now to 0. 0 on. the earth. al-jazeera. back to bill in doha this is the news hour on al-jazeera coming up in the next 60 minutes this is what the end result is. a day after being acquitted in the senate president donald trump congratulates his friends and hits back at his political enemies the world health organization says the overall number of new cases of coronavirus has dropped for the 1st time in china but the country still struggling to combat its outbreak also this hour israel says it's sending an extra 1000 troops into the occupied west bank after

a series of violent incidents raises tensions between israelis and palestinians. hello i'm maryanne demasi in london with the top stories from europe including all the latest on the political op evolution in germany outrage of an election result says that when a question just a day after being voted into office and peace into the a small 2 limits organizers say the law and facts are not fear with coronavirus threatening the games plus bangladesh's cricket to play down security fears ahead of beatrice match in pakistan. thank you for joining us a day after his acquittal in the u.s. senate's impeachment trial president donald trump is holding what he calls a celebration speech maintains he did nothing wrong and says he and his family went

through hell the president has praise republicans while blasting democrats as vicious. to the allows you politicians but they do 2 things. they're vicious and mean vicious these people have issues adam schiff is a very horrible person nancy pelosi is a horrible person i've done things wrong in my life i will admit not purposely but i've done things wrong. but this is what the end result is. as speak to a white house correspondent kimberly hocket in washington company the president still holding his celebration speech tell us about what he's been saying he seems to be in top form. he does have moments this was rather presidential the president using rather colorful 4 letter words

well actually a few more letters than that but certainly what many in the united states would consider a swear word to describe what has been taking place with the impeachment process when that is you point out he says began from the day he announced his candidacy to win the white house it seems the president is using this is an opportunity to have a platform to settle scores verbal late lashing out at the house speaker nancy pelosi that he also spoke it alongside very earlier today at a national prayer breakfast criticizing her calling her a hypocrite essentially now just saying moments ago that he meant every word he is angry although he seems jovial at the moment somewhat relieved in fact that he has been acquitted and as you pointed out there in that clip you played just a moment ago the president savoring the fact that headline coming from the washington post that he feels has covered this throughout in

a critical matter towards him how can it it can be strong is he right now i have to after this acquittal in the senate and how will this play into the election that's coming up in november. the president seems to almost be speaking with an air of invincibility at this moment you have to remember and he reminded us in this press conference that is still going on there to in fact he has been under investigation from almost the beginning whether it was at the grassroots level where 50 percent of the population has resisted his presidency in some form or fashion we also have the investigation into whether or not his campaign colluded with russia one that alternately he was cleared of in terms of any collusion in terms of the federal investigation and now we have the impeachment inquiry where he was acquitted in the u.s. senate by members of the republican party which dominate that body the president is feeling like he's been under investigation from day one and as

a result it is what democrats have long feared his poll numbers seem to be going up as a result that he is portraying himself as a victim who has overcome insurmountable odds whether or not that consistent sustained him though until november is certainly going to be his challenge because already both sides very much on the attack democrats are not done with this either they say that they want to hear from the former national security adviser they were not able to call as a witness john bolton who has testified that he does believe well has not testified but has put in a book form that has leaked out that he believes the president did abuse his presidential powers for political purposes thank you for that company how can i for as the white house. national time before trump's remarks at the white house u.s. . see address reporters on capitol hill early on thursday the president spoke at a prayer breakfast in washington where he questioned proces assertion that she prays for him she called those comments inappropriate taken as the president

understands there are people who do pray but we do pray for the united states of america pray for him i present president bush still president obama of it causes a heavy. responsibility and i pray hard for him because he's so off the track of our constitution our values our country the care our children braze the water they drink and the rest he really needs our prayers so he can say whatever he wants and that speak to hide these are cast or in washington about this heidi is still a lot of blood between nancy pelosi and the president what are the democrats next moves going to be now. sure i think that you know there would have been very little expectation that the end of the impeachment it would just be turning a new page as far as the relationship between president trump and congress and we just saw that emphasize that that is certainly not the case and in fact this partisan acrimony in the finger pointing is now stronger than ever nancy pelosi in

that same press conference emphasizing that the president has it been impeached in her words he has been impeached for ever and asterix in the history books she says for violating the u.s. constitution now she will be overseeing some of these continued house investigations into trump's conduct we heard kimberly just talk about his investigations into his possible collusion with russia and in fact there still might be more of this information between what he had asked of ukraine to still surface because john bolton the national the former national security adviser he still may yet be subpoenaed to testify in public hearings before the house committee of course that's not going to be as pivotal in fact trouble be on trial anymore however he could still have information that is damaging to the president

and to his hopes for reelection also there is an investigation still ongoing into trump's financial handling there's an effort to get his tax returns dating from years back before he took office and his administration has been fighting tooth and nail to keep those forms secret even though previous presidents have all released that to the public so there's still much information that has not been revealed to investigators or to the public and democrats have vowed that they will try to get to the bottom of that and they're trying to beat their deadline which is of course the november elections heidi think you might force in washington. now to other world news and the world health organization says a number of new cases of the coronavirus same china has dropped for the 1st time but w.h.o. stress it's too soon to say if the outbreak has speak more than 28000 people have been infected around the world with most at the epicenter of the virus in her

province there is still a lot we don't know we don't know the source of the outbreak we don't know what its natural reserve water is and we don't properly understand its transmissibility or severe easy to defeat this outbreak we need answers to all those questions and there are tools we don't have we have no vaccine to prevent infections and notoriety acts to treat them. but 73 more deaths were recorded in china on wednesday the highest in one day bringing the total in china to more than 560 according to chinese state media among them was dr levy when young he was one of the 1st whistleblowers to raise concerns about the virus to others have died outside of china comicon giant chrysler has told the financial times it's weeks away from shutting down at least one of his european plants because it can't source

enough parts from its chinese supplies but hospital is in china still struggling to cope with the number of people infected and a growing number of countries are closing their borders to chinese charges everyone brown reports from hong kong which says it will quarantine all new arrivals on the mainland. china is on a war footing unverified video on social media shows streets in wuhan where the virus originated being sprayed with disinfectant. but questions linger over how china's government is dealing with this invisible enemy few countries can marshal the resources now at china's disposal and that's the thrust of the narrative on state controlled television but hospitals are swamped with an acute shortage of beds gymnasiums and sports stadiums have been turned into temporary medical centers to cope with on thursday the death toll reached 565 the latest

infections included a newborn baby but china's government says the number of virus victims who are recovering is also increasing here in hong kong the fear of catching this virus appears to be more contagious than the virus itself on thursday morning there were reports of panic buying in some local supermarkets with shelves being cleared of rice and other staples forcing the hong kong government to say there's no need to worry there's plenty of food. but there are not plenty of facemasks those that are on sale costs 3 times what they did before the crisis began people we spoke to don't understand why the government isn't providing them for free there are many poor people they have to queue up to buy to us and i think the government should do more of that to solve the problem because they're not doing enough because they did not plan ahead to pressure you see it was ford as it. is so now the

crisis word my ass is like throwing out. the day after the hong kong government announced it would soon begin isolating all arrivals from the mainland it remains unclear how that will happen the 2 options appear to be self isolation or being placed in holiday camps converted to quarantine centers in hong kong a luxury cruise liner the 2nd in asia with infected passengers is now a floating quarantine center as medical teams continue screening the 3600 passengers and crew the authorities are also appealing to passengers who were on a previous forage to get in touch fearing thousands more may have been exposed to the virus adrian brown al jazeera hong kong. well i saw speak to dr peter hotez was a vaccine scientist and the dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine is via skype from he sent texas thank you so much for

being with us dr hotez what do you make of this w.h.o. announcement that the number of new cases in china has dropped is could this be the beginning of the end of this outbreak. well that would be the hope but i think it is stuck to ted drewes the director general says it's a bit premature i mean the numbers are going up pretty steeply and remember the numbers reported are probably true underestimate so for instance officially the reports are $28000.00 cases but some estimates are saying there's more than $100000.00 people infected because the the estimates do not include the 'd people with low grade symptoms so there it may be actually much larger than we think so we'll have to see how things move forward 'd over the coming weeks but the bottom line this is a serious epidemic and china and there are some specific countries that i'm worried about where they could spread to create and how our nominee is and we heard earlier of a newborn in china being infected how

a nominee is that end could the infection have happened in the room it is possible but it's unusual for respiratory viruses to be transmitted from mother to baby so with that my understanding is that infant was infected around 30 hours of age so it's still possible that that if it was it infected shortly after birth so let's let's hold off on that one let's see if there are a dish in all cases i don't think we've by any means proven that this virus is transmitted from a mother to baby grace all right and what do you make of the you know the coroner teens around the world you know a ships being quarantined people in ships being prevented from leaving those ships is that helpful in containing the outbreak. well. perhaps quarantines or are needed i think that the bigger question is what travel bans that are now being implemented travel bans are

a 2 edged sword because. they distance and devise other countries from our honestly reporting whether or not there's an epidemic there so let's look at what do you do with a country like the philippines or allow us to cambodia where this virus might also emerge if if these countries are worried there's going to be a travel ban that'll 'd hurt their economy maybe they'll be less transparent so travel bans are always. a dicey proposition and you really have to think carefully . thank you so much for speaking to us about this dr peter hans from the bene qana just medicine joining us now from he said thank you for your time thanks so much. plenty more ahead on this news hour including. when the back on the life and career of hollywood legend douglas has died at the age of 503 and the race for the playoffs heats up in the n.b.a.

as miami take on the campus peta has the action. with the. first israeli army says it's sending around a 1000 mile soldiers into the occupied west bank after an upsurge in violence they have been clashes in several cities in the occupied west bank between palestinians and the israeli army after 4 palestinians were shot dead in separate incidents israeli military has arrested a suspect involved in a calming attack in jerusalem that wounded 12 israeli soldiers need avraham is in ramallah and tells us more about the incidents that unfolded on facing. the tensions started in the morning after the israeli army has raided the city of janine north of the occupied west bank where confrontations have erupted between the palestinians and the army and 19 year old palestinian was killed and he was later relayed to rest another palestinian a policeman

a father of 2 was also killed and as we've seen from the surveillance video he seemed to be standing in a police station doing nothing at the time of his injury and dates or his death it's not sure whether his family is going to be allowed to enter the west bank from jordan to attend his funeral now more than one in more than one occasion confrontations have been emptied between the palestinians and this raid the army medical sources tell us that there are around the sea palestinians who are wounded now in other news the post that is really army has been reading several towns and villages in the occupied west bank they say they are looking for a palestinian who was injured in israeli soldier in a shooting attack here near ramallah harry fossett is in west and says the palestinian leadership is blaming trumps middle east. as far as the the reason

a lot of people are pointing to the fact that it is just 9 days after the revelation or the unveiling of the u.s. peace plan there had been talk about possible violent reaction to it or an escalation of tensions at least of course it's difficult to draw a direct line but that's certainly the message coming from the palestinian president mahmoud abbas his office saying that the trump plan has created this escalation in tensions we've seen a couple of incidents in jerusalem in occupied east jerusalem earlier in the afternoon there was a palestinian citizen of israel from haifa in the north of israel he got very close to an army checkpoint as race here forces checkpoint just outside the luxor mosque compound and it is the temple mount to jews he pulled a gun out of his pocket shot out a group of israeli forces there injuring one likely he himself was shot and killed

and that came just a few hours after something was a place in the early hours of this morning a suspected running attack on a group of israeli soldiers who were on their way to a swearing in ceremony at the western wall this was in west jerusalem the driver got away one soldier seriously injured 12 injured in total the car discovered in beit jalla in the occupied west bank and there were raids and searches in bethlehem with some confrontations with palestinians resulting from that meanwhile a senior white house advisor jared kushner is in new york to brief the u.n. security council about the president's present terms middle east peace plan question he expected to speak to council members in a closed door meeting about a controversial plan that trump unveiled last week let's speak to our diplomatic editor james bays who's at the u.n. for as to what kind of reception is he going to get from the u.n. security council members. well this is obviously an important

meeting and i think that the violence that you've just heard about makes it an even more important meeting as you can see we're right outside u.n. headquarters but in fact a bus this from the security council of let the u.n. building and they come just over the road here this is the u.s. mission to the united nations susan rice the reporters outside here effectively the u.s. embassy to the u.n. and that's where we saw about an hour ago jared cushion or go inside and then in the last 10 minutes or so the ambassadors from the 15 members of the u.n. security council make their way in there having a lunch we're told they're in listening mode listening to the u.s. plan for the middle east but clearly this is a plan that is in contradiction with what the security council has said in the past particularly on israeli settlements which the security council has made clear the general assembly has made clear. under their resolutions illegal in international

law and of course under this plan these settlements would become permanent and permanent israeli territory as i say i don't think mr christian is going to get a particularly tough reception here for most the security council because they say for now they're here to listen all of the security council all 15 members at this lunch meat saying i'm told that 10 of the security council members the norm permanent members will then leave and potentially the most important part of the meeting will then be when judge krishna at the end of the meeting briefs justify a permanent members of the security council because of course they are the ones that have the veto in any vote and when we come to the idea of a vote remember that coming up next week there is a planned meeting of the security council this is a meeting with members of the security council but an actual formal meeting in the security council chamber that's the part. we wanted that president mahmoud abbas will be here in new york and what is planned for that meeting is

a resolution from security council members where they're going to reject the question a plan we won't we haven't we're not yet clear how many members support the idea of that resolution so it's all very important thank you for that james james frey's life for us at the united nations. talks and months of violence in libya will continue for another day in negotiating from the u.n. recognize government of national accord and wallowed highly for have thomas run 7 meeting in geneva in april last year have task forces launched an offensive to seize the capital from the jna the un's libya envoy says both sides still want to work towards ending the conflict progress has been made on many important issues and we have before us a significant number of points of convergence. do are we happy was what you have certainly yes is this. complete

certainly not and that is why. working on refining our basic graph. and on. that edging the gap on a few points of divergence hard abdel-hamid is in geneva with more on the talks. what we did understand through his words is the they was they couldn't get and sort of an agreement on what to do with the armed groups he said that there was a very difficult conversation and i think also from what we understood from other sources there is a request by the un and the un recognized government for the for the book a that safe south of tripoli to be lifted and that would be another very difficult point actually that the blockade of the oil fields he said that there was no

conversation about any military solution without talking about the oil fields he is waiting to hear back from libya about conditions a list of conditions he's hoping to get from the tribal leaders there that he says he would receive tonight and that's why actually the talks have not wrapped up. as saying that they will continue here tomorrow his hope being that by the end of these talks hopefully tomorrow in his words that they will be a final draft that both sides could take back to their political leadership so nothing is set in stone at the moment there is a little advancement but the lemon is that also a very clear that if the situation on the ground was a bit calmer then talks here would go smoother still ahead on this news hour in school town the young cricketers are bangladesh reached

a world cup final. to see us. i am. but. that's where most of the arabian peninsula is quite whether now the winds turning round to a southerlies or the woman from places like die hard for example probably $25.00 in a dusty southerly this is during friday but obviously something rather more drastic going on to the north in turkey in particular the snow heading across and i think it will be over a violent game during friday on the coast of the levant and inland blue denotes rain and the arrows a cool strong winds into lebanon syria that's of course going to make it feel pretty unpleasant and it lasts right until saturday the highest him from damascus is about 10 degrees the snows to

a 4 eastern turkey northern syria those in iraq and it runs into iran as well by which time nothing much has changed for the science. and surprisingly most of those after is quite with the exception of that with the stuff you know in the chip temperatures are the highest on the western side so dakar chart for example and he significant rain is just a matter of few showers we've seen world soon ethiopia recently we've seen rather more around lake victoria than 3 rounders well there's no obvious sign of the seasonal right for the time being it's taking a step backwards producing showers virtually anywhere even in south africa again. but. in an increasingly globalized and interconnected world where digital communication technology is growing digital platforms contribute to making change and expanding civic space consequently activists face harassment states railings

and increasing restrictions on the other hand digital platforms may be used to spread hate speech and trigger violence division conflict and terrorism which in turn contributes to undermining human rights. in this context the national human rights committee of qatar organizes the international conference on social media challenges and ways to promote freedoms and protect activists in cooperation with the united nations high commissioner for human rights the european parliament the global alliance of national human rights institutions and the international federation of journalists.

here watching the news out on al-jazeera with me for the back to blow a reminder of our top stories u.s. president has praised the republican audio day after his acquittal in the senate saying beach meant trial at a speech in the white house which ended a short time ago trump blasted democrats as vicious and said they put is sammy to have israel's army sending a combat italian into the occupied west bank after a spate of violent incidents in the past day for palestinians and. and shot dead in separate incidents wasat only 30 soldiers were injured in a car ramming attack interests many a suspect has been arrested and the arab world health organization says this is the 1st day the number of new cases of the ruhani coronavirus has dropped in china but it says it's too soon to say the outbreak has reached its peak and china is ready struggling to cope with a number of people who have been infected more now on our top story and president

tom celebrates or event at the white house following is a quite a wednesday on 2 counts of impeachment that speak to lincoln mitchell who is a professor of political science at columbia university and the author of the democracy promotion power docs he's via skype from new york thank you very much for being with us the president i am a celebratory mood in that speech at the white house which ended a short time ago he was vindictive what did you make of what he said well on the one hand the vision that the kind of erratic news the strange associations at one point he mentioned a baseball player who retired 50 years ago you know telling strange anecdotes about every member of congress who supported him you know we can kind of discount that because we're used to that from trump but what was so absolutely important was the complete lack of contrition which again we all expected but there were senators senators on the republican side who said he's learned his lesson you will do this

again what we saw today was a president who has been empowered by the republican senate to do whatever he wants and who is aware of that so what happens next will make could make what happened before look look like nothing you have like you can do anything you say he's empowered how kinetically strengthen is after this acquittal and heading into the november election. well that's that's i think that's a multi barrier question there because on the public opinion side he still largely under water impeachment while it didn't really change a lot was probably a very minute net gain for the democrats so he still goes into what looks like a tough impeachment battle but what he is empowered to do now is continue to play games with the electoral system to seek foreign assistance to tell lies about election fraud so that when if and when he loses he can tell a story that he didn't really lose and what the republicans have said is that we no

longer care about the constitution we no longer care about the law what we care about is protecting donald trump and donald trump is certainly smart enough to understand that interesting aina speech he raised the possibility that he'll be impeached again we know that the democrats want to continue with some of their investigations but it is that the right mole's from them should they continue with these investigations. well those are 2 different questions it's a tough question as as long as the president is involved in criminal and ethical corrupt activity that congress has an obligation not the option but an obligation to investigate him and the republicans have advocated but that doesn't a democratic advocate the question of whether they should bring a formal impeachment inquiry again that seems to me to be extremely unlikely and frankly unwise you know he's been acquitted there's no process that would lead to anything but another acquittal so at least until november i would be extremely surprised that the democrats did that if you were to get reelected which you know

could happen he certainly has a real shot at that you know then it may happen again because he certainly will continue to commit offenses if we use to look at anything from the past we know that he will continue to do that so if there is a trump 2nd term and if the democrats gain seats and senate which could happen we could see this again and probably again with an acquittal because there's no way democrats will ever have 67 votes which is what it takes to convict right and of course it's a long way until november and the nation as you said right now seems to be space in the middle when it comes to the president even though he's been acquitted in this senate impeachment trial how can the democrats capsulize on this. well i want to be clear that the acquittal in the senate came from senators who represent a relative minority of americans these are a lot of small state senators from places like north dakota south dakota and wyoming don't represent a lot into the majority of the american people and there is kind of a consensus among or a majority view that donald trump is a known ethical angry mean spirited dishonest president and that is something the

democrats have to drive home the voters that will be the difference in this election don't care about the difference between joe biden and bernie sanders health care plan what they care about is their balancing a relatively strong economy were the potential danger that donald trump would continue to do to the united states standing abroad to american political institutions and to the kind of harmony of everyday life and that's what the democrats need to focus on and the a pietschmann of his speech today plays into that because a smarter speech would have been you know i am glad to be acquitted i don't think i did anything that wrong but i've learned my lesson and i will try to conduct myself differently that's a speech that aims at the swing voters this is a speech that is to use the cliche red meat for his base thank you michel very good to get thoughts on this thank you so much for joining us here on out to seattle thank you for having me. gemini's farai party has caused what has been described as a primitive quake by helping to let the state from the air for the 1st time from on

this let's go to my animosity in our london broadcast center. yeah that's right a politician elected with the help of the alternative for germany party has now announced he will step down to pave the way for fresh elections thomas kemmer except into power on wednesday when the f.t. lent him their support in the central state of the ring gear it ended months of political deadlock after an inconclusive election in october but it also sent political shock waves to berlin it was the 1st time in 75 years an ultra nationalist party had acted as a kingmaker in german politics and the german chancellor angela merkel described it as unforgivable saying it must be reversed. together with my state department colleagues of the free democrats we decided to ask for the 3 parliament to be dissolved to do so we'd like to make a new elections possible to remove the rule of the if the support for the position

of the premier democrats new democratic majority obviously does not exist in its parliament now to ireland the general election on saturday could shake up the country's political status quo prime minister leader of the rockers overseen significant social change including repealing a ban on abortion he stood up to britain over breaks it and the economy is one of the fastest growing in europe but his popularity at home has plummeted its critics accuse him of ignoring domestic issues and that has led to a surge of support for shin fein the party that was once the political arm of the ira could hold the balance of power in the new parliament all those domestic problems include a critical shortage of affordable housing leading to a sharp increase in homelessness as our reports from dublin the crisis is a defining election issue. lifting the lid on the island's housing crisis it left this family homeless forced to live with friends and relatives or in

particular areas short term housing the result of sky high red market geared against the the main challenge was people not wanting a single mother with 3 children because maybe single mothers are trouble or why are there things you know i did i walked the streets a lot and i often had. just days where i i just felt despair charities have intervened where the government has and the family now has a long term home and a place to grow. 'd 'd this charities inundated with desperate calls some from entire families affected from their homes you have children with. a record number of babies and now being born into homelessness currently we have nearly $4000.00 children who are homeless that includes only 2000 families it's a disgrace that there are so many children homeless but it's just

a reality of the homes crisis in our love the moment it was hit hard by the economic crash in 2008 the house building stalled since then wages have increased but rents and house prices have risen by a bigger margin has left an entire generation struggling to afford rents that are higher in dublin and tokyo sydney and singapore meanwhile house prices have soared as social housing is scarce on the outskirts of dublin a new suburbs emerging from wasteland built by an american property giant to attract large investors this is a 3 bed pan tastes in a nearby development this 3 bedroom apartment costs more than $3000.00 above well beyond the reach of many we need something in the order of 35000 houses here we're only delivering 2025 so the main political parties at the moment are promising 406-088-0000 extension 0 units every over the course of the next government whereas

i think they perhaps might need to look and see how feasible those numbers are it is a critical issue in this year's election all parties agree that rents need to be lower and they need to be more houses but they can't agree on how much to intervene in the lucrative private markets the government of prime minister leo varadkar is having to account for its time in office opinion polls are predicting a shift away from the main. centrist parties feel a gale and feel for the wielded power for generations towards left wing shit inferring during the conflict in northern ireland the party was regarded as the political wing of the republican paramilitary group the ira it's put housing at the heart of its campaign. charities are urging all politicians to find a robust solution to the housing crisis the consequences of inaction are clear for families tonight the basic right of a secure place to live. leave parker al-jazeera. the

spanish prime minister has been meeting the leader of catalonia in a bid to improve the central government's strained relations with the region catalan regional president toro welcomed prime minister petra sanchez for talks in barcelona discussions were said to be amicable but the leaders have widely differing positions on the issue of catalan independence 9 catalan leaders are serving prison sentences holding an unauthorized secession referendum in 2017. and just one other story to bring you from london the 2 drivers of a high speed passenger train died when a derailed near melanne in northern italy and the train which was traveling almost 300 kilometers per hour hit another on an adjacent track injuring at least 28 people it was headed south to belong you know when it darrelle had been work on the line before the incident but the cause of the crash is still unknown last serious train accident in italy happened more than 2 years ago killing 3 people so that it

would look older because we need to know everything that should be bloody sure the emergency was going to intervene right away the very soon after the accident everyone with liberty on sight and body to face the situation. back to falling in doha now i will see a bit later. the old the own. time is international has raised concerns about what the u.k. noles about a cargo on board a soggy arabian ship feared to be taking weapons to yemen vessel tracking data suggests the body jambu left she and s. in the u.k. at night before docking in shed or in france the british and french governments have made no official comment about what's on board the saudi kariya and separately belgium's well loney a region has holter arms sales to saudi arabia now i'm a siege national also says sodger a gaze using

a secretive criminal court to silence its dissidents it says reality is systematically prosecuting activists in a court set up for terrorism related cases a report published on thursday is based on court documents of some $95.00 dissidents being tried harsh sentences including the death penalty have been handed out on false charges the watchdog says every stage of the judicial process is tainted with human rights abuses or let's speak to lean malouf about this she's the middle east research director at amnesty international she's i skype from beirut in very good to have you with us on al-jazeera we know that saudi arabia is often accused of violently repressing opponents and activists what role and what more can you tell us about this specialist criminal court in riyadh and the. we sure are thank you for having me 1st of all work we the reason why we wanted to look at this core it is that in our ongoing monitoring in documentation over the years we. were realizing that there was

a pattern of widespread unfair trials that were targeting all sorts of. human alternative put plans of saudi citizens including journalist human rights defenders. bloggers etc and what we found out by analyzing the court documents we actually went and looked into the cases of 95 people 95 most of the men in their trade individual you or in much trial and exactly what you are saying is that at every stage of the trial there have been violations of the rights of the defendants every single stage and that goes from being arrested without a warrant being without any contact with their lawyer or counties for a long time to. try and the tensions that could go on for a almost 3 years up to 3 years and then of course the charging in the sentencing based on that mainly due to laws that are incredibly problematic and the

antiterrorism war and then the cyber or the cybercrime law both of which contain very vague charges that actually criminalize outs that are hardened that are a bit essentially after 1st freedom of the freedom of expression so people ringback have been prosecuted and sentenced to a very heavy sentences simply for putting on tweeting for example and the result is what we found out is that by 2017 virtually all of the human rights defenders are saudi human rights defenders how been knocked up or silenced with the threats of being prosecutors and how have saudi authorities responded to your report they of course have been promoting a new reformists image 7 launch ambitious economic. and social reforms what have they said about this report. well we share into the findings of the report in our recommendations a bunch of months before a publication and we received a response from the saudi human rights commission which is affiliated to the

government in their response they were setting out basically what their policies are and their laws are but there was no substantive explanation or or a response to the cases to the specific cases that we were raising with the now of course you know the image that this report and i have learned since of the situation just through the lens of this one trade gives us it's incredibly start image to the reformist image that. is led by the crown prince power bands and manhunt been promoting for the past for the past 2 and i have here is on the one hand we see your abs presiding over g 20 this year there's been these reforms the tourists the tourists are foreigners are welcome to go into the country there has been a lot of social reforms but on the other hand there's been 0 i mean there's been a complete crushing of any form of dissent of criticism of even playing advocating

for a change every single person who has commented is a threat of being prosecuted through the use of these were that through the use of the judiciary basically then while we have you whether scan you tell us a bit more about the saudi cargo that originated in the u.k. and that's believed to be taking weapons to yemen. so we don't really have evidence at this stage of what it's carrying because her because of the kicking this around around the car the boat what we do know from this ship's buddy and his previous search shipments is that it has been it has been transporting. a year after the war in yemen started tens of millions of worth of dollars of violence shipments that are going being very down from the u.s. from europe to saudi arabia and fueling the war in yemen now amnesty has been

documenting and other organizations as well as the u.n. has been documenting and giving evidence providing evidence of how these are acts by the saladin and coalition have been i'm being used to commit war crimes and on the basis of that all of the states that are in europe where this ship is supposed to be docking are part of the arms trade. treaty and that treaty they are not supposed to be transferring arms when they can't that carries a risk of being used as in work bribes incidents in milan that is one of the chief reasons why we are seeing this huge normalization all of the or it's. all there is you do not get the darker the the dock workers and n.g.o.s are mobilizing to protest the docking of this ship in their words lynn mandel for amnesty international thank you very much for talking to us thank you. hollywood is mourning the death of actor curve douglas who has died at the age of $103.00 he

started more than 80 movies becoming one of the world's most celebrated actors the film industries golden ages well he was nominated 3 times for the best actor oscar and received an honorary academy award in 1996 or brad manley looks back at his life and career. kirk douglas graced the silver screen for more than 7 decades he burst onto the scene in 1946 next veteran movie star barbara stanwyck and strange. for people douglas quickly established himself as a star and leading man in his own right earning his 1st oscar nomination in 1950 playing a boxer in the champion. 2 more. followed over the next decade the truck occupation one for playing a producer in 1952 the bad and the beautiful how do you know how i feel about and

another in 1956 playing tortured artist vincent van gogh in lust for life well i think son i want to make you feel it revolving giving off like this is most iconic role came in 1960 playing spartacus a slave leading a revolt in ancient rome he also produced the film and helped end hollywood's communist blacklists by insisting right to dalton trumbo receive on screen credit blacklisted hollywood writers had been working under pseudonyms and had their names officially on projects. her sister never told you from one of the greatest writers of his own generation and that's that was really important douglas later became patriarch of an acting did a stage son michael followed him into business becoming an oscar winning actor and producer. in 2003 the pad along with michael son cameron appears in the film

it runs in the family. the veteran actor was a prolific author as well penning a half dozen books including his $988.00 autobiography the ragman son. despite suffering it to police hating stroken $995.00. to make the film in 96 at the age of 80 the actor finally won his 1st academy award an honorary oscar andrew knight i love all you and i thank all of you. still ahead on al-jazeera has a sports including how the cheese victory party turned into a super bowl bash. or

. time to catch up on sports has built up for it thank you very much tokyo 2020 organizers say they are no plans to postpone or cancel the olympics or paralympics of a coronavirus the games c.e.o.'s seemed to backtrack a day after he said he was seriously worried that the spread of the virus would dampen enthusiasm for sport's biggest event which is less than 6 months away but the man in charge of the paralympics believes there's no cause for alarm yet with the advice from the world health organization they've clearly said there's no pandemic they have today they'll come up with a great phrase which is called an info demick which they say zees speculation that

is driving fear and one thing i'm noticing at the moment is fear is spreading far quicker than the virus and it's important that we qualify. many olympic athletes are putting their final preparations together while most will be aiming to medal and athletes from south sudan already knows what he'll get out of the games $1500.00 metre runner abraham majok is one of a handful of competitors from his country who has been invited to train in japan and he's been struck by the welcome he's had from locals sometimes you get when you know what well foreign country blah you know sometimes you may have talent is going ok me i've got the talent they love the police before how it's really more than in a more or limp my own understanding is a game of peace and it happens because the world is at peace and now as an athlete from a country that is still not having a 4th and i have come this we haven't seen the advantages of these and when i get

back the message i will have is the importance of peace and that's the biggest message of the same to my people. bangladesh captain a moment ago hawke says security concerns are not on their minds as they go into day one of his with pakistan in rawalpindi the tourists most experienced batsman mushfiqur rahim refused to travel bangladesh all the 2nd team to to pakistan since they resumed home matches after 10 years at neutral deniz we don't think about security concerns. you know one of the best bet you don't have is sometime it's been difficult but at this other hand. is a good opportunity for a new player so look for it is a good opportunity to look new players as bangladesh's young players are through to the under 19 cricket world cup final to beating new zealand in thursday samy the kiwis were always under pressure to make a big circle when they reduced to 74 for 4 but an unbeaten 75 from beckham will

agree no helped them since a target of 212 bangladesh also made a bad start so they innings using 2 early wickets. but they were rescued to buy a house on joey he made exactly $100.00 and went on to win it by 6 wickets and with $35.00 goals to spare bangladesh lead india in sunday's final which is also taking place in potchefstroom. the defending n.b.a. champions toronto raptors of what a franchise record 12 game in a row that's a work hard for a 3rd fighting back from 19 points down to beat the indiana pacers barker's school 30 points including this 3 pointer to win it by a single point raptors on our 2nd in the. former half to start to rack up a series of 3 pointers for his new team the l.a. clippers as they beat the miami heat the win keeps the pressure on western conference to lose the l.a. lakers. family with 10000 reasons to celebrate for one clippers fan on wednesday.

that hole of course sure proving profitable only him $10000.00 progress. the new super bowl champions kansas city chiefs have been celebrating with a victory parade and as joanna gash rob's could explain was a party that had been a long time coming. but all that do it. no matter what the last time the chiefs and their fans celebrated like this was 50 years ago and an uncommon snowstorm did nothing to freeze out the hundreds of thousands who lined the route. the chiefs called their way back 283120 victory over the 49 ers on sunday scooping not only the vince lombardi trophy but also the m.v.p. award for quarterback patrick mahoney. was our series a mere $33.00 we do we're with the year injuries i mean money was in the start of

malone then we still went back and we won a super bowl where that's very little low darkover good one we do we had no thought was right for our. one drunk fan took that policy a little too far when he went on a joyride along the super bowl parade route police safely bringing the car to a dramatic stop as they rest both the driver and passenger gunpoint while fans watched from the sidelines the. drama was a side note on a day filled with celebration and the team's traditions. for decades they've been banging their drama head of each home game now they finally got to do it as n.f.l. champions join al jazeera. but future of 7 time will the moto g.p. chairman valentino rossi is still very much up in the air as yamaha launched

a 2020 season in malaysia on thursday rossi is now 40 years of age is in the last year we contract a team of already signed rising star fabio qatar 042-0212 ride alongside maverick vineyard les rossi has won a record $89.00 races in his career but is without a victory since 2017 i can fight for the podium and they can be competitive i have i have motivation and my target these are try to continue also next year. but. if the result of what they expect become difficult so for this reason why when we speak. i am not ready to decide. most will begin later it's i thank you very much i said for this news out on al-jazeera from me for the back to the whole team here and.

in an increasingly globalized and interconnected world where digital communication technology is growing digital platforms contribute to making change and expanding civic space consequently activists face arrest in states of aliens increasing restrictions on the other hand digital platforms may be used to spread hate speech and trigger violence division conflict and terrorism which in turn contributes to undermining human rights. in this context the national human rights committee of qatar organizes the international conference on social media challenges and ways to promote freedoms and protect activists in cooperation with the united nations high commissioner for human rights the european parliament the global alliance of national human rights institutions and the

international federation of journalists. the exclusive undercover report that captured a peaceful protest ruthlessly put down by the military they seem to be testing the ministry the standing over there with their guns ready to seize if the start of the crackdown can be. nowhere you know me so maybe 10 years on what has changed rewind inside me and ma the crackdown on al-jazeera. we understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world so no matter where you will greet the news and current

affairs that matter to you. but this is what the end result is thank. president costs in his or her soul on the impeachment charges taking aim at democratic senators calling them dishonest and koran. hello i maryam namazie and london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up on the program 24 hours of violence for palestinians shot dead tensions rise in the wake of the u.s. president's controversial middle east of. new figures from the chinese region of what han show the number of new cases of the coronavirus has dropped for the 1st time.