still the epidemic plus the environmental damage of drilling for oil in the republic of polk county the cost. coronavirus numbers continue to spiral with a 2nd m.p. dying in iran and a ruling party leader among the thousands infected in italy this is a 5 story hotel being used to quarantine people collapses in china trapping dozens . allow i maryam namazie and london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up on the program lebanon to default on a $1200000000.00 loan payment due on mondays its economic crisis deepens. and

3 senior saudi princes are reportedly arrested for plotting a coup including the king's younger brother and the form a crown prince. allowed welcome to the program as a number of global coronavirus cases hovers around 100000 the number of cases in certain hotspot countries is continuing to cause concern iran's death toll is reported to have reached 145 with a conservative m.p. among the 21 who died in the last day and more than 5 and a half 1000 people infected numbers are rising to across europe the leader of one of a city's ruling party is among the 5883 now confirmed as infected a rise of more than a 1000 in one day 253 have died there all together and in china a hotel in the city of which was housing people who had contact with virus patients

has collapsed 30 people are still trapped in that wreckage katrina you has more on this now from beijing. this hotel is located in the city of 27 for jen province and the collapse happened in early evening around dinner time trapping about 70 people including people who we know were being monitored because they were in close contact with corona virus patients now the province of food yet has about 300 coronavirus cases but it's monitoring an isolated in quarantine thousands more people known to be linked to those cases for monitoring by medical authorities we know that they had been put in this hotel since about need february now we know that emergency teams as you said a working to pull out people and so far they've succeeded in pulling out dozens of people we're also getting some more information about the hotel itself it's not actually a very old building it was only built in 2018 it's a steel structure about 5 to 8 stories and we know that the hotel occupied at the

heart of the building in the lower level had some stores and shops located below it it's still unclear at this stage exactly what has caused this collapse but we do know from witness accounts that when it did collapse it sounded like an explosion. well iran has banned group presence spending major events and reduced working hours across the country to slow the outbreak it's now spread to all 31 provinces as well as infecting and killing a number of current and former politicians. ravi is enteron this as a despite the situation there many people are ignoring advice from the authorities . they're definitely trying to do whatever they can to convince people to listen to the advice that they are given that's really been the biggest challenge from senior leadership here in iran in terms of combating this corona virus ever since the outbreak was publicly announced ever since it began in rome last month now if you speak to iranians even those that do believe the government then the recent poll by

a number of them in the civil authority here in town iran estimates that only 50 percent of the people are truly concerned about this is a public health crisis even if you speak to iranians who might wish to follow the government's advice to the letter they say they simply can't afford it even if they might like to stay indoors and not open their shops not carry on with their businesses many shops are closed many are not one business operator i spoke with said that he worries that shutting down his business will not only laying off workers but because of the economic impact over a long period of time of the coronavirus and having to shut things down it might mean that he'll never be able to open his business again taxis are available on the streets but when you get in most drivers are wearing gloves and masks and they provide you with hand sanitizer and will spray your hands before you start the journey or as much of a service to their passengers as a way to protect themselves really iranians will tell you that they simply can't

afford for life not to go on as normal and that is something that the government has been aware of ever since this outbreak began. elsewhere chile has drafted a decree with restrictive measures for new areas in northern italy after reported another massive rise in cases with more than $1200.00 new infections in one day says who's fighting a cold himself has cancelled public appearances and will deliver his regular sunday pret to crowds at the vatican by lifestream instead comes as a senior italian politician announce that he has contract at the virus the cole who leads one of the 2 parties in the ruling coalition says he will be isolating himself at home. and. so it is arrived i have grown a virus to obviously be monitored like everybody else in the situation feel fine i'm so used to society that whole be isolated at home also my family's falling all

the protocols the situations. contacting all the people who are close to me at work to be interviewed and to be checked really well for more on what's happening. across europe i'm joined by sonicare go and that politician there seemed actually quite relaxed as he was delivering his message but looks as though the quarantine measures and are being stepped up well indeed and this is a sign that the government is taking this very seriously and although the country shouldn't be fooled by that it is classically understated way of putting these things they have been setting up a draft to creepy on saturday with that the one of the top lines of note really is that the decree is is issuing asking people not to enter or leave the region of lombardy now long body is one of the cradles of the italian economy that is going to cause a huge effect on the cheese economy which is already battling

a recession in itself not only that it's not just lombardi that's affected but veneta again another very big economic a commie for the italian for italy as well also the regions of a media game and people want all of this is focused up in the north of course that we've seen that coronaviruses started off there but it has been making its way gradually throughout the country down to the south especially cause of concern in the south because their health care system there is not as well equipped to deal with this as it is in the north as well so really the government is trying to see if it can stop this contagion as far as it can what are we seeing elsewhere in europe well we're seeing pretty much it's going by the trend of affecting not just the cases. of people who have covered 1000 but also the death rates as well in france as well they've confirmed that 16 people have died from covert 19949 cases have been recorded there as well they have been putting in new measures

including closing of schools in the worst affected regions in the north and in the east in was in or even in germany you've got $684.00 cases as well although interestingly enough the country has no reported deaths as well but it's also been affecting spain as well for example you've got one town in the north in the letter your whole region which is already being put under quarantine because of a neighborhood which has displayed quite a few cases of this that also linking to a funeral which has taken place there were 60 people were also contaminated with covert 1000 there is thank you very much and i go updating us on the state of play here in europe well meanwhile 21 people on a cruise ship that's been barred from docking in san francisco have tested positive for corona virus u.s. vice president might says only about 50 people of the 3 and a half 1000 passengers and crew of been tested so far the grand princess will now be taken to a noncommercial port where more tests will take place while

a man who contract in the virus on the vessel sister ship the diamond princess which was held at a port in japan last month has died he is the 7th person from that ship to dive coronavirus let's get the latest from patty call him who's joins us live now from washington and as we're hearing just their numbers are rising here in europe what are we seeing in terms of the spread of the virus there in the u.s. . well we believe it's now in 28 states but don't expect those numbers to jump necessarily immediately here in the united states we expect they will eventually but here's the problem the federal government's response when it comes to creating the test has been what critics call devastating in its inefficiency basically the centers for disease control 1st was and responsible for creating the test they did they sent it out found out it didn't work so then they retool that test and then they started to send it out but they said only people had recently traveled to china could get tested what that meant was all over the country there were people

who were sick going to their doctor saying ok i'm sick i don't have the flu i've had that test give me the test for the corona virus and the c.d.c. said no you can't have the test so than those people would go back out in their community so we do expect now that the tests are starting to roll out people are being tested that the numbers are going to jump dramatically how much so well we don't know because unlike every other epidemic in the past the c.d.c. always put out the numbers of people being tested they're not doing that now this goes along with the trump administration's whole strategy to say it's under control this is contained go about your business what is the backdrop there will this surprise it who wants to be reelected and his main argument has been look at the economy look at the stock market not so much talking about the stock market now since it has plummeted over the last couple of weeks and the economic impact of this could be huge partially very uniquely for the united states one of the issues

could be this is a country that workers don't universally have sick time meaning they don't go to work they don't get paid that is especially impactful for low income workers these are people who work in the food service industry to name just one so they could easily be spreading the virus because even though they're sick they can't afford to not work in the same problem for many of those people if they don't have health insurance so they can't necessarily afford the test. we're talking about 27500000 people in this country who don't have the insurance likely don't have the money to be able to go to the doctor and say here i'll pay for it do i have the coronavirus and if they do did they have the ability to stay home so that is the situation here in the united states the administration said they have the message that anyone who wants to get tested can get tested that is just now becoming the realities so we don't know how widespread this is in the country we do know is it is going to spread and those numbers are going to jump regardless of what the administration wants to say about it thank you from washington patty call hain meanwhile in asia

infections are still rising across the region there particularly south korea which now has more than 7000 cases and 46 deaths so the largest number of infections outside of china where the outbreak began and authorities have started restricting the sale of surgical masks they view gopalan is monitoring the situation from hong kong. usually a factory racing to keep up with demand for its products would be good news but at this mosque production center in south korea it is an indication of a desperate situation with corona virus infection rates increasing by the hundreds daily this factories operating 24 hours a day but it's still contrary not the mosques fast enough the government has banned all exports of surgical masks and is limiting their sales to 2 a week a person home or all this is the 1st time i've cute for a mosque i've passed by here several times but they didn't happen for me. south

korea has the 2nd highest number of coronavirus cases after china with more than 7000 infections more than half of them are linked to a religious group in the southern city of daegu whose members had visited the chinese city of han in february the government has thrown its resources behind fighting the virus calling it a war but south korea is struggling to contain it hospitals in daegu are overwhelmed i'm one of the thoughts they've got a number of the medical staff are being quarantined and so there isn't enough manpower or resources also there aren't enough supplies don't even with all the large number of infections has prompted nearly 100 nations to impose curbs on travelers from south korea but containing the spread is proving difficult across land or water and egyptian river boat has become the latest vessel to report a cluster of infections $100.00 foreign tourists who were on a nile cruise are being kept in for 19 in the southern city of luxor after 12 crew

members tested positive for corona virus new cases are surfacing in new places every day with at least $98.00 countries and territories now reporting infections the world health organization has called on countries to take measures to fight the outbreak so far double is joe has received a plea conditions for review and approval. detests joined the ranks humans are in development and many clinical trials of therapeutic are underway the virus is believed to have a originated in the chinese city of han it came to international attention in december as infection rates soared weeks later the chinese government imposed a lockdown in cities and provinces across the country affecting hundreds of millions of people and it's proved effective this week china reported its lowest daily rate of infections china seems to have a handle on the current a virus outbreak saying that it is managing to stem the spread of the virus but now

it is facing another challenge getting the economy back on its feet on saturday it announced that exports which make up a 5th of the country's g.d.p. had dropped nearly 20 percent in january and february the same lock down measures which have helped to contain the virus have hurt businesses analysts say china's economy could shrink for the 1st time since the 1970 s. there you go paul in august 0 hong kong. so i have for you on the program as battle to stop more people crossing the border there's a growing backlash against those helping refugees on less bombs. and water shortages add to existing hardship says zimbabwe softening its worst drought in years.

but. we're hanging on to that mobile westerly fade now weather across europe so there is of cloud and brian continuing to tumble in from the atlantic this next weather system bringing some break down polls for a time when those flood affected parts of western england in particular and the date across races on all of wales more blustery showers are rolling through with this area of low pressure placing away just around grayson parts of the balkans and that will also bring some wet weather some wintry weather blustery showers pushing a further east was. just sliding across france through the low countries which was germinates ward's denmark sinking further south was a fair bit of snow coming in on monday across the alps and right sleet and snow down to the southeast and coldest still persisting as well some very strong winds at times easing over into western parts of turkey whisk of some flooding coming through here fabric of course it's continues up towards the northwest we'll see more wet weather coming in here but down to the southwest of it not bad in madrid

temperatures at about 18 celsius with plenty of sunshine and plenty of sunshine to cost more than parts of africa a few showers just around the northeast of algeria northern parts of china most is fine and dry but more the way of showers there for the gulf of guinea. al jazeera well it's remarkable refugee journeys from the treacherous path of sudanese emmanuel jal to climb the ski cross child soldiers in the least 60 people music is the place where you become a child this is where i can get to the london designer from c.r.u. place in clay this is the one thing that i know that god has gifted village a hard road from home music and fashion on al-jazeera.

of american with al jazeera live from london a look at headlines 30 people are still trapped after a building being used for coronavirus quarantine in china collapsed emergency services have been working through the night to rescue people from the hotel in the city of. iran the number of cases there is jumped by more than a 1000 to nearly 6145 have died including a 2nd member of parliament. or why are was only elected last month. and italy has recorded its biggest daily increase in cases with an additional 1200 discovered. is incorrect he who needs it one of the 2 parties in the ruling coalition is among those confirmed to have the phone. without some news from

lebanon the prime minister saying his government will not be able to make a foreign debt payment of $1200000000.00 sandy made the announcement in a televised address to the nation described lebanon's currency reserves as dangerously low and said he would prioritize spending to meet people's basic needs payment due on monday is just a fraction of the country's $91000000000.00 foreign debt. that blew all the money to who and today we face a huge obligation a debt of $1200000000.00 which is due in 2 days our conscience mandates we must act with integrity to protect our national interest and our people but our hard currency reserves have reached a critical low as a result lebanon is forced to default forthcoming march 9th obligation on the euro bond these funds must be channeled to secure the basic necessities for the lebanese people. 3 senior saudi princes are reported to have been detained by mosque men in

a major security crackdown which suggests a new power battle in the kingdom they are prince ahmed been under lizzie's who is the younger and only surviving full brother of king solomon the king's nephew mohammed bin nayef a former interior minister and crown prince who was replaced by the king's son mohammed in sound money in a 2017 palace coup and mohammed bin nayef half brother prince now wife in ny if they are said to be accused of attempting a coup the wall street journal says security forces also detained dozens of interior ministry officials senior army officers and all this is back today of supporting the alleged plot like brian explains. the saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon has moved to consolidate power since removing his cousin mohammad deny a physical to the throne and 27 tane now 3 years on the knife is reportedly accused of trying to push out the crown prince and that seen him and his brother detained

as well as the saudi king's youngest brother ahmed bin abdulaziz there are some kinds of rumors and innuendoes and there is turmoil within the family in the form of criticism but that doesn't justify you know being arrested like criminals with mass security forces coming to their homes and yanking him out of their private residences mohamed bin solomon known as m.b.a.'s has a reputation for cracking down on anyone who opposes him 27 tane dozens of senior members of the royal family and billionaire businessman were rounded up and detained at a luxury hotel in riyadh the saudi government said it was an anti corruption dr rights groups disagreed. hundreds of activists including women's rights campaign allusion all have to are also in prison. he's not worried about people trying to make a call he doesn't want any independent voices that don't agree with him and it's not for the. woman's of 3 people on the council of royal members in saudi arabia

that decides in succession he was one of the 3 who didn't vote for him had been summoned to become the crown prince mohammed bin solomon's most notorious legacy so far is between 18 killing of saudi journalists. in the kingdom's consolation a stand. she was murdered by a hit squad made up of some of been solomon's personal entourage his body dismembered and of a found the cia concluded that the crown prince must have known about the operation if not ordered it himself. who is the most senior that's really and. actually overseas for many years came back. ears ago to to kind of try to calm things down. after b.s. took over and there were some. kind of turmoil within the royal family the prince of wales return to the kingdom in 2018 came weeks after he appeared to criticize

the saudi leadership during a protest in london against the saudi u.a.e. led war in yemen one of my it is you know what does the whole of the al saud family have to do with this there are certain individuals responsible in the king to try and prince and others in the state. prince ahmed and mohammed bin nayef or both seen as possible rivals to the throne when i see 4 year old king solomon dies reports suggest they now face long term imprisonment or even death elixir brian al jazeera. now a new fighting in northern yemen has displaced at least 70000 people according to the international committee of the red cross it says relief efforts in our province at. been hampered since last month regional ready has a large number of displaced people and many families don't have access to food shelter and medical care clashes bring an end to 3 months of relative calm for yemen the united nations has called for an immediate end to the violence yemen is

in my view at a critical juncture. we will either silence the guns and resume the political process. or we will slip back. into a large scale conflict and suffering that you have all ready seen here in moderate . turkey's defense minister saying the ceasefire in syria as it is holding a pause in fighting was agreed by the turkish president rage of type 2 on his russian counterpart vladimir putin in moscow earlier this week to support opposing sides in the syrian conflict and violence have been escalating between the 2 russian news agencies have reported 3 shootings in italy over the past 24 hours meanwhile on the border between turkey and greece tensions have continued to escalate over the flow of refugees and migrants volleys of tear gas have been exchanged by riot police on both sides thousands of people have been trying to cross into greece since turkey declared its borders with the e.u.

opened just over a week ago but greek authorities have moved bulldozers an armored vehicles to the border to stop them while a 1000 turkish police have been deployed president is expected to travel to brussels on monday to tackle the issue. well thousands more people have been heading for the greek islands and it's triggered a backlash against the aid groups who have offered support and ngo building on the island of last boss has been set on fire as i go grows over the increasing number of arrivals a rally was held in support of the aid agencies who say they are facing abuse from locals crimes on the island are overcrowded and many residents as saying they can't cope volunteers working with the migrants have called on the government to help. you like to live. alone to deal with it huge problem alone in the border you we're alone and they know what this company and they know the consequences what do we experience the experience violence he said he didn't want to be sued would do

and would be a huge blow to seize is implementing here on the other hand the government and the local authorities have huge business to be because they didn't stop them. in all the stories of following a teenager has been shot dead by police in guyana during protests over allegations of election rigging people are demonstrating against the results of monday's vote which appeared to give president david grange as government a strong lead opposition leaders and international observers say there has been credible evidence of fraud anna's top court is considering an application by the opposition to stop wind up being declared until the votes are recounted. at least $46.00 people are still missing in brazil off to floods and landslides firefighters and volunteers who continue to search for those missing for days after a storm deluge chine areas near san paolo more than 30 people have died many because of landslides which destroyed buildings the region had more rainfall in

a single day than is usually expected for the entire month of march. well southern africa is suffering its worst drought in decades and zimbabwe is one of the countries most affected by the families there are struggling with daily water shortages and that's on top of rampant inflation and a shrinking economy from harm which brings us this report. in zimbabwe 2nd city the supply of piped water from the city council is unreliable that means they sometimes have to use untreated water these women uses for washing and flushing toilets if they have to drink it they will boil it 1st in some suburbs supplies are often cut off for days at a time when the supply is turned on with lindsay make several trips to the communal tap to stock up she says a neighborhood can sometimes go a whole week without water and she doesn't want to use any that's not clean and safe getting water in the holes doesn't make us feel proved because that water is

not here at the lake this person to reach so many people is suffering from stomach so i believe it. is something i don't know because some of the people they drink that water some they use it for. so it is a big challenge that we're living in cold to perch. like other parts of southern africa zimbabwe is experiencing its worst drought in years city authorities say rationing is necessary it. is implemented. in programme to try and have. digital that we have straight to receive enough rain as we all need lower is. said myriad region where we received very little for the rainfall made this year it's really critical we haven't received the referee falls grateful for it. some dams have stopped operating since the water fell below pumping levels the

remaining still functional a critically low the rainy season started late this year and even then has been erratic a new dam is being built about 100 kilometers from the way authorities say it will draw water directly from those n.b.'s the river but is still a long way from being completed part of the problem is a source of foreign currency and have always worsening economic crisis zimbabwe is already grappling with shortages of fuel medicines electricity and some basic commodities many here say corruption and mismanagement in government and opposition one minister pellet he's is also to blame the few who can afford it buy a water privately or drill boreholes buffel millions of others that is not an option how to al-jazeera. well space x. has completed another successful launch of supplies for the international space station and the liftoff of the falcon 9 rocket. falcon rocket sent

a capsule called dragon containing nearly 2000 kilos of equipment and experiments to the space station due to arrive on monday it's the 20 of delivery the commercial space for some of the entrepreneur it on mosque has made to the space station al-jazeera dot com for all the latest news comment and analysis so have worn a top story in a few seconds. but 1st let's update you on the corona virus outbreak the w.h.o. is saying the total number of corona virus cases has passed 100000 in iran the number of injections jumped by a 1000 in the past infections jump by a 1000 in the past day 145 people have died including a newly elected female m.p. fatima our had only been in her post since last month. italy has recorded its biggest daily increase in cases with an additional 1200 discovered nikolas in

directy who leads one of the 2 parties in the ruling coalition is one of those infected government has announced a raft of restrictions for new areas of northern italy and pope francis has called off his traditional public dressing to crowds in peter's square he will lifestream his address instead at the epicenter of the global outbreak in china 13 people are still trapped after a building being used for quarantine collapse in the city of toronto is being used to house people who'd returned from who by province where the corona virus was 1st found this hotel is located in the city of twinge oh in china so when jen province and the collapse happened in early evening around dinner time trapping about 70 people including people who we know were being monitored because they were in close contact with corona virus patients now the province of food yet has about 300 coronavirus cases but it's monitoring an isolated in quarantine thousands more

people known to be linked to those cases for monitoring by medical authorities we know that they had been put in this hotel since about need february or in our other headlines this hour 3 senior saudi princes have been arrested accused of plotting a coup king solomon's younger brother prince ahmed bin abdulaziz was taken from her while the canes nephew mohammed bin nayef was picked up from a desert camp with his half brother moves been seen as an attempt to head off a threat to crown prince mohammed bin soundman a kingdom's de facto ruler and the news from lebanon the country will default on its debt for the 1st time prime minister has said his government will suspend the payment of $1200000000.00 of loans that's jew on monday he says he intends to restructure the debt and preserve public spending more on that later coming up next on al-jazeera it's the listening post.

turkey has claimed 633 of its troops so you go by the book because not all of it is not good for points or a specific. question if you think you know if. you're off on a winning streak but by your freedom hello i'm richard burton you're at the listening post among the media stories that we're covering this week syria is a proxy war and the outside players turkey and russia are using their media muscle to shift the narrative in their favor coronavirus is still big news but don't believe everything you click on misinformation is making the rounds on social media pakistan wants to grow its tourism industry and to the influencers but how do they

get to parts of the country that are close to pakistanis eyes.