how this could impact your life this is an important part of the world now does it is very good news to the world from here. it's off to syrian rebels celebrated a significant win in it live government forces launch a country offensive to push them out. alone will come on peter told me you're watching also 0 life my headquarters here and also coming up with the coronavirus now reaching around the world nations react with tougher restrictions on travel and trade. than anger at the current situation the economy and the biggest issues still out there lebanon's protests may have dwindled but the government's being told that could change as people suffer and

a deepening economic crisis. also warnings that cities powering the world's economy and soon be lost beneath the waves. the syrian government has launched a counter offensive to recapture the town of sort of keep in italy province. it was captured by turkish backed rebels overnight to turkey soldiers were killed by airstrikes jurong but fight. or here's why set a key is important it sits on the junction of the m 4 and m 5 highways both of which the government seized last week whoever controls the highways gains considerable military and economic advantages the m 5 links aleppo with the capital damascus in the south the growing red areas are controlled by the government. the

shrinking green are rebel territory yellow in the north and the west is controlled by the kurds live now to al-jazeera bar on the turkey syria border in a moment 1st shelagh bellus tells us more about the ongoing situation in syria's last rebel stronghold. syrian troops on the move it live province is the holdout the one place president bashar al assad is yet to claim but village by village it's coming within reach. we are curing on towards more villages of months we are still in action stores are a whole village in spite of the turkey support to our enemies using foreign arms and ammunition these russian backed syrian government soldiers are fighting turkish backed rebels now turkey is facing a challenge with its observation posts in the province around it and president richard type has ordered his troops to push back. russia does not

want to accept humanitarian sensitivity the time that we gave to those who besieged or observation posts is ending we are preparing plans to liberate our observation posts from the surrounding forces by the end of february 1 way or another. he also warns that turkey will attack government forces anywhere in syria if another turkish soldiers injured 16 have been killed in syria this month his speech came as a russian delegation arrived in turkey to discuss the crisis and it lived with their president vladimir putin has ruled out a summit with the turkish german and french leaders the fight for control of the province has forced nearly a 1000000 people from their homes since early december the u.n. says more than half of the people now living in places like this a children. we left our area about 20 days ago we left under airstrikes with only the clothes on our backs we were left out in the open and spent some time under trees we went towards the city of al-bab but we didn't find any place to live

and no one who would let us stay on their land. in the 9 years since the war began many people have fled frontlines for the relative safety of it lib now the front line has come to them they're increasingly. squeezed against the border with turkey the syrian forces inch food shelling residential areas only one has intervened worried about another potential refugee crisis. we are not going to take even a little step back in the ad lib we will push the syrian regime forces out of the areas that we've designated and let people return back to their houses but for now that's not an option at least $26.00 people including school children were killed and more than $100.00 injured this week one home it's risky group says 8 schools and kindergartens were deliberately targeted with cluster bombs syrian forces have captured dozens of towns and villages and any pushback by turkey may leave

residents in the crossfire shallot perilous and to 0. about who's on the turkey syria border hashim the situation seems to be changing pretty much hour to hour now it is the rebels have managed to take control over the city of sirte are a while ago they posted a video of one of the top military commanders. in the area along with syrian rebels saying that so rocket 1st they are determined to move forward to words another city which is no other to no man however i think one of the biggest problems that the position will face is to maintain hold of the city of this syrian army along with the russians are now men mounting a counter offensive pounding rebel positions and trying to hold that advance to words moderates anomalies will be extremely difficult for the rebels to continue

their control of against the backdrop of the ongoing strikes by the russians by this syrian army but i think from a political perspective. this is quite a significant. thing for the rebels they are reversing the gains made by the rebels that are controlled the intersection of the 2 highways in $5.00 and $4.00 they would prevent the syrian army from delivering logistical aid weapons convoys towards areas of i did go but also the southern parts of italy and if they continue forward towards but other to no man i think this is going to pave the way for thousands and thousands of civilians to move back to the villages that were taken over by the syrian army in the past few weeks do you think that the syrian government forces will be anticipating a turkish reaction given the comments that we heard earlier this week from the turkish president mr early one. they're working out all the

scenarios they have been in the meantime very defiant defiant the syrian army has been issuing statements over the last 48 hours saying that it will continue the if offensive they're not going to stop and that they are turning their attention now to the city of it live which is the rebels last stronghold in north western syria if you take an trail of it it will be the beginning of the end for the syrian opposition but they do understand at the same time that turkey remains also adamant syrian military has to push back be hind the demilitarized zone which means in practical terms that the arm the syrian army has to renos all the gains it made over the last few 3 months in particular we're talking about all the areas south of it live and in rural parts of aleppo and i don't see the syrian army renouncing the gains because from a strategic. perspective the are the ones that paved the way for the syrian army to make this spectacular advance towards the heart of it but the turkish military is

insisting it will continue pouring weapons and soldiers into it until the syrian army respects the terms of the 2018 demilitarized zone agreement signed between the russians the turks and the iranians russian thank you. border closures travel restrictions and trade routes suspended governments are imposing ever tougher measures to control the spread of the coronavirus in the middle east saudi arabia is holding visas for the pilgrimage and restricting tourist travel from affected countries iraq has closed schools and universities and banned public gatherings as well as flights from several countries in iran 19 people have died in the us stop joint military exercises in south korea and donald trump has put vice president mike pence in charge of america's response to the outbreak in europe italy's confirmed its 12th death and there's been a 2nd death in france 82000 to defections have now been recorded in 44 countries

and territories let's go live now to seoul and my colleague brian at that country rob recording the highest number i mean i guess in one way they're ahead of the curve in as much as there is a perception the health care system is better than china and certainly better than north korea as well. absolutely peter and also the south koreans as they are trying to remind countries that are imposing all of these travel restrictions on south korea a total of 40 have now imposed these restrictions they're saying look we're being perfectly transparent about our figures are in the new number of coronavirus cases we yes we have a crisis here but we are dealing with it we're diverting resources to to tackle this and we are expecting to see in the next hour or so the latest figures coming out from the south koreans we had a big spike this thursday morning here in south korea they produce figures twice

daily we had a spike of 334 new cases that's the biggest incremental steps that we've seen so far and the reason for that the health officials are explaining is partly because some number of the cases are down in the city of daegu in this church congregation that we knew we know had a massive infection at a couple of services and one of these services was held on the 16th of february the incubation period for the corona virus is about 10 or 11 days we're about at that level now and that's why we're seeing this spike in cases but as the south koreans would argue we are seeing all these cases because we're testing for them and they're doing literally thousands of tests every day as a result of that we see more cases and we may well see for the 1st time this thursday that south korea actually records more new cases than china which is something of a grim milestone have they taken the decision rob consciously i guess almost to

test people against their will i mean if people don't feel they are at risk are they being tested anyway. they have actually introduced new powers in the national assembly here you'll remember of course the national assembly was one of those public buildings that was closed down for 24 hours we've had a few of them here in the capital seoul and elsewhere in south korea because somebody who tested positive for the coronavirus had visited the national assembly they basically told all the lawmakers to go home they disinfected the place they came back to work yesterday afternoon wednesday and one of the 1st things they did was put into place new emergency bills and one of them does empower medical workers that they can force people to take a test it's all part of the measure to show yes they are still trying to follow this policy of containment down in. daegu itself where they have the main

clusters of coronavirus cases we have 500 workers medical workers now at work trying to deal with the outbreak and they're also prioritizing doing what they call triology where you prioritize the urgency of cases and they are accepting that you cannot hospitalize everyone especially with these cases being reported in the hundreds now and basically they have accepted the fact that around half the people who test positive if they have mild symptoms they have to be treated at home as all of the hospital wards are basically now filling up rob thank you well across the demilitarized zone north korea is ramping up its efforts to prevent an outbreak there tourists are banned international flights and trains are suspended and hundreds of foreigners quarantined this secretive country has yet to report one single case north korea has a poor health care system after years of sanctions russia says it sent hundreds of virus testing kits. more on the coronavirus outbreak a little later in the for

a grammy. look at how it's putting the squeeze on the movies and the office. also ahead and an easy car more deaths in the indian capital after violent protests over that controversial citizenship law. hello and welcome to international weather forecast the weather across europe is still in a very unsettled mode we've got some really heavy rain and snow pushing across france through belgium through luxembourg and through southern parts of germany as in these latter areas where we like to see some big accumulations of snow a widespread 5 to 10 centimeters 15 centimeters food bit more elevation and once you get into the alpine areas well with the alps could see anything up to 3 meters

of snow falling from this system we've also got some rain and snow pushing towards the pyrenees they really need snow there the u.k. so that a bit quieter at the moment but there's another weather system coming in for friday and that's going to deliver some very heavy rain we think across parts of on and through western parts a while so that will add to the flooding issues that we've already got across this area this area of low pressure down across the balkans is giving some snow is looking very disturbed around the achaean as well with the risk of some thunderstorms as we head into northern parts of africa gerri weather conditions are looking fine but further towards society it doesn't show up here but there's a lot of lifted dust around all the way across this region extending all the way towards the west africa for the towards the south is looking not to draw on fine bright day expected in lagos. where there are lying like probably recovering being one of the worst rather than

being here media about being not or if you join us on same terms a different diversity and inclusion and overseas sometimes isn't always sincere this is a dialogue sanctions and the ways in which there are applied to iran are an act of welfare everyone has a voice we as a society that is so quick to get to they need to just sit down and listen join the colobus conversation on out his iraq. welcome back you're watching al-jazeera live from doha a reminder of your top stories so far the syrian government has launched a counter offensive to recapture the town of sort of keeping it live product that

was captured by turkish back rebels from the night 2 turkish soldiers were killed by airstrikes during that fight saudi arabia has suspended visas for the pilgrimage restricted tourist travel from countries affected by the coronavirus the u.s. and south korea have spoken joint military exercises president trump says the u.s. is ready for any corona virus outbreak he's promising the government will spend quote whatever is appropriate to fight the disease. as white house correspondent can be held get reports mr trump has also hit back at criticism that he's doing too little too late. seeking to reassure an increasingly nervous american public u.s. president donald trump made a rare appearance in the white house briefing room to downplay the threat of coronavirus the risk to the american people remains very low trump the klein told point to so-called corona virus czar as some lawmakers in the u.s.

have urged instead naming vice president mike pence as the point person to lead the u.s. response to the growing outrage we're doing really well and mike is going to be in georgia and mike will report back to me top public health officials are warning americans to prepare for more corona virus infections in the united states the degree of risk has the potential to change quickly and we can expect to see more cases in the united states the trajectory of what we're looking at over the weeks and months ahead is very uncertain but even with those warnings trump continued to contradict the message of career health professionals with his all i don't think it's inevitable probably will it possibly will it could be at a very small level or could be at a larger level whatever happens we're totally prepared the contradictions have left americans looking to local officials for guy gets across the country state and local leaders are seeking to calm fears in atlanta we'll be ready for whatever

comes in iowa things have been changing and even in america's most populated city new york in the case of hong kong iran italy japan singapore south korea taiwan thailand it just stands to reason that anyone coming in needs to be screened and they have symptoms they need to be quarantined in 2018 the trump white house shut down the office previously dedicated to preparing for global epidemics claims that's had no impact on response but critics in congress disagree this is she. what he's doing is late. too late the name mic hopefully we can make up for the loss of time trumps also defending the 2500000000 requests are from congress to fight coronavirus even as some members of congress say it's not nearly enough and we're getting far more than what we asked for and i guess the best thing to do is take it

we'll take it president trump also told reporters the united states is rapidly developing a coronavirus vaccine but top public health officials say such a vaccine is still more than a year away can really help get al-jazeera the white house. the number of people killed in days of violence in new delhi has now risen to 33 off to some critically injured patients died in hospital relatives of some muslim victims of accuse the police standing by as hindu crowds attacked allegations the government denies is tony betty. i'm of the year after the street battle subsided wednesday was a day hindus and muslims mourn the loss of loved ones after some of the worst violence delhi has suffered in decades this is the funeral of mohammad for can a father of 2 who was killed when the violence began a few days ago he was on the way to shops to buy food for his kids at a bus stop i received

a call saying that my brother has been shot i couldn't believe it i was with him an hour earlier i rushed to the hospital but i found that he was already dead he doesn't know who was responsible. signs of the community hindus and muslims have suffered outside the morgue of the state run hospital relatives await the completion of post-mortem examination is on victims so they can take the bodies for cremation or burial. this man says his nephew died from a bullet to the neck he says it was fired by a muslim as. someone who was but when he was pressed he says he never witnessed the killing was the violence stopped after a group of muslim women were persuaded to abandon their city in protest of a block to busy road and angered hindu nationalists and the government sent in paramilitary forces and rapid reaction units to reopen the suburbs. the death toll is rising and hundreds of injured people are being treated in 3

local hospitals many of the dead are said to have died from bullet wounds it's not clear who was responsible. there was a physical cost to these of the scarred remains of muslim owned businesses in cardwell nagar in northeast delhi some people have lost everything the major violence may have stopped at least for now but it's been so damaging the question is how long will it take communities both muslim and hindu to heal and how can they ever fully restore try. only lawyers have started the legal process for those who were sponsible for inciting the violence to face justice the protests against the new citizenship law which started in december were joined by people from all religions and minorities across india there is a concern now that hindu nationalists may try and turn this into a religious issue i am seriously concerned about this is the players from there

this movement is going to be given a religious shape which is in fact not after 3 days of silence prime minister narendra modi sent out a tweet calling for calm and for peace and harmony to be restored the streets are quieter but the death toll is expected to rise and the repercussions of what happened here are likely to affect not just the capital but also the whole of india tony berkeley al-jazeera delhi. or there's no anger over the indian government's decision to replace a judge who was hearing cases related to the violence in delhi high court justice s. murali da had ordered investigations into leaders from prime minister promoting his governing b.g.p. you for inciting attacks against muslims he also criticised the local police force the transfer was ordered 2 weeks ago but only happened on wednesday night after making his comments. a representative of libya's eastern administration which is loyal to the warlord after has insisted his side will not take part in talks the un

has been trying to bring them together in geneva with their rivals from the internationally recognized government based in tripoli is a diplomatic editor james baines. the u.n. will not confirm exactly who is attending these talks we know they were going to invite 13 delegates from the house of representatives now that is dominated by those who are loyal to general haftar and they say they're not participating currently in this process on the other side the government of national accord well their states council 13 members of that were invited again they say they're not taking part that leaves the 14 members invited by the u.n. representing civil society it's not clear whether they're here either and how many of them have turned up for these talks south africa is one of the key members of the african union dealing with the issue of libya its deputy foreign minister told

me everyone needs to come to geneva for these talks libya is important forces chairperson of the african union because. if there is no peace in libya it adversely impact politically and economically in the entirety of the region in africa so our poor to all the peace activists is there to aggressively pursue engagement on. immediate. cessation of hostilities the u.n. special representative ghassan salami who's running these talks is clearly trying to get some momentum into libya's diplomacy but it leaves an important question if the key players who can end the war aren't here what is the point of these negotiations. and in new york the u.n. security council had closed door briefings last night it's about the diplomatic efforts in geneva yes what the german foreign minister said afterwards of the visit to playing the spirit of the european union has agreed to set up

a mission and that our next foreign ministers meeting in brussels hopefully will decide exactly what that mission would look like and then we'll have a basis to work out what the consequences could be for those who continue to violate the arms embargo. because there have to be consequences and regardless of what they look like there are a lot of tools to work with it's just the 1st step in raising the political pressure with the aim of preventing any further violation of the arms embargo if that keeps happening anyway then we in the european union will have to talk about what the consequences look like. the other cities that power the world's biggest economy but they're also at serious risk of disappearing beneath the waves a report from a consulting firm says the chinese cities of one joule and on one which generate 20 percent of the country's g.d.p. the world's most vulnerable to a rise in sea levels across china nearly 8000000 people are at risk. the fact that levels are increasing are picking up and really brings into play some of their investments in infrastructure and things like power plants airports that are

going to be around in maybe 405060 years time so we're very keen for companies to start factoring sea level rise into those investments as soon as they can see a rise in x. kind of considers. absolute exposures so we haven't taken into account things like mitigating measures and we can see that china is starting to bring those things in mainly government led or municipality led you know we do see sea walls we see projects to protect other hyra cities like shanghai for example what we're not seeing is a lot of corporate action we're not seeing companies talk about it we're not seeing companies really kind of put a lot of. effort into mapping out their risks as well so whilst we're seeing places like china which do have the ability to finance these kind of measures we would also be slightly concerned for countries with higher cities which are perhaps poorer and less able to mobilize the finance needed to defend themselves against sea level rise. the parts of western england are underwater right now at the moment

after the river 7 burst its banks and its flood areas some areas in the u.k. are enduring the worst flooding in decades after 2 severe storms hit within a week of each other. on the outbreak of the corona virus and as it expands the world is taking a hit too many hollywood movies finalists exhibitions and concepts have been canceled or delayed scott hyla reports now from bangkok. from a bond film james to a korean pop band. the ballet performances. here's over the spread of the coronavirus are putting the brakes on the arts industry across asia the studio behind the latest james bond film no time to die announce that it canceled the glitzy premiere and tour in china ahead of its april release it's not just double 07 the screens at cinemas and film festivals across china have remained dark because of the virus during the usual peak season for premieres lunar new year and

new film production in china has halted so for now hollywood's 2nd largest market has dried up the impact is also being felt here in thailand's film industry projects haven't been outright cancelled just yet but many have been put on hold at the moment we're pretty safe here on going full of we don't know but for big productions like film we supposed to have one frame coming and. now put on hold and for 4 and productions coming from the west because of the. don't want to cover in case of that is happening to people in production. earlier this week south korean band b.t.s. announced health concerns have forced it to scrap studio audience is for a series of t.v. concerts that's part of a media blitz in saw the launch the band's new album b.t.s. said it wanted to comply with the government's policy in a void holding a large public gatherings of members of the shanghai ballet company recently

returned from extended leave because of the corona virus but its next performances are months away. due to the epidemic about 10 of our performances. australian hong kong has been rescheduled to 2021 and we have had about 20 performances around china cancelled some of the dancers found it difficult to train with a mask on but it's something they'll have to get used to as the mask for now have become part of their costume and what the ballerinas are facing is soon likely to make its way to performers athletes and artists around the world as the coronavirus reaches more countries and regions empty seats in cinemas stadiums arenas and concert halls will follow scott hodler al-jazeera bangkok. for years they fought against each other for political power now some of south sudan's ethnic groups of flexing their muscles for sporting glory.

wrestling contests drawing huge crowds you mention people being divided by years of shooting war some athletes cover themselves in white ash it brings good luck they say the friendly competition is a display of peace. ok let's update your top stories for you so far this half hour the government in syria has launched a counter offensive to recapture the town of such a key problems it was taken by turkish backed rebels overnight to turkey soldiers were killed by airstrikes during that fight has more now from the turkey syria border. the rebels have managed to take control of the city of sirte are a while ago they posted a video or one of the top military commanders. in the area along with syrian rebels saying that the rocket 1st step and there they are determined to move forward to words another city which is now either to no man however i think one of

the biggest problems that the position we face is to maintain hold of the city of this syrian army along with the russians are now men mounting a counter offensive pounding rebel positions and trying to hold their advance to words moderate or not many that would be extremely difficult for the rebels so the rubio has suspended visas for the pilgrimage and restricted tourist travel from countries affected by the coronavirus the u.s. and south korea have now spoken and joint military exercises. president donald trump says the u.s. is ready for any corona virus outbreak there and he promised the government will spend whatever is appropriate to fight the virus as. the indian government turns from place to judge she was hearing cases related to violence in delhi he criticized both the central and state governments as well as the local police at

least 33 people have been killed in fighting between hindus and muslims during the past 4 days. a representative of libya's eastern administration which is loyal to the warlord after has insisted his side will not take part in talks the un has been trying to bring them together in geneva with their rivals from the internationally recognized government which is based in tripoli a report from a consulting firm says the chinese cities and dong on which generate 20 percent of the country's g.d.p. other worlds most vulnerable to sea level rises outside asia to buy alexandria and new york are also seen to be at a high risk as the polar ice caps melt those are your headlines up next it's the stream more news in 30 minutes i'll see that. the day that will define the democratic race for the white house. team states get to make it their choice should challenge donald trump in the presidential election join us for america's

super tuesday. paschal coverage in my own al-jazeera. hi i'm josh rushing and you're in the stream panic about the coronavirus outbreak is fueling a global rise in asian sentiment but is covered 19 really to blame for people's racism tell us what you think in our live chat or on twitter. cross the world chinese people and those of general east asian descent are reporting a spike in verbal and physical attacks let's take a look at some of those incidents in italy which is seeing a big outbreak in coronavirus cases this week there's been violence abuse and harassment one filipino man was attacked in a market after being mistaken as chinese.