winter weather has worsened conditions for syrians living in a refugee camp in lebanon's bekaa valley it comes as the ongoing economic crisis in lebanon is having a serious impact on humanitarian programs ireland's snap general election is underway the opinion polls are predicting a shift away from the 2 main center right parties towards the left wing nationalist same party while ireland has the fastest growing economy in the european union the main concern for votes is the public health care crisis and housing shortage. 2 senior officials who testified in the impeachment inquiry against us president donald trump have been fired by him 48 hours after his acquittal gordon song learned new tenant cotto alexandrov and been criticized trump's handling of military aid to ukraine. the headlines continue. to al-jazeera. we talk about to the biggest problem facing and they are the endemic

corruption and we listen so if you really put in place china's editor. and that's written that we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter is there oh he got away with it this week senate republicans voted to acquit president donald trump but can he ever escape the taint of impeachment one of his closest allies. steve cortez thanks for joining me on upfront on wednesday president trump was acquitted on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of congress you must be delighted the white house has called it a full exoneration for the president but given this was the 1st full senate impeachment trial in american history not to feature any witnesses senate

republicans did not allow any witnesses it's not a full exoneration at all is it well i think it is a partial exoneration so i will partly agree with you by the way i'm one of the few people in sort of team trump who wanted witnesses because i think that witnesses would have achieved that full exoneration and so i get i'm not saying that on behalf of the white house i'm not even saying that on behalf of my organization america 1st that's just my personal opinion i disagree and i want to see the full exoneration was that i actually wanted well i'm just saying it is an exoneration but for a full exoneration to prove to the american people i think just how corrupted this entire inquest was from the very beginning i thought witnesses would have been helpful there are still other ways that we can get to full exoneration for example senate committees looking into the targeting of president trouble all the way back to his. to see by the national security apparatus of the united states continuing through his tenure as president elect and president of united states i still think that for full exoneration we need that investigation to fully to fully unfold

perhaps the most high profile witness who republicans in the senate refused to call but who was willing to come and testify as president trump's own former national security advisor john bolton who says in a full of coming book that the president told him he wanted to freeze aid to ukraine until the ukrainians launched investigations into his political opponents if trump isn't guilty steve if there's nothing to hide he did nothing wrong he wouldn't have blocked bolton a republican from testifying woody. well look he blocked lots of folks from the white house and to testify and for very good reasons by the way it's not because that's an indication of guilt it's because executive privilege is a very fundamental premise of american law for the executive branch and it's something that's important not just for president trump to protect but important for any president to have protection that he can can rely on taking advice in confidence from his advisers and knowing that it will stay in confidence so that's a very important principle it's an important precedent of american law but look

again i had john bolton being called as a witness i'm fine with particular in terms of the trade off of i'd be happy to hear what john bolton had to say under all juxtapose that for example with the whistleblower under oath with the bidens under oath with adam schiff under oath so i think it's too bad to some degree that the american people didn't get that full flushing out of the this entire story but so be it you know the this is going to decide it again they are going to in the book very soon see what happens that on wednesday the vote to convict trump on abuse of power was by politics and $47.00 democrats plus one republican you'll polities former presidential candidate mitt romney whereas the vote to acquit him was policies on only republicans voted to acquit and even among those republican steve you had multiple senators lamar alexander lisa murkowski rob portman susan collins who openly said there was nothing perfect about that poll with the ukrainian president that it was wrong that it was inappropriate so again this is not an exoneration for trump is that he's still tainted no i did not believe that he's tainted look when it comes to some of

the republicans in the senate despite what the democrats want to tell us that he supposedly controls republicans on the hill with an iron grip i think we've seen it actually exactly the opposite particular when it comes to the senate there is a lot of opposition to this president and his agenda among republicans in the united states senate if there weren't for example when we controlled both houses of congress we would have gotten the wall fully built on the southern border so the idea that adam schiff and a lot of his allies in media continually put forward that he's some sort of king and he has almost dictate. tauriel control of republicans is just wrong i believe on the facts but on the issue of impeachment multiple rob republican senators criticize this president i just want to play a clip of donald trump on the white house lawn in october opening asking not just ukraine but china to investigate the bidens have a listen by the way like guys started again. because what happened. just about what happened. with

ukraine. put aside steve for a moment the fact that a lot of americans including republicans think it's wrong for a u.s. president to ask a foreign totalitarian government to investigate a u.s. citizen let me ask you this why is it ok to ask china for a corruption investigation into hunter biden son of joe and a private citizen but not for a corruption investigation into evoke a trump daughter of donald and white house advisor in 2018 the chinese government gave 5 trademarks to evoke his businesses around the same time as a father the president rather conveniently was trying to save a chinese telecoms company from going bust. right ok well listen i think those are apples and oranges comparisons if you want to i can talk about the evocate issue 1st of aka is a is a established and extremely successful business woman prior to her father entering politics so it's not surprising that she would be able to gain trademarks in a country like china there's nothing unusual about that when he's on the right of you when you're working in the white house and your father is doing deals that favor the chinese 6 days off do you get those trade moments well look the president

has hardly been has either been easy on china if there's one thing that has really marked his presidency has been standing up to china where he was right not going he was under really saying i'm going to save this chinese company people were shocked at the time and she did get a bunch of trade i'm not saying she did i think all i'm saying is why haven't we had people calling for an investigation into her if insistency but here's the thing if we because as far as i know there's no there's no credible allegation that anything was untoward there were as we look at how to buy the haitians more the way they want to buy them we most of them divide allegations have been questioned heavily by experts when we look at hunter biden and what he did in china and by the way i think the corruption issue of the bidens in china is a far greater issue actually than the ukraine issue i think it makes the ukraine issue while the somewhat heated corruption issues of the largest holder and who are in office right now is what you would than somebody did something 4 years ago and the government. i would be the 1st to say that if the trump children suddenly got massive business deals from a foreign government and

a very corrupt government like the chinese communist party if they something got massive business deals made huge pay packages sale in an area of business in which they have no no in an area of business in which they have no previous expertise in which they have which they have never practiced before such as $100.00 hunter biden getting a 1000000000 and a half dollars from the government controlled bank of china for private equity you know again a business for which he had no track record for which he had no credentials other than his last name and being his father's son if that were to happen with the trump children then i would be the 1st to say that it wouldn't you don't look at him again with the children every day but let me ask you this steve you talk about corruption can you point me to a single specific case in ukraine or for that matter anywhere else in the world where president trump has shown an interest in corruption and fighting corruption that doesn't involve joe biden all the democrats just one example yes well for instance we're talking a lot about china here look the the approach toward china right now their president trump thankfully his comments within this country is that we're taking on china in a broad way in a national security sensitive trade way and in

a corruption sense for example america has been incredibly abused by the chinese communist party regarding our intellectual property that's corruption absolutely come off as a right thing i'm asking about specific case of corruption involving ukrainian all the dogs or the israeli prime minister who's indicted on charges of corruption but is a good friend of the president he doesn't show interest in any specific case of corruption the democrats surely know that. i cannot no i don't know that but i can address the here's the difference between netanyahu and biden and there's a crucial difference netanyahu is not american he's not american politician he's a friend and ally to be sure of our country and of the president on a personal level but joe biden was a constitutional officer of the united states the 2nd highest constitutional officer of the united states if he was engaged in corrupt practices or if his family was while he was the city vice president that is an extremely relevant and appropriate angle for this country to pursue i want to talk about the issue of immigration and race huge issues in this country you called yourself

a nationalist the president called himself a national you've also been a member of the president's hispanic advisory council to hispanic yourself and yet this is a president who opened his campaign by referring to mexican immigrants as rapists who was repeatedly referred to an invasion and invaders at the southern border the same language as you know that's been used by white nationalist terrorists who have attacked synagogues mosques latino's in grocery stores you yourself steve urged the president to tone down his quote inflammatory rhetoric on invasions didn't you i did i don't like the term invader but 2 separate issues there by the way in terms of his opening when he when he came down the escalator trump tower and he talked about rapists and murderers coming from mexico that is factually correct now it's not the preponderance of course it's not even a large minority of the illegal migrants who come to this country but it is a reality that there are people who come here illegally with it what he said with a result of some of them wreak havoc upon this country and by the way they primarily wreak havoc upon hispanic americans our community suffers the most the

ravages of dangerous illegal aliens who are often allowed to stay in this country to hide in plain sight in so-called sanctuary cities for example as 13 if you read a story we're going to get out of time but again we're going to what do you make of it all as we all hispanic said we could all make up our own minds on invasions invade as you criticize but i agree with you i don't like the word invader so why do you say it so much because he's the president i'm not. racist offensive insightful things. just saying the i don't think it's racist ok now this is important and i will i will certainly defend him on this saying invaders not racist there is nothing racist about defending our border for a couple of reasons number one america is not a race this is a multiracial country citizenship here has nothing to do with race you are either born here or you're naturalized legally in a race blind process holdings. who cross the border into america invaded is yes many would argue that is bigot he would write laws. he hasn't read he had anyone when he didn't he would hold anyone of any little or no way invade is he referring

to the southern border when he said it in fact stevie's run more than 2000 facebook ads referring to an invasion at the southern border despite your your advice and you'll your protestations when you have the walmart shooter in the mosque shooter in christchurch the synagogue shooter in pittsburgh all referring to foreign invaders you can understand why so many people think this president is inciting violence and harming minorities you can understand that surely when you look at the common language no i certainly cannot this president as a matter of fact that we saw certainly his state of the union which was very much really an appeal to minority americans you know i actually put an article about this it was the state of the union for minorities in terms of both the topics selected and the gas who were present for that magnificent state of the union speech it was really all about number one the accomplishments thus far that directly benefit minority americans and the number 2 the road ahead and how at how minorities in this country black and brown people who he deeply loves and cares about are starting finally to fully participate in the economic appreciate that

you're going to do it might go a certain when you have terrorists who are using the same language offensive language that you and i don't like about jews and about mexicans and about people in el paso walmart's that's a problem isn't it you don't there is a problem that the president says these invaders are coming in and the people who would shoot them and say these invaders are coming at you know that that's a problem there are sick demented people who unfortunately want to use violence to achieve political ends for example the shooter on the left now i would never blame that on bernie sanders even though he. clearly was an ardent bernie sanders suddenly saw an example of what he saw on this condemned that shooter and didn't use any of the language of the shoot used against republicans trump is actually that all trump has and condemned the shooters he's completely condemned the shooters i mean plenty condemn them all and i mean it doesn't mean something to you at a trump rally in may the president asked how we should stop migrants from illegally crossing the border someone in the crowd yelled out shoot them trump did not condemn that remark stevie smug and he made a joke about it less than 3 months later a man did shoot latinos in el paso wal-mart. he did not.

share the migrants the next day funny now i don't go out on the. i don't think it's funny you know also i don't think it's funny though is having a porous border because it's bad for our national security to say that's another debate i don't really say i'm asking about shooting people and making jokes about shooting people and killing them invaders that's the problem surely you and i can agree on that i look i don't i as i've told you know i think 3 times i don't i don't prefer the term invader i don't ok however that doesn't mean in any sense that i'm soft on this issue illegal immigration is a scourge upon this country and it is a scourge that primarily mostly disproportionately ravages minority american citizens this president is doing his best unfortunate has been obstructed by the courts and by congress but he is doing this best to at long last gain sovereignty over our country it's one of the primary reasons that he was elected it is a it is an animating principle of our movement and he has followed through on like so many other conservative. lives just certainly followed through on this issue you

say trump is a racist i just want to play a clip from a trump rally in new mexico a few months ago which you were out and what the president said this jokingly about you he happens to be his panic but i've never quite figured it out because he looks more like a wasp than i do. what do you like for the country you know the his. he says the country i don't know why i may have to go for the hispanic. stevie question your identity of the hispanic american question to a little to america and to question your skin color how is that not racist. you know well 1st of all he didn't question my spending this he's joking right it was a moment of levity and he's having a lot of michael i don't know why he doesn't he hold on to like a wall because he do because he's ok he teases me he teases me often in private in this in this case he did in public that i look like such a wall street banker ok so he's making fun of you i know. that he's all the next

not to america no no and look there again what he meant was clearly and look i know this because i know him and because i talk with him privately when there aren't cameras about this issue what he meant there was you love both so much you love america so much you love the span of community so much and then in an in artful way he said which do you like more right it's just an offhand comedy there's nothing i would say you know he had said he says the country i don't know you don't think that feeds into tropes about disloyal cowardice even to joe and he was a joke was going to be racist. now look he was clearly laughing i was laughing by the way if i know there's always people love letters and jokes steve steve lots of issues the fact that we love them something doesn't i wouldn't racist many i would never tolerate a racist comment even from president trump whom i greatly admire i would never tolerate a racist comment particularly one directed at me i will tell you this story about the president i privately the very 1st time i ever got in the oval office in february 2017 when he welcomed me and the very 1st thing he said just the 2 of us

no one else there was what can i do to help a span of americans in this country and that we had a substantive conversation primarily about small business and about deregulation that is the heart of this president that's the mind of this president. of the results that have been achieved so far so you know again he speaks in artfully he speaks at times very inelegant lee i'll be the 1st to admit that as somebody who for the last several years has to come on shows like this and explain some of the state of the speaks well not notice someone who comes on the show to explain statements one last question before i let you go on sunday the kansas city chiefs won the super bowl and president trump went on twitter and congratulated the state of kansas even though the team. is based in kansas city missouri when the president does or says things like this which show his lack of knowledge of basic job graphy american history world events how embarrassed do you feel how hard does it make your job coming on having to defend him now look i wasn't embarrassed at all and here's the reason there is a kansas city kansas 1st of all next to kansas city missouri there are tons of

cheese fans in the state of kansas so was it a mistake of course it was a mistake was a consequential not remotely in my mind i really don't to me it's something you laugh about that he quickly corrected steve cortez thanks so much for joining me on outfront thank you many. tens of thousands of people have become infected with the coronavirus respiratory illness to broke out in china in december so far the rate of death is less than 3 percent but as china scrambles to contain the viral epidemic foreign nations are evacuating their citizens and already the global economy is feeling the impact of cancel flights and business is closing so is a coronavirus destined to become the next pandemic many certainly seem to think so and the fear is leading to open racism against china joining me to discuss the chinese and global responses to the coronavirus is one and i think of a china global television network c g t n and their former chief political correspondent he's been covering the coronavirus from headquarters and he joins me now from beijing. thank you for joining me up

front you've been following this story and this virus which is killed more than i believe 500 people in china so far tragically tell us what is the situation in china right now what's it like on the ground. well there has been a concerted national campaign again this out against this outbreak but i'm not going to lie and the situation is still grim. 3000 people getting infected every single day in the past couple of days and we're doing a few things here 1st of all attending those very sick that's why experience doctors are poor the from across the country to the i.c.u. seen one and secondly tending those who are less symptomatic but are no less contagious because these people in the past there was a lack of medical resources to tend to these people but these people were out and about passing the virus to others so that in the past few days 2 hospitals were built in just 2 weeks and 11 makeshift hospitals were built so that these people

can be taken in and hopefully we can cut their path of transmission and yet one health expert at the university of hong kong said this week quote there's no sign that it's getting better is he right does china have the capacity to deal with this crisis at speed i think we do have the capacity to deal with this epidemic right now twice as many people as many patients got recovered then those who died and of course if we look at the absolute numbers there has been a rise in those infected patients but that's partly because of better and quicker testing diagnosis has been reduced from 4 days to this one and also the poor the bases for suspected patients have been increased meaning you take in not just those . people in the past but also who are coughing who are showing symptoms this week the politburo standing committee made up of president xi jinping and china's top officials admitted to quote shortcomings and deficiencies in the government's response to the outbreak but it's more than just shortcomings and deficiencies in

it when the outbreak began in an 8 people sounded the alarm they were intimidated by local police they were accused of making false comments they were told to stop the quote illegal activity now hundreds of people are dead that's what happens when you sense a public opinion is no. well here is what happened of course there's no denying that there should have been more information more transparency and a better emergency response system in place in the 1st place but it's also fair to say that beijing was very quick to get on top of things you have the chinese president saying that you know transparency is key timely publication of information is key in fact those people with simple as you mentioned they were vindicated by none other than china's supreme court ok there's some who would argue that china's gone from one extreme to another 1st pretending there's nothing wrong in rounding up people who complained about the virus and now a rounding up anyone who has the virus so anyone who doesn't report it you have the vice premier who is leading the government response saying this week and i quote

during these wartime conditions there must be no dessert to all they will be nailed to the pillar of historical shame forever. i think this quo this taken out of context you've got to be brave you've got to confront this virus the situation is grim there needs to be a concerted effort you can either run away from the front line i think this is where the vice premier means we're also seeing reports that there are confirmed cases of the coronavirus in should in the region in western china where some 1000000 muslim we get chinese citizens are being held in what the government calls reeducation camps should the corona virus spread in that region or in those camps does china have the infrastructure all the will to stop it from spreading there among the weakest appreciate your concern but i think that is a highly have pathetically question because right now i don't know that if you're very there is an outbreak. there is no outbreak in chin down there has been very there have been very few cases in she'd actually ranks number 6 from the bottom in

terms of the confirmed cases there has not been a single death in change so far situation is well under control over there but we would know what's happening in the company obviously because the media is not allowed in the media obviously before we run out of time let's talk about the global reaction there have been travel restrictions cancelled flights and evacuations by military aircraft but so far less than one percent of the deaths from this virus have happened outside of china so do you believe the world is overreacting to this virus or not i think some people are definitely overreacting look maybe the what we need right now are facts not fear. 90 percent percent of the deaths occurred in the center and 80 percent of the deaths are the seniors over 60 years of age with underlying diseases such as cardiovascular problems so i'll cite who province the death rate the mortality rate is just point 17 percent to put that in perspective according to c.d.c.

of the us the flu theft rate in the us is just point 13 percent so the coronavirus by and large is much much less lethal than merced for example that is if 34 percent death rate or ebola there's a 50 percent death rate the corona virus right now has the overall global death rate at 2 percent what would you say to people in the west who say the problem is we call trust whether china is being fully honest an actor about the extent of this virus to spread well come to china and see for yourself. up to the minute updates on new infections suspected cases confirmed deaths are made available on virtually all media platforms i just checked my phone right now. actually it is an issue of grave concern here in china of great public concern people are fighting this virus in solidarity those who don't trust china they have a track record of not trusting china it's their problem some are entitled in a summer xenophobia some are afraid of china's rise i'm not about being anti china

there have been numerous reports of you know people making some pretty bigoted chinese racist remarks in the wake of this outbreak signs in japanese restaurants that say no chinese a french newspaper with the headline yellow. as a chinese citizen journalist are you worried about the rise in escalation in china racism as a result of this latest controversy i think those events are disturbing you have a woman in new york city in that role been pushed and you know called racial slurs those resources are used against chinese and asians across europe those are disturbing but you know what's more disturbing it's the western media reports for example there are spiegel one of the most circulated magazines seen europe they have a headline they read this. the virus regarding the corona virus a little racism is fine and quote thanks to the yellow skinned slit eyes that we may all be dead soon and you have the wall street journal of course calling china

the real sick man of asia these are really concerning issues because now some westerners are calling china calling the coronavirus the china virus but i didn't remember people calling the brazil virus or ebola the congo virus so people in the not panic people in the fact people should look at it in objective manner yes a reason that and that is from china we have a lot of introspection to do as chinese but please show some respect because we the chinese people are fighting this virus to the best of our. mind one thank you for joining me up front. that's our show up front will be back next week. the island of sardinia a famously adelie college a spot. less well known as

a proving ground for full. investigation claims that use of military training and ons testing have triggered cancer and birth defects amid the local population. secret saudia people in power on al-jazeera. on kalgoorlie calls to spike vowing to stop propping up straw men in africa france's backing of libyan border and child dictator is it all about the oil plus the u.k. finally clears one bridge that hurdle what does it mean for one of the worst performing industrial economies. counting the cost on al-jazeera. al-jazeera. where every year.

the u.s. is always of interest the people the world people pay attention to will do and you know does it is very good to bring the news to the world from here. this is al jazeera. welcome to this al-jazeera news hour on how the market see an endo hum coming up. a toy soldier shoots and kills several people before taking hostages in a shopping mall. the number of deaths from china's coronavirus on track to surpass the sars outbreak it's spread to 25 countries it's. inside a ghost town in northern syria while an uneasy standoff remains between turkish and

syrian forces. also irish.