of the best documentary films from across the network on al-jazeera. the arab the air and the air. as china records a major spike in deaths from corona virus officials announcing drastic new measures but a cruise ship stranded at sea for 2 weeks is finally allowed to dock in cambodia. hello i'm maryam namazie and london you're watching out there also coming up on the program snow blankets makeshift camps for some of the 800000 syrians displaced by the recent fighting in it let. south africa's parliament is suspended in a chaotic scenes as president so around opposed to trying to give his state of the nation speech. and drama on downing street why persons finance minister is

unexpectedly resigned just weeks before the budget. we begin this hour with the global corona virus outbreak as a 3rd death outside mainland china is confirmed the victim was a japanese woman who was in her eighty's she lived in. there's been a surge in the number of deaths in mainland china as well with another 254 announced bringing the national total to nearly 1400 and more than 15000 new cases have also been reported up from just $1600.00 the day before a wreck would rise comes after who by province the epicenter of the virus supplied a new diagnostic system using computer imaging instead of waiting for the bar tree test results meanwhile for communist party officials in who bay have been sacked

over the handling of the outbreak also says he of hong kong one of china's worst affected areas is sealing off all residential complexes from friday on with in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus well the world health organization says despite the spike in cases inside china the profile of people contracting the corona virus remains the same we're not seeing a significant shift in the pattern of mortality or severity for that matter this disease is still predominantly severe in those who are over 40 with a higher for the severity profile it increases actually with each decade after the predominantly 2 that's a rarity use amongst men rather than the women and we have to see the significant shift that profile is very much for pieces in other areas outside who base well katrina you has more from beijing now on the new testing method and how it compares to the previous system of identifying coronavirus. we know that doctors

relied on one type of testing kit in order to confirm that people did have the corona virus but there were number a number of problems with this testing kit 1st of all people had problems accessing it there simply weren't enough to go around secondly this testing kit takes about 2 days for people to get results so you'd have people for example going from villages to to towns and cities lining up to get tested and they were told they have to wait or that if they if they did get tested that after wait around for 2 days but potentially without accommodation which led to many people going home and this is put a lot of people what's being tested and then thirdly there were problems with the validity of the tests doctors have actually been saying that these tests were only about 30 to 40 percent accurate so what's happened now is that they're giving doctors on the ground more flexibility in want to scratch and as to how they confirm that a patient does have the coronavirus so they're able to to use this testing kit as

well as other methods such as c.t. scans and lung x. rays to be able to confirm this. what this has done though is no muddy the waters a lot because now that we've had such a big jump the numbers after a period of what seemed to be like a stabilisation of figures experts say it's really hard to get a clear picture of how serious or how what the situation is on the ground in who bay and then adrian brown is in hong kong for us and has more on the 5 senior communist party officials who were fired because of growing public anger of the handling of the coronavirus. with who they party chief spoke to the media 2 weeks ago he must have known his days were numbered john challis is the highest ranking political casualty so far. his dismissal is in response to mounting public anger over the chinese government's handling of the corona virus outbreak and follows the sacking of 2 senior health officials on monday and while the purge looks set to

continue analysts say it won't bring down those at the top of the party in the way the company's policy works is sacrifice a few small fry to keep the big fish swimming in the poll and this is worked i mean this is what happened in the last great time of the sars epidemic 17 years ago the dramatic jump in deaths came after a team from the world health organization arrived in will hand the head of the w.h.o. 1st lauded china's containment efforts including the isolation of 60000000 people and urged countries not to cut off travel and trade with china health officials say the reason for thursday's sharp rise in death and infections is because the testing criteria has been broadened chinese virus experts say the epidemic should peak in china this month before subsiding. what officials don't know though are the number

of people who've not been tested because they either unable or unwilling to visit overwhelmed hospitals. the government continues to put out a reassuring message to the outside world that it has this virus under control. in facing it we have always adopted an open transparent and highly responsible attitude not only for the sake of china but also for the world at large. state t.v. is stressing the positive showing patients who recovered and gone home it's all reminiscent of them our era with a mass mobilization of medical workers who volunteers and soldiers the nation's being encouraged to fight war president xi jinping pools of people's war against the devils virus and there's another virus his government is trying to contain growing calls to protect freedom of speech and online campaign led by academics who

are demanding an end to media censorship seems to be gaining momentum that amounts to explicit criticism of the leadership which is rare in today's china in hong kong as in mainland china the death of dr li one liang has increased that anger he raised the alarm about the virus 6 weeks ago for doing his job he was reprimanded by police and forced to sign a humiliating confession he died from the virus on friday president xi jinping has offered condolences to the families of medical workers who died but he's yet to publicly mention dr lee by name adrian brown al jazeera hong kong. well a cruise ship turned away by 4 different asian nations over fears of a coronavirus has finally been allowed to dock in cambodia after 2 weeks see as a precaution health officials took blood samples from 20 passengers who fell ill but all tested negative when he reports now from the port vale in southern cambodia

. as the sun sit the west a dam at last arrived in welcoming waters after receiving permission from the cambodian government it docked in sihanoukville but no one is allowed off yet medical tests had to be conducted to confirm they were free of the coronavirus al jazeera spoke to one of the passengers on board about the conditions inside it's very disappointing to be told time after time that we're there we're going to dock and that you know when to find out that you know you're not going to be allowed to get to that country so that's worried but i should say that you know later on board the ship is is just fine and normal there are no restrictions concern from governments about the westerdam stem from an outbreak of the virus on board another cruise ship more than 3 and a half 1000 people have been quarantined on board since it arrived in the japanese

city of hama on february the 3rd while it was at sea for nearly 2 weeks the west a dam had no confirmed cases but was turned away by japan the philippines taiwan and thailand the arrival of the ship may also be viewed as a public relations win for the cambodian government led by prime minister who sought to downplay the threat of the virus and emphasize his country strong relationship with china where the outbreak began. last week he travelled to beijing to meet xi jinping and china's president praised cambodia's decision to maintain flights between the 2 countries and allow chinese nationals to continue entering cambodia those moves were also. welcome to the world health organization. that's not to recommend child when the chip the restriction in that context you'll really appreciate the decision and the highest level government leadership to receive this ship cambodia will also be praised by those on board the wish to them when they

eventually disembark and return home pay al jazeera cambodia. some breaking news now in a rocket attack is hit and iraqi abbé sink a cook province where u.s. troops are stationed this is the 1st attack on the k one base since a u.s. contractor was killed in december that was blamed on the could type hezbollah group and led to retaliatory u.s. strikes including the one that killed iran's top military commander qassam ceremony 40 days ago the official mourning period for him ended earlier with protests in iraq crowds of demonstrators gathered at baghdad international airport a solemn money and iraqi paramilitary commander hundreds were killed in that u.s. drone strike last month they chanted anti-american slogans and called for the u.s. to withdraw its troops from iraq. let's cross live now to iraq rob matheson is

following the story from the capital baghdad and saying that some sort of money might have been killed some 40 days ago but his death in his presence still looms large over iraq tell us what's happen today. well so far that let me just take you back briefly to the rocket attack on the cave on base in co cork and we understand that at the moment there are no casualties and we also don't know how many rockets have actually hit this base but of course the timing in the of this is significant we're reaching the end of the 40 day period of mourning for the iranian general hossam sulaimani who was killed in that drone attack that you mentioned back in december along with one of the leaders of shia on groups here. on this they both died in those attacks and subsequently the original attack at the k. one base as you said has led on to

a succession of attacks that were carried out by the u.s. which then led to. demonstrations and the breaking through of the perimeter of the u.s. embassy here in baghdad and of course that was the point at which the u.s. then carried out the drone attacks but the area here in iraq has been very tense in the during this process of mourning because there has been a continual threat to being made predominantly by shia on groups some of them linked to the popular popular mobilization forces that they will they will avenge the death of cars and money and also all of their loot their leader mohan that's but there has never been any specific detail given of course about how that might happen so as we're reaching the end of this 40 day mourning period the timing of this is significant but it should also be noted that this is not the 1st time that

there have been rocket attacks since the death of those 2 men and there have been rocket attacks here in baghdad which have not resulted in any casualties and as a result the u.s. has not taken any retaliator reaction there is a suggestion that the that kind of attacks that we have. seen up to this point have been by armed groups who are determined to show the united states and other foreign 'd governments as well who have troops in iraq that their presence is it that they those armed groups are present that they are watching and that the do pose a threat and of course we know rob that the 40 day mourning period has really a very particular religious spiritual significance to it tell us more about the reaction there in iraq and how people have been marking the occasion. and in terms of the there what we have seen today there was

a gathering outside baghdad airport at the point at which the 2 men were killed in drone strike and the pictures that we saw were more interesting in that they have now been covered over by transparent i think either glass or plastic panels you can quite clearly see on the walls of the blast walls surrounding the perimeter of the airport the the holes that have been created by some of the deborah from those explosions and today we saw groups of people marching past and walking past those those points and chanting that they were determined that the u.s. and foreign troops should leave that could cause some sort of money particularly would be avenged but the size of the turnout today was perhaps not as large as $1.00 might have expected on this particular occasion and there is a suggestion therefore that the protests that are going on in relation to the

demonstrations that should see in relation to the morning of the death of hasse and cilla money and hondas are also part of the the wider protests the anti-government and corruption protests that are happening here in baghdad but at the moment as i say it has been interesting to note twice was there is a very definite message being sent particularly by the members of the popular mobilization forces that they are determined that foreign troops should be ousted from iraq at the same time as i mentioned the numbers who were attending this particular ceremony were not nearly as large as one had expected. thanks very much and this was all the latest from baghdad. well the united states senate has just passed a resolution restricting the president on trump's ability to unilaterally order military action against iran the war powers resolution force is trying to get approval from congress to clear any more strikes on iran it's been backed by

several members of trump's republican party the resolution was introduced after a leading iranian general was killed in the u.s. strike last month of course you've just been talking about that person still a mani and of course the reaction to that spot mass protests in iran let's get more on this now from our white house correspondent kimberly halkett what does this mean kimberly and how much of the restraining effect with this had a phone president tom. well it is significant in that unlike that impeachment vote that we saw in the u.s. senate last week this one is quite different because we have seen at least 8 republicans go against the president's recommendations he had been tweeting that any sort of. effort to support this resolution would project weakness to iran the exact message he felt should not be sent right now still members of his own party voting with democrats on this effort to limit the president's power with respect to

iran and as you point out this did come following the concerns not only about the strike that the u.s. launched that. centrally assassinated general saloon mahdi but also the retaliatory strike by iran onto iraqi bases that housed u.s. troops the fact that there were 100 u.s. soldiers left with traumatic brain injuries and this was very alarming to the u.s. congress because they strongly believe that not only were they not informed but that the president seemed to sort of lack any sort of understanding with respect to how the declaration of any type of military conflict in the u.s. occurs and that is it doesn't come from the white house it comes from congress so this is an effort to try and remind the president of that really interesting about the contrast between how the republicans of approach the impeachment trial and this what does that mean what does that suggest about what's going on then in terms of

decisions on national security issues what why's that. yes that's that's the exact point you've discovery or you've sort of hit the nail on the head there that the fraction is occurring on the difference of opinion over foreign policy and particularly some of the members of the republican party that are trying to remind the president hey when you campaigned in 2016 you said that you were going to pull the united states out of foreign entanglements but we haven't seen that in fact there have been other reminders for this president for example in march of 2019 there was another similar vote which the president vetoed and we expect he's going to veto this what is well to essentially say that we're not happy with sort of any u.s. support for the saudi led coalition and the conflict in yemen again this is largely symbolic because we expect the president will veto this there were not enough republicans with voting with democrats in order to prevent the president from doing

that but what this congress is saying is we don't like the concern about the abuse of presidential power one of the articles of impeachment so on the issue of foreign policy there are a few republicans who are saying that they are confident enough to stand up to this president and remind him that with when it comes to. foreign conflict when it comes to military conflict it is not the president that makes those decisions but congress thank you very much for explaining all that our white house correspondent can really help it meanwhile the u.s. secretary of state is saying that an important breakthrough has been made in talks with the taliban over the last few days but my pay also was in the trunk of ministration wants to see a significant reduction in violence before starting whited discussions a week long partial truce with the afghan taliban has been negotiated which will deescalate the fighting in chief marcus made the announcement in brussels during a meeting of nato defense ministers that. now the united nations is saying the

800000 syrians have fled their homes in at least province the last remaining rebel held area. of the figures since december the 1st the vast majority of them a women and children have ended up in a displacement camp near the turkish border but conditions there are desperate as the cold winter weather sets in and storms blanket the area with snow relief workers say 10 children have died in the last week alone. so fortunately the body there are 27 families living in broad terms all things are stealing cause we don't have good the situation is very difficult it's impossible for any want to rent a home. without the situation here is very difficult if you can feel not being in a temperature is below 0 you can see it through we are staying in a tent because different cost $100.00 or 200 dollars and there is a lot of displacement going on now. south africa's president cyril ramaphosa is using his state of the nation address to defend his record on the economy.

in a speech that was disrupted several times by the economic freedom fighters from a post has said the recovery of south africa's economy but stalled due to persistent power shortages are several state owned enterprises are in distress he also warned that public finances are on this of the air pressure. let's go live now to for me to miller in johannesburg just looking at some of the images there from inside the parliament mean he's been accused of failing to deliver and it looks as though he wasn't going to get an easy right today. and that was certainly expected by many south africans given the state of the economy but also the promises made by that opposition party the economic freedom fighters that they would indeed disrupt proceedings and that is based on them wanting the minister of public enterprises provin gordon fire they say he's responsible for the energy

shortages that have led to the economy struggling or certainly worsen the economy now the president when he finally was able to begin that address did say that what's referred to as a load shedding in south africa these power cuts these rolling blackouts would indeed continue and this of course wouldn't be you know of any a consolation to investors and businesses in this country who are already struggling with the unemployment rate is at 29 point one percent so the president did say these role of these blackouts would continue but they would also allow room for the use of independent power producers in speeding up licensing and regulations easing to allow for there being options for energy production in south africa but just going back to the economic freedom fighters of these a crisp by the president was delayed by almost an hour and a half that's the extent of the disruptions at that time the economic freedom

fighters 1st saying that they wanted the removal of the former president f.w. de klerk from the sitting of the 2 houses of parliament in that he was an apartheid apologist and that they weren't there to listen to have him present at such an occasion i took a lot of time to try and resolve this issue and then the opposition party then moved on to the issue of the energy in south africa but specifically the dismissal of that particular minister so it took some time to get underway so of course they're now trying to deal with some of the major issues south africans want answers around. these are mammoth challenges he's facing around oppose himself admitted the economy hasn't improved enough for that to be a reduction in poverty how difficult is it going to be for him to turn this around . a lot of criticism around what's the remote poster has been saying and what has previously said what is previously said has been that he is out of touch with south africans issues with its transportation whether it's the

poor the producing other production of energy the provision of that whether it's unemployment and employment rate has in fact increased now he has tried to use the speech to as the norm to deal with some of the successes that the government has a spearheaded some of it around the yvel ability of a.r.v.'s for people of hiv in this country an important issue an important issue for many south africans but when it comes to things like transportation and the economy the provision of jobs of the creation of jobs so that ricans are saying that the president is not doing enough and this comes after jacob zuma was essentially removed from office about a year and a half and so there was a lot of euphoria they called it roma phoria around the the start of course as president see the promises he made especially dealing with dealing of fighting

corruption which is a massive issue for this government a number of state owned enterprises are really on their knees south african airways eskom which is the are probably a power supply in this country the government has a lot to deal with when it comes to corruption mismanagement which the president has highlighted in his address this evening but as many have said before he says the right words but what really happens in terms of him coming forward with the right action and that just hasn't been enough in the past thank you very much in johannesburg. large areas of australia hit by the recent record bushfires and now experiencing heavy flooding with more wild weather forecast the town of nona glen around 600 kilometers north of sydney has been one of the worst hit areas but many residents still welcome the rain which has extinguished a large number of the most serious fire as a category 2 cycling is also heading towards the new south wales coast bringing

with it more high winds and rain vice president emanuel has vowed to restrict access to more along the highest peak in the alps in an effort to protect its biodiversity but corn announced the new rules during a visit to the resort of sharm anyway he also saw how france's largest class has shrunk dramatically over the past 20 years a new protected zone will be established around the mountain and the number of people who can access the summits will be limited. but. this will be the battle of the century of ability to invent a new way of living of living and doing things sustainably i believe we can take up this family to pursue and we've decided to take up the spotlight in our country even if we choose the battle of the century it requires impatience it requires determination it requires rapid action i know that you're pretty full route and i'm going to. italy's former deputy prime minister mattel says he is happy to go on

trial for illegally detaining migrants on board a coast guard boat last year the day after his immunity from prosecution was lifted the leader of the right wing likud party said it was a collective government decision and that he was not the only person responsible for it he refused to allow $131.00 refugees migrants to disembark half an italian port when he was interior minister last july. or here there's been shock at the heart of u.k. politics in westminster following the abrupt resignation of the finance minister chancellor of the exchequer side a job that was due to present his 1st budget in just 4 weeks' time but rejected an order by the prime minister to fire his team of aides he said no self respecting minister could accept what johnson was demanding and chose instead to leave his post the move one of the number of ministerial changes is being seen as an attempt by johnson to take full control of the u.k. treasury. or in

a parting shot to the prime minister had warned johnson that he would still leave colleagues who could offer him clear and candid advice or a challenge as more from downing street. so what i had been anticipated to be a pretty mundane cabinet reshuffle had his doors run completely off by the shock resignation of the chancellor. although there have been differences between him and the prime minister particularly over boris johnson's plans to increase government spending it was expected that job would keep his position but that was until number 10 gave him all this to essentially suck his team of advisors and accept a new team appointed mostly by number 10 itself this amounts basically to a power grab on treasury autonomy and let's listen now to what such a job would have to say about that the conditions that were attached was a requirement that to replace all my political advisors you know these are people that have worked incredibly hard on behalf of not just the government but the whole country did

a fantastic job i was unable to accept those conditions i don't believe any self respecting minister would accept such conditions and so therefore i thought the best thing to do was to go his replacement is really soon akka 39 year old relative novice a breakfast and a johnson loyalist he is unlikely to give too much trouble to boris johnson and his team but he takes this position at a very tricky time for the united kingdom is just a month away from a budget that he has to deliver and then of course there is the very difficult negotiation period on what the u.k.'s new relationship is going to be with the european union and the rest of the world after breakfast and just on the westminster developments today another victim of the reshuffle was the man responsible for ending 3 years of deadlock in restoring power in northern ireland just a few weeks ago julian smith was only appointed as northern ireland secretary in july as one of 5 ministers sacked by boris johnson island's prime minister helle

smith as one of britain's finest politicians of our time. al jazeera dot com is where you need to go for the latest on our top stories plenty of comment analysis to be found there as well. headlines now the 3rd coronavirus death outside mainland china has been confirmed in japan this as the number of deaths inside china has surged with 254 announced bringing the national total to nearly 1400 more than 15000 new cases have been reported up from 1600 the day before the record rise comes after who a province the epicenter of the virus adopted a new method of diagnosing infection we're not seeing a significant shift in the pattern of mortality or severity for that matter but of

this disease are still predominantly severe in those who are over 40 with a higher severity profile that increases actually with each decade after the predominantly 2 that's a rarity use amongst men rather than women then we have to see the significant shift that profile is very much a pieces in other areas outside to be there's been a rocket attack on iraq ad base and a coke province where u.s. troops are stationed the 1st attack on the base and a u.s. contractor was killed in december that was blamed on the type hezbollah group and led to retaliate for u.s. strikes including the one that killed iran's top military commander of course and ceremony in january the u.s. senate has just passed a resolution restricting president all trumps ability to unilaterally or to military action against iran the war powers resolution forces trying to get approval from congress to clear any more strikes on iran it's been backed by several members of trump's republican party the resolution was introduced after

qassam ceremony was killed in that u.s. strike last month sparking mass protests inside iran. and then with syria the united nations is saying more than 800000 syrians have fled their homes in adelaide province the last remaining rebel held area since december 1st vast majority of them are women and children have ended up in displacement camps near the border with turkey conditions that are desperate as the cold winter weather sets in and storms blanket the area with snow where these workers say 10 children have died in the last week alone. that's it for now more news in about 25 minutes time after the strain which is coming up next.

for me ok and join the stream today a look at a new series that celebrates the history of black hollywood and in the age of oscars so white and bafta so white why is it so difficult to acknowledge the chief myths of black creatives tell us what you think on twitter at a.j. strange. how much the oscars have changed the past night had a change you know they have you know and not back in 1929 there were no black acting nominees and now 2020 we got one of their. own amazing great. comedian steve martin and chris rock of the oscars on february the 10th in the new talk he's serious they've got a half assed british photographer aside.