stupid on al-jazeera. 0. hello i'm watching the news hour live from london coming up. europe has now become a piece of the pond and the. world health organization warns that not taking tough measures against the coronavirus would be a deadly mistake that's a spain prepares to enter a state of emergency the prime minister warns of more than $10000.00 coronavirus cases. and iran is saying it will clear the streets within 24 hours in a bid to calm one of the world's worst outbreaks. and in school the

english premier league is suspended a may not be finished due to coronavirus none of the stuff we see for club officials have met in london or goings or off until at least the start of a. deadly mistake that's the warning from the world health organization to any country not moving to take tough measures against coronavirus it says europe is now the epicenter of the outbreak nations across the continent already imposing drastic new measures to contain the virus spain today declared a state of emergency from saturday allowing the government to confine people and to evacuate buildings elsewhere security forces are being deployed to clear the streets of iran in the next 24 hours more global sporting events have also been affected games in the english premier league one of the world's was watched

competitions in any sport have been suspended until at least april while 2 more formula one races have been called off but there's also been some news perhaps on global markets tensions easing there with indices and europe in the u.s. rising off historic falls yesterday asian markets closed in negative territory and the heywood begins our coverage. closing for the foreseeable future spain is in the grip of the coronavirus crisis and didn't madrid balts restaurants and shops are being told they'll have to shot only pharmacies and supermarkets will be open from saturday across spain a state of emergency. is the mental in the state of emergency is a legal tool recognized in our constitution to confront a crisis as extraordinary as that which now faces the entire world and our own country in italy where public life has come to a standstill an entire nation some 60000000 people remain under quarantine but his

spirits are important one of these the desperation to not help us we must have hope we must be strong and white experts from china have arrived in italy to help bring in 30 tons of vital equipment from shanghai and experience on how they battle the outbreak. europe has now become the epicenter of the pandemic which is more reported cases and is done the rest of the world combined apart from china across the rest of europe measures to stop the spread of the corona virus are being ramped up a ban on public gatherings of more than 100 people is being introduced in france schools universe is a nursery as well from monday in the u.k. top flight football including the premier league has been suspended until the beginning of april after several players a manager has tested positive for corona virus or are in self isolation and in

a continent which prides itself on being borderless some european union member states and now imposing tight restrictions on one another introducing border checks all as in the case of the czech republic stopping power and travel together of course we all want to protect our citizens from the spread of the virus so let's look together at how we can do that and how we can do it most effectively. certain controls may be justified but general travel bans are not seen as being the most effective by the world health organization it's no surprise then that businesses are already taking a hit the airline british airways has one stop jobs will go as it prepares to deal with fewer people traveling attempting to put the brakes on this piracy it seems is getting harder every day and he would al-jazeera. and barker's been following the

story joins us live now and so europe is the epicenter of the pandemic right now spain and outsing drastic new measures where the state of emergency what does that mean for the country well yes that state of emergency was introduced after 4000 new confirmed cases were discovered in a very very short period of time what it means is that the or thought he is have the power to either tell people to stay at home to potentially lock down districts or entire towns are also the authorities of mobilize the army to help them and force this situation for as long as necessary as far as where the state of emergency will last for at least 15 days and already the 1st lockdowns have been reported for towns in catalonia north of barcelona affecting 60000 people concerns are growing also for the capital madrid 2000 cases going up there most

of those cases being reported in care homes so many already debating the very near possibility of the capital experiencing some kind of lock down and also boring from italy spain has decided to close most shops apart from food stores and pharmacies and italy of course the is whether we're seeing the west of the outbreak here in europe they are imported new figures with 2 and a half 1000 new infections get us right to a half 1000 new infections in the death toll has gone up by this saying the single biggest jump since the 1st reports of infections were 1st discovered it's gone up by $250.00 bring in the death toll to more than 1200 in italy this is of course off the back of multiple measures introduced by the government it started off with long by the way the financial capital milan was put on lockdown other big cultural centers like venice been shut down then the entire country involving 60000000

people. were put on the restricted measures shops businesses told to close apart from pharmacies and essential food stores it's really it's governments are basically saying look we're going to do this for 2 weeks and then we'll we will review the situation but of course whatever happens in italy will be watched very closely across the whole of europe people are really looking for a glimmer of hope thank you very much nice arco with the latest on the want to move to the middle east now focus on iran the security forces that will clear the streets of its major cities within the next 24 hours in a renewed effort to fight the spread of the virus according to state t.v. shops streets and roads will all be vacated run is one of the country's worst affected by the pandemic but the death toll of $514.00 and more than 11 and a half 1000 infections the country is struggling with a lack of life saving equipment and has asked for an emergency 5000000000 dollars loan from the international monetary fund. joins us live from the capital tehran and so really this is a country struggling to cope with

a mounting crisis in terms of resources and medical supplies and i guess that's really reflected in this new step this decision to deploy security forces to clear the streets. that's exactly right if you tune into local television channels in the evening you'll find that the shows are all dedicated to panels of experts and all of them say the same thing that the worst is yet to come that the peak of this outbreak in this country is going to happen in the next 2 weeks president hassan rouhani over the past week has been the target of criticism from people across the political spectrum who say he hasn't been able to get a grip on the spread of the coronavirus throughout iran 100 members of parliament earlier this afternoon sent a letter to the president imploring him to take over control from the health ministry and put himself directly in charge of the reaction to the coronavirus but all of that may be unnecessary late last night the supreme leader ayatollah ali

khamenei issued a command to the chief of the armed forces major general mohammad. now mr bathory is the head of the armed forces the regular army not to be confused with the revolutionary guard in that letter commanding general to start a new task force he basically issued an order to the military to start a new parallel task force but this one with a much more militaristic approach a much more military slant made up of primarily military officers and what we're seeing is mr buggery after the 1st meeting that was held earlier today went on state television and made a public asked him that he said during an interview on state t.v. that in the next 24 hours the military will take to the streets to begin crowd control to try to enforce the government's guidance to limit movement of the population in different parts of the country now it is a week to no rose the persian new year that's like christmas and new year's combined people are out of shopping centers they are out at bazaars people are out

on the streets and largely especially in the capital most of the population has not been taking government guidance seriously now iranians can expect this to have become a security matter. to address a civilian public health issue that simply the civilian government one was unable to get a grip of another thing that we should look at in the supreme leader's letter to the military commander is that he said that there is evidence of the fact that this is perhaps a biological attack really fanning the flames of a conspiracy theory the united states were put was perhaps somehow behind covert $900.00 coming to iran it's something that senior political and military leaders have been talking about publicly for the last few days now the supreme leader saying this sends a clear signal to iranians that this is now a security matter and one of iran's biggest enemies the united states might be involved so iranians really have to get in line fall in line do what the government needs the people to do but it has to be said tonight i can tell you that on the

streets of iran people are still walking around there are still cars on the roads and shops in several parts of the city remain open thanks very much from tehran same bus ravi reporting to us it watching the news hour live from london much more still ahead u.s. and european markets recover some lost ground after that worst day in and over 30 years but asian stocks have yet to rebound. china recall its lowest daily infection figures since reporting began in january. and then later in sport the 1st of 3 races of the for me to one season hit a red light because of coronavirus. turning around the studios dr adam is infectious disease epidemiologist in london school of hygiene and tropical medicine we are seeing a contrasting approach from countries around the world also here in europe i want

to talk about the u.k. government's rationale right now because their response has been dictated by this need to create herd immunity which is the idea that is. some of us catch the corona virus and it creates a sort of general protection for the population can you just explain this concept of herd immunity 1st of all. people who are exposed to infection will boots munity to reduce susceptibility and prevent potential future outbreaks occurring in that formulation but how specifically does that work so if someone who then has the virus or the illness is then in an environment where people have all been have all been vaccinated against the virus then that it sort of dies out because there's there's no one to pass it on to the idea really comes from are also interested the early on when infectious is messy other susceptible people but once this immunity builds up it's infectious

a person is more likely to be i mean people who says that to people and that slows down transmissions of century and of course there's no way of knowing how long such a process would take as we've got some good idea for these covers is the immunity to build quite quickly often faction the key question of course is how long it last afterwards the servants maybe 23 years these kind of viruses but that's currently not well understood because we don't have enough information about the corona virus it's still something that we're learning about so if even if you've had the virus you might then be able to catch it again i think that's what we're trying to work out it's unlikely that most people would be catching it immediately but it may well be the over a couple of years that situation those change but carney there is no vaccine available for covert 19 and i might not be one available until early next year no only the enormous challenge we face is potentially a vaccine may not be widely available for 18 months and we've seen that there are some control measures for example china that work very well over a short period but may not be sustainable so we have a situation where we have to find ways the going to reduce transmission over

a period of time but this accumulation of immunity could alongside this how would use transmission in populations where we're seeing outbreaks but if if immunity were so immune. she is relying on enough people within the population catching the disease now here in the u.k. they're saying it'll be about 60 percent of the population is it likely to be more . i think the point is that it shouldn't be a case that we're expected to sit back and let this thing happen and in fact people i think we really have to work hard oh interactions to reduce risk and reduce transmission but we face this really tricky position that even those interventions may not stop this and so even if we put things in place we change our behavior we think about you know 100 washing and kind of staying at home if we're you know that may not stop this and so it may ultimately be that beautiful minute you saying that even tough control measures that are being taken like you know canceling big events

school closures people working from home that's not going to stop transmission potentially not we've seen just slows it now see in places like china which were sent to a full on lockdown of a society that does slow transmission but it's not clear yet how effective the other measures might be so in the meantime how much loss of life are we talking about it depends a lot on the how effects you up take the risk groups there's a lot of risk in old age groups so i think we need think really seriously about avoiding those interactions that can bring transmission to those groups adam caskey thank you. now u.s. president donald trump has been criticized for the lack of a nationwide testing program there in the u.s. he is jus to address the nation in under an hour's time a drive through coronavirus testing station that has been set up in the city of new rochelle just outside of new york where an outbreak of coded 19 it was detected last week live now to our white house correspondent kimberly kennedy there's been

a lot of criticism in a great deal of complaint about people in the u.s. some people exhibiting symptoms but they're not able to access a test for this. that's right we're hearing stories of people who have or believe they may have been exposed calling their doctors being told come back next week we don't have the test just yet but we understand that is soon about to change not only do we know that there has been a so-called testing czar that has been appointed to try and not only expand the access to testing but also to employ the private labs in this country that currently are not a part of the testing system because up till now it has been a government centralized program but that is soon changing we're watching very carefully as you mentioned the u.s. president set to appear within the hour we expect that he may be declaring some sort of national emergency it could be an emergency declaration or it could be a disaster declaration we're not exactly sure he has these powers under what's

known as the stafford act as what this is actually means is it will be tens of billions of dollars that will soon become available to allow for more corded federal response with state and local agencies now in the midst of all of this again it is the testing that this is ministration has really come under criticism for in the last few moments the house speaker nancy pelosi speaking on capitol hill saying that she has put together legislation that will be passed in the house of representatives very shortly and then in the u.s. senate that would really have 3 key component she said testing testing testing so essentially what this will mean is that up until now the numbers of coronavirus cases in the united states have been relatively low about more than 1641 deaths but that could soon change those numbers could go up with the widespread access to testing that we expect will soon become available all right thank you can really help it with the latest from the white house and of course are expecting. to speak

at 900 g.m.t. in about 40 minutes and as the number of new infections continues its downward trend in china of the asian countries are stepping up measures to limit the impact it's all having on their economies lawrence louis reports to us now from kuala lumpur. major stock markets in asia took their cue from wall street overnight tumble on thursday and extend their losses from the day before japan's nikkei index plunged by more than 10 percent in early trade but recovered to close 6 percent lower in south korea financial regulators imposed a half year ban on short selling starting on monday the 1st time it's done so since 2011 in a bid to curb volatility 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 start. but i think you've got the biggest problem of the whole global market the u.s.

which is so darn low interest rates and so on you asians you know it's hard for asian markets to bounce back when there's what i would consider a big overhang there beyond the stock markets more visible signs that the global economy is taking a hit singapore announced it will stop allowing cruise ships to dock with immediate effect gone are the large crowds at usually busy airports across the region as people avoid unnecessary travel and countries impose entry restrictions several airlines have asked employees to take unpaid leave in manila people were stocking up on essential a day after the philippine president or 3 go to terre day said domestic travel to and from metropolitan manila would be suspended for a month. analysts say the move may weaken economic growth but many residents agree with the measure that mobile. money not being logged on is ok instead of the virus

spreading i'm in favor of it because it's better to do it now before they let us know that there are so many cases. in indonesia the government has started a campaign to disinfect thousands of mosques to prevent the spread of corona virus here in malaysia there are concerns that could be a sudden spike in confirmed cases after at least a dozen infections were linked to an event held at a mosque on the outskirts of quality level up to weeks ago health officials estimate as many as 16000 people attended the religious gathering but amid the gloom there is some positive news china reported 8 new cases as of thursday the lowest daily figure since reporting began in january south korea to continue the downward trend reporting more recoveries than infections on friday florence li al-jazeera kuala lumpur. well in all the ramifications coronavirus is having

a major impact on sports across the globe the world's most watched football competition the english premier league has now suspended matches until at least the start of april so monic has more on the. it was a health update from this premier league manager that finally forced the world's most lucrative league to take action just hours after was announced that aston boss mikel arteta had contracted coronavirus an emergency meeting was held in london it's a very good decision we've got great league management they made the right decision on the d.v.d. . when you got it in you put it in the penny lee the. other day pitiful none of us know will see our tete a wasn't the only case chelsea star callum hudson adored was the 2nd e.p.l. star to announce he tested positive and like carter to teenager is currently in isolation as you maybe had the virus for the last which i've recovered from. everybody for a week. and

a picture recent the move to suspend football could cost the league millions but the decision is receiving support from those within the game what happens if a player's contract this problem and unfortunately in the last 24 hours so. i can't see any alternative than to suspend him. and see where we are in a few weeks france's top league has also been halted till mid april adding to a growing list of suspended competitions including spain italy and portugal's top division. training sessions will continue because we don't have a date yet know when the chamber trip will resume but we have to continue training while taking precautions for the players and the people who are still here at the club. games had been due to be played behind closed doors and from the problems with that policy were highlighted when parasite or man fans gathered outside their

stadium on wednesday for a european much in defiance of the order that game was in the champions league which itself has now been suspended indefinitely europe's the governing body for will meet on tuesday to decide what's next for football across the continent so he'll malik al-jazeera. major sporting events have also been cancelled in australia as the government varies advising against large public gatherings people are also being urged to avoid any nonessential overseas travel as health officials say millions of people could become infected in the coming months. from sydney the some had been waiting for hours before the decision was made that a strike is formula one would not go ahead it many are angry they would told soon a. very early a mclaren pulled out after one of its team members tested positive for corona virus formula one champion lewis hamilton accused organizers of putting money before

health if the rice wasn't cancelled we're terribly just supported the event can't go ahead the reasons for that. spectators were banned from watching the one day international cricket match in sydney between a stray or new zealand which meant an empty stadium and cash registers. on thursday the government was still advised people to attend public events but in an effort to fight the virus and after pressure from health experts that quickly changed we will be advising against. organized. norm essential gatherings of persons of 500 people right or the prime minister also told not to travel overseas if it wasn't essential with financial pressure on the aviation industry travel agent flight center collapsed closing 100 stores across

the country the number of job losses isn't clear and virgin australia is cutting flights to cope with the falling demond the number of coronavirus cases in australia 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 tane $1000000000.00 stimulus package handing out $750.00 payments to some to try and prevent a recession for the 1st time in 29 years. among those in australian hospitals with the barossa or hollywood actor tom hanks and his wife rita wilson as well as the nation's home affairs minister peter dutton who now have to work from home for a while you can gauge al-jazeera sydney and our sports reporter and presenter andy richardson joins us now from daryn in the past few minutes andy the london marathon has also been postponed can the sporting season get back on track

anywhere this year. it's looking unlikely we're going through unprecedented times really the london marathon for example was meant to serve as few catholics it for u.k. athletes at least as a as a trial time trial ahead of the the olympics and i really think at this stage it's more interesting to look at the outliers rather than what what is actually being called off 2 events one that's going on just finished in the u.k. at the moment the cheltenham horseracing festival which within the u.k. is one of the biggest sporting events there is around a quarter of a 1000000 fans will go there over 4 days and at a time when we're being told to be aware about social distancing keeping our movements outside of our house too to a bare minimum it's somewhat in congress to see a gathering like this and make sort of almost like the last days of wrong before. we do head into this period now where there's going to be next to no sports and in terms of the olympics that is the other thing that at the moment the international

olympic committee appears to be singing a very different tune to everyone else saying that as far as they're concerned the games are still going to go ahead in july in souci oh we saw of the last couple of days the torch relay starts in greece at the sort of spiritual home with the olympics there as of today the torch relay has had to be suspended because they're worried that too many people are coming to see the torch really even though they're encouraged fans to stay away from that event but despite that they're saying the top 2 will go to japan at the end of this month but a scaled down torch relay will take place around japan over the next month or 2 and as far as they're concerned that the games will take place as planned and start on july the 24th we shall see thank you very much andy richardson in doha thank you andy. still ahead with french local elections guy head despite the coronavirus

we look at how politicians are changing the way they campaign. america's strikes missed that targets in iraq killing 6 people and increasing tensions with baghdad and then in support the and then take flame is snuffed out because too many people want to see it. live each day across parts of the eastern mediterranean lots of clouds spilling across the levant as we go on through the coming hours we will see whether making its way towards syria lebanon jordan and eventually into iraq this is the same yesterday in cairo very heavy rainfall there has been flooding in many power since and the widespread travel disruption as a result of that as it was the weather pushing everts was iraq towards iran as we

go on into west sas day lot of showers coming into high through the course of the day but it will tend to weaken by the end of the way cannot see if they have a class that in place still quite brisk on the way and so lifted just the sand visibility issues still in play as we go on right through this weekend show as they will tend to fade away over the high ground of iraq as we go on into sunday with the still end of us some of the heavy flooding here with the possibility of a lot of shows to across central parts of africa as this should be will see some rather wet weather coming in across the gulf of guinea now if you have been highlands down across parts of kenya uganda seeing the showers showers rolling across southern parts of nigeria goddess seeing some showers the shows stand there way over towards the good parts of liberia and sierra leone. for. all new counting the cost we go behind russia and saudi arabia's oil prices

bust up and find out how low the oil prices will go plus lebanon defaults on its debt for the 1st time when it's taken on the bail out of china's grip on ai facial recognition surveillance counting the cost analysis of. the shocking treatment of disabled people in eastern european state run caverns in these cages you cannot have access to a toilet or water and the bureaucratic indifference to their plight she has his hands and his fates tied to the bed 5 years after 1st highlighting such abuses people in power returns with a 2 part investigation to continuing mistreatment and neglect europe's recurring shame heart one on al-jazeera reason to stand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take it we'll bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you.

welcome back you're watching the news hour live from london well the health organization says that europe is the new epicenter of the corona virus and that make its want to any country not taking tough measures is taking is making a deadly mistake spain has declared a state of emergency from saturday and this would allow the government to confine people into also evacuate buildings. iran security forces will clear the streets of its major cities in the next 24 hours in a renewed effort to fight the spread of the virus country seen one of the worst outbreaks with 514 people confirmed dead. and then the coronavirus is also having a major impact on sport across the globe the english premier league has now

suspended matches until it at least the start of april 2 more formula one races have been called off and the london and boston marathon have both didn't respond. well markets have seen more volatile trading as investors way the measures world leaders are taking in the impact of the pandemic overall the dow jones industrial average opened up 3 percent after thursday's trading saw the greatest losses since the black friday crash of 1987 here in london the footsie 100 initially surged 8 percent but gain subsided in afternoon trading to close just 2.4 percent up it's the biggest weekly loss in more than 30 years and then in asia markets plunged in mourning trade but managed to call back initial losses in hong kong the one saying index closed down 1 point one percent so kristen salumi joins us live now from new york looks as though the markets might of stabilized a bit today. now the markets have been quiet back some of the

losses from earlier in the week all of the major indices now are up about 23 percent as investors look to us and leaders of the world. to stabilize the markets and they discuss what they're going to do to bolster confidence in the economy we just heard in the last hour from the house speaker nancy pelosi in washington d.c. saying that congress is going to that the house anyway is going to move forward with the relief package we're going to hear from president trump at the top of the hour on what he is planning to do there's some talk of declaring a state of emergency and with all of this happening investors seem to be buying stocks again oil prices are up a bit cruise lines airlines which have taken such a hit with the coronavirus are doing a little bit better today but still the markets are well off record highs of february officially entering what's known as bear market territory this week more

than 20 percent below those highs as they weigh the fallout as investors weigh the fallout from the coronavirus and what the ongoing economic impact may be we don't know as the disease hasn't peaked yet certainly not here in the united states and analysts are looking for more specifics before they really feel settled and whether or not there's going to be a unified approach here in the united states will see what president trump has to say and if it looks like that there's an agreement between the white house and congress so far that has been invasive and that it would go a long way i think the common vast years thank you very much kristen salumi in new york well joining me now via skype is philip stuff it at issue of trading room at the financial times newspaper he is joining us from london we're expecting u.s. president donald trump to speak in just less than 30 minutes time at $900.00 g.m.t. . now this is important because there is the possibility of

a state of emergency being declared in the us which would free up more than $40000000000.00 that is set aside by congress for disaster relief how closely unlock its watching that. very closely is the short answer the last time president barack trunk spoke on that wednesday evening i can read the intention of calming the markets it had exactly the opposite effect and then we all saw some of the worst fall to the tightest conditions in 30 years so this time i think people are looking for a lot more detail about what their plan could be now it may not be enough to curb the coronavirus but i think certainly other countries have now come up with their packages through how business is to try and get the condom is moving status their late. spending now to ease loans to companies that are am i suppose what are the

problems we're seeing in the reason there's so much fear and instability in the markets is that the measures that have been taking such taken so far interest rate cuts by central banks even government declarations that they are willing to support the economy in some way there is a fear that the tolls and of the past will not work now that future stimulus is not going to work. well indeed i mean all crises are different in their own way i suppose and this one i think it's going to say that no one really knows and has ever seen anything quite like getting back in 2008 most people would accept that you've never seen anything quite like in didn't want to live through something like that again true and this one is different because there's a public health element that sad is extremely worrying and nobody really knows where it's going to end and and when it's going to end and it's a slow rolling thing and until we have some certainty the you're probably going to

see an awful lot of volatility continued swings you might yet have a few more heavy drop falls in the market yeah so when it comes to things like not just stocks and bonds but also perhaps government debt also. oil trading what does this volatility mean for people what does it mean for consumers. well it's. it's almost like the rules are absolute don't apply in this case normally. in all price shock that we had started this week which feels a long time ago now normally that will be a huge story and we'll be looking at the impact of it on possibly the price of petrol at the actual stations. now the issue really is is you know how much normal everyday economic activity a people actually going to do are they going to be working from home stuck at home

isolated it is then you're not going to have anything like the amount of economic impact and this is the thing that people can't quantify and hence this is why the the market is really swinging about because it's it's really a basic psychology that this is this is it's almost like you know how we all feel at the moment and we sometimes we're well bit more positive and sometimes and now world of downbeat all right well thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with us and have course all be watching that statement about 20 minutes time see what set there in the us philip stafford from the f.t. for now thank you thank you we haven't spoken yet about africa the continent has so far largely as escapes unscathed from the krajina virus but several countries have also just announced fs cases malcolm webb is in nairobi where a 27 year old kenyan woman has tested positive after returning home from a trip to the us in the u.k. . 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 so the ministry of health has 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 for 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. the u.s. state department has held talks with the chinese ambassador of a comments by china's foreign ministry that the coronavirus life of the originated in the us a conspiracy theory 1st 2nd agent on the fringes of the internet on the russian media and it's now increasingly becoming the official chinese line under schapelle

explains this. controlling the narrative or changing it completely as president xi jinping visited this week for the 1st time since the beginning of the krona virus outbreak his government went on the defensive aggressively responding to another message coming from washington this is the one corona virus that started in china and is now spreading throughout the world as cases rise in the united states its officials are emphasizing that the pandemic was quote made in china this virus that not a region of the united states originated on an province in china it originated some time ago unfortunately rather than using best practices this outbreak and one was covered up such comments by senior u.s. officials have infuriated the chinese government its foreign ministry had this to say to move on the urge that u.s. official to respect objective facts and international public opinion and spend time on preventing and controlling the epidemic and strengthening relevant cooperation

rather than attacking slandering or complaining about others u.s. officials have been pushing back against conspiracy theories floating around the internet and chinese media that the corona virus is an american bio weapon so we could have people in the united states dying for what appears to be influenza when in fact it could be the corona virus work over 90 some cases have been actually diagnosed that way in the united states today. that testimony to congress by the director of the centers for disease control was insured by a chinese foreign ministry spokesman to support the theory that the virus may have originated in the united states. beijing has also pushed the narrative that the virus was brought to china by the u.s. military really 250 members of the u.s. military were in wu han in october last year along with athletes from 100 other nations to take part in the world military games the theory has now been widely circulated by state aligned media china's new position on the origins of the corona

virus outbreak appears to contradict its own assessment from january and i canna from what we can see now the origin is the wild animals sold in the seafood market with the number of new cases on the decline in who bay province beijing appears to have taken control of the outbreak but it also wants to make sure the world doesn't blame china for one of the worst health crises in a decade and al-jazeera. well the eiffel tower is now set to be closed indefinitely because of the virus but france's local elections they're still going ahead on sunday health minister says the process will be no more dangerous than a trip to the supermarket but reports from paris. the coronavirus was clearly on focus minds in paris as an yes bizarre campaign in the city to become mayor the former french health minister is the candidate for french president emanuel mycroft centrist party republic on the moon of what so some people say there are fewer

people on the streets i think are easier ways of being responsible and we're going to lose 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 front runners. 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. we are opening a new way to live in the city differently in a paris that respects nature spektor land that's where they lived for 6 years you dull goes 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 rashida daddy 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 nearly 35000 mayoral seats and roles but only a minority i expected to go back was way. the. recent anger over macros pension reforms and months of yellow vest protests have damaged michael's popularity and in turn his. parties 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 small towns in the in the municipal level and so they don't have the parties they don't have the 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 natasha al-jazeera paris we'll bring you some other stories we're following this hour iraq's president has condemned retaliatory astronauts conducted by the united states iraq is saying 6 people were killed but the head of the u.s. military central command has defended the strikes as targeting iran backed fighters adding that the threat from tatiana is still high the u.s. says the strikes were in response to a rocket attack that killed 3 soldiers on wednesday. 2 americans in a person died when 20 rockets were fired at a military base in the northwest of the capital baghdad also known of fulton is in baghdad and says there are calls for further actions against the u.s. and the u.k.

over the attack. well there has been a flurry of reaction in response to these strikes from a wide range of political and military institution condemning them as a violation of iraq's sovereignty of course this is then some very stark contrast to what we've heard come out of the pentagon today where general kind of mckinsey called the strikes a success strikes against positions of uranium back groups that would help keep calling troops safe that would help deter their ability to conduct future air strikes we've heard condemnations come from the joint operations command here in iraq which governs all military activity and what this book particularly infuriated them is the fact that 5 members from the army and police were killed in these strikes these are security forces that used to partner with american troops in their fight against isis of course this is unintended and something that has

enraged military actors here in iraq of also had a condemnation from the president's office the foreign minister has some on the leaders from both the u.s. and the u.k. and we've also heard from some of these iranian backed groups who have used the casualties used as example of these strikes that have resulted in the deaths of 6 people to call for further action against u.s. troops who are present here so the backlash from iraq is quite strong indeed turkey and russia of agreed on the details of a cease fire in syria as. the agreement was finalized after 4 days of talks in ankara under the agreement turkish and russian forces will carry out joint patrols along the m 4 highway linking syria's east and west from sunday the ceasefire deal which was largely held since the 5th of march was reached after around 60 turkish troops were killed in clashes. now

a former chief minister of indian administered kashmir has been released after 7 months in custody for abdullah was arrested along with other local leaders when india revote kashmir special semi-autonomous status in august it was charged with disturbing public order new delhi imposed a lockdown in a majority muslim part populated territory after withdrawing its autonomy. so ahead on the program you know when you and i to sports news goals 1st major of the season has been to sponge with the sport facing unprecedented people.

and he's back now with more the sports news hi andy. thank you mary well the world's most watched football competition the english premier league has suspended all matches until the start of a police to fish oils offer no guarantees that the season will ever be finished a meeting of club executives was prompted by news on thursday that also manage to make. a tested positive for corona virus and force the club to close its training facilities and put the entire 1st team in self isolation is a very good decision we've got great league management they made the right decision on the key value to you before if and when you look at it in a you put it in the penny lee you. have to be a pitiful none of the snow will see. well chelsea winger callum hudson a dory has also confirmed he's tested positive for the virus what food man city born with and evidence and also checking on players with coronavirus symptoms chelsea squad while they're in isolation hudson a door he posted this message on social media as you may be aware i had the virus

for the last couple of days which i've recovered from of following the health guidelines and selflessly a muscle from everybody for the week. in the hope that you're going to pitch very soon. there are some big decisions being made across european football this friday european football's governing body away for when they have suspended all of their competitions including the champions league and europa league the top seed leagues in france are also being postponed there have been plans to play games behind closed doors they've been shelled and the german bundesliga or that has been halted now and so early 8 for the australian a full on grand prix hits a last minute red lights at the start of the season has now been pushed back and so may 300000 spectators were due to attend the 3 day events in melbourne a member of the mclaren team tested positive for coronavirus on thursday upcoming races in bahrain and vietnam while they're also off.

i want to add our thoughts with those individuals that have been affected. by this . also want to express our disappointment on behalf of the fans this is a race we always look forward to great fans here we're sorry not to have it but it's been a very fluid situation i think we've made the right decisions we work well with our partners over the cancellation came on friday morning just as the 1st practice session was about to take place in melbourne and fans were gathering outside the gates of their own we spoke to f one journalist phil duncan who explained why it's taken a so long so might the cole. the teams were told that the race was off but at the same time though the local promoters it was telling breakfast t.v. that the race was still going ahead and we were in a class with situation where hundreds of fans or thousands of fans potentially were queuing up outside the albert park gates to go in on the premise that the race was

still going ahead so it was a bad sort of position for whom we want to be in their argument will be that these things take time. that they came together in the early hours of friday morning to since the sides months it seems the stakeholders the governing body the f.a.a. and form on itself the ranks are no longer go ahead and they have to get all the bits and bobs together for that to take place and we've seen the chart the chinese concrete counseled that was something that that was done over many days weeks and ultimately this situation was forced on form one after the mechanics from the planet sesar positive coronavirus i think they felt they had to put all their procedures in place before they can officially say that's it we're not going to have a race and in on their defense and their defense is just too tight i think the argument against what happened is that in communicating very well there weren't very many updates so we had a situation where we're going through through the night with no real official confirmation the race has been cancelled and that was something that earlier from

bosses and the f.a. will be criticised over that for their handling of how long it actually did take for them to say look this race isn't going has. gold's 1st major of the year the masters has been postponed it had been due to take off on april the 9th all of the tournament on north america's leading so have been called off in the meantime as well on thursday remark or one of the players involved in round one of the players championship in florida that did take place with spectators organizers and then intended to play the final 3 rounds without founds but later changed their minds. it ultimately became a matter of when not if we would need to call it a day our goal now is to focus on a plan for the near and long term and maintain the strength we've built through our organization over the past 51 years showing because test cricket series against

england has been called off england were already in colombo playing a warm up game when the announcement was made the 2 test series was due to begin next week some international cricket is carrying on australia are playing their 31 day internationals against new zealand behind closed doors. in the last few minutes we've heard the london marathon has been postponed until october the events attract some of the world's best distance runners it's the 1st time the race is seen any sort of delay since it was launched back in 1981. but for now the olympic torch relay has been snuffed out the flame is lifted the birthplace of the games in greece on thursday was due to its all the country before heading to japan but organizers said large crowds were still gathering to see the flame despite requests for them to stay away july's tokyo games are still set to go ahead as planned. on a sporting outlaw in the u.k. this week has been a whole strike show them festival over 4 days more than 200000 fans but turn to one

of the country's most popular sports and events that culminated with friday's gold cup organizers said they were following governments advice and did all they could to keep wright scaurus sites. ok that is how you sports is looking for now let's get back to marry him in love and he thanks so much so before we leave you for this news hour the coronavirus crisis has people around the world understandably worried best advice from medical experts is to wash your hands often and for 20 seconds or to the happy birthday twice but it doesn't have to be happy birthday. gloria gaynor that with her tips on how to survive the pandemic doesn't get old does it i will definitely be following her advice at the arena i will gave that will be here in a moment with more of the day's news stay with out is there. the

u.n. fact finders accused the bunnies military of genocide this is the political that you see there. do you believe the undervote is a fascist or i just don't have all of them they. would have to go through recognize that both sides have legitimate grievances against the other climate this is the foundation of climate back then and that is why my little cousin my face. to face with. on al-jazeera. he came from a wealthy background in paris and became an artist against his family's wishes he

went on to bring a fresh perspective to orientalism painting falling in love with some harlem culture making his home and converting to islam. and just 0 world tells the story of plastic and his unique artistic work. the french oriental list on al-jazeera this is a domicile a man's 4th trip to boozy in 2 days but fisherman is using his boat to risk you as many people as he can was stranded in the flood hit area to psychologize struck mozambique i was up when i 1st saw women with babies on their backs crying for help saying they were dying i knew i had to do something i was late and from the dark thing to whistle in the distance alerts us to people calling for help women children and the elderly are brought on board 1st hungry and thirsty it hasn't taken much time to pull the boat about 200 people have been rescued and more want

to get on but there's simply no space. europe has now become the epicenter of the pundit make at least coronavirus death toll drops by 250 its biggest daily rise and spain declares a state of emergency as its cases soar. president trump is also expected to declare a national emergency this hour as anger grows over testing in the u.s. . you're watching al-jazeera live from london i'm dead you navigate also ahead iran security forces are ordered to clear the streets nationwide in the next 24 hours as its death toll.