the. al-jazeera. you're watching the news hour live from london i'm dating obligates are coming up in the next 60 minutes the world wraps up its response to the coronavirus with increasingly tough measures causing upheaval across europe. the e.u. condemns donald trump's decision to restrict travel from europe to the u.s. and markets plunge after the u.s. president's announcement the main u.k. index suffered its worst loss in more than 30 years. and installed european football's governing body and emergency meeting it comes as many leads

across the continent all suspended due to coronavirus. fellow around the world countries are ramping up their response to the virus imposing increasingly drastic measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic the u.s. has banned arrivals from mainland europe from friday and italy has strengthened its lock down closing bars restaurants and shops other than pharmacies and shops selling food several more countries have announced full school closures including france which has reported nearly $8000.00 cases norway which has seen more than $600.00 and even arland with just 70 infections so far well a move to stop large gatherings has led to major restrictions on sporting events the national basketball association that's. the n.b.a.

and spain's top football league have all suspended games for now global markets have continued to tumble on fears of the impact london's footsie $100.00 suffer its biggest daily fall in more than 30 years and trading was automatically halted in new york after a large drop when the markets opened charlie angela begins our coverage. of. chaos and confusion in some european airports as travelers scramble for the last flights to the united states from friday night all flights from 26 year paying countries will be banned for 30 days unprecedented action in unprecedented times but welcomed by some of the last word there has been you know we are lucky to be able to leave your if we all finally able to leave. the e.u. was quick to condemn president trump's decision the european union disapproves of the fact that the u.s. decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation but

isolation both within and from other countries is gaining momentum is infection rates italy one of the worst affected nations strengthened its nationwide quarantine while spain suspended parliament and football matches as death rates in the country almost doubled in 24 hours. france's president addressed the nation directly spelling out some difficult truths in spite of our efforts to delay it the virus continues to propagate and it's accelerating we knew it and feared it said this evening i'm asking all people who are more than 70 years of age and those who suffer from chronic illnesses all suffer from a spiritual problems people who are disabled to remain as much as possible and hope . their children only seem to suffer mild symptoms they are considered key spread as if the virus and in response. to denmark norway and frogs joined the long list

of countries to shut down schools. but the british government continues to take a different approach holding off on any wide ranging restrictions that would suppress the spread now hoping instead to delay the peak of the outbreak until the summer is at stages we have been guided by the science and we will do the right thing at the right time we are not repeat not closing schools not the scientific advice is that this could do more good meanwhile in china life at the epicenter of the outbreak is gradually returning to normal in more than a 1000 patients waved goodbye to their hospital beds and only a few dozen new cases were recorded nationwide in south korea the number of new coronavirus cases is also decreasing but the government warned against privateer

optimism. while in iran a 1000 new infections the country struggling with a lack of life saving equipment has asked for an emergency $5000000000.00 loan from the international monetary fund taking fright at these wild developments the stock markets showed a sea of red with the u.s. dow jones entering a bear market for the 1st time in an 11 years not helped by the announcement from the european central bank that it will not cut rates any further. as the cracks begin to show in economies and health care systems across the world it is the very human toll of covert 19 that must be remembered. how does it. let's cross over to paris. joining us from there because the president has said that the country is facing its worst public health crisis in a century just give us a sense of the scale of the measures that he announced. yes a man in my craw gave an address to the nation his 1st since the coronavirus crisis

began some weeks back in france what he said was that there were measures that the government had to put in place to try and slow the spread of the coronavirus he said there's nothing we can do about it being in the population it is here and it's only going to get worse over the next few weeks but we can try and slow it down to ease the pressure on the health services so he's announced things like schools colleges universities are going to be shot from monday for the forseeable future and no data to all on when they might reopen that of course is going to be very difficult for many working parents who will have to then sort out what to do with their children he also said that any companies and businesses should allow their staff to work remotely work from home to avoid going out into public using public transport which will still be maintained he also said the local elections which are due to start on sunday will go ahead they will not be perspiring there had been

some questions about that he said it's important that certain elements of life in france continue and what's been the reaction to these announcements the tosser. well i think in terms of the local elections there will be many people in france to a perhaps rather upset that these are not being perspective the middle of a national health emergency these are elections for local men as there are some who say they could well have been postponed 6 months and not particularly urgent and now we can have a situation in which people will be queuing at the ballot box on sunday for 2 consecutive sundays they'll be in close contact with each other even though they are being told they'll have to stay far away from each other so i think they'll be a lot of questions as to whether or not it was a good idea to maintain those local elections and i think other people will be facing what will become major disruption in their lives of these schools colleges and universities just especially as i said working parents doctors nurses who have

children and then have to decide what they're going to do in terms of child care perhaps they won't be able to then go work in those hospitals where they are so desperately needed so a lot of concern a lot of questions even though i think many people in the french public realize that these measures are in their best interests are at the top about their thank you for that update from paris well the european central bank has warned of a considerable worsening and grow thanks to the pandemic as the global markets battled through another day the dow jones industrial average was closed down 10 percent after a dramatic starts of the day the new york stock exchange was forced to halt trading for 15 minutes after the s. and p. 500 fell 7 percent on opening and in london the footsie 100 has closed down more than 10 percent its biggest one day fall more than 30 years over in asia markets plunged for a 2nd straight day on kong's hang seng index dropped more than 4 percent at one point before closing down more than 3 and a half percent. let's get more on the u.s.

markets and bring kristen salumi she's joining us from new york so really a quite a desperate day there for wall street kristen. yeah it really wasn't just like london's foot sea the dow jones industrial average had its worst day since the crash of 1987 it ended down more than 10 percent in fact 13 out of the last 15 days on wall street have been down days as investors try to figure out what's happening with the spread of coronavirus and what its impact on the economy will be and there just hasn't been much good news the plunge started right after opening bell that shut down happened automatically as you said things fell more than 7 percent that led to this 15 minutes away so the market could regroup things steadied a bit after that when the fed the federal reserve here the u.s. central bank announced that it would inject one and a half trillion dollars into the markets to help keep things going but that didn't

really help much things continued to slide albeit a little bit more slowly after that there's just isn't a lot of good news for investors to go on here it all started with president trump announcing that travel from europe to the united states would be restricted that led to more flights being canceled by airlines they have been battered by the spread of the virus oil prices continue to fall events continue to be canceled and while all of the stocks continue to plummet one thing is increasing and that is the volatility index here which is a sign of how concerned investors are in the chance for wild sling swings that is at an all time high yeah all right sounds like a chris and thank you for that update from new york. well staying in the u.s. and all public access to the capitol in washington has now been shut off and broadway is being temporarily closed in new york and gatherings of more than 500

people banned in the states president trump has canceled campaign rallies in coming days and has continued to justify his travel ban on a number of european countries mike hanna has more from washington. the irish prime minister arrives at the white house his bilateral meeting with the u.s. president one of the few events going ahead as should jeweled island along with the united kingdom 2 countries exempt from the sweeping travel ban which appears focused on the 26 european union members of the shingle alliance giving rise to claims that the ban has been happy has it lee applied when you think of what happened to europe because it was very very furious happened as people went from china into europe and europe suffered tremendously what's going on and so i just wanted to stop to pertains to the station or public access to the u.s. capitol has been suspended but lawmakers in the house are continuing to discuss

a bill to counter the economic and social impact of the coronavirus and also pacing questions about whether lawmakers should stay at home let's get this bill passed 1st and then we'll see where they're from there because the fact is the house is on fire people are concerned about their of course the house and the health of their children democratic presidential candidate joe biden added his voice to the discussion about how best to deal with this ongoing crisis and was harshly critical of the efforts by the trumpet ministration public fears the main compound where for the grace of like interest in this president. why adversarial relationship with the truth that he continues to have this still public concern about the slow rollout of testing kits this despite claims by the trumpet ministration that anyone who needs a test can get one the web site of the center for disease control records said it

has not conducted any tests over the past 4 days and the number of tests conducted by public health lads has dropped dramatically over the same period yesterday for example across the entire united states only. 8 tests are reported president trump maintains he is in no need of submitting to a test but this may change following reports that a man he met during talks with the brazilian leader at mar a lago last week has tested positive for the virus brazil's communication minister pictured here on the president's lift is awaiting the results of his 2nd test my canner al-jazeera washington well let's now bring in alan fischer he's joining us from washington and we heard joe biden and mike hanna has reported talking donald trump's response to the virus alan but is there wider criticism of the administration the handling of the pandemic. well the thing you've got to remember

is it's 2020 it's an election year so a lot of these things are seen through the prism of politics and what will play well with the electorate but there is undoubtedly criticism of the president many public health officials are saying the idea of closing the borders was a new key idea but at that point they should have been doing a lot more to make sure that hospitals and health centers and doctors and the general community was prepared for what was coming down the pipe the reality is it's been framed by what's happened in ohio in the last couple of hours there the head of public health has said he estimates that around one percent of the population in ohio big state in the midwest has the coronavirus though if that one percent figure is right that would mean $117000.00 people have the coronavirus they have been testing in ohio there are 5 positives at the moment so you see how exponentially this is going to increase quite significantly there's also maryland

another state very close to washington d.c. in the last couple of hours the governor there a republican has said that this is a public health emergency he's activated the national guard and also and knows that he is closing all schools for the next 2 weeks starting on monday and that is being . replicated around the country as a number of states take action that seems to be slightly at odds with what the national government is doing we have mike pence the vice president saying that people have don't play the coronavirus ignoring the fact of course that the president himself was doing that so there's a lot of criticism of the president some of it is political but some of it would appear coming from people who know about these things and saying the government the administration is not doing enough to get on top of this crisis all right allan thank you for that update from washington. well now the rapid spread of the corona virus is also causing cancellations on the sporting events right around the globe

there are reports of the australian grand prix has been called off that's after mclaren pulled out due to a staff member testing positive for the illness and the n.b.a. the national basketball association has suspended the season until further notice after 2 utah players tested positive the men's tennis tour has been suspended for 6 weeks due to what the a.t.p. called the escalating health and safety issues and spain's rail madrid players have gone into quarantine after a basketball player who shared training facilities with the league club was found to have the virus and brazil's 1st 2 qualifying matches for the 2022 world cup in qatar have been postponed. let's talk about this with our sports correspondent andy richardson joining us from doha a lot going on in the sporting world in corona virus and the c. and c. but what are the financial implications of football's top leagues being suspended.

you know the huge you know at the moment the european leagues in particular we're focusing on it look so they've got 3 options at the moment carry on regardless which is what the english premier league is doing for the time being at least play games behind closed doors or suspend leagues altogether now playing games behind closed door what sort of impact does that have we if you look at the premier league for example their annual revenue from gate receipts t.v. income that sort of thing is around $5000000000.00 of that gate receipts is about $8900000000.00 so for a short period of time at the end of a season like this it is manageable. the issues we saw in the champions league this week perhaps were a percentage a man game that was meant to be played behind closed doors to discourage people from gathering in large numbers or you know p.s.g. fans still went to the stadium in huge numbers thousands of fans outside the stadium still gathering despite the fact they couldn't go in and that i think is one of the main reasons why we've seen in many countries spain and italy included

the league being suspended so it looks almost inevitable now that these leagues will not be able to finish in their normal brackets that they are going to extend out into the summer now for that reason european football's governing body you a for has called an emergency meeting for tuesday when all the countries will get together via a video conference call to decide what to do next it looks as though the sensible thing to do is to allow european leagues to play on for a few more weeks once they've had these suspensions and hopefully things are brought under control with coronavirus the implications then a few euro 2020 the international tournament due to take place in the european summer that was set to take place in 12 nations in 12 different cities something that doesn't look a great idea now so a lot of thought now that that could be postponed until 2021 yes so what is the outlook then for the olympics and can organizers afford to cancel the olympics if that indeed is going to be the situation. well look at the moment they seem to be

living in a slightly power universe to 2 everyone else we saw earlier today the official lighting of the olympic flame that was taking place in greece albeit with no spectators but as far as the organizers of the i.o.c. and also the organizers in tokyo saying everything is on schedule for the games to take place in july now one of the reasons they have to keep saying this at the moment is because of where the money comes from for the olympics by far the biggest single benefactor for the olympics is the u.s. t.v. network n.b.c. who pumping billions of dollars into the olympics and the reason that t.v. contract is valuable to them is that the games take place in july and august when there are no other major north american sports taking place if the games were postponed until the end of the year old to september october november the value becomes a lot less because they're then clashing with other major north american leagues

you would imagine the i.o.c. are awfully keeping an eye on what is going on but already you've seen many olympic qualifying events being suspended or postponed for example we've heard kenyan athletes now are not allowed to leave their country but for now they're saying the games will take place all right andy thank you for that update from doha. now israel's blue and white alliance co-chair benny gantz has said president rivlin is willing to establish a national emergency government it comes after israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu made the offer on a nationally televised address saying a new temporary regime would save the lives of citizens he also ordered most schools in the country to be closed. the top of visor to iran's supreme leader has been infected with corona virus it comes as the country has asked for billions of dollars in loans from the international monetary fund to help fight the virus the health ministry there says the number of infections has now passed 10429 people

have died but there are concerns the figures could be much higher as the government struggles to manage the spread of the virus he has more from to one. several weeks into this global pandemic and countries in asia in the middle east are talking about the gains that are being made in trying to stop the spread of covert 19 but in iran there are daily reminders that this country is struggling to stop the spread to get a grip on the spread of the current virus throughout the country in a letter to the united nations secretary general and tony a good sierra's iran's foreign minister zarif urged the united nations to bring pressure to bear on the united states to try to get them to remove what iran sees as illegal unilateral sanctions that it says is now hurting its ability to combat the coronavirus to illustrate his point tweeted about a list of approximately 30 bits of medical supplies types of equipment that health

care providers urgently need to track and identify and treat patients that have contracted coronavirus includes things like ventilators gloves masks specific medicines all things that hospitals find they are in short supply and also earlier this week iran requested from its central bank to the international monetary fund an emergency relief package of $5000000000.00 and that is specifically to combat to help combat the coronavirus spread in iraq tweeted about that as well saying that it was imperative on the i.m.f. to be on the right side of history and facilitate iran as it tries to combat the spread of this virus now many here in iran do expect that the i.m.f. will be keen to help but that the united states will try to block those funds from coming through all of this is happening as the worst is yet to come in iran experts medical experts say that the peak of the virus in this country is likely to come in the next 2 weeks. well the corona virus has killed at least 3 people in lebanon on

and there are $66.00 confirmed cases the government has announced a wide reaching travel ban but there are doubts the country can cope with a full due to an unprecedented economic crisis that's weakened the health system xina has more from beirut lebanon's 1st confirmed coronavirus case was reported 3 weeks ago a woman who arrived from iran 3 deaths and dozens of cases later the lebanese government suspended flights to the islamic republic and other countries hardest hit by the virus the travel ban will be expanded in the coming days but many have criticized the government for not acting sooner. i mean it's just horrific suspending flights yesterday also they were probably checking all those arriving. the virus is causing fear for 6000000 people but few are staying home even though the government has closed the educational institutions banned large gatherings and

reduce the number of employees in state institutions doctors who are criticizing the lack of a national plan warned that many lebanese and the authorities are not taking the crisis seriously for not very. much. we have too many problems. lebanon's health care system is already underfunded and the unprecedented economic crisis is making things worse doing foreign reserves means there was a struggle to secure dollars to buy medical imports even before corona virus arrived the government is defending itself critics are trying to score political points. says governments are not taking precautionary measures and the

virus is more widespread in other countries the outbreak may be limited when compared to other countries but it is already contribution to the near collapse of the economy hundreds of thousands who work in the service sector may lose their jobs hundreds of businesses have already shut down in recent months many are worried the virus could be the final blow. to close in march and then we were. first. we had like. we have 5 employees. facing near bankruptcy many fear it's ill equipped to cope with a mass outbreak this is a battle cannot afford to lose sight of for their beirut. still to come on the al-jazeera news hour including landmarks close the flights canceled and cruises

called off with look at the coronavirus pandemics impact on tourism around the world. and civilians caught in the crossfire in the central african republic now they face having their homes on fire and in sports news is the olympic flame is letting briefs organizers insist the series tokyo games will go ahead as planned details coming out. hello and welcome to international weather forecast we start across europe where we've got largely fine conditions across france or into germany at the moment well there's generally a bit quieter over these areas and indeed into their beer input into the weather's looking pretty decent madrid there at $22.00 degrees wanted to showers around but generally here is looking dry and fine account so the same for the u.k. or for all and an area of low pressure bringing this of fairly heavy rain into

southern parts of ireland during the course of friday still largely dry across the u.k. out that stage as a move the forecasts into the weekend here more and settle across the u.k. generally another area of low pressure pushing towards arlit fine weather across much of portugal spain france germany not looking too bad here still roughly warm across easterners bucharest 15 and care of our moscow temperatures still above average into north africa the cold air which is pushing a long way towards the south still in evidence with khartoum at only $29.00 degrees celsius for 4 and a slow recovery in temperatures across this region so we head in through to suffer day we want to cross western parts of africa we've got some showers around the gulf of guinea extending towards freetown in sierra leone bay monaco southern portions of africa we've got to find conditions across namibia for cape town let's see some sunshine and highs of 25.

from. a nation where corruption is endemic now embroiled in a battle to hold the power to account. how has this radical transformation occur. i mean nobody i mean if you want to know shedding light on the romanians pressing for change on the unconventional methods to eliminate corruption remain people. on culture 0. when the news breaks the word for was dealt with the ins of getting more police on the presentation and economic development when people who need to be heard the top leadership world where of the potential for parity of the bar of weeks before the public we're told about going to al-jazeera has teams on the ground the syrian army says determined to defeat the rebels and continues advanced was this is a good bit to bring you move towards winning documentaries and life means.

you're. hello again the top stories on the al-jazeera news hour countries across europe are taking increasingly drastic measures to try and contain the coronavirus france arlen's on norway have joined the list of nations closing all schools and universities greece austria and poland have confirmed their 1st deaths on the u.k. prime minister says the government is stepping up its response schools will remain open for now. and the e.u. has condemned the u.s. president's decision to ban all travelers from europe excluding the u.k. and ireland for the next 30 days plus president mike pence says it was necessary as

europe is now the epicenter of the. global markets again plans to spears grow over the coronavirus the dow jones has closed down 10 percent on the london footsie had its biggest one day fall in more than 30 years. on the impact of the corona virus pandemic on workforces around europe has left many fearing that quarantines will affect their livelihoods so the reports empty streets closed up shops and warning signs to keep that distance. a shadow of its usual self bustling crowds of visitors to help sustain its vital tourism sector . impacting the economy and work because. the government has to help us you have to pay rent or mortgage bills you have never ending expenses just you know we're all in the same boat of some it's worse if we don't work i don't

know how we. exempt from the nationwide closures grocery stores and pharmacies remaining open to provide a vital service for country under quarantine to one preparing itself for the worst in spain's capital madrid public transport remains open but buses train and metro carriages are being disinfected every night and the threat of an impending lockdown has already affected small businesses here early record. we have recently noticed that there are fewer and fewer customers in the stall not only in the morning or afternoon but also in the evening people are more inclined to stay at home they are kind of struck by panic. in london one of the largest cities in europe and a crucial financial hub the focus has been primarily to protect any economic fallout from the pandemic new government measures to protect staff employees with immediate changes to sick leave have offered protection but it is the small

business owners those on temporary contracts and freelances with no access to those benefits who are at risk of losing everything such as this self-employed cab driver . of earnings. just because it's my only source of. stuff like mortgages and i just wouldn't. survive really kind of career and because you haven't got. one country after the other school and children's daycare centers are being closed and attempt to stem the spread of the virus but it's also affecting working parents with childcare responsibilities to those in the public health care sectors facing the dilemma of how they can go about their work at a time when hospitals are facing unprecedented strains we're going to try to work from home. computers to work with them but i don't think you can get the

same amount of work done. at home as we cam. at the workplace the fear of what is happening in italy may be galvanizing other countries to attempt to get ahead of the pandemic but this is a waiting game with many wondering whether these measures are simply delaying the damage wrought by covert 19 or will they succeed in containing the virus as much as possible so that i able. well let's talk about this and take a closer look at the advice which businesses and other organizations are receiving about the coronavirus and bring in dr kato riley who's a global medical risk advisor with international s.o.s. thanks very much for your time with us on the al-jazeera news hour so let's talk about the advice that's being given 1st what sort of advice is given to businesses in particularly small businesses like we heard and saw in his package who are suffering because of corona virus and really taking a hit. i think this is a really rapidly evolving situation i think it's tricky for. know how to

react but i think one of the key things that we telling businesses is you know be proactive and all businesses should have a plan you know whether they're large and small and they should be implementing that plan and keeping abreast of what is happening with cases what the authorities are saying and then making changes to that this is according to which is happening but i think it's also important the ferry proactive in your response to the polls and situation and give us some sort of idea about the actual impact this is all having on businesses. and so lots of businesses that we work with have a business continue to plow have a crisis management team and he'd let implementing stages of that plan as a situation of holes so some business is a implementing working from home and it's about maintaining good communication with

your employees and making sure they're wary of the situation and what to do you know what you're going to do if you have employees who get sick and you know awareness hygiene measures or exists things but the key is good communication with your employees and we know that obviously tourism has taken a tremendous hit because of coronavirus but from what you've seen what other sectors and industries have been hardest hit i think it is affecting everyone worldwide and obviously tribalism a is a major issue and lots of businesses here have. you know different of this is in different countries are you finding it very difficult because obviously they work with different authorities and with the global spread of the virus they're having to be very reactive and some some you know some countries are at different stages say you know each office has their own issues in terms of the government response and some of the measures that you've seen governments take so far how would you

evaluate those and what would you like to see from governments to help small businesses i think i think that consistency is key in this communication and people being aware you know of what is going on and also how to deal to deal with the situation. in terms of you know looking after people and making sure that you know it really well being is is talk all right we thank you very much for joining us on the al-jazeera news hour thank you thank you farai. president trump says he's not worried about being exposed to the corona virus despite a meeting in florida last week with the brazilian president's communications director who since tested positive for the illness jay are both so narrow is now being tested as well cases across latin america remain low but many countries are stepping up measures to prevent its spread to risible explains the brazilian

president declaring it is shutting down the country from completely for at least one month banning foreigners from entering the country the argentinean precedent here i read at the program this is imposing mandatory isolations for those called for coming to argentina from countries that have been affected like italy spain and even the united states is also there's also been discussions about finding people that do not respect this a mandatory isolations that the government is weeks questing people to do but perhaps the biggest challenge for a region that is highly volatile highlighting on me is the possibility of military ration of the economic situation there is a big recession here layoffs poverty rates on the rise and it's already restructuring it's boring debts we know for example that it's already several shipments or agricultural products like beef i'd others that have been suspended from going to china at that point and that's why many are extremely poor you've got

argentina which you pulled on a sovereign debt once again just like it happened back in 2001 when poverty rates in this country were asked by a 60 percent well south africa reported its 1st case of local transmission on thursday from either miller this update from johannesburg. the spiked the government urging people in south africa to remain calm panic is certainly sitting in especially given the amount of disinformation out there and also that 1st person to person transmission when the corona virus was 1st detected in south africa it was within a group of people who were travelled to italy for a skiing holiday on their return some of them experience symptoms and that's where the 1st cases were detected now when this person to person transmission it's in a different province in the freestate what's also making many here anxious is the government's plans to repack tree 8 about

a 122 south africans from the who has no president has repeatedly said that none of those people have the coronavirus they will be screened in china will be screened on their arrival in south africa but despite these recent reassurances people in south africa are concerned about what this will mean for their house and this goes as far as even the agencies the african national congress the governing party and south africa it's only youth league has promised to stage a march if indeed this group of people is quarantined in a specific area in the province of limpopo one sector of the global economy that's particularly reeling from the pandemic is the tourism industry and with so many people canceling their travel plans airlines cafes and street vendors are already suffering and more. paris no longer has its notoriously long

queues at famous landmarks such as the loop businesses that depend on tour spending so the impact of the pandemic is unprecedented you say to him as if it's massive for us we're in an area where americans like to come and also customers who are quite sensitive to the impact of this kind of event. we're starting to feel the catastrophe it's worse than the strikes worse than the yellow vest protests. have must answer these just all over the top of the current situation in venice uganda li is quite disastrous because there is no work. across italy travel is restricted public gatherings banned normally one of europe's top destinations roam streets and colosseum eerily quiet. all stores have been ordered closed except pharmacies and groceries my god he blames in the end this health problem will be resolved while they can omit problems perhaps will take longer but i don't know how we're going to get out of this. the lack of tourists in the valley of the kings in egypt is an ominous sign of how damaging the pandemic will be for the economy and the

population of $100000045.00 cases were confirmed on a nile river cruise and looks or connected to a single american tourist of board ship not much of been shot in the streets of lux or empty because of the corona virus there are medical health and security checks because of fears the virus will spread from other countries to the egyptian people . across asia the effects are apparent from 2 cats quite beaches to jai poor in india foreign tourists are staying away from the pink city after a group of italian tourists tested positive. for glass i'm a small east on cane break all in one and in japan where half of tourists come from south korea and china some money we can only wait until it all comes down in the same boat from tour guides to street vendors everyone who depends on visitor spending are feeling a pinch from the pandemic. millions in one of the world's biggest industries

suffering a devastating blow to their livelihoods the u.s. travel agency expects the pandemic to deal a trillion dollar blow to the global economy and al-jazeera. the coronavirus is also having an impact on space exploration a joint russian european mission to mars has been postponed until 2022 the russian space agency said the final phase of eggs on mars activities have been compromised by the general situation in european countries the ross cosmo's director general said it was a difficult but well wade decision to postpone the launch the mission has been repeatedly responded and was most recently scheduled for this year. to other news now and at least 40 people have been killed in fighting between armed groups in the central african republic in the past 2 days it's taking place in new delhi and most of the dead are civilians the violence involved members of the popular front for

the renaissance of central africa and the movement of central african liberators for justice they also set fire to buildings housing people displaced by the fighting mother theresa's monitoring developments from nigeria's capital. the fighting is the latest in a cycle of violence that rocking central african republic since last late last year early this year the recent major fighting was of course in february when several people were killed but the latest round of violence the one we're talking about now happened 2 days ago and at least 40 people have been reported dead and most of them like you said are civilians fighting broke out between 2 major rebel groups or armed groups in the central african republic in the area often deadly these are the p r c and the m l a c j but also there are ethnic clashes in that region which contributed to the

latest or the rise in casualty figures in that area now in a statement that the government issued it condemned the killings saying that the rebel groups we who are signatories to a peace accord and reconciliation efforts should stop using civilians as human shields and also stop disrupting aid operations in that region so latest report from the central african republic indicate that they've been fighting has been going on pockets of violence of continued till this day and that reinforcements security reinforcement has been sent to those areas to calm the situation down it's not clear whether they are able to stop the 2 sides fighting each other or stop the ethnic militias attacking each other and bring peace to that region. well the u.s. defense secretary marc asper says the president has given him the authority to retaliates after a rocket attack in iraq left 3 people dead 2 americans on the british soldier were

killed after barrage of rockets were fired at a military base north of baghdad on wednesday the head of the u.s. central command has suggested the attack was carried out by an iranian backed group a similar attack in december led to a tit for tat escalation culminating in the assassination of the iranian general custom so they money by the u.s. the u.n. special envoy for yemen has warned the security council that military escalation in joe frisks triggering conflict in other areas martin griffith says it may kick off a new and irresponsible cycle of violence in the country the most alarming military escalation that's taking place in our job of government to the east of santa i'm deeply concerned about the rationale driving these escalations and of course the impact of the violence on our jobs people thousands of families are being displaced by the recent fighting and this escalation could trigger conflicts

in other governorates and dragged yemen downwards into a new and irresponsible cycle of violence this would have devastating humanitarian consequences and also political consequences the united nations high commissioner for refugees has pledged $40000000.00 for operations in sudan country has a longstanding tradition of hosting refugees from eritrea syria yemen and chad earlier the un's filippo grandi spoke to al jazeera and he explains how the funding will support people in refugee camps. on the one hand the fact that this peace talks between the government hearing from the top and beasts in these groups has created more space we humanly theremin agencies have more access than before to areas that previously were not accessible to humanitarian assistance so that's big progress that shore's how this country is moving in the right direction but on the

other hand this transition is very fragile you know there's a big discussion in the international community about providing long term aid to sudan that these still constrained by stank sions that were imposed when it was considered the country sponsoring terrorism there's discussions of lifting those sanctions and i think it's very important that those discussions are accelerated so that the country that dividends of this positive transition can be felt by the population that he needs and if we lower the tensions which as we have seen are still very high australia has high court has delayed its final verdict on whether to overturn a senior roman catholic cardinals conviction of sex abuse 78 year old former archbishop of melbourne george pell is serving a 6 years jail sentence for molesting 2 choir boys in the 1990 s. he is the highest ranking catholic official ever convicted of child sex crimes

nicola gage was outside the court in canberra she says a decision might not be known for months. all of the arguments today have really been based around questioning some of the issues that the defense right yesterday at the defense really questions the credibility and reliability of one of the formal quiet boys who was sexually assaulted by hale the other one died in 24 chain of a drug overdose but the prosecution today told the court that there's no reason to not believe this witness he'd come across says well liable incredible the jury sold that and there's no reason why the like what should not believe all i've got now obviously these 2 days of hearing has come to an end now it's been very a very significant case in this trial but this appeal process is very far from that's because the justices decided to reserve in on making

a decision on this case and that means that we may not hear back from them for months so essentially many things could happen here but getting to the crux of it 7 justices now need to decide over the coming months whether they will uphold the conviction or allow george pell to walk away a free man. still to come on the al-jazeera news our football leagues are suspended right across europe will assess the financial help the sport is taking details coming up.

or war.

i haven't got time for sports this year's andy. thank you so much daryn football's european governing body your wife has called an emergency meeting to choose day with the party spying months of this year's european championships one possible outcome many domestic leagues face an uncertain few weeks to coronavirus rummages football team are in quarantine and the entire spanish league has been suspended for at least 2 weeks it comes after around madrid basketball player it's a positive for corona virus a basketball saying share the same training facility as the football club the anguish premier league is carrying on regardless with no ban on spectators and now manchester city player benjamin men that is self isolating as a precaution while less the city manager brendan rodgers revealed that 3 of his quartering quarantine as well after showing symptoms of the virus. this is about health you know this is this is more than in football this is players and their

families and children and and so any of the risks that are there for their health and everyone else is we have to be mitigate against that so we're to get so few players that pods and shown the symptoms we've obviously itself isolated them if you will if you want to say and then move to see how that develops over the next couple of days. well we spoke to investment analyst alex and such earlier he believes it wouldn't be a financial disaster for the english premier league if they responded to the outbreak by staging games behind closed doors the premier league side 1000000000 dollars a year 14 percent about $809000000.00 that is each game revenues and today with over the top broadcast. you know the internet. you are talking here 4050 percent of total revenues i know you go get the same

excitement when you've got a fully loaded stadium but i think you can create that kind of atmosphere to some degree and i think plus we'll look at meijer and i'm surprised that there's still more. on. that game. if you look at the science of all of the spiders it is going to be impossible we've been in persia all your time so yes i think you can't beat it all up. probably can't make up $800000000000.00 but they could make up at least that surely is worth looking into all sports leagues in the united states as shutting down the baseball season will start at least 2 weeks later for major league soccer the national hockey league and the n.b.a. have all been suspended the n.b.a. made its move following a positive test for a utah jazz player really go bare it starts reports. the stadium was

packed the players were on court but then after a conversation among officials oklahoma city's game against the utah jazz was called off after it emerged one of the jazz players rudi go back tested positive coronavirus an hour later the n.b.a. suspended the whole season indefinitely. it was not at the arena but the jets were placed in quarantine and we now know that at least one of his teammates also tested positive. to. go back a 7 foot one frenchman is one of the stars of the n.b.a. the 27 year old has won festa fence of play it 2 years running he's currently in the care of health officials in oklahoma city rather unfortunately on monday mocked the coronavirus crisis at a press conference touching every reporter a microphone as he left potentially exposing others to infection. before the suspension moves were already in place in the n.b.a. to halt the spread of coronavirus hand sanitizer was handed out in dallas ahead of

the mavericks game against denver on wednesday and most team owners were leaning towards the idea of playing in empty arenas this was the moment courtside when the mavericks owner mark cuban received the news that the n.b.a. was postponed at the situation that he fully supports this is something out of a movie and you just don't expect it to happen in real life people's lives are at stake and you know for worried about my kids in my mom who's 80 years old you know in talking to her and telling her to stay in the house then i am about when we play our next game would. i don't know all the information but that just shows you how fragile everything is right now so it's a prudent thing to do really go bare you know you think this is not going to affect us for the n.b.a. it one of our players has a coronavirus and you know who knows what that means for their team and the other teams that we know have been with them because go bare was not at the arena the

oklahoma department of health tweeted that the fans who attended the game are not at risk but the n.b.a.'s patient 0 has shed the court with 50 opposition players since the start of march and 15 referees plus countless other match day staff there will be no more action until further notice with no guarantee this n.b.a. season will ever get finished stokes al-jazeera. play will continue on north america's biggest gold sober from friday to one of us will have no spectators until at least april 5th over the course of around our players generally do socially distance themselves we felt like by taking this step to address the problem with our fans we're in a position where we can continue to operate the events as of right now well despite the growing chaos across the sporting world a limping organizes insist their plans for the tokyo games haven't changed on thursday the olympic flame was lit in greece the birthplace of the games spectators

were banned from the event at the end of the month the flame had to japan for it so it's really like the game still set to begin as planned on july 24th 19 weeks before the opening ceremonies we are strings and in this commitment by the many of us already in sports organizations around the world who are taking so many significant measures to contain the spread of the coronado virus ok that is how you sports is looking for now let's get back to daryn in a lot. and they thank you very much for about updates and you can head to our website al-jazeera dot com for much more information on all the sports those as well as the day's top stories that's it for this there's hour we're back in just a moment with more news thanks for watching.

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bad weather it cease to west africa people stop me and tell me how much they appreciate our coverage and our focus is not just on their suffering but also on the more after lifting and inspiring stories people trust on just to tell them what's happening in their communities in a clear and unbiased and as an african i couldn't be more proud to be automated. in 24 teams and al-jazeera investigation revealed how anger and fear fear will be a bone a crisis that ravaged west africa we asked our lives here to not allow you to hospital knowing we are dying 3 years on we speak to the filmmaker the one thing that spread ebola and caused the devastation on these feel that was born out of ignorance rewind liberia living with ebola on al-jazeera. understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take

it will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you. the. the world ramps up its response to the corona virus with increasingly tough measures causing upheaval across europe. washing up to 0 a life from london undead it obligates also coming up the e.u. condemns dollar trunks decision to restrict travel from europe to the us. markets plunge further over virus fears the dow jones loses a 10th of its value while main u.k. index the main u.k. index had its worst day in 3 decades and the virus has a major impact on global support spain's real madrid are in south korean tina.