leaders in data. on the eve of its biggest annual holiday china has stepped up efforts to contain the spread of a new virus the central government's taken over managing the crisis itself bringing in measures including closing the great wall and enforcing travel restrictions the new strain of corona virus has killed at least $26.00 people across china and almost $850.00 people are infected doctors fear the infection rate could saw during what's normally the busiest time of the year for travel as hundreds of millions of people celebrate the lunar new year. and now within the last hour or so we've heard that the u.s. centers for disease control has reported 2 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the united states $63.00 people are under investigation and in thailand a 5th case has now been confirmed well the outbreak 1st emerged in who bay's provincial capital will harm its in a trance will lock down and the number of other cities in that province of also got enforced restrictions now that's affecting around 40000000 people but the virus continues to spread the 1st deaths outside of who they have now been confirmed one person has died in the hobby which borders beijing and the other in the hey long jang cases of the coronavirus are now confirmed in nearly every province of china new year celebrations have been canceled in many cities including beijing and shanghai disneyland we shut down from saturday. where the world health organization says it's not yet clear how many people are actually infected it's still too early to draw to conclusions on how severe the viruses because at the beginning of any old break you would focus more on a severe cases and you have more of those and then maybe we are missing some mild cases because people will just be a little bit sick and will not be ever tested and they will recover so as you know we may see more mild cases as surveillance intensify so it's not so much really on the numbers that we know that will will will go up but china says it will take even stricter more targeted measures to try to curb the spread scott hi lou is our correspondent in beijing. parts of the great wall have been close now to tourists and visitors because of concerns of passing along this virus from people that that really aren't showing symptoms but might be carrying the virus other news coming out of the capital here beijing today the government has now put the cabinet the government's cabinet in charge of dealing with this crisis they've also appointed the head a sars expert who led the reaction and the organisation for the combating the sars back in 2003 he is now in charge of a new group that they're putting for here again that will be controlled by the cabinet here we know that you know there are more than then a dozen cities who are in complete lockdown we know that we're getting word that reports that that even mcdonald's restaurants and 3 of these cities are on lockdown and have closed also what's very interesting is a hospital is being built in this is the epicenter of the virus now that's going to be built officials say within 6 days they broke ground late thursday night and they say that will be done early next week now this is something they did during the sars crisis as well just outside here beijing they built a hospital just to deal with cases this hospital is going to have about a 1000 beds they say but many things going on across china as are many developments on the day and this is how it unfolded. rushing to catch the last trains before the lunar new year many of these passengers at the beijing west railway station i thinking of the coronavirus i don't think this virus has been properly controlled i just came back to china i read a lot of news i'm too mad i'm not very satisfied with how the government prevented the disease they're afraid of getting infected i am really afraid of those people who are relieved and left but i do hope the situation to be proved. and those inside the city of new han are becoming more frustrated because medical supplies are running sure. and hospitals are short staffed many festivals for the lunar new year holiday have been canceled across china and not just in the central province the epicenter of the virus in a rare move the government has closed the forbidden city here in beijing over health concerns related to the coronavirus something they didn't do some 17 years ago during the sars crisis the chinese government was criticized for the way it handled the sars virus back in 2003 mainly for its lack of transparency the world health organization has decided not to declare the current outbreak a global health emergency but there's growing concern over the coming week when the millions of people who have traveled for the holiday return again raising the risk the virus may be spread further by people who are contaminated but have yet to show symptoms scott hodler al-jazeera beijing i didn't hong kong the authorities there is saying that they're investigating more than 200 suspected cases thousands of people have been turning up in the city's hospitals yesterday we have found more than 5000. and 10 this. medical been she rate is 97 percent and she is quite full but not as full as the peak of the wind this or so right now it's likely that that but we are we perceived that. the long holiday usually there will be for this. not just from the isolation but but from the other things like the fruit seem terms. of the cough the seas as well more now from our correspondent who's there in hong kong. i am at a flower market in causeway bay in central hong kong this is an annual lunar new year event but as you can see far fewer people here this year various reasons is that the virus of course and also the ongoing political protests here in hong kong now we do have more than 200 suspected virus cases here in hong kong we have 2 people confirmed with the virus and we've been hearing today from the hospital authorities of hong kong outlining the challenges they face in trying to ensure they have enough beds to cope with demand if indeed this virus spreads and continues to spread here they have been speaking to a doctor who represents 6000 doctors working in the public sector here in hong kong and she says you know in a good month occupancy rate in hospitals is about 9899 percent so she questions actually whether hong kong is capable of actually handling a major outbreak we have to remember that you know the hong kong china border is one of the busiest in the world hundreds of thousands cross backwards and forwards every day and in fact we learned tonight that more than 2002 groups from hong kong and china have now been canceled because of that as well as a number of carnivals and lunar new year festivals here in hong kong but we've been speaking to studios last hosses a geneticist and molecular biologist at northumbria university in the u.k. and he says there's no reason to panic. it's a safe statement to make there's absolutely no comparison between the break on the corona virus outbreak we have now or we have had in the past the bowler break has a fairly long incubation time 3 weeks people who get symptoms can get quite a disease the mortality rate is very high up to 50 percent sometimes higher. the current virus outbreak on the other hand has a shorter incubation time yes it transmits through the air which is actually a disadvantage but on the other hand the mortality rate compared to both has much much lower we're talking about 4 percent 3 percent which may sound like a lot you don't want to be one of those 3 in 100 people that dice however we know very well already that these are individuals who have existing severe health problems the aged are extremely young these are the people that are likely to have . lethal risk from contracting this virus most of us will just get fever usual risperidone centers. now the turkish president roger tie a better one has given more detail about how his country will support the libyan government and its months long battle with forces under the command of the warlord after the half does l n a is trying to take the capital tripoli from the internationally recognized government led by prime minister fires. well president edibles has said he is sending military personnel to train libyan forces and he made these comments at a press conference held with the german chancellor angela merkel and assemble. we are giving support to the legitimate government in libya in order to reignite the political process in giving support to the government international court in line with the resolution of the e.u. when it is not a choice but a liability couponing half to his increased his attacks in the last few days which is a clear sign he has no intention of reconciliation that i think it's important for both parties in libya to reach a compromise and we hope will take positive steps to reach a cease fire we have dealt with many do political issues that are of mutual concern to both their countries the meetings and the talks that have been held are important because we have managed to express our appreciation to turkey for hosting a lot of refugees let's get some more now from our correspondent in this damn ball jamal how. both leaders emphasized the immediate need to ensure the fragile cease fire in libya continues and that all breaches that are being. witnessed are stopped there was a synergy between the messaging coming from president roger tehran and that of chancellor angela merkel where they both said that's how star that is the warlord refused to sign the cease fire agreement in moscow and the berlin agreements and all vulnerable said that after had verb really agreed to them both without a signature that's meant nothing and they couldn't trust simply his word presidents are no one went further by saying that the international community and specifically named egypt and the united arab emirates and some european countries have to stop supporting the run again general essentially because that's is what was making the situation even more volatile he said that his country had indeed sent a military personnel to train the libyan army and that this was an internationally recognized agreement because it was done between the turkish government and the un recognized. government in tripoli with regards to syria there was a lot of emphasis there for the need to do more to protect the civilians and it lives on mentioning that over 4 and a half 1000000 civilians are under threat from bombardment from the regina of president bashar assad merkel said that a lot more needed to be done in terms of housing the refugees particularly with the bitter winter that they are experiencing now but there was frustration expressed by the turkish president that despite his country putting forward this proposal for the safe zone to be built within the syrian side of the border with turkey and the need to establish and build schools and hospitals and other institutions there that the international community particularly the usa and such an european cunt. he's. prevented that from happening and he said that it was high time that they changed their mind and actually worked as partners with the turks in order to establish that saves on finally there was some talk about relations between turkey and the european union and a new to kick start those. discussions once again albeit with little optimism being expressed by the talk of president. right to iraq where there have been several protests today and one of those in particular an antigovernment protests taking place in the heart of baghdad we're hearing now that 2 the protests have been killed let's go live to our correspondent a solid binge of aides he's been in baghdad for the day tell us more than about what appeared to be at a protest as having been killed. martin we were there a couple of hours ago at the area square it was it was very tense protesters tried to block the roads they had lot of cocktails in their hands they were burning tires in the streets as news broke of these 2 approach to protesters being killed on the mama mama bill kassam highway this is the main freeway which links to east with links to the eastern and western parts of baghdad and the key are tree which people use for their daily commute something that the protesters since saturday since monday have been trying to block off and there have been clashes with the government forces they come out in the numbers during the day blocked the highway or burn tires and the police force has been coming in hitting them with bullets as well as canisters amnesty international saying that these canisters not be used for gas canisters not be used for this dispersal of the crowd but are being aimed at the protesters head so it is being used to kill them so this is this is was the 2nd protest that was taking place in baghdad after the call by most of the other in the last few minutes he has tweeted and saying that he is disappointed by the kind of support that the protesters in tahrir square have given to him and he expected a lot more kind of support that he had given to protesters in tahrir square who are protesting not just against the government but against rampant corruption amongst the whole political elite all right thank you for that or some a binge of aide who has been at one of those protests taking place in the iraqi capital today but as he mentioned there was another demonstration taking place which attracted tens of thousands of people they've marched to demand that american forces leave the country the demonstration was called for by the country's most influential religious figure the shia cleric will try to answer and he's calling for u.s. military bases to be close and for u.s. warplanes to be banned from iraqi airspace emraan can read. wells from that demonstration i was the cool was for a 1000000 person march and many in baghdad he did the appeal from influential shia muslim cleric who looked at all so that his message is simple all americans out the march was also backed by other shia groups including could die because bulla whose leader. was killed alongside iranian general cost him so the money in last month's us missile attack other to john martin if you thought on all this gathering you see today are. the forces that will expel the occupiers the resistance groups today showing the american occupiers we are united as one body and it is real and despite some differences in point of views we unite as one with the peloton of the nadar the protest was joined by people from all over southern iraq. and our goal is to expel old occupiers we are standing for iraq against any intervention we want dignity and we want. the governments divided i mean terrible but should find it difficult to ignore such a large protest anti-government protests since october have already forced prime minister i'd love to be 10 ounces resignation he remains as caretaker pending a replacement leader a new elections the americans have said they're determined to stay in iraq and at the invitation of the iraqi prime minister one of them for the songs of this protest movement is this the chorus goes some way leon it was a 1000000 now regardless of whether a 1000000 people are here will no doubt thought up as a bonus to send his message that he wants the u.s. troops out of iraq and he's got this kind of support behind him don't call it out is there a baghdad. still to come here at al-jazeera president trump says he's ready to announce a good deal of the century for the middle east but a key player is unlikely to be in washington but it happens. we got yet more unsettled weather into the middle east at the moment the latest batch of cloud right now in the process of moving out to syria spreading across iraq going to gradually making its way over towards iran just in bits and pieces of rain here possibly with some snow as it moves over the high ground south of that quote stiff wind here in concert that's our wind setting in 20 celsius in the heat of the dail sas day here in doha make the most of that sunday's even colder a bracing 17 degrees or be some lifted dust and sand that cane wind blowing away that's really going to feel quite fresh in the process some showers a which will southern parts of iran pushing across into afghanistan as they move over the high ground the will of course turn a wintry for all the parts of africa will not say many showers in the full cost here we go want to see showers some of the wintry over the high ground of the fall north of morocco but by and large just dry and sunny across much of the reason you might just catch one of 2 showers over towards kenya maybe into uganda as we go on over the next couple of days for the south we've seen some very heavy rain into madagascar recently with some flooding those heavy downpours are set to continue over the next couple of days. frank assessments the one good thing about these bushfires usage really wiping out the politics of climate change informed opinion the economy i think is actually what's keeping damage from afloat right now critical debate sequel almost is going to bring forward the lawyers on a bogus argument is astonishingly patronize an in-depth analysis of the day's headlines this is the beginning of a new iraq of a new conscious and aware youth about stood up against an ethnic sectarian kota inside story on al-jazeera. all right time to savor the top stories here are china's governments brought in more emergency measures to try to stop the spread of a new virus transworld restrictions are affecting around 40000000 people on the eve of the lunar new year and that's usually when tens of millions of people travel the turkish president better one says his military personnel will be sent to libya to support the internationally recognized government of fires al surat he made the comments at a press conference held with the german chancellor angela merkel in istanbul. to protest as have been killed at an anti-government rally in iraq's capital baghdad police use live ammunition yeah i mean nation antic asked to disperse people from a highway. the public anger in france have a pension reform is continuing in what's become the country's longest period of strikes in 40 years tens of thousands of people are marching in the capital paris thousands of others doing exactly the same across the country the government says the reforms and necessary to make the system more sustainable but the unions say workers will lose out. now the activist grettir 30. she says is the inaction of world leaders on climate change our correspondent john holl has more now from the world economic forum in davos. according to the world economic forum the most talked about people at this year's meeting were grettir tom berg and donald trump how old is she now 17 that's what is your response to you haven't turned one from and totenberg polar opposite of the new wave of discourse that seems to have come into its own here this week about climate change about the environment even about the old ways of capitalist thinking that have always seemed so at home here in davos we must remember that as long as we do not treat this crisis as a crisis and as long as the facts and the signs are being left completely ignored then we will not be able to solve this crisis world leaders and c e o's many of them are responding with one in particular the billionaire founder of cloud computing giant sales force marc benioff the caring capitalism did this obsession that we have with maximizing profits for shareholders along. there's low do incredible inequality in a planetary emergency but among the banking giants some like citibank and goldman sachs pushed back against calls by climate activists to stop funding the biggest polluters that after greenpeace called out a number of banks represented at davos for having lent $1.00 trillion dollars to fossil fuel producers since the paris climate accord was signed in 2015 so how much of it is hypocrisy a green cloak of virtue behind which old fashioned deals are still being done on climate there are meaningful moves by some private sector leaders that will actually make a difference not only in terms of what they do but will actually force others competitors in their sectors to not be left behind so yes i find that meaningful but if you ask me is the deal making changing is capitalism dead frankly in a world where the economy is getting a little softer they're focusing more on their bottom lines this year's davos has witnessed a confrontation between the decision makers and the young who will have to live with those decisions. they may not be winning yet but their impact is growing go to hell to 0 in the swiss alps. now in washington the democrats are due to present their final arguments in president trump's impeachment trial he's accused of withholding military aid to force ukraine into digging up dirt on his rival the former vice president joe biden well president trump is denying any wrongdoing all right let's go to our white house correspondent kimberly haokip his there in washington so day 3 then the last day of the democrats on the house the impeachment managers if you like their their opportunity to present their case which is effectively the prosecution. that's right they continue to make their case that the president needs to be removed from office on the 2 articles of impeachment abuse of power and also the allegations of struction of congress but they've also encompassed and spent much of the day is the previous with arguments about the president's character that he has behaved as an imperial president and as a co-equal branch of government if that yet another reason that he should be removed from office now that bar of high crimes and misdemeanors but it's must be proven certainly this is a challenge but the argument from democrats is it's all encompassing despite the fact that it's big to address this very sort of behavior but they have to convince republicans who control that body and the challenge has been in this very lofty arguing that even. sort of sustaining the attention of those senators has been a challenge as well as for the american public and kimberly as we're talking we're seeing live picture of the president having arrived at a rally in another part of town it's a pro-life rally distances the president most definitely trying to give the impression that he's not a toll both about what's going on where you are much more concerned about inspiring his base ready for the next election. absolutely the argument from the deputy or rather the white house press secretary stephanie grisham is that the president is continuing business as usual and ignoring the impeachment inquiry that's not necessarily true he did tweet just a few moments ago read the transcripts not a new tweet we've seen it before and certainly he's keeping one eye on what's happening on capitol hill but he's also focusing on this march for life in significance the 1st time an american president has ever physically appeared to address supporters usually they've done it remotely why is this president so concerned well he needs their support to try to win reelection he made a major can play impress a major campaign pledge in 2016 to appoint judges that could potentially undo a very divisive supreme court ruling back in 1973 legalizing abortion that's what this march is a response to and so these supporters are saying thanks for that but if we support you in 2020 we're to need another supreme court judge so we're watching very carefully to see what the president says about this he's had a lot of criticism in the last few months and particularly from some christian evangelicals that are concerned about his moral character he certainly had to make some amends with this group and we'll be watching carefully to see if he does that and what he says in terms of future promises for 2020 if he's reelected all right for now kimberly thank you very much now sudan's government signed a peace agreement with the s.p. and that's a rebel group the forms part of a larger peace plan the blue nolen so cool to find regions the sudanese people's liberation movement has been fighting the government says 2011 just before south sudan gained its independence from sudan the tools to train the rebels in the transitional government began last november almost 400000 people have been displaced by the conflict. the president trump says he'll release is peace plan for israel and palestine by choose say israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his rival benny gantz the jew in washington next week palestinians already rejected the so-called deal of the century christian salumi has more from washington. we know that the trumpet ministration has been working on this deal for 3 years with the president's son in law jared cushion our senior advisor taking the lead on the negotiations we know that president trump would really like to deliver on this campaign promises in the middle of an impeachment. exercise here in the united states it's an election year and he considers himself a deal maker and he has said that peace in the middle east would be the deal of all deal so there's a lot of incentive from the administration to get something done here as far as the details though don't have a lot of information at this point we know that there's an economic component and a political component to the deal the economic component was announced by kushner back over the summer he said $50000000000.00 in economic development package politically though the united states has already made concessions to israel they recognize jerusalem as israel's capital moved the u.s. embassy there over the summer just recently secretary of state my pump aoe said that the united states would no longer consider israeli settlements in the west bank illegal all of this opening tradition in the u.s. for a long time international agreements international law these were issues that were supposed to be part of final status negotiations in the united states kind of unilaterally moved ahead and took sides with israel now we have prime minister netanyahu talking about annex in part of the west bank and so there's been some speculation some reporting that that could be the next phase of something that the united states is considering it that may be what the palestinians were warning against. my rise it's obvious take a look at the top stories here though jazeera on the eve of its biggest annual holiday china has stepped up if it is to contain the spread of a new virus the central government has taken to the. and is meant of the crisis bringing in new measures including closing the great wall and implementing travel restrictions a new strain of corona virus has killed at least $26.00 people across china and almost $850.00 infected it's still too early to draw the conclusions on how severe the viruses because at the beginning of any old break you would focus more on a severe cases and you have more of those and then maybe we are missing some mild cases because people will just be a little bit sick and will not be ever tested and they will recover so as you know we may see more mild cases as syrians intensify so there is not so much really on the numbers that we know that will will will go up president pratibha a better one says he's sending military troops to libya to support prime minister fires also raj he made the announcement at a joint news conference held with the german chancellor angela merkel in istanbul the warlow to leave i have to started an offensive in april to seize the capital tripoli from the u.n. recognize government to protest as have been killed at an anti-government rally in iraq's capital baghdad police use live ammunition and tear gas to disperse demonstrators who were blocking the highway in a separate protests in baghdad iraq has turned out in large numbers to demand the exit of american forces it was in response to a call by the country's most influential religious figure the shia cleric knocked out al solder so dan's government has signed a peace agreement with a rebel group as part of a larger peace plan for blue nile and south kordofan regions all right jump to date for now those are the latest headlines coming up next here it out is there it's inside story. china is stepping up efforts to contain a new corona virus outbreak but people abroad have already been affected so are these efforts enough or is the world witnessing the start of a global epidemic this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm. trying is reporting people with corona virus outside the epicenter of the outbreak have now died this is health authorities fear around the world the infection rate could increase during what's usually china's busiest travel period of the year hundreds of millions of chinese are preparing to celebrate the lunar new year although beijing has canceled all 'd public celebrations and as the death toll rises more countries are taking their own precautions scott hi there has me.