0. 1. the. turkish backed rebels and syrian troops fight for control of a key town in the northwest of syria civilians have nowhere to hide. we report from the front line of this russian backed government forces hitting the town with an ass trucks. i'm compelled this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up coronavirus jess's the u.s. stock market is on track to report its worst weekly loss since the global financial crisis. bearing the day itself the worst dry it's in decades we'll see how

communities are building in delhi. we begin with a decisive battle in syria rebel forces a desperately trying to hold out against a government offensive in a key town and if the province a stream of turkish military reinforcements to support the rebels is moving too would sort of keep opposition forces captured sort of of a nice reversing one of the main gains of the government's devastating russian backed offensive in the region of 0 is made out father is in the outskirts of the city of sodom with more. let me. in for one of you about whether or not they live here we are exactly on the m 4 highway connecting aleppo we look back here this highway leads to the meeting going to the international m. 5 highway connecting aleppo and damascus so i could see these the point where both

the highways connect but in the circle of the. soraya to our right was captured this morning by the armed opposition having seized control of the city the armed opposition is now in total control of both of the strategic highways however air strikes are still carried out by both the russian and syrian regime's fighter jets targeting the city and its outskirts. i. know for the family of a false as you have just seen it was an air strike on the city the armed opposition who is now in control of sarek of city and both the highways say they killed a large number of the regime forces inside the city we can also see that plume of smoke as a result of the airstrike aerial bombardment has not stopped on the contrary it has intensified as i said earlier both the highways are now cut off by the armed opposition it is a big win and a massive advance for the opposition to seize control of soraya along with a number of its neighboring villages. as i've been saying sort of camp is important

and if we look at the map we can see why whoever controls the m. 4 and m. 5 highways gains critical military and economic advantages the m 5 in particular links aleppo with damascus in the south the growing red areas are controlled by the government the shrinking green is rebel territory yellow in the north and the west is controlled by the kurds. oh has about has more now on the fighting from hard times on board it would syria and this is job but i live on the streets of. for the rebel commander this is just the beginning of a long push to recapture lost territory after their rocket is back on the old control we have managed to evict syrian army russian ally and pro-government militias from socket i want to reassure our people that we will liberate all the cities of syria and if you did that the thought. but for the

rebels to hold ground may be challenging the city is located on 2 highways in for an empire which linked damascus to aleppo and northeastern syria. so in government troops and russian fighter jets are striking rebel positions preventing them from reinforcing their lines of defense. of their moment of triumph for the rebels this is their 1st significant military gain in months. to get the opposition has lost many strongholds and retreated north allowing the syrian army to advance to work it live city and as government troops close in thousands of civilians flee the offensive has displaced almost 1000000 people and created the worst humanitarian situation since the start of the conflict in syria 9 years ago. turkey insists its military intervention is so little ensure

a cease fire is implemented and syrian troops pull back behind the demilitarized zone in it globe the developments on the ground in our favor but on the other hand the regime's losses are very big 3 of our soldiers have been killed let them rest in peace but there is no time to deal with this now negotiations with the russians will continue however we are operating in it live with the i don't agree mint along with the 911 kilometer border we are safeguarding our country we will continue to operate in syria backing syrian rebels and told we win the war turkish officials are in talks with russia to get access to the space in northwestern syria a demand that has been so far brushed aside by moscow which accuses un qatar of undermining peace efforts it's unclear at this stage if the rebels it is part of a large scale military campaign that by turkey in the province of. rural. but the

corruption of soccer is likely to create momentum among rebel fighters who have suffered a series of setbacks recently asked about al-jazeera. the united nations emergency relief coordinator addressed the u.n. security council on the humanitarian situation in syria she called on all sides to enter an immediate ceasefire. last week i spoke. with 14 syrian women in north than an april what is happening in northwest syria he said is beyond imagination it is not humanity tolerable i echo the secretary general's renewed call for an immediate cease fire to end the humanitarian catastrophe and avoid an uncontrollable escalation. his own though is that the united nations he has the latest from the security council meeting now we're

getting a sense of how urgent this situation now is now this is a regular meeting of the security council monthly briefing on the humanitarian situation in northwest syria but nothing is normal about the situation on the ground there and that's why this meeting is extraordinary in the sense of urgency that it's taking on as you heard from the assistant secretary of general of humanitarian affairs there laying out the more than 950000 people that have been displaced in northwest syria since early december we also heard from henrietta for the head of unicef who also laid out how much this is affecting children just in northwest syria she said 10 schools have recently been attacked 280000 children just in and around it lives are now with no school to go to members are

really getting a very very raw and if you will depressing for a lack of a better were briefing on how the situation is in northwest syria. the world health organization chief has warned that we could be on the brink of a global coronavirus pandemic with. decisive point for the past 2 days the number of new cases reported in the rest of the world has exceeded the number of new cases reported from china and in the bus 24 hours 7 countries have reported cases for the 1st time. the virus is taking an increasingly heavy toll on the global economy the u.s. stock market is down again and is on track to record its worst weekly losses since the global financial crisis the i.m.f. spokesman jerry rice says there will be a global economic impacts for can't say how significant it might be. a lot just

depends on. the speed of recovery in china and in other countries the spillover effects. the effects on supply chains and. the extent to which other countries maybe significantly affected kristen slim is live for us in new york kristin just how bad are the stock market losses. well at its low point the dow jones industrial was down nearly a 1000 points today it's recovered slightly from that but stocks in all 3 of the major u.s. indices have remained down for the 6th day in a row 1 pushing the market into what's known as correction territory that's a 10 percent loss from market highs highs that were achieved just a week ago so in this short space of time we're seeing this sharp decline as fears

about the spread of the coronavirus take hold among investors there's a worry that corporate earnings will suffer and the global economy in general in particular on news here in the united states wednesday that there was a new case which could not be traced the source of the infection could not be traced for the individual president trump addressed the nation on wednesday attempting to allay the worst fears saying that the united states was ready to deal with this in the risks remain relatively low but investors are also hearing from companies who say that their supply chains are not recovering quickly enough so much of so many of american businesses do rely on china for manufacturing microsoft for one downgraded its revenue projections for the quarter saying that it was yet to get back up to speed for its supply chains other companies also expressing that concern janet yellen the formal federal reserve chief speaking out said that it was

possible continued outbreak that isn't contained quickly enough could push the recession into push the market into recession territory and while that is a prospect that is still on the horizon and far away we're seeing investors take stock in take all of this into account and put their money into safe havens like gold and treasury bonds government treasury bonds one key note about how uncertain the markets are. right now is this index known as the vix which measures uncertainty and volatility in the markets and that's been up about 18 percent today as well so again investors taking stock and worried about how and when this virus will be contained thanks for that update that's kristen salumi there live from new york and iraq helpful forces are imposing strict measures on public spaces to prevent the spread of the virus simona fault and is in the capital with more.

coffee shops are still open here in but a day after the ministry of health issued a decree banning public gatherings and ordering the closure of coffee shops cinemas and clubs to prevent the spread of the coronavirus here but business is clearly down you can see that there are many empty tables here this is on a thursday just before a week and where you would usually see large numbers of customers coming to this mall which is one of the biggest malls in the capital and of course business owners are not happy about this we spoke earlier to the director of this small who complained about this directive that has been issued by the ministry of health criticizing the ministry for not consulting the private sector would certainly have a lot of negative impact as a result of these decisions the director did tell us that the mall itself has taken its own precautions to try to mitigate the spread of the virus by for example

procuring devices to measure the temperature of customers coming in we can also see that some of the employees as you can see here are wearing plastic gloves to prevent the spread of the virus and the director also told us that for example in the cinema which is further up stairs that they would be limiting the number of allowed into the halls to make sure that people were not sitting too close to each other now it remains to be seen how exactly the ministry of health will enforce this decree we actually overlooked an argument between business owners and ministry of health and health officials would come to inspect the mall and to try to force the closure of some of these coffee shops and it's unclear whether there would be penalty certainly there was a threat of penalties but it's unclear exactly what these penalties are and how far authorities will really go to enforce the closure of public spaces like these. still ahead on al-jazeera some of the lucky one. a call for unity

the challenges facing south sudan's military trying to come together around the gears of conflicts. past feeling the squeeze how the coronavirus is impacting asia's entertainment industry. welcome back now across the levant in the arabian peninsula has been subtle the last few days particularly for iran iraq we've seen some really bad weather some snow many many lower elevations anyway but things are improving now the temperature in tehran just 45 degrees yesterday up to 12 in the forecast baghdad up to more typical temperatures 23 degrees here in the arabian peninsula just got the remnants of the shell wind blowing down through the gulf so just 23 degrees as

a maximum on the other side of the potential down through the red sea winds gerri looking fairly light through friday that may just begin to strengthen the northern portion of the recent during the course of saturday meca fine temperatures there $34.00 degrees celsius they also notice that area of rain and snow developing across parts of turkey and that will be pushing in to know them parts of iraq during the course of the day maybe more across into central northern parts of africa it looks fine cool day with a breeze coming off the sea at benghazi highs of 17 degrees showers spats watch the gulf weaken the region but a big feature still is a lot of dust being picked up in the atmosphere by the wind blown all across western parts of africa and much the sand had to get the atlantic all the way to south america. informed opinions the economy is actually what's keeping donald trump afloat right

now and in-depth analysis of the day's headlines the protest movement is only getting stronger the more people he killed the more resilient the resistant they will become the inside story on al-jazeera the u.s. president's proposed plan for the middle east is the last territory to palestine and any other peace plan since 1948 hours after reports of israel have created because of peace one video was by years of united states the water israel how much time the palestinian prime minister told challenges era. you're watching al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour turkish military reinforcements are heading towards a strategic town and syria's if the public opposition forces captured sort of of

a nice pushing back a major government offensive. a u.n. humanitarian chief has describe civilian suffering in syria as beyond imagination she dressed the security council and urged all sides to protect nearly a 1000000 people have been displaced by that massive government offensive. the coronavirus epidemic is being blamed for stock market losses across the world the u.s. stock market is on track to record its worst week since the global financial. people in india's capital a slowly returning to areas hardest hit by the recent violence some are found their homes and businesses destroyed others have lost loved ones and livelihoods as tony berkeley discovered in the hindu muslim community of people still believe in harmony. after the 2nd day of calm people who escaped the violence are starting to return to their battered neighborhoods in northeast delhi in showing bag they've come back to widespread destruction and loss. i think about this it was

very stressful living here during the last few days we were all extremely scared so scared that we moved all our woman to a safer place only the main stayed. people were killed and injured here homes and businesses were burned but you know how much fruit and vegetable shop provided a livelihood for his family for 30 years he was burned during the riots and he's not ensured he's part of the muslim community that suffered the worst of the violence but he's not vengeful. we have to live peacefully together whatever has happened we have to treat it as a one off we have to forget we can't just blame the hundreds of muslims both groups were there. 3 shops down is his neighbor ganesh who's a hindu his fruit and vege shop was also burned but even after losing his livelihood he still believes in coexistence. then there is peace speaking once

again stop our business we have to do it to survive to earn our living there is no other way to earn a living. it's a seed of hope that hindus and muslims can return to the peaceful coexistence they enjoyed for years a senior police commissioner visit bag thursday to reassure locals the peace has been restored but it's the presence of large numbers of security forces that people find more reassuring not words alone this is a very public confidence building measure designed to show people that the security forces have control of the streets and is now safe but many people are asking the question where were they when they needed the most. delhi police have been heavily criticised over its handling of the violence which has been described as at best negligent and worse complicit. it families are slowly returning to this battleground feeling more apprehensive than safe. it seems to be peace and calm but we lost everything after our home was set on fire we only managed to salvage this

cooking gas cylinder. but others like this hindu family have decided to leave the district altogether where the right situation are scaring us a lot that's why we're going back to our village where it's safer. the streets will be cleared the debris removed and homes rebuilt but these communities cannot fully heal until those responsible face justice tony berkeley out 0 bag north east delhi thousands of rallied in gaza are against the united states proposed plan for the region protesters gathered outside the un building rejecting donald trump's proposed solution for peace between palestine and israel a plan was announced in january it would see israel annexed the majority of west bank settlements and a palestinian capital east of jerusalem. the british government has declared war and commit to following e.u. rules in a post breaks a trade deal and it's threatening to walk away from tor talks as early as june if

it sees no hope of a compromise the u.k.'s been to setting out its red lines 2 days after e.u. ministers approved their own joint approach to the negotiations on a whole is in london and he says the opposing demands from both sides will make negotiations difficult. the government has here given notice that the political declaration is no longer the blueprint it intends to follow the blueprint will be rather the election manifesto that boris johnson won so handsomely on in december that commits the government to seek what's called a canada style free trade arrangement 0 tariffs 0 quotas and enough regulator a divergence from e.u. rules and laws to allow britain to do trade deals with other big economies like the united states the e.u. simply see this see this as the u.k. trying to have the best of both worlds both preferential access to its markets and watering down its laws and regulations and i think in the months ahead this is a problem that is going to be difficult. to square there are different schools of

thoughts on on this there's a sort of good case scenario or best case scenario and a worst case scenario in the end remember that the canada deal so-called was struck over many years these things take time and time is something that isn't on the table the best case scenario here is that they reach some sort of basic trade deal by the end of the year covering goods or some sectors of goods at least with other deals to come in months and years ahead in other sectors of the economy the worst case scenario as some see it is that there's no deal in december 31st the end of the transition period that there is no extension to that period and therefore the to break up on w t o's lines world trade organization rules tariffs structures are put into place immediately that will be bad news for british manufacturers and exporters but a price the government here says it's worth is worth paying in the interest of being able to. get the holy grail if you like trade deals with other economies. south sudan's warring sides possibly formed

a transitional government last saturday but a crucial part of the 2800 peace deal uniting the armed forces is yet to be completed and as there is have been morgan has this report from meredith. a call to line up for military exercises is something the soldiers are used to. but for the past 2 months the south sudanese troops have been training alongside other armed groups some of whom they once fought on the battlefield during south sudan's civil war that we're here we've got the. unified there's no different in all of there's no i or there's no. there's no. one. some of these fights is gathered here are parts of the government forces others come from the main armed opposition called the sudan people's liberation movement and opposition and a few from the armed group known as south sudan's opposition alliance this is one of the 16 such camps around the country where the fighters are trying to form a unified national army it was set up after $2800.00 peace deal to end the 5 year

long conflict that's killed nearly 400000 people and displaced a 3rd of the country's 12000000 population and the deal states that 41500 out of the 83000 forces from the working sites are to be trained before the formation of a transitional government that's government was partially formed last weekend when 5 vice presidents were sworn in this training camp in the west of south sudan holds about 1500 soldiers from the 3 different sides but they're not an equal numbers even though they're supposed to be the opposition says transporting soldiers from their areas to the camps is difficult and that's just one of the many issues affecting the training and reunification of the forces. so just say the camp lacks many basic needs making life inside hard. there is no medicine and we sleep in the open where it's cold and the needs for female soldiers and no match there is no water sometimes and there is no place to sleep and we train in our slippers and

sometimes barefoot which is hard and we don't have uniforms. the joint monitoring and evaluation commission the body tossed with monitoring the implementation of the deal as you quoted that since the training sites were established hundreds of soldiers have abandoned them due to poor conditions shortage of funds is one of the big chop. the government government made a pledge of $100000000.00 which we felt would be sufficient to do this initial training unfortunately not all of those resources a come from the government we've received about $60000000.00 of which are the $100000000.00 so we continue to encourage the government to make available those remaining funds so that we can really see an improvement in those conditions within those training centers. a well trained and disciplined army is crucial for south sudan's transitional period and to avoid a return to war soldiers here say they want to be part of a united army but how soon that's happens depends on those leaving them and the country he will morgan i'll just there are many. after months of unrest in guinea

a referendum has to be held on whether to allow the president a 3rd term in office off a conga says it will modernize the constitution the main opposition coalition says he's trying to hold on to power frank gupta reports. these are turbulent times in guinea they are just days left before the west african nation votes in a constitutional referendum and now its 81 year old president afrikan day has suggested that he could run for thought time in office the main opposition coalition says it will no longer recognize him as a legitimate president it wants people to boycott sunday's vote. if indeed he carries the aspiration of the people of guinea and have decided not to recognize mr conti as the president of the republican guinea and demands his immediate and unconditional departure from power. more than 30 people have died in months of often violent protest against gandhi whose mandate ends in december

protests to say the referendum is just an excuse to hold on to power this cement from this week until monday leaves power we're going to fight him because he's no longer the legitimate president he violated echo us which prohibits a coup d'etat and he made a calm. petitional coup d'etat all me has been deployed across the country ahead of sunday's vote condi is guinea's 1st democratically elected leader since his independence from france and decades of authoritarian drew he says sunday's fort will lead to a modern constitution. the protesters fear it may push me into political uncertainty. on to 0. much has been said about the economic impact that the corona virus outbreak is having as it spreads and the odds well there's not a new exhibitions concerts and film premieres have been cancelled or delayed the reports

from bangkok. from a bond film james to a korean k. 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 and going forward we really don't know but for big productions like film we supposed to have one film coming and. now put on hold and for

foreign productions coming from the west because of the interim policy they don't want to cover in case of that is happening to any people in the production side of it earlier this week south korean band b.t.s. announced health concerns have forced. to scrap studio audiences for a series of t.v. concerts that's part of a media blitz in saw to launch the band's new album b.t.s. said it wanted to comply with the government's policy and avoid holding a large public gatherings of members of the shanghai ballet company recently returned from extended leave because of the coronavirus but its next performances are months away to each. due to the epidemic about 10 of our performances in australia and 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 harder al-jazeera bangkok. this is al jazeera and these are the top stories turkish military reinforcements are heading toward a strategic town in syria's province opposition forces captured sort of tip of a nice pushing back a major government offensive humanity a un humanitarian chief has described civilian suffering in syria as beyond imagination she addressed the security council and all sides to protect nearly a 1000000 people have been displaced by fighting last week i spoke.

with 14 syrian women in it left and north and then they pull what is happening in northwest syria he said is beyond imagination. it is not human to be tolerable i echoed the secretary general's renewed call for an immediate ceasefire to end the humanitarian catastrophe and avoid an uncontrollable escalation of the coronavirus epidemic has been blamed for stock market losses across the world the us stock market is on track to record its worst week since the global financial crash analysts say they are in correction territory european markets closed 3 percent lower the world health organization says the coronavirus epidemic has reached a decisive moment it's spread to 7 new countries in the last 7 24 hours the disease has killed more than 2800 people and infected 82100 thousands of rallied in

gaza are against the united states proposed plan for the region protesters gathered outside the u.n. building rejecting donald trump's proposed solution for peace between palestine and israel the plan was announced in january and would see israel annexed the majority of west bank settlements and the palestinian capital east of jerusalem. the u.k. government has declared it won't commit to following a huge rolls in a post breaks a trade deal and it's threatening to walk away from talks as early as june if it sees no hope of a compromise ukase been setting out its red lines 2 days off to e.u. ministers approved their own joint approach to the negotiations but those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after inside story stay with us.

is the spread of the corona virus out of control increasing numbers of cases are being reported around the world governments are taking measures but are they and often how do we prepare for a pandemic this is inside story. our welcome to the program i'm adrian finnegan from a wildlife market in china as well han says he with a corona virus is believed to have emerged to the city of calm in iran the disease is sweeping around the globe and health experts are warning that we could be on the brink of a pandemic more than 80000 people and of a 40 countries have been infected the number of new cases inside the country at the center of the epidemic china has been overtaken for the 1st time by new infections

outside now the focus of the outbreak is shifting to europe in particular and the middle east in that region and.