once we have to like this country. in the. car. another surging coronavirus cases in china as one hospital begins trialing blood transfusions to help patients. hello welcome to out of their life and that is also coming up. cambodia's prime minister greets korean ship passengers as they finally get off after being turned away by 4 countries. digging for the truth families of mexico's drug war victims accuse the government of failing them in the search for their relatives.

the u.s. senate passes a new law curbing the president's power to attack iran. for the 2nd day in a row the number of coronavirus cases has surged in the chinese province at the hospital officials in her base say nearly 5000 new people were confirmed to have the virus on thursday and the total number of people infected across the country has now risen 264000 while there's still not a kill one hospital is saying that there are signs blood transfusions from people who've recovered from the virus could be an effective treatment the world health organization is saying the mortality rate of the virus is still at about 2 percent and that is less fatal than the sars epidemic of 17 years ago. we can go live that

adrian brown our correspondent in hong kong so a raft of new figures coming out on the daily basis adrian how much confidence in the people of china have as to the transparency in the validity of these numbers coming from their government. well i think certainly while the al-jazeera team here in hong kong and beijing have been establishing during the past week by looking at comments online is that people do not have a great deal of trust in their government they remain deeply skeptical about the figures and fearful that the real figure is indeed much higher and of course that lack of trust stems from the death of dr lee one leon exactly a week ago he was a doctor who 6 weeks ago 1st raised the alarm about this new virus for doing his job he was punished he was reprimanded by the police he then went back to his job of treating patients who had this far it's and then in a terrible irony got the virus himself so that has caused

a lot of people to question the entire system under which they're living you can't underestimate just how serious a challenge as it is for president xi jinping right now and we got more worrying news on friday marty of the health authorities in china say that a total of $700.00 health workers have now become infected with the virus and that 6 medical workers have died this underscores the fact that many of these doctors and nurses are working without the right sort of protective gear which is why china's government is desperate to get more gear for them and of course you know one of those dead people was dr lee so yes i think to answer your question there is a severe trust trust deficit amongst chinese people the moment towards their government and that is not going away and the other development that's worth exploring agent is this hospital i think it would hand itself which is suggesting

that blood transfusions from people who've recovered from the virus there for the antibodies in the blood my that she goes somewhere way to helping those with the virus recover. yes we're getting all sorts of different types of supports out of china at the moment and you would have to be quite careful at the moment because there is a very strong propaganda push at the moment by the state they want to completely control the narrative which is why hand-picked journalists are now being sent to hand to accentuate the positive if you like as to what is coming out of who had a moment not to focus so much on those negative figures those negative statistics but to focus instead on what the medical workers the medical teams are succeeding in doing yes it's possible they are making advances there's talk in beijing of work on on testing some sort of new vaccine clinical tests i think we're going to hear

a lot more of that in the coming days and weeks but for the moment the picture remains mixed i mean the world health organization i think is encouraged that the the rate of infection outside of province is not rising rapidly and also i think it takes some comfort from the fact that the infection rate outside of china is still under 500 and that is why of course it has not declared a pandemic at this stage all right adrian thanks for that adrian brown live in hong kong. and in cambodia it was all smiles as passengers disembarked from a cruise ship that had been turned away by 4 asian governments because of fears of the virus there have been no confirmed cases among the more than 2000 people on board the westerdam when hey reports now from c.n.n. ville where the ship is doubt. there was celebration and relief as passengers finally received would they were allowed to begin disembarking from the wish to dam a ceremonial welcome in cambodia marks the end of

a 2 week journey around asia as ports up to portray rejected the ship's request to dock you know the ship was very very safe the crew was fantastic we had a very good time considering the circumstances everything was very nice it's nice to be able to get home feels very good but me with must say on the ship was fairly well the food was well at the table to us well so we didn't suffer at all and we knew it was no illness at book. cambodia's prime minister who flew in for the occasion he's consistently downplayed concerns about corona virus and did so again on the dock in sihanoukville when other government said no to the ship he said yes and he wasn't about to let this opportunity slip by. people asked if there are people on the ship that have coronavirus would have to dock i can respond very clearly that if there are people with this virus on the ship i would allow them to dock as soon as possible but there were no confirmed cases on board blood tests

taken from 20 passengers who were unwell when the ship arrived in cambodian waters on thursday tested negative these are among the 1st passengers to disembark and set forth on land for the 1st time in 2 weeks the whole process of getting everybody off the ship is expected to take around 3 days so for many on board the frustrating waits will continue the plight of the westerdam was another blow to the cruise ship industry which is being hit hard by coronavirus its own a carnival is the largest cruise operator in the world and says its share price may tumble this year by more than a half because of cancellations it also learns the diamond princess which is docked in new york a hummer japan with thousands quarantined on board and many confirmed infections among passengers and crew experts say the potential for transmission of the virus on a ship is high so they're not surprised the industry is suffering so if you are in a confined environment like in a cruise ship or in

a train then if you are exposed to like you know within the family or with your next to the cabin of the infected person then you can get infected. for those on the wish to dam a bizarre cruise around asia is over ending with a welcome and a farewell in cambodia don't never forget when he al-jazeera sandlot phil. and singapore's prime minister is the latest leader to warn of severe economic consequences as a result of the coronavirus outbreak lisi and looming told local media the city state could end up in recession the government's preparing for tourism numbers to drop by up to 50 percent the prime minister said the economy would definitely take a hit it's just a matter of how bad it will be a recession is generally recognised as being 2 quarters of negative economic growth china has implemented the 1st round of agreed cuts to terrorists on u.s. goods as part of

a deal between the 2 countries aimed at easing the ongoing trade war the agreement signed last month applies only to recent terrorists imposed by china in september not to the total amount of duties are being levied since $118.00 goods like us crude oil soybeans beef and pork are included. pauline loon is the managing director of asia analytical which conducts research on china's political economy and she explains why the situation is part of a broader issue between the countries. i don't see yet so much doubt as a training to war or even a cold war so much as the dawn of an ice age in relations between the 2 countries the american perception now is not just that china is a real spending competitor but that it is said that all run threat the chinese for their part sees the americans as trying to contain their rise to its rightful

position in the global economy and still they are almost racing focus dominance so a little any agreements that have on commercial issues won't just deal with a part of the problems between the 2 countries or face to face rephrase for the law only be that technical the easy stuff that could be a pretty darn how much you're buying from you look how much you buy from me how much access i get here but the thing that is holding back a true agreement between the 2 countries is the fact that there is it is very difficult for them to agree on a mechanism for compliance i mean the trade gap excess intellectual property rights and all of that has been discussed for the past 10 years different at ministrations have signed different agreements so we're in agreement without some form of

compliance my convince them that the americans will accept that the chinese can sell to their own people then it will just be you know words of their words feeling bad there's no true resolution of the dispute. the u.s. senate has voted to limit president tom's ability to go it alone and launch war with iran the move to reduce his presidential powers of bought by 8 members of his own republican party the war powers resolution means the president would have to seek congressional approval to launch any future strikes it was prompted by the assassination of the iranian military commander kasim cilla mani in a u.s. strike last month which led to a counter strike on u.s. soldiers the president trump or any other president cannot plunge the united states into an endless conflict in the middle east today our 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 or $47.00 democrats 8 republicans stood up and said enough is enough our correspondent you have written the reports now from washington on the politics behind the vote. 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 was president obama very big on all of this 2011 libya. congressional approval went in 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 the 2 and you have to go into 100 countries expand the military footprint and bomb all sorts of all sorts of people who are

groups that the dream exists after 911 so this has been going on for some time now and it's only the democrats rediscover their constitution and they're saying that enough is enough and they were joined by some republicans republicans they 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 niceties they thought the white house should have at least paid lip service to but there are always a libertarian side who say look these endless wars have to stop in fact 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 trump run on this bipartisan majority say we've got to bring our troops back from at least we can't have any more war. u.s. attorney general william barr has criticized president trump's use of twitter that after the president had tweeted about the sentencing of roger stone earlier this week roger stone is the former campaign advisor he's been convicted of lying to

congress witness tampering and obstruction of justice. says trump's comments undermine the work of the justice department. to have public statements hand tweets made about the department about or people in the department our men and women hear 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 where u.s. troops are stationed has been targeted in another rocket attack it was in the northern province of kirkuk there so far no reports of casualties a previous attack on the same base in december killed a u.s. contractor and that triggered a chain of events that calls regional tensions to saw. iran is warning that it's

ready to strike the u.s. and israel if they give it any reason to do say the head of the revolutionary guards made the statement during a ceremony to mark the end of 40 days of mourning for. large crowds mark the occasion to remember the former top iranian commander in both iran and in iraq the some demonstrations in baghdad blocking the road near the airport where he was killed last month president trampled of the killing claiming he posed an imminent threat. lots more to come here at al-jazeera including my calls amounting in malawi for the country's top election official to step down. i am.

how the storms are coming in again to northwest europe is a very obvious one here that will hit i stood pretty hard the next 12 hours bringing does it conditions and you can see from the color of the frequency of these arrows the winds are strong but a bit further north for a week ago however we got another little heart here coming in and that's heading towards the british isles and the rest of northwestern europe sometime during the weekend the winds aren't as strong in france and the cloud won't be as deep in the movie as much rains it's mostly focus for the north but could still be potentially damaging for the rest of europe is fairly quiet until you get down towards t.j. once again that northerly breeze and showers in turkey and crete seem likely they will affect north east africa the northwest just barely a crowd in this crowd now we have some winter rain but clearly not enough this is in a way says with dead palms in it you don't expect to see that in the way supply is a case in morocco and there's nothing in the forecast it's going to like a difference there what there is is this northwest of the breeze a turn to

a northerly keeping bengazi in the high teens as a cooling trend and it will bring some clad but most the showers i think they might graze the northeast of libya all knows me will be confined to the eastern med again to crete and to turkey. but. gives you a feel dead and did you get the peace prize too soon. is this going to hurt or help donald trump's reelection chances it is very free money for you to cheat somebody on 5th avenue and not have any consequence this is not a muslim issue this is a human colony issue join me maddi hobson as i put it up from questions to my special guests and challenge them to some straight talking political debate here on al-jazeera. one war the world war.

time for us to take a look at the top stories here at al-jazeera the total number of people infected with the coronavirus across china has risen to almost 64000 officials in who bear a province say almost 5000 new people contracted the virus on thursday. u.s. attorney general william barr has criticised donald trump's use of twitter after the us president commented on the sentencing of not just but the stones the former campaign adviser has been convicted of lying to congress witness tampering and of struction of justice. rockets hit and then brought here basing can't cope province where u.s. troops are stationed and he no reports of any casualties the previous attack on the

same base in december killed a u.s. contractor and that triggered a chain of events a call to regional tensions to saw. the families of people killed in mexico's drug war accusing the government of half hearted support in the search for their relatives heartbroken families say they're forced to take the lead to recover remains man world has met volunteers who are helping at a dig in better crews and that 400 kilometers east of mexico city. a search party has assembled on the grounds of a catholic church in vera cruz of the volunteers of the family members of missing persons mission wide more than 60000 people have disappeared since the story of the war on drugs in 2006 most are believed to be the big terms of criminal gangs or corrupt authorities themselves in recent years it's become commonplace for the families of the disappeared to participate in organized searches for possible

clandestine gravesites. the recent discovery of a human bone fragment in this field means other human remains could be hidden nearby. might yet that is hello this traveled nearly 2000 kilometers from her home in sonora to join the search. so this is one of. the sometimes for a family member being given just a small piece of bone can make them feel better because they'll know that that's their family that fragment can mean someone spare and sort children can finally have peace. false alarms are not uncommon. but a few volunteers like mine you've gotta have gotten quite good at spotting clues. he says he can't remember exactly how many bodies has helped to uncover in that time i mean yes ok i'm not but he knew the families of the missing that have learned and are now teaching the government how to conduct a search these families don't have forensics training but we're the ones finding

the bodies they should be an embarrassment to the mexican government. there are fishel observers and police keeping watch over the search brigade but it's the volunteers digging holes and sifting through the soil that seem to be doing most of the work. one of the most common things that we've heard from members of the search brigade is that it's the mexican government that should be out here in the heat and the sun searching for human remains and if it is a count again this is the 5th time a national brigade has gathered for this kind of search and it's the largest one to date. by the end of the day authorities arrived to examine the scene and determine whether or not this site will be counted among the more than $600.00 clint destine graves discovered in bitter coups in recent years. that accuse. hundreds of demonstrators have protested in malawi's capital a long way to demand the chairwoman of the country's electoral commission resign this comes after the top cold overturned the results of the 29000 presidential

election citing widespread systematic and grave irregularities lower. oh i mean if you're going to protest as i'm allowed to seal off the building of the electoral commission and it was a man i do not believe. hundreds marched through the streets of the southern city of blantyre only a few managed to get past police barricades. 2 of protest the to says he will only take the chains off when the commission's chairwoman jane and has start resign. because all what we need is this. office should be in so we don't want them to get inside this room. in the capitol a long way people also march towards the offices of the electoral commission. is a given present peter moore tarka

a narrow win in last year's election but the court accused the commission of numerous inconsistent sees that included using correction fluid on ballot sheets jane and sergeant nice accusations the results had been altered on the materials that we sent. we indeed did not include it in pics and even a doing a training we taught we told the trainees that the 2 peaks is no doubt but in court one election commission member pointed the blame at and saw plainly instructions were given by this year to this. and the time that this who was getting section as it were not even involved as commission i think it just happened by lottery. law is constitutional court on wednesday threw out an application by president p. to metallica to suspend the results the quarter 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. south africa's president has used his state of the nation address to defend his record on the economy but members of the opposition f f party repeatedly disrupted the speech when he finally was able to resume cyril ramaphosa or at knowledge more needs to be done to kick start economic growth and admitted that it was reaching a sustainable levels our country is facing a stark reality. economy has not grown at any meaningful rate for over a decade even as jobs are created the rate of unemployment continues to deepen we need to fix our

public finances. low levels of growth mean that we are not generating enough revenue to meet our expenses our debt is heading towards unsustainable levels the u.n. is reporting that more than 800000 syrians have fled their homes in italy province the last remaining rebel held area since december the 1st the vast majority of them women and children have ended up in displacement camps close to the turkish border but conditions there a 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 oh my gosh you know you put your government there are 27 families living in 14

tents things are stealing cars we don't have good the situation is very difficult it's impossible for anyone to rent a home. without the situation here is very difficult as you can see it's not being in a temperature is below 0 you can see it so we're staying in a tent because different cost $100.00 or 200 dollars and there's a lot of displacement going on now. civilians remain in harm's way as hostilities are continuing in italy 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 exacerbated the situation. at least one person is being killed outside libya's capital tripoli and shelling by forces loyal to the warlord holly for hafter at least 4 other civilians were injured in the rocket attack on a residential area it happened just hours after the un security council voted to

support a 55 point plan for ending the war after us forces have been trying to capture the libyan capital tripoli from the internationally recognized government meanwhile in iran a list of approved candidates allowed to run in next week's parliamentary elections has been unveiled and many moderate a reformist candidates have been disqualified and as i said big reports from the capital tehran the guardian council which historically is dominated by conservatives and overseas approvals has already made its mark. 290 seats over 7000 candidates campaigning has officially started but the attention has not been on the candidate 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. i deny this the guardian council has the duty to verify the qualification of candidates and 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 for. the former. 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 out in the streets it's hard to tell there's an election taking place although campaigning has officially started for now iran's capital isn't showing signs that it's an election yet here and one of the city's central squares there's no banners no posters and no country that'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 there's been 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 western and domestic critics aside big al jazeera that are on. the messaging service has gone back to a california court to continue its case against an israeli surveillance company it's selling n.s.a. group for allegedly had. to spy on more than a 1000 people but in a separate incident in 2018 the saudi crown prince mohammed bin salma was accused

of using n.s.a. technology to hack the phone of the amazon boss jeff bezos the company denies both allegations. all right time for us to take a look at the top stories here it out is there the total number of people infected with the coronavirus across china has risen to almost 64000 officials in who bay province which is at the heart of the outbreak say nearly $5000.00 new people were confirmed to have the virus on thursday the world health organization says the mortality rate of the virus is about 2 percent which is less fatal than the sars epidemic of 17 years ago adrian brown has the latest from hong kong we now know that the authorities the medical authorities have broadened their criteria for diagnosing people that means we had

a huge spike on thursday in terms of deaths and infections today the rate is a bit smaller so it's a very mixed picture it's hard to determine whether things are getting worse or whether things are getting better the the narrative on state television state media and the government has really taken control of the narrative now is that china is winning it's trying to send out of message of reassurance that china can control this virus that it has passed legislation which requires the president to seek congressional approval for any future strikes on iran it was backed by 8 republican senators and follows the assassination of the top iranian commander hasim cilla monny he was killed by a u.s. strike last month. u.s. attorney general william barr has criticised trump's use of twitter saying it makes his job impossible that softer the us president tweeted about the sentencing of

roger stone earlier this week or just stone is the former campaign advisor he's been convicted of lying to congress with this time praying and obstruction of justice basses drums comments undermine the work of the justice department the messaging service whatsapp has gone back to a california court to continue its case against an israeli surveillance company it's suing n.s.a. group for allegedly hacking into its act to spy on more than a 1000 people in a separate incident in 2018 the saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon was accused of using m.s.o. technology to hack the phone of. jeff bezos the stream is next. right tend to increase it comes to libya 9 years since the revolution a long time dictator 1. 000 explains the complexities of libya's civil.

attention political solution special come on al-jazeera. 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 a black creative tell us what you think on twitter at a street. become much the oscars have changed in the past 90 years. yeah they have are you know and not back in 1929 there were no black acting nominees no and now 2020 we got what their. own amazing great. comedian steve martin and chris rock at the oscars on separate the 10th in the new doc a serious to have us british photographer simon frederick.