizens out of the epicenter of this coronavirus and will han we know that the united states is evacuating its consulate in the coming hours by aircraft they're also going to let citizens and he says that they can fit in what to leave on that aircraft as well in the coming hours japan is also going to have an aircraft to

leave. with any citizens that they want to get out now that's just a couple of countries and we know that in the works those are the ones we know about taking place over the next couple of hours we know that there are other nations also putting in plans into place france for one is very interesting because they're taking it a step further those citizens who are evacuated will face a 4 and 14 day quarantine once they make their way back to france so taking even a step further that's an incubation period for this virus that scientists have so far been able to tell. while the u.s. is disputing claims from the taliban that its fighters shot down an american military plane in afghanistan it crashed in a mountainous area of the province large parts of which are taliban controlled and pictures posted on social media show the burning wreckage of an aircraft which provides communications in remote areas spokesman for the u.s. special forces says there's no indication it was downed by enemy fire. syria's

government and its allies could be on the verge of a significant step towards their aim of winning back the last chunk of rebel held territory the bombardment of in the provinces intensifying it's triggering another exodus of civilians however towards the north nicola gage reports. families pack everything they are in and head for safety forced from their homes unsure where they're going for a fellow ever return many have already fled other parts of the country during syria's 9 years civil war. do you know my daughter is about to give birth and i don't know what is going to happen to her i don't know where we are going to live where you are going to go. this is what they're running from syria and russia are attacking rebel held from the air on the ground fighting has

intensified with reports of heavy battles between rebels and government forces. or a new drive by president bashar al assad to recapture the country's last opposition enclave in the northwest has sparked a new exodus on monday tens of thousands of civilians fled towards turkey's border . since december it's estimated that more than 350000 people have been displaced from the region but that the people can no longer shelling are many have been very patient and waited but today they will flood because of the regime's advancement syrian regime forces are raging closer tomorrow tell no man it's now largely deserted and destroyed after months of bon-bon meant but it sits on the m 5 highway which links damascus to syria's 2nd city aleppo the u.k. based syrian observatory for human rights says government forces have reached the

city's east in. northern and southern outskirts its capture would mark a significant advance in al assad's drive to take back all of syria. but as fighting escalates the human cost is also rising above i'm going to get all of them out which organizations here are totally powerless that's why we are calling on the un and other international associations to intervene in turkey which backs some rebel groups opposed to al assad's regime already hoists more than 3500000 syrian refugees this latest from bottom and could potentially lead to more soon crossing the border. gauge how does iraq. let's bring in a 2nd possible clue for an update from. what more turkish authorities saying about the refugees who are now moving towards turkey's border from syria and what kind of numbers are we talking about here. they're in the situation of the really

a great concern for the turkish government turkey which a country that has been hosting at this 3500000 syrian refugees across the country and currently is the numbers are hundreds of thousands that are by the turkish border because as the syrian government advances from south to the north the displacement goes from south to the north where the syria turkey border is located and that border has been sealed since 2016 turkey doesn't accept any more refugees from from syria from across its border but there is a huge pressure by the border the camps nearby the border around the area are totally if. the accommodation is not possible over there so turkey with all its emergency and disaster agencies and n.g.o.s is also prepared for for at home and flow whom an influx from syria which actually turkish government doesn't

want and turkey is not much ready for that but they are trying to they are doing some simulations in turkey's disaster management agency great to see the risks of a possible influx but a couple of days ago presents are drawn mention that turkey's trying to sort out the problem beyond the border inside syria by establishing some barracks. for the syrians who are displaced already in a live made of the he said that there is a turkey will establish some barracks made of bricks and the roof is going to be covered by tents and he also shared this idea with german chancellor angela merkel when she was here last week and they agreed on that but of course the. scope for the scale of the and when terrien tragedy in syria is actually now beyond turkey's

limits the turkish government financially nor physically. it is not that much able to manage the situation anymore as the numbers are increasing but ok according to syria response coordination group just very shortly in the last 48 hours 104-0426 families which makes 600-2300 people have been displaced in january 167131 people have been displaced by the syrian government's assaults and let them cross of agua thank you for that update. the pressure is growing from us democrats for a key witness to testify at donald trump's impeachment trial they want the president's former national security adviser john bolton to appear before the senate it follows reported revelations that trump ordered bolton to keep military

aid to ukraine frozen until it investigated a political rival we now have a 3rd witness who is apparently a direct witness to the president's timing a military aide to investigations about bolton we could not have made a more powerful case recalling him then the case the president's lawyers just did in trying to contest that link between military aid investigations so once again they underscored the importance of john bolton as a witness who would corroborate exactly what the uncontested evidence that the house put on shows that president trump used hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid to coerce an ally to conduct these political sham investigations now republican senator ted cruz though dismissed any need to hear from bolton saying the democrats had already failed to prove their case. i don't believe the testimony is necessary the house managers have a burden of proof

a burden of proof to prove their case they have fallen woefully stopped short the standard on the can under the constitution is high crimes and misdemeanors they have not demonstrated any law was violated and the president was entirely justified in asking for an investigation of corruption concerning ukraine and potentially hundreds biden and joe biden how does the cost to reports from washington. just democrats say the new information from john bolton that trump directly linked to u.s. security aid to his demand that ukraine announced investigations into joe biden could significantly bolster the impeachment case this is stunning. it goes right to the heart of the charges against the president ambassador bolton essentially confirms the president committed the offenses charged in the 1st article of impeachment that article is abuse of power for allegedly putting his

personal interests above that of the united states trump denies the allegation he's characterized bolton once his national security adviser as a disgruntled former employee who wants to sell more books i haven't seen a major script but i can tell you nothing was ever said to john but i have not seen a baby. i guess he's writing a book i have the answer to but several moderate republican senators appear to have been moved by bolton's revelations only 4 republicans would need to side with democrats to cold bolton to testify i think it's increasingly likely that the republicans will will join those of us who think we should hear from john bolton inside the senate chambers the president's legal team ignore the bolton development completely not a single witness testify that the president himself said that there was any connection between any investigation and security assistance a presidential meeting or anything else by the end of the week the u.s. senators will likely vote on whether to call bolton and other witnesses but with or

without witnesses the odds remain squarely in the president's favor it would take a 2 thirds majority of the republican controlled chamber to remove trump from office castro al-jazeera washington the u.k. government will decide in the coming hours whether to allow the chinese tech giants weiwei to be a part of fits 5 g. mobile network prime minister boris johnson is under pressure from washington to ban the company from being involved in the u.s. and other countries see its as a threat to national security let's bring in our correspondents following the story from london so what's the government likely to decides. well there in it's obviously an extremely sensitive and difficult decision for boris johnson's government to the roll out of 5 g. was supposed to happen more than a year ago that delay has led to

a lot more critics of china being able to present their case and they did so on monday in parliament where senior members of johnson's own conservative party. warns that this would be a security risk unlike any other $11.00 that well known member of parliament saying that it would be letting the fox into the chicken house now in the next few hours johnson will be chairing a meeting of the national security council ministers and senior intelligence officials but we've already seen some reports in the u.k. press that the decision will be to allow while way into the fall e.g. development but not into core areas that means it will be allowed to build things like a mobile phone masts and aerials but not into software development which some people see as the the crucially sensitive area boris johnson on monday insisted allowing her way to develop britain's 5 g.

network and the crucial thing is it's already in its 4 g. network he says that would be possible while protecting britain's security interests but also its economic interests and there's the balance that has to be struck yet and what about the balance with the u.s. and india because we know that the u.s. has been pressuring a boris johnson not to go ahead with this and sim ban the company from being involved so how does this affect relations between the u.k. and america. it's a really difficult one to predict might pompei oh the u.s. secretary of state is due here in london later this week but he has already called this choice for boris johnson a momentous one but we know what they think in the white house the u.s. administration has been urging britain not to let way into 5 g. development saying it would be a breach of sovereignty now in recent years the u.s. has been urging its allies in what's called the 5 eyes intelligence community

a number of different nations to keep china out saying that it's a clear security risk but behind that of course is the american chinese economic tussle which has been going on for some time so there are with locations whether the u.s. will turn around of in some way punish britain which is obviously seeking a favorable trade deal after bret's it at the end of this month whether that will happen or whether in fact those trade negotiations are going to be so complicated any way that this won't make a difference it's hard to tell ok we will wait to see what happens that in baba thank you. more on our breaking news out of hong kong this time which is tightening up travel to and from mainland china and that's due to the corona virus outbreak adrian brown is joining us from hong kong so there was an announcement made by the hong kong leader kerri lamb what more did she say on the measures the city was going to take. has been speaking during the past

few minutes at the building behind me the government headquarters here in hong kong and to everyone's surprise she has basically announced what amounts to a partial close your of the frontier between hong kong and china that hasn't happened before hong kong is going to greatly reduce the number of mainland citizens that are allowed to cross the border into hong kong it's not a total closure but there for instance going to have the number of flights between hong kong and and china on the mainland and you know there are hundreds of flights go from hong kong every day to the mainland they're not going to be hard they're going to greatly reduce the number of train presenters allowed to arrive in hong kong from the mainland to train stations are going to close a number of checkpoints are also going to close no more tour groups will be coming to hong kong for the foreseeable future but a lot of people will argue that it's actually too little too late because a lot of legislators in hong kong have been calling for

a total closure of the border something that they should should have happened you know several days ago and that she's left it perhaps too late and a kind of. numbers are figures are you getting out of hong kong because we know that china has said now there have been at least 106 deaths can you give us an idea about how perhaps quickly the virus is spreading in hong kong what are you hearing . well the problem we have here in hong kong is people simply don't believe the media reports they're getting from the mainland that's been borne out by the fact of course that the mayor of has now said that he's sorry that he was unable to release the information about the scale of this virus sooner because he needed to get approval from the authorities in beijing which means there was probably a couple of crucial days lost there here in hong kong that we still have no confirmed deaths so far we have a confirmed cases of this virus and 451 suspected cases one of those is in

a serious condition so now of course everyone's waiting to see whether these measures that have just been announced by carriage would in fact make much difference ok adrian thank you for bringing that update from hong kong. madagascar has seen a week of floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains at least 30 people have died in large parts of the northwestern china maro vi is submerged it's forced thousands to leave their homes priyanka gupta has this update. this is what a week of torrential rain has done to the people of marta way. their homes swept away paddy fields and rice stalks destroyed thanks the few belongings people like lisa have disappeared in the flood waters now she just wants to survive. i need food for my children and for me my children don't have any

clothes to see. we have nothing to wear. i've had to bar this. at least 16000 people have been displaced by floods across 7 regions of madagascar in recent days roads linking northwestern parts of the island to the rest of the country have been washed away and that's making it difficult to get aid into the area with most of the quene and cattle gone people are trying to salvage what little they can some a survivor and fish swimming on flooded streets then just over the net i am begging you to help past everything we have has been destroyed even our house has been destroyed a house made of bricks we had only recently built it so the government has declared a state of national emergency and there are fears the flooding in madagascar mainly why scoring areas may lead to shortage of food and malnutrition.

for missile the problem is food there isn't enough because their houses have been damaged the food and everything else is in the water they left everything behind the main thing is to survive now we have launched an appeal on television and with their owners. madagascar is one of the poorest nations in the world 3 quarters of its population live on less than $2.00 a day it's in the middle of a 6 month rainy season tropical storms are common at this time and so are cyclons which usually peak during february and march for these isolated communities already battered by rains and floods the coming weeks are expected to bring more uncertainty. dizzier police in france have begun dismantling a camp and removing migrants in the north of paris they say the camps are illegal and people will be relocated to temporary facilities many of the migrants are

waiting for decisions to be made on their asylum cases activists say hundreds of children and teenagers are among them italy's right wing leader. right wing illegally excuse me mateo salvini has admitted defeat in a q. regional election the former deputy prime minister campaigned relentlessly to win more than region and salvini had hoped to overturn decades of leftist rule there and bring down the coalition governments but the sitting democratic party governor won more than half of the votes a relief for the ruling parties. but all. but if you do if you're going to me it was he who tried to turn this election into a referendum full or against the national government i'm talking about. and i have to say i consider his behavior inappropriate and he's coming out as the big loser in the competition the reality is the citizens and the local communities took it as

a referendum on him and so he comes out but i'm. a soldier has been killed and a general wounded as a mexican military patrol intercepted a cartel drug plane that landed on a roadway traffickers were unloading as much as a 1000 kilograms of cocaine from the aircraft into a van in the south soldiers tracked the plane by radar and say the traffickers opened fire when they approached 2 suspects were caught. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera hong kong's leader carrie lines has high speed rail services to and from the mainland are being suspended due to the corona virus outbreak beijing's confirmed 106 deaths while infections have doubled to more than 4 and a half 1000 u.s. japan britain and others are working to get their citizens out of the chinese city that's at the epicenter of the outbreak. the

measures will be effective in reducing the number of visitors from the mainland since transportation services are required for the commuters we will scale back our transportation services 1st of all high speed rail services to and from the mainland will be suspended in terms of air travel the number of flights from mainland to hong kong will be slashed by half in terms of sea travel all cross border ferry services will be suspended. israel's prime minister is withdrawing his request for immunity from prosecution benjamin netanyahu issued a statement on facebook saying proceedings in parliament would have been a circus and he didn't want to take part in what he calls a dirty game he's in washington for talks about u.s. president donald trump's middle east peace plan and sonia who was indicted on charges of fraud a breach of trust and bribery in november he's denied any wrongdoing well the u.s. is disputing claims from the taliban that its fighters shot down an american military

plane in afghanistan it crashed in a mountainous area of jobs in the province large parts of which are taliban controlled pictures posted on social media show the burning wreckage of an 11 a aircraft which provides communications in remote areas a spokesman for the u.s. special forces says there's no indication it was downed by enemy fire. heavy flooding and landslides in madagascar have killed at least 30 people following a week of heavy rain the northwestern mar of oil was submerged forcing thousands to leave their homes and officials are warning flooded in rice fields floods excuse me in rice fields are threatening food security sections of some roads have been swept away making it hard to get help to the affected areas. so the headlines are radicalized youth. talk to al-jazeera let me talk about 2 of the biggest problems facing and they all the endemic corruption and we listen so if you

replace china as an enemy of the weather and that's really vendors we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that back to just 0. over the. corner of your market you. really know what i mean are you what am. i don't and i'm an. illiterate what you're mad. i'll leave anybody in there.