orse than sars the corona virus outbreak death toll climbs again. i'm richelle carey this is out there life from doha succumbing at a tense standoff is over in thailand after a soldier goes on a rampage killing 26 people. pakistan's plague of locusts a national emergency is declared as billions of insect swarm in the country. pale and male alarm bells are ringing once again over the lack of diversity for this year's academy awards.

the number of people killed by the crime of virus has risen to 813 that's more than during the sars epidemic 17 years ago all but 2 of the deaths are in china where there is growing criticism of the shortage of medical supplies and the leadership's handling of the crisis adrian brownnose and hong kong with more on the political repercussions. 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 chung to test the temperature and encourage medical workers. one analyst says this perhaps it.

good reason for the president's disappearing act if things turn that. thing the owners will be young. so. in a way seeing being is to protect himself from being too much exposed by that 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 she's 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 it's becoming a pandemic of course the political consequences could be devastating. 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 coverup. a local colleague 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 doesn't care there are more expressions of anger today in spite

of tighter internet censorship lessons that should have been learned from sars haven't proof once more the china remains vulnerable to disease at the beginning of the crisis china was boasting i mean these. are both saying about the how much the chinese well little system could better face a 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 security machine is much bigger and better able to maintain control adrian brown al-jazeera hong kong. live in beijing with the latest katrina tell us i mean the numbers are not going on in the right direction. that's right richelle we have now more than 37000 cases with an 800 state teletubbies and as these numbers rise

with the krona virus rossa seem rising tides of criticism of as we've just heard against the chinese government's handling of this just this weekend we've seen the circulation on social media of a letter signed by 10 academics in the city of. criticizing the government and pointing out their response in terms of the punishment of this doctor dr lee when the hour now he was one of 8 doctors who sounded the alarm about the severity of this virus and early january and he was detained and punished for spreading rumors so this letter signed by these 10 academics in demanding that he made be made a national model and also they're demanding more freedom of speech so these kind of posts being of course censored here in china the government censorship apparatus is doing all it can to really downplay any discontent any criticism of the way the way the chinese government has handled it and of course the battle against the virus itself is also continuing there are some wartime measures as they've been called

here in china to try to contain this outbreak not only a 50000000 people or so in lockdown in rwanda in surrounding cities have also seen in those cities compulsory house checks people going door to door to have their temperature taken and those with temperature being forcibly sometimes forcibly removed from their home and put into these quarantine centers which are makeshift quarantine centers which have been transformed from hospitals not only hospital sorry stadiums schools and other government buildings we've also seen that people far from one in cities like beijing this compulsory reporting if you've left the city you have to report where you've been and if not you can face up to 7 years in jail for not reporting that some cities are also offering rewards for reporting on people who haven't reported that they have a temperature giving them about a. as for reporting that the neighbor has a temperature and has reported it to the government so these are very very tense

times and i think. the government is doing all it can to really reassure the people saying that there are enough supplies or not resources to not panic but as the numbers rise that's that's becoming an increasingly hard battles to fight in itself director and you live for us in beijing trying to thank you. security forces in thailand have killed a soldier after he went on a shooting spree at a military base then held hostages and a shopping mall 26 people are confirmed dead in the northeast. rail mohammed reports. 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 more in

a con watcha sima also known as karate panic shop has run out their day out coming to a terrifying and this was the heavily armed gunman seeming to walk casually through the mall identified by police as 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 are you complaining to his finger was sore from pulling the trigger so many times others remain trapped inside hiding in stairwells and corridos trying to find a way out gunfire rang out told 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 held out after 18 hours the terror came to an end as police made their way out of the building with ambulances on stand by. a soldier. started this rampage. was a really really trained soldier he. was fully armed not just normally are but fully armed by by robbing a nation development with $700.00 rounds of ammunition. at the same time when he went to that mall there were a 1000 people in there so i thought i thought that the type of carefulness that that security force or there were and picked the right timing to a centrally 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 him mohammed al jazeera. i was there as wayne has life press in bangkok so when what else are we hearing about a possible motive for why this person did this. who so far we're hearing very little about what the investigators the military and the police know about no doubt was working in conjunction to try to find out exactly what led this 32 year old soldier to carry out this horrific attack over the course of around 18 hours so far they're saying very little if they know exactly what they think may have been the motive other than a few vague comments about some sort of property dispute between him and somebody else possibly it is only speculation but possibly the 1st victim of his violence which was his commanding officer who he shot and killed at around 3 o'clock on

saturday afternoon but again no real details about that we've had a media conference from thailand's prime minister general. and he also made reference to the fact that it may have been some sort of property dispute which led to him carrying this out but clearly what may have been a personal grievance in that 1st incident on set they off the noon certainly escalated in some into something much more sinister and horrific and exactly why he decided to go to that shopping mall killing so many innocent bystanders is unclear and we may not know for some time exactly why. do we know anything about where he got these weapons. well he is again a serving member or was a serving member of the army with the rank of sergeant major a 32 year old he after the 1st shooting incident where he shot his commanding

officer and one other he went to a weapons depot on a military base about 20 kilometers outside the city center of not. where that shopping mall is located the prime minister again in the media conference was asked some questions about how he was able to get inside the weapons and ammunition depôt to get the guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition it is reported that he had the prime minister reacted angrily saying that there was no security issue on that particular particular base and he said that the gunman shot and killed the security guard at that weapons depot that so that seems like the reason or the explanation for how he got hold of those weapons ok when hey with the latest from bangkok wayne thank you. i got minutes killed 2 u.s. soldiers and wounded 6 others in eastern afghanistan as commander say the attacker wore an afghan army uniform when he fired on a joint operation with local troops

a number of our province. still ahead on al jazeera 1st met of acolytes from yemen in years will see where war wounded children are finally getting treatment in ireland appears on the brink of a political shift after saturday's general election. however keeping a very close eye on that damaging and powerful storm storm kara now making its way in from the atlantic that's the position the storm of the moment just to the west of scotland to the west of the western isles there and that's going to continue driving further east which as we go on through the coming days tightly packed ice since the really strong winds that we're seeing across parts of the u.k. into london that wet weather that windy weather that will also slide its way down

across the channel that's countries into parts of germany going to see it making its way further south which is a switch as we go on through the coming days the oranges and red arrows that's why we're going to see the strongest winds as we go through the remainder of sunday says slowly but surely starting a little further south with some very heavy rain as well possibility for river flooding along with flash flooding because of the heavy downpours and that very very strong and damaging winds they will be widespread disruption koehler comes back in behind that the system continues to drive its way further south which not too bad across the mediterranean sea fine and dry here as is the case across the north of africa clear skies actually in temperatures not doing too badly leva top temperature of 94 bats. to al-jazeera we talk about 2 of the biggest problems facing and they are the

endemic corruption in the can we listen so if you really put place china as an enemy of the u.s. and that's really that we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that you know which is there on the u.s. is always of interest to people all right the world people pay attention to focus on here now does it is very good news to the world from here. luke. this is al jazeera and these are the top stories right now the death toll from the corona virus has risen to 813 that's now more than the number of people killed in

the 2003 sars outbreak i mean all the deaths have been in china's hoop a province where there is a shortage of 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 it's believed he may have been motivated by a belief he'd been cheated and a land deal and again minutes killed 2 u.s. soldiers and wounded 6 others in eastern afghanistan u.s. commanders say the attacker was wearing an afghan army uniform and he fired on a joint operation involving local soldiers in iraq hard evidence. a 2nd u.s. chartered plane carrying in many ways in need of urgent medical care has arrived in jordan or than 30 people have flown out since monday after the saudi the coalition ease restrictions on sana airport for the 1st time in 3 years and tosca name reports from amman where children are waiting for surgery. born with a spinal defect 10 year old ayman sanand says he spent almost half his life in pain

that is just due to my pain sometimes i couldn't see and study in other times i couldn't go out and play with my friends. and to his suffering is in sight he's among 30 yemenis airlifted out of the capital sana'a onto un chartered flights they're receiving medical treatment in jordan they've waited years for. a start i feel gratitude to the opportunity to come here to treat men but of a yemenis could come here for treatment to you i would feel better this is the 1st time in more than 3 years that yemenis have been allowed to fly from the capital sana'a for medical treatment abroad senna is controlled by the who think he's a yemeni airspace is controlled and a blockade imposed by the saudi led coalition at war with the who these for the past 5 years the blockade has made it challenging for humanitarian organizations to assist yemenis in need the u.n.

and the world health organization or w h o joined to negotiate with the saudi led coalition to make the emergency evacuations possible the w.h.o. says the war has shattered yemen's health care system more than half of all hospitals aren't fully operational many medical workers have fled abroad and the blockade has created a shortage of medical supplies. we were very depressed and annoyed because you have a patient you can't help we were willing to sell what have we had to get treatment in yemen but in yemen they're all no special licenses for treatment. so the mirror has already had the 1st of several operations needed to reconstruct her ear injured in an accident she says she spent almost 6 years feeling self-conscious about her injury like i was not feeling good and when i went to school i was feeling shy because my it was deformed the w.h.o. hopes these medivac flights will be the 1st of many but the need is great an

estimated 30000 yemenis are waiting and praying for a ticket out to receive proper medical care natasha. a man leaders from across africa are meeting and if the o.p.'s capital for this year's african union summit today is the talks will focus on ways to end regional violence and how to grow the continent's economies the conflict in libya is also high on the agenda as well as rowing instability and the sahara region responded malka lead in the ethiopian capital at us up of us 0 balcombe give us a preview. silencing the guns is the african union's theme for 2020 that was actually written 7 years ago is the stated intention and by this year 2020 the guns were meant to be silent but that hasn't happened in libya that you mentioned is one of the conflicts in the continent that's proving very difficult to resolve and it will be talked about here heads of state will be

entering the auditorium in just a few minutes from now when the president of the republic of congo denny. you doing this conference to address the other heads of state he's the chair of the african union's committee on libya now the african union has been raising its voice in recent weeks it feels it hasn't been part of the peace process or attempted peace process in libya but part of the reason for that is of course all of the roles of foreign powers from outside of africa in that conflict turkey has sent troops to support internationally recognized government in tripoli russia the united arab emirates and in africa egypt have been accused of supporting the forces of general khalifa haftar france and italy have both seem to be backing opposing sides in that conflict libya has africa's largest oil reserves and with foreign powers eyeing that up it's difficult for african states themselves to dictate any terms or play

a key role in the solution one of the african union's success or relative success stories from the last year was in sudan where following the army violently breaking up and killing protesters the african union suspended sudan's membership it was considered a rare showing of the a use metal it was widely seen to prevent that violence escalating one other conflict that the african union's been criticized for not doing enough about the conflict in cameroon between government forces and rebels in the english speaking parts of the country ok malcolm where the latest family and the african union summit in august thank you. and as as malcolm briefly mentioned there are polls i have open in cameron's long delayed local and legislative elections the vote has worried people in the angle file regions that have suffered violence and want independence after more than 2 years of conflict with the cameroon army english speaking groups a call for

a boycott of the polls and the next hour voting vote counting that as a set to begin in ireland's general election exit polls from saturday's vote predict a surge of support for the republicans in fame party with matching the vote sharing of the 2 biggest parties all right in reports from dublin on the results we can show you pre-election opinion polls suggested that the political order here was about to be turned on its head this exit poll suggests it has been turned on its head and shaken up and down the to center right parties for uniform and phina gale which are jointly dominated irish politics for nearly a century have been matched by shin fein each polling 22 percent of 1st preference votes on what that means essentially is that the party has been making games on this night consolidated those gains over the last number of years so they're in a strong position going forward not necessarily to form a government this time right there anyone running for 2 candidates but certainly for the next election they're in

a very good position. the buzzword of this election campaign was change ireland's economy may be the fastest growing in the e.u. but people here are struggling with soaring house prices and years long waiting lists for public health care voters were just fed up with the 2 main parties i voted for the turn. so i don't really want to go independent but basically just some kind of alternative to the status quo i have a lot of fears about what the future is going to hold for me with climate change. that's going to affect my life in the future chin fein is the left wing nationalist republican party previously regarded as the political wing of the paramilitary group the ira now shedding those associations and remolding itself as a progressive alternative and it's not clear what strategy will be now looking at it from the outside i think they would benefit from not going to government on this occasion because they would be going in as a junior partner define

a fall of and previous experience of junior partners with those party suggest that they would lose votes nonpolitical factors may also influence the outcome of this election if the 1st saturday poll since 1918 storm keera brought dangerous winds and driving rain to many polling stations and slap bang in the middle of polling day a major rugby international. does. the timing of this election certainly raised eyebrows i can't believe that it is really. but it's a point we've often and have you voted already. imagine that gave is more important vote and i'm sorry. one of the irish system transfer votes will be crucial how many 2nd and 3rd preferences can the big parties pick up but even if shin fein doesn't get into a government the days of 2 party dominance in this country appear to be over paul brennan al-jazeera doublet. pakistan's prime minister has declared

a national emergency after billions of locusts devastated farming communities in the east and facts have ravaged cotton wheat and maize crops and that's raising fears of food shortages the government says this is the worst locust infestation of more than 2 decades or swarms are also destroying crops and east africa small hider has more from terrorists now khan and the cover up to par region an emergency has been declared the district administration the agriculture department the plant protection department are all busy add water dried to can day in the warmth we have the deputy commissioner of the icon who's leading the campaign against the wall and read doctor him about what steps are being taken to try to ease the situation we have encountered the situation a couple of weeks back but look you leave god the dry clear loot and vee just go off today and you have got the projected that we consider ourselves as the french

like the french liner before the locusts and i must acknowledge by the culture being the security culture and security leave has given us a bridgeport we have a goon. manual operations 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 is ruined. the 92nd academy award ceremony will take place later on sunday and the share a lack of racial and gender diversity in the nominations has caused an outcry etc minor of 20152016 when the hash tag oscar so why was trending on twitter and all support 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 is troy 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 the film is very cautious because in television they take a lot more chances with things and so and so you see a lot more diversity in television and the emmy awards and the the oscars are still on diverse actors of color who were left out this year include sina in the farewell jennifer lopez in hostler's lupita in young go. eddie murphy in dolomite is my name. and some con 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 why 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 a 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 and 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 now says there is also up for an oscar nominated for best documentary short subject as st louis superman and here's a taste of the documentary you can watch it unfold on sunday february 9th at 2230 g.m.t. well as flat doing 5 go yes i have to would like to say it's night you don't learn about it's night something else happened on august night. just an 18 year old michael brown was going to play one really something pretty soon it's really me i saw my son in 15. used that i'm in toronto

and i felt like you know at this my time to stand. to recap the headlines on al-jazeera the death toll from the corona virus has risen to 813 that's now more than the number of people killed in the 2003 sars outbreak really all the deaths have been in china soup a province where there's a shortage of beds and medical supplies katrin to you as 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 gunmen began firing at a military base near karate on saturday before making his way into a shopping mall it's believed he may have been motivated by a leafy belief rather he had been cheated in a land deal a gunman is killed 2 u.s. soldiers and wounded 6 others in eastern afghanistan as commander say he was wearing an afghan army uniform when he fired on a joint operation involving local military personnel and long hard province leaders across africa are meeting in ethiopia's capital for this year's african union summit 2 days of talks will focus on ways to end regional violence and how to grow the continent's economies the conflict in libya is also high on the agenda as well as drawing instability and the sahara region. polls have opened in camrose long delayed local and legislative elections the vote has worried people in angle while

regions that have suffered violence and want and dependence after more than 2 years of conflict with the cameroon army english speaking groups have called for a boycott of those polls pakistan's prime minister has declared a national emergency after billions of locust devastated farming communities in the east the insects have ravaged cotton wheat and maize crops and that is raising fears of food shortages the government says this is the worst locust infestation in more than 2 decades other storms are also destroying crops and east africa. and so the headlines keep it here on al-jazeera more news to come talk to al-jazeera is next. the race for the white house has begun this month voters are 4 states have their say on tuesday wants to place donald trump on the links and. join us to add to the continuing coverage of the 1st stage of the 2020

u.s. election. only does it. all with what we're seeing. every civilization sees itself as the center of the world and writes its history as the central drama of human history the words of samuel huntington in the clash of civilizations and it's precisely our poor understanding the lack of will to understand others cultures at the world is as polarized as ever the ideal of living as part of a global village is slowly fading away allowing the rise of nationalism. so can we improve relations and cooperation among nations and peoples across society as cultures and religions. or is the clash of civilizations inevitable. we will explore.