day, central park in new york city. you never have guessed it was right smack in the middle of winter. look around, people are dressed like it's spring or summer. wait, hold on. where is the snow ever seem new york in february like this? never a new reality, perhaps with new yorkers, 1st enjoying the warm weather, but now beginning to ask themselves, will it ever snow this year? because this isn't normal. they probably don't even need to be wearing this jacket right now because it's mid february and it's supposed to be cold. but it's not ah, china set smallest target for economic growth as national people's congress begins its annual session. ah,

my main site is not their life and dough. so coming up, iran agrees to restore monitoring and verification capabilities. and it's do you care facilities allowing talks with the un nuclear watchdog in 10 street fighting in the besieged, ukrainian city of buck mutes is russia's wagner. mastery grapes as a devastated city is surrounded and protest is returned to the streets and israel is 1000 school for an end. the government's plans to limit the supreme court spouse . ah johnna has set a 5 percent target for economic growth this year. this comes as the countries latest again, the annual parliamentary session in beijing messaging ping is among more than 2000 delegates gathered at the great all of the people or forms and government

appointments are expected at the event of what is the final formalization of president, jeez, term katrina, you've been following developments from asian katrina, some important issues on the agenda especially related to the economy. yes, this year will be in p. c. the economy is front and center. we had a d d e target applies to announce which is on the lower end of what was expected. what that means, that we're not likely to see any aggressive stimulus measures. instead, they didn't going to focus on stabilizing the economy. now, premier leak, it's, john gave his last recitation of the working report, the outgoing premier. and it was rather sober. his assessment of trying to 2022 economic performance. he said that this was largely due to the pandemic and international pressure coming from abroad. now in 2022, the gdc big target was 5.5 percent. china missed that significantly achieving only

3 percent according to official figures. he said that consumer spending took the hit, investment suffered, and that was rising unemployment. so he flagged going forward for aging some policies to remedy that, including boosting confidence and domestic consumption. he said that they would work on adding 12000000 new jobs to the economy as well as renewing its focus on innovation and technological self reliance. and that is also related to the challenges that china faces in the global economy, including increased inflation. and what he says was, escalating attends to suppress china, which was a veiled reference to us sanctions placed on chinese semiconductor and technology. we've also had an announcement from china today about an expansion on its defense budget. what do we make of that?

well, we were making an expansion of its defense budget, but we didn't expect that it would outpace the g d p target. so this china plan to increase its military spending by 7.2 percent, which will equate to $224000000000.00. now, china does not provide any detailed breakdown, but what that figure does tell us is that china is rather nervous and concerned when it looks at the political security situation. premier lead time did mentioned in his speech that military preparedness is going to be a focus. we're trying to people liberation army going forward this year is particularly concerned looking at its own backyard, specifically with taiwan self ruled island. i lived with the united states that trying to consider its own territory. now, premier leak chunk china is going to continue to work toward keys for unification with the island. although shooting thing has not rolled up into full. china is also working to expand and boost its military activities and presence in the south

trying to see and looking further abroad. meeting is also concerned and watching closely situation in the brain as well as situation in the spring peninsula. ok. katrina, you that for us in beijing, thank you. the head of the united nations nuclear watchdog has announced more inspections that around 4 door nuclear plant, as well as the installation of new monitoring equipment, the facility, rafael corps, the hel talks with president abraham racy intake. ron nick topic has more in an i. e a quarterly report late last week. the nuclear watchdog said it's inspectors had found particles, the uranium in iran in rich to near weapons grade. returning from a visit to terran, the organizations chief said that did not mean iran was actually producing such material. there has not been production or accumulation of uranium at that level, which is a very high level of course, sixty's already very high. but as i said,

we have an we ways and means to inspected weapons, grade uranium is enriched and 90 percent. iran said the finding of 83.7 percent at one of its sites was an unintended fluctuation that hum on good others in their report. they mentioned particles of 84 percent. there is not enrichment activity at that level. there was no enriched uranium above 60 percent. this ambiguity has been somehow resolved. it all comes at a sensitive time with attempts to restore the joint comprehensive plan of action. the nuclear deal signed with terror on in 2015, then president trump withdrew unilaterally from the j. c, p. o, a in 2018, and imposed multiple sanctions on iran. the aga goes, alicia, we want to continue our relations with the i a e, a for the agency to be able to perform its duties regarding yvonne's nuclear program within the framework of the comprehensive safeguards agreement,

we stretch the need to avoid issues that would hit al deletions with the i a. e. a rainy and president abraham, racy, echo the sentiments in his meeting with the i. e. a head that warned iran's rights have to be respected. last week, the c i a director william burns express concern about iran's nuclear program. we don't see evidence of there made a decision to resume go weapon ization program, but the other dimensions of the challenge i think, are growing at or worries and pace to tehran has always maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. nick talks me out a 0. the recording officials in bad news say there's intense street fighting in the besieged, east and 50. russia has not taken control. that's off the rushes. wagner mystery

group said it had surrounded the city. the remaining $3000.00 civilians are living in and shelters without access to gas, electricity, or water. the city's population was once more than 73000 high 4th reports. the ukraine is still fighting for the moods, but that fight is looking ever more desperate. the commanders here say russia is now sending its most prepared troops to the front, having sacrificed conscripts for months, and then increasing the capabilities of their own frontline defenses as become, quote, problematic. the head of russia's vog, the mercenary group, has warned them to get out while they still have one road left to use the remote control. they are trying to beg the ukranian army to leave bach moot. so he would stop defending the city. they hope to get the city without big losses, but they've lost so many people. the catastrophe for the wagner group and the russian army is inevitable. wagner found,

says he's with his troops near back moot. and he had his own grim message for his ukrainian opponents. that program was shot know part of why we are sending another shipment of ukrainian army fighters home. and they told bravely and perished. that's why this latest truck will take them back to their motherland. regression is publicly criticized rushes defense minister, so gay should go for the many failures of the military campaign. so far, perhaps no coincidence then, with the capture of back mood seemingly in sight, he too should be in easton ukraine in western live. if ukraine's president was meeting the president of the european parliament, rebecca met sola called for speedy talks on ukraine's e u membership investigations into accountability for alleged russian war crimes and further military support. ukraine needs the weapons to defend themselves, but we have already given 2100000 euros to no, you would be specific to your crime,

but it is clear that all is needed. if we wanted to have a safe euro, if we need to have a savior, grain has no safety to be found in moods. a town of more than 70000 people has been reduced to this about 3000 there estimated to remain among them. kanadi and natalia scavenging for what they can to survive produce the be just when there are problems with food. natalia says, humanitarian aid is given to us only once a month. there's no electricity, no water, no gas. we burn woods says can i do the beast? it's warmer if russia does soon prevail in backwards after 6 months of attrition, there's little less to claim as a prize. natalia says she can only pray that whoever does remain here will survive . harris will sit al jazeera russian artists and performing se they are victims of a cultural campaign. in the west, i've been thrush invaded ukraine. several prominent artists have been shunned and

their performances counselled some a binge of a reports from moscow's bowl shore theatre. oh, $1877.00 by a dark ballet has continued to perform but it takes hard work and years of training to be able to pull off the performance, which continues to come out. ah, at moscow's historic butcher theater. there's no time to think of the conflict which has dominated the airwaves. but internationally, russian art and artists are increasingly being shunned. ukraine has removed russian port and writer, xander pushkin and others from most public spaces. even scientists and writers like luminous of are no longer allowed to be visible. ukraine wants its allies in the west boy called russian culture. isabel, moscow calls it a manifestation of discrimination against russian artists and limiting cultural interaction. in recent weeks,

the foreign ministry has summoned the italian and dutch messages for shunning russian performers upsetting the russian artists. but the remain undeterred. which is that you might have to deal with counseling russian culture. i mean, i feel sorry pity for these people. come with them, i can't even understand who could think of counseling chikavsky. and i think the shallow, narrow minded politicians who make decisions like that brought it from tolstoy that you called ski art and culture has a special place in russian society. many countries have cancelled or restricted russian performances since the invasion of ukraine. but for those who dedicated their lives to performing arts, they say it's unfair for them to be dragged into politics. russians also concerned about cultural appropriation. artists are he plenary is now labeled as a ukrainian at new york's metropolitan museum of art cleans you died in 1910 in the russian empire, while ukraine, as a state only existed from 1918. critics say russian painter,

even i was off ski who died in 1900100, has recently been made ukrainian a star connectivity gotta give and prominent pianist denise meant to have are no longer performing at the op scheme. carnegie hall for the pro, kimberly views. oh, and the metropolitan not proposed popular soprano and nebraska from a run of shows last year for quote, not demonstrating she had seen the distance herself from present blood, the mere potent in austria, canada, switzerland, and poland, soloists, an orchestra, her face similar actions. the royal opera house is famous, common garden ban bullshit valleys, london to distill it was mentioned from the age of 10. they started the academy and continued like that for 3035 years. now think about it every day from morning till evening. your work translates into tremendous physical exertion. sutra risten. pub

is what russians to distance themselves from the government. but artists, too, always relied on patronage and support from the state feel stifled, been warring people in power, some image without the 0 alter theater. moscow still head on out is there a color outbreak gets worse and, and made devastated northern syria, least 3 people are dead. and we will go, by the way. only you as president donald trump lays out his 2024 agenda and his speech. ag. ah hello is slightly father ry across a good part of her asia at the moment sir. nice big area of high pressure. so all warm sunshine will warm spring sunshine coming in across a good part of china,

the korean peninsula. try to push his way into where japan as well. so into the mid teens here present enough, you might catch a share or 2 just around. okay. over the next hour. so but again, nothing too much to speak of at wet weather, just clipping the east coast and then pulling out of the way the brightest guys coming back behind. maybe one or 2 when she flowers there into the far north of north korea. we can lossy dry though much of china, warm sunshine. 19 in beijing, similar temperature that to, for rash hang hi, little bit of wet weather over towards western parts of china. now a lot of wet weather, still continuing across southern parts of the maple lynch. they can see this massive cloud. we have seen huge amounts of rainfall over 400 millimeters of rainfall here in the 1st 4 days of march. and there is more where that came from. it does stay unsettled, little bit of uncertain whether to making its way towards lanka, maybe into the far south of india, but much of india will be fine and dry. we could see one or 2 st sporadic showers

there across a central and northern parts over the next couple of days. but find dry and warm for most. ah ah, this was wrong to keep children away from their parents and hurt them into a school against their will. there was no mother, no father figures. they put us in the big playroom and we certainly looked at her. so i don't remember the children's names. canada's doc see current on outages. era lou.

oh, come back here watching out 0 mind if our top stories this hour ahead of the united nations nuclear watchdog has announced more inspections that a wrongs for don't you, ah, in bach mood say that intense street by saying in the besieged eastern city a russia has not taken control, that's offset russia's wagner mystery group said it had surrounded the city. and china's top political body has begun its annual parliamentary session in beijing leaders all prioritizing economic stability and upset a 5 percent target for economic growth this year. let's bring in victor gao. he's vice president of the cent of china and globalization. he joins us now from beijing . thank you for your time. so why has china's set such a modest target of economic growth at 5 percent? that's one of the countries lowest in decades, isn't it? well, china is bound to putting the overhead of a covey 19 make behind us. everything is becoming normalized in terms of the lives

of the people, as well as the economic activities of their ball. for mbc to settle this target was the growth for chinese economy. this is modest, but i think eventually the final result will be in excess of this. you call them it's talking about way above 5 percent. if not 6 percent, 7 percent, or even sometimes in the range of 8 percent. so we're very optimistic about the economic performance for china this year. and in the coming years to come is growth china's number one priority at the moment? or is it defense? i think ever since 970 a growth is always austin. pub priority, but china then shopping said development is the hob roof. now it is true then any time before development is the only matter that matters for china is the only

tools that matches. i mean, china has just announced an increase in defense spending this year of 7.2 percent, which is much higher than many people were expecting why, why have they announced this? well, i think you need to look at the number very objectively overall, but chinese defense bending is less than 2 percent compared with many other countries like the united states, all the united kingdom, your name it. and then the capital depend spending in china is a fraction of that of the united states that many other countries. this is why china defense is truly for defense. it is not what aggression is, is not all the doors against the other countries. it is for defense against potential boring aggressions. this is the 1st gathering since china abruptly lifted 0 cave in which was of course deep deeply unpopular amongst the chinese

people, the tough luck downs. and the quarantines. we had many people protest about that. will we hear some sort of defense from leadership about how they handle things? no, i would a bank to defer on all the points you just now made. i think china has been dealing with this. had that making a very few roy way and it could be divided into 2 phases. what is the 0 dynamic, a locked out for example, and then it's the normalization since the end of november, december of the beginning of december 2022. i think in both faces, china achieved a huge success. now, there were, there was a lot of inconvenience while the people of calls and disruption of economic activities. but we know for sure that all this was for one purpose only. that is to prevent the chinese people from getting infected and then preventing the chinese

people val dialing from cova infectious. and in that respect, china has achieved the spectacular success, unlike any other country in the world. and now since we lifted the academic restrictions, china has been rapidly mobilizing its economic life as well as our daily lives, while the people in both phases, i don't think there is any country which could i have achieved the greatest success that we have been in china thank you for your time. think take our vice president for the center for china and globalization speaking to staff from pacing. thank you very much for heavily, bye bye. thousands of people in israel have protested for the 9th consecutive week against the government's plans to over hold the judiciary. they say the proposed reforms will reduce the powers of the supreme court. crowds, i will say,

spoke out against israeli raids that have killed dozens of palestinians. israelis national security minister. it's not been given as told police to quote, shop and the handling of protesters around con is at the purchased and tell me the police are trying to put up back up the barriers. but the protests, those all now pulling down, they pulled our barriers from over that. so i know trying to push the board of police a try to put back the barriers that once again this, these are extraordinary scenes. both televi, like it's about been good instruction for the police. 3 years ahead right. has been less than 2 and things are now getting out of control louis thing,

one of the protesters. now there's more protests, there's just overhead. they all want to push through and they fall out number the police. now after those couple, the police are removing the barrier, but they're still holding for monday. so but on the other side of the grid, the police are letting people for a removing them. other people are pushing through all police cars blocking the way. no, father had been no renews or water, but there are great number of people with

that comment of the kind of thing that you might have a paper saying that this is an antique demographic way of policing of government, ordinary processes. the annual conservative political action conference in the united states has ended and form a u. s. president donald trump delivered a nanny to our long speech as he tries to return to the white house. alan fisher reports from oxen hill in maryland. oh, some call him a political liability, a leader with a fragile legal. but donald trump again proved he remains the dominant figure in the u. s. republican movement at the conservative political action conference just outside washington, he drew the biggest loudest. was that through z as the crowd. thank you very much and i'm thrilled to be back at sea back with thousands of great andrew american patriots. unless we're at your money again. for the white house in 2024,

he is the man to beat for the republican presidential nomination. and in the halls of the conference, many delegates admitted they won't be swayed by other interesting options. why think there's one guy that now can get things done when he's proven it in time? i think we need it back in august. and i think the people, you know, see that if this is any representation of what people are thinking, he's going to have a very nice time and 2024. you think you're quite easily win. the nomination definitely won the nomination as long as the field stays big, the smaller the field goes, i think it'll be harder for him to win. but if he's one of 10, or one with 35 percent of the vote from the, from the primaries that go into the general election from the former president, it was a familiar message. america is feeling, he alone can fix it. there's only one president in history or is ever taken on the entire corrupt establishment in washington. and when we went in 2024, we will do it again. even stronger, faster, and better because he's promised to build tenure frontier cities offered a bonus to americans to have children, but

a lot of what he says on trade and immigration is recycled from his last presidential run. oh, really, the former president spoke on the day he released video with january 6 prisoners singing the u. s. national anthem supporters awaiting trial or convicted of offences after the u. s. capital was stormed 2 years ago. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the it states of america. tomba is still the favorite here among the grassroots and in many of the poles to be the republican presidential nominee. the question is, is that enough to stop others who think they can be president, jumping into the race? i'll at fisher all does it up at the c park conference in maryland. now almost one month on from the devastating turkey a syria earthquakes close to $2000000.00 people living in temporary shelters. to help the situation catalyzed, sending thousands of temporary homes that we use to house found during the 2022

world cup. so he's a bo has more from escandone 2 ships arrive in the port of his come that on in southern took ear in them. nearly 400 portable homes from cut that they were used to house fans during the welk up in the gulf state. now they provide shelter for those affected by the earthquakes last month into a key in northern syria. ah, more than a dozen other ships are on the way with more prefabricated houses. got theirs, ambassador to, to kia, says many more are coming here. my order recovery run out of ali at amone's in this ship that are almost $400.00 houses. this is the 1st approach of 10000 houses from the 1st day. we continue supporting our broaders in churches in northern syria. we hope this will be suitable for the earthquake survivors. oh, the portable houses are fully equipped and will be placed in the affected areas into kia. the united nation says that at least 1500000 people have been left

homeless because of this earthquake. they are now living in 10th in containers cities, but also in trains like this one. we have heard that around 1000 people are living here. like many other areas in the southeast and part of the country is can they don't was devastated by the earthquakes, families living in the train say they have nowhere else to go. and it provides shelter and protection from the cold at night by snelson emmy me out there says she's living here with her 3 children. i'll lock in for may no one ever see such a night. again, it was how ever left their homes in a hurry to survive. there was no building on damaged. we have been here for a month now. we don't know yet how long will stay here, but if they closed the trains, we'll have to go to the tents. suzanne, good jack says her husband works for a railway company, and that's why they came here. it's good to know that a house is damaged. this is my husband's work place. we have come here to find

shelter. we are grateful that they have given us the train cars. rebuilding devastated areas is our priority for the turkish government. but it will be a while before people are able to move to a new home. that's why providing some form of housing now is crucial to help those who have lost it all. but he said, well, i'll defeat is, can they don't to keep a color out? broken, northwest syria is worsening. following last month's earthquakes, at least 3 people have died from the disease in the rebel controlled northwest. the craig damaged health facilities, water sources and sanitation infrastructure, increasing the possibility of an accelerated outbreak. a crowd gathered in the greek capital to release lanterns in the memory of the victims of tuesday's train crash, or the 1000 people attended the vigil and protest in athens in front of the countries parliament building several demonstrations have been held over the last few days as

citizens blamed poor government regulations for the disaster that killed at least 57 people. residence in the u. s. stays of ohio have been ordered to stay at home after another train derailment. 1500 people in clark county or without power. after the norfolk southern train came off the tracks, local authorities say the orders were given out of an abundance of caution. assman the train belonging to the same company derailed, causing a major chemical spill. ah, says out, as are these you top stories? china has set a 5 percent target for economic growth this year and comes as the country's leaders begin the annual palm.