disease. patient stocks slide further on the back of heavy losses in the us in europe over threats from the coronavirus. alone welcome i'm peter toby you're watching al-jazeera live from doha also coming up growing concern in the u.s. over inadequate testing facilities as more than 40 people die from coated 19. english premier league team chelsea goes into self isolation after a player tests positive sporting events worldwide take a hit. and life under lockdown we take a look at how europeans are coping with more cities going under quarantine.

volatility is gripping the world's major stock markets as the coronavirus pandemic censure values plummeting tokyo's nikkei index closed on friday down 6 percent that's after it plunged by more than 10 percent on opening along with markets in thailand and india now it follows wall street's biggest drop since the black monday crash of 1987 there's another concern in the u.s. to a delay in testing for the virus a top health official says the current situation is failing but that more testing kits will be made available in the coming week in europe schools across much of the continent have been closed for towns and spain now going into lockdown and the country is rolling out economic protection measures let's take a look at the job. hopkins university tracker for the overall global picture there

are now more than 128000 infections worldwide 4700 deaths and 68000 people have recovered from the corona virus live now to seoul and our correspondent rob mcbride so rob let's talk about the markets they've closed in much of where you are how is it shaping up. that's why when you combine this with yesterday thursday's carnage then the weekending on a very grim note extending these really very heavy losses that dropped by japan's nikkei of more than 10 percent in early trade japan hasn't seen anything like that for 30 years it recovered somewhat during the day it would have to that was such a big drop but still like most of the other major markets here in asia ending very solidly in the red the nikkei down 6 percent the cost me that's the south korean index down $3.00 and a half percent and so on it's had the central bank officials in

a number of asian countries meeting with their respective finance ministry officials just trying to work out how they can take measures to support their own respective markets whether by buying bonds or maybe reducing interest rates but of course interest rates been the central banks here are historically low level in any case into japan's case it's down at 0 so there's very little latitude for movement it seems and many governments just have to stand back and see what's going to happen on their markets next it's been a very wild ride all of this week mine meanwhile we've had a further remind the while this is the reaction of the equity markets which could still can steen you into see very real damage being done to the real economies in all of the asian countries that are affected by this coronavirus singapore today friday taking the remarkable decision to stop any for the forseeable future any

person crew ships from coming to visit singapore so this is one of the world's most important transport hubs a major tourism destination taking what is a very painful but probably it considers a very necessary decision to protect itself the markets in the market traders of course rob historically they like carm they like a little bit of confidence in the marketplace i guess in a way they've got the weekend because there won't be any trading on the global stock exchanges around the world and then we'll wait for the markets to open early morning your time monday 1st thing. that's right and they can be digesting what is fairly good news coming from the corona virus affected countries namely in this part of the world is south korea here and also china and we are getting some good news continuing to come out of both places for example in a province we are continuing to hear that there is

a relaxation on some of the travel restrictions outside of province we're hearing from officials in beijing that around 95 percent of some of the larger companies in china itself are now returning to work so slowly the world's 2nd biggest economy continuing to recover and so much so that china now feels as though it can lend a helping hand it only reported 8 new cases across the whole of china today that's the 1st time friday that we have seen an increase in new cases in single digits it's been able to send a team of doctors and nurses to italy to help in the fighting the coronavirus there sharing their experience and also sharing some of their stuff because of course china now has vast stockpiles of all of the materials that the rest of the world needs such as medical kits also things like ventilators which are in desperate need at the moment in italy so we have those measures taking place which is encouraging

for the markets or it should be but all of the markets can see so far up until this friday is just the dire news that's coming from places like europe and the united states and they're reacting accordingly rob many thanks let's bring in andrew starts he's c.e.o. of a stots investment research she joins us to bangkok and welcome to al jazeera so circuit breakers not working interest rate cuts not working what will work to stabilize the markets. i think it's going to be very hard to stabilize the markets what we're going to need to see is the slowdown in the cases in that's starting to happen here but i think you've got the biggest problem of the whole global market is the u.s. which is so humped up on low interest rates and so pumped up on share of valuations that you know it's hard for asian markets to bounce back when there is what i would consider a pretty big overhang there is part of the problem when it comes to bouncing back

the way that not the asian markets are structured but the way that business is structured in the region where you are because of the way the people work because of the way they're employed because of the way the invest or don't invest yeah i mean i think that there's definitely is part of the last of the what you would call or that type of workers that could work from home or something like that there's a lot more manual work that's going on in factories and businesses so those are the types of businesses that may be a bit slower to get back to work whereas maybe in the west and other places if you can work online or that's a good thing you know it's a different structure for sure and now we're also seeing here that people's wealth might as a risk be eradicated i'm not talking about wealthy people losing some money i'm talking about middle income people or low income people losing some or all of their money. well i think the important parts of remember about that is we've already

seen the asian markets falling while the u.s. was rising over the last year or so so i don't think anybody here is in like the really pumped up there well from the market so that's the 1st reason why it probably isn't going to be a huge impact the 2nd one is that really the it heneage ration stock market investing here in egypt is still pretty small so the exposure to the market is still relatively small still i would say yes the middle class is going to suffer but it won't be so bad because the markets have already been down and also because an iteration in the investing in the market is much lower and restarts thank you. well u.s. restrictions on european travelers well they're set to begin later today friday hundreds of passengers trying to make their way to the u.s. lined up at the airport in madrid it's estimated more than 7000 flights will be affected by a one month travel ban but some countries are exempt including the u.k.

ireland and ukraine those measures aren't just having an economic impact they're also straining already brittle diplomatic relations between washington and brussels and the white house is also under fire for inadequate testing facilities to meet the rising number of cases of coronavirus here's mike hanna. 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 shared 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 the 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 left is awaiting the results of his 2nd test mike hanna al-jazeera washington well a top u.s. official who deals with infectious diseases as bluntly described the situation with respect to testing the coronavirus as quote a failing and me folks he made the comments to members of congress at

a briefing 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. well across the world sporting events are being hit and hit hard english premier league team chelsea have gone into self isolation that's after the forward calum hudson tested positive for coverage 19 an emergency meeting is due in the coming hours to decide the future of premier league games this season earlier the astral manager mikel arteta tested positive for the virus 2

in spain the leader has been suspended after the real madrid team were placed into quarantine all north american sports to have been cancelled all for sport and that includes the national hockey league major league baseball and the n.b.a. college basketball championships have also been called off the organizers of formula one have cancelled the australian born prix over concerns to do with the coronavirus the event was due to be held in melbourne this weekend with about 100000 spectators a member of the mclaren team tested positive on thursday and is now being treated it's not just formula one the one day cricket series between australia and new zealand will be played to empty stadiums australia's prime minister scott morrison is urging people not to gather in groups of more than 500 the country has recorded 156 cases nicholas gage has more from sydney. a striker is slowly catching up to other parts of the world where sporting and public events are being held behind

closed doors or being completely cancelled here at the sydney cricket ground australia will take on new zealand in the one day international in front of an empty stadium cricket australia announced that it would not be letting any spectators inside to prevent the spread of coronavirus in melbourne australia has grown pretty has been cancelled just hours before races were set to hit the truck to start training mclaren had earlier pulled out after one of its team members tested positive. but there have been some mixed messages other sporting events are still going ahead there's lots of confusion and i think there's lots of confusion around what is best practice and what should people be doing should there be a sporting event should there be cultural events should be open to the public the number of coronavirus cases in a stroller is continuing to rise and no surprise it is hitting the economy as well

as the share market we have stocks plummeting the australian government has announced a 7 seyne $1000000000.00 stimulus package handing out $750.00 payments to some to try and prevent a recession for the 1st time in 29 years. plentiful ground still to cover here on al-jazeera including a unity government in israel to cool the coronavirus question is will prime minister benjamin netanyahu succeed the opposition. and rights activists released from jail in the law we one of the put more pressure on the prime minister. i would say it's a really heavy showers across eastern parts of the med it's right in this area cloud will bring further down pulls in across the region back up towards the

northwest still wary of settled to full parts of the british isles north of there is if you have streaming in from the atlantic will be more wet and windy weather at times with some snow for good measure son of a blustery day on friday for many they snow in parts some snow there just around scandinavia in between we've got some bits and pieces of sherry right now sliding the way down across central and eastern parts of year there is that heavy rain that we have across the eastern side of the med gradually making its way away process guys do try to follow one behind temperatures 40 back a little a morsel 3 degrees celsius here 7 celsius there for moscow but the possibility of some rest now full coming into that western side of russia by sas say we'll see more wet weather just streaming in across the british isles then through island had to scotland heavy rain here with some snow over the mountains not too bad in spain and portugal will warm sunshine here and that clear skies continue cost north and house will last apostle of africa we do have that's a wet weather across parts of asia this is cairo as you can see yesterday with the

heavy rain which has caused flooding it's now slowly but surely making its way east . join the global conversation to pop the bubble to the people to expand their brains maybe have a different theory this is a dialogue that women in cambodia are in fact selling their hair we don't know how much they're getting paid for it it's hard to track it's hard to trace everyone has a voice tell us what you think and your conversation could be a lot right here in this case we need to step away from gaming people are not necessarily game perfect this is a journey of progression not perfection on al-jazeera. the arab. world.

welcome back you're watching out to syria live from the heart quick reminder of your top stories this hour global stock markets plunging further due to the coronavirus pandemic major asian indices fell by our own 8 percent within minutes of opening tokyo's nikkei index of closed down 6 percent. a top u.s. health official says the government is failing to account for what could be found sins of infections because the testing system is not working more kits are expected to be made available in the coming week. the virus is forcing sporting events to be either postponed or canceled in north america the national hockey league major league baseball and the n.b.a. all affected the australian grand prix has been called off. ok let's move on to some other stories well related to the corona virus the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has called for the formation of an emergency government to

confront the crisis mr netanyahu made the offer on a nationally televised address saying a new temporary administration with his chief rival benny gantz would quote save the lives of citizens he also ordered most schools to be closed harry force of joins us live from west jerusalem so harry what does he want to achieve here. well he says that he what is required it is a an emergency unity government one which can address the crisis the ticks as usual on hold for the duration of the crisis and allow for as he said tens of thousands of 'd lives to be saved there is some commentary as to exactly how genuine all the allegations are being in there calls for such a government whether politics doesn't intrude even in these times of emergency as well nonetheless benny gantz the leader of the blue and white alliance certainly

didn't reject such an idea out of hand indeed he said that he felt that all of the 8 factions within the parliament the knesset recently elected in the elections of march the 2nd should be represented in such a government now that of course means that the palestinian israeli parties it's the largest arsons really parties of the joint list which holds some 15 seats in the still to be formed knesset should according to that rubric be part of the government now the 2 men had a telephone conversation late on thursday night during which benjamin netanyahu was an understood according to local media reports to said that no government emergency or normal sides could be included what he called terrorist supporters as part of an experiment he said but he invited benny gantz for direct one on one talks about setting up such a government and did not get a reply benny gantz says that he suggested that the 2 teams negotiating should meet

today right and got no response to that so that's where we are at the moment there is certainly i think a good deal of pressure for such an arrangement to be made but whether it actually bestfoods or not we have to wait i think over the next few days to see a suppose to be fair to say harry this comes down to whether benny gantz can work with mr netanyahu and vice versa because some of the analysts we were talking to over the past few days just. do with the israeli political situation saying look the only thing mr netanyahu can do is go for a 4th election in 5 or 6 months here mr gans couldn't work together 6 months ago they couldn't work together 6 weeks ago so why would they be able to work together over this or they would be able to work together over this because it's such a big crisis that i think is the is the calculation that's being made and that is certainly the big speech made by benjamin netanyahu he of course could work with many gas if benny gantz went 2nd in some kind of rotational prime minister arrangement that is always the look at it it wasn't the 2nd election and presumably

it it still sustains now the problems of any gaps has always been that he is really put his whole year long look at it in a career is built around the idea of removing him from office a magnet he says is not fit to be prime minister in this country because he's under indictment facing 3 trials which totally x. is supposed to start on march the 17th rather one tritone 3 corruption cases a much a 70 he's always said if there were to be a unity government between his alliance and we could he would have to go 1st as prime minister and mention that you know you could presumably take up the reins further down the road if indeed he had one of these corruption charges successfully in court no sign of benjamin netanyahu is willing to give up principally times harry thanks very much for the philippines president roderigo to turkey has announced the capital manila will go into lockdown for a month to stop the corona virus spreading there as of sunday the city's

$13000000.00 residents will be prohibited from leaving big gatherings are also banned 2 people have died from the virus in the philippines the country has more than 50 confirmed cases. european governments are asking companies to show understanding with sick leave and other benefits so employees don't struggle financially if they get sick but this won't help people who are on part time contractual work is so new. empty streets closed up shops and warning signs to keep their distance roam a shadow of its usual self no bustling crowds of visitors to help sustain its vital tourism sector directly impacting the economy and workers. the government has to help us we have to pay rent or mortgage bills we have never ending expenses just you know we're all in the same boat but for some it's worse if we don't work i don't know how we were survive. 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 trains and metro carriages are being disinfected every night and the threat of an impending lockdown has already affected small businesses here the 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 conic. 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 it 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 those in the public and 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. containing the virus as much as possible. al-jazeera. ok there is some other news going on around the world for you here at the top stories the u.s. has launched retaliates in iraq in response to a rocket attack that killed 3 soldiers on weapons day. the 2 americans and a briton died after nearly 20 rockets were fired at a military base northwest of baghdad that of the u.s. central command suggested the attack was carried by an iran backed group some of the fulton she says the u.s. targeted several locations across the country. we understand it several positions were hit across iraq at around 1 am local time including areas in

just a sucker south of baghdad which is considered a stronghold of the iranian backed popular mobilisation force we also understand the positions were hit in the southern city of quetta balad muti airport as well as in bobby long now what appears to have happened is that the u.s. targeted primarily weapons depots drones and facilities of the popular mobilization of forces including groups from qatar of hezbollah which is one of the cords that is very close to iran in which the u.s. accused of conducting the strikes against the base entirely which resulted in the killing of 2 u.s. personnel as well as a u.k. soldier stationed there we also understand that another group the typesetter had i was targeted as well as another group as idaho had these are groups that are generally referred to as the islamic resistance they're part of the popular

mobilization forces which is officially integrated into the state but which is very close to iran now we understand that the intention was not to target specific people or commanders but rather the weapons facilities despite that we are hearing reports from one of the p.m.s. groups of 7 people were injured injured or fossil have are also getting reports that one civilian may have been killed in quetta baba as a result of these strikes. aquarter malawi has granted bail to 3 activists accused of planning antigovernment protests really months of demonstrations against president mockery because disputed reelection last year priyanka gupta has this report. these scenes are guaranteed to pile more pressure on the levees president. of the country's leading human rights activists are released from jail granted bail after they were arrested for trying to organize protests outside homes of top

government officials including the president. they've been leading anti-government demonstrations since may's disputed presidential election why have. enemy cities and probably should be prepared. malawi's coming the new beginnings coming and it's now. the press in which a record narrowly won last year's election but claims of whites because regularities have led to nationwide protests last month a constitutional court order to rerun with it $150.00 days parliament wants a vote in may but which rica has yet to sign the bills into law to make it happen and that's and that activists and opposition politicians he needs to comply with what the courts say is he is a maori and citizen just like the rest of us nobody is about the law. to rico has begun his own legal challenge against of ruling that overturned his reelection he's

sworn to gives any demonstrations challenging his authority plunging malawi into one of its biggest constitutional crisis since it gained independence from britain in 1964 priyanka gupta al-jazeera. propping up your top stories here on al-jazeera global stock markets plunged further because of the coronavirus pandemic major asian indices fell by around 8 percent within minutes of opening so here's nikkei index has closed down 6 percent a top u.s. health official says the government is failing to account for what could be thousands of infections because the testing system is not working more kids are expected to be made available in the coming week the system does not. it's not really geared to what we need right now what you are asking for that is

a failing and dowling 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 essex for it and you get it then 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 well the virus is forcing sporting events to be the prospered or cancelled in north america the national hockey league major league baseball and the n.b.a. all being affected and in australia the grand prix has been called off in football an emergency meeting is due in the coming hours to decide the future of premier league games this season in the u.k. already in this team chelsea has gone into self isolation after a player tested positive whilst in spain leaguer has been suspended after the real madrid team was placed in quarantine to the israeli prime minister benjamin

netanyahu has called for the formation of an emergency government to confront the coronavirus crisis mr netanyahu made the offer on a nationally televised address saying a new temporary administration with his chief rival benny gantz would quote save the lives of citizens in the philippines president. has announced the capital manila will go into lockdown for one month to stop corona virus from spreading as of sunday the city's $13000000.00 residents will be prohibited from leaving big gatherings are also banned the country has more than 50 confirmed cases those are your headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after the stream of 30 minutes of news in 30 minutes. what's behind the recent tensions between pakistan and i mean do you know we've given them the opportunity to. but not realize it's not just politics it's the new look walk and lots of pakistani foreign minister shop mahmood

qureshi talks to al-jazeera. hired for the ok and joined the stream sunday marks the 1st anniversary of the worst mass shooting in new zealand's history tax on 2 mosques in the city of question today as new threats surface we ask is enough being done to prevent such tragedies happening again wherever you can share your thoughts by tweeting us at a.j. stream or comment in our live chat add you to in the story. i think when it comes to things is 7 and as tragic and it is heartbreaking and it's shocking.