some cultures across the world so no matter what we do using condoms for that matter. evacuations from china travel bans to the country as well the fight against coronaviruses stepped up as it's officially declared a global emergency. alert from doha the 100 mile santamaria this is the world news from al-jazeera the heart of the impeachment case america's top diplomat meets ukraine's president as the u.s. senate prepares to vote on calling witnesses to the trump trial also scuffles in iraq's a mosque ahead of palestinian protests against president trump's middle east peace plan and 12 hours to go until britain officially leaves the european union the british prime minister calls it

a moment of national the new. year we celebrate. our independence. evacuations from the epicenter of the coronavirus are now being stepped up and more restrictions placed on travel to china this is after the world health organization officially declared it a global health emergency the death toll is at 213 there are nearly 10000 confirmed cases and there are developments across the region japan 1st of all of 3rd planeload of japanese people arrived back in tokyo early on friday that come from 3 people who'd been evacuated on earlier flights have been confirmed with the virus in a turkish plane is also just left to han we're hearing then we've got malaysia where health officials have been handing out these pamphlets on how to avoid corona virus infection and they've been making public announcements as well and the u.s.

has upped its travel alert to the highest level the equivalent of a warning for a war zone advising americans not to go to china let's start with the support scott had learned edging. the lockdown of will haunt city origin of the corona virus and the surrounding province is now in its 2nd week so how are the more than 50000000 people there coping we spoke with a few through video chat to get an idea john and his wife live in their 2 sons postpone their trip from hong kong for the lunar new year because of the virus the dates keep getting pushed back and their biggest concern is the uncertainty the obvious stress of concern about being infected with the coronavirus but what is it like this the other stress about supplies about your daily life i think. this is. because. he says he gets his

information from friends outside china and contacts at the local hospital. is next to will han like its neighbor it is sealed off and its streets empty this video was shot by one shin he has a supply of mass and food in the fridge his parents are with him but his wife and young daughter are with her parents outside who pay province. i feel more relaxed because who by province is now seriously hit by the epidemic the place where they are at now has far fewer cases so i feel a bit relieved that they're not with me this cipher at the moment a big concern is when will we have medication for the virus this is what we care about most all those people who have problems are under a forced lockdown there are some communities across china who are self imposing a lockdown like this one on the outskirts of beijing they're not letting anyone into this community from the outside they're worried someone might carry the virus inside no matter the type of lock down government forced or self imposed with the

spread of the virus accelerating no one knows how long these communities remain safe it's got al-jazeera beijing. well thousands of people are returning to hong kong from china are often lunar new year celebrations chiefs have given an update alongside the chief executive terry lamb when he is in hong kong for a 2nd serve this way. yes will carry the chief executive and her government have been coming under a lot of pressure there are many people here who believe that the government hasn't been doing enough to try to stop the spread of the virus here in hong kong so far the numbers of confirmed cases are still fairly low 12 confirmed cases one is in a critical condition but as you mentioned there is concern that those numbers could rise fairly sharply in the days ahead because of those people who are returning from the mainland following the lunar new year holiday the government has

restricted the number of transport options available to people to travel between hong kong and the mainland or from the mainland to hong kong but so far they have resisted calls to close the border crossings completely on friday kerry lam again refused to do that. we should not contemplate sort of restrictions off international travel or trade and we should not adopt discriminate tree approach in dealing with people flowing between different countries and places in trying to contain the spread of the d.c.'s there are other measures which will help us to achieve that in fact. also announced in that media conference that civil servants will stay and work at home next week so that's an extension for this week been working from home as well as another another preventative measure following the end of the lunar new year holiday period so that it's been

extended by another week and also she announced that all schools in hong kong will remain closed until the 2nd of march. and so far we have at least 5 universities that have followed that lead and we'll also stay close for that period thank you wayne hey in hong kong let's go further afield now a plane usual and a british air force base in a few hours carrying $110.00 british and e.u. evacuees sagna go goes there for us she says the $83.00 british citizens will immediately be quarantined. there is a makeshift medical facility where all those on board will be tested they are accompanied by medical military medical offices as well as public health officials as well from then on they will then board a bus where they will make the journey of about some 270 kilometers up to a hospital in the northwest of england where they will be put into

some accommodation the some what was previously stuff accommodation at the hospital one of the only places which should accommodate such numbers and they will be in quarantine for 2 weeks now even if they don't display any of the symptoms there it is of course of the utmost importance that they are kept away from any other people that's why the public health authorities have made sure there is a fence around this area it's about people from going in and coming out as well as you know even without any symptoms the corona virus can be passed from person to person now with that in mind there there also the issues of trying to get some more people onto those foreign office so flights back to the u.k. as well but still sort of some britons who are still trapped in the. area which are still concerned that they will not be able to get

a flight back. the thoughts of dr patrick who joined us earlier division chief of pathology science medicine here in tulsa he told us human to human transmission is limited i think outbreak that's most similar to this would be the sars outbreak in 2003 where it almost became a pandemic but it didn't before a virus or another pathogen and cause a pandemic would have to cost sustained transmission in many countries around the world at the same time and this has not happened the transmission of a human to human transmission that we're seeing right now in countries outside of china have been very limited and have been limited to family clusters the reason why we're acting against this new virus is that we don't want another new virus to be established in the human population so right now this is an animal virus and it's made some mutations to adapt to infecting humans but we don't want it to become one of the common viruses and factors every year just like influenza for the

average person that's not in a province and not in the surrounding areas in china there's very little to be concerned about. now onto others ukraine's president is calling for the u.s. to take a more active position in settling its conflict with russian backed separatists might prompt the secretary of state the u.s. says in ukraine is the senate impeachment trial against donald trump prepares to vote on whether to call witnesses trumps accused of withholding military aid to leverage ukraine's president told ms lewinsky into investigating his political rival joe biden says relations with the u.s. remain very good. denied though any visit to the white house is conditioned on an investigation into the biden's. surprised by your question i suspect you will not be surprised by my answer. no there's there's no condition of the nature you describe for presidents who come to washington and

have that visit is just simply not the case will find the right time or find the appropriate opportunity is valentino a professor of political science at the national university of key of maine the academy is ukraine and the u.s. can help each other move on from the impeachment trial. ukraine has become toxic asset mr trump for american politics so now they should calm down the ukrainian topics in america and the next step would be positive steps of america joining efforts of european nations in finding some kind of compromise with russia even rain to gratian of ukraine eastern parts how to make ukrainian system not to be corrupt ukraine can do a lot for american democracy to prosper now it's discussion about was there

pressure or not definitely some of mr trump assistance or his lawyer mr giuliani did some clumsy steps but. whether or not corrupt practices took place in ukraine in economic and political life whether america were making c.d.'s. not against trump it's not is not not against the biden it's not. of mr trump it's bringing the troops to the hearing of all the people ukraine needs to get rid of corruption and of old practices ukraine needs and the medica can provide for new efficient efforts for peace peaceful solution of conflict international conflict in the east of ukraine.

where u.s. republican senator who democrats hoped would support calling new witnesses it on the trumps impeachment trial says he'll now vote against it mara legs on the release a statement saying there was no need for more evidence democratic senators wanted to hear from donald trump's former national security advisor john bolton for example and others but they need this. support and for republicans to do chapter 10 the reports from washington rahm 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 donald trump's impeachment trial tennessee republican them are examined announced ahead of friday's scheduled for our debate that he would not vote for the introduction of more witnesses and 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 said in a statement that the whole impeachment process had been quote shallow horrid 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 54 and 50 against witnesses and documents unless there's a major surprise and the expectation is a draw would be in the motion for new evidence will be judged to have failed an exam 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 using appears to have all been achieved. al-jazeera washington. in the news ahead mission accomplished nasa bids farewell to the spitzer space telescope. and i'm lawrence lee in western belgium where european food supplies are doing everything they can to mitigate against central worst effects the rest.

of the one of the snows almost don't fall in the rains almost gone through but is anyone almost and you still see the onshore breeze coming across the sea japan is contained cold enough air for us now on the high ground of honshu still a bit in a crowded but the trendiest for it to become fina no woman lines minus one sapporo plus 11 in tokyo and if you're on the north west coast you'll feel the wind chill but beyond that it's quiet ish weather the cloud is extending through china from the west the some rain a little bit of snow i want to but not much and beijing still a plus 5 and it shouldn't be a should be little tugs and that it just cool down the bit by sunday 3 degrees the sun shows a bit more northern china the rain showers a bit more further science not a lot but still some all decide that emanates from the high ground as you see in the west but beyond that it's dark quite quiet i think we will see

a few showers as the breezes start to turn so in addition maybe parts of underbrush might see a little bit of rain nothing much in sri lanka and dry for the rest occasions moshe up in the pool beyond that there is nothing. there longer is a significant breeze running through the gulf so there has warmed up a bit of potential there for a light shower too on saturday. explores prominent figures of the 20th century and how life influenced the course of history was the cuban revolution communist always feel castro is a futile east another commie mr castro wanted his country che wanted international revolution there came a point when the relationship came to an end the icons of revolution who changed the course of latin american politics. and fidel castro face to face on al-jazeera

. root. headlines this hour on al-jazeera japan south korea and the u.k. all stepping up the evacuation of their citizens from china in response to the corona virus outbreak americans are now being advised to avoid traveling to china and. that the world health organization which has declared the virus a global public health emergency thailand also confirming its 1st case total number more than 200 people dead from the outbreak in china nearly 10000 fact it and ukraine's president is calling for the u.s. to take a more active position in setting the conflict with russian backed separatists

sectors state my pump is in ukraine as the impeachment trial against donald trump prepares to vote on whether to call witnesses or not. meanwhile hundreds of people protesting in gulzar against u.s. president donald trump's controversial peace plan for the middle eastern men began veiled the details of that earlier in the week and stephanie deca is live in gaza big numbers out there today so if. not my estimates i think. you can stream dear. boy the gaza strip off to friday prayers the prayers are focusing on the to the century the service given. that this is a live there by refusing to sing in london the palestinians will remain steadfast now this is a protest organizer to call for by hamas to their defeat you but if you think about the militia of the gaza strip which is to make them think you do have these massive

crowds of tens if not why is that amount very important people who are exhausted we've heard of people who have more than maybe what is going to make their lives pretty didn't expect anything from this country so a lot of people we've been speaking to my mother didn't expect anything different but people. have been surprised about what also was in some of the sermons at the most severe and cross-cutting people they treachery of the arab world to the not competitive nature of the arab leaders in particular who of course have often made palestine to see the stage as a real rallying cry while their voices of condemnation to this is still going to be happening. with the staff if you can still hear me i'm just wondering about what else hamas has been calling for by call for a rally like this but there's always the risk as well of resistance i guess old rockets being fired things up at the top a thing which can only set the area all fair game. to figure out how to have

not found its relations with israel there are very different things it's a big set up thinking that a negotiated underwriting. you can read between the my thoughts into the situation is there is a shaky cease fire in place yet to be there are a couple of days we've had to get out of town so we had to speak airstrikes that you wanted to land on hamas poses no injuries this is the kind of language that. most business is normal this is not a species i do find anything critical to do you think there is potential for as in the absence of any little solution and i think what this prize was underlined is that we have never been further away from a political solution that is acceptable to certainly if we're talking about out of town to come out here the policy and factions going to the mine they are insisting that come out to see just how to get the gaza strip is a do to try to stop the groups here the faction will say that their arms because it

is a legitimate resistance about it to israeli occupation how the city of that if you look at the deal it looks like more and more palestinians i'm somehow whom to be taken by israel so i think we're at a very precarious point nobody really knows how things are they have to move forward but certainly in the middle when expecting a massive. stephanie dick had a. demonstration there in gaza thank you well there in front of it was scuffles near a locks a mosque compound where palestinians were holding a protest against the middle east peace plan put forward by president from palestinians gathered in the early hours after morning prayers israeli police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the gathering. the people of the u.k. have 12 hours left as citizens of the european union the country's 47 year membership of the bloc officially ends friday night 2300 hours g.m.t. 11 pm there in london it will then enter a so-called transition period until the end of the year to reach

a deal on their future relationship thousands of brags that supporters are expected on the streets outside westminster later on friday to celebrate the occasion in the meantime no business is in europe or trying to ensure the u.k. doesn't run out of food and other basic essentials lawrence lee has our report on that 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 in the bag from supplied to schools and hospitals all over britain so will organizer they've worked out how to keep feeding the u.k. even if the trade deal never happens all the transport is no. use uses the weekend rather than depending on your weekdays so we gain 2 extra days to get our stuff over to u.k. we use different boards where we're only we're using maybe 2 fold in the past 234 ports at the moment things like food

a critical in forth coming trade talks and will determine what extent the u.k. plans to stick close to the e.u. but would no deal mean no food points about brecht cities that uniquely east 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 and what 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. burps i don't believe in an hour

i 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 at times bricks it as i've 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 there is the export of vegetables all the time going from the port of cebu to port of and will have to do to the u.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 almost. in brussels brits and others distraught about bret's 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. early on friday scotland's 1st minister nicolas sturgeon made a renewed push for an independence referendum in bass she said the situation now is completely different to when scotland voted on the same issue 6 years ago people do have differing views on whether or not scotland should be independent but the case for not having the right to meet that choice is overwhelming. as of 11 pm tonight the u.k. that scotland voted to remain part of a $24000.00 a year key insight the e.u. will no longer be a reality the status quo that a majority voted for will no longer exist there will be a material change in the circumstances that prevailed in 2014 and we've heard from martin's prime minister as well live around care about what briggs it means for his

country i'm ambitious about the future you u.k. relationship but i also think we need to be realistic about the dangers we need to start this new relationship between the e.u. and the u.k. on a firm and honest footing and that means a level playing field this is very much in our interests as well as that of the as a whole. so what is a level playing field to mean it means common minimum standards on workers' rights health and safety the environment and the welfare crucially state as well as product food standards. state of emergency has been declared in australia's capital as bushfires threatened to take over canberra and the surrounding region of the i.c.t. the israelian capital territory there are concerns hot weather and strong winds this weekend would only spread a fire south sydney out of control this is the worst threat facing the canberra

area in 2 decades it's funny nasa has decommissioned its spitzer space telescope up to 16 years of service. for observatories orbiting the earth sending back all those images and information we see about our galaxy and beyond launched in 2003 with enough liquid helium to keep it going for 6 years but scientists managed to keep the spitzer mission going for an extra decade this report from mike hanna. this is the last image the spits are transmitted back to earth's the tarantella nebula named after the filaments of gas that resembles spider's legs stretched out across the cosmos. it was one of the telescopes 1st observation targets when it was launched 16 years ago spencer allowed us to feel the gang look at things lift the cosmic they'll 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 worth. it's 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 lot of my $32.00 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 out of the us now a command has been sent 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 in what you would think of as a hibernation mode folks don't like you to say hardly make believe me it was really hard to come up with a term that everyone agreed on based on the final stay right there were beyond but that legacy of scripture will live on because of that is there for people to go

back and mine 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. 1130 g.m.t. here on al-jazeera and these are the headlines japan south korea and the u.k. 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 and this is after the world health organization declared the virus a global public health emergency thailand's confirmed its 1st case so far more than 200 people have died from the outbreak in china or nearly 10000 have been infected but the headlines ukraine's president is calling for the u.s. to take a more active position in settling its conflict with russian backed separatists he

was secretary state my pompei is in ukraine is the impeachment trial against donald trump prepares to vote on whether to call witnesses denied any visit by zelinsky to the white house depends on an investigation into the biden's. surprised by your question i suspect you will surprised by my answer. there's there's no condition to describe for presidents who come to washington that this is just simply not the case will find the right time or find the appropriate opportunity thousands of palestinians in gaza. president trumps a proposed deal between palestinians and israelis demonstrated that the plan would maintain gaza's isolation and the blockade against it and you maintain the status quo in the occupied west as well. and earlier on friday there were scuffles near a compound where palestinians were holding a protest gathered in the early hours after morning prayers police fired tear gas

and rubber bullets to disperse them. the people of the u.k. have 11 and a half left as citizens of the european union countries 47 year membership of the bloc officially ends at $2300.00 g.m.t. on friday night 11 pm in london then goes into a so-called transition period until the end of the year to reach a deal on the future relationship. and a state of emergency has been declared in australia's capital as bushfires threatened to take a camera on the surrounding region there are concerns the hot weather and strong winds this weekend will only spread if south of the city out of control that's my thought for today thank you for your company rochelle's back in 25 minutes time inside story is next with sam.

the u.s. secretary of state lobbies britain once again for a ban long walk away is the chinese tech giant a threat to cyber security or all their other reads washington's opposition this is inside story. hello welcome to the show i'm sam is a than the u.s. is pressuring allies in the west to ban while away the chinese tech giant provides world leading technology for the next generation of mobile networks called for.