we listen so if you repeat plays china as an enemy of the listen that's really then yours we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter just 0 . force than sars the corona virus outbreak that toll climbs again and china's government is criticized over its response. i'm richelle carey this is out there live from doha also coming up a tense standoff is over in thailand after a soldier goes on a rampage killing 26 people. stuck with nowhere to go live as a syrian refugee and live in on gets worse in the dead of winter. pale and male alarm bells are ringing once again over the lack of diversity for this year's academy awards.

the number of people who have died from the corona virus is now exceeded those killed in the sars outbreak 814 people are confirmed dead the toll from sars was 774 back in 2003 and china's government was criticized for how to handle that at the demick now as the death toll from the corona virus outbreak climbs criticism as again emerging and mainland china it aaron brown is in hong kong with more on the political fallout. in a national emergency the country's leader is normally front and center not so china's president xi jinping his meeting with the visiting head of the world health organization in late january was 1 of his few recent appearances on state television nightly news way normally features prominently and since demanding a transparent and timely release of information about the coronavirus more than 2 weeks ago he's yet to visit. instead he sent. the premier league could chunk to

test the temperature and encourage medical workers. figure one analyst says there's perhaps a good reason for the president's disappearing act if things turn. thing the owners will be young. and so. in a way seeing. protect himself from being too much exposed by the crisis it's almost 2 years since she was appointed president for another 5 years that was after china's parliament voted to abolish the 2 term limit on the presidency effectively allowing she to remain in office for life for president she this crisis is much bigger than the young going protests here in hong kong or trade friction with the united states because the way his government has responded to the coronavirus outbreak is causing more and more people on the mainland to openly question the system they live under many chinese people feel that core values like

family livelihood and food security and now under attack threatening sheaves credibility and legitimacy especially if the virus becomes pandemic so i don't think this is as bad as that at the moment. he's got no real competition you know he's secure. but if this. sort of crisis deepens and this becoming a pandemic of course the political consequences could be devastating. a maybe evil style virus is threatening china's city of the future but 17 years ago i reported from shanghai on the aftermath of another deadly virus sars that also caused people to question their faith in the party after officials admitted a cover up a local colleague to help navigate me around a popular chat room be internet in china was still in its infancy then as now though public skepticism ran deep he said. that means no tell the truth he

says the government here doesn't tell the truth. there are more expressions of anger today in spite of tighter internet censorship lessons that should have been learned from sars haven't proved once more the china remains vulnerable to disease at the beginning of the crisis china was boasting i mean the media were boasting about the how much the chinese well the legal system could better face the crisis manage the crisis and solve the crisis. he said it's hard to imagine the crisis threatening she survival because unlike 17 years ago china's security machine is much bigger and better able to maintain control adrian brown al-jazeera hong kong. joins us live now from katrina the numbers are still startling and seem to be going in the wrong direction what's the latest. that's right so so

far as we know there are more than 37000 cases confirmed of people who have coronavirus the death toll it has taught more than 800 and we had 29000 suspected cases we had a statement from the whole big government which is the provincial government where the city of one is in and they've released for the 1st time an official fatality rate of 3 percent and they've also said that within the next 2 days they've promised to test all those suspected cases of that's a huge a huge undertaking they've promised to test about 29000 people and as we heard in that story and this is really a battle for the government on 2 fronts a battle against the virus but also a battle to maintain their credibility i think there's been a lot of criticism about the chinese government's handling of this that they should've reacted sooner so what we've seen in response in recent days is almost war time like measures so we've had 2 hospitals go up in

a matter of 10 to 12 days in the city of one and surrounding cities stadiums schools other government buildings and halls have been turned into makeshift quarantine centers there are also a lot of other restrictions we not only have about 15000000 people in lockdown in this region one allowed to leave leave the city we also have other things happening so we have government medical teams going house to house and checking people's temperatures people who have suspected cases are forced to stay at home they're having medical supplies delivered to them and people who are 4 who are found to have temperatures are forced into quarantine and we've seen some unverified videos circulating on social media of these teams and hazmat suits forcing people out of their homes and into quarantine vehicles some cities are even reporting. rewards of about $80.00 for reporting people who have not reported that they've had these temperatures so really this is a government that is sort of going on the offensive here and even xi jinping

himself has said that he's declared what he's called a people's war on the coronavirus are katrina you live in beijing katrina thank you . her husband shot dead 18 hours after he began a shooting rampage 26 people are now confirmed to have been kill security forces spent hours trying to stop the gunman as he made his way through a shopping center for him mohamed reports on how the situation develops. late on a saturday afternoon a shopping mall in thailand to came under attack a gunman opens fire at a time when it would have been at its busiest. here he can be seen firing multiple rounds towards people and passing cars. people found would have a cover they could after he entered the terminal $21.00 mall in a con leche a seam also known as karate panic shop has run out the day out coming to

a terrifying and this was the heavily armed gunman seeming to walk casually through the mall identified by police as sucker punch tama a 32 year old soldier in the thai army he began his rampage i was earlier by killing a commanding officer on a military base outside the city as he continued his murderous attack he posted updates on social media including this one where he's complaining to his finger was sore from pulling the trigger so many times. others remain trapped inside hiding in stairwells and cardinals trying to find a way out gunfire rang out till dawn with reports of a rising death toll police closed off streets around the mall and kept journalists behind a security cordon. high security services soon stormed the ground floor of the mall where the gunman how down after 18 hours the terror came to an end as police made their way out of the building with ambulances on standby this is say the soldier.

started this rampage. once a really really trained soldier he was fully armed not just normal ya but fully armed by by robbing a nation development with 700 rounds of ammunition. at the same time when he went through that mall there were a 1000 people in there so i thought i thought that the carefulness that that security force or they would pick the right timing to as i'm silly to to deal with this this this this shooting gun violence is common in this country but not on this scale while authorities will begin to investigate the motives behind the shooting this will be remembered as one of thailand's darkest days for

healing mohammed al jazeera. let's go to bangkok now we're out of there as wayne hay is standing by live when what else are we learning about how in the world this happened what happened. yes with the long running. around 18 hours finally as we just saw came to an end around 9 o'clock on sunday morning it began on saturday afternoon in the middle of the afternoon with the shooting on the military base before he went to the shopping mall in the last few hours on sunday morning before the police confirmed that he had been shot inside that shopping mall there was some dramatic footage that emerged of some of the last remaining people inside that mall being brought out by the security forces now it's not clear yet whether those people were being held in there by the gunman or whether they were simply trapped inside another section of the moore and were unable to get out of work hiding remembering that there was some suggestion from

the police that the gunman on saturday evening may have been holding a quite a few people hostage that has not been confirmed there is also concern about some of the weaponry that he has stolen from that weapon so that i mean ition at dieppe 0 on the military base some suggestion that he may have had some explosives with him so what we're seeing in the more within the last few hours is military explosives experts combing very carefully through every part of that shopping mall where the gunman is believed to have gone remembering that it took them a long time to even find out within that large building he was so that is the scene there at the moment of course it is still very much a crime scene given that there were so many people killed and wounded inside that shopping mall and still some concern about the security of the sides ok elaine hay with the latest for us wayne thank you 2 u.s. soldiers have been killed in afghanistan after a person dressed in an afghan army uniform opened fire 6 others were wounded during

the shooting and province u.s. military says both u.s. and afghan forces were fired upon. so ahead on al-jazeera pakistan's local problem a national emergency declared its billions of insects devastate crops. when i was minus 18 moscow it roughly that code has been pushed out of the way it is not like it i know but it is because the active feature now is what's coming through the atlantic and increasingly windy storm bringing gusts of maybe a 230 kilometers per hour late on sunday nearly a monday of the british isles northern france the low countries in scandinavia there was a shove davis in cold a bit further east and moscow is at minus one on sunday and about 0 on monday

doesn't mean the snows start falling now in turkey that is to forming in the caucasus but look at this that storm system will spread rain cloud some snow across most disagreeable attempts as have not dropped fencing they've probably risen 15 degrees you'll notice you know honor's february madrid is indeed not warm well by degree maybe darkness we've got of europe in the north african things are still quite a we have got a considerable change in temperature with a northerly breeze through egypt you'll notice temperatures in the teens and in libya the middle teens not only slowly warms up and the wind is quite strong as it comes down through chad a nice that will bring up a lot of dust even a sandstorm the war story is still further west but not quite as extreme as it was doc i was not in the twenty's no longer in the thirty's. but. from fossil fuels to modern day renewable as societies develop the

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the 2003 sars outbreak nearly all the people who died have been in china soup a province that's struggling with a shortage beds and medical supplies a soldier has been shot dead by security forces in thailand 18 hours after he killed at least 26 people in a shooting rampage the gunman began firing at a military base near a lot on saturday before making his way into a shopping mall and 2 u.s. soldiers have been killed and 6 others wounded after an attack on a joint u.s. afghan operation in eastern afghanistan this military says the gunman was wearing an afghan army uniform. leaders from across africa are meeting in ethiopia's capital for this year's african union summit 2 days of talks will focus on ways to and regional weiland and how to grow the continent's economies conflict in libya is also high on the agenda as well as growing instability and this a hell region let's go to malcolm webb who is an with a bit a preview malcolm of what what is it we can expect today. the theme

for this year is silencing the guns and that was actually stated aim of the african union from 7 years ago and they stated aim at the time is that the guns were meant to be silent by this yak 2020 but that hasn't happened one of the worst conflicts in the continent at the moment is in libya when heads of state gather in just over an hour from now that's one of the things that they're expected to talk about the president of the republic of congo any. report he's the chair of the committee on libya he'll report to the other heads of state now the african union has been trying to raise its voice on libya in recent weeks shiels it's been slightly pushed out of the peace process there but a key challenge for that is the foreign powers from outside of this continent that are playing a key role in that conflict turkey has sent troops to support the internationally recognized government in tripoli russia the united arab emirates emirates and of

course africa's egypt have all been accused of supporting the forces of general khalifa haftar asked so it's difficult for the african union to get involved in the peace there has proved elusive in any case the african union is being criticized by international rights groups and rights groups in cameroon for not taking a strong enough stance on the conflict there between the government and armed groups who are tied to the country's english speaking minority feel they've been persecuted in marginalized both sides have been accused of grave human rights abuses people feel critics feel that the african union has been soft on the government of president paul beer for its role in the conflict but one of the african union successes from the last year was in sudan where following the killings of protesters suspended sudan's membership and demanded some forms and talks steps towards democratization that's considered as. of rare showing of the

african union's mettle relative success since the last time that heads of state met who for the annual summits a year ago all right malcolm previewing this summit the african union summit in abbott's thank you welcome polls open in cameroon long delayed local and legislative elections the vote has worried residents of the countries and dependent seeking angle while regions which have been gripped by separatist violence english speaking groups have called for a boycott of the polls after more than 2 years of conflict with the cameroon army. turkey has sent reinforcements to look province after syrian government troops advanced into the last rebel held area talks with russian officials have been taking place in ankara to try to deescalate the situation in libya last week turkey said it had killed dozens of syrian government soldiers and response to an attack on its forces the regime has ignored warnings to retreat and has now taken the town

a sarky. the syrian government's offensive to take it live provinces included airstrikes on civilian neighborhoods as well as fighting on the ground it's forced many people to flee north towards the turkish border simcoe c.l.o. visited a camp that's how some of the displaced people. she's one of the very new camps established for the displaced after do some skirmishes and a south of a blip. in the time of the situation everybody has to share. there are 17 people crammed into this tent. mario was displaced from surat camp a month ago despite her own suffering she opened her doors to her relatives who were also displaced from center rock tip just 5 days ago. and if my husband left us a year ago and made my kids are living here in the camp thank god i have 8 children and another one got killed when we left our home the regime was still shelling our houses are destroyed where shall we go run off merriam's relatives is more her

struggle is even harder she's almost 9 months pregnant and she has another daughter to look after the locals in our $37.00 s. a at the dana we managed to hitch a ride to get here off to hours of waiting and asking people on the road since my husband died 8 months ago we've been forced to move is depressing to think that i'll give birth here it would be better if i had my own tent this latest away wolf displacement seems to be unprecedented the refugees are suffering in the harsh winter weather the rain was a major problem the tents were flooded now it's knowing and keeping everyone in war is even towards if it gets aid workers in the field say they can't meet the needs of so many people. they are fleeing to either north or to off rain or azhar but it's difficult to find a place there to international humanitarian aid is urgently needed that's the only

way to suffice. the syrian army captured the strategic crossroads town of surat on friday after weeks longer offensive against the country's last rebel stronghold and at the just a few months ago so iraq accounted some 110000 residents but now it's down. and for the children of. their best and they used to suffer through yet another syrian tragedy see not go so long al-jazeera and live north of us in syria . so paul has arrived in what is making conditions wars for the hundreds of thousands of syrian refugees living in a car valley and only as the country's economy in crisis but anti refugee sentiment is on the rise sarkar it has this report. complex and see. the syrian refugees living here have been forced to stay in these makeshift tents. but

the plastic tarp pooling offers little respite from the snow rain and strong winds . with very few possessions children aren't even wearing socks and some of the refugees have resorted to burning nappies to keep warm they can't afford fuel and wood the lebanese government won't allow them to build solid structures sending a clear message there only to stay in lebanon temporarily new repatriation cross demanding displaced people return to safe areas is expected to be voted in this week as part of the government's policy statement some of the syrian refugees that we've been speaking to have told us that they would actually prefer to die than live in these horrific conditions it's a bitter winter things are getting harder and tougher by the day for them in lebanon especially is going through an economic crisis which has affected the lebanese as much as it has affected syrian refugees. in another camp further down the road a woman asked the seller if she can buy eggs and pay at

a later date she says she has no money. for them anymore. there are nearly $1000000.00 registered syrian refugees in lebanon and 3 quarters of them live below the poverty line on around $3.00 a day. since protests started in october of the economic crisis inflation rates have gone up across the country and they're struggling to buy basics the people who work hard enough to give me clothes a blanket and fuel to keep me warm other than that i have nothing just under half of the syrian refugees are lying. on cash assistance from aid agencies the financial downturn has meant restrictions on bank withdrawals so funds aren't always available making it more difficult for some to cash them monthly allowance. mafia and how meade from wroclaw fled the syrian will 6 years ago when a husband and 2 of the sons were killed. yet she lives here with her family but

it's been difficult even though they're safe and now. and i'm taking care of my orphaned grandchildren and the little fuel we have to keep us warm is running out what the weather is cold i can barely cover their expenses on saturday president michelle own said international assistance is needed in exchange for the billions of dollars it has spent on giving syrians refuge and there is rising hostility towards refugees here they're often blamed for making lebanon's economic crisis worse all this making their suffering increased by the day. because finally. talks between representatives of libya's un recognized government and warlord khalifa haftar have again and they without agreement senior officials from the warring sides gathered at the united nations in geneva this was the latest in a series of talks to try to ease the hostilities despite initially showing commitments towards a permanent ceasefire neither side was able to come to

a settlement pakistan's prime minister has declared a national emergency after billions of locusts devastated farming communities in the east the crop eating insects have ravaged cotton and maize crops raising fears of food shortages so the government says this is the worst locus and the station of more than 2 decades swarms of locusts are also destroying crops in east africa or come all higher has more from there is no economy khyber to province. an emergency had been declared the district administration the agriculture department a plant protection department are all busy had dried to. warm we have the deputy commissioner of the icon who was leading the campaign against the war and read dr ame about what steps are being taken to try to ease the situation we have encountered this situation

a couple of weeks back but look you leave god the dykey alert and we just go off to the end you have got the projector do we consider the print load the frontline a before the locus and i must acknowledge by. the security culture and security lead has given us a great school we have. a manual operation and then we go for the motorized operations then we feel that they should be out of the box solution for this emergency situation so we go for the drone solution as well deforestation and brazil's amazon rain forest doubled in january compared to just a year ago government data shows more than 280 square kilometers of land destroyed last month destruction the rain forest tends to slow it this time of the year as the rainy season when it's access the country's right wing president has been heavily criticized for weakening an environmental protections. the 92nd academy

award ceremony will take place later on sunday this year lack of racial and gender diversity and the nominations has caused an outcry and as a reminder of 20152016 when the hash tag oscar so white was trending on twitter auburn also reports some los angeles. i don't know if you know extraordinary this is were it not for cynthia heir of those nomination for best actress in harriet the oscar acting nominations this year would have been all white it's an embarrassing outcome for the academy of motion picture arts and sciences which has tried for several years to expand and diversify its overwhelmingly white older male membership you know hollywood is trying to diversify but it's slower than it should be and that's part of the nature of the film business film and film is very cautious because in television they take a lot more chances with things and so and so so you see

a lot more diversity in television and the emmy awards and the and the oscars are still on diverse actors of color who were left out this year include uplift ciena in the farewell jennifer lopez in hostler's lupita in young go. eddie murphy in dolomite is my name. and some kong hole in parasite. puddle not too much going to go it's a sharp contrast to 2019 when out of the 4 acting awards only one went to a white person ali would also has a serious gender gap the nominees for best director are all male female directors passed over include gretta gerwig for little women and lulu weighing for the farewell in 90 plus years of oscars just one woman has ever won best director i think by women directors being hired for preacher films was about 6 percent. 10

years ago and i think it's about 6.5 percent now so it's like i mean it's end up but not much it becomes self-fulfilling prophecy because there haven't been any in the past there aren't many being hired today and you know again it's because i think the studios are very conservative and cautious financially cautious while the academy struggles with diversity the companies that make films in the way people watch them are changing rapidly streaming services are steadily taking the lead in hollywood's most prestigious event netflix has garnered $24.00 oscar nominations including 2 for best picture with marriage story and the irishman the stage is set for hollywood's biggest night but there will be fewer awards for an industry slow to embrace diversity robert oulds al-jazeera los angeles

however as right there to sara dot com not just there a dot com and we'll keep you up to date on the day's news particularly on what's happening with the coronavirus. richelle carey these are the headlines right now on al jazeera the death toll from the corona virus has risen to 814 that's now more than the number killed in the 2003 sars outbreak only all the people who have died have been in china is who they province and that's struggling with the shortages of beds and medical supplies trying to you has more from beijing. this is really a battle for the government on 2 fronts a battle against the virus but also a battle to maintain their credibility i think there's been a lot of criticism about the chinese government's handling of this that they should've reacted sooner so what we've seen in response in recent days is almost war time like measures so we've had 2 hospitals go up in

a matter of 10 to 12 days in the city of one and surrounding cities stadiums schools other government buildings and holes have been turned into makeshift quarantine centers a soldier has been shot dead by security forces in thailand 18 hours after he killed at least 26 people in a shooting rampage the gun the mic and firing in a military base near karate on saturday before making his way into a shopping mall and a gunman is killed 2 u.s. soldiers and wounded 6 others in eastern afghanistan u.s. commanders say the attacker wore an afghan army uniform when he fired on a joint operation with local troops a non hard province polls have open in cameroons long delayed local and legislative elections as worried residents of the countries and dependent seeking angle file regions which have been gripped by separatist violence english speaking groups have called for a boycott of the polls turkey is send reinforcements to adlib province after syrian government troops advanced into the last rebel held area talks with russian officials have been taking place in ankara to try to deescalate the situation in

libya last week turkey said it had killed dozens of syrian government soldiers in response to an attack on its forces the regime has ignored warnings to retreat and has now taken the town of sorry key pakistan's prime minister has declared a national emergency after billions of locusts devastated farming communities in the east the crop eating insects have ravaged cotton wheat and maize crops raising fears of food shortages the government says this is the worst locust infestation in more than 2 decades swarms of locusts are also to store in crops and east africa. so the headlines keep it here on al-jazeera add another bolton for you at the top of the hour in the meantime let's turn it over and side story.

with every. a potential political shake up in iowa city and polls said the irish is shifting away from the 2 main parties towards shin fein so how might this affect the next government and could it redefine island's politics this is inside story. a local to the program i'm adrian finnegan islands governments of long been dominated by 2 center right posses find a gale that's the policy of current prime minister leo veronica and free to fall but this appears to be changing opinion polls show shin fein is now the most popular posse of is in 3rd place it means.