the all. this is al-jazeera. hello from doha and how his in with the al-jazeera news are coming up in the next 60 minutes. signatures that could put afghanistan on the path to ending 18 years of war the u.s. and the taliban agree a deal that includes plans for a complete troop withdrawal. this is a hopeful moment but only the beginning but the u.s. warns that it will cancel the agreement of the taliban it doesn't respect it. clearing the way to europe turkey pulls its guards back from the borders with

greece sends the fights over italy it creates a new pressure pressure points. and barbara starr in london with the top stories from europe including thousands attend a rally in france for the exiled catalan leader catalyst pushed them on just 30 kilometers from the spanish border. in support 5 top league games in italy have been postponed because of coronavirus restrictions the olympics are also in doubt and will be in senegal where africa's best boxes are still trying to qualify for tokyo 2020. now after more than 18 years of war a deal between the u.s. and the taliban has put afghanistan on the path to what many hope will be a permanent peace the sign into place here in qatar

a few hours ago. and 18 months of talks one of the key components of the deal plans for a complete withdrawal of all u.s. and nato troops within 14 months if the taliban sticks to its parts of the deal the us secretary of state's mike pompei you flew in for the signing he says the agreement is a crucial 1st step towards peace this agreement will mean nothing and today's good feelings will not last if we don't take concrete actions our commitments and promises that have been made when it comes down to it the future of afghanistan is for afghans to determine. the us taliban deal creates the conditions for afghans to do just that. here's our take here's our take on what steps by the taliban will make this agreement a success. first keep your promises to cut ties with al qaeda and other terrorists . keep up the fight to defeat isis well the taliban's chief

negotiator said the agreements marks a new chapter in afghanistan's history. we are committed to this agreement to enforce a also we want as a political force to maintain with our neighbors positive relationships with all the afghan nation has been suffering for the past 4 decades we have suffered tremendously and i hope that with the withdrawal of all foreign forces from afghanistan that the afghan nation under the islamic regime will embark on a new prosperous life well a separate ceremony was held in the afghan capital kabul u.s. defense secretary mark asper and nato secretary general yen stoltenberg were there to present their presence to issue a joint statements with afghanistan's president conny spoke about the forthcoming talks his governments will hold with the taliban to my posts a political settlement. our agenda for discussion with the taliban be be wider than

their discussions with the united states they should be ready to discuss their relationship with their the state and non states sponsors a verifiable system for cutting off their ties with all transnational terrorist groups their dependence and involvement with narcotics and other transnational criminal organizations positively where we go the deal has been signed like section of state my proposal said this is just the beginning the 1st stage will be a $135.00 day in this whole period over reduced violence both sides have also agreed to exchange as many as $6000.00 prisoners and that deal is being described as a precursor to a peace agreement between the warring sides within afghanistan its hopes this will lead to talks between the taliban and the government in kabul the initial week long reduction in violence mostly held though there were still some attacks they gave

us on who is in washington d.c. will be speaking to him in just a moment about the reaction to the agreement but 1st let's go to a summit binge of aids he was at the signing he joins us now live from doha asama this was signing and it was a momentous occasion by all accounts. yes a few minutes ago we spoke to the man from the qatari side who was shuttling between these various world capitals and he told us that this was a momentous occasion and it took 18 months of shuttle diplomacy to get to this point during which presidential treat by president trump almost derailed the whole process so yes it is a momentous occasion it is a historic signing ceremony but the real work will begin afterwards all sides have shown cautious optimism that they think that with this stepping stone they'd be able to move in that direction 2 words lasting peace but there is going to be many

goals which need to be achieved along the way but the biggest takeaway from this is that the united states for the 1st time after 19 years of presence in afghanistan its longest running war has signaled that it will be withdrawing completely from afghanistan albeit with conditions in a matter of 14 months but this is being seen as a victory by the taliban here the u.s. secretary of state said that no side should be taking victory laps in because victory will mean for the afghan people when they can live in peace and prosperity and when foreign forces don't fear that attacks on foreign countries will emanate from iran soil that is something that the taliban has agreed upon that they will continue to provide anything to deny any safe haven to groups like al qaeda and their fight against isis will continue in return as you mentioned 6000 prisoners will be swapped the afghan government will work with the united nations to lift sanctions against taliban so all in all all sides seem to be moving to words to

direction but then again we've seen them coming closer towards each other before and issues like the name islamic emirate of afghanistan the taliban denying that the accept the afghan government as a legitimate government and call them an entity which is party to the conflict this business. up and other agreements on the ground especially with regards to civil liberties in of god a sign that the afghan side says are going to be very dear to them and their american partners as well is all going to be in the works in the days and weeks to come. of a life for us in doha thank you very much indeed gabriel elizondo joins us live from washington d.c. to get the view from the united states just highways the white house reacting to the still. they've been pretty quiet about it so far quite frankly we haven't heard much from the white house we also remark we haven't heard from the pentagon

or the state department of course other than secretary of state mike pompei oh there in doha but beyond that i will say the reaction has been fairly muted here in the united states however that might change soon as president donald trump just the last few minutes announced that he's going to actually be holding a press conference at the white house talking about coronaviruses will be in about 25 minutes from now we expect that perhaps he might be asked some questions or perhaps offer some remarks about this afghanistan peace deal as well so we watching that very closely he's also planning to speak later on saturday to a conservative group of conservative activists that have an annual conference here and the outskirts of washington as well so be watching to see if trump mentions the afghanistan deal there as well chances are he probably will why because clearly trump is going to view this and going to use this to his advantage when it comes

politically in reelection he's going to frame this peace deal as part of his so-called promises made promises kept. things that he talks about during his reelection campaign and this will certainly fall in line with that the u.s. right now has about 12000 troops in afghanistan the thinking is that within a matter of about 3 to 4 months perhaps they could drop that number down to about 8000 this is significant because in the context of all of this because in 2009 during that so-called military surge in afghanistan the u.s. had over 110000 troops in afghanistan so now you're looking at now you're looking at a number much much lower than that and this is where you're going to see trump using this to his advantage and using. this is part of the campaign we will hear from democrats and also republicans as well particularly conservative ones who are

not going to be overly pleased with this who still show a lot of distrust in the taliban and say that perhaps we're moving too quickly would probably be their words that we're going to be hearing in the coming days and that's why you heard mike pompei of the secretary of state say we know who we are dealing with when you mention that in doha meaning that he knows about the history of the taliban and that's why you're seeing this gradual withdrawal of u.s. troops over the coming months ok gabriel elizondo from washington d.c. thank you very much indeed let's get some analysis now julie norman is teaching fellow in politics at the university college of london she joins us now live from the british capital good to speak with you julie we've been hearing from president trump's perspective you know lots to celebrate he's kept this campaign promise the taliban were obviously very pleased at the prospects of u.s. troops leaving the country. to the people of afghanistan what do they have to

celebrate because this is just a deal between the u.s. and the taliban it's not a peace deal in the whole of afghanistan by any stretch of the united nation is it . that's right how this is really just the 1st step in a larger and longer peace process what happened today here certainly is important but it really just unlocks the next really crucial piece of the in traffic and in talks and those are the ones that will really be the most important for civilians for people in afghanistan on the ground for shaping what the country is going to look like moving forward and that's really going to be a long road to get those negotiations going and to see what kind of shape they take but these talks the this next phase the talks between the afghan government and the taliban they aren't really starts in from a very equal basis are they because the taliban have been very much a bold and empowered by this agreement. where is the afghan governments as we've just seen from recent elections are fighting like cats in the sack. sure well

as you said the afghan government right now is in a just a difficult position in itself coming out of these disputed elections where there still hasn't really been a resolution so that will need to get resolved in some way before the negotiations can really begin in any kind of meaningful way and meanwhile as you said you the taliban will see this as a victory showing that they were able to. the u.s. can i was stop foreign troops and foreign presence even though that troop presence will still be there just in the are numbers that we will see the taliban showing the size of victory and trying to go into these negotiations with that kind of posturing what will go the u.s. troop presence is going to come down slowly we did hear from michael you saying that this agreement is very much conditional on the taliban sticking to a reduction in violence and so on and so forth but given the politics in the u.s.

just this is the recent presidential campaign pretty much sums are we if the taliban don't stick by this agreement one sense of is the realistically for those u.s. troops to stay or do you to return. yes with the way it set out right now is that there will be a reduction that will start pretty quickly over the next 3 to 4 months that will lower the current number which is a little over 12000 troops to about 8 think about $8500.00 so that reduction will probably take place what happens after that with the gradual with drug withdrawal over the following months that will be linked much more closely to if the u.s. sees the taliban out the holding their end of the deal if the negotiations are moving forward with the entire and with the with afghan government and specifically if the taliban is maintaining their promise in this deal to cease ties with al

qaeda or to support other aren't militant terrorist groups so the u.s. will be watching that if they feel the taliban is not upholding their or end of the deal do is troops at that $8500.00 level will most likely stay in terms of sending troops back i think that would be unlikely especially this year during an election year but we might just see a slow down or a stop on the withdrawal process ok well it all remains to be seen this is of course the very 1st step in this long process but thank you very much indeed julie normand through the implications of the still lie ahead sir. plenty more still to come on this news our including in south carolina proved to be joe biden's big comeback as his presidential campaign hangs in the balance. malaysia's king appoints a new prime minister but that may not split and i can see the political power struggle. and in sports we look at whether coronavirus could possibly stop

liverpool winning the english premier league title. but the 2nd president's trip time part of one says he's asked his russian counterpart vladimir putin to get out of the way in syria's last rebel held bastion or it live it follows the death of $34.00 turkish troops in the strike by russian backed syrian government forces on thursday. we killed more than 2000 syrian soldiers and destroyed more than $300.00 armored vehicles we will prove to the syrian regime and those backing them that we are capable of this only yesterday we destroyed 7 chemical depos we did not want to says collation it was the syrian regime the forced us into it and that's why the syrian regime must pay the price. well i. say on sarkies boards with

syria i have a tough words there for the turkish president but are russia and syria listening to . indeed what is happening was what's been happening over the last few hours is basically an attempt to give diplomacy a chance there's been a phone conversation between president was on and the iranian president has subtle honey there were also a conversation talk between a phone conversation between president has hello honey and the russian president putin all those was sent about. the need for to. a meeting between the 3 leaders and to restore the terms of the agreement that was reached in a study in 2018 that paved the way for the demilitarized zone and this ceasefire to be implemented and also to allow civilians to return to the homes we don't know

whether this is going to be. anytime soon but i have to say that only the ground the situation is further escalate in harder these fierce fighting underway in egypt as we are in the southern part of. the rebels backed by turkey have launched a major offensive they have managed to take over many villages in the area we're getting reports from activists including no bull that a syrian convoy was hit. a while ago. and they say that they think it was hit by by turkish artillery or by a turkish joe so we're talking about mounting tension in the area and it remains to be seen whether the leaders of turkey iran and russia will be able to meet in a time soon set aside their differences as you go she ate and agreement about the differences on the ground the disagreements about how to implement that cease fire are still a major obstacle to diffusing tension in the province of it live he has now barbara

has all the very latest there thank you so much for joining us from her. well greece's prime minister held an emergency meeting to discuss the wave of migrants coming from turkey this comes after presidents are the one and ones that uncurl with no longer stop migrants from and through europe greek border guards and police used tear gas and stun grenades to keep the refugees outside athens says it has blocked thousands of illegal migrants satyrs border crossings it's also strengthening its controls off the east asian islands. this was the scene earlier on the greek islands of last post just 15 kilometers from the turkish coast it's also it's already highs in tens of thousands of refugees and migrants johnson oculus is following developments from the greek island of last past where sizes of migrants are of leasing asylum he says

a new wave of syrian migrants sides more pressure on the greek governments and refugees already at small area camp. the frustrations are high among them particularly since a new law took effect on the 1st day of this year which fast tracked new applications in an effort to increase the rate of returns back to turkey of those who are rejected for asylum here and greece and keeps the numbers flowing through the island at the rate at which they're arriving and doesn't create this massive backlog that you see here but of course that fast track process for new arrivals disadvantages all of those people who've arrived in the last 2 years who are still here we spoke to a family earlier that has just been pushed back 10 months for their asylum interview there's no school operating on these premises there are no incomes for these people to make so they're just waiting which is a difficult task it requires tremendous patience and fortitude and of course the

greeks are also extremely frustrated because they're all of groves have been chopped into firewood because their island is constantly on the news as a refugee. essentially staging post in a state of emergency so they've lost a lot of their tourism industry they are extremely unhappy with government plans to build a new closed detention center somewhere else not here in moria in fact earlier this week a few days ago there were violent clashes between the local residents and the police that was dispatched from athens in order to enable moving machinery. disembarked from ships and move up into the north side of the island where the original plan for the new camp. was but that work is now grounds will hold as the government engages again with local government to decide on a new site. that people in south carolina have begun voting in

a primary to decide which democrat they want to challenge don't trump for the presidency is the 1st primary in the size in the 1st where african-american voters will play a pivotal role nearly 2 thirds of democratic voters in south carolina are black votes in bloc that's strongly supported former vice president joe biden but front runner bernie sanders has been gaining on him in the polls analysts say it's a make or break moment for biden's campaign the other candidates elizabeth warren people to judge him a cool wishart tom styer and still see gambits are also hoping for a strong finish to stay competitive for super tuesday that's when mike bloomberg will 1st appear on the ballots alongside them well michael kazin is a professor of history at georgetown university he joins us now live from washington d.c. kids have you with us on the news hour we seem to focus in an awful lot of

attention on joe by it's in south carolina. he's already got very strong support from the african-american community down there is the realistically is there a chance that he could lose this primary. probably not all the polls so far show he's ahead he's gotten support from james clyburn who's the most important black politician in south carolina he's an important part of the democratic leadership in the house of representatives of the question is how well he does if he wins iowa now a victory over bernie sanders who is almost certain to for the 2nd then he looks almost as bad as if he lost the primary he's got to win by 10 percent or more to really revive his campaign to convince a lot of people who thought he was the front runner all along that he still is very competitive in the race and we're talking about joe biden we're talking about about parity sounds but just listen some of the candidates are going to be on that it's

not credible right to seek apert tolstoi or these are names that aren't necessarily household names for many of our international viewers so we go with that with the field this big what kind of conclusions can realistically be drawn from this and why are all these candidates still in this race well they're still early only about 3 percent of all the delegates who will be voting in the democratic convention in the walky this summer have been chosen so even though all the attention has been on where the beauty standards can lock up the nomination after super tuesday this coming tuesday when 16 different states vote. hardly anybody is really voted yet so. hope springs eternal especially for those like tom styer whether a lot of money he spent a lot of money and have ties with the south carolina he's hoping that will bring him at least a very close 3rd or maybe even 2nd in the race i realized. you know in atlanta

thing i mean let's be at least people don't just spoilers at this point. i think they are yes for the most part but you know anyone who wants to have a presence a little bit crazy anyway is such a it's such a powerful office and you have to have a very big ego to think you can be the most powerful person in the world so if you have a lot of money like star does you know he's been spending it on. trying to fight climate change various other causes and he wants to see if he can convert. some of the popularity he has gotten from people on the on the left progressives because of his spending on issues to the presidential race but as you say it's very unlikely that he's going to be able to do that and speaking of unlikely in south carolina it's not normally a state that we associate with the democratic party in terms of the presidential contest realistically how much are we going to be able to gauge from the south carolina primary what will that tell us about how the overall presidential race

will go in the vendor it will only tell us whether joe biden is still a realistic bet to win the nomination the way pretty standard certainly is in the remember nobody predicts that south carolina will will be a close race down down trample when it is half carolina democrats when i brought some african-americans and from you know professionals liberal professionals and academics people like me but for hardly any other white people so and it's a state that republicans have to win if they have any chance of winning the presidency again so but it's important because as you said in the beginning is the 1st state where there's a large there were african-americans in the state and it shows this very key voting bloc for the democratic party which way they are leading right now ok michael case and thank you so much for joining us here on the news are great to get your

analysis thank you. still to come on al-jazeera we'll have the sport for you in rough on the down itself in the fade in the mexican open title make team years after the 1st one at speed so we'll have more feet later in the program i. have the wind directions about to change again across arabian peninsula was used to it was active front the front of frontal system if you are going through turkey says still not a half they are so slow to go with showers of rain to the south of that so it's still miserable in parts of syria to the south more of a southerly rees's warm things up dusty weather but $27.00 in doha about the same in dubai mists the same is true for southern side it was that southerly will turn to a northerly so is the case when these systems go eastwards so also iran gets the snow

and the right i'm tucker southern caspian it's quite stormy there the sun comes out house where the temps remains about the same but it feels better but there's more of a shower blowing as the temperature drops in for example their high probably a bit of a dusty but no worse than usual i would not thought but we have got more just than usual that you can see it by satellite over north africa for a couple of weeks now we've had that cold nor their own dancer egypt as no longer particularly cold you see temperature in car of the 20 to 24 hours one but the wind itself is occurs around through northern chad and into becomes quite strong picks up the dust and brigs dust storms further south to join up with the rain coming up into for example says nigeria but dusty's the main thing in somehow. the 70 is off to one tribes and that journey from palestine to the nile delta 0

world meets the largest concentration of 19 refugees in egypt. a socially isolated community with your rights fighting to survive nude and keep their palestinian heritage alive in a world where that was and is increasingly marginalized egypt's while the island on al-jazeera there is no channel that covers world views like we do as a roving correspondent i am told to sleep on the current topics from politics to conflict to environmental issues of the counters like nothing you've ever said to health care. but we want to know how these things affect people we revisit places even when they're no contract headline. al-jazeera or reinvest the box that's a privilege as a job just. the a the. the

all of. this is al jazeera a quick reminder of the headlines this hour the u.s. and the taliban have signed a deal in qatar that could pave the way to peace the exit of foreign troops and say prisoner swap deal depends on the taliban and living up to its commitments greece's prime minister holds an emergency meeting this time since of migrants from turkey arrive at its border please stop walk their entry with tear gas and stun grenades as turkey's president says he's allowing refugees to heads to europe. and waltzing is underway in the south carolina primaries to decide which democrats they want to challenge don't trump for the presidency is the 1st primary in the syphon the 1st where african-american voters play

a pivotal role. more now on our top story the deal with 2 in the u.s. and the taliban take a look at the human costs of the u.s. led invasion of afghanistan more than $31000.00 civilians have been killed since 2001 that's according to the u.n. and rights groups nearly 58000 members of the security force and 42000 opposition fighters have also died you know 2400 american soldiers were killed and the u.s. estimate is so i've spent more than one trillion dollars on the conflict afghan ministry of public health says $23000000.00 afghans or 2 thirds of the population suffer from mental health problems because of the war or a birdman they takes a look back at the high cost of the war on civilians. it's been or new surely quite we can cobble. bombs and bullets ability mainstay for years but the afghan taliban

says the agreement signed in doha marks the beginning of real change i think people of afghanistan in 2 or community want to see of. and then stood there is one important and this is the 1st to opening the door to the whole of the people of iraq when was the last year more than 3400 civilians were killed in the country in the taliban were responsible for almost half of those deaths afghan forces and the us were responsible for 43 percent. in recent years the taliban it's been responsible for numerous attacks against civilians. a teenage suicide bomb a sitting in the audience of a play detonated a bomb it was in a french school that was considered a safe haven for culture in kabul the 1st month the 2900 source string of attacks by the group on the 20th of january several armed men stormed the intercontinental

hotel in kabul and killed 21 people that attack the same hotel in 2011. a week later an ambulance packed with explosives was detonated in a shopping center in kabul. dozens were hurt. in september last year president donald trump called off talks with the taliban after it admitted responsibility for an attack in couple the killed dozens of people we have heard statements coming from coming in from kabul government and also the united states of america that we cannot trust the taliban because there are so many groups there are like 22 groups yet the taliban were like no we had one group this reduction in violence. that the taliban indeed is one group but it's not just the taliban who have admitted killing civilians i saw linked groups of 4 the taliban and afghan

government forces and also killed scores of people. and also saw record high level of civilian casualties from airstrikes most of those by international forces including the u.s. . but the deal signed in doha still has a long way to go before real peace can be achieved. a crucial next step would be if the taliban can reach an agreement with the afghan government who it is being locked in a brutal conflict with for almost 2 decades. al-jazeera. if you appear has expressed disappointments with the latest u.s. efforts to resolve a long running dispute over a major dam on menow river ethiopia boy quarter talks in washington this week saying negotiations with egypt and sudan are far from over if the o.p.'s says the dam is essential to its developments but egypt is worried about its effect on

irrigation and drinking water or life no 2 mohammed value joins us from here done any theo p.-a near where the dam is being built more just tell us more about this and what basis ethiopia says it's taken such a tough stance. right there have been several statements today several meetings and several statements with tough words coming from both the cabinet the ministry of energy and the ministry of foreign affairs. committee tasked with negotiating with sudan and egypt has been our percent of that and also the cabinet as i said. pierre has expressed. its concern with what they call the u.s. pressure on sign a deal which they say has not been finalized we know as you have said that they are talks 2 days ago in washington d.c. the latest round saying that it's not they're not ready they have to consult with

their constituencies here before they sign any deal or so in the statement today they said but their u.s. . issued a statement in which it said that the statement that the agreement has been completed and has been signed by egypt on but sign it angle with this statement they said that there is some bias in those statements saying that it is not ready because those agreements or the draft agreement has not yet been completed particularly with regards to the several technical points that have to be discussed it's sad about this pressure from the u.s. is hurting its interest but it's not going to sign anytime soon before they make sure to make sure that into the it has always reiterated that whatever it does it's

not going to hurt egypt or sudan and that it should be given the benefit of the doubt also 2 days ago the prime minister said he's not going to sign any agreement before the end of the elections in august so we have to understand the context of what's going on here the aftermath is facing a tough election in which she wants to. both are possible and he knows that there is a lot of discomfort in fight the country particularly with regards to what is described by the opposition here. he is giving in to pressure from the united states ok mohamed fall there live for us in by here daryn ethiopia thank you very much indeed for that the 1st step from the coronavirus has been report says it's own u.s. soil that's according to the reuters news agency quoting state officials in washington state's no 2 cases there are raising questions about how this virus may be spread

saying the patients in california and oregon it's no known connections to anyone he was infected they don't travel to any sport countries rob reynolds is in the sands of those with more on the case there. this is a person who is in northern california described as a woman who had some underlying respiratory disease problems and her doctor sent her to the hospital she was tested there and tested positive for the corona virus she has now what the important thing here is that she didn't get it on a cruise ship she didn't meet with someone who just got off a plane from will hon she hasn't been to italy or iran or south korea or any of the other places she got coronavirus here in the united states and now in addition this person lives in a community about 145 kilometers from the 1st possible community transmission case in who was identified earlier this week so that seems that there's 2 at least

2 separate clusters of transmission in northern california this is called community transmission and what it means is that it's circulating in the community one person gets sick another person will get sick another person will pass that on to others and then this is what happened in italy in south korea etc important to note that no one has been placed under any kind of quarantine in northern california except for the 2 patients who are receiving care in hospitals carol let's get more on this life in sa is a global health policy specialist and former pandemic consultants at the world bank he joins us live from seattle good to have you with us as we were hearing about steve sokol community transmissions what does this tell us about the spray it's over this fire is just how worrying is sates that we're seeing these cases

appearing that have no apparent links to many of the the hotspots that we've seen around the worlds. i think the reason for this is a virus is probably way more widespread than we know right now right now we're basing our sense of the scope of this of this outbreak on who's been tested and the fact of the matter is that a lot of the countries in which this is taken route don't have great testing capabilities so you only know the magnitude of transmission of prevalence of a disease like coronavirus if you can test for it and the fact is we just don't have that information i suspect the reason we're seeing these unexplained cases pop up in fact they're actually quite easily explained coronaviruses probably way more widespread than we initially believe because we just don't diagnose it well it's probably not symptomatic in the majority of people who are infected with it they're

carriers but there's a symptomatic transmission meaning they may not be coughing or sneezing but they may have it in their saliva and so hand hygiene are there ways to transmit this disease to the fecal to oral mechanism that's what's precipitating this illness and transmission but this is definitely more widespread than i think we're led to believe by the numbers will it if it is more widespread than previously thought so what's the next stage and in tackling this this virus because we're showing pictures of people in hazmat suits disinfecting everything we've heard about the drastic measures that. authorities are taking shots and imposing movement restrictions galvin restrictions if this is so widespread what do you do about it that you can't shut down everywhere. i agree with you i think there's frankly i think there's a lot of overreaction i don't think this is as nearly as lethal or as concerning as

as we're fearing it is the stock markets are crashing globally we're quarantining we're shutting down supply chains airlines are canceling flights i think this is a lot of panic and frankly i think it's undeserved panic i can say this is a poll monologist mers was way more lethal than coronavirus flu right now is more lethal than coronavirus if this is more widespread we really don't know what that denominator looks like but $2100.00 deaths i think in total that's saying right now if we are just saying the death rate based on the people the cases that we know that death rates may be less than 2 percent i suspect there's probably hundreds of thousands of people that were test positive for corona virus that's why you're seeing these pop up these cases pop up in places where there's no apparent link to travel to woo han because there's a lot of asymptomatic transmission happening people are getting exposed all the time so it's all to say to your question i think we should calm down i don't think

there's anything we can do we treat the people who are ill just like we do with flu we try to protect ourselves and gauge in normal hand hygiene get the flu shot but we need to calm down we need a message on this and home ways and our leaders need to build credibility and trust and i think that's been lacking well if leaders city to build credibility and trust me have seen an awful lot of difference in the way some leaders are taking this president trump and the united states seem to dismiss the seriousness of this and insist that the u.s. is prepared swears we are seeing a much stronger reaction elsewhere as a as a doctor as an expert yourself how would you advise we tackle this how would you advise countries around the world should be trying to deal with this new virus which frankly a lot of people just don't understand which may explain some of the fear. it's a great question and it starts at the top in in

a public health emergency the only thing you can do as an elected leader is build trust that means data sharing being transparent about what's happening not trying to hide information and frankly supporting institutions that are meant to coordinate global efforts so it here in the united states what i can say is we should be doing a better job supporting the world health organization other u.n. agencies in terms of money upfront we give 0 dollars to the contingency fund for emergencies 0 that's not right that's shameful frankly we should be supporting then we should be the lead donor because this is what happens and these viruses take root there's a lot of chaos and then then we're on the back and trying to give a bunch of money that just doesn't work we need to be prepared not try to respond on the back end and so that requires forward thinking a requires not overreacting and so those are those are 2 things up front ok. joining us there live from seattle thank you very much indeed for your expertise and your analysis now i know you live pictures from the white house because we are

expecting president on the tram to address the press to talk about. he's due to be addressing the coronavirus as we reported earlier washington state had reported the 1st coronavirus death in the united states we are expecting to hear from donald trump imminently and we will keep an eye on that podium for you as soon as he appears we will of course bring you his remarks back to other news now former catalan leader carlos put them on has held a major rally in southern france our perception has more now from our european broadcast center. thank you yes at least 80000 people gathered in perth binion which is a town just over the spanish border that catalan separatists consider the capital of northern catalonia well this is the 1st time to push demand has ventured so

close the spring since fleeing prosecution over a failed independence bid back in 2017 he had not previously risked traveling to france either because of the country's close legal ties with spain but that changed when he was given immunity as a member of the european parliament which demands told crowds that they needed to prepare for the definitive struggle for independence. as a people who want to be free and have been on this road for years we know it and above all they know it that we will no longer stop and i will not stop us therefore we should not wait for better times because we already have them here and they are among you. thousands of people have rallied in central moscow against planned changes to the constitution the rally also marks the 5 year anniversary of the murder of prominent kremlin critic boris nemtsov demonstrators say that president vladimir putin's proposed changes to the constitution are

a way for him to hold on to power when his term ends in 4 years the changes also aim to give the president more power over judges as the vast and reports now from st petersburg. these 2 glass artist nikolai and i never expected they would spend their days fighting russia's justice system but that's exactly what they have been doing for the past 2 years after their son julian was arrested and charged with terrorism together with 10 orders he's accused of plotting attacks during the world cup and presidential elections charges his father called absurd. to make him say what was needed to but he didn't see any seems transfer to him to a difference with 150 people a bunch of criminals whose job was to be to testimony on. someone recently though it's a kind of air this is police is in charge every day people get beaten up with their heads against the wall beaten with a stick and their legs heals tailbone and they go out of there and give any

testimony they need it's a factory lawyers representing the families have filed the complaints of torture at the european court for human rights police denied these claims was at the court and some petersburg supporters called for julian's freedom the trial is a rare opportunity for his parents and wife whom he married in prison to see him julian and fix the feelings of the last 2 to stand trial in the case that has shocked many around russia and has seen sentences of up to 18 years in prison family and friends of those on trial say that despite their fears they will continue to support them and so have many others around russia fabricated cases are allegedly on the rise and rise for fear that they couldn't last of fishel years as a president there will be more repression amnesty international says thousands in russia have been convicted on fabricated charges according to the rights group it's

a way for judges and prosecutors to be promoted and for the country's leadership to send a stern warning but the truth doesn't really matter all that matters is the outcome the people have to be found guilty no matter what they actually did and the methods for. this verdict they don't matter like me cool lie and to jannah other parents in this case have complained for the release of their children young men they described as nonviolent activists fighting against what they saw as the rights of nationalism and fascism. he participated in the rally against animal torture the article is called this cruel russian circus they were demanding not to use animals and. and now this article describes our lives it's the same cruel circus but with people instead what they do tara boys has become a circus. many fear that president putin to plan to give the constitution priority

over international courts will give them even less protection against cases like this as families who might have nowhere to go to seek justice stop fast and al-jazeera simply to. slovakians are voting in their 1st parliamentary election since the 2018 murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancee the murders of young and need of a force the resignation of the prime minister robert fico and calls that large protests across the country who check was investigating high level corruption when he was killed the governing smear as the party is being challenged by much of each is anti graf's movement ordinary people anti corruption campaigner and lawyers a couple tovar was elected president last year the spite of being a political newcomer. thousands of people have marched through montenegro's capital port goody caffe protesting against a law that they fear will be used to target the churches assets and status the

demonstration was led by the serbian orthodox church a new law allows the state to take over property of the church cannot prove ownership before 918 when the kingdom of montenegro joined the kingdom of serbs croats and slovenes montenegro us president has accused serbia and rochelle of using the orthodox church to undermine his country's and the. i'm going to have more news for you out from london at the top of the hour now let's go back to how thank you very much indeed barbara there's lots more still to come on this news are we have the sport for you. mick with the bars and a goal in the olympic qualifying round we're out in boxes piled up next how things are being affected by the current viral.

obvious reason france. these are my grandparents. these are my parents and this is me. by them both isis and us on. the 1st of a 2 part epic tale of a remarkable moment. the father the son and the jihad part one on al jazeera. the latest news as it predicts the syrian army seems determined to defeat the rebels and continue its advance was the city of idlib that's a red line for turkey with detailed coverage the national policy defense of wild elephants is yet to be fully implemented 14 years after it was introduced from around the world well this fight will be completely transformed over the next 6 years this will be the northern terminus for phase one of this project. the remove the order

of the. ok we're going to break in just night's it says listen to what donald trump he is now speaking after the u.s. taliban agreement was signed let's listen and that is still. bearing pain in all of the problems that they've had to go through. their incredible people incredible spirit go to walter reed and see them so often and despair they have they wanted to go back. despite their wounds they always said i want to go back. wounded warriors they're incredible people. i guess most of all i want to thank all of the people of the united states for. having spent so much in terms

of blooded terms of. treasure. and treasury. the money that has been spent the lives that have been lost. and we just signed an agreement. that puts us in a position to. get it done bring us down to in the vicinity of $8000.00 troops. the united nations was. informed of everything and nato has been a great secretary stoltenberg has been fantastic and i want to thank. the united nations for the help they gave and i also want to thank and congratulate secretary stoltenberg of nato. 29 countries involved and. all approving all very happy with what's going on. or want

to also thank and congratulate secretary of state pumpin and secretary of defense mark asper. and to. be meeting personally with taliban leaders in the not too distant future. and we'll be. very much hoping that. they will be doing what they say they're going to be doing they will be killing terrorists they will be killing some very bad people they will keep that fight going we've. had tremendous success in afghanistan and the killing of terrorists but it's time after all these years to go and to bring up people back home we want to bring our people back home. and again it's been. it's been a long journey in afghanistan in particular it's been

a very long journey it's been a it's been a hard journey for everybody we're very largely a law enforcement group and that's not what our soldiers are all about their fighters are the greatest fighters in the world. as you know we've destroyed in syria and iraq 100 percent of the isis caliphate 100 percent we have thousands of prisoners. we've killed isis fighters by the thousands. and likewise in afghanistan but now it's time for. somebody else to do that work and that will be the taliban and it could be surrounding countries or many countries. that surround afghanistan that can help. we're 8000 miles away so we'll be bringing it down to 8000 to approximately 8600 in that vicinity and then we'll make our final decision.

some point in the fairly near future but this was a. very. spirited. agreement there was a lot of. there's a lot of talk there's a lot of everything they've been trying to get this for many years and just it's time so i just want to thank everybody i want to congratulate everybody. i really believe the taliban wants to do something to. show that we're not all wasting time . it bad things happen we'll go back and let the people know we'll go back and we'll go back so fast it will go back with a force like nobody's ever seen. and i don't think that will be necessary i hope it's not necessary. and and so i just wanted to bring that up before we begin. on a topic that has become. very very important to everybody 1st of all.

the amount of work that these professionals behind me and many other professionals and many rooms behind us who are watching right now who have the room here to bring them all in but they have been working round the clock so hard. on the corona virus. and it's a it's a tough one but a lot of progress has been made i want to provide an update to our. people to our citizens to the world frankly on our action to address. the corona. virus and those that have been. hurt badly by it at this moment we have 22 patients in the united states currently that have coronavirus unfortunately one person passed away overnight. she was a wonderful woman

a medically high risk patient in her late fifty's. for others or. very ill thankfully 15 are either recovered fully or they're well on their way to recovery and in all cases they've been let go in their home. additional cases in the united states are likely. but healthy individuals should be able to fully recover and we think that will be a statement that we can make with great surety now that we've gotten from e.u. with this problem they should be able to recover. should they contract the virus so healthy people if you're healthy. you will probably. have to go through a process and you'll be fine since the early stages of the foreign outbreak my

administration has taken the most aggressive action in modern history to confront the spread of this disease we moved very early and was one of the decisions we made . that really turned out to be a lifesaver in a sense big lifesaver on january 31st to impose travel restrictions on foreign nations who had and anybody that had been to china the people coming out of china. and i want to say that china seems to be making tremendous progress their numbers are way down and. if you read tim cook of apple said that they are now in full operation to get in china the numbers are way down and. experts now agree that the decision to move so quickly despite a lot of opposition on that decision was. a wise one it greatly slowed the spread

of the virus to the united states and it really gave us time to do some of the critical moves that we've done and it allowed these great professionals to get together and figure it all it professionals to get together and figure it all out and we think they've done that. we've taken the most aggressive actions to confront the corona virus and they are the most aggressive taken by any country. and were the number one travel destination anywhere in the world yet we have far fewer cases of the disease then even countries with much less travel or a much smaller population as an important part of our efforts on monday i'll be meeting with the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world actually they'll be coming to the way it has a we're talking about.