just have a better model. the us. china's government allocates more than $10000000000.00 to fight the coronavirus as the death toll rises to $813.00. timber now this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up information emerges about the motive of a high soldier who went on a shooting rampage in a mall killing 29 people. eagerly awaiting results in ireland for an election that is so far too close to call plus. facing the music of the oscars organizers of the academy awards again face

complaints about a lack of diversity. china has announced it will allocate around $10000000000.00 as part of its effort to bring the coronavirus under control it comes as the number of people who have died from the virus exceeded those killed during the sars outbreak the death toll now stands at 813 that's compared to 774 killed during the severe acute respiratory syndrome or sols back in 2003 both cases the vast majority of deaths were in china now both of these are strains of the same type of virus however there are key differences the new outbreak has infected gratian numbers of people wouldn't 37000 sols only had around 8000 confirmed cases but it was also considerably more deadly killing one in every 10 people the current outbreak only has a fatality. rate of 3 percent now countries around the world have been battling to

contain the spread of the illness in hong kong 3 and a half 1000 people quarantined on a cruise ship being allowed to leave the vessel was quarantined when 8 chinese passengers on an earlier voyage were diagnosed with the corona virus but tests on the crew have come back all clear and katrina you has more now from beijing on how the government is responding to the crisis. the government is at pains to tell the people that no effort is being spared to really fight this outbreak this weekend more than 6000 medical staff from all over the country are being flown on chartered flights toward han to help with with the the really overworked and understaffed medical teams are currently that trying to deal with the broken cases of current virus at the epicenter of the outbreak now tomorrow if every 10 is officially the end of the lunar new year period and that holiday was extended because of the virus

and in theory people are supposed to go back to work government offices are supposed to reopen but we know that many companies have still extended that working from home hours indeed actually the government is encouraging private companies to return stuff to work in batches to try to curb the spreading of any out of the disease as people go back to work most schools are going to remain closed until be the beginning of march with many students being courage to do online courses and in a city like they jean the capital of china it's of relative ghost town at the moment most businesses restaurants and shops are still closed and public transport has even been coordinated so that people who are returning to work in various major cities will not be returning all of the same times in fact some train train ticket offices have been told that they're only allowed to sell 60 percent capacity of their trains to prevent to try to minimise in the amount of crowds using public

transport at this time so we're really seeing a sort of pivotal moment with the government ramping up their efforts dr ira cinemark is the president of the hong kong public doctors association she says developing a vaccine will be challenging because so little is known about the illness. this disease seems to be much more complicated than sars 1st of all it can in fact of more people in one of our local study with one of the chinese families some john but find when you can't close contact with. the new are horus infected patient you got 80 percent of child has to get infected and every one patient who can. feel one in fact it vision can in fact 2 to 3 person and for this disease they have very wide spread trauma of presentation you can be completely asymptomatic or long orders of where mild disease you even don't need to see for

any kind of medical attention on the other hand there are some patients very severe disease or even within a week's time now are we have no. don't have completely complete. about the disease who go downhill or who become who stay well but we know that for only who are above 60 years old we have some kind of chronic illness they're more likely to have a very more severe of course of the seas so have a horrible even if you are asymptomatic you can still in fact to someone else so silent carrier may be everywhere in our city. a vigil has been held in the city in thailand where a soldier went on a shooting spree at a military base and then sings hostages in a shopping mall the army trained marksman killed 29 people and wounded dozens of others in the city of course at the thai prime minister says the soldiers motive was a dispute over

a property deal when he has more from the capital bangkok. in the final dramatic moments of this 18 hour siege the last remaining people inside the mall for brought to safety they had spent a terrifying night hiding or trapped inside the building where a gunman roamed shooting at people as he went at that stage early sunday morning the shooter was still inside the building evading capture by security forces but that around 9 o'clock they killed him in the last burst of gunfire captured in this video say that. we have ended the perpetrators criminal act at the moment we are gathering evidence and witness material to start an investigation to give justice to all sides this was the gunman 32 year old soul judge. a trained sharpshooter with years of experience and he went on his killing spree he posted updates on facebook before entering the mall late on saturday

afternoon he could be seen spraying bullets towards people and cars and cars as the siege dragged on into the night bursts of gunfire could be heard coming from inside the building hour after hour the situation became more tense and more desperate as the wounded were brought out under heavy protection. who got is that. i was scared i'd hear gunfire and i was wondering if he was going to come near me because it felt like it was so close to where we were hiding with confirmation that the ordeal was over thailand's prime minister visited some of the injured in hospital and he sought to shed some light on what may have motivated the killer. it was a personal conflict over a house deal he had an issue with money and fought for 3 days nobody expected it to turn violent. that dispute may have been the reason for the initial murders of the commanding army officer and another person but it doesn't explain why he didn't travelled more than 20 kilometers to the center of town entered

a packed shopping mall and elevated his killing to another horrific level when hey al jazeera bangkok syrian regime forces have taken control of several villages in the northwest the soldiers are advancing in the southern part of aleppo province along 2 major highways the offensive could open up a direct route to rebel held areas of western and if that. is monitoring the situation from istanbul has just bring us up to speed what's the situation on the ground. well the syrian army has taken over many villages in this southern part of a leopard also the northwestern part and some of those areas including to lace and the. crucial areas the hilltop areas that would give the army an advantage to control monitor and shelled rebel positions in this is the 2nd major setback that the rebels suffered a few days after they lost the city of about 3 days ago now this is

a critical situation of this explains why are the same time we are seeing the turkish military sending more reinforcements to areas like a storm and also. on the outskirts of the city or the turkish government has insisted that it wants to see the turkish military the syrian army pull out from the areas beyond the turkish military oppose the potential for a military confrontation pitting the. the the turkish army against the syrian army is further increasing over the last few days because of the massive concern for more confrontation now syria in says what it's doing right now is legitimate and that this fight is not against the rebels but against terrorist groups a reference to him at the head of a sham one of the most powerful rebel forces base live think that that's how about

it there live from istanbul. phone counting from sunrise general election in ireland is underway with the result expected to cause a major political change exit polls show the left wing nationalist party and the time with the 2 center right party which have dominated irish politics for decades the ruling fatah gael and rivals fianna fall are both ruling out a coalition with sinn fein. joins us now live from dublin with more so naive if these 2 major parties are rolling out a coalition with sinn fein but it's increasingly looking like this is going to be a 3 way tie how is this going to play out. in quite simply uncharted territory nobody really really knows it could take a significant amount of time given how historically and politically these parties have been quite diametrically opposed i'm at the count here in dublin it's been

going on for many hours it's like to carry on for many hours because of the the kind of political system that they have period on it is called the single transferable vote where voters can choose their rank in order of preference different candidates from different political parties have already finished working out who's come 1st a difficult situation sees the capital of the now trying to work out who's come 2nd and 3rd and that may have an impact on the final figures the exit polls on saturday as you mentioned had all 3 parties feeling for who dominated irish politics for generations both of them centrist parties on level pegging which inflame us for the 1st time in more than i wish history what ever happens it will be a huge shake up to the political landscape here in ireland as a said uncharted territory configuring a stable government could be very challenging indeed and some of the political experts i've been speaking to haven't ruled out the possibility of another go if they can't get it right move why are we seeing fain have this surge in popularity.

many reasons quite simply. the party they have been in power for the past 2 years and its leader leo veronica has been accuse of missing the mark of not paying enough attention to domestic issues that have really been at the forefront of voters' minds when they've gone to the polls were talking about homelessness health care housing those kind of issues we all know that leo veronica's played a pivotal role internationally when it comes to often brutal and tough negotiations with the united kingdom but some more of his peril because being he's been accused of a missing the mark here at home and just to give you an idea of the homeless crisis for instance you know people young people here in ireland are really struggling to able to afford particularly in the capital that a higher than singapore and sydney and that has a knock on effect on homelessness as well for the 1st time charities are reporting

entire families being a victim from homes rather than people that have suffered from addiction or other individual problems these are critical issues that many people feel ignored and shame fane have basically put these issues at the heart of their campaign and it appears to have landed quite well for them thank you that that's need back of their lives from government. still ahead on al-jazeera silencing the guns in libya and the somehow the african union summit gets underway in ethiopia. and the skies are my billions of locusts free of the license from pakistan on the declaration of a national emergency. probably once again welcome so the tent the international full cost is still

a summer a state the snow pushing through japan behind that this is actually largely dry temperatures not faring too badly in so 9 celsius beijing out around 12 place for the south the central areas of china could see some outbreaks of rain as we go through monday and that rain becoming a little more widespread by the time we come to choose day of that state japan clearing up more the way of sunshine coming through in tokyo getting into double figures talk temperatures then of around 11 degrees celsius with some sunshine some sunshine but the usual rash of showers through southeast asia they are gathering a little more tools and also the philippines could see some rather brisk showers as we go on through the next day or 2 pushing across into vietnam and down towards the peninsula heaviest downpours lucky to be just around indonesia or actually some very heavy rain here and that stretches where it was popular new guinea something be right in the cards to its east and parts of india over the next day also a little area cloud here that's just driving us well little further south which

edition has seen some showers the showers now pushing through on the but dash and the slotting a little further south which you much just catch your shower into sri lanka to the north of that is largely dry foci. big story general sounds like maybe angles in this story are too numerous for comfort with different angles from different perspectives this thing has never really been believe. me the war to. separate the spin from the facts the misinformation from the judge this shows a clear intent to be an engineer. with the listening on. the.

north thing i'll just share a reminder of our top stories this hour china's government is on the case of more than $10000000000.00 to fight the coronavirus the death toll from the outbreak has now risen to 813 supporting the number of people killed in the 2003 sars outbreak meanwhile thousands of people quarantined on board a cruise ship in hong kong have now been allowed to the. thailand's prime minister says a soldier who went on a shooting rampage was motivated by a belief that he'd been cheated on a healthy soldier was shot dead by security forces 18 hours after he killed at least 29 people. syrian regime forces have taken control of several villages in the north west in soldiers are advancing in the southern part of aleppo province along 2 major highways the offensive could open up

a direct route to rebel held areas of western and and if it. had the us ambassador to israel has warned israel against taking any unilateral action. to an expanse of the occupied west bank ahead of the completion of the trump administration's middle east peace proposal david friedman added that such a move could endanger the plan last month the long awaited middle east peace proposal was unveiled that allows israel to an excel all of its west bank settlements which is illegal under international law as well as the jordan valley which accounts for roughly a quarter of the occupied west bank the palestinian government has rejected the american proposal meanwhile there's been protests across the globe against that peace proposal and turkey demonstration is a holding a rally in istanbul condemning the decision and calling on people to stand up for jerusalem. similar scenes are happening in the moroccan capital rama protesters they're also condemning trumps plan. a harsh winter weather has continued to

worsen living conditions for the hundreds of thousands of syrian refugees living in lebanon's bekaa valley refugees there have had to endure another heavy storm bringing more floods and stoffel to the camps it comes as the ongoing economic crisis in lebanon is having a serious impact on humanitarian programs sarkar it has more from that refugee camp and because valley. it's been a bit when the here in lebanon this year overnight there's been snow fall it's still happening now and there was also slicing which means the water has entered these lindy pens and this is one of many come here how syrian refugees there are nearly 1000000 of them all registers with you and i see all the life has been very hard and some of the children they're not wearing anything on their feet just frenzies that slopes then have much to close by the last berries this will possess and now many of them are relying on cash calls from the likes of the n.a.c.

as well as the world food program but because of the economic crisis that's happening in the country it means that they cause by as many products with the cash cause that they have so we spoke to a few of them one of the recipe counts yesterday and they said that prices have gone up so much they can barely afford the most basic one woman and said one of the shops and she also sees a shop owner she could buy eggs and pay him but still a so safe so life is becoming increasingly multiple times they're not enough to say hey probably the company has made some 3830 sales but it's a police take place in parliament and within one of the policy statements that is it that policy statement that was approved that says refugees should be returning back to their homes especially facebook the president himself has made that very clear and he's also just this week that the international community should help with aids he says because of the number of syrian refugees they have taken on he says they spent billions of dollars to take syrian refugees as well as palestinians

in and of course there's a huge economic crisis many lebanese are blaming the syrian refugees dispersing extra strain on the economy so as well as the anti syrian lancy refugee rather sentiment that's happening here many of them of finding it much harder to live day to day. the annual african union summit is underway in ethiopia leaders from $55.00 african countries is set for 2 days of talks will focus on ways to end regional violence so the continent can unlock its economic potential the conflict in libya is high on the agenda and as well as the growing instability in the sahara region mohammed vaal has more from outside the summit in addis ababa he says there's been a lot of talk about a global response to help end the conflict in libya it's a series of issues quite a number of issues there are discussing here for today and tomorrow on top of that is libya of course since yesterday since that meeting yesterday afternoon by the by

the united by the african union security. council they have been talking given big statements about what should be done in libya about the need for africa to join african leaders to join the global effort to find peace in libya the secretary general of the united nations or so spoke both yesterday and today about this particular subject saying the united nations is here to express a message of solidarity and support to whatever the africans want to bring to the table he says it's time for africa to join and he praised the peacekeeping efforts already deployed by africans in the sahara saying that the international community should give full support to those efforts and advocating some of those missions to be conducted under chapter 7 so that they can have more efficiency with regards to the task at hand including combating terrorism and also for cement and keeping of

peace. halls have opened in cameron's long delayed local and legislative elections the vote has worried people in the anger fire and file rather regions that have suffered violence and want independence after more than 2 years of conflict with the cameron army english speaking groups have called for a boycott of the polls. pakistan's prime minister has declared a national emergency of the billions of locusts devastated farming communities in the east the crop eating insects have ravaged causton wheat and maize crops raising fears of food shortages the government says this is the worst locust investigation in more than 2 decades swarms of locusts are also destroying crops in east africa kemal high has been through did its metal conduit in the car but to inquire province to see the swarms of locusts firsthand. fogger started under attack and this time it did by swarms of local dive rep through the country they're normally

live in the desert but because the climactic conditions changing around the world they're now moving and that of course represents a major threat to pakistan and its food security the middle holiday not what i wanted to locusts have attacked now crops and we very much worried about a project the government team is trying the best by spraying to limit and i want but it's not enough they should help us providing pace to science so that we can stop them from further damage because they had moved all the way from africa to a cow there is a bia and the fact that there is a war between yemen and saudi arabia that so did they ignored to march to stop the warmth from passing through their territory then they entered iran and from there entered into by luke your son and father aren't a fun job and sent prague and also some of the locals joined them from the tower deserts with your lawn the buggers on india border swarms were so large there i

would say they're just saw the clouds moving through the sky for up to 45 minutes at the rate right now it is the state of emergency all government departments at the district and local levels are on alert we are taking it is as a challenge we are good. for the 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 israel's locust is a national disaster and to overcome that we have to come up with the most african solutions and the most efficient solutions i mean technologies of drones because drones of the most efficient timely effective and they don't even just radicalism economical plant protection. games are all over the icon there's strength where we are to try to control the players from moving further into other territories and

endangering rally by the crop such a rate made and even cotton. deforestation in brazil's amazon rainforest doubled in january compared to a year ago government shows more than 280 square kilometers the plan was destroyed the destruction of the rainforest which is the largest in the world tends to slow this time of year as the rainy season the metaxas. the 92nd academy awards ceremony will take place on sunday the sierra lack of racial and gender diversity in the nominations has caused an outcry it's a reminder of 201516 when the hash tag oscars so want was trying to on twitter reports from a census. extraordinary d.c. were it not for cynthia air 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 diapers actors of color who were left out this year include up with deena in the farewell jennifer lopez in hostler's lupita in young go. eddie murphy in dolomite is my name. and so on kong hole in parasite. puddle not too much fun isn't too cocky 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 waiting 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 injured 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 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 couldn't lay on luna day as a film critic and historian he says some progress is still being me. i think we have to be careful in terms of just. i suppose adopting a position that films just simply get awards because they're diverse i don't think that is the case been some films of great quality that have missed out i think us for example look peter some fortunate go through with the nomination also the performance of jennifer lopez which has been remarked upon in terms of hustlers i

think what is was worthy of a nomination but. in general i think quality will come to the surface at the end of the day there is genuine quality now being made and when i want to situation where even the. the big kind of data is suggesting that the more mixed the film is the more diverse elements of it has actually the more money it's going to make and that's something that gives me optimism now that there is also up for an oscar nominated for best documentary short subject to st louis superman it's a story of frank's jr a ferguson activist and battle rapper who runs for state office take a look now is to. have to work that. it's not. about getting something else happened on august 9th.

it's going to. be something. some are signing to tell. you that i may. not feel like you know at this my time to stand. and you can watch our oscar nominated documentary st louis superman in full on witness said 2230 g.m.t. on sunday favorite on. this is our desire and these are the top stories china's government has allocated more than $10000000000.00 to fight the coronavirus this toll from the outbreak has now risen to $813.00 surpassing the number of people killed in the 2003 sols outbreak meanwhile thousands of people quarantined on board a cruise ship and hong kong have now been allowed to leave and join brown has more from hong kong this is been basically a floating quarantine center for the past few days they've been stuck on board this

vessel because it emerged that 8 passengers from the mainland on a previous for each on this same vessel tested positive for the virus so for that reason the health officials here in hong kong had to screen all the 1800 crewmembers just to be sure before they could let people go ashore and on sunday was confirmed that none of them had tested positive so those people have now left what is effectively been a prison for them albeit a 5 star prison thailand's prime minister says a soldier who went on a shooting rampage was motivated by a belief that had been cheated on a house deal a soldier was shot dead by security forces $18.00 after he killed at least $29.00 people. syrian regime forces have taken control of several villages in the north west soldiers are advancing in the southern part of aleppo province along 2 major highways the offensive could open up a direct route to rebel held areas of western aleppo and live. vote counting from

saturday's general election in ireland is underway with the result expected to cause a major political change exit polls show the left wing nationalist party should thing in a tie with the 2 center right parties which have dominated irish politics for decades. there's been protests across the globe against the u.s. middle east peace plan was unveiled last month and it allows israel to annex all of its west bank settlements in turkey demonstrators are holding a rally in istanbul some of the scenes of playing out in the moroccan capital robots' protesters there are also condemning the trump administration's plan. as the headlines the news continues here on after the listening posts in japan thousands of men and women vanishing without a trace when i want to investigate why people need their own disappearance and. how to 0. the consequences of.

ice i'm. talking kids. i think it. should. cut out to our i'm not alone richard gaisford in europe the listening post among the media stories that we're covering this week on the rest over a new citizenship law in india are all those news channels out to inform or incite a state of a union divided donald trump on as a controversy of talk radio host media in the middle east and the troubling use of blackface why is it still considered an acceptable form of entertainment. plus the u.k. breck's it and the war of words. we want my. french words as it turns out.