for the painful process for the descendants looted or to. storage for if you return on g.w. . this is d w news live from berlin democrats in the us start voting for their presidential candidate polling begins in iowa a small state with big political impact those who come out on top there are well positioned to win the democratic nomination and face donald trump in november's election. also coming up in a race against the coronavirus china opens its new high speed hospital built in

just days it has a 1000 of beds for treating infected patients. plus turkish president air to one warns moscow not to stand in his way as turkey were tally it's against an attack in northern syria by syrian forces civilians caught up in the fighting are being forced to flee. i when blue cross welcome to the program it's the 1st major step in the 2020 u.s. presidential campaign voters in iowa are gathering across the state to help pick which of 11 democratic candidates will be the nominee to face president donald trump now polls suggest former vice president joe biden is poised to do well he may be tops however by vermont senator bernie sanders but it's a tight it's a tight race among several candidates and more than one. 1 may emerge in good shape

there's no requirement to win iowa to win the party's nomination but as the 1st state to vote iowa has an outsized influence on where the presidential campaign goes from here. now let's bring in alexandra phenomena who's in the iowa state capital des moines alexander good evening to you there the caucusing has started what can we expect now. at the abraham lincoln high school where we are at the moment the caucus goer have come together and their 1st day we'll hear from local party officials from campaign representatives and then they will show they 1st preference for president every literally physically they will move to different areas of the gym if you can see behind me sign for joe biden for us bernie sanders for our candidates that will be the 1st votes then if their candidate doesn't arrive at the 15 percent that's the

trash hold here they you know can give up because their candidate is not viable or they can realign to another candidate at this will be their final vote so this is a very unique and quite complicated procedure and it can take time for us to get 1st results a lot of people running around to different groups tell me about these people who are these voters how representative are they in iowa of the united states as a whole. well iowa has been the host of the 1st the nation's 1st presidential nomination contest since 1972 and the iowa caucuses have come under fire lately because they are overwhelming and wild and that's why they are facing a lot of criticism that there are not representative of the country let alone of the democratic party but we talked to people who told us that they are very

interested in what the candidates have to say they are interested in their programs they take their response ability 30 asli we met with the democrat volunteers of the democratic party let's have a look at our report. for ruth thompson this is the most exciting time to be a guy away when her state is once again in the national spotlight as a volunteer for the democratic party she likes to joke that politics is her sport and religion with all your love is like you get it it's all about the wrong and you're going out of your doctor. squarely and i want. this time it's senator amy klobuchar who swung the cruz thompson support as a moderate candidate from the midwest this is. why this is ruben i'm a volunteer for the amy closure came to me just calling to remind you that tomorrow night it's caucus night here in iowa thousands are volunteers like it was thompson

our country any other candidates in iowa until the last minute well what's more important than our democracy and shaping our country for the next few years i mean the cynical part of me says because we've got to trump out of here but what's more important than investing in your country. that's what's cut truths has spent has been doing for our small canvassing and the neighborhood where i am a club. even though she's not considered a frontrunner in iowa we were able we're. republicans now used to be republican. oh i've been this is my nature so now health care i'm with change america stronger and the world issues that matter here scott thompson says he hopes for a democratic nominee who can bring together with the party and a divided country because the mayor and the spirit public are and i know the importance of working with people you may not agree with. but you need their

support i mean your support for it and so you know your trade off you you make concessions where you have to i mean while at the party's headquarters in des moines the rules thompson needs to sort out some details she has to caucus chair and her precinct and in charge of organizing the belief that it's like a neighborhood connecting she says that when people get together and out in the open try to win over and their friends to support their candidate the thing that makes the caucus unique is that you are really looking your neighbor in the eye and saying you know i'm supporting my candidate because her values are the same as mine and they are and if if your neighbor is not really sure or they're not solid with their candidate you can say well you know you are you think that climate change is is important so let's let me tell you what amy thinks about climate change is a super bowl watch party and the grill restaurant in denmark scott's thompson has come to have a cold beer and to meet these candidates one more time before the caucus mother you

come to a meeting with you does she want much she was like to the degree we want to have record turnout yes we do but what we really want to do you mean we do know them back. and she definitely yes talk he says it's a long run with more primaries to follow however winning iowa can mean big momentum for a competitor and that's why it's so exciting at this time of year to be in iowa. so alexandra health care climate change some of the issues you're ticked off in that report chest there that's on one side of the equation donald trump on the other side where do those 2 things come down for on for democratic voters. well honestly speaking most people i talked to told me that it is very important for them to have a dummy democratic nominee who is able to be donald trump. traumatic

election in 2016 so this is very important and maybe also the reason for joe biden to be leading in national polls but they also told me that kitchen table issues are also very important as we mentioned tells her student dept education those are the issues and to we are really looking forward to the discussions that are going to take place in this high school tonight alexander phenomena there live in des moines iowa for us thank you very much. and now to some of the other stories making news around the world. in the u.s. senate the impeachment case against president donald trump is wrapping up as both sides have given their closing arguments democrats have argued that trump abused his power by pressuring ukraine to investigate a political rival republicans and trump's defense team have said the president's actions were legitimate or not impeachable the senate is expected to quit

a quick trump along party lines on wednesday. 76 children plus their parents have been airlifted out of the war torn yemeni capital sana it's the 1st so-called mercy flight organized by the united nations the saudi backed yemeni government has been preventing commercial flights from departing from rebel held sana since 2016. china has opened a hospital bills in just over a week to treat people infected with the coronavirus the hospital is in the city of 11000000 people with the virus originated and then spread around the world it has beds for up to a 1000 patients china says the corona virus has now killed more than 420 people and infected over 20000 others. after just 10 days of construction the new hospital is operational it was designed especially for the epidemic by slashing more than the facility china says. it is located in wu hand the a.p.

center of the current virus outbreak a 2nd hospital with more beds is due to be finished lighted this week. right now who had it on lockdown fresh supplies of being delivered by the army. thousands of reinforcements have been brought in to cope. but the country is in urgent need of surgical masks and medical equipment china is accepting donations from other countries and officials are confident the demand for supplies here will be met. when the us not we were able to double our production capacity. we have the raw materials to increase production and supply. many companies are worried about overproduction but we have assured them that the government will collect and store any surplus in supplies after the epidemic. the model for you.

with the virus still spreading demand from mosques is unlikely to full in the short term but things could change if an effective vaccine is produced there is now a global drive to develop one get onto those evidence bear fruit life at the it be center of this outbreak who are mind restricted. correspondent mathias berlinger is in beijing he filed this report as the outbreak of corona virus in china worsens the number of new infections and the number of death are climbing at a faster pace no most of these cases are still happening inside who a province and the city of one that is at the epicenter of this epidemic outside of these areas the numbers are not climbing at the same pace we do not know whether this means that the epidemic has been contained to these areas or whether we are still in the period where infections have already been happening but i'm not showing up yet due to the long incubation period the government of one has taken

drastic measures one of them being that they have now ordered all of the infected that cannot find bad in the hospitals to go to a designated isolation areas and that they will enforce this with the help of the police this gives us a hint that the situation inside one is dramatic turkey's president heir to one says the turkish military has quote neutralized dozens of syrian government troops is retaliation for an attack on turkish forces in syria the deadly flare up in war torn lives heightening tensions between turkey and russia 2 of just several actors in the long running conflict. ankara is keen to show it means business. more military vehicles continue to head towards its lead today after the killing of takesh soldiers in the province the turkish president said his country

had been forced to retaliate against syrian troops and he warned moscow not to stand in his way. there was as a result of these airstrikes 8 people 5 of whom are soldiers and 3 civilians were martyred of course we said this cannot go on and the necessary response was given at the moment we are doing what is necessary from the ground and from the air . while the turkish defense ministry says that damascus had shelled their troops despite being aware of their movements moscow claims the turkish units had failed to notify them monday's tit for tat shelling comes as the syrian government and its russian ally up their deadly bomb bomb and of the last rebel held territory in northwestern syria all too often it's displaced civilians who are caught up in the fighting today 9 people were killed in

a reported russian air strike on their vehicle near the city of aleppo turkey which already has 3600000 refugees from syria fears a new wave of migrants as a result of the new offensive. i saw. out of the latest figures unfortunately approximately 1000000 people are marching to our borders. people including children and elderly are coming to our borders with whatever they can retrieve. with pressure at the border growing tensions between ankara and moscow over the rebel enclave seem set to escalate further. epic annual fame own sled dog race drew to a close on monday with a homegrown norwegian talent taking the spoils robert sorely in this team of huskies were the 1st to cross the finish line after 4 days and hundreds of kilometers of mushing through freezing cold conditions in central norway the race

has been running since 1990 as a part of the arctic world series which culminates in alaska in early march. that's all for now from you're watching news from berlin more news at the top of the hour but 1st a feature on the science of avalanches in our film documentary don't forget you can always get the latest news from d.w. dot com or follow us on twitter at g.w. news i'm william good thanks for watching. it's all happening to children in africa. during link to news from africa and the world is your link to exception these stories and discussions continue and we'll come to see their views after being program tonight from for an exam of the news it's easy to do i would say debbie.