Dead from the corona Virus Outbreak and the number of infection has jumped to nearly one found 6. Turkey has shot down 2 syrian warplanes in rebel held a province syrian state media says both pilots managed to escape and turkeys defense minister has announced Operation Spring shield a new campaign aimed at driving Syrian Government troops out of the socalled buffer zone near the shared border lets get the latest. On turkeys border with syria. The tensions are escalating between these 2 countries bring us up to speed with whats been happening in it live for us. It is indeed an escalation in the confrontation between turkey and russia the turkey and syria story and with this syria with the turkish army saying that it is determined to continue its campaign in it live describing it as an act of selfdefense and retaliation for the death of 34 soldiers on thursday there was an ng as a a face off between syria and turkish fighter jets in that encounter 2 warplanes 2 syrian warplanes were shot down in a day of province also defense batteries were destroyed in live there is a continued pattern of targeting of syrian army is positions stands vehicles have the weaponry in it live brothers and this explains the biggest gains made by the opposition over the last few days in the province what about fighting ounce way in syria has been reports of a government offensive and province which of course considered the birthplace of the uprising in syria tell us about what else youre hearing. Thats in the city of asuna main in the province and it was a rebel stronghold until 2016 when when russia brokered a reconciliation do that pave the way for the Syrian Government to administer that territory in exchange for the rebels of pull out their have their weaponry from the city but the problem is that this is the deal was always fragile and the people there didnt trust the Syrian Government there were clashes clashes issues from time to time until today when the Syrian Military decided its about time to sweep into the city and take it over but we do understand from our sources that the city over Southern Maine is still under the under the control of the rebels was to hold the ground and the reason why the Syrian Government wants to take over the city is because of the symbolism of what happened there is the birthplace of the 2 1011. 00 uprising of the government wants to show that the momentum is no longer in favor of the rebels if you go a little bit further north to was the southern part of lip thats another story heavy fighting underway the rebels backed by turkey making significant gains they have manners also to divert some of the military gains made by the syrian army over the last few days that that wouldnt have been possible had it not been for the biggest involvement of the Turkish Military and its support for the Syrian Rebels thank you hashem for that update reporting live from her on the turkey syria border meanwhile thousands of refugees and migrants many of whom have fled the fighting in syria continuing to gather at greeces land border with turkey the greek Prime Minister has called in a meeting of the National Security council to deal with the crisis Greek Security forces have prevented 10000 people from entering over the past day the surge in numbers follows turkey decision on its borders to europe Greek Police Say more than 500 refugees and migrants also arrived on the greek islands close. Mr turkey on sunday the e. U. Border and Coast Guard Agency or frontex has already deployed hundreds of its staff to greece and bulgaria and is looking to deploy even more in response to aljazeera as questions the agency said we are monitoring the situation closely and of raise the level for all borders with turkey to hi were also monitoring the situation in cyprus says say we are in close and Constant Contact with the greek authorities regarding Additional Support we can provide in this rapidly evolving situation. Is in a d. N. A. On turkeys border with greek she says the situation is increasingly desperate for people trying to cross the border. For about 45 minutes we could hear sound bombs just to give you some contacts this road behind me leads to the official checkpoint with greece greek police were firing tear gas at refugees and migrants at the border who were throwing stones at them theyve been caught in a no mans land able to cross the turkish official border but in between a spot unable to cross the greek border and it has been a very tense and frustrating few days for people who say turkey told us the borders are open you can leave and go to europe but they say we are cold we have no food we have no shelter and were not being allowed to leave a government spokesman has said as of a short time ago that since turkey opened its borders more than 80000 people have left turkey for europe now those numbers are being questioned by people on the ground given the great resistance theyre facing and difficulty theyre having attempting to cross the government Spokesman Says that the government has modified its policy it will no longer be preventing Syrian Refugees or any other migrants from leaving and instead it shifting its focus and its limited resources to formulating a contingency plan in the event there is an influx of Syrian Refugees from the government spokesman adding that it does not have the resources to accommodate an influx considering that it already is host to 3700000 Syrian Refugees the Spokesman Says that it is time for europe to take action it cannot handle this challenge alone and John Psaropoulos continues our coverage now from the greek island of les pauls the main entry point for refugees and migrants coming to the from the agency. A single boat load of refugees is escorted to the shores of less force high winds have likely prevented many others from crossing but they are forecast to die down and more boats are expected to come all who arrive end up here in moria camp there are 22000 people here 7 times what it was built for and many have to find space among the olive groves most are from afghanistan theyve escaped war and death but many say they havent found life here there are no formal schools so 14 year old 4 operates his familys stand selling fruit and vegetables is morea good not good. Red. Maybe a small maybe that people here have little to do but wait for their asylum applications to be decided upon and their wait has just become much longer a new asylum law took effect at the beginning of the year that fast tracks new applications so the trajectory applicants can be sent back to turkey as quickly as they arrive but that discriminates against people like these who arrived as a family 5 months ago we head into the smart. 26. But they dont take him to see the only take in tales from the people this year and you have until you 10 months in exile turkey agreed to take back her attorneys in a 2016 statement signed with the European Union and the greek government says it plans to return at least 10000. 00 people this year but whether turkey will all of that agreement in the current Political Climate is an open question so the greek governments entire refugee strategy now hangs in the balance many local people say they have little faith in this new policy. Owns. One of the olive groves next to moria that i should parish that your year ago the refugees were chopping limbs of trees to cook with but we can still harvest a few olives this year was a bumper crop but we couldnt pick a single olive my land was burned twice then they pitched a few tens onto the burned patch and soon after the land just filled up with tents. The government is using less force as a holding area but many greeks fear that if turkish president or a chapter you threaten flood of refugees becomes a reality the European Union could try and use their country as a buffer zone for the rest of the continent John Psaropoulos aljazeera lesbos u. S. Secretary of state my pump says his hopeful talks between the Afghan Government and the taliban wales daunte in the coming days earlier deal signed between the u. S. And the Afghan Taliban appeared to be hitting a stumbling block afghanistans president ashraf ghani said the government did not commit to releasing 5000. 00 taliban prisoners and it cannot be a precondition for talks with a group to him it is in kabul with more of what president danny had to say. In less than 24 hours president went from praising the agreement signed by due u. S. And the taliban as a stepping stone towards peace and stability in afghanistan you know saying that he refused certain aspects of that agreement president when he was referring to prisoners that is part of that agreement about 5000 taliban held in afghan jails versus a 1000 afghans held in taliban jails well president said that its way too soon to talk about this that he was not part of that agreement and this is what he had to say. That there was a request regarding the release of told on prisoners but it can only be part of negotiations and it cannot be preconditions for starting be in traffic and negotiations also there must be no issue of good will because the Afghan Nation must be assured that whoever is going to be released will not stand against it one day and he says that india and maybe a good idea would be to put this to the Afghan People in a referendum and have them decide what this country so certainly these are words that would not bode well with the white house would not bode well with the u. S. He is due to come back here to kabul in the coming days to try to bridge the gap between the politicians here in the country and to as he had said to ease or to help in this process of releasing the detainees. The former director of Global Engagement in the white house under president barack obama he says the u. S. Rushed the deal. This is an example of how the Trump Administration has played fast and loose when it comes to these kind of negotiations whether its with afghanistan whether its with iran or north korea they are putting the show before the substance there was an interest i think in the white house to get that picture and to get the boost from the appearance of progress on the ground in afghanistan releasing half of the taliban prisoners before you even get to the stage of negotiations is i think diplomatic malpractise you simply dont do that when in the Obama Administration we released 5 taliban prisoners in exchange for an american soldier there was uproar from the likes of the Republican Party here in the u. S. So the notion that youre releasing 100 times that i think should concern the Afghan Government and i i really have to ask a lot of questions about how involved they were in this negotiation if you look at the statement out of london they too were somewhat cautious somewhat concerned with this agreement i am not sure that the Trump Administration did their Due Diligence went around and consulted the appropriate parties before doing a big show in doha yesterday. Hi still ahead on aljazeera i will tell you how one of virus concerns are impacting congregations in asias most catholic country. And its back to the pulse of voters nature and as Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu tries for a 3rd time to form a majority government. Have youre about to feel look cold of whats to be late winter i want as many of you with you at home should look at tokyo for example although we still got a northerly breeze in the snow visible in north korea navy for 2nd coming across the sea towards Northern Home sure the temp has now dropped in tokyo to 10 whereas its not been that levo despite the snows been on the slopes to your west the rain is gone through theres not much rain left and again northern honshu is to focus snow at height snow levels low levels of the current there. For china as more rain gathering is gathering in the southwest and the Higher Ground across in vietnam as well it will spread eastwards it might just affect hong kong its not really in the yangtze we would expect to be at the moment i mean beijing the breeze is enough to keep the arrows of the creatives to 10 degrees been there for a couple of weeks not months or wet season rain is pretty widespread her in the days you know and the lazier but its focus is about to change whilst there will be widespread showers through java this is an interesting Area Development here mostly of the sea but not entirely so for borneo so the way sea and southern parts of the philippines thats a wet area in the next day or 2 whereas further west in sumatra thats in malaysia its dry. Chinese authorities the putting those they say that committed a crime and change but they show trials or genuine confession. When i went east investigating. On al jazeera. Its the key that will define the democratic race for the white. States to make eventually its you should challenge donald trump in the president ial election joining us for american super tuesday. Special coverage on al jazeera. Welcome back our top stories on aljazeera syrian state media say 2 Fighter Pilots are safe after turkish warplanes shot down their jets in rebel held in the province turkeys defense minister has announced Operation Spring shield a new campaign aimed at pushing Syrian Government troops out of the socalled buffer zone near the shed border meanwhile greeces Prime Minister has called a meeting of the National Security council a sounds of refugees and migrants gather at its land border with turkey this comes after turkish president erdogan said he would not stop people from going into europe and the u. S. Secretary of state my compare has said he is hopeful that talks between the Afghan Government and the taliban will begin in the coming days he also says President Donald Trump will be actively involved in ensuring the conditions of a deal signed by the u. S. And the taliban on saturday are met. Iran has reported 11 more deaths from corona virus raising the total to 54. 00 the highest number outside of Mainland China the number of new infections has increased close to 1000. 00 cases Irans Health Ministry is dismissing claims the totals are much higher our correspondent zain bazarov easy in tehran he says the outbreak is having a major impact on daily life and the economy. Stores shops cafes restaurants all around the city wherever you go you can see signs posted on windows of closed closed businesses saying that they are closed indefinitely due to the coronavirus and those few restaurants that do remain open some businesses have to remain open and the on the tables at all of these restaurants youll find a bottle of Hand Sanitizer sitting right next to ketchup bottles so thats really when i say new normal thats sort of how its playing out in everyones daily lives this is a city of around 10 to 15000000 people 20000000 by some estimates and really the traffic on the streets has almost completely died down you dont see the same level of People Movement that you would on any sort of sort of normal business day a lot of people who arent out and about you know the streets are empty schools are closed businesses are closed many people are communicating how theyre experiencing this virus on social media you see people posting videos of medics burying those that have died instead of family members to avoid any further risk of contracting the disease hospital workers are trying to keep their spirits up by dancing but they do take it seriously theyre also talking about how short staffed and short handed they are in terms of supplies to deal with this and people are also sharing clips of people collapsing on the street unable to breathe the young and the elderly the most likely to succumb to these problems but it has to be said the coronavirus is also exacerbated by the fact that were seeing more and more pollution that iran is one of the most polluted kind of cities in the world d and that is certainly having an effect on people susceptible to the disease. Now u. S. Vice president mike pence says Clinical Trials for a Coronavirus Vaccine will start in 6 weeks but has warned about seeing wont be publicly available for some time and it was put in charge of americas Coronavirus Response by President Donald Trump who is calling for calm after announcing the 1st coronavirus death in the United States the u. S. Is banning all child will tevanian rocking entry to anyones been there whove been there in the past 2 weeks out of here is over a corner virus spread have had a dramatic impact on Church Attendance in the philippines home to the largest Roman Catholic community in asia wanna be the no reports from the capital manila. No touching no contact. In sunday best services all over the philippines eases only predominantly Roman Catholic country common practices such as Holding Hands while singing in prayer. Or offering ones cheek to another as a sign of peace are discouraged because of the coronavirus risk its a big good saying for us because here in the philippines and people congregate together in religious services and a lot of people come together especially during this time of lent all over asia governments are increasingly limiting gatherings of large crowds in some places school surplused Public Events cancelled. South korea where the corona Virus Outbreak is suspected to have originated in a religious meeting. Catholic church has suspended sunday services for the 1st time in more than 200 years on the korean peninsula. That isnt this area in the philippines cest catholic leadership but and keep you are no longer a rear sight in some churches. This church in manila chinatown is usually full on sundays with people sometimes having to standing right by the entrances but for weeks now many churchgoers in this community have not been attending mass as a precaution against a growing a Virus Outbreak those who opt not to go to church however are finding other ways to fulfill their spiritual needs are the foothold now watch this sunday worship online sort of going to church. A lot of people would say oh yeah youre getting sick just pray about it right but its even in our church we would say you still have to go to a doctor right so it doesnt mean that if you have faith its everything that you should just stand on you have to have faith but you also have to act on the on your face. Considering himself developed christian he says skipping church shouldnt be seen as compromising his space specially when its to protect family members born to below aljazeera manila. And chooses a big day in the race for the white house more than 1500 delegates are up for grabs on super tuesday 30 percent of those are in the state of california a big win that could put a candidate in prime position to win the democratic partys nomination rob reynolds reports from los angeles. Were. University students on the march for Bernie Sanders in los angeles showing the enthusiasm many young people have for the vermont senator as the one known for his block with hispanic who is my hero i believe hes the only candidate that truly looks out for here in the biggest most diverse state in the u. S. Let tito voters are a crucial voting bloc i feel like hes the only candidate who has other countries in mind nearly 30 percent of the states eligible voters are letting you know and the vast majority vote democratic absolutely letting us have the power to shape outcomes but none of the candidates can afford to take let tino votes for granted direct contact is key to poc and door knock and outreach to the latino electorate thats important for a place like california its a huge robust state but you still have to blame here polls show sanders leading by a wide margin in california followed by Elizabeth Warren with joe biden a distant 3rd the senators campaign would like to repeat its winning formula from nevada last month it put together a coalition of liberal whites young people and latinos polls show 3 quarters of registered lets you know voters are ready and eager to vote in the primary with its multiple large urban areas california is an expensive place to campaign multiple high dollar media markets right and its a big state right so youve got to think about barry got san diego and l. A. Are separate markets so youre talking about a lot of media spending billionaire Michael Bloomberg saturated california airwaves with ads but he has little to show for it hes only polling in the single digits. Early voting is been underway in parts of california for more than a week a big win in the west would not give sanders all of the 1891 delegates he need to win on the 1st ballot at the Democratic Convention in july but it could provide him with a lead that the other candidates might find almost impossible to surmount robert oulds al jazeera los angeles. Now the role of americas Jewish Community coming election Takes Center Stage at a major conference in washington d. C. Its an event where many high profile politicians have sought support but senator Bernie Sanders who is jewish says he wont attend. Every year the American Israel Public Affairs committee for apac who see huge conference in the Nations Capital almost 20000. 00 people in an audience highly polished production on stage the focus always the speakers many of whom are washingtons most powerful politicians in both democratic and republican they show up and it shows a pac is a Political Force and there will be powerful democrats there with one notable exception i am very proud to be jewish and look forward to being the 1st jewish president this. Democratic president ial front runner senator Bernie Sanders is not only refusing to go hes slamming the organization on twitter writing i remain concerned about the platform apac provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic palestinian rights apec responded tweeting back in part that it was quote in a raid just comment about what they labeled a mainstream bipartisan event but American University professor guise of believe support for israel in the us is becoming a partisan issue and it and yahoo has a big role to play here because he in 2012 invited the. Romney during the president ial election to israel and host and as a way to endorse him over obama a few years later in 2015 march the snow comes here and delivers that speech to a joint session of congress in which he tried to. Scuttle the Iran Nuclear Deal which was the president s signature Foreign Policy achievement and to some it seems even more so now given the close ties between the current republican President Donald Trump and Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu. The divide was on full display with this television at bernies a great guy but he just cant run by a group of prominent democratic supporters of israel openly campaigning against sanders who could become the 1st jewish nominee for a major party the at stuff when he became the front runner and its who he appeals to the could be the greatest concern over the long term hes garner in the most support among young people who are well aware of this issue and his concerns although needing epstein editor in chief of moment magazine a publication focused on American Jews says that fear of turning young people could be overblown i see a lot of young people are very interested in war and then dont forget there are a lot of conservative young people and i see a lot of people talking about young people talking about clothes i see them talking about bloomberg most analysts say over the long term if apec is going to keep the kind of influence it needs to have bipartisan support trying to strike a balance this year with elections looming in both countries will be more of a challenge than ever before. Aljazeera washington. And monday is a general another general election day in israel for the 3rd time in 11 months israelis have had a caretaker government since april and some fear family its a reach it can result Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu is again facing his main rival benny gantz of the blue and white body how to fossett has more from western on who is leading the mates opinion. I think most israelis just want this ongoing grinding electoral might to finally come to some kind of conclusion it has been interesting in the last week or so weve seen Benjamin Netanyahu for the 1st time in a while his likud party taking even a narrow lead in the opinion polls but still those polls not showing enough of a decisive margin either way to get to the magic number in the Israeli Parliament the knesset 61 required seats required to form a Coalition Government im joined by a bit of client list and pollster Mitchell Barak mitchell where are we in the political horse race at the moment any prospect that netanyahu might get over the line this time well theres a saying in a row weve been in this movie before and weve actually been in this movie twice before in the year so you know its not clear what is interesting about this election as opposed to last 2 is right before the election netanyahu looks like hes leading which may not be the best place for him he likes to scare people that hes going to lose hes losing the election if they dont get out and vote now they have a different tactic because they seem to be leading in the polls that they have some momentum going and now theyre fighting for people that either will stay home because they think his victory is assured or theyll vote for one of the smaller parties in the block because they believe hes hes going to be the Prime Minister or he has the best chance anyway. Clearly and im fully back to bill with the headlines on aljazeera syrian state media say 2 Fighter Pilots are safe to take his war pains shot down their jets in rebel held deadly problem and turkeys defense minister has announced Operation Spring share of a new campaign aimed at pushing Syrian Government shills out of the socalled buffer zone near the border meanwhile greeces Prime Minister has called a meeting of the National Security council less thousands of refugees and migrants gather. And this land border with turkey this comes after president erdogan said he would not stop people from going into europe 10000 people have been stopped from entering greece in the past 24 hours u. S. Secretary of state michael in palest says hes hopeful talks between the Afghan Government and the taliban will begin in the coming days he also says president will be actively involved in ensuring the conditions of a deal signed by the u. S. And the taliban on saturday on it earlier the agreement appeared to hit a stumbling block afghanistans president ashraf ghani saying the government did not commit to releasing 5000 taliban prisoners and that it cannot be a precondition for talks with the group a prisoner swap was part of the us taliban accords. Toplessness should then there was a request regarding the release of told one prisoners but it can only report of negotiations and it cannot be preconditions for starting be in traffic and negotiations also there must be no issue of goodwill because the Afghan Nation must be assured that whoever is going to be released will not stand against. Iran has reported 11 more deaths from coronavirus raising the total to 54. 00 the highest number outside of Mainland China a number of infections new infections has increased close to 1000. 00 cases Irans Health Ministry is dismissing claims the totals are much higher u. S. Vice president mike pence says Clinical Trials for a coronavirus virus will start in 6 weeks but has warned of vaccine wont be publicly available for some time President Trump is calling for calm after announcing the 1st corner virus death in the u. S. In the u. S. Is banning all travel to iran and blocking entry to anyone was visiting there in the past 2 weeks do not travel warning sue for south korea and parts of italy in terms considering closing the border with mexico which has 4 confirmed cases those are the headlines want to any says next on august there. When chinese authorities clamp down on what they see as a wanted or a legal activity. They knowingly make the must they pressure the accused to confess until it is all lawyers who called this act and. That the right of the state media. Often before any formal conviction on this episode of one i want any reinvestigate chinese public confession of a real or just to show. Their feelings. I apologize for syria for this very sorry