lulu's. the u.s. stocks plunge as coronavirus panic continues to grip global markets. richelle carey this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up europeans are racing to beat strict new u.s. travel restrictions that have been denounced by e.u. leaders and frustration grows in the united states over the government's failure to test enough people for the growing virus also had responding to a deadly rocket attack on a coalition base the u.s. launches a new round of air strikes in iraq. the

escalating chrono virus emergency ascent stocks crashing to their worst losses in 30 years investors continued to bail out of the us europe asia and the middle east amid travel restrictions and business shutdowns that are bringing economies to a halt italy's ramped up its lockdown closing bars restaurants and shops of france or away in ireland are among the latest countries to close schools and universities efforts to stop gatherings a word to severe restrictions on sporting events including an almost complete suspension of professional sports in north america including basketball baseball and hockey in europe champions league football has also been suspended so we begin our coverage with what's been another torrid day for global markets on wall street the dow jones industrial average saying almost 10 percent its worst losses since the black monday crash of 1987 and london the. but see $100.00 closed down almost

11 percent all european markets altogether dropped 12 percent and the gulf to buy tumbled 8 percent cuts harsha 4.5 percent and saudi stocks lost 3 percent of their valued prison salome has around now from new york. these are dark times on wall street as the corona virus continues to spread and a fog of uncertainty descends on investors here and around the world we will be suspending all travel from europe to the u.s. president donald trump's shock announcement on wednesday night that he was banning all travel from the european union may have been intended to calm fears. but it had the opposite effect i think. for the 2nd time in a week the slump in stock prices was so precipitous that trading on the new york stock exchange was temporarily halted on thursday as airlines began cancelling

flights the u.s. federal reserve stepped in with the rescue package this time promising $1.00 trillion dollars to shore up markets but it had little effect new york's main indices closed down between 9 and 10 percent leaving many wondering what more could be done to calm nerves i think we're going to need to see a series of actions that look like they're only focused on responding to this other agenda so every department the government has to sing the same song in the same tune with disabled cutting music all these little gaps and things that people think are cute when times are good become terrifying when times are bad and we're closer to bad than good at this particular moment. it was even worse for european traders as the economic implications of president trump's travel ban sunk in germany's dax closed down more than 12 percent as did france and spain main markets while london's footsie had its worst day since the crash of 1987. u.s. markets have now fallen more than 20 percent below their highs and with coded 19

yet to peak here its actual impact on the economy not to mention people's lives is hard to predict that has investors preparing for the worst while everyone is hoping for the best christian salumi al-jazeera we are. as president donald trump's restrictions on european travelers are just having an economic impact they're also straining already brittle diplomatic relations between washington and brussels as mike hanna reports. the irish prime minister arrives at the white house his bilateral meeting with the u.s. president one of the few events going ahead is sure 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 haphazardly applied when you think of what happened to europe because it was very fast and very furious and what happened is a lot of people went from china into europe and europe suffered tremendously see

what's going on and so i just wanted to stop as it pertains to the united states 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 inside the house is on fire people are concerned about their of course the house and the health of their challenger 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 may become . more pervasive like and trust 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 a 2nd test my kind of al-jazeera washington mike mentioned the lack of testing going on in the us a top u.s.

official who deals with infectious diseases has quietly described the situation as a failing ethnic fallacy made the comments to members of congress aerobraking on thursday the system does not. is not really geared to what we need right now what you are asking for that is a failing and they are going yeah it is a failing there let's admit it the fact is the way the system was set up is that the public health component that dr that dr redfield was talking about was a system where you put it out there in the public and a physician asks for it and you get it the i hear of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it we're not set up for that do i think we should be yes but we're not let's bring in alan fischer he's in washington d.c. so dr explaining some obvious holes and shortcomings and the broad federal system so tell me what states are doing to deal with corona. well those

of obviously going to be a local response either from states or from counties from municipalities or from cities and a lot of people will look to those organizations those entities 1st to see what action they're taking because it affects them much more on the local level so for example in new york city the mayor there has declared a state of emergency that just gives them a few more powers if the situation gets much worse than the certainly working in coordination with new york state where the governor of course has said that he doesn't want to see gatherings of more than 500 people if you go across the country to california then companies are taking the lead their business has said it's closing 2 of its big theme parks that will be from friday until the end of the month new cases of the virus have been reported there but they're doing this out of an abundance of caution if you go to ohio state in the midwest fairly big state at

the governor there says the estimate that one percent of the population has the virus if that is the case that's around 117000 people with. this and if you look at the number of positive tests just 5 if you come closer to maryland there the governor has again declared a state of emergency he said that there will be no schools for the next 2 weeks lot of american schools will be looking at spring break but for the next 2 weeks no one will be in class and he's called up the national guard what they're going to do not entirely sure but clearly this is a fluid situation and then you look at the federal response what exactly are they doing well we know that on capitol hill there has been talks between nancy pelosi and steve steve milligan is the treasury secretary is hoping that both sides will come up with some sort of fiscal stimulus because of the state of the markets and all that's happened on wall street we are told discussions have gone well by.

they're still not ready to announce a deal nancy pelosi wants to see help for families that me have to stay home it wants more testing also wants to make sure that people don't lose their homes if they can't pay their bills at the moment and we know the administration is looking to give some sort of tax benefit to companies that have been impacted by this somewhere in between the $2.00 of those is a meeting point what is interesting though is that nancy pelosi has said she would like to get a deal done quickly but republicans in the senate on quite so sure they see they're not entirely in a rush because they see this as a spending bill they're very much against that idea and we know that this afternoon many republican senators left one of the do but well normally this would be spring break for them but mitch mcconnell is expected back in washington on monday afternoon that's after the global markets will reopen on monday morning so who

knows what they'll be dealing with when he finally gets back in his office ok alan fischer at the wrap up there from washington thank you allan we will have much more on the coronavirus and a bit 1st though the u.s. has launched a tally atory airstrikes in iraq and response to a rocket attack that left 3 people dead on wednesday that's after u.s. defense secretary mark asked for an announced he was given the green light to do so by president onil trop to americans and a british soldier were killed after a barrage of rockets were fired over a military base north of baghdad earlier this week the head of the u.s. central command has suggested the attack was carried out by an iranian backed group sort of alton joins us live from baghdad so what do we what do we know what's the latest. well we understand that several iranian backed armed groups were targeted in these latest strikes across several positions in iraq including her father son her in the south of baghdad as well as babylon carol and other locations

the groups that were targeted include kotite hezbollah which is one of the groups that has been blamed for the latest attack on the taj a military base which resulted in the killing of 2 u.s. service members as well as a u.k. soldier there are also other groups that were targeted including a cyber hug and because i've said assured all of these groups are officially part of the popular mobilization forces forces which is incorporated into the state security forces but they are also referred to as the islamic resistance as groups that are very close ties to iran and that have in the past had a hostile stance towards u.s. presence here now it seems that the objective of these strikes was primarily to target weapons depots drones visibly military capabilities of these groups to deter them from striking bases where collison forces are based again and we understand

that so far there may have been injuries in some of these strikes and of course it remains to be seen how these groups will respond all of these all of this feels very much like a fraud back to december and january when we had a very similar chain of events at that time we also had a u.s. contractor who was killed in iraq at saks in response to u.s. targeted positions of the type as a ball and all of that escalated leading up to the assassination of castling money on iraqi soil of course since then the iraqi parliament has called for the expulsion of foreign troops including the united states and these latest strikes are likely to once again ignited those discussions that are once again likely to be for fresh calls for us. even already we've had p.m.s. commanders come out and condemn these strikes as a violation of iraq's sovereignty a stance that is very likely to be shared again by they also by the iraqi

government which has. in the past strikes against positions so it remains to be seen what the reaction will be on both the military as well as the political side ok some of them with the latest there from baghdad simona thank you still ahead on al-jazeera civilians caught in the crossfire homes are set on fire during fighting in the central african republic and how the coronavirus pandemic is putting latin america's ailing economies to the test. welcome back across northeastern parts of asia we've got to find conditions the most part across southern japan through the course of friday further north a frontal system giving some rain and snow a higher elevations but 2 should clear during the course of the day we have had

heavy rain across southern parts of china there that is clearing to friday and that system moves out into the east china sea before turning further towards the north so we'd like to see heavy rain affecting southeastern parts of japan including tokyo during the day on saturday right may not be particularly heavy elsewhere like you say you find skies in a socket on myself 13 degrees but as we head on into southeastern parts of asia plenty of showers showing up here born a jury looking a bit better than it has done in recent days and java 2 maybe escaping the worst the shower activity through them in a few showers here but for both kuala lumpur and singapore weather conditions on the whole not too bad with temperatures in the low thirty's the west the disturbance which has been affecting northern parts of india and pakistan continues to move away so the risk of showers cheery increases across north central northern parts of india and indeed eastern parts of india will also see some showers particularly late on saturday some of those heavy expect some heavy downpours in

kolkata heise here of 33. being a refugee i mean starting again. building a new life in a new country is no easy task like here to drive that. witness follows one of the last refugee families from syria to be granted an american visa. from their personal sacrifices to the families to try and. beat the syrians on al-jazeera. over.

algis there and these are the top stories right now the coronavirus plan to make his badly hit global stock markets in asia japan's nikkei just opened down 4 percent in new york the dow jones plunged by 10 percent that's the worst single day loss it's black monday in 1907 with the pan-european index closing down 12 percent and your pacifiers state of emergency closing many of its major museums and theaters gatherings of more than 500 people have been banned in the city forcing many events and shows to cancel and the u.s. has launched retaliatory airstrikes in iraq in response to a rocket attack that left 3 people dead on wednesday 2 americans and a british soldier were killed after a poor raj of rockets were fired at the military base north of baghdad earlier this week. continuing our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic brazilian president our boss on our own has been tested for the virus and says he expects the results in the coming hours is also called on his supporters to cancel upcoming rallies. what

once is it will the government is very eager to make sure that control is exerted continuously and that we forsee that although cases will increase panic should not ensue mark. and i was in mexico city with more on infected member of brazil's delegation. we know that there was a delegation of brazilian delegation that traveled to florida earlier this week from saturday until tuesday that included president and his press secretary who had direct contact with the president the united states donald trump now in any event this it is worth noting that only a few days ago we heard from president who had mocked the potential severity of the now global pandemic of corona virus now earlier on thursday sitting in isolation waiting for test results to come back to determine whether or not he also like his press secretary and other members of his delegation would have

a test that would come back positive with coronavirus the impact of this brazil in a country that has already $77.00 confirmed cases and over $200.00 other suspected cases and in the case of rio for example transmission is now know is now local we're not talking about transit transmission being imported from other countries from europe this is the severity of the situation in latin america. the crowbars pandemic will be a big test for latin america's ailing economies the impact is expected on several fronts accrued including the devaluation of currencies a decline in tourism and demand for exports this about reports from argentina's capital been the size. exports are crucial for argentina's economy these days following currency generated by crops be fund other products by what could help this country fail foreign debt. but the covert 19 is already having an impact here too you know. main market but may start to recover we're now seeing many of our

european clients cancel the orders because nobody knows who will buy the beef and know they're already freezing some of it it's a huge problem for us because we depend on exports. this plant sells mostly premium beef to china europe and the united states and finding clients it's not easy these days as the cold feet 19 spreads around the world shows and public events are being suspended in argentina in an attempt to contain the virus. flights are also being canceled in a country that is already struggling with capital controls double digit inflation and this restructuring foreign debt the government have imposed mandatory isolations on people arriving from europe china and even the united states they're also considering fining those who do not respect the law imposed a threat to public health but even though many believe that argentina could succeed in containing the virus the spread of the virus in this country it is the economic

situation that has a many people worried here. in the past 2 years most administrations have pinned down their hopes of economic recovery. one of the largest shape oil and gas reserves in the world but as the local economy deteriorates and worldwide markets tumble investments are being rerouted outside the country we have. a common characteristic that is that lead an american country especially south american ones we export commodities right we exported copper and minerals in. then in a while lot of minutes we're lucky long soil in brazil argentina old white but i wise soybeans is other types of food so i think we are going to feel the same but we are feeling it right now with a cline the price of commodities saw i believe this is a regional problem but it's going to be more important in the countries who need foreign help us for example the case of ours and. help that could prevent

a default like the one in 2001 that devastated this country's economy people are wary of the spread of the culvert 19 virus. but the faltering is what he's warning the government the most serious how will. european union leaders have hit out our president trumps decision to impose travel restrictions which could affect $7300.00 flights. 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 but the last word there was a 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. of our efforts to delay it the virus continues to propagate and it's accelerating we knew it and feared it this evening i'm asking all people who are more than 70 years of age and those who suffer from chronic illnesses or suffer from or spiritual problems people who are disabled to remain as much as possible at home. though children only seem to suffer mild symptoms they are considered key spreaders of the virus and in response sri lanka

ireland denmark norway and france joined the long list of countries to shut down all 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. stages we have been going to do by the science and we will do the right thing at the right time. we are not repeat nort closing schools not the scientific advice is that this could do more good meanwhile in china life at the at the center of the outbreak is gradually returning to normal in both in 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 current of ours cases is also decreasing but the government ruled against private

up to visit. while in iran a 1000 new infections the country struggling with a lack of life saving equipment has. a $5000000000.00 loan from the international monetary fund taking fright at these wild developments the stock markets showed a sea of red with the us dow jones entering a bad market for the 1st time in an effigy is not helped by the announcement from the european central bank that it will not cut rates any further. as the cracks begin to show inequalities of health care systems across the world it is the very human toll of covert 19 that must be remembered charlie angela. enemy of thought to be unprecedented in modern times the vatican has ordered the closure of countless churches in response to the coronavirus the decree will stay in effect until early april cancellations of public events by the pope has been live

streaming prayers online to avoid big crowds the vatican is also told runs catholics are not obligated to attend sunday mass while the pandemic is ongoing. the rapid spread of the crime to virus is also causing cancellations and they postponed a sporting events all around the globe just a few minutes ago formula one cancelled the australian grand prix which was to take place in melbourne this weekend the national basketball association has also decided to suspend the season until further notice spain's will enter it players have gone into quarantine after a basketball player who shared training facilities with the league a club was found to have the virus and brazil's 1st 2 qualifying matches of the 2022 world cup in qatar have been postponed. is a prime minister to send arden says memorials to commemorate those killed in last year's mosque shootings will go ahead she sells health authorities have a large gathering say as there have been no local transmissions of coronavirus a march 15th of last year 51 muslim worshippers were killed in

a mass shooting in 2 mosques and they south island city of christ church australian man is to to go on trial in june charged with terrorism 51 counts of murder and 40 attempted murder that are and says the changes to gun laws legend more than 60000 prohibited firearms being recovered from circulation and she says globally there's been a shift in the way social media platforms respond to similar events but if terror attacks is now removed more quickly in those events we social media platforms have been used to broadcast attacks to secure location of those. being. diminished my recollection is of a recent taken europe the numbers were in the thousands as opposed to what we experienced here in new zealand yes federal judge has ordered the immediate release of wiki leaks blower chelsea manning from prison the ruling comes a day after lawyers for the former military intelligence analyst said she had been hospitalized from attempting suicide manning served 7 years in

a military prison for giving secrets u.s. documents that is to wiki leaks and she was jailed again last year for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating a website and has been ordered to pay $265000.00 and finds. at least 40 people have been killed in fighting between armed groups in central african republic or just the past 2 days it's taking place and most of the dead are civilians buildings housing people displaced by the ongoing fighting have been set on fire rival militias are battling for control of resources in the diamond rich region. monitoring developments. the fighting is the latest in a cycle of violence that that's been rocking central african republic since last late last year only 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 civilians fighting broke out between 2 major rebel groups or 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 are signatories to a peace accord and reconciliation efforts should stop using civilians as human shields and also stop disrupting operations in that region so little support from the central african republic indicate that they've been fighting has been going on pockets of violence have continued till this day and that reinforcement 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. taking up the headlines right now on al-jazeera the coronavirus pandemic has badly hit global stock markets in asia japan's nikkei is down more than 6 percent and new york the dow jones plunged by 10 percent that is the worst single day loss and black monday and 1987 and the pan asian pan european pardon me and that's closed down 12 percent and new york has declared a state of emergency closing many of its major museums and theaters gatherings of more than 500 people have been banned in the city forcing many events and shows to cancel. and a top u.s. official who deals with infectious diseases says the government is failing to

account for what could be thousands of additional infections because of ongoing problems with testing anthony she made the comments to members of congress the system does not is not really geared to what we need right now what you are asking for that is a failing and going yeah it is a failing there let's admit it the fact is the way the system was set up is that the public health component that dr that dr redfield was talking about was a system where you put it out there in the public and the physician asks for it and you get it the i hear of anybody getting it easily the way people who know the country are doing it we're not set up for that do i think we should be yes but we're not but the us has launched retaliatory attacks in iraq in response to a rocket attack that left 3 people dead on wednesday that's after u.s. defense secretary mark asked for announced he was given the green light to do so by a president on a trump to americans and a british soldier were killed after

a barrage of rockets were fired at a military base north of baghdad u.s. federal judge has ordered the immediate release of wiki leaks whistleblower chelsea manning from prison or ruling comes a day after lawyers for the former military intelligence analyst said she had been hospitalized attempting suicide. at least 40 people had been killed in fighting between armed groups and central african republic over just the past 2 days it's taking place in and most of the dead are civilians rival militias are battling for control of resources and the diamond rich region as are the headlines keep it here on al-jazeera much more news throughout the day in the meantime a. story. can

the coronavirus be stopped the world health organization because the outbreak of pandemic and donald trump finally joins all the countries in taking draconian measures to stop the spread but all travel bans enough this is inside story. hello again i'm jane spays what started in a single chinese city is now a pandemic so far infecting at least 120000 people in bold 100 countries world leaders a warning the coronavirus crisis is going to get worse but is not on stoppable the measures to limit this.