0. boldin untold stories from asia and the pacific on al-jazeera. the old. one sided palestinians react with anger and dismiss donald trump's ripples middle east peace plan. be watching al-jazeera live from doha with me for the battle also ahead china why did this exclusion zone near the epicenter of the corona virus outbreak as hundreds of foreigners are evacuated. syrian government forces seize a crucial time from rebels in the ablative moments that sits on a major highway. and protest same khartoum as the u.a.e.

security companies accused of sending young sudanese men to fight in yemen and libya. we begin with the corona virus outbreak and hundreds of people from japan and the united states are returning home after being evacuated from china's whole bay province at the center of the outbreak the region is at the center of the sob break which has so far left more than $130.00 people dead in iran 6 oz and others infected that surpasses levels reached during the sars epidemic in 2003 and a comes as some commercial airlines have reduced the number of flights to china or stop flying there altogether when he has no reports. after completing an emergency mission a plane carrying more than 200 japanese citizens arrives and. from china they're

among the 1st foreign nationals to be evacuated by the government from wu han the capital of province which is under lockdown because of coronavirus. cure only i was very worried because the situation changed very rapidly honestly i am quite relieved that they brought his home swiftly with the chartered plane. upon arrival 4 of the passengers suffering flu like symptoms were taken to hospital as the crisis deepens more countries are looking to follow the lead of japan and the united states and begin airlifting their nationals out we have taken a decision the smalling to prepare a plan for an operation to provide some assisted departures for isolated and vulnerable mistrial ians in harm in the who by province in one hand where the outbreak started medical staff and hospitals are struggling to cope with the number

of cases which grows by the day to do so 2 completely new makeshift hospitals are being built to treat coronavirus patients with construction workers operating around the clock. and the government is sending thousands of extra doctors and nurses to a province from other parts of china well you hope so. i will tell my family the exciting news after i come back i've not dared to tell them now for fear that they would be worried about me. in hong kong where there are several confirmed cases of the virus the government has been criticised for being too slow to react it's now suspended ferry and train services to and from mainland china indefinitely the hong kong government has been coming under increasing pressure with many calling for the border crossings between here and mainland china to be closed completely which hasn't happened the partial closure is being welcomed by the resorts so a sense that it has come too late and isn't enough. the transport restrictions will

heat more pressure on the economy of the city which is already struggling after months of anti-government protests wane hey al jazeera hong kong. to geneva now where the world health organization is giving a news conference updating us on the corona virus outbreak speaking is that dr michael wian has the executive director of that america is healthy making sense probably and that's just announced that he will reconvene the international health regulations emergency committee on the new novel coronavirus 200-1000 inquiry tomorrow to advise him on all of the current outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern of decision to reconvene the committee is is based mainly on the. the evidence of increasing numbers of cases evidence for. human to human transmission that has occurred outside of china. and these developments in terms

of the evolution of the opening and the further development of transmission is of great concern and has spurred countries into action and we're very grateful for that action especially in china. what we know at this stage this this is still a very obviously a very active brick and information is being updated and changing by the hour it is clearly still centered in china with the overwhelming majority of cases still being reported from china. however there are $71.00 cases reported in 15 other countries of know within those cases is the majority of those cases of $56.00 are associated with travel to china and of those the vast majority of those cases are associated still would travel to walk. we're continuing to learn more about the virus. but in doing that learning as i said. we know

if the intense epidemic is centered in and who bay. we know that. many people are experiencing minor form of a list but still 20 percent of reported cases are reports of the severe and 2 percent of confirmed cases are reported to have died. the disease is obviously mainly responded to disease passing via droplets from one person to the other are mostly still through close contact. the source as we've said before is still unclear and investigations continue in that regard. prevention of this disease is based very much on what we recommend for research illnesses in general in terms of keeping distance from people who are sick and the use of risperidone in hand hygiene and much information is available on that on our website and has been disseminated to member states and the public and remind kirk of who's with me here and can give more detail on that. clearly we want people who are sick too

especially those with with coughs and difficulty breathing to seek health care as soon as possible. during our trip to china we were very impressed with the level of engagement of the chinese government at all levels. personally i think myself and the director general have never seen the scale commitment of an epidemic response at this level in terms of all of government involvement across all of the different of government with the tremendous support being poured into will hand and who buy from the central government with a highly organized emergency management structure the challenge is great but the response has been massive and the chinese government deserves huge credit for that response and for the transparency in which. they have dealt with this case in point

in terms of one of the the clusters of infection that we're currently working with germany to investigate it was the lab in china who contacted germany to tell them that they had to return case it was positive so china is not only helping to manage the cases in its own country but it is actively reaching out on an individual basis not only to deal with the other partners in the world to help them respond in a more effective way and as i said they are taking extraordinary measures in the face of what is an extraordinary challenge. they have in addition have agreed to a mission of international experts to work to go to china and work with chinese experts to better understand disease transmission to better understand clinical severity but i might add the chinese experts are involved in almost i think all of our expert networks and on a daily basis dialing into calls of the clinical laboratory and other aspects of

this sort of chinese expertise and scientific knowledge and understanding of this disease is contributing to the overall global expertise but we're very grateful that china will invite and team to help work with them side by side to learn more about this disease and learn more about how china is taking action. on our side we have brought together some of the best minds in the world scientists and nations disease trackers modelers the largest stations supply chain experts and many others from the public and the private sector around the world to examine what we know the questions we need to answer and whose place best placed to deliver on those answers and those responses. as i said these networks of experts include experts from china working directly on the response and that front line experience understanding what a front line condition and in will hannah seeing today is influencing the way in which we can manage potential coronavirus cases tomorrow elsewhere. we're helping

other countries to activate their preparedness plans we clearly have. force 4 levels in this response we have the intense response going on and on and who bay problems we have responses going on in other provinces in china where transmission is less intense the numbers are less but nonetheless a major response is under way to track cases contacts and try to interrupt chains of transmission we have the 15 countries who have imported cases they have to stop transmission some of them are doing that extremely well all of them are actually taking good action but some need some help and assistance with lab and other expertise and we're doing that from the behavioral but the whole world needs to be on alert now the whole world needs to take action and be ready for for any cases that come either from the original epicenter or from from other efforts centers that become established. we're sharing information guidelines and tools

in real time on our website and through our partner networks on how to manage the disease how to manage community investigations how to manage transmission studies how to manage clinical trials and are very grateful for our partners who work with us on the research and development blueprint for our partners who work. from the global outbreak alert and response network from the emergency medical teams network a many other networks around the world who are supporting us in this and we're also working to ensure the countries know what supplies to get what supplies to use through a disease commodity package which details to countries the right supplies in the right quantities for certain levels of of cases that they might expect so. those countries who have imported cases the whole well. should be on alert the

words of the w.h.o. today the world health organization's emergency committee addressing the media after a meeting early on thursday the 3rd time in a week the w.h.o. emergency committee has met to evaluate whether the new corona virus which has been spreading from china constitutes an international emergency they haven't declared it a global emergency so far the outbreak they say is still centered in china but there are 71 cases in other countries 15 countries in total 132 people have died from the corona virus and the number of cases has jumped to nearly 6000. there's turned to other world news now and palestinian leaders have rejected the u.s. president's plan for peace says one that we thrown into history's garbage donald trump's for polls to end the palestinian israeli conflict size with israel on many contentious issues protests have broken out in the occupied west bank but they were small with many palestinians saying they weren't surprised by the plan israel's

prime minister is on his way to moscow to brief the russian president but even that's now wants to an extent jordan valley and only israeli settlements on occupied land as soon as possible and those settlements are considered illegal under international law despite that reaction across the arab world the reaction across the arab world has been muted both egypt and saudi arabia say the support for the negotiations under u.s. auspices 70 deca is in gaza city where people say the deal was shipped their rights even further. despite the call for a general strike it is business as usual on the streets of gaza schools are open shops are open and people are telling us that they really didn't expect anything different to fulfill at the snow our rights are being sold in the international marketplace this deal is part of the global oppression of the palestinian people we don't have confidence in any of the politicians anymore both palestinian and

foreign our dream is to get our basic rights and to live in dignity like any other country you know. i believe this deal of the century is proposing less than what we have now and i think president mahmoud abbas will not accept it. politically the message from hamas is one of our white rejection and this is something that we're seeing a rare unity from all the palestinian faction whether it's a mild policy in islamic jihad here probably the message is that they outright reject it on the problem. is is is is. it's committed against the palestinian people again it's a lot of people. what people say is more important to them is the lifting of the blockade easing of their lives here in the gaza strip which has been under blockade by israel and egypt for over 10 years since hamas took power and here is the certainly this deal gives them no indication of that is something that they didn't

expect change they say they have no power to influence the politics and also this is i think why you see people almost an interested in this plan it didn't expect anything else and certainly will tell you that the life here at the moment is more difficult than it's ever been the united nations in 2012 issued a report saying that gaza would become and little by $22.00 and while it is now 2020 and there is no political solution in sight. proposal offers only a part of occupied east jerusalem as the capital of any future palestinian state. explains how that might look one of the main points made by u.s. president donald trump when he announced his peace plan was the potential for the creation of a capital of a palestinian state in the future that would be located in eastern jerusalem that brings up a whole raft of complicated issues now we are right now in occupied east jerusalem if you take a look over here to my left. that is all occupied east jerusalem if you take

a look over here to my right that is the separation wall and just beyond it just over the wall is a town known as this now what's interesting about this town is that in the past few hours it has emerged in israeli media outlets that israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has now suggested that would these be the capital of a future palestinian state now that is a proposal that has actually been made in years past and it is a proposal that has been rejected numerous times by palestinian leadership they have not yet commented on the on the reports that he is suggesting that the prime minister benjamin netanyahu is suggesting it now but it's not expected that they would find that agreeable all this coming at a time when already palestinian leadership has outright rejected the peace plan by u.s. president donald trump and early on wednesday the israeli military briefly close all the gates leading into some mosque in occupied east jerusalem they say it's because they suspected that a knife attack was about to be carried out

a number of palestinians have been arrested inside the mosques compound harry fossett is in west jerusalem with the details on the incident. the israeli police say they risky to force to say that they had suspicions of an impending knife attack of course it would not be the 1st such events they are they do happen with with some regularity in tension points such as entrances to the old city or to the ox a mosque compound itself they say they arrested 2 palestinian youths and that at least one knife was found and after that after a period of closure of gates into the old city and into the mosque compound itself there were some tensions and scuffles but those gates have now we understand been reopened but it does show there are heightened tensions in the security forces are on alert in the aftermath of the trump plan announcement in washington on tuesday

u.s. president donald trump is year to sign into law a new trade deal with mexico and canada it replaces the north american free trade agreement nafta and all this is happening as the president's impeachment trial continues in the u.s. senate's that's going lotto white house correspondent kimberly hocket kimberly the unveiling of the proposed plan for peace in the middle east the timing of the signing of this new deal raising quite a few suspicions. it is because 'd certainly this appears to be an effort by the white house to distract from the negative headlines that are occurring on capitol hill namely that the former national security adviser john bolton what's been called the bolton bombshell leaks from his upcoming book suggest that in fact one of those articles of impeachment that the president abused his presidential powers for political purposes the leaks in this book seem to indicate that to be the actual case than john bolton all those air essentially is confirming

it now this is something that the u.s. president does not want to be in the news so in fact even in advance of this very elaborate signing ceremony on what is a legislative achievement for this president he was discrediting john bolton but in just minutes before the ceremony the president now on the south lawn i'm looking that ceremony now underway touting the very big successes of this deal the fact that not only did he promise and carry through on this it's a 26000 campaign promise but democrats signed on to it too which just ironic given the fact they're not trying to remove him from office right and so what then is in this deal kimberly and how different is it from last. it's very different for one critical factor and that is that essentially before particularly in the manufacturing sector when it came to automobiles a lot of those parts under the old deal could be made in other countries so

outsourcing beyond canada the united states mexico this deal changes that now requires that 75 percent of a vehicle be made in one of those 3 countries this is going to restore jobs the politicians here in washington believe and really invigorated the sector of manufacturing that was decimated under the old agreement it also is going to help dairy farmers this quarter prove labor laws and even bolster some environmental protections this is a big deal for the president and it comes on the heels of phase one of that china trade deal but again very few americans paying attention to that headline instead paying attention to what's happening in the senate on capitol hill kimberly thank you for that committee how could life for us have the white house syrian government forces have made a significant advance entering the strategic aim portanova nomani needly province's spot of a push to retake the last rebel held area in the country tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting victoria gates and the report.

syrian government forces and the man in the south of italy province. they're looking for rebel fighters from hyatt to rare all sham and armed groups with formal links to al qaida the town is largely deserted and destroyed after months of bombardment. with. its recapture marks a significant advance in president bashar assad's drive to take back all of syria. the general command of the army and the armed forces announce cleansing these villages and towns and it is sure that the army will continue to carry out its constitutional national and moral duty in order to hunt down all remaining armed terrorist groups. rattled the man sits on the m 5 highway which links the capital damascus to syria 2nd city aleppo as well as to provincial capital such as hamma and before the war it was

a major trade route and the main access road to the north. the latest drive by russian backed government forces to recapture syria's last opposition on playful spot a new exodus on monday tens of thousands of civilians fled towards turkey's border turkish president red chip type has accused the russian government of breaking a ceasefire agreement. in the end it led there is now a movement towards our borders and we have taken our measures since december it's estimated that more than $350000.00 people have been displaced from ethnic province the increase in attacks is worsening the humanitarian crisis in northwest syria. but the asset government seems determined to retake the spinal piece of territory still under the control of opposition fighters victoria gates and be al jazeera and the un humanitarian chief says aids reaching civilians in northwest syria is not

enough. the cross border humanitarian operations have staved off a massive humanitarian catastrophe in the northwest but let us make no mistake about it civilians still suffering terribly on the current conditions humanitarian responders do not have the capacity to meet the level of need we are seeing we are receiving reports of tensions mounting because of the inadequate humanitarian response at least 34 people have been killed after an attack on a village in the democratic republic of congo rebels were the allies democratic forces targeted bedouin near the eastern city of beni early on wednesday officials say the a.d.f. is responsible for a string of killings in the east of the r.c. since november now a security company in the united arab emirates is being accused of deception after giving jobs to young sudanese men who say they were then sent to fight in wars

thousands of man is syria turned home but many others are believed to be still in yemen or libya morgan has a story from cotton when abbott got a letter from a recruitment company late last year about work in the united arab emirates he was delighted he would be able to send money back home to help his family he applied for a job as a security guard and was taken on by an iraqi company called black shield but when he arrived in up with he was in for a shock. you know when to go in to go we were taken to a military camp and given training on how to handle heavy weapons most of our supervisors were ever audi's it was not the type of training you'd get for a job as a security guard when i asked why we were being trained on heavy weapons if we were supposed to work as security guards they said we could be sent to libya or yemen to protect amerada installation was. abbott is now back in sudan after a campaign by the families of those who were recruited in all about 200 sudanese

men returned on tuesday and immediately went to the u.a.e. embassy how to tune to stage a protest outside they say hundreds of their fellow sudanese are still either in the emirates at training camps or in libya their crews meant a company in sudan has refused to comment. hundreds of young sudanese men thought they were going to be security guards in the way when they were taken on by black shield their families say they quickly discovered they were expected to fight as mercenaries in the wars in libya and yemen they're now appealing to the sudanese government to use its influence with the united arab emirates and bring all their sons home sudan's ministry of information says it's aware of the issue and is working to ensure the safety of all of those who are recruited. communication is ongoing some of us who are in the camps in the u.a.e. have come back our operations unit is working to gather information we were in touch with the families and embassies of sudan and the amorality authorities who have been cooperative and with the company in

a few days this issue maybe over. 90 all my son was one of the 1st to take up the offer of a job where they would then mind and we have nothing besides crying until this is not how i usually sound because of all the crying people console me and say he's not dead and when he started messaging us i told his sister to write and say if you're in libya a comeback. a sentiment shared by many of the mothers who say no amount of money is worth more than having their son 50 back home he will morgan al-jazeera hits home. the european parliament is set to ratify the agreement on the u.k. his departure from the e.u. the debate and vote in parliament will largely be formalities the withdrawal agreement has already been approved any committee stage and he's are expected to organize a farewell ceremony for their 73 british colleagues the u.k. will officially leave the e.u. on friday night. now indonesia's government has ended

a decades long conservation deal with the world wildlife fund for nature the 25 year range meant was axed after the government accused the environmental charity of allowing a forest where it operated to burn the u.s. has denied the accusation and says the move could threaten efforts to protect certain species last year who publicly criticize the government's response to devastating forest fires. australia's prime minister has used his 1st speech of the year to defend his country's coal industry he says he's protecting jobs but critics say call any climate change have contributed to the unprecedented bush tries continuing to bang under thomas has a report from camera. inside the prime minister was giving a speech about preparedness for future bushfires outside protesters well beyond the angry. now for a month in profits mark it's not anger it's just. fury no it's it's something.

that i haven't felt before we have a government that is not only in the night they are promoting fossil fuel they are promoting. protestors and environmentalists say the ferocity of australia's fires are evidence of climate change what frustrates many australians is australian politicians including the prime minister played down by the 3 climate change and the recent bushfires while pursuing a policy that could make climate change worse australia exports more coal than any other country it is the world's 3rd largest exporter of all fossil fuel products measured by the potential to emit carbon dioxide behind saudi arabia and russia and australia plans to grow its export significantly the government has given approval to the indian company adani to build a coal mine that was intended to be the biggest in australia and one of the biggest in the world it will initially export 10000000 tonnes of coal a year but the railway from the mining to the coast will have the capacity to carry

40000000 tonnes a year protesters fighting the project have targeted adanis contractors recently here in munich outside the german company designing its railway signalling system and they've also been demonstrating against financial backers making it hard for danny to borrow for the project the company is now financing its. self and it had to scale back its initial plans critics say such projects show australia needs to reverse its priorities stopping you mines would put upward pressure on the whole process make it less attractive to burn coal we're also incentivize money to flow into the alternative forms of energy that we need adani says criticism of its mining operations is unfair and other companies mines have government approval to become much bigger australia's prime minister has visited towns damaged by the fires but says he's committed to protecting mining jobs you will also not reduce

the number of qualified pair stations in the world to die by forcing the shutdown of the strike in coal mines or destroying jobs that go with them to other countries will just buy the cult from somewhere else critics disagree but just as the bush fires still rage so do the arguments over government policy under thomas al jazeera camera. play again i'm fully back to bill with the headlines on al-jazeera experts said the world health organization will decide on thursday if the spread of the corona virus from china constitutes a global emergency at least 16 countries have imported reported cases of the virus more than 130 people have died in china and iran 6000 others are infected that's a passes levels we sharing the size epidemic in 2003. countries who have important cases they have to stop transmission some of them are doing that

extremely well all of them are actually taking good action but some need some help and assistance with lab and other expertise and we're doing that from to be a tool for the whole world needs to be on alert now the whole world needs to take action and be ready for for any cases that come either from the original every center or from from other epicenters that to become established that protests are broken out in the occupied west bank against the us president's proposal to end the palestinian israeli conflict demonstrators in the town of bethlehem have been burning tires and throwing bombs saving ject at the plan put forward by donald trump which will see israel move to annex the strategic jordan valley and all israeli settlements in occupied land out to sea and leaders say the plan will be thrown into history's copy which but i'm not sure if. in the announcement we did not find anything new compared to what we heard 2 years ago it is sufficient

to say that 2 years ago we heard the jerusalem is the undivided capital of israel as claimed by them we cannot wait and wait and keep on waiting our position has not changed and after we heard this utter nonsense we say no no and a big no to the deal of the century turkish president or ship typewriter one says russia isn't honoring its agreements over syria he says turkey is running out of patients with the bombing in a province by russian backed syrian government forces is response as they recaptured the key rebel how city of mahratta will montauk in russia great to make it live a deescalation zone a present bashar assad's regime and its allies have bombarded the area for months now those are the headlines on al jazeera witnesses up next to stay with us.

the other he'd move along nothing. like the seriously ill.