this is al-jazeera. and i'm richelle carey this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes taking aim at donald trump's ability to launch an attack on iran the u.s. senate passes a war powers law forcing him to ask for approval. china dismisses senior government officials over the handling of the corona virus outbreak. shock exit from boris johnson's new cracks and government the finance minister resigned just weeks into the job. and hundreds of demonstrators take to the streets and allow a demand in the resignation of the electoral commission which.

the u.s. senate has voted to curb the ability of donald trump to go it alone and launch any war with iran the move to reduce his presidential powers was backed by 8 members of his own republican party the war powers resolution means trump would have to seek congressional approval to launch any future strikes as prompted by the assassination of iranian military commander qassam cilla monny in a u.s. strike last month which prompted a counter strike on u.s. soldiers as expected to veto the measure the president trump or any other president cannot plunge the united states into an endless conflict in the middle east today or constitution worked exactly as the framers wanted to work senators work together to assert congress's authority and serve on the check of an overreaching executive branch all $47.00 democrats 8 republicans stood up and said enough is enough. several tons is live from washington d.c.

so. generally broadly speaking it's always thought that a president because the u.s. cannot go to war without the approval of congress but there's always a lot of gray area in there is this about really making this more specific. well i mean presidents multiple presidents of trampled over what the framers were very clear about that it's congress's role to declare war on a different country and the way the presidents have tried to get out of it say yeah but these are military excursions incursions but actually wars president obama very big on all of this 2011 libya no const no congressional approval when democrats grumbled a bit republicans grumbling but they did nothing they didn't do anything like this for example out of course president obama also always using the authorization for use of military force passed after $911.00 the 2 and you have to go into over $100.00 countries expand the military footprint bubble sorts of all sorts of people who are groups that didn't exist after 911 so this has been going on for some time

now and so the democrats have rediscovered their constitution and they're saying look enough is enough and they were joined by some republicans republicans who have various motives as well in that some of them were just simply rather annoyed by the briefing they got after the assassination of general sort of just too dismissive of the constitutional my cities they thought the white house should have at least paid lip service to that there are always a libertarian side to say look these endless wars have to stop in fact or you could ask why more republicans didn't vote for this given the opinion polls have been clear for years that's why don't trouble right on this bipartisan majority say we've got to bring our troops back from at least we can't have any more wars and then this also does reflect the factional faction to divide in the democratic party as well because right there on the campaign trail both presidential and congressional progressive they're saying wait a 2nd you say all this every now and then for example when president trump is in office you did nothing when president obama was in office and when president trump

asked for $700000000000.00 in defense spending you just rubber stamp it in fact you often even more money if you really cared about this would you be actually using the power of the purse would you be more effective with all this but folks like chuck schumer who we just saw taking a victory lap at least i suppose a. might be playing with them but worried about progressive injuries that might be able to look at least we do because for a lot of politics here it is symbolic of the white house will veto it eventually but it's interesting as a gauge of some of the underlying dynamics in both the republican party of a democratic party ok as sharper taunts a lot of press in washington thank you l.a. sloan is a former federal prosecutor and is now a partner at the public affairs firm summer strategies she joins us from washington d.c. we appreciate your time very much so as she has pointed out there over the years over the decades and u.s. presidents have often still been able to to order military strikes on various countries even without getting the explicit approval of congress so how is that always been the case and what are they trying to do now well i think presidents

have ignored the war powers act and periodic we you hear members of congress upset about it and there has been this great expansion of executive power over the years but i think the country is feeling very tired yet list wars in the middle east and obviously mr trump ran on that so. to me not only democrats but some members some members of his own party when he made the strike on iran potentially bringing us into greater conflict with the middle east so so why i guess you have brought up an interesting point it was as well considering where the poll numbers are when it comes to americans wanting to be involved in any more wars it seems a pretty high number disapprove of that so are you surprised that there isn't more bipartisanship on this although there is a little bit. well republicans really crossed president trump at their peril as they leverage and he has been very clear that you expect people to be in

lockstep and if you will go after members of his own party in an incredibly tough fashion so i think the only reason that so many of his members were willing to cross him on this i was because americans don't pay that close attention to foreign policy sadly though when they're not as worried that trump will go we need to call him call them out or that americans will be closely following this vote so considering donald trump is going to veto this is this just more of a symbolic gesture and unfortunately your point is correct that often foreign policy isn't necessarily high on the agenda of most americans yeah i think it really is symbolic i guess probably people hope that they would in fact get the get the vote i mean it is very unusual for there even to be a vote in the president's party where nothing a majority of the senate votes against anything that the president wants so this is this is a break that 8 members would cross members of the republican party would cross the

president but the house will vote that will vote for this so it will land on the president's desk but as you said he's planning to veto it so a really it's all just it is all just symbolic and we'll see if this vote has impact is both a democratic primaries and also on he eventually in the full contest for president because as we have heard while president trump previously said no americans were injured in all of this now we've learned that at least 100 members of the armed forces are suffering some kind of traumatic brain injury so you can expect that that will be brought back when you get to the debates all right melanie sloan thank you very much for joining us from washington d.c. we appreciate it. another development out of washington in the past few hours is u.s. attorney general william barr has criticized the president's twitter use our says donald trump's tweets about the department of justice and its staff undermined his work to have public statements and tweets made about the department

about. people in the department our men and women here about cases pending in the department and about judges before whom we have cases. make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the in the department that we're doing our work with integrity in iraq air base and crew who province where u.s. troops are stationed has been targeted at another rocket attack there's been no immediate reports of injuries or deaths of previous attack on the k one base in december killed a u.s. contractor triggering a chain of events that cause regional tensions to soar it was blamed on the hezbollah group and led to retaliate or u.s. strikes that killed them so the money matheson is in baghdad with more on what could follow this latest attack. the next question that we're all really asking

though is how is the u.s. going to respond to this latest incident well since that attack in december there have actually been several rocket attacks many of which have happened here in baghdad but the u.s. has not responded principally we understand because nobody has been injured and there has been very little damage but it is significant that this is coming towards the end of the mourning period for some silly money and there are still many of the his followers here in. iraq but also those members of the popular mobilization forces as well all of whom are determined to get foreign particularly u.s. troops out of iraq who saying that the the killing of qassam tsunami has not yet been avenged and that further attacks will should take place of course no information is given about what those attacks are likely to be or planned but

there's another section which is saying well actually the fact that iran carried out a rocket attack on the al assad base here in iraq was enough to avenge the death of a custom sort of money and there they are happier for a diplomatic a government process to be gone through in an effort to try to find a diplomatic solution to moving the foreign troops out of iraq that has been held in iraq and iran to mark the end of 40 days of mourning for qassam so money earlier in baghdad demonstrators blocked the road near the airport where he was killed last month so money was behind iran's efforts to spread its influence throughout the middle east as it donald trump ordered the killing saying he posed an imminent threat one of holton has more from the iraqi capital. we're here at baghdad international airport at the precise spot where customs of the money and his iraqi associates one disk were killed in the early morning hours of january 3rd in fact you can see in the wall behind me still the remnants of the shrapnel from

the american drones a strike that's targeted the group and you can also see the red flags that have been hoisted here which represent both the blood that has been spilled but they're also representing a desire for revenge now today's events here at the airport marked the end of commemorations marking the end of a 40 day mourning period in islam and what we've seen over the past few days are pretty modest gatherings mostly composed of members of the popular mobilization forces which of course is this group of iranian backed groups which this himself was heading as the 2nd in charge and you can see here still we have a few dozen members of the pure math who have gathered they have been chanting anti-american slogans they have been calling for the u.s. to withdraw from iraq overall the numbers have been pretty moderate and compared to the beginning of this crisis the threats against the u.s. have also subsided i spoke earlier today with

a parliament member from one of the political wings of the p.m.s. and what he told me was that overall there is now a feeling that the government should proceed in the goshi aiding the withdrawal of u.s. troops yeah i knew it was a national resolution made by the iraqi parliament as a simple response against this crime today the government is serious about implementing this decision and there are procedures in place to ensure the withdrawal of u.s. troops but if the us studies then resistance will be. now he wouldn't really name a deadline for when he wants american troops to withdraw from iraq and of course what is further complicating the situation is the uncertain political situation in . the country currently have a caretaker government under prime minister who is currently negotiating with the americans the terms of for a future military presence and what is uncertain as to how prime minister designate mohamed tawfik allowing who is still in the process of forming his cabinet will

take those negotiations forward whether he will also insist on the withdrawal of american troops or whether he will take a different direction altogether. when you are head of the news hour and clicking sound live. but a call divisions are laid bare in south africa's parliament as a landmark address by the president as disrupting. the world's biggest messaging app is back to court as a push ahead with a lawsuit against an israeli security firm. and sport hats off to this ice hockey player and boston peter will have all the details on the. 5 senior chinese communist party officials including 4 from her bay province have been fired as the political fallout from the corona virus outbreak continues it comes after a surge in new cases at the epicenter of the outbreak analysts say the sackings are

the governments to salvage the situation at a tramp around as more from hong kong. when who they party chief spoke to the media 2 weeks ago he must have known his days were numbered. 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 coronavirus 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 pond 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 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 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 nations 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. has more from beijing on the new testing method and how it compares to the previous system of identifying corona barrus. 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 they 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 would be told they have to wait or that if they if they did get tested they'd have to wait around for 2 days but potentially without accommodation which led to many people going home and this is put a lot of people off 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 so 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 there is concern in the northwestern chinese province of xinjiang where nearly a 1000000 muslim leaders are detained and can't speak or activist groups are conditions in the camps could worsen any outbreak lisa grieve director of global advocacy at the weaker human rights project is calling for them to be closed

a very small number of survivors of the camps have managed to be released. and leave china and come to free countries those survivors have testified to people having untreated health conditions a starvation diet as you said malnutrition so we know that the torture and mistreatment and bad poor health of all those people is well established and for that kind of population the risk of infection and even death from the infection is going to be astronomically higher right now today there is incredible confusion over statistics the national health commission has revised its categories and we know that the government is trying to has denied even keeping people in camps and yet we have documentary evidence from the survivors from satellite photos from leaked documents that the government has showing that the government has a policy of locking people up on mass and keeping them in complete isolation let me tell you this the university around the country and including and she junction

genyen of our city in the capital has delayed the start of the semester and told students to stay home so that they won't be affected if universities would be a breeding ground for the infection don't you think a mass detention camp would also be a greeting ground we're asking for if the universities are going to close the camp should be closed a cruise ship that's been at sea for 2 weeks has docked in cambodia after it was turned away by 4 other governments in the region as a precaution health officials took blood samples from 20 passengers who were feeling ill but all just an egg a day for corona virus when a reports. as the sun set 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 that we're going to dock and that you know then to find out that you know you're not going to be allowed to get to that country so that's worrisome but i should say that you know life 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 westerdam 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 traveled 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 welcomed by the world health organization but that's not the recommend child when the chip the restriction in bed contacts a bit you'll really appreciate that the station and the highest level government leadership to receive this ship cambodia will also be praised by those on board the west of them when they eventually disembarked. and return home wayne hay al-jazeera cynical cambodia. syrian state media says several missiles have been intercepted from the occupied golan heights and israel as says the missiles were down by syria's army before it hit the targets in the capital damascus there are no immediate reports of damage or casualties and israel has not commented. the u.n.

says more than 800000 syrians have fled their homes and live province the last remaining rebel held area since december 1st the vast majority of them are women and children have ended at then displacement camps near the turkish border conditions are desperate as the cold once or weather sets in and storms blanket the area was snow relief workers say 10 children have died in the last week alone civilians remain in harm's way as hostilities are continuing it live and aleppo reports from the ground indicate the thousands of civilians are on the move from around the m 5 highway with most people moving further north and north west towards the turkey syria border inclement weather including snow fall is excess abating the situation in south africa president cyril ramaphosa has used his state of the union address to defend his record on the economy but.

the opposition party repeatedly disrupted the speech. when that resume from a post said knowledge more needed to be done to kickstart the stalling economy he blamed widespread power shortages for sluggish growth and admitted debt was reaching unsustainable levels. our country is facing a stark reality. the economy has not grown at any meaningful rate for over a decade even as jobs are created the rate of unemployment continues to deeper. we need to fix our public finances. low levels of growth means that we are not generating enough revenue to meet our expenses are heading towards unsustainable levels made in miller says disruption by government

critics to lay the speech by more than an hour now the president when he finally was able to begin that address did say that what's referred to as low trading in south africa these power cuts these rolling blackouts would indeed continue and this of course wouldn't be you know of any 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 at least this address 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 because finance minister has abruptly resigned following a disagreement with prime minister boris johnson so job that stepped down after being told he would only be re-appointed if he fired his close aides he said no self respecting minister could accept but the prime minister was demanding more challenge has more from london. 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 johnson's plans to increase government spending it was expected that jabbered would keep his position but that was until number 10 gave him oldest 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 they have to say about. the conditions that were attached was a requirement that to replace all my political advisors 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 richie soon 39 year old relative novice a bricks and a johnson loyalist he is unlikely to give too much trouble. 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 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 to break that. so ahead on al-jazeera as

a tree alongside to enshrine equal rights and the us constitution passes an important hurdle. what 3 words we take a look at the phone at helping rescue services to save lives. and support organizers of the tokyo 2020 olympics say they are not considering canceling or postponing the upcoming games because of the coronavirus. you. hello again we look at weather conditions across the americas this time in north america this is the frontal system which is getting a lot of flooding across parts of texas through into mississippi but frontal system continues to move away just affecting the florida panhandle later on friday we see a cold across many areas big subzero temperatures expected meanwhile out across the

pacific northwest about the frontal system pushing in loving bringing some rain enjoying the course of the weekend and some snow up over the rockies for the south should be a fine day in los angeles highs there 22 degrees celsius moving down into central america here where the conditions the most part looking good plenty of sunshine around not contin in most places although we'd like to see some very heavy showers affecting southern parts of mexico we've got this little convergence and the winds coming together from 2 different directions so some heavy showers are likely here during the course of friday and they will extend further towards the south and east during the course of the weekend let's head into south america now and here weather conditions the most part fine but don't watch the river plate region we're likely to see another area of convergent winds giving some heavy showers across parts of argentina and chile in the course of the next 24 hours we'll see those showers push into power guy warm here with temperatures of 30 degrees.

lead to protect his life. but denied asylum a congolese activist must return home facing an uncertain future he once again trying to at the forefront of a political revolution trying to promote prosy can come at a heavy personal cost. back to kinshasa and we can to stop him and shereen bhan al jazeera. a unique kid endangered biodiversity lives in the heart of one of ecuador's tropical jungles there was a lot of misinformation about a city i knew most of we have here and now becoming boss other self conservation in their communities out there or journeys deep into the rain forest to follow a scientist i'm tied teams a fight to save the flora and fauna so precious in the region women make science

ecuador's hidden treasure on al-jazeera. you're. watching al jazeera let's recap the top stories right now the u.s. senate has passed legislation requiring the president to seek congressional approval for any future strikes on iran 8 republican senators backed the resolution which was prompted by the assassination of a top iranian military commander qassam solo monny at a u.s. strike last month 5 senior chinese government officials have been fired as the political fallout from the corona virus outbreak continues follows a sharp surge of the number of new infections in china after testing methods were changed. and the case finance minister has abruptly resigned following

a disagreement with a minister forced johnson says such a job had stepped down after being told he would only be reappointed if he fired his close aides. hundreds of demonstrators have gathered them allow his capital calling for the head of the electoral commission to step down at the supreme court's decision to an all last year's presidential vote citing widespread irregularities or bored manly reports problems. i mean if you don't protest as i'm allowed to see you left the building of the electoral commission of it right now it's a matter not meet. hundreds marched through the streets of the southern city of blantyre only a few managed to get past police barricades in 2 a protest the to says he will only take the chains off when the commission's chairwoman jane and has stock resign. or we sued big mick cause or what we need this is so little in this office should be so we don't want them to

get into. this was. in the capital a long way people also marched toward the offices of the electoral commission. it a given present peter moore tarka a narrow win in last year's election but the court accused the commission of numerous and consistencies that included using correction fluid on ballot sheets janeane saajan eyes accusations the results had been altered and the materials that were sent. we indeed did not include it in pics. and even a doing a trainee we toured we toured the trainees that the 2 pixies in the dugout but in court one election commission member pointed the blame at and saw all the instructions were given by this year to this.

and the time that this issue is getting certain is it will not even involve this commission and i think it just happened by literally. malawi's constitutional court on wednesday threw out an application by president p. to majority to suspend the an old result will be a rerun of this presidential election i have will be a new chairperson of the electoral commission and i will need to be close scrutiny of that process but from mastic observers but also international ones the court did given the country just 150 days to order a new election with many now concerned that may not be enough time to restore confidence in the electoral process manly al-jazeera. iran has unveiled a list of approved candidates allowed to run in next week's parliamentary elections many moderate and reformist candidates have been disqualified the group overseeing

the approval as the guardian council historically dominated by ultra conservatives us a bag of ports in tehran. 290 seats over 7000 candidates campaigning has officially started but the attention has not been on the kind of date standing but those disqualified from taking part by iran's guardian council the constitutional body that oversees the parliamentary elections and claims that the disqualifications have been politically motivated tell us anything i deny this the guardian council has the jus t. to verify the qualification of candidates the council has never had a political view over them those who have not been approved can come to. us to see the issue in their cases many of those disqualified are politicians linked to the iranian reformist movement one of those who standing again is reformist candidate 40 the mousavi therefore. it was an unfortunate event some of our colleagues and friends from the past 4 years who have been cooperating with us were not given the chance to run in elections some of them have been treated unfairly. but on the

streets it's hard to tell this in the election taking place although campaigning has officially started. showing signs that it's an election here and one of the city's central square is this nobody has no posters it's kind of the lack of interest has been blamed on the current economic situation last november so widespread protests against the fuel price increase other areas of the economy are reeling under punitive u.s. sanctions politicians are trying to relate to people's economic woes. i am aware of the difficult situation and economic hardship that today parts versus sorry are struggling with the past to change this condition is neither silence nor staying away from voting we should come together to the center of events to be able to trigger change this being called by some to boycott the elections while leaders of people to come out to vote a good turnout will give legitimacy to the iranian political establishment something iran wants to use to silence its weston and domestic critics aside big al

jazeera that are on. the saudi led coalition fighting in yemen says it started procedures to try those who have committed human rights violations but it is not made clear who will oversee this action or given details about the process the u.n. said all sides in the conflict committed war crimes and that some western governments may be complicit a report accuse coalition forces of recruiting child soldiers and committing rape torture and murder but also accuse the coalition of an discriminant attacks on civilians the conflict in yemen has killed tens of thousands of people and brought millions to the brink of famine they'll korea's a former deputy chief of mission at the u.s. embassy in yemen says any coalition investigation into its own conduct would have no credibility. well it's a given that the perpetrator of a crime cannot conduct an objective investigation into his own no criminal activity

we've seen how saudi arabia has conducted investigations into the murder of their own journalist. for over a year now and nothing good has come out of that. if that is a goodwill gesture that the saudis really want to make towards yemen they should stop that war it begins with that and that is something that they are capable of doing after that you can have an independent agency international human rights organizations conduct their investigation and any war criminal should then beauty further to the international criminal court i think rather than getting out few trial investigations at this point focus on stopping the war that's something solid is going to do the united states can certainly launch an all out diplomatic effort to end this war that would come 1st and that in

itself or that the least stop the war crimes from continuing and they are going on on a daily basis now after that we can worry about who are allowed who to investigate . the facebook own firm whatsapp has returned to a california court as of presses ahead with a lawsuit against an israeli surveillance company it's suing n.s.a. a group for allegedly hacking into the messaging app to spy on more than a 1000 people the company denies the accusations and a separate incident in 2018 the saudi crown prince was accused of using n.s.a. group technology to hack the phone of amazon boss jeff bezos the company denied any involvement and is a senior researcher at the university of toronto and help what's happened best at the n.s.a. group over the alleged hacking joins us now from washington d.c. thank you very much for joining us so 1st the n.s.a. group says that they did not do this is this something that is technically able to be proven well i think if you read the documents whatsapp is done an

amazing job of laying out some pretty strong evidence that it is so is indeed responsible for the abuses in the case that we're looking at today ok so so i guess just i'm asking for these non non techies such as me is this something that you know it's 2 plus 2 is 4 it is whether you deny it or not is this something that can concretely technically be proven that they did it i think the answer is absolutely yes now i'm not a lawyer and i'm not a part of this case sir but citizen lab has looked at this case for years and it's pretty clear i think that there is good evidence that it is so responsibility now again that's what's absent just a geisha sure not ours i think what's very interesting though about this case is the extent to which it is so seems to be just trying to avoid the case altogether. it is this type of technology that that this group has developed is the technology

it itself illegal. well that's a really good question and i think we're really living in sort of like the gray areas of international law and certainly the gray areas of oversight and it should come as no surprise that when there is a technology like this that's so powerful that's so invasive and so unregulated it's going to get abused and the whatsapp case is a perfect example of this a lot of governments took this technology and they abused it to spy on dissidents human rights defenders journalists and others i think what's unique about this case is that it's a window into what happens when states think that they can behave without a lot of oversight i think to the average person when you think about whatsapp and particularly facebook in general they seem all powerful and able to do any and everything how does facebook how does what's app not have an upper hand and technology when it comes to something like this how are they not able to prevent

this well this is a great question i think the way to look at this is every technology that we use on a daily basis has vulnerabilities and with enough effort and time and resource can probably be hacked the question is really what happens when technology does get hacked what do companies do to protect their users what do legal structures provide by way of protections for users what's interesting about this case is that many companies have had their technologies hacked but what sounds response in this case to go after and so is muscular for years and so has showed up being abused to target journalists and others and for the most part they've kind of been the bully on the prayer around what's different here is that you know what somebody is big cousin has showed up and said not so fast and not on our platform ok there's a reason to keep an eye on this on this case and we will john scott nelson thank you very much a century old effort to enshrine gender equality in the u.s.

constitution has passed a major hurdle the house of representatives has approved extending a deadline that would allow the inclusion of the equal rights amendment how does it cast over parts. it's been 100 years since american women got the vote almost 50 since they gained access to abortions but as for getting equal rights protection under the u.s. constitution the clock is still ticking why has it taken this long. you know it's a great question i find it very confused heidi shrek is a pulitzer nominated playwright i thought i had just been left out of this document from the beginning her work what the constitution means to me tells the history of domestic violence in her family for their benefit the rights and i met when i was 1st was i guess what kinds of music oh. i believe that the law was related to domestic related to sexual assault it. would

have been. i believe that. the women in my family would not have needed to suffer the way that. the proposed equal rights amendment was drafted in 1923 it took 50 years for its language to clear congress but it wasn't ratified by 2 thirds of us states which is required by the constitution until the year 2020 in january virginia became the critical final state to ratify the equal rights amendment for the women of virginia the women of america the resolution has finally. but there was just one hitch the deadline for state ratification had come and gone in 1982 and the trumpet ministration says that makes the proposed amendment void democrats in congress are pushing for its addition to the constitution regardless delays and distractions will not slow our progress because there can be no expiration

date on equality this is a clear message to the international community that we embed in our constitution equal rights for women and that there cannot be discrimination based upon. gender extending the deadline for the equal rights amendment would also need approval in the republican controlled senate where it will likely face opposition person and. some conservatives fear it could lead to more abortions or even outlaw separate sex bathrooms as for heidi schrock the playwright she's expecting tween girls in april i want their future to look very different from our past she says she hopes to soon show her daughters a u.s. constitution that guarantees very quality castro al-jazeera washington canada's prime minister is calling for a swift and to indigenous protests which are blocking trains across the country the protests are in support of a group currently fighting the construction of

a natural gas pipeline through traditional indigenous lands demonstrators have blocked rail lines for days forcing hundreds of passengers and cargo trains to be cancelled just intraday recognize their right to protest but i urge those involved to reach a resolution france's president maduro macron has vowed to restrict access to the highest peak in the alps in an effort to protect its biodiversity account announced the new rules follow during a visit to the resort to summon a where he also saw how france's largest glacier has shrunk dramatically over the past 20 years and their protected zone will be established around the mountain and the number of people can access the summit will be limited the french later said protecting the environment is the battle of the century. so. this will be the battle of the century is our ability to invent a new way of living and doing things sustainably we have decided to take up this fight in our country even if it is the battle of the century it requires impatience

determination rapid action i know that you are ready for it and i am ready for it to. and arctic a has just had its hottest day on record the reading of 20.75 degrees celsius was taken at seymour island by a team or a zillion scientists and follows another recent temperature a record of 18.3 degrees celsius set last week activists say they fear the rising temperatures could contribute to global sea levels to rise faster than previously thought and i see in my almost 3 degrees celsius over the past 50 years 4 people were rescued from a blizzard on scotland's highest mountain earlier this week thanks to a free fall now it's called what 3 words a new system to identify people's exact locations jessica baldwin reports from pembury england. a rescue drill on the river tees the cleveland fire brigade are called out frequently by people stranded on boats or in trouble in the water time is critical but the river teases more than

135 kilometers long. and when a call comes in it's not always clear where the people are who need rescuing or for the control of it ask them if that a mobile phone on them and who doesn't know what is literally asked them can you just please download the shop and tell us what the 3 way it's a 2 story where it's identified an area in the river behind me. and so that meant from chime of cold download in the app to rescue was about 11 minutes and the that is fantastic what 3 words is a free app on your phone the company is divided up the globe into 3 meter squares each specific location is then given 3 round words purple nightingale jumping could be the front door of your house it's an updated laundry tootin latitude system for a voice activated world and it's in 40 languages they make money by licensing the

technology to companies like delivery services or car manufacturers. the idea came out of a musician's frustration chris sheldrick spent hours lugging guitars amplifiers microphones around festivals searching for the right stage or entry gate we've written a mathematical algorithm which actually distributes to 3 what addresses across the world and that and it's replicated in every new language that we forget we literally cover the whole world even the north pole south pole the oceans there is a 3 way to dress for everywhere there are lots of places that are hard to pinpoint if you want to meet a friend at a beach or out in the remote desert it's not so easy mongolian nomads by their very nature don't stay in one place so they need to update tourists who come to experience temp life of the 57 trillion squares i made dated shark edgy which is great if i want to meet a friend or get a delivery but it's not all about convenience if i were to get hopelessly lost or

fall and break my leg it could be life saving more than 80 emergency services in the u.k. now use what 3 words they've been able to find people trapped in their cars lost hikers and some drifting in the river tees jessica baldwin al-jazeera pembury england. still ahead and sports event us tonight a player kept away from the rest of the spa due to a chronic virus scanners that are will have more shortly.

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a time for sport now let's hand it over to peter. thank you so much tokyo olympic officials have criticized what they call irresponsible rumors that they will postpone the games because of the outbreak of the coronavirus major sporting events within china have been canceled or delayed but with one $162.00 days to go japanese organizers remain positive after meeting members of the international olympic committee on thursday japan strengthened its order controls for chinese arrivals and has so far only reported around 30 virus cases on the mainland you more than anyone hugo there are many irresponsible rumors about coronavirus but i would like to make clear once again that we're not considering the cancellation or postponement of the games let me make that clear we have set up countermeasures and we're sharing information with the national institute of pictures diseases as far as tokyo 2020 is concerned would like to continue coordinating with the national

government and respond calmly. manchester united's new signing already on a garlow has been working out away from their training ground as a coronavirus precaution the nigerian was signed on loan from a chinese club in shanghai 2 weeks ago and did not go on united's foreign training camp due to fears of travel restrictions he could make his debut against chelsea on monday. switzerland 4 ways will have to wait another week so you claim a 3rd straight world cup downhill skiing cycle of he was narrowly beaten in austria the skiers were meant to have been at olympic test events in china this weekend but found themselves in the austrian alps in state after they were moved over coronavirus fears germany's thomas almost lost control midway through his run but a flawless final section saw him claim victory by just 200 ths of a 2nd. 2 of africa's biggest clubs will face off in the calf super cup on friday.

so this is esperance will be up against egypt's zamalek to match the winners of the african champions league against the victors of the confederation cup esperance the current holders of the champions league this is the 2nd year of a 3 year deal that sees doha hosting the match. the club has won every title the only one missing for the current team is the african supercuts we prepared for this in tunisia we're ready to face the other team and god willing we will take the title i keep on. of course we're here for one goal we're going to play a great team that's won 2 consecutive continental titles but we have an advantage because huge presence of our fans here in cata have been very welcome and supportive i can't describe how lucky we feel to have them we're very excited to play for them. israel folau is set to make his highly anticipated return to rugby league after being named in the catalan dragons squad for saturday's super league

game against castleford controversial australian was left out of the dragon squad for their. opening match last weekend the fitness concerns for lars last game of rugby league was 10 years ago and he has more played any form of the game since being sacked by rugby australia 8 months ago after posting homophobic comments on social media one of the warmest winters in sweden for decades is causing major problems for would really charitable organizers this is the only truly winter rally in the championship and drivers are usually confronted by large snow banks but as you can see they are none of this year the opening stage of rally sweden was due to be held on thursday but was cancelled and replaced by a practice session because of the lack of snow that's after the roof had already been cut from 18 stages to live and last week. well a day after the top seed was knocked out of the rotterdam open the 2nd seed has also tumbled out greece's stephanos suffered

a defeat at the hands of slovenia's world number 52 years bet in a on thursday the slovenian taking this 17564 in what is only the 2nd time in his career that he has beaten a top 10 ranked player he will play canada's phoenix. in the quarter finals. it wasn't a good day either for the tournament's 4th seed david goffin were same packing by 18 year old a yanik in straight sets it's the italians 1st ever win over a top 10 player and he will now play pablo card in your booster in the coaches. on the women's side there was good news for the 3rd seed in st petersburg petrak a veteran meeting 3 sets but eventually defeated allison from a trunk 761-6628 favor of the 2 time one of them champion from the czech republic. so i saw he had a nice moment of appreciation by boston bruins fans for one of their players david

pasternack scored a hat trick to lead them to a 41 victory over the montreal canadiens and fans responded in the traditional way by throwing their hats on to the ice that's passed the next 4 after the season no bruins player has done that since 1974. and that is we will leave it for now more sports news coming up again later we'll see you then are at our web site as al-jazeera dot com am we have all the day's news there for you in just flirting we are anticipating some new numbers coming in on where things stand with the coronavirus new cases and and possibly more of that so keep it here on al-jazeera and also to try website will keep you posted on all that thank you for joining me for the news hour and much more for you on the other side of the break.

knife begin. thousands of babies every year in the united states. also and on the same day. the baby is african-american. this is twice as likely to happen why. rewind america's infant mortality on al-jazeera. if you were looking at this from the outside you would really wonder what was going on but what is this gross is a religion that they have an in-depth exploration of global capitalism and our

obsession with economic growth this is still the center of capitalism there is no limits i view myself as a capital artist we are trying to break through the world smaller and smaller we don't want to be set realistic in the world we would rather have a fantasy growing pains on al-jazeera this is a domicile immense 4th trip to boozy in 2 days the fisherman is using his boat to risk you as many people as he can was stranded in the flood hit area up to psychologize struck mozambique thumbs up when i 1st saw women with babies on their backs crying for help saying they were dying i knew i had to do something i was late and from the dark a faint was still in the distance alerts us to people calling for help women children and the elderly are brought on board 1st hungry and thirsty it hasn't taken much time to pull the boat about 200 people have been rescued and more want to get on but this simply no space.

really $5000.00 new cases of crying a virus at the epicenter of china's outbreak as doctors there start using new methods to detect the virus. and richelle carey this is al jazeera life and also coming up taking aim at donald trump's ability to launch an attack on iran the u.s. and the past as a war powers law forcing him to ask for approval. cabinet shakeup in the u.k. the finance minister puts on a shock move as prime minister boris johnson fires several ministers oh the mess is looming both. at.