a new take the death toll rises. and india's highest court gives the government weeks to respond to a case alleging the citizens of violating the constitution. now the u.s. senate has agreed on the rules for the impeachment trial of donald trump following nearly 13 hours of debase senate republicans blocked every democratic attempt to obtain documents and evidence trump is charged with the abuse of power and obstruction of justice she had written the reports on a long opening day that stretched well into the night. trust of the senate to rise above short term at the last moment senate majority leader mitch mcconnell with his proposed rules for the impeachment trial gone was the possibility that the evidence collected during the various house inquiries might not be entered into evidence in the senate trial of the democratic party house managers and white house lawyers would now have 3 days and not 2 to make their opening statements that left the issue of witnesses and documents house democrats argue that they were withheld in the course of their inquiries into whether donald trump was withholding congressionally mandated military aid for ukraine in return for an investigation into former vice president joe biden and that these must be produced in the senate trials a leader mcconnell want. a trial with no existing evidence and no new evidence a trial without evidence is not a trial it's a cover up the white house argues that the request for more evidence proves the democrats don't have a strong case against the president they said in their brief we have overwhelming evidence and they're afraid to make their case think about it think about it it's common sense overwhelming evidence to impeach the president of the united states and then they come here on the 1st day and they say you know what we need some more evidence the white house also argues that the documents and witnesses are privileged in order to shape foreign policy the president must be able to have private deliberations with advisors and that's an argument rejected by the democrats make the argument that the president's conduct here was was was conduct that every president should be allowed to engage in and i think that most americans don't believe that that mr chief justice i yield back the democrats failed to pass their amendments on the mcconnell's rules though they will be another chance to debate the need for more witnesses and documents but only off the opening arguments and the cross-examination of the house managers and white house lawyers he just watch donald trump was reported to be monitoring proceedings while attending the world economic forum in switzerland his position remains unchanged that was a hoax habitats he has been following all this into the early hours of the morning for us. it slowly became clear what the democrats are up to they knew this is going to happen but what they were trying to do is get as much evidence and much information on the record into the public sphere as possible in case this is their last chance to specify which witnesses they want to talk to which documents that they that they need there is another verse next week on bringing in witnesses and documents but as it stands according to the rules it might be a very general. rule rather generic ungenerous sort of debate about these things shall we have more witnesses and documents the democrats seem to think about is not going to give them the chance to go into detail about each of the witnesses and the documents which is exactly what they did today as things stand there things will remain as mitch mcconnell proposed and listening to some of this today it does seem that they don't think yet that they have the full votes they need from the republicans to call witnesses if things do stay like that the republicans are still on track for getting this entire impeachment process finished before february the 4th and president trumps state of the union address moving on to other news now on the 1st cabinet meeting of lebanon's new government is due to be held in just an hour it was named on tuesday night made up of specialists and academics spot it's unlikely to end the months of protests from beirut they know how to reports. lebanon's new prime minister has sunday has finalized his cabinet lineup it took weeks of political horse trading even though those who are fighting over seats are allies and part of the ruling alliance jab's critics call him a pawn of the political elite but addressing the nation he tried to defend his cabinet at a time of mass protests over lebanon's worst economic crisis in decades was a family thought to be him we will endeavor to answer that demands to ensure that we have an independent judiciary to bring back stolen money to fight corruption to protect the poor of social classes from high taxation to tackle and employment and to put in place a new electoral law that brings everyone together under one national identity that the street has asked for oh news of the government announcement brought protesters who have been demanding a new leadership back onto the streets they gathered in central beirut the epicenter of a 3 month old movement to topple the political class they accuse of mismanagement and corruption protestors disputed jabs insistence that the 20 ministers who are specialists with no political loyalties i'm here because i don't trust this new government that's going to be formed because it came from the people who have been in charge for the past 30 years and in bad doesn't bring good and bad only brings bad. the. government is also being criticized for being controlled by the iranian backed hezbollah and for being one sided political opponents of the ruling alliance including outgoing prime minister saddle heidi refused to join the government. they're just playing the same move that they played $100.00 days ago so as a foot of their just stopping us in the face to laughing at us tonight who are those people and what are they doing on the streets the government faces many challenges in the midst of an unprecedented nationwide terror. uprising deb's government is expected to receive a vote of confidence in parliament but it is the support of international investors and donors that lebanon needs to get out of the economic and financial crisis the last time created international support group for lebanon met in december it made no financial pledges and instead called for a credible government that listens to public opinion expressed in the ongoing popular uprising. 2 for weeks many lebanese have been struggling to make their voices heard yes seen told the security forces protecting parliament building that the steel and concrete barriers will be able to protect those in power. i'm here to demonstrate against the corrupt regime that has been. raping this country for 30 years or more they were the only words that killed each other. groups to kill each other. there is determination to continue their struggle or what people here call the revolution but the government announcement on tuesday sent a clear message that the established parties are still in power lebanon's crisis is not over jennifer the beirut. rami corey is a professor of john as a matter merican university and he joins us now on skype from beirut good to speak to you again mr hariri on al-jazeera so has india calling this a technocrat government but the protest has really just don't seem to be buying it . that's right it is a government that has some really a few very impressive experts and technocrats who are widely respected even by people in the protest movement there but it has mostly people who are appointed by political groups the political elite the the oligarchic sectarian political elite that has run the country for many many decades and that's why the protestors are displeased but the real issue now is that there will be a mechanism to measure whether the cabinet the government and the parliament can actually move on some of the critical reforms that have to be achieved to address issues of electricity the value of the leader jobs things of that nature these are really critical sometimes existential issues for a lot of people on this 2nd critical thing to be revealed as well the international donor community private investors bilateral supporters the u.n. system will though of see enough work being done by this is a so-called reform government to provide the huge amounts of aid $11000000000.00 was promised last year at an international conference on investment will that come through and this is critical to preventing a full economic collapse of of lebanon so there are new elements now. on the scene and i am already hearing from people in the protest movement some of those some of them are saying well with this government is going to be approved by the parliament we know that was the people who are named the majority let's see if they can do anything and let's keep the pressure i think you're going to see a change in the nature of the protest movement from people out in the streets to institutionalize organize public transparent serious political pressure linked to mechanisms of accountability to see if the government can get things done so this is going to be in a port new phase now for lebanon where you say the measure is about getting things done and the cabinet is missing and just an hour and the others already saying that the new government is so-called rescue team what's the top of that very long to do list right now. it has to be the stabilization of the currency because that is the basis for economic development and vassal and also for the competence of ordinary citizens. millions of people are having trouble meeting their week to week family obligations health care education food water other things that they have to pay because they can't get their money out of the banks they can get to 3 $100.00 a month and dollars and then a limited number of lebanese leaders so that that's the number one priority and that is really a measure of confidence that needs to be public confidence that there is a government it's working it has the parliament support it can pass laws and it has the technical ability and the political will to tackle the tough issues the problem it faces is the issues are so huge that any corrective measures or any reforms are going to include institutionalize structural pain that will affect families and businesses for a few years down the road but many other countries have gone through their disagrees chile you many people have done this we're not the 1st country to do this so will people or i think are going to be in a kind of a short term wait and see attitude see what these people produce while keeping a lot of pressure on them and run a hurry there professor down isn't that american university speaking to us from beirut thank you for joining us mr herring thank you. now china's health ministry has warned a deadly new virus could mutate making it even more difficult to contain and control the world health organization will meet later on wednesday to decide whether or not to take the rare step of declaring a public health emergency of international concern at least 9 people have now died from the corona virus and 440 cases have been confirmed it originated in the city of will harm but has now spread to other countries in asia and the 1st case has also been identified in the united states. we advise everyone not to go to war and we advise 100 students not to leave the city and they do special circumstances this will help reduce the flow of people and the risk of transmission and we've already strained monitory and prevention making ism's in provinces with all confirmed cases but our correspondent adrian brown is in hong kong and he says there are major concerns over the spread of the virus especially during the lunar new year. this week china becomes a nation in motion some 400000000 people will be on the move we saw some of them today at hong kong's khartoum west railway station people though were queuing not to get on trains but to get their money back on tickets say at purchase we spoke to $1.00 man who was due to go to hand yesterday but canceled his trip he said that he got a call from the auntie was due to see but. decided not to go because she pleaded with him because the situation was so serious others were also pulling out because they said they were concerned about being on a public transport system that was sort of swamped with so many people so the message is getting through to who hand it's not a destination you want to go to as you heard in that clip from leavin the deputy minister for china's national health commission the warning from china is blunt do not go to wu han what you're seeing it seems to me is that there is now a partial lockdown in force and it's possible that partial lockdown could spread to other infected areas of china because when the chinese communist party gets behind something they tend to be very serious. well still ahead on al-jazeera one of the man credited with creating the cia's post 911 torture program says he'd do it again . and displaced by conflict and poverty we take a look at the conditions. that send men into the ranks of entrepreneurs. how i was a bit of a dig of culture or just coming into this side of your east and your northeast in europe but the real action has been further south there's been a lot of clout running around a storm system in the western med and it's been blowing to the northeast of spain blowing with such force that this believe it or not is sea foam spin if you like playing off the system that's ready right into the streets of. that is still finished yet we've got another day at least of this part of spain seeing an on shore breeze very much of rain snow inland the pyrenees starting to get it is drifting across the border into france you can see visible slow motion stuff in his movement the rest of europe still quiet still wall than it should be there is cloud there bringing a bit of rain or occasional snow to poland better reuss and ukraine but there's not much to it and moscow is still above freezing so most places still settled not as cold as you might expect this is true for the next 2 days when spot the temps you want minus 2 in moscow and much of january has been above 0 so far down in the mediterranean and spanish coast the east looking better nial they're not so much for the cut as you're however portugal weston's 50 southwestern spain is picking up the atlantic when this time was rain for this side of spain. and you out on the streets protesting whether online. you feel the weight of the system when you walk through each and every lug will board layer further and further into the jail or if you join us on say retention has to start from day one whether again you're in detention or you're incarcerated this is a dialogue everyone has a voice so far there are studies that support a rushed cover article you varying accounts but i want to give people the reason for enjoying the global conversation amount is iraq. the. hello again i missed. a reminder of our top stories this hour. the rules have now been agreed and us president on all trumps impeachment trial after more than 12 hours of debate republicans blocked every democratic attempt to obtain documents and new evidence trump is charged with the abuse of power and the obstruction of congress. 11 and finally has a new government with prime minister hudson naming a cabinet of specialists and academics on tuesday night it's tuesday meet in the next hour but it's also unlikely to end the months of protests. china's health ministry has warned a deadly new virus could mutate making it even more difficult to contain at least 9 people have now died and 440 cases have been confound it spread to other countries in asia the 1st case has been identified in the united states. india's supreme court has given the government 4 weeks to respond to more than 100 legal challenges to its new citizenship or the citizenship amendments act has led to weeks of protests across the country it gives persecuted minorities from 3 neighboring countries the right to apply for citizenship but it excludes muslims critics say the legislation is discriminatory and petitions were filed challenging its constitutional validity well our correspondent elizabeth brandon joins us now live from new delhi let's talk us through exactly what happened in the courtroom today. to the saucier after that more than one month of protests and the citizenship act was because of the supreme court region. ges a 3 judge bench including the chief justice of the supreme court of india began here and petitions against the war and as you mentioned they have given the indian government for weeks to respond to these petitions most of the petitions. by granting citizenship on the basis of religion that the citizenship goes against india's secular constitution the government had already been given weeks to respond to these petitions and we've already heard from you know opposition. amongst those who follow the petitions like the main opposition all india congress among many groups who say that while the government will still ready given. the government says that since it was 1st asked to respond 18 more petitions have been there are $144.00 titians so now the government has. to respond to dollars now the stasi apart from the protests that say that the north is unconstitutional that it discriminates on religious grounds they have also been protests northeastern states and they have a completely different issue but the citizenship law they receive northeastern states have received the largest number of the day she they don't want citizenship this way regardless of what religion people of they say that it goes against agreements that it has with the government the supreme court decided on that that it will hear those issues separately in 2 months and liz we've seen so many protests and so much violence around this act i'm sure today's proceedings have been watched very very closely around the country. they have been people around the country have been waiting for this day since the norm was passed the sit ins that we have seen around the country are continuing here in the capital new delhi in calcutta now which is the capital of autumn for the if the state that has seen the highest number of deaths in protests some 20 of more than 25 people have been in the state of. the west bengal chief minister the banner g has held daily rallies against the north she's continuing those today in darjeeling west bengal west bengal among 3 states who have passed which have passed resolutions at the state legislature legislature against the north something like 10 states have said that won't implemented so despite the government saying that they are going to go ahead with this there is opposition from around the country and those protests we are expecting them to continue. elizabeth per annum that live for us from new delhi thank you very much for that update as well u.n. secretary general antonio terrorises urging libya's warring sides to join foreign leaders in trying to find a diplomatic solution to the civil war the core follows sunday's summers in berlin when wild leaders pledged to end foreign meddling and help deescalate the conflict message. except finley the conclusions of the bill in summits and assume that the leadership in a situation like these is a leadership for peace is a leadership for a united libya able to be ruled by libyans in peace and security and cooperate with its neighbors in a positive way. now in colombia police and protesters have been injured during demonstrations against the president's policies hundreds of people rallied in the capital budget or reporter. as the protesters repeatedly clash with the police here in the capital in a number of cities across colombia in the 1st day of protests in 2020 a continuation of the national strike that story that's the end of november and continued almost until the end of december people is protesting for a number of reasons but today protest was called because of the continuous killing of a social leaders in the country 20 were killed since the beginning of the year practically one every day we know that in the clashes at least 90 people have been detained and at least a dozen wounded to true out today both here. and there are serious and this puts to test a new protocol that was designed by the newly elected mayor of cloudy a lot was to try and avoid violence the confrontations focusing on the use of civil mediators and trying to use and say riot police as a last force but as you can see in many cases he said the mayor has decided to use the police and their violent confrontations followed now one of the 2 psychologists credited with creating the cia's torture program has testified at guantanamo bay as part of a pretrial hearing for 5 men charged over the september 11th attacks jim mitchell defended his role in the controversial program as a matter of moral courage roslyn jordan reports. when jim mitchell was a contract psychologist for the cia he waterboard khalid sheikh muhammad 183 times on tuesday with muhammad sitting just meters away mitchell testified at the 911 pretrial hearing mitchell said his job his interrogator was to make suspected al qaeda members talk the fact that people are being held in isolation for years incommunicado from their families told that they're going to die there and lack all ordinary protections of a person in prison is outrageous mitchell said the bush administration pressured the cia and the f.b.i. to do anything and everything to prevent future attacks he said the cia persuaded him 1st to take on the case of abu zubaida and that his work with other detainees including muhammad only grew with time human rights groups say the statements detainees gave to both the cia and later the f.b.i. were given under duress and never should be used as evidence in the trial mitchell testified he knew defense lawyers are trying to keep f.b.i. statements out of this case but he chose to show up for the sake of the 911 victims and their families just before tuesday's testimony ended psychologist told the court room this let me tell you i get up today and do it again if the cia were to ask him to take part in its enhanced interrogation program mitchell returns to the stand for more testimony on wednesday roslyn jordan al jazeera guantanamo bay. well conflict poverty and natural disasters forced almost half a 1000000 afghans out of there. and desperation is sending many men to the ranks of . the western province of harrods and local authorities struggling to deal with the crisis. it's in the provincial districts the police are fighting for afghanistan's future where the bodies of members of the taliban are displayed like hunting trophies and a reassurance to rural communities that they're safe a warning to armed fighters of what to expect from others can district governor chief but in remote areas of afghanistan local officials know security does not only come from the barrel of a gun gaining the confidence of afghan people is equally important difficult on the backs they other poorest of the poor and really need a lot of help definitely these men have no other choice but to become teledyne criminals or join an insurgent group if they don't find a job we try our best to help them but the insurgents also try their best to easily recruit them despite ongoing challenges herat province is doing better than many other parts of afghanistan making it a destination for people trying to escape the 1000 year long war in their country with camps been here for 2 years the men women and children living here fled fighting in nearby provinces to the relative safety of herat but living conditions here are very basic tents are barely standing most people are exposed to the elements all the time there is no medical help and there is never enough food. places like this have become the blind spot of this conflict. unseen and unheard people here are angry. he has no idea who was in the general there is no one representing ordinary people in peace talks with the taliban so how can those talks be successful these people lost their family members but no one even came to show sympathy for them martin was born after his family came to this camp 2 years ago this winter the only place he ever knew is also where he died. all his father has left of him is a single picture on his phone. and there was a lot of snow for that day we were staying in the tents which took our child to the clinic i didn't have money for my son's treatments so we came back to the camp that night it was very cold and the next morning my son was dead the most father is worried she might be next she's been running a fever for days there's no one to turn to for help. we're living in these things no one helped us with proper tents and no one's helping us with food and went to supplies. everyone seems to have a story of a family member who's died from a preventable illness they hold out registration cards for benefits they say never come or are not enough. and that it is very cold and we are shaking because of the coat we do not have anything to keep ourselves warm people give us little time and little help. if the u.s. leaves it will get even worth afghans are already killing each other the taliban killed 4 of my family members including my husband tonight brother i fled my home with 4 children and came here americans measure the cost of the longest war in their history in the billions of dollars and in kabul and washington they're trying to negotiate a deal with the taliban that would make it possible to withdraw u.s. forces from the country. but in displacement camps all over afghanistan fathers and mothers measure the cost of the war in lost lives in basra the old just syria iraq afghanistan. iraq and this is al jazeera and these are the headlines the rules have been approved for u.s. president donald trump's impeachment trial after nearly 13 alice of debate republicans blocked every democratic attempt to obtain documents a new evidence trump is charged with the abuse of power and obstruction of congress she had her time she has more from capitol hill slowly became clear what the democrats are up to they knew this is going to happen but what they were trying to do is get as much evidence and much information on the record into the public sphere as possible in case this is their last chance to specify which witnesses they want to talk to which documents that they that they need there is another verse next week all me bring in witnesses documents. lebanon has a new government with prime minister has india naming a cabinet of specialists and academics its 1st meeting is due to begin in the next hour they are mainly backed by hezbollah and its allies which has angered protesters who want ministers without political loyalties. china's health ministry has warned a deadly new virus could mutate making it even more difficult to contain at least 9 people have now died and 440 cases have been confirmed it originated in the city of but has spread to other countries in asia and the 1st case has been identified in the united states china's government is urging 100 unst to limit any travel over the lunar new year. we advise everyone not to go to work and we advise 100 students not to leave the city and do special circumstances this will help reduce the flow of people and the risk of transmission and we've already strengthened monetary and prevention making ism's in provinces with all confirmed cases. india supreme court has given the government 4 weeks to respond to more than 100 legal challenges to its new citizenship law the citizenship amendment that sparked weeks of protests across the country it gives persecuted minorities from 3 neighboring countries the right to apply for citizenship but it excludes muslims critics say the legislation is just discriminatory and petitions were filed challenging its constitutional validity well those are the headlines join me for more news here on al-jazeera the stream stay with us. to al-jazeera we were told to get to that between russia has this been addressed by turkey we listen what is the proposal. for a couple on your we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter. our femi oke a terrorist site in new south korean film about wealth inequality has picked up dozens of awards since its release it is also in the running for a 6 oscars including best picture so what is it about the movie that's got people talking seditious thoughts or join our live chat and you too could be in a strain. of some you know and a nice relationship. with one we certainly are no problem telling them their own.