Start to screen passengers from china as fears grow over the spread of a new virus plus media. Today i am being seriously threatened in my physical integrity and that of my family the venezuelan government is accused of offering bribes to the opposition. We begin with breaking news from lebanon where police have fired tear gas and water cannon the protesters who are demanding a speedy resolution to the countrys financial and economic crisis hundreds of protesters have been involved in running battles with Security Forces in beirut the demonstrators are angry of a plans by the ruling party to form a government from the current political plus lets go live now to beirut aljazeera has a honda is there for us. Whats the situation. Adrian for the pops to. 2 hours downtown beirut the center of the lebanese capital has been a battleground as you can see behind me protesters are still here hundreds of them they remain very defiant antiriot police have been using excessive amounts of tear gas to push them away from this area it all started outside Parliament Building which is approximately 40500 meters from where we are the protesters had gathered there as it is as the as a form of action to show their frustration with the Political Class when they tried to break through the security barrier protests the antiriot Police Responded by firing tear gas and water cannon and you can see people have started to found the lies the banks in the area there is anger in the streets its escalating people are frustrated. And theyre blaming those in power for the near collapse of the economy and they have been venting their anger at banks as you can see because they blame the Banking Sector for the financial thats the policy is really that has led to the worst economic crisis that lebanon has faced in decades really since the end of the civil war never before have people had their deposits and savings in the words of the people here held hostage by the banks you cannot access your your Bank Accounts theres a cap on the amount of dollars you can withdraw theres a cap on the amount of the lebanese pounds which you can withdraw and the lebanese town for the 1st time in 2 decades has lost value on the black market the last at least 50 percent of its value so you can imagine the purchasing power has been affected prices are on the rise theres inflation so you get this you get anger in the streets so and at the same time you get the financing from here for things the antiriot police who are doing their job and protecting public property this is what the internal Security Forces have been seen what your guys. Dropped to the 1st person a crowd so atrium in downtown beirut is now a south pole ground weve seen a number of incidents like this over the past few days. This time its outside of its an in central beirut a few nights ago it was outside a Police Barracks where people gathered and tried to storm the barracks after the police did not release the protesters who were detained or might earlier and the night before that there was a value on on one of the Main Commercial districts in beirut. And there was one battle from the street so this is what you are getting the people growing increasingly frustrated with the political process which they want to topple. In the leadership level spectrum yes it is good we were on air now like any of those you know people against this government so. As you can see people even reaching out to president from to try to help them. Topple the Political Class now that. And people weve been speaking to people here and in the explain to us how dire their Economic Situation is. And why this escalation now weve seen you here since october 17th you havent left the street right. Because we dont have social justice in this country we have nothing life at this point of life at this point is not. Its not worth living if this doesnt change and we are in the common economical crisis our system as. Theyve theyve just moved their selves how much of a failure there are in every single way we have no Ministry Working we have nothing we have nothing people are dying because you think you think this is this is so do you think that any change can happen theres no no way its been its been almost a 100 days nobodys listening they still. Forming the same other minute please lets not use im sorry but this is how it is we dont want to use the cursing word but we do what theyve been doing is a crime they have been their criminal is real we are ruled by criminals very word reloads theyve done the civil war and this. Says doing us ok but do you really think i mean do you have all the support that you meet i know there are still people who support those in power how would you could how youre going to convince them to side with you if order in order to put enough pressure and here we are in an economy crisis everybodys going to get hungry everybodys going to be did need to see soon enough i dont have to convince anybody about whats happening today its clear whats happening who can get a hold of their money in the banks who has electricity down there who has water how can you resist this season that were breathing now how could you read it. So you know this this protest comes at the end of the week of rage as its been described its clear that some of the protesters came prepared for trouble how did the violence start. Well we have to remember when this uprising began back on october the 17th for a few weeks it was full of protests everywhere gatherings yes there were roadblocks so they try to disrupt public life Security Forces with. Things Excessive Force was used but nothing like this because we have seen over the past few days weve been speaking to people they say that you know enough is enough our peaceful way this is just not working and we have no other alternative but to use force to convince those in power to leave but none of that is there have been done because those in power the Political Class have been in power for 3 decades and they control the Security Forces to control the state and you can say people are wounded. And up to 75 people have been wounded in the ongoing clashes here in the downtown made to stop shopping. Chaos adrian chaos. Nobody is blocking their own both sides are very defiant and now the fear is if this continues the escalation continues then its going to be very difficult to control the street youre going to see because they vandalized the banks of the banks so. Its up in flames theyre venting their anger at the Banking System in the country the Banking Sector they believe that their economic policies have made their lives difficult and weve been speaking to people here the people here are not just from the capital theyve come from across the country they have come to gather here to converge in downtown beirut to get momentum back into the protest movement took people by no way of the actual riot police. Theyre on their way here so we have to be very careful because the other day the media was caught up in the confrontations so this is a this is been and in many ways a cop and mouse game has been played with the protesters they try to advance the antiriot police tried to push them back in the past in the past 2 incidents earlier this week the unrest was contained after a few hours so it usually takes a few hours but like i mentioned the biggest question will this continue would this escalation continue and this is what people here are promising which really will be dangerous times because not only is the economy in freefall people are losing their jobs out there is a political vacuum in the country but people here want is an independent government that will govern the country for a few months before those are the elections those in power say no you cant topple us we won in a in a in an election in 2018 we control part humans and the next government has to have Political Representation that were not going to accept to give up a political power like that that any change will not cut it will have to come through the ballot box so that is how the authorities have been responding to the demands and in the street but ok the longer the longer this crisis continues the worse the Economic Situation becomes that youre going to see unrest in the streets so many thanks i was there was a note of that live in central beirut where the air is thick with tear gas and the smoke from fireworks when youre talking to me as she was saying that it was it was difficult to breathe she had to move several times during our discussion away to where the ad was a little clearer joining us now on the line is. An investigative journalist and founder of beirut report good to have you with us. Zain i was posing the question. Just a moment or 2 ago will this continue after tonight is it going to get worse. Than what were seeing right here in downtown beirut. Yeah i think that whenever there are massive confrontations this kind of inspires people to go down and bigger board so that whole defiant attitude i think its very important thats kind of what shaped this is that the more people are pressured the more that they fight back so weve seen people so defiant that they are surrounding police stations demanding anybody who has been held. On the charge of rioting that they may be released and theyve been successful at really thing most prisoners so there is a new defiance in the air that we havent seen before in the past several decades in lebanon which during that time people had the kind of respect for lets say big businesses and banks that they kind of feared and had some faith in but now that the banks money theyre literally breaking down the walls of banks and the windows ive seen people throwing rocks at police cars. Breaking windows so thats the kind of thing that we havent seen in the been on for decades and its and its its building up from all of this anger and economic starvation and people not being able to access their funds and there are so many other problems happening simultaneously because like just any blackouts are worse than ever before right now and thats pretty bad for lebanon to be a worse than that usually is has always been a power blackout and the likes of defectors one of the biggest corruption. Scandals in lebanon where billions of dollars been poured into this sector and all these consultants have come from all these countries and we still dont have electricity for only about half a day but it is getting worse and worse is the anger frustration and should universally across the country we spoke to. Someone a little earlier who expressed extreme frustration with the protests he said that then making things worse. Yeah i mean i think the country is definitely divided i think about you know probably around half the country have some kind of stake in the current political system or you know maybe a little bit less than 3 but its still a significant amount of people you have to remember that these institutions power these parties who for militias during the war have very deep loyalties and people have built their lives around these movements that have been going on for 3040 years 50 years and the countrys history so i mean i think like a lot of regimes across the middle east you know we forget that these things have very deep roots and they may do are tied their incomes are tied to them so it kind of pit people against each other the police also will say that the policemen are you know also average citizens trying to earn a paycheck theyre getting hit with rocks in the face that could be deadly theyve had many injuries as well and theyve upped the ante on the protesters as well theyve been beating them back more theyve been attacking journalist more there are reports now that some of the 10 from the protests that have been burned by Security Forces hard to confirm that but some people have said that they have witnessed that so so theres a its a very divided society in many ways but i mean i think for the most part you know the majority of the population of the country is living in a disaster zone the question is whose fault is it and i think the more vile the protesters become justifiably or not that will lead some people to. Kind of pull back from support as well because theyve lived through such wars in this country and been on and people have fought so hard to kind of stop fighting a return to violence is difficult i think a lot of youth are its a generational gap as well there are a lot of views out there that are really leading the charge and have that kind of enthusiasm as the older generation has kind of lived with it have kind of resigned themselves in many ways to to this reality and the youth are saying that they reject the completely so theres a bit of generational d there as well so we have we had a commentator on here say the tonight is all this week has been a turning point in lebanon how does this end. Well the protesters want to see some real action happening and theres been very little action happen from the government side i mean they promise to form a government its been what 3 months now its kind of ridiculous that these millionaires and billionaires that we call our parliamentarians cant even get their act together to create the most basic system of governance and just fill basic ministries and positions why is it so difficult the whole process is shrouded in secrecy another problem with governance theres not transparency in government so we dont really know who is being chosen or why until the names are announced to us so theres a theres a big problem there as well so were very frustrated by living in that kind of limbo and not know what can happen next nothing else to get money in the bank and on top of that with them with all these other problems you know hospitals 2 are said theyre running short on supplies do are very nervous and anxious and worried about their lives and every turn they find a new crisis there was Just Announced yesterday that the internet levanon might not be my might be shut down because the government cant pay its internet bills which just a few 1000000. 00 i mean so this governments who bully proved itself incapable of any kind of governance and the most basic satis factory way and its really no surprise because again these are warlords and and kind of you know billionaire millionaire capitalists who take advantage of a vacuum of power that lebanon is the level really never had a really good state formation after its civil war and everyone had a reconciliation or justice process the people who committed crimes during the war are now at the top of power and i think you know the situation shouldnt be that surprising to most people. Could many thanks indeed have a battle that the founder of beirut reports and just to remind you what weve been watching for the past 15 minutes or so. An ongoing situation in the center of beirut where police have been firing tear gas and blows a cannon that protesters whove been demanding a speedy resolution to the countrys financial and economic crisis in return the protesters have been throwing fireworks and rocks at the police will continue to monitor the situation in beirut and well let you know if there are any further developments to pass on to you. But now lets move on to the rest of the days news libyas state oil firm says that its been forced to Halt Operations at 5 major oil ports in the east of the country its facilities have been under attack by forces who are loyal to the warlord Khalifa Haftar who say that the ports revenues are being used by the rival tripoli based government to pay turkish fighters but arsenal Oil Corporation says that 800000 barrels a day of output will be lost but amounts to some 55000000. 00 a day well the uns envoy for libya says the oil revenues should be used to feed people. Not to leave me alone. Our position at the u. N. Is very clear you must not play with oil because it is the livelihood of libyans without oil libyans are starving we have to tell it like it is so we must not play with oil we must not turn it into a weapon of war we must not allow it to become a matter of division or outbidding aljazeera is muffled up the one head is in tripoli and says the oil blockade has already had substantial effects on the markets. In less than 24 hours the libyan dinar has lost about. 10 percent of its value compared to hard currency is b. Because of the blockade of the terminals and Oil Exporting Ports in the east of the country the United Nations support the mission in libya has suppressed concern over the blue kade of the installations and its sad that the. Must not be part of the conflict and there and no see thats the state oil for the national Oil Corporation must stay neutral away from the current. Conflict thats going on the oil revenues are of the bag borne of libyas National Income and their national Oil Corporation is stressing that its now losing about 800000 1000000000 that is a day which is estimated at about 55000000. 00 a day loss because of the blockade 3 u. S. Airports have begun to screen passengers arriving from 100. 00 in china for a new virus than so far led to the deaths of 2 people new yorks j. F. K. Airport along with those in los angeles and San Francisco are taking passengers temperatures and asking them about symptoms china says the billy 50 people have been infected but research by Londons Imperial College suggests there could be more than 1700 cases of the u. S. Based centers for Disease Control says it hasnt seen this kind of disease before chinese officials have identified this outbreak as being caused by a novel coronavirus. A corona virus is a class of viruses that can cause the common cold but it actually can also cause more serious diseases like mers and sars observes katrina you in beijing has more on the governments response to the outbreak. The Chinese Government they are very much trying to keep a lid on any sort of widespread panic theyre trying to say that everyone who is associated with this particular seafood wholesale market which seems to be connecting all the people who have been affected so far have been are being closely watched or have been tested and that everything is under control and that theyve said that everyone who is affected is from is from rouhani and so far it hasnt broken out into other areas now of course the government is trying to do this because were entering the Chinese New Year period who hunt is not a small city 11000000 people live there and during this period there are about 2000000. 00 trips made across china if theres any panic sparked around this corona virus that it could lead to all sorts of cales so the government is very much interested in trying to spread the message that it is all ok if you have any symptoms get tested because were not ruling out human to human transmission but at the same time dont panic and just go about every business thats thats their message so far. In Syria Warplanes a bomb Shelter Housing displaced people in killing 4 people its the latest attack to violate a cease fire that came into force a week ago. Reports were no one. But a desperate rush to save lives to get this shelter for displaced people was one of several sites hit by recent airstrikes in syria. Inside is a family including several Young Children yeah the urgency crews take the injured to hospital or some of the missiles hit several towns in the Northern Province of aleppo. But for others its too late for that because some of the airstrikes hit this house which was for displaced people they came here looking for shelter trying to escape the bombing when we arrived we found 4 bodies on the ground. Turkeys president recent high apparent on says syrias government violated the cease fire brokered by turkey and russia. The target it live province is the last territory controlled by rebel groups in syrias northwest region. Thousands of civilians are caught in the violence the u. N. Says more than 300000 syrians have been forced from their homes over the last 10 weeks women men and children simply carrying out everyday activities at the workplace in markets and at schools being killed and maimed in senseless violence was these protesters say theyve had enough they are tired of short lives cease fire agreements that go ignored. For those of us living in syria we know the talks of cease fire turned out to be lies there is no ceasefire a few days ago there was a massacre here that killed civilians. Many families are now packing their belongings in leaving the. Many dont yet know where they can go and be safe. Aljazeera. Members of venezuelas opposition posse say they have transcripts of government officials offering them bribes they say that ordeal recordings reveal 700000. 00 each was offered for them to turn on lead a. Lesson america at its newman reports from caracas. A new twist in the hostile takeover of the news whalers opposition controlled parliament. Nearly 2 weeks ago soldiers prevented opposition. From entering the legislature. While a small group of dissident deputies installed their own man as speaker of the house with the governments full support. Now the majority opposition leadership is showing would it says is proof of how the government tried to buy off deputies to. Including. The things we agreed on 700. 00 initially there was another proposition of 1000000. 00 i suggested 1. 00 but they came back with 500. 00 and said no thats unacceptable so we arrived ability ground of 700000 which is still money you know. Says he met and taped. A deputy whod been expelled from his Opposition Party offering him the bribe just ahead of the january 5th vote for control of parliament he says only 16 out of more than 100 deputies took the bait and that he and others who refused are now in danger. Today i am being seriously threatened in my physical integrity and that of my family aljazeera tried without success to speak to who nevertheless responded to the accusations on twitter calling the recording a hoax and threatening to take his accusers to court for slander he added if deputy. Had this audio why didnt he make it public 2 weeks ago after the election as the director of the National Assembly he didnt because he didnt have what is a vulgar montage we asked mark a not the very same question and he responded that it was because of fears for his and other deputies safety now that theyve gone public he says that if anything happens to them they will hold president nicole last mughal personally responsible the white house has accused the venezuelan government of using bribery tactics to oust with regards as the legitimate opposition leadership and slap sanctions on Deputy Noriega according to the voice transcript the socalled turncoat deputies met with president mahmoud of personally the night before the bribe offer was made to calculate how many votes were needed. None of this is admissible in a court of law but then its the court of Public Opinion that the opposition is trying to win over to see in human aljazeera. The f. B. I. Believes that saudi arabias government orchestrated secret missions to help its citizens escape the United States the agency released a highly sensitive memo which suggests that saudi officials almost certainly assist the u. S. Based saudi citizens to flee the United States legal system the f. B. I. Says that saudi officials deceive the embarrassment of saudi citizens and during the u. S. Judicial process being greater than the embarrassment of being caught evading u. S. Law but the classified document lists alleged crimes ranging from traffic violations to child pornography rape or murder to u. S. Citizens jeff merkley and wyden pushed for the f. B. I. Letter to be released they warned that saudi will continue its behavior if president Trumps Administration doesnt act. The trump in ministration and government doesnt get tough now it will happen again and again and again so what im going to be pushing for is for the trust in ministration to step up the saudis are supposed to be our allies well thats fine but theyre not above the law and im going to make sure that this administration pushers now to protect the people of war again and our country mexicos government is promising jobs to nearly 3000. 00 migrants hoping to get into the u. S. At the moment there in guatemala as they make their way north towards mexico Central American countries have come under increasing pressure from washington to stop migrants crossing into the u. S. John holdren reports now from guatemala city. Die another and dead mother from honduras thought the family had finally made it when they reached the u. S. Knox for asylum instead you a sufficient sent them to guatemala they say without their consent you know you dont know if youre much better than they gave us papers to saying they would in english when we asked what the where they said they just had her details on them when we saw the asylum officer the next day he told as we change our consent to go back to. Theyre not alone the u. S. Is now shipping hondurans and salvadorans who arrive at its border to guatemala to apply for asylum there instead more than 100. 00 so far and no being for a mouse theyre not being informed of whats going on in the u. S. Theyre being told theyre going higher and its a surprise for them to arrive in guatemala. President trumps of ministration says the country is safe for Asylum Seekers and the question. In the 2019 fiscal year what the mala was actually the biggest source of migrants detained at the u. S. Border over the years it struggled to keep its own population from leaving let alone taking care of Asylum Seekers coming in here. The country is one of the poorest in the hemisphere and the u. S. Travel department itself warns but crime such as Armed Robbery murder is common Gang Activity such as extortion violent street crime and narcotics trafficking is widespread he added to that the asylum system here is skeletal there are only a dozen case offices meanwhile n. G. O. S. Picking up the slack i said the little said we said that. We had to provide the migrants with legal aid medical aid food everything so we know the state doesnt have the resources to offer asylum or even conduct the process we asked the u. S. Department of Homeland Security for comment we didnt hear back. But its reach similar agreements with honduras and el salvador hoping to reduce pressure on a cold up immigration system that means Asylum Seekers could soon be sent to 2 of the worlds most violent countries. After a night at the migrant shelter. In the children a trying to get the bus fare together to get home they were dropped in guatemala with nothing but the clothes theyre wearing john homan now does it or what tamala city. It is good to have you with us hello Adrian Finnigan here in doha the headlines and aljazeera beirut riot police fired tear gas and water cannon the protesters who are demanding a speedy resolution to the countrys financial and economic crisis hundreds of protesters have been involved in running battles with Security Forces in beirut aljazeera zana hold a spoke to one of the protesters who says the social and Economic Situation in lebanon is becoming more desperate than ever. We dont have social justice in this country we have nothing. At this point the left at this point is not. Its not worth living if this doesnt change and we are living the common economical crisis our system as. Theyve theyve just proved their selves so much all the 13 years they are in every single way we have no Ministry Working we have nothing we have nothing and people are guiding by libya stable firm says that has been forced to Halt Operations of 5 major oil ports in the east of the country its facilities have been under attack by forces who are loyal to the warlord Khalifa Haftar who say that the ports revenues are being used by the rival tripoli based government to pay turkish fighters but ashville all cooperation says 55000000. 00 a day will be lost the uns envoy for libya says the oil revenues should be used to feed people. Not to leave me i dont need to clear our position at the u. N. Is very clear you must not play with oil because it is the livelihood of libyans without oil libyans are starving we have to tell it like it is so we must not play with oil we must not turn it into a weapon of war we must not allow it to become a matter of division or outbidding. 3 u. S. Airports have begun to screen passengers arriving from will haunt in china for a new virus that is so far led to the deaths of 2 people new yorks j. F. K. Airport along with those in los angeles and San Francisco taking passengers temperatures asking them about symptoms but iran is sunday the black boxes of a downed ukrainian a lot of back to ukraine 176 people were killed when the jet was accidentally shot down by the Iranian Military in it. Those are the headlines well have more news for you on aljazeera after the days edition of inside story thinks. The u. K. Puts the squeeze on lebanons hezbollah and the entire Group Political and military case terrorist blacklist and all of its assets are now frozen but why now is iran the real target and does it complicate an already tense situation in the middle east this is inside story. By Michele Kerry and welcome to the program the u. K. Has added lebanons entire has a lot of movement to its blacklist of what its arms terrorist organizations and now its freezing has assets and will prosecute any