holding the powerful to account as we examine the u.s. its role in the war on al jazeera. concern in the united states that there may be a spike in coronavirus cases once testing operations are stepped up. and u.s. markets have rebounded in early trading after the worst one day losses in more than 30 years. santa maria here in doha with the world news from al-jazeera the e.u. is setting up a 41000000000 dollar fund to help ease the financial impact of coronavirus on european economies. and leaders of shut down schools and telling citizens to work from home in paris but the coronavirus scare won't stop sunday's local

elections. a little after 1400 hours g.m.t. which is 2 pm in london 10 am in washington d.c. keeping an eye on all the updates on the coronavirus pandemic as it stands right now sudan has confirmed its 1st case ukraine is barring all foreigners from entering the country u.s. markets which you saw a moment ago have rebounded early 'd trade after they had their worst one day fall in 30 years and as we also mention the e.u. setting up a $41000000000.00 fund to help european economies that will be taking a hit. in this outbreak so here's the team at this hour lawrence lee in london keeping an eye on developments across europe also kristen salumi of the new york stock exchange starting there with kimberly in washington d.c. kimberly the story coming out of the u.s. seems to be the issue of who is being tested or rather who isn't being tested.

yeah absolutely even some members of congress saying they can't get a test despite the fact that they have been meeting with their constituents this raises the question for many in the united states about why there are such strict parameters and whether or not this is something that is keeping the numbers perhaps deliberately and artificially low now the numbers as they stack right now 1700 have been diagnosed in the united states across 45 states 41 dead but those numbers are expected to rise because right now there is this very strict testing parameter or criteria that some place but that is expected to change we are watching very carefully to see that that testing is broadened out and that could really spike up the numbers for now for his part of the u.s. president donald trump has been tweeting about all of this remarkably blaming the obama administration for making the veil ability of testing so low he says in one

tweet that for decades the centers for disease control looked at and studies testing system but did nothing about it would always be an adequate and slow for the large scale pandemic but a pandemic would never happen they hope but now of course we are in the situation where there is a pandemic and public health officials in the united states have acknowledged that when it comes to testing they have failed to meet the capacity that currently exists in the united states. kimberly in washington d.c. thank you for facts. know which units where we mention the markets today wall street which appears to have bounced back let's have a look at the live board coming in from wall street and look at the 3.24 percent up in the green. and we will see that she is kristen's a live news in new york for us what a difference 24 hours makes kristen. yeah absolutely things are looking up here

wall street is regaining some of its ground after having its worst day since the 1987 market crash known as the black monday news that u.s. leaders may be getting closer to a relief package for businesses and workers seems to be bullying stocks this morning maybe investors are snapping up some bargains germany's leadership also promised to keep the world europe's largest economy afloat by injecting whatever it takes into their economy the central banks around the world are taking action japan norway here in the united states injecting cash into the markets in the form of short term loans trying to keep things going so investors seem a bit more encouraged this morning but the longest bull market in u.s. history is now officially over that happened yesterday when stocks on the s. and p. and hour now both down well below 20 percent from their highs earlier this year

markets remain jittery because of the spread of corona virus and the impact that that's having on the economy and we really saw in the last 24 hours drastic changes here in the united states with events being canceled and people working from home and stores being inundated with people buying items as if they're stocking up to never leave home again all of that has been weighing on investors and if the volatility index is any guide and that's exactly what it is it's a guide to how nervous investors are things are still pretty high and pretty uncertain but for now it looks like we're having a better day and recovering some of the losses of this week ok good news there and maybe thank you christine salumi in new york. and that lawrence late in london for the european pacific in fact 1st of all and i'm just seeing from the reuters news agency that the official number in the u.k. now up to 798 up from 590 on thursday i guess that also goes back to what we were talking to kimberly about testing it changes the numbers they can be these big

jumps over just the course of a day. yeah though in a way it doesn't mean that much because as the government and bars and survivors were saying. yesterday they there's so many people who got the symptoms and they can't get through to the helpline this 111 number used to give you a phone in the u.k. the people of bangalore for hours. and some people get tested no you can't see much of a q they might be $10000.00 people in the country who have got it and so it also skews the projects the mortality rates it's one percent of the numbers that have been tested but of course if you've got several 1000 others who haven't been tested and got over it that's bound to reducible to others right investments it's a much lower than it's proposed to be at the moment so the thing is you know there's still finding their way through all of this but on the on the business side is plenty much easier for governments to throw money at the problem even if they

don't on the quite understand the science yet and just in the same way the wall street already up 3 percent all the european indices are at 8 percent today. they it looks like they think that some of the best stocks are now under price for lease for the time being and to some extent i think the markets of probably started surprise seen a little bits of the expectations of how bad or not necessarily that bad things might end up being later this year so even though it's not over it could go down further particularly if a lot of people start dying in countries where these theories about the virus like the u.k. and italy are being a being tested out on the public but it's not as bad as it was yes and we've got also lawrence just talking why do european a 41 $1000000000.00 fund being set up to try to offset some of the losses which countries will inevitably take. well yes and that's part of the reason why the markets are going up you know we have the french government already saying also all the money that they need to

a couple companies like france because it was you that was flying if they did that the british government and its budgets a couple of days ago said it was going to $30000000000.00 pounds that's about $3335000000000.00 so the to help businesses that might be struggling people who are home and coal work and people in the economy things like this it is these sorts of measures that the markets like and on are meant to reassure very very jittery publics thank you lawrence they for those updates from london you sent. i do want to get an update from iran as well which is announced new measures to fight the spread of corona virus that's after $85.00 new deaths were confirmed in the last 24 hours the total there now up to 514 with almost 11400 infections now confirmed iran is really struggling with a lack of lifesaving equipment and ask for an emergency 5000000000 dollar loan from the international monetary fund on skype from teheran correspondent zain

what are these new measures that iran is talking about. well come all it really is the latest that's happening here is that we are likely to see the military take a more active role in trying to combat the corona virus the number you mentioned 85 new deaths in the last 24 hours another significant number nearly 1300 new cases overall that have been confirmed in the last 24 hours and that's really the kicker here the government is unable to get control of the spread of this virus in the last week president hassan rouhani has taken a great deal of criticism for not taking a more active role for not being able to get a handle on this and really it's the public that has not largely been cooperating with a lot of the government guidance that's been the criticism from the health ministry well late last night supreme leader ayatollah of the coming day announce the formation of a new task force that will work in tandem with the one that president hassan rouhani began at the start of this crisis this new task force will be headed by the

chief of the armed forces not the revolutionary guard but the traditional military the army major general mohammad but harry now the idea behind this is that the supreme leader wants the military to take a more active role in trying to suppress the spread of this virus and during a lot interview with state t.v. this morning after the 1st meeting of this new task force major general buttery announce that in the next 24 hours the military will be trying to assert itself to create more of a crowd control scenario in shopping centers and maybe a major population centers all over the country not to her on is the most population density and this is the place where government polls suggest the majority of the population simply isn't taking government guidance to limit its movements seriously enough so we are likely to see military out on the streets trying to control crowds trying to make sure people don't go into shopping centers possibly shutting down stores the details are still unclear but this is

a clear signal from the supreme leader's office that the military the police now it is a security operation as well as a city. public health crisis thank you for the update from terre franzen best ravi . our corona virus pandemic coverage takes us back to the united states in a moment but the turning off the lights the city that never sleeps goes into a state of emergency and move on to what moscow is doing in its in efforts to contain the spread of the illness. high we still got some rather heavy right into southern parts of china that's a wet of weather now pushing out through the is china sea edging up towards parts of japan we have some white and windy weather at times just pushing away from japan winds coming in from the northwest the direction of coleridge direction so

temperatures struggle to get to were double figures there for tokyo on saturday afternoon so we'll see whether they're into that eastern side of honshu some snow over the mountains as we go on into sunday it will brighten up but it will turn a little warmer as well we're getting up to around 1213 celsius here what about across the korean peninsula northern parts of china southern parts of china by sunday largely dry and 5 home called at around $23.00 degrees try and find to across much of indochina the philippines set their base in places affair with the club and nothing less to speak of maybe a showers will be across malaysia some big downpours there into indonesia the usual heat of the day showers continuing him but notice by sunday we will see some wet weather just pushing up across the gulf of thailand towards bangkok so wet weather still making its way across northern parts of india we are seeing some very heavy showers here slowly pushing their way further ace it will turn dry and brighter by the end of the week.

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oh my guess developments on the coronavirus pandemic for you this hour health authorities in the u.s. say the number of cases will increase in the coming weeks they're also saying they're plans to roll out a large scale testing operation after all the criticism testing kits weren't being made available fast enough. wall street's having a better day bouncing back after u.s. stocks suffered their biggest one day losses in 33 years on thursday dow jones industrial average. well more than 5 percent at the open. and iran has announced new measures to fight the spread of corona virus after $85.00 new deaths were confirmed in the last 24 hours the total in iran now $514.00 with almost 11400 confirmed infections so we have seen kenya confirm its 1st case as well reportedly a woman who travels about the united states and the u.k. malcolm web has more on that from nairobi. ethiopia has announced its 1st case who

it says is a woman from japan guinea conakry has also announced its 1st case the ministry of health says it's a belgian woman who arrived in the country a few days ago and she's now in an isolation unit that was actually built to try and contain west africa's a bolo outbreak which started 7 years ago and here in kenya the minister of health has announced the country's 1st case he said it's a kenyan woman who travelled from the us through the u.k. and arrived here in kenya more than a week ago but only tested positive for corona virus on thursday the ministry of health a since said that it started to try and contact all of the people that she's met travelling across the country over the last 8 days she's now in an isolation unit one of just over 130 beds that the government says it has prepared in case of an outbreak the ministry of health also said that people should take some great precautions to try and prevent further spread such as keeping one metre away from

anyone who coughs and sneezes but that's just not possible for many kenyans who are travelling to and from work every day on crowded mini buses and also living in homes where several family members share a bedroom many people here depend on working for cash in hand just to be able to survive no work means no pay no pay means no food and a lot of the measures that are being talked about in prevention in europe and america simply won't be possible here such as working from home subsidising the incomes of people doing piecework and keeping distance to people here waiting to see how far and how fast the outbreak will spread not just in kenya but across sub-saharan africa. back to the u.s. where a state of emergency has begun in new york city 95 cases of corona virus have been detected there among the measures taken schools being close that's bring in deborah elizondo and a pretty miserable looking new york city actually hi gabriel tell us more about

what a state of emergency actually means. yad means that this city is for the most part shut down this was a decision that was brought by the mayor of new york city bill de blasio late on thursday as you mentioned 95 cases of coronavirus in this city about 320 in the state of new york those numbers relatively low compared to many other parts of the world and even compared to a couple other cities in the u.s. but new york city is bracing for a potential explosion of even more cases and that's why so much of this city is shut down right now let me just give you an example broadway theaters forced to be shut down the metropolitan museum of art closed carnegie hall shut down these eve of natural history shut down the new york city opera shut down this just gives you an idea of how much things are shut down here in this city because of coronavirus

just within the last 24 hours or so this city feels quiet too i would say there's only about feels like there's only about 25 percent of what normally the amount of people that you would see on the streets year and we're also starting to see a scarcity issue very long lines and empty shelves in supermarkets shows with no fruit no bread no milk people are rushing to the markets to get anything that they can this is very uncertain times right now without a doubt in new york city and and we're starting to see that the subway system is still running but many people are simply working from home right now here in this city mall. because famously brazilians i would say. they have a reputation of it how would you describe the mood of people there. scared quite frankly. you know we spoke to a taxi driver this morning and he picked us up and he said the business is just

terrible right now he said normally there's no tourists so he goes normally when there's no tourists all go to airports he goes in airports are not as busy he goes last resort as they go to hotels to wait for people hotels he said hotels are empty it's really bad here right now we spoke to another longtime new yorker that said these were his words his lip tears whole life he said i haven't sense these are his words i haven't sensed a feeling of uncertainty in this city since 911 that just gives you an idea of what people are feeling here in the city right now and the mayor has press conferences every day he's been having them for over a week now his press conference on thursday you could sense a real sense of gloom when he announced this state of emergency in the city important to point out the mayor saying new york city is not corn team does not corn seen but just the sense that there's a state of emergency here now the mayor saying there probably will be deaths coming

here without a doubt he said the numbers will go up and will go up sharply has really given a sense that things the worst potentially is to come here in the united states biggest city thank you for that report gabriel and he's on the. we're going to go around a few other world cities now moscow is stepping up its efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus city authorities are now required to disinfect metro cabins 4 times a day buses are also being cleaned every time they return to the depo the city's also banned large public gatherings it is dealing with $34.00 cases though no one has done. so we're going to feel it is more about disinfection of course i also use hand protection tools and i'm using this mask to it protects. the normally bustling spanish city of madrid is well it's basically a ghost town as

a landmark squares and streets all but empty as people try to avoid. contracting control of the coronavirus unlike some other parts of asia students in taipei are still going to school infection rates in taiwan remain relatively low but the government has heightened its disinfection measures and. it's a very special feeling i think that we can prevent bacteria from getting too close . yeah we are less likely to spray us alive or on to other people we list likely to get infected easily. and in paris people are still using public transport there but they're taking extra care to protect themselves from the virus on friday from band gatherings of more than $100.00 people. there travel. protection stuff and. that's the reason you know we don't.

prevent this better than here. and despite the pandemic france will go ahead with local elections on sunday the health minister is assured the process will be no more dangerous than a trip to the supermarket. the reports candidates vying to be the mayor of paris are adjusting the way they campaign. the coronavirus was clearly on focus minds in paris as i campaigned in the city to become mayor the former french health minister is the candidate for french president emmanuel macro centrist party republic on the moon and some people say there are fewer people on the streets i think crazy ends up being responsible as it is to use our replaced our party's 1st choice benjamin grieve over in february after he stepped down following a sex video scandal a late comer to the race opinion polls suggest trailing behind the frontrunners. one of the favorites is the incumbent socialist and he don't go is fighting for

reelection promising to continue her battle against pollution in the city by making it greener. in one version we are opening a new way to live in the city differently in a paris that respects nature spectral and that year they lived for 6 years you delgado's run a city famous for its style but it has problems housing is expensive crime is on the rise and the streets are often dirty the main challenger is conservative candidate or she did she promises to clean up the city and make it safe for a justice minister under nicolas sarkozy the former president is backing her campaign. and his preside is the only candidate from the president's party who seems to be struggling in the local elections. there are now 35000 mayoral seats in france but only a minority expected to get macro's way. recent anger is a macro pension reforms and months of yellow face protests have damaged macro's

popularity and in turn his policies but those aren't the only reasons because party was created to accompany his conquest of the presidency so that's only 2 years ago and it's a very young party that doesn't have any presence. in the in the municipal level and so they don't have parties they don't have the roots of local politics and local politics is a very specific thing macross party was braced for the political consequences of the local elections but the coronavirus has shifted the focus people in france are closely watching the government's handling of the health emergency if deemed successful it may revive the party's fortunes and overshadow what happens at the ballot box natascha. paris the canadian prime minister just says he is

going to self quarantine after his wife tested positive for corona virus so if he trudeau had been experiencing flu like symptoms following a visit to the u.k. the prime minister says he doesn't have signs of the infection but he will stay in isolation for 14 days. to tom hanks people for their support after he and his wife were diagnosed with corona virus he posted a picture of self and rita wilson on instagram with a message saying they are in isolation so they don't spread the virus. and disneyland's closing down in the united states and in europe after this weekend. its parks in florida california and paris will stay shut until at least the end of march as well it's cruise line business this means already shut down its asian parks for 2 months which is created an estimated loss of $175000000.00. just before we go into other news the day i've got a bit of news you can use on what's become known as social distancing

a way to keep infection rates down now even if you're young and symptom free in a country that doesn't have any confirmed cases you should probably think about staying away from public events that is concerts crowded restaurants and bars and religious services places where you would be in close proximity to large groups of people of course in doing that i am now uncomfortably close to you i'm sorry about that so you have to think about this in a one on one situation as well and we'll come back here to see what the world health organization is saying about it it recommends at least one major should be kept between you and anyone showing symptoms coughing or sneezing the c.d.c. though that is the u.s. center for disease control says it should be more like to meet is and you should stop shaking hands as well and if you have older relatives in care homes well remember they are most at risk the c.d.c. wants to see visit their restrictions to keep coronavirus out of those community

just a few little things to think about when you are out and about these days plenty more online at al-jazeera dot com don't forget bats we have a coronavirus pandemic news section you can find that for many of the tabs at the top there the what's trending obviously this is a trending story not just our news reports but also editions of our discussion shows inside story up front with me at the house and as well with all the latest news. on to other news iraq's military is condemning the u.s. return a tree attack on a base near baghdad it says 6 people including 3 of its soldiers and 2 policemen killed. the u.s. so the strikes were in response to a rocket attack that killed 3 soldiers on wednesday and that 2 americans and a person died after nearly 20 rockets were fired at a military base northwest of baghdad simona fulton is there for us and says there were no casualties among the group the u.s. intended to target no members from the popular mobilization forces and specifically

. the group that the u.s. blamed for the latest attack on its personnel have been killed in these strikes so this is certainly not the outcome that the united states would have expected from these strikes and it's also unclear how exactly these presumably unintended fatalities could have happened in what secretary of defense mike esper called precision strikes now usually what happens in iraq is that you find several different security forces colocated so in one particular military base you may have elements of the popular mobilization forces which were targeted in these attacks but you may also have for example parts of the army or parts of the police so the result of these attacks these fatalities suggest that these airstrikes were not as precise as the the u.s. said that they were. a course in malawi has granted bail to 3 activists accused of

planning anti-government protests have been months of demonstrations against president peter mcrae disputed reelection last year priyanka gupta has more on that . the 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. and probably should be prepared. malawi's coming the new beginnings coming and it's now the press in metairie 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 within 150 days parliament wants a vote in may but which reka has yet to sign the bills into law to make it happen and that's a good 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. rico has begun his own legal challenge against the ruling that overturned his reelection he's sworn to give any demonstrations challenging his authority plunging malawi into one of its biggest constitutional crisis since it gained independence from britain in 1964. 0. so many updates on coronavirus to keep you on top of let's go through them health authorities in the us saying the number of cases will only increase in the coming

weeks they've also said there are plans to roll out a large scale testing operation amid criticism testing kits weren't being made available fast enough wall street's bounce back though after u.s. stocks have their biggest one day losses in 33 years on thursday the dow jones industrial average opened up more than 5 percent iran's announced new measures to fight the spread of corona virus after $85.00 new deaths were confirmed in the last 24 hours raising the total there to $514.00 with almost 11400 confirmed infections this is moscow where they are stepping up efforts to contain the spread of corona virus authorities now required to disinfect metro cabins 4 times a day 34 cases of the virus there with no deaths so what. is more about this infection of course i also use hand protection tools and i'm using this mask to it protects thousands of people making their way from europe to the united

states ahead of new restrictions 30 day travel ban on visits to the u.s. begins at over 400 hours g.m.t. saturday some countries are exempt including the u.k. arland and ukraine it's estimated more than $7000.00 flights will be affected. and in other news iraq's military is condemning the u.s. retaliatory attack on a base near baghdad it's 6 people including 3 of its soldiers and 2 policeman died the other says the strikes were in response to a rocket attack that killed 3 soldiers on wednesday that when 2 americans and a person died after nearly 20 rockets were fired at a military base northwest of baghdad news are coming up in around 25 minutes right now though the strain. what's behind the recent tensions between. india and we've given them the opportunity to. but. it's not just politics it's the new. pakistani foreign minister shah.

talks to al-jazeera. ok and join the stream sunday marks the 1st anniversary of the worst mass shooting in new zealand's history tax 2 mosques in the city of christchurch today as new threats surface we ask is enough being done to prevent such tragedies happening again with member you can share your thoughts by tweeting us a stream or comment in a live chat and you too could be in the story. i think when it comes to. things and is 7 and is tragic and it is heartbreaking and it's shocking.