understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world so no matter when you will be using current affairs that matter to you. hello i'm compelled this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes the e.u.'s top diplomat dashes to turkey to deal with the crisis triggered by on his decision to release syrian migrants towards its territories. drastic steps to take on difficult times italy prepares to shut all schools and universities due to the fast spreading coronavirus epidemic. the democratic presidential race transforms into a 2 man contest after 14 states vote on who should face donald trump in november.

and the discovery of oil in congo has environmentalist's concerned about what drilling will do to the rain forest. and in sports olympic organizers insist the cancellation of july's tokyo games isn't being considered the torch relay through also set to start this month despite the coronavirus so. we begin this news hour with the latest on the diplomatic tensions due to turkey's intervention in the syrian conflict and the european union foreign policy chief joseph brellier is an honor to meet with turkey's foreign minister. they are there and to president richard type bell says he told turkish officials the situation at the border with greece was unacceptable turkey and greece a trading accusations about the growing crisis there thousands of refugees and migrants at. trying to cross into greece athens has dismissed reports its border

security shot dead a migrant on the battlefront turkey's defense ministry has confirmed 2 of its soldiers were killed in syria's if the province turkish forces retaliated by striking syrian regime military targets the ongoing violence is also causing tensions between russia and turkey russian president vladimir putin will host his turkish counterpart in moscow on thursday to discuss the developments in syria passionate about it joins me now live from the turkish city of homs 1st of hashim just bring us up to speed with the latest there on the ground in northern syria came the syrian government backed by russia is launching got offensive in different parts of it live province is no trying to take over villages in saddle and civil as this is a major opposition stronghold in southern italy but of the same time it is trying

to control the city of sirte and the villages around it and one of the reasons why the government syrian government is about the need to rick fully recovered because it sits on 2 strategic highways the m $5.00 and $4.00 which links damascus to aleppo and to the northeastern part of the country of the same time the. took it back to rebel groups are now trying to stage a counter offensive and take control of so dark about death it seems that all the parties are trying to make as much again as possible in the coming hours before the crucial summit between president of the of a daughter and his russian counterpart vladimir putin diffusing tension setting up demarkation line and buffer zone meanwhile hashim just a browser as we said is an anchor meeting would never have a shoulder and president erdogan do we know what has come out of those discussions

. well joseph ferber expressed concern about the situation on the border with greece and he's expressing that this is an acceptable situation and asking the turkish government to take action when it comes to the flow of migrants into those areas but this is not what the turkish the his government was waiting to hear more strong words of support for for turkey because since that went to the 7th of february when the turkish soldiers were killed turkey said this is a decisive moment and with turning a blind eye to the people who would like to cross into europe because the accused europe for failing to implementing the pledges made in the past following a deal between the e.u. and turkey turkey says that the e.u. should share the burden of the refuges should pay more money and should also try to help when it comes to the military operation which is taking place in italy a province from

a turkish perspective this is not necessarily about gains in the area it's more about stopping president bashar al assad and his russian are lifeform pushing the civilians into into turkey and turkey now has almost $4000000.00 syrian refugees the biggest concern if the offensive to take over it live continues by the syrian government the 4000000 people who live there would have nowhere to go except to cross into turkey and took it will find itself with almost 8000000 syrian refugees and they say this is something which is unacceptable and i think this is something which will take more than just talks which is of bread and the turkish and the turkish political elite turkey has been calling for for for all the e.u. leaders to come home board and see how some of forward when it comes to the on the issue of the situation in libya and the refugee and they have been saying we have been taking care of the refugees on the other hand we've been betrayed by the e.u. i guess all sides including the e.u.

will be waiting to see what comes out of that meeting with president putin's and i think that that has bought about live there from the time. that's a good name isn't it dan a on the border between turkey and greece she says the neighboring countries are embroiled in an escalating war of. the war of words we have going on between turkey and greece turkey is saying that today the greek police shot and killed one man and injured 6 others turkey says that members of the parliament's human rights commission witnessed these events the greek government is flatly denying that anyone was killed at the border it is saying that turkey is disseminating fake news it's saying that migrants are throwing turkish military grade tear gas at greek police i can tell you what we've seen here at the border throughout the day we heard what sounds like sound bombs we saw a black smoke fire we spoke to farmers in the area who say they heard

gunshots i can tell you we saw multiple ambulances leaving the scene and then this news emerged that there had been a possible casualty and injuries according to the greek government there are about 12500 migrants amassed at their north eastern border with turkey but here at the checkpoint in a journey there several 100 and there have been reports for the last several days of a lot of tension and frustration as hundreds of migrants push to try to make their way into greece greece of course has stepped up its deterrence it has massive amounts of personnel which we've seen even here. italy's preparing to take dramatic steps to fight the corona virus after the death of 79 people and infection of 2500 others easily has the highest number of cases in europe the government is

now closing all schools and universities until mid march to help curb the spread of coronavirus in iran the number of coronavirus deaths has risen to 92 making it the worst affected country so far aside from china almost 3000 people bear fallen ill including iran's 1st vice president the virus has spread to almost all of the country's provinces and earlier the 1st flights carrying residents who have been stranded in china's hu bay province landed in hong kong is the at the center of the corona virus outbreak and several cities in the area have been and locked down since late january those returning will be placed in quarantine for 14 days let's get more now from georgia hall who is in london where water is a new bus ravi who is standing by in tehran 1st though let us go to zain. tell us how are things shaping up there in iran of people panicking how are all far as he's responding to what bass saying among the population. well the latest

figures were announced by the health ministry during their daily briefing earlier today the total number of deaths are $9.00 to $15.00 more in the last 24 hours the total number of cases 292-2586 confirmed cases in the last 24 hours of the public health ministry really on a daily basis informing people as best they can about the numbers trying to win back public trust that was lost early on during this outbreak about whether or not they were coming up with all of the accurate figures but present hasan rouhani during his cabinet mean to meeting earlier today struck a very different tone from last week when he said that things would begin to normalize in a few days now he was taking it more seriously trying to calm the public and trying to show that the government is taking this very seriously he warned people against affording medical supplies like masks and gloves and we've heard that later this week the courts will hear the 1st 10 cases of people arrested for public order

earlier this week the government announced a prison sentence of 5 to 20 years even the death penalty if you are found guilty of hoarding supplies that would help medical facilities to cope with this virus the president also said that they were working with neighbors to try to keep commercial having his readings and transport networks for business open so as to make sure that people don't suffer more economically than they need to but of course small and medium businesses are suffering the most they make approximately 40 percent of the country's g.d.p. but unfortunately we heard earlier today that because exxon had just closed its ports on the caspian sea to any vessels and passengers coming from iran the r.g.c. is trying to do what it can the revolutionary guard it has set up field hospitals and clinics and it's also set up a hotline that people can call explain their symptoms discuss ways to prevent the disease to try and keep the hospitals and clinics around the country that are at capacity from being over chronicler overburdened unnecessarily with patients trying

to seek treatment friday prayers. canceled a 2nd week in a row something unprecedented even at the most violent of times when war and conflict was that claimed in iran so really leaders taking this seriously despite the fact that just a day earlier the supreme leader called this current a virus outbreak a non emergency it would be over soon but practical steps are being taken to try to limit the public's right to think that they must have a they're bringing us up to date with situation and. we can go now to john the hollow who is live for us and london for the situation in europe jonah as we've been saying is really is the center of the virus in the europe it's now up being it's the efforts to contain the virus what's the latest. well there's no doubt that italy is dealing with a very severe medical emergency in terms of this outbreak that makes makes it the epicenter of the spread of 1000 in europe and it's apparently getting worse with big jumps in the number of fatalities from sunday to monday monday into tuesday we

haven't had updated numbers for wednesday but that appears to be the direction of travel and efforts up to now don't seem to have been successful in containing the virus in its northern hotspots in italy they've been sending the italian government reinforcements of medical supplies and personnel to affected towns there are already fairly restrictive measures in place there's talk of widening or deepening so-called a quarantine red zones in those areas and there's a call out of the european union to allow italy to exceed its budget ceiling and effectively be able to throw more money at the problem but as i say the virus spreading elsewhere in the country all but one of its other regions have reported infections in italy therefore taking a much broader approach and indeed a more dramatic approach with measures thought to have been approved by a government cabinet meeting headed by the promise to reset the county we haven't had a an official announcement yet but thought to have been agreed to include the closure of all schools and universities countrywide from thursday until the middle of march

at least that will have an enormous impact we've seen similar measures in japan empty classrooms their parents having to take time off work interruptions to the education curriculum and so on equally dramatic perhaps in a sports mad country like italy sports fixtures including football matches are to be held in front of empty stadiums no spectators there people are also being asked to refrain from kissing and hugging each other in greeting and and more present measures like resisting sharing cups and bottles and things like this other may other means of spreading the virus that's italy trying to do what it can but this virus does appear now. to be quite rampant throughout the rest of europe spain and germany undertaking similar measures on the sporting front france has also closed a large number of schools around its affected towns affecting some 35000 pupils

and just today on wednesday the united kingdom has announced 34 brand new cases thanks for the update there that's john hull live from london. as countries grapple with infections it seems to be slowing in china that's where the illness originated the world health organization says the number of new coronavirus cases is 15 times higher outside of china then within katrina you tells us more from beijing. patients critically ill with the corona virus are being helped by the artificial lung machines in china's southern province. 6000 nationwide are in serious condition but the government says numbers of new cases are falling the world health organization says other countries must learn from china the experience that china has and needs to be shared and this is the this is an excellent example of that that direct interaction is what is what we want is what we want to see more and more happen more than 100 people from hong kong have arrived home on the 1st

government chartered flight from the city of will haunt the epicenter of the outbreak flights are planned for this week in south korea more than 5600 cases have been confirmed people in the hardest hit city of daegu say there's a shortage of mosques and they're having to queue for hours to buy something i. also quell the people especially here in daegu are at great risk i've been waiting in line since 5 30 in the morning and i haven't ever received a queue ticket the south korean government has announced a one point $8000000000.00 stimulus package to protect the economy in india a sudden jump in cases of wednesday fueled fears that an outbreak could grip the world's 2nd largest nation almost 30 cases were confirmed after a group of italian tourists tested positive for the virus in the state of russia start but. the children find it difficult to leave their houses if someone

has to go somewhere like travel on the bus or go to a public place if you scared. cases have topped 1000 in japan but organizers say preparation for the summer games judas' talking tokyo in july. going ahead the chinese government says the steady drop in new cases is proof that severe wrote down the search and right reports that some patients are testing positive for the crown a virus after being discharged from hospital all raising concerns chinese authorities say these patients are rightly to be infectious at advance those who have recovered to undergo a further period of printing before entering the community. katrina new al-jazeera and. the international monetary fund says the coronavirus poses a serious threat to the world economy the crisis is affecting global air travel german airline lufthansa is grounded $150.00 aircraft europe's largest carrier is

blaming what it calls extraordinary circumstances other airlines are also grounding planes and canceling flights european airline executives have warned the worst is yet to come for the industry but more ahead on the news all including. i'm florence lee in rakhine state myanmar's new was to battle ground where civilians are increasingly being caught in the middle of fighting between the myanmar military and the our economy and ethnic armed. a new battle over abortion rights in the united states new faces in the supreme court could sway the law. and in sports it is the league's top football those face the prospect of playing in empty stadiums for the foreseeable future. breaking news we can tell you that billionaire michael bloomberg has suspended to

democratic his democratic primary campaign that's after a resurgent joe biden rode a wave of the mentum to win texas and 8 other states on super tuesday it is the most important event to get the democrats to the white house we can go straight now to kristen salumi who's in fort lauderdale in florida michael bloomberg has found out perhaps unsurprisingly given his performance on super tuesday. yes but last night he was all in and tried to make it sound like he was still in the race but he has just in the last few minutes sent out a press release saying that he's getting out of the race for the exact same reason that he got into the race to defeat donald trump and after looking at the data in this race he does not see a clear path with the delegate math to make it to as the nominee to the at the convention this is

a man who has built his career around analyzing data he's known for collecting polls and rigorously looking at all the potential outcomes and so on and came to the conclusion that it just was not going to happen for him and more importantly he did not want to take votes away from joe biden the moderate candidate in this race who had such a great day on super tuesday and now seems to be surging ahead he said in his statement that he's always he's known joe for a long time joe biden he believes in his decency and his honesty and he wants to work with him now to make sure that he is the nominee he's expressed concern that bernie sanders is too far to the left to win against donald trump come november that was why he got in the race when joe biden was faltering and looking weak it looks like mike bloomberg might be the guy that could take those moderate votes and rally the cause. it was but it didn't go according to plan despite spending over

a half $1000000000.00 of his own money on the campaign he just did not come up with the votes it may have been his initial debate performance which was widely panned that caused people to think twice about him he. talked about focusing on the swing states and the importance of the swing states but he did promise from the beginning to put his money behind whoever the eventual nominee would be and to support democrats and so his decision today i think not wanting to be seen as a spoiler for joe biden and possibly help bernie sanders who he thinks is less able to take on donald trump i guess it goes to show you can all you cannot buy a democratic primary as you said half a $1000000000.00 the more the most i believe more than any other candidate in the history of the primary race pretty incredible well leave it there for now chris and so there we thank you john hendren is standing by for us in charlotte north

carolina and john north carolina one of those 8 states that brought joe biden back to life. that's right and then there were 4 and it started for joe biden here on the east coast his 1st big win was announced as virginia a neighboring state here to north carolina and of course all of this followed his big win on saturday in south carolina before that his campaign was faltering people had counted joe biden out but on super tuesday after. you are both bailed out of the race 2 other moderates who were taking votes from him and indorsed by he got injected with a bit a new line and on super tuesday he can bring in the east coast after winning virginia north carolina and then became then there came to his seat a stunning upset in massachusetts the old town home state rather of elizabeth war. and then it just went on from there so joe biden has been given

a new life in part because of what seems to be a democratic party campaign to rally around one moderate and now that moderate is him it looks like a 2 person race with bernie sanders on the other side the leftmost candidate and our colleagues at n.b.c. news say they have confirmed that in fact obama had been making some calls and president obama has not endorsed joe biden but it apparently quietly made some calls including one to people who judge on sunday when he bailed out of that race so biden comes out of super tuesday as the man to beat on the moderate side but bernie sanders is still very much alive thanks that john hendren there in charlotte north carolina well now we can go to white house correspondent kelly how can the who's in washington d.c. . really want a president trump does not want to be facing off with biden i mean how is this going to go down the news that bloomberg has dropped out. well we were watching

very carefully is twitter feed i don't see a tweet reaction to mike bloomberg the one that donald trump called minibike he often uses some of these sort of bullying names to try and get under the skin of some of the candidates but in terms of strategy by this president what he's really been focusing on is trying to keep the democrats fighting amongst themselves and that's evidenced by a tweet that the president set out really the last couple of hours he starts off by saying the democratic establishment came together and crushed bernie sanders again even the fact that elizabeth warren stayed in the race was devastating to bernie and allowed sleepy joe to unthinkably win massachusetts it was a perfect storm with many good states remaining for joe what does the president mean and all this let me translate what he's trying to point out is bring up kind of an old wound within the democratic party essentially he's trying to sort of so

the seeds of infighting over the issue that in 2016 many democrats were really unhappy that bernie sanders was packing stadium's but the nomination went to hillary clinton who then went on to lose the election to donald trump so he wants to see something like that in terms of the fighting happened again because he's feeding this narrative essentially that bernie sanders was robbed out of the a nomination and it could happen again so what's he doing in all of this he's trying to keep that fighting going all the way to the democratic national convention that potentially could set up for a contested convention instead of what we've seen for the last 70 years which has been this very strong front runner and essentially the nomination is really a coronation at that convention because as long as democrats are fighting each other they're not fighting donald trump that's good for donald trump so this is very much a strategy on his part whether or not will be effective remains to be seen thank you that can be held up there live from washington d.c. . well super tuesday is just the start of

a long political road to the white house the democratic primaries and caucuses will continue until june with more than $0.30 voting based on those results a winner will be nominated at the democratic national convention in mid july that candidate will go up against donald trump that will kick off intense political campaigning up until the presidential election which is in november. wilcox is a professor of government to at georgetown university he joins us here on set thanks for coming into the studio and for that so we just had this news michael bloomberg has bowed out he is an door saying joe biden what do you make of all of well that is very good news for joe biden because bloomberg has a lot of money and he's promising to spend a lot of that money to help the democrats in november so the race now is down to 3 candidates and elizabeth warren came in 3rd in her own home state so i'm guessing she'll be dropping out very soon but the breadth of biden's victory is really surprising and he carried the black vote as we expected but he also did really well

among rural white voters and he carried a northern part of america he carried the new england he carried deep south it was a really high turnout especially virginia broke a record from the previous elections so that's going to come back to bloomberg from but i mean he spent more money than any other candidate in the history of the primaries on trying to get this nomination i mean does this go to show that you cannot buy you know the democratic nomination yeah certainly if you saw him in the 1st debate it wasn't clear he even knew why he was running right i mean so instead of like spending all that money maybe should have practiced him self for the debate or something but he did write a very smart campaign and with the money was has been very well and so money is not the only thing so is coming back to joe biden i mean is his success on super tuesday perhaps a sign of the nervousness that bernie sanders may end up as the nominee this kind

of everyone coming together more to the moderates yeah i think so i think that's a lot of it it's not that suddenly everyone is deeply in love with joe biden they like him he's familiar he's like comfortable shoes you know you know him he fits well but there's a lot of nervousness about how sandra's might perform how it might hurt the. ticket for the house races and senate races so i think the party is coming together now behind biden but he said as did well in california has he managed to expand his base of appeal we know that young voters has like him but has he expanded best he hasn't it he also hasn't managed to appear in a more practical as a campaigner he still says things that would really hurt him and over in a november election. so he does well mung young voters among latinos joe biden's challenge is going to be get to get enthusiastic among those groups especially

young voters but no bertie has not expanded his base just very quickly at the end it is done and dusted now is it a 2 horse race is it biden versus and is or could things still change from here i think is probably a 2 horse race well it will still be an interesting one about thank you so much for your time the club a professor of government at georgetown university thank you. still to come here on al-jazeera the new report that gives a damaging assessment on democracy in india why they say the random ots government just like. a group of artists branching out into the world of nature to leave an important message. and it's gone the way that it could play a big plus in deciding the finalists of the women's team 20 world cup and he sat with that story.

how we got some quotes weather now pushing across the middle east following on from a very wet weather this is now in the process of heading towards afghanistan this little area of cloud here brought some violent storms through some wintry weather too over the high ground you can see clearer skies now coming in behind still quite a keen. across the gulf running down towards us here in concert temperatures around $25.00 celsius out on the strength of the way it's going to get dusty $25.00 in similar conditions as we go on through friday by and by friday night is that west of weather sliding across northern parts of pakistan towards india then possibility some flooding in one or 2 spots here meanwhile across northern africa not see much of the way of clouds and rain this little area clown here just clipping the far north of libya will bring some outbreaks of rain having said that a cold wind behind the top temperature of 115 degrees but ahead of that with a southerly wind 28 in car i things even out a little as we go on through friday chance of wanted to shells into northern areas

of algebra but much of the region plenty of sunshine the shows continue across the heart of africa towards the gulf of guinea still some lively showers there just stir around barone there on northern parts of tanzania but for much of southern africa is dry. when they're online like probably recovering to one of the worst grabs media about . or if you join us on sanctuaries a different city and inclusion and they were sometimes isn't a listen based is a dialogue sanctions on the ways in which they were applied to iran are an act of war fair everyone has a voice we as a society that is simply to get to day to just sit down and listen and join the global conversation on al-jazeera. reporting in the field means i often get to witness not just the news as a breaking but also of history as it's unfolding crossing from serbia the refugee

day i might be covering politics with things around the next on my car my protests . what's most important to me just talking to people understanding what they are going through that i can convey the headlines in the most human way cost. we believe everyone has a story worth hearing. the the in. your challenges there are a minder of our top stories this hour turkey's defense ministry says 2 turkish soldiers have been killed in syria's made their province during an attack by government forces a total of $59.00 turkish soldiers have died in the past month. turkey and greece

a trading accusations about the growing crisis for thousands of refugees and migrants trying to get into the european union precinct uses some migrants of using military grade tear gas and denies turkish allegations of causing injuries by stopping them from crossing the border. at least government is planning to close all schools and universities until at least the middle of the month struggles to contain the corona virus outbreak as li has 2 and a half 1000 confirmed infections the world's 3rd largest concentration of cases. and democratic presidential hopeful mike bloomberg has dropped out of the race for the white house the billionaire has now endorsed joe biden. 3 separate attacks in northern afghanistan have killed at least 900 soldiers and police 15 soldiers were killed province 4 policemen died in a 2nd attack there and in the 3rd attack gunmen kidnapped 10 border patrol offices

. and in southern afghanistan a u.s. air strike has targeted taliban fighters for the 1st time since their signing of their peace deal last week u.s. commanders say they were responding to taliban attacks on afghan army positions and helmand province the americans are urging the taliban to stick to its commitments toward ending the 19 year war. what are the hamid reports now from kabul where she says the attacks could be a sign of division within the taliban well as of late the taliban have been wanting to show that they have a united front that they all stand together you had the political branches that was negotiating in doha you had the head of the military side of the taliban. and you actually wrote an open ended new york times saying that he wanted peace but the reality is that they have not been united over the past few years actually when

those negotiations started indoor some 18 months ago where a lot of them foot soldiers of the haqqani network so that the military branch of the taliban were very angered about that they said well you are now dealing with the enemy with the non muslims like they did the way they put it and a lot of them at the time defected to other groups including so they will be spoilers to taliban as much as they want to show that they are united and not as united as they want us to think so now it's a matter of figuring out who exactly is behind those attacks fighting in northern man maher is raising concerns of a new humanitarian crisis the man mommy is at war in rakhine state with the at a con army it's fighting for an independent state for the majority of rakhine people the mainly buddhist ethnic group florence so he reports from booty dung

township in the northern state of her kind. for these students school is now in a monastery and home is a temporary shelter in a camp for the internally displaced they had to leave their village when fighting between the myanmar military and the r. khan army an ethnic group that erupted in january last year got too close and an eternity there was an airstrike they fired on to our village our homes were burned shells hit our houses. many have been here for at least 7 months and escaped with little more than the clothes on their backs. soldiers and village and we didn't want to run into them so we ran away we were scared. they haven't been able to return to their farms the shops and are dependent on the un says the near daily reports of civilians being killed or injured and child casualties on the rise last

month more than a dozen students were injured when an artillery shell hit that school landmines also pose a threat according to a recent landmine monitor report by the international campaign to ban landmines the government says it's doing all it can to protect civilians. we don't know where the fighting is going to happen we won't know ahead of the fighting we're trying to do as much as we can we give support to the people they get compensation from the federal government and the injured are treated for free at our hospitals he says it's fighting for greater autonomy on behalf of the time and mainly buddhist ethnic group who make up the majority here the state is one of the poorest in myanmar and there is growing resentment towards the government we were in last lights in the area but we cannot and. not satisfy with this

condition but for the. the conflict has disrupted 8 services the un office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs says transportation routes used to distribute food have been affected and many aid organizations have reported greater difficulties in reaching areas and internet shutdown has made it more difficult to get information on civilian casualties and living conditions in the camps rakhine state is also where the myanmar military launched a violent crackdown against the mainly muslim minority more than 2 years ago. which denies committing genocide has been ordered by the international court of justice to prevent further killings of the remaining gas. but as the conflict continues civilians whether rakhine. are being caught in the middle florence al-jazeera township rakhine state myanmar. for the 4th tape year in a row there's been

a decline in the level of freedom in countries across the world that's according to freedom house a u.s. based ngo it says democracy and pluralism is under assault globally the group's annual report singles out the indian government and the prime minister narendra modi says the policy decisions like revoking india administered kashmir is autonomy and the citizenship amendment act discriminatory toward muslims the survey said some of the worst repression is happening in china which has one of the most extreme programs of religious persecution used to suppress the basic rights of muslims the report also said the u.s. under president donald trump has drifted from its ideals of a liberal democracy also reports she is vice president of research at freedom house she joins us now live from new york city good to have you on the program globally this seems to be a fairly dire assessment. yes really

democracy is in trouble i think we hear regularly about places like russia or syria but more than half of the stablish democracies are in decline and we're seeing a wave of leaders who are elected and claim to speak for the people but then use their position to violate individual rights and consolidate their own power let's get a little owner of 1000 with the need for my my my apologies to get in the safe i want to ask about india just to get specific the citizenship admit act and the revoking of the special status of indian administrate kashmir i mean this is the world's largest democracy this is again a very dire assessment. yes it really is and i think that india has a particular concern this year because it is the world's largest democracy i think the b j p's targeting of the muslim population has has really shaken the foundations

of pluralism in this very important democracy i think we're very concerned that policies like the registration system that was put in place in the some state will be spread across the country and will can turn cattail rights even further. and also the report was critical of the us and also i was interested to see it was critical about how the us supports its allies talking about israel and egypt and their human rights violations. yeah i mean i think u.s. foreign policy is has in the past been really important for supporting human rights and democracy around the world and of course we've made mistakes but at the same time we've supported democracy throughout our foreign aid programs but especially in our diplomacy and the trumpet demonstration has really stepped back from that and we are worried that this is creating the international climate that is more permissive for abuse. i'm going to quote from the report here it says more than

half of the world's established democracies deteriorated over the past 14 years functioning of government freedom of expression and belief i mean how do you measure how our democracy is deteriorating. so we have a methodology it's based on the universal declaration of human rights and we apply equally to all countries in the world and so we have $100.00 point scale and we evaluate the points for each country each year and what we have seen is that 2541 established democracies have been slipping over the past number of years well i believe if a time thank you so much for coming on the programs there are vice president of research at freedom house thank you. u.s. supreme court judges a herring a major case that could make the law on abortion meaningless haring in the easy ana is the 1st since president donald trump appointed to conservative judges and gallacher reports from new orleans down by the law by up boys and does not south

problems outside one of louisiana's few remaining abortion clinics a protester urges women to make a different choice the state's laws are among the most restrictive public fundings only available in cases of rape or incest women must receive counseling discouraging them from the procedure and mine is need parental consent the case now before the supremes court could make abortions in louisiana harder forcing clinics to get admitting privileges to a hospital within 50 kilometers of their practice a move critics say would force most to close it's very concerning in that that the supreme court took this case up at all caruso how good studies women's health and says louisiana was trying to undermine a ruling known as roe v wade that made abortion legal in 1973 rather than overturn roe v wade which at one time seemed so insurmountable kill it by death through

a 1000 cuts and so these are medically unnecessary regulations that have the effect of closing abortion clinics other states are now acting similar so-called hartley laws and bold and by the appointments of 2 conservative judges to the supreme court anti abortion rights groups are hopeful the tide is turning in their direction toward to be competent sometimes when we see the toll that abortion is having on our nation but we believe that our country is going to write its wrongs as it's done in the past and give rights to the weakest and the least among us with the unborn child or working on criminal justice or whether it's reproductive rights organizations like the american civil liberties union say legal abortion is now hanging by a thread and it's the least advantage. that may suffer it is young people poor people immigrant people people who are in this country lawfully but just don't have means that are going to be limited in their opportunity to exercise their

constitutional rights many of the current laws are aimed at protecting the health and safety of women with a conservative majority in the supremes court a decision in the state's favor will have far reaching consequences if the supremes quarterback's louisiana's even more restrictive abortion laws this is likely to become the 7th state with just one clinic pro-abortion rights groups fear it may even lead to a direct challenge of roe v wade onto your borsch and rights activists are more hopeful than ever but abortion may now be banned across the entire country the stakes a couldn't be higher and gallacher all the 0 new orleans louisiana. landslides and flooding in brazil have killed at least 12 people who forced thousands from their homes dozens remain a cop unaccounted for in the states of rio de janeiro and sao paulo the governor there says the equivalent of a month's worth of rain fell in just 12 hours. a vast oil reserves have been discovered in the republic of congo but there underneath the 10000 year old pete

lands near the congo rain forest as malcolm webb reports from the capitol hill environmentalist say drilling for oil will release billions of tons of carbon. beneath the swampy forest carbon equivalent to about 20 years of emissions from fossil fuels in the u.s. . it's stored in peat land as scientists discovered here in the republic of congo 3 years ago the government didn't allow us to go there and film this is the government's video but it did allow oil companies to drill there last year. it's licensed oil exploration in blocks of land across more than half of the people and environmentalist say if wells extracted risks releasing 30000000000 tonnes of carbon stored in the peat. it would be catastrophic even if we tried to exploit the oil in an eco friendly week we still have to destroy the ecosystem plans today or

it will make the area i want to see before the exploitation of other resources and also indeed. so what. the river congo is the world's 2nd largest river by volume and the rain forest that sits in its basin is the world's 2nd largest after the amazon and its leaves and branches falling from the trees partially decomposing in the ground to form the peak lands over about $10000.00 yeahs have been discovered on both sides of the river in swampy areas and the carbon stored in them beneath the ground is as much as is stored above the ground in the entire forest. the congolese government signed an agreement to receive $65000000.00 of funding from european governments to preserve the pete lands and the forests above them but activists say the agreement doesn't rule out oil extraction the country's africa's 3rd largest oil producer 2 oil companies announced major on shore oil discoveries

near the peat lands last year. but the environment minister told us the peat lands a safe. community and what we are saying to the international community is that the congolese government will not touch the land if we have a friend there even if we have to do it if we find by drawing the land areas we will do our best to do a good job the plans are also home to millions of people the government says oil revenues help communities environmental activists say they don't. that if oil extraction goes ahead here the world's largest tropical land and this vast carbon reservoir will be gone forever malcolm webb al-jazeera republic of congo. still to come here on al-jazeera in sports the doll keeping her elex that helped make some german companies straight.

pool or. find out what has andy thank you so much kamal tokyo's olympic organizing committee says counseling or delaying the games due to coronavirus is not being considered before the games are comes that soldiery like rehearsals have already taken place with the olympic flame due to begin its 4 month journey through japan on march the 26th organize a psych the number of spectators might be limited in the health of runners will be constantly monitored for that but they did add the situation will have to be continually assessed between the rely starting on the olympics in july. you know

isn't it true that you have to think and say about march the 26 and then what happens after july the 10th is different you also have to think about how the coronavirus situation will change what is. the guardian has and there were no such talks at all about canceling the games as i said before on the assumption that it will be carried out as planned we will establish his safe and secure organization well our confidence from soccer being matched by that of a limb pick presidents almost back the international olympic committee is into the 2nd day of a scheduled meeting in switzerland back to to hold a press conference a little later on he's already said that he expects the games to start as scheduled on july the 24th i would like to encourage all the athletes to continue with their preparation for the olympic games talk you are 2020 with great confidence and with full steam there is a task force in place since mid february and following the regular information from

these task force which consists of the i.o.c. the organizing committee the host city of tokyo the government of japan and in for tickle of the world health organization we remain very confident with regard to the success of these olympic games talk you 2020. and organizers of this month's australian formula one grand prix said they're expecting the season opening rights to go ahead but f one is managing director saying a championship race will not happen in any country that denies access to a team due to coronavirus restrictions. you know the team is prevented from entering your country with congress. not a formal world champion of rights and the right because i would be on for. over 70 makes a certain choice not to go to a race that's a decision where

a team is prevented from going to race because. of decision of a country it's difficult to have a fair competition so i think it's essential that. we have all 3 years of races around have they were unable to attend and can preprogram. a crowd of ours is having a huge impact sites halley in football both cup semifinals jets be played this week have now been postponed in the italian sports minister says the government is unlikely to order all top league games to be tight behind closed doors and for syria much as took place last weekend. liverpool manager you're going cloth as vented his frustration at being constantly asked about the coronavirus with its impact on english football still speeded sermon he was speaking after his premier league leading say monoxide of the f.a. cup by chelsea on change day ok but i dream and letting slip a lot of people slipped from his grasp to chelsea's opener and ross barkley is rampaging run so that soon know when chelsea. have

a manager wishing reprocessed would stick to quizzing him on football. i know what i don't like in life is that a very serious thing a football manager is opinion is important but don't understand an area don't lose their lead into a can could ask you you are exactly the same role than i am so and it's not in part about famous people but famous people said no you have to be have to speak about the things the right men are not people with no knowledge like me talking about something and people that knowledge to talk about it should tell the people do this do that do this and everything will be fine or not so and not football managers i don't understand it. pari son jim out of been giving their support see china over coronavirus and club chairman khalifi also looks like being given a clean bill of health by the swiss justice system after corruption charges against him were dropped last month the french media reporting that one remaining charge will also be thrown out. are in the german cup

a 4th syria team is through to the semifinals for the 1st time in history sol burke and their keeper daniel butts the fight for their shock win over been busily decide the tuna does a little he say par 5 penalties during the game one in normal time and then 4 in a shootout after the game is finished $11.00 so broken heard when a local cup competition just to qualify for the $21.00 it's another german cup so i was a lesson in why fancy skills aren't everything going to game of football how could offend your club so the bow showing off a so-called robot owner to clear the ball against bond munich perhaps made him a little too confident he tried the same trick again. to complete one nailed to the final score of this one and bad weather could have a big impact on the semifinals of the women's see 20 world cup games in australia at wednesday's practice sessions in sydney had to take place in dawes and more heavy rain is forecast on thursday india due to take on england hosts australia will face south africa but if play is washed out india and south africa will

progress to the final after finishing top of their qualifying games ok sports is looking fine thanks so much for that trees are vital for life on earth of course but in many parts of the world deforestation continues unabated now artists have branching out so it's helen's the way people see the natural world jessica baldwin takes a look at london. look at the trees they're all around us familiar but so often overlooked a show at the hayward gallery seeks to change that with a new exhibition among the trees it's been estimated that current rates of the 4 straight and 600 years old be notorious left on the planet so i think it is a moment when we have to start having a new relationship with trees and forest 50 years of art about trees to mark 50 years since the 1st earth day a forest of corrugated cardboard the packaging material repurposed to its earlier

form of wood itself ideally i would like to have people to stop for a few minutes and for get a little bit they have to go all the way to the show and to this day there and see what happens at 1st glance a felled bark less tree but it's actually more than 800 layers of wafer thin cedar in different cultures different ways of seeing trees in rural colombia there is no hierarchy between trees and people it's just a matter of considering how the big important thing to the life of people who asked people themselves. at 30 meters spruce in a finished forest sways in the wind allowing visitors to admire the scale for trees the sense of time is changed and all of tree growing for more than 2000 years in

southern italy was used to cast this monumental sculpture it was around when julius caesar ruled the roman empire forests are disappearing at an alarming rate just at a time when our planet needs them the most trees and forests one of the most cost effective ways of fighting climate change trees taking carbon dioxide and clean the air around them. rubbish caught in the branches of trees on the malaysian coast documents the environmental degradation trees are indispensable from paper for books timber for houses but there's more like all good art there will be new emotional connections made highlighting the importance of trees jessica baldwin al-jazeera london well that's it from me ken but now for this news hour you can go take a look at their adult kong but if you want to stay with us i'll be back in just a moment with more of the day's news.

she was black gay i'm from rio de janeiro's her valis. she was also an elected outspoken councilwoman. until she was assassinated. people in power investigates the killing of a vocal critic of brazil's security forces and the legacy of empowerment she left behind the matter of mario franco on al-jazeera. it's a tough time for the afghan security forces taliban attacks have increased their

suffering heavy casualties and the prospect of a withdrawal of u.s. forces hangs over them yet young men are still joining up some for apache arctic reasons for others is the only way to get a job despite the risks midway's karimi was an army bomb disposal engineer in helmand province he knew the risks he was blinded in both eyes and lost a leg when a roadside device exploded as you try to defuse it always aware of the danger of seeing friends wounded while working on mines i wasn't scared to lose an arm or a leg is a sacrifice we have to mike to serve this country. full of struggles full of pleasure not all the requirements of the not very moved in with my my plan is just going to be she doing with. us pressure maggoty our bomb an intimate look at life in cuba 24 hours on course i'm going to pass an army when i am out of a shot in the middle i may hang in my cube at this time on al-jazeera. the

e.u. is top diplomat dashes to turkey to deal with the crisis triggered by august decision to release syrian migrants to its territories. i'm convinced this is all just there a lie from doha also coming up believe their media mogul mike bloomberg drops out of the democrats' race for the white house and the door says joe biden. drastic steps for difficult times in italy the government's planning to close all schools and universities as the corona virus spreads. and the discovery of oil in congo has a viral mentalists concern.