from asia in the pacific on al-jazeera. evacuated from china and heading for quarantine the fines against coronaviruses stepped up as it is officially declared a global emergency. live from santa maria with the world news from al jazeera in scuffles in iraq's a mosque ahead of palestinian protests against president released plan. also a big budget democrat hopes to call witnesses a trump impeachment trial a wavering republicans senator says he will vote against it. and i'm lawrence lee in western belgium where european food supplies are doing everything they can to mitigate against central worst effects.

so evacuations from the epicenter of the corona virus are being stepped up and more restrictions being placed on travel to china the world health organization has now officially declared it a global health emergency the death toll to 213 confirmed cases at nearly 10000 so here's what we've been seeing this friday a 3rd plane load of japanese people arriving back in tokyo they were evacuated from 3 people on earlier flights have been confirmed with the corona virus then we have got malaysia here people handing out pamphlets on how to avoid infection and the been making public announcements as well and the united states has upped its travel alert to the highest level which is actually the same as for war zones advising americans not to go to china at all let's go to hong kong ourselves now there here is wayne hay with the latest there so a public. emergency when what does it actually mean.

well i think we'll have to wait and see in the days and weeks ahead as to what practical steps the world health organization may take on the ground in china and the 1st case what it means is that the governor joe effectively has more money that it can throw at the problem and it gives itself more power to victims older men but nations of the w.h.o. including china have a binding obligation to accept and implement any decisions that the w.h.o. does take i think it's fair to say though that over the past week. the w.h.o. has been treading very carefully perhaps because it is dealing with china it was just over a week ago that the w.h.r. met and decided not to declare a public a global health emergency it has changed its mind now but went to great lengths in that announcement to point out that it was making that decision not because of what is happening in china but because of what is happening in other countries and it

basically said that it was not a criticism of what the chinese have done so far in terms of trying to contain the virus in fact they praised the chinese government for what they have done so looking at those comments from the w.h.o. i think it's fair to say they would have been some pushback from the chinese government to declaring this a global health emergency perhaps because of the stigma that it could attract but also because of the potential economic impact that it could have on the chinese economy. when you know that have not been listening to what you've been saying but have also been watching over your shoulder literally everyone is wearing a face and it looks like you're outside a pharmacy tell me about the sort of supply and demand situation there. yes well it's fair to say that life continues fairly normally in the hong kong but there is a lot of concern that we're going to see a spike in the number of confirmed cases so far only 12 concerned case. this in

hong kong one of those people is in a critical condition but everyone as you pointed out on the streets is taking precautions they are wearing face masks and now there is a shortage of those protective facemasks some of these pharmacies the shops up and down this street including the one behind me have some in stock they may not be the specifications that some people are looking for and some of them are simply too expensive there is a box of 20 pretty normal disposable facemasks on the shelf and one of those shops behind me selling for over $115.00 for a box of 20 that's about 3 times what they should be so people clearly having a look at that but that not willing to pay those sorts of prices the government says it's going to step in to increase the supply of facemasks by importing more than $30000000.00 more and it's also getting inmates inside one of hong kong's prisons to work around the clock they say to produce more protective facemasks for the people of hong kong very interesting thank you wayne hay in hong kong there we

look at south korea now where a chartered plane has brought out the 1st group of south koreans from wu han they've been taken to 2 newly created. people living nearby and on happy moment private. arriving in seoul after days of delays especially chartered plane returning 368 people who'd been living in around half the number of south korean nationals trapped there and wanting to leave some were found to have fevers and taken to hospital. the rest were heading here to one of 2 makeshift quarantine centers south of the capital their presence has led to protests from people living there by the police to remove roadblocks. the government sent to minister to reassure protesters that he was met by angry shouts and eggs being thrown. of course local residents will be worried by the prospect of patients

coming to the area but the corona virus is transmitted into waves by contact or by respiratory droplets so you need to be within one to 2 meters of the patient to be in danger. as the convoy bringing the evacuees approached other people turned out to welcome them you know. it's only natural for the country to bring back our citizens and treat them well small the people coming here past the screening and don't have symptoms. after an exhausting night of travel and health screenings their journey is finally at an end but now starts the quarantine in a place they'll have to call home for the next 2 weeks each person will have their own room and are allowed to keep their phones and computers but there will be no visitors while their conditions are monitored to make sure they are free from the coronavirus. at least as one of the evacuees told us through their social media

account they're back on south korean soil and what they call the nightmare of will hand is behind them rob mcbride al-jazeera a son south korea. and a plane is due to land at a british air force base in a few hours time carrying $110.00 evacuees. for us to take us through the process of what's expected. well the plane is supposed to be arriving here if you as you mentioned now what's going to happen is that there is a makeshift medical facility with the medical military medical personnel on board that plane going to do an initial diagnostic as it were of those on board as well as bearing in mind of course that even if any of the passengers will not be exhibiting any of the symptoms it doesn't mean that they don't have the virus itself or that they. no hospital to anyone else so with that in mind there will be

then taken to another location which is the stuff accommodation of a hospital in northwest england where all hospital there that they will be kept in a fenced in area who are and for 14 days and observe snow we will be fenced in so people will not be able to get in or indeed get out because of the dangers of possibly sort of not sure displaying any of the symptoms as well but it just goes to show exactly how seriously it's being taken with such precautions being made even though there was a little bit of concern for people nearby in that hospital in northwest england as well i think the national health service body here was looking at trying to maintain a strict cordon around that area as much as possible because of course it is through season as well here the ordinary went to flu seasons well the national

health system in the u.k. is under strain because of that and so to add this to that as well would really put even more strain on the system so they're trying to coordinate it as much as possible to avoid any further complications ok thank you for that update sonya is in oxfordshire in the u.k. . we're moving on to other news and there have been scuffles neurotics a mosque compound where palestinians were holding a protest against the middle east peace plan put forward by donald trump and as a means gathered in the early hours of morning prayer is ready police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the gathering his hard for sit in occupied it's true and what's happening now hard because i think it would be coming up towards the main friday prayers shortly. that's right with those pres just before noon local time it's not just us to 10 am local time but people have been arriving throughout the morning it is relatively quiet here now as you

say there were those scenes earlier in the morning in and around the arch the mosque compound has to be said there have been some such scuffles in previous weeks as well as well as the fact that we are in the days after the release of the trump peace plan in previous weeks there also being protests against israeli actions in and around the mosque and the surrounding area there so it could be to do with that as well although it is worth saying that is ready security forces have increased their numbers in the area this morning ahead of what they thought might be heightened tensions in the aftermath of the trump peace plan as they have increased their forces in the occupied west bank today as well so this is this remains a situation for now will remains to be seen also as to whether the tension might have been somewhat sad by the fact that the americans have stepped in to prevent it seems the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu for making any immediate steps

towards annexation in the occupied west bank that's what he promised in the immediate aftermath of the plan being released but that's very much been walked back in the days since. backed by the united states. is to say they put a bit of pressure on israel over that particular part of the plan. well yes it seems there are mixed messages really certainly netanyahu said that he would initially bring this to a vote in the cabinet on sunday the u.s. ambassador to israel david friedman saying that israel was initially at least that israel was free to started sonic sation plans at any time it wanted to but then there was an interview at least one interview from jared cushnie initially one with c.n.n. and then one with another u.s. media organization which he was clearer in saying that he expected any such moves to take place after the election and the need to be more u.s. is really coordination and detail given to any maps for any annexation plan so it

is clear that the americans at least the white house and need ministration. have been acting to put the brakes on this potentially because they're aware that it would make it much more difficult for arab nations which so far have been relatively muted in their response certainly not openly critical of it it would make them potentially find that more difficult to maintain that that state of at least relative support for what has happened so far thank you very false that in occupied east jerusalem in the news ahead said mission accomplished nonce the bids farewell to the spitzer space telescope. to go officially offline.

throughout january it's been remarkably warm is right most of europe all the way has been coming in from the atlantic and you get strong fronts like this there were about the complication of this but what it means is this line here separates the cold from the warm and it should be drier here in the in the mediterranean this time the last rather winter and it hasn't been so you get ridiculous temperatures like 14 in vienna which is the case on friday a lot of rain some snow but not much has more to come now a bit of snow in poland and ukraine as next day or so but beyond that the temp just so higher than they ought to be even in moscow has been pressured little snow and it is 0 degrees just has been a snow on the ground but not much turkey seen a good deal in the last 24 a bit more to come that it dries up rain has been the thing really has more to come for spain portugal the northwest has been at least then it spreads on saturday through france switzerland germany in the low countries and beyond but temperatures to fairly hard squash the journey in fact is quite

a way down through north africa with the standard breeze by the hamas which means it warmish erika's all the way across so hard and ends up in the gambia or senegal where temps is a high banjo for example 36. for . you out on the streets protesting whether on line you feel the weight of the system when you walk through each and every level or layer further further into the jail or if you join us on say week entry has to start from day one whether again learned attention or young hearts when this is a dialogue everyone has a voice recording artist a 6 o'clock o'clock all right will be varying accounts but i want to give people the reason for joining the global conversation is iraq. the war where.

or was. her. so the top stories this hour on al-jazeera japan south korea and the u.k. is stepping up the evacuation of their citizens from china in response to the corona virus outbreak americans and else are being advised to avoid all travel to china and says as the world health organization declares the virus a global public health emergency so far more than 200 people have died from the outbreak in nearly 10000 have been infected and they've been scuffles outside a lot some mosque compound where palestinians were protesting against u.s. president donald trump's middle east peace plan is ready please fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the gathering.

a u.s. republican senator who democrats had hoped would support calling new witnesses that donald trump's impeachment trial says he'll vote against it the morrow xander released a statement saying there is no need for more evidence democratic senators want to hear from among others donald trump's former national security advisor john bolton to do that they need the support of 4 republicans tansey reports now from washington. after the 2nd and final day of cross-examination of house democrats and white house lawyers in the u.s. senate a significant moment in doldrums impeachment trial tennessee republican lamar alexander announced ahead of friday's scheduled for our debate that he would not vote for the introduction of more witnesses documents his argument is that there's no need for more evidence to show that president trump withheld aid to pressure the ukrainian government to investigate former vice president joe biden and his son hunter he did but while that was inappropriate doing so did not rise to the level of a high crime misdemeanor and the removal of the president from office alexander

also cited a statement that the whole impeachment process had been quote shallow 100 and wholly partisan with the potential to rip the country apart a major argument of trump's lawyers we're in an election year there are some in this room better days away from the iowa caucuses taking place. so we're discussing the possible impeachment and removal of the president of the united states not only during election season in the heart of the election season and i think that this does a disservice to the american people the democrats then did not convince other example that by definition a trial should have witnesses it is certainly in their interest and the president's interest that we have a fair trial a trial without truth without key evidence without witnesses in documents would render the president's acquittal meaningless as things stand that means the democrats are very unlikely to get the 51 votes they need to call for witnesses the

most they could hope for is a draw 50 $4.50 against witnesses and documents unless there's a major surprise and the expectation is a drop would be in the motion for new evidence will be judged to a failed alexander's decision makes it very likely that the president will be acquitted after what's expected to be many hours of debate on friday the white house's goal there off an acquittal before donald trump delivers his state of the union address next tuesday appears to have all been achieved shepparton see al-jazeera washington meanwhile trump himself is rallying supporters in iowa accusing the democrats are trying to overturn the results of the 2016 election. you know what i think probably the best years that we've ever had in the history of our country and i just got out of the can you believe these are going to i think you they have pizza shop the best trade deals the strongest military to cure the vets

we got julius we got accountability for the vets accountability we got all these things and they impeach the president no the secular we're watching just want it was another guy you don't like you boys you're our democracy you go through the you know your system of government that's not happening i can tell you of a united states is announced new sanctions on iran's atomic energy organization and its chief officer. teheran is accused of resuming your raney and enrichment to build a nuclear bomb iran says the latest sanctions show washington's despair under the terms of the 2050 nuclear deal iran had agreed to limit its enrichment for use of domestic energy program but teheran rolled back on its commitments ever since trump pulled the u.s. out of the agreement $28.00 the people of britain have less than 15 hours

citizens all the european union its 47 year membership of the bloc officially ends friday nights at $2300.00 g.m.t. left to wait till the end of the year though to reach a deal on the future relationship so in the meantime businesses in europe are trying to ensure the u.k. doesn't run out of food once they with the support from belgium. the last day for the u.k. in the european union but here they're carrying on as if nothing is changing the vegetables come from several european countries and the bagged up and supplied to schools and hospitals all over britain so will organizer that works out how to keep feeding the u.k. even if the trade deal never happens all of the transport is now. used it uses the weekends rather than and depending on your week day so we gain 2 extra days to get our stuff over to you k. we use different boards where we're only we're using 82 golds in the past up to 34

boards that's a moment things like food a critical in for coming trade talks and will determine what extent the u.k. plans to stay close to the e.u. what would no deal mean no food points about bric cities that unique place involves the u.k. dismantling rather than creating existing trade deals and that's led many people to wonder in the worst case scenario if the u.k. will simply run out of things like food but maybe just maybe things won't be all that bad. remember all the talk of huge queues of trucks on motorways this is container port which believes it can help avoid much of that that quite convinced all the talk of shortages of anything from medicines to toilet paper will come to nothing business finds a way always but at the end of the day. most of the problems will be eventually solved at berks i don't believe in an

outright get done in that sense that all of a sudden there will be. insufficient products in the u.k. shops on the other hand it will make things much more difficult it will come with a cost and it comes with the consequence of longer towns it turns bricks as have always said speculation the u.k. will run out of vital supplies is overblown but their slogan taking back control will also mean continuing to rely on europe the west of flanders here is the export of vegetables all the time going from the port of sea bridge a port of antwerp to do to you k. so i know that you will still have trade twitters but of course we want a new cream and maybe focused on on things like beverage him food. in brussels brits and others distraught about bricks it's have been parting away their sorrows but it belgian exporters of got it right the u.k.'s great departure may not turn

out to be entirely traumatic for either side barnsley al-jazeera invest in belgium . at least 23 people have been killed by a rebel group in eastern democratic republic of congo the group the allied democratic forces is suspected of being behind the offensive in the city of beni the deaths bring the number of civilians killed this week to at least 59 that would include the 36 people on wednesday who were killed in north kivu province where protesters in sudan continue their calls for officials to keep the promises made after the removal of the country's former president they say the government still doesn't have proper civilian representation the military has been in charge ever since former president omar bashir was ousted last year when morgan reports from khartoum. once again thousands of people have taken to the streets here in the sudanese capital khartoum most of them have gathered outside the office of prime minister out the law who was appointed in august last year following

a deal between the military and the protest movement known as the forces of freedom and change coalition now today's protests have been called for by the sudanese professionals association the body that has been spearheading calls for protests since december 10th to 18 and they're demanding that the prime minister and his cabinet appointed to valliant governors in all 18 states of sudan to replace the current military governors and to form a legislative council those 2 demands are included in the constitutional declaration that was signed between the protest movement and the military we need immediately the government to take care of this because the situation this economical situation in sudan is not good at all we suffer no transport and you know that kills people are just waiting to get bread and this is still it is going back and looking at the transitional council was supposed to be formed 5 months ago we're not supposed to be protesting for it today it was one of the 1st amman's and the fact i have to go out to mounting for it is wrong and people should rush to

form it. but when it comes to responding to the demands of the protesters today the prime minister and his cabinet may face some issues at the trial the prime minister has previously stated that achieving peace in various parts of the country is his 1st priority and the transitional administration has embarked on peace talks between itself and various armed groups in the south sudanese capital juba they've already signed something called the principles agreement and as part of that agreement they cannot be an appointment of any civilian governor are the formation of a legislative assembly entail a comprehensive peace deal is signed but people here are saying that they're impatient and that the reason why the country's economy is in turmoil and that there are various and security incidents happening not just in the capital khartoum but various other states as well are because there are no civilian governors in place and there's no legislative council and they're saying that they're here to put pressure on the prime minister and his cabinet to let them know that they're

here to guard their revolution and make sure that their demands are listened to and heard and that they're there to make sure that the the articles of the constitution declaration are implemented so that they can feel that their revolution is complete . police in northern india have rescued 23 children reportedly being held hostage inside a house officials in the state of the children have been invited to a birthday party they say a man in the woman suspected of keeping the children captive killed during the rescue operation authorities say the man had been a suspect in a murder case and was out on bail. a state of emergency has been declared in australia. bushfires threatened to take over canberra and the surrounding region straining capital territory there are concerns the hot weather in the strong winds this weekend will spread a fire south of the city out of control it is the worst threats to face the strain in capital in 2 decades. on the nasa has decommissioned its spitzer

space telescope after 16 years of service spitzer is one of the 4 observatories that all but the sending back images and information about the galaxy and beyond it was launched back in 2003 apparently with enough liquid helium to keep it going for 6 years scientists that manage to keep it going for an extra decade mike hanna has our report. this is the last image the spits are transmitted back to earth the tarantula nebula named after the filaments of gas that resembles spiders legs stretched out across the cosmos. it was one of the telescopes 1st observation targets when it was launched 16 years ago and spitzer allowed us to again look at things lift the cosmic veil and see the super massive black holes that we couldn't see previously since then it has revealed twice as many galaxies as any other observatory and most importantly perhaps advanced human knowledge of black holes

and the birth and death of stars spitzer's operational life was expected to be 5 years at the most but even after its helium fuel ran out the telescope continue to send vital data about the universe back to earth its relatively small size lead scientist to label spitzer the little telescope that could so this is a image of the telescope and i also have a little long love it right here in front of me now so this is 130 seconds of the size of spitzer so if you if you multiply this little model by certain times you'll come up with a spacecraft that is about 13 feet in height. it weighed 930 kilograms approximately at launch and it was the small telescope that identified another solar system similar in many ways to ours the trappist one system

a dwarf star 39 like years from earth surrounded by 7 exoplanets some of which show traces of water and which scientists agree may contain life forms markedly each of the traps one system discovery got that science on to like mainstream media at a level that had really very seldom seen of us now a command has been. went to the spacecraft switching it to what is called safe mode and in about 53 years it will come back past the earth and then head away in another direction into space even though spicher is and what you would think of as a hibernation mode folks don't like it to say hard when they leave me it was really hard to come up with a term that everyone agreed on based on the final state right there would be 0 but that legacy of scripture will live on because that is there for people to go back in my the legacy of spitzer is 16 years of data archived at

a us university data that may still produce new discoveries about how so and our universe mike hanna al-jazeera washington. come past the hour announces 0 here are the headlines japan south korea and the u.k. are all stepping up their evacuation of citizens from china in response to the corona virus outbreak americans are now being advised to avoid traveling to china in time . the world health organization meanwhile declared the virus a global public health emergency so far more than 200 people have died from the outbreak and nearly 10000 have been infected here is why and how in hong kong with more on what the w.h.o. declaration means for the fight against the virus. one of the main things that this declaration does is free up money in the 1st instance that means the w.h.o.

now has more funds that it can throw at the problem but it also effectively gives the w.h.o. more power because member nations including china have a binding obligation to accept and implement any decisions that the w.h.o. makes in regard to this particular outbreak of coronavirus. there have been scuffles outside of like some mosque compound where palestinians were protesting against u.s. president on the terms middle east peace plan very police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the gathering. the u.s. republican senator who democrats hoped would support holding new witnesses at donald trump's impeachment trial says he'll now be voting against is a moderate examiner released a statement saying there was no need for more evidence democratic senators want to hear from among others trump's former national security advisor john bolton but they need the support of 4 republican us. the u.s. has announced new sanctions on iran's atomic energy organization and its chief.

teheran is accused of resuming uranium enrichment to build a nuclear bomb authorities in australia's capital of declared a state of emergency is bushfires thracian in canberra and the surrounding region there are concerns that hot weather and strong winds this weekend will only propel the blaze and at least 23 people have been killed by a rebel group in eastern democratic republic of congo the armed group allied democratic forces is suspected of being behind the offensive in the city of beni the deaths bring the number of civilians killed this week alone to at least 15. europe today with the headlines on al-jazeera the stream is next with filming ok. americans live side by side in 2 parallel universes the truck parts of america are getting trampy or there is a poll out a few weeks ago that you had almost 30 percent americans believing that we're on the cusp of civil war both sides accuse each other of doing things that are so blatantly wrong the bottom line on us politics and policies on the reflect on the

world. ok and join the strain today a new novel about a mexican families migration to the us will look at why the book is striking a nerve with american latino's online. ringback journalists covering organized crime and drug trafficking and you are in the street. the book is called america and it tells the story of a middle class woman and her 8 year old son who was forced to flee for their lives and seek refuge across the u.s. border. all the news stories and ever heard immigration.