and challenge them to some straight talking political debate here on al-jazeera. china says the corona virus has spread to all 31 mainland provinces as the death toll jumps to 170. to watch al-jazeera life from a headquarters in doha and to you know again to also ahead the white house moves to block a new book by the former national security advisor john bolton which reportedly implicates donald trump. protests and khartoum a security company from the u.a.e. is accused of sending young sudanese men to fight in yemen and libya. and

a healthy appetite for a new food cards how argentina is fighting malnutrition among low income families. hello the corona virus outbreak which has killed a 170 people infected nearly 8000 across mainland china has now spread to every one of the country's 31 provinces that comes as the world health organization prepares to hold another urgent meeting later on thursday to decide whether the outbreak should be considered a global emergency chinese health officials gave out more details in the last hour . after the outcry china has been in close communication with the world health organization other countries as well as the regions of hong kong and macau and taiwan we have reported and circulated epidemic updates and shared the genome

sequencing of the coronaviruses soon as it became available president xi jinping has expressed china's willingness to work alongside the w.h.o. and its national community to safeguard regional and global public health let's bring in scott heiler he's joining us from beijing so we'll be waiting to see what the world tour or helder or health organization says or declares later on scott but in the time being how concerned are authorities where you are corona virus is now spread to all of the provinces extremely concerned that in you know we've you know a couple days ago president xi jinping has referred to this as a battle and that was reiterated again today in that health ministry press conference and you know the very top level the government was assigned to this to dealing with this situation several days ago earlier in the week prime minister the chuang actually went down there was. city to help kind of rally the troops if you

will because it's really being kind of when you look at listen to the wording it's really a war that they're trying to fight here now what's very interesting also you know we got the top of levels of government and something that came out that's quite interesting that any government official local government official any government official who is not following the rules the mandates of this organization by the special group to combat the coronavirus they will be severely punished as the wording they used so obviously they're taking it very seriously they're telling everyone but meet the very top all the way well down to the bottom of the government to take this very seriously or face severe punishment and other countries scarred as well very concerned about this and we see them evacuating their citizens from china. that the airlift continues from mohan now we know that americans and japanese have been taken out of country that happened over the last day or so we know that the u.k. is probably going to do its own airlift coming later today on thursday we know that

indonesia has joined the growing list of nations that are taking their citizens giving an option for their citizens to leave han and in a lot of these cases to what's happening once they do evacuate and they go to their home countries they're going to be in corn and obviously they're screened several times a screen before they get on the aircraft but once they get home a lot of these nations are putting the people there may be asymptomatic even after they're tested putting them into quarantine because a lot of concern around this virus is the fact that not much is known about it obviously scientists are working pretty much around the clock to try and figure out vaccine we know that there is some progress on that but there isn't has been developed at it to try to figure out exactly how it spread so a lot of countries not taking any chances putting their citizens in at least 14 decorum teen once they're airlifted out of one ok scott hydra thank you for that update so one area taking extra precautions is hong kong that's where nearly 300

people died during the sars epidemic in 2003 crowds of people have queued outside pharmacies there hoping to buy the last thoughts of face masks and high speed rail and cross border ferry services to the mainland have been suspended but with hundreds of thousands of people set to return from chinese new year celebrations trade unions. new year celebrations excuse me trade unions are threatening to go on strike unless the border is shut completely when he has more from hong kong. there's a lot of concern in hong kong that the situation could get worse here so far the numbers are fairly low and of being stable for a few days now the number of confirmed cases has gone up by 2 to 10 but there are hundreds more who are still being tested and monitored for possible infection with corona virus or therapies are saying the next 14 days or so will be vital they

believe that that is the maximum period of incubation for this virus and this of course is coming at the end of the lunar new year holiday which officially has ended here in hong kong but the mainland china it is being extended for the rest of the week he's here believe that there are as many as 300000 hong kong residents who have traveled to mainland china for that holiday period many of them may still be in mainland china others may have come back in the last few days so of course there is a concern that that number of confirmed cases of infection here in hong kong may rise in the days ahead. u.s. democrats are stepping up their calls for witnesses to testify the impeachment trial or president donald trump ahead of a crucial senate vote on friday the latest day of the hearing was dominated by arguments over a still to be released book by former national security advisor john bolton which

could implicate the president's height is ok to reports from washington. donald trump's defense team has a novel argument for his acquittal that the president asking ukraine for dirt on a political opponent may be in his personal interest and also in the interest of the united states making him immune if the president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest that can not be the kind of quid. whoa that results in impeachment democrats prosecuting trump say his intent was purely for political gain so all could prose are not the same some are legitimate and some are corrupt and you don't need to be a mind reader to figure out which is which for one thing you can ask john bolton john bolton trump's former national security advisor reportedly claims in an upcoming book that trump directly tied his hold on security a.j.

ukraine to his demand for investigations into joe biden in a letter obtained by al-jazeera the white house warns bolton not to publish his book without deleting classified information on twitter wednesday trump said the book was nasty untrue and all classified democrats want to call bolton as a witness they'll need support from 4 republican senators to make that happen they vote no they're saying this is a sham they're saying we don't want to hear the truth what does that say to america about this body. meanwhile someone else was all but begging for senators to call him to testify. from donor left parness says he was dispatched to ukraine by trump's attorney to stir up dirt useful for trump's reelection parness is under federal indictment for campaign fraud and says he came to the capitol wearing an ankle monitor to make amends. democrats that acknowledged getting republicans to agree to witnesses is an uphill battle that question will be

put to a vote friday if the answer is no trump could be immediately acquitted by joe castro al jazeera washington. israel's prime minister is due to meet the russian president within the hour it's a brief him on the u.s. plan for the middle east donald trump's proposal allows israel to annex large parts of palestinian land benjamin netanyahu has presented the plan as a vindication of his leadership and it's expected to boost this election campaign ahead of a march folks very fossett reports from western this is historic and this you became the 1st world leader to recognize israel's sovereignty over areas in judea and some areas that are vital to our security and central to our heritage the soaring music and off camera voiceover had all the hallmarks of a campaign video promising israeli sovereignty in the occupied west bank but for

benjamin netanyahu a day after what he had turned a history making event in washington the breaks have been at least momentarily applied he had promised to hold a vote in cabinet on sunday on an exciting the jordan valley and illegal israeli settlements in the occupied west bank but the united states is now making it clear that it wants further coordination before the process begins so does this hamper netanyahu election campaign one former israeli diplomat thinks not 1213 full day difficult work he did in creating the split so that you know who is behind it so if there is another move with which they can help him be quiet let my government do it . with it we'll have an overwhelming majority of americans without stopping but netanyahu isn't the only one trying to make electoral capital out of the announcement his defense minister the head of a rival right wing grouping of parties said an exception had to happen now not after. election. i've ordered the formation of

a special team to implement the application of israeli law and sovereignty on all jewish settlements in the same aria the jordan valley and the northern dead sea the team will start working immediately. while the israeli left has rejected the plan netanyahu is main centrist challenger benny gantz has endorsed it but it does risk shifting his campaign away from its previous focus on netanyahu indictment in 3 corruption cases this plan coming just after the official announcement is indictments are being filed with the truth the district court means that he will he now has hold of the of the agenda of the narrative and it's certainly something that they want to continue to push the consequences of this deal with its provisions for israeli annexation for the literal walling off of any future palestinian state from the heart of east jerusalem could be felt for years but here in the midst of yet another israeli election campaign the timeline being focused on is much shorter the next 32 days until israelis go to the polls again very force at

al-jazeera west jerusalem still ahead on al-jazeera coming up in just a moment a standoff in guinea as security forces and protesters battle in the streets of the capital. and a test for french law 3rd world giant total be held to account for actions in western uganda. how the weather pattern in europe has changed but it's been the same to the last few days raining heavily in the northwest of spain 5060 millimeters typical these streets of california used rain and snow recently in poland snow is moving eastwards temperatures in most places are above where they should be the worst weather the worst is the right to in the next 24 hours will be in turkey with snow

some considerable depth in central eastern turkey day less own folly but still there in the east look at the temperature change in central europe given the breezes coming from the west all the southwest there's a huge rise in temperature of it is now up to 14 degrees and moscow is to or should be subzero it's not raining as much in the northwest of spain but it's still raining and the central mediterranean and the east measuring are now relatively quiet and that's true throughout north africa the i think the dominant theme here is the heat in certain places in the capital of the gambia banjo 43 was hit yesterday the record sounds like intel was 37 a 6 degree break on that record it's still hot in that part of africa as the hammer keeps blowing but beyond the breeze which picks up a certain amount of dust the weather in all of north africa as it should be this time of year remains quiet.

the. big stories generated thousands of headlines maybe angles in this story are too numerous for comfort with different angles from different perspectives thing has never really been believed to be prey and muddying the waters even separate the spin from the facts the misinformation from the journalism is so clear and it sounds to me and engineer the spokesman with the listening post on al-jazeera. now the top stories on al-jazeera. the corona virus outbreak has now spread to all

provinces in china killing $170.00 people on infecting nearly $8000.00 world health organization will meet again in a few hours to decide whether to clear a global emergency. crowds of people have been queuing outside pharmacies in hong kong hoping to buy the last stocks of face masks for people returning from chinese new year celebrations trade unions are threatening to strike unless the border is completely shocked. us democrats are stepping up their calls for witnesses in the impeachment trial of president donald trump they say a new book by the former security advisor john bolton could support their case the white house says it shouldn't be released. at least 21 civilians have been killed by russian backed syrian government air strikes in the province hospital in the city of was among the sites hits syria's government forces and its allies have intensified their push to retake the last rebel held region on wednesday bases the

strategically important town of moderates and. tens of thousands of people have been displaced as victoria the reports of. syrian government forces and. in the south of italy proving. they're looking for rebel fighters from hyatt to reroll sham and armed groups with 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 arms 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 ham 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 play for sparked 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 cease fire agreement. that 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 italy provence 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

well the u.n. humanitarian chief says aid reaching civilians in northwest syria is not enough across border humanitarian operations have staved off a massive humanitarian catastrophe in the northwest but let us make no mistake about it civilians are 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 from turkey or in dispute over the conflict in libya the french president has accused circuit's president early on a breaking his promise to stay out of libya and many were not cause said turkish warships and mercenaries had arrived in the war zone over the last week and turkey's foreign ministry says france should stop supporting warlords money for half if it wants to help bring peace to the country. well french court is due

to decide whether all firm totes hollow is addressing the human and environmental impacts of an oil field in uganda several human rights groups are accusing the company of failing to properly compensate farmers removed from their lands reports from bullies in western uganda. beneath this expanse of land in western uganda there's an estimated 6000000000 barrels worth of oil. which china national offshore oil corporation and the french mortie national to tower of major operations here including there to langley megaproject which is expected to produce $190000.00 barrels a day. but there is a problem thousands of people who have been moved from their villages to make way for the development say they were forced to accept compensation of just a $1000.00 an acre and that's not enough most of the people who took

a cash compensation could not even afford to buy land elsewhere so now they stay in rental houses in village centers like this one and rely on casual jobs to make a living fred miss siegel refused the deal and says he's land was worth more to him than the $3000.00 he was offered i was going to bring my lawn i. used to. but after. life become harder. using my money from the cans come again nonprofit organization that has helped me and other families take the matter to court in france he says the oil projects will affect about 50000 people in the western and central regions of the country this is a 1st case and the new french flow which requires large corporations to make sure the proper care and attention is paid to the local population and vironment if

these people were not for spreading the word what's the fighting when the doctor it was between between a friend this they would not have accept most of them would not have accepted conversation that a leg up project lies partly in the margins on ford's national park some rights groups say plans to protect the environment are not clear but government officials insist. everything has been done look fully we realize the environment is important tourism is one of the key. and so we we must we must explore this oil might exploit this oil and gas resources while being called in the center of the fire that we need to co-exist with environment back at the missi go home state they tell us the oil project has made their family much poorer and signing a bad compensation deal will only make things worse catherine soy al-jazeera police

out west in uganda. anti-government protests have turned violent and begin a. true more people killed by security forces at least 22 people have died since demonstrations began in october. reports. a standoff in guinea's capital tear gas filled the streets as another round of mass anti-government protests turned violent. police used slingshots with stones as they tried to disperse the crowds and protesters forced back arrests were made by security forces. my mother told me to go to the garage to work i told her there's a strike on today she wanted me to go anyway but i went outside the police arrested me i was just trying to get to work. this building was set alight in the demonstrations it was a local business a coalition of opposition groups calling itself the national front for the defense

of the constitution has been spearheading the protests it called for a national strike on wednesday which saw many shops close one since last night police have been deployed in the area to secure cannot create against these authorized protests but we are assuring the community that we have this under control the west african country has been hit by rolling protests since mid october or the concerns president alpha condé will seek a 3rd term in office he 1st came to power in 2010 and his 2nd and final 5 year term in office is coming to an end this year the opposition claims he plans to use a new constitution to extend his 2 term limits until this is rolled out it's unclear when the unrest will end weekly gauge al jazeera. a security company in the united arab emirates is being accused of deception after giving jobs

to young sudanese men who say they were events sense a fight in wars dozens have returned home but many are believed to still be in yemen or libya hiper morgan reports from hard to. when i added the following 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 emirates a company called black shield but when he arrived in up with he was in for a shock. and i want to let you know one thing i want 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 you 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 amorality installation us. 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 company in sudan has refused to comment. hundreds of young sudanese men thought they were going to be security guards in the way he when they were taken on by black shield their families see 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 were recruited but. 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 may be over. 90 all my son was one of the 1st to take up the offer of a job where they would do one mind and we have nothing besides crying in tears some of 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 you are like if you are in libya come back a sentiment shared by many other mothers who say no amount of money is worth more than having their sonthi family back home he will morgan al-jazeera the tomb so don's government says it will be phasing out fuel subsidies and replacing them with direct cash payments to the poor the year and a half long process will start in march fuel subsidies account for 36 percent of the national budget if we reform the subsidies especially the. gasoline subsidies. maybe only the top going time and only that the 5

percent of the population will be affected that everybody else will benefit because . this will be actually replaced with a day because don's fear that when they're actually go to the 65 or 60 percent of the population who are in need of support argentina new government has begun issuing food cards to low income families in an attempt to fight malnutrition the country's in the middle of an economic crisis and it's preparing to restructure around a $100000000000.00 in debt terrorism both reports from. long lines of people waiting to get government help this is happening in. only half an hour away from the center of one of sightings. this is just one of the places in the country where the new government of a lot of the fatah members has not a program to fight my long tradition sandalwood beseen has 4 children and has been

without work for a year. it's a compliment to help. for years we have seen an increase in prices and it's difficult to make sure the kids eat well we bought lots of pasta and rice and they need meat fish and protein in the past year that devaluation of the peso currency has had a strong impact on the price of food many of those coming here are already receiving government help this card gives them between $50.90 extra dollars a month to buy only certain food items and. my husband has some temporary work but i don't and this helps a lot with some basic items the government hopes to distribute over 560000 cards to help cope with the rising my nutrition in the province on site children can get vaccinated. and there is a nutrition expert that teaches people how to eat smart. we're telling people what they should buy once they get the card we talk to them about what type of food that

children eat we ask them to buy fruit vegetables meat and milk we see children who are not big enough and others who are overweight we are trying to educate them that they shouldn't buy sugary drinks that do not add to their diet the government also hold that this cards will help reactivate argentina's economy that is already struggling with recession and nation and even though this food cart will certainly help lots of families here that are currently struggling with the economic crisis most analysts say that the program to help solve argentina's endemic in capacity to generate jobs now would our loans or says the program will inject almost $9000000000.00 in the economy a year now. we're in an emergency trying to allow families to buy basic needs but the objective as the. president say it is to change the economic structure in the country to be able to generate jobs that is what the country nates by

activating the economy we would generate consumption and hopefully economic prosperity argentina produces grain and protein for millions of people around the world but it has failed to fight back home only years of sustained economic growth will guarantee better living conditions for those who depend on the government to survive. when a society s. . hello again the headlines on al jazeera this hour the corona virus outbreak has now spread to all 31 provinces in china killing 170 people and infecting nearly 8000 more the world health organization is preparing to hold another urgent meeting on thursday to decide whether the outbreak should be considered a global emergency scott idler has more from beijing something that came out that's quite interesting that any government official local government official any

government official who is not following the rules the mandates of this organization by the special group to combat the coronavirus they will be severely punished as the wording they used so obviously they're taking it very seriously they're telling everyone but me at the very top all the way well down to the bottom of the government to take this very seriously or face severe punishment crowds of people are queuing outside pharmacies in hong kong hoping to buy the last thoughts of facemasks with around 300000 people returning from the lunar new year celebrations in mainland china trade unions are threatening to strike unless the border is completely shuts us democrats are stepping up their calls for witnesses the impeachment trial of president donald trump they claim a new book by the former security advisor john bolton could support their cause. israel's prime minister is due to meet the russian president within the hour to brief him on the u.s. plan for the middle east donald trump's proposal allows israel to annex large parts

of palestinian lands the united nations has rejected trump's plan saying the israeli palestinian conflict should be solved based on international law and un resolutions. at least 21 civilians have been killed by russian backed syrian government airstrikes in the province a hospital in the city of anyhow was among the sites hit on wednesday bases the strategically important town of milan it. the french president says accuses turkish counterpart russian taber to one of breaking his promise to stay out of libya in mind one might cause said circus warships on mercenaries had arrived in the war zone over the last week turkey says france should stop supporting warlords. if it wants to help bring peace to the country. those are the headlines on al-jazeera this story is coming up next thanks for watching this is adama superman's 4th trip to boozy in 2 days the fisherman's using his boat to risk you as many people as he

can was stranded in the flood hit area up to psychologize struck mozambique thumbs up when i 1st saw women with babies on their backs crying for help saying they were dying i knew i had to do something i was later and from the dark a faint whistle in the distance alerts us to people calling for help women children and the elderly are brought on board 1st hungry and thirsty it hasn't taken much time to pull the boat about 200 people have been rescued and more want to get on but there's simply no space. hired for me ok and your in the stream today can a new coronavirus be stopped as global panic rises we ask what's being done to prevent a pandemic if you have comments or questions you can tweet us and you can jump in al you cheap as well and you also say may well be in the stream treated as a resource today.

at least 130000 people have died in china and nearly 6000 infected worldwide as a new coronavirus extends beyond the country's border health authorities say the outbreak originated in the city of han while some people have been evacuated many residents there are under lockdown while officials try and contain the virus many of those under that quarantine off fearful including foreign college students. the government is not allowing the students are the n.s.a. designs of the china that they cannot travel to the other side be out front of the whole bag there is an authentic card in there we do is attack and we are nor sit here like this in close to our government to start a government pakistan bessie and the local government of china now please do something.