of hope and inspiration where the light shines witness on. the. empty plaza isn't silent highways spanish citizens stay home as authorities confirm 2000 new cases of the coronavirus. georgios is there a live from london i'm also ahead a major jump in infections in iran a concern is growing that international sanctions are compromising the country's ability to fight the virus chaos at some u.s. airports as additional virus screening measures are boosted and passengers from europe try to beat the travel ban and the french president defends his decision to go ahead with local elections despite the coronavirus pandemic.

hello governments across the world continue to restrict the movement of their citizens as they try to reduce the spread of the corona virus spain which became the 2nd european country to impose a nationwide lockdown has now confirmed 2000 new cases and the number of reported deaths there as doubled iran has announced more than 100 people have died in the past 24 hours confirmed cases there are nearing 140021 says its fight is being severely hampered by u.s. sanctions and in the philippines the capital manila is sealed off $12000000.00 people have been told they cannot travel for a month schools are closed and large events banned over in the u.s. increased screening measures for people returning from europe have caused chaos at airports the u.s. has imposed

a ban on non americans traveling from the european countries including the u.k. and ireland let's bring in paul brennan his joining us here in the studio and speaking of the u.k. paul authorities here under pressure to introduce stricter measures and new numbers point to the red rise in the number of deaths in the u.k. what are you hearing. well we've been speaking about spain for most of the morning but we're going to look at the u.k. now because 1st of all we're sitting here and 2nd of all they just published the latest statistics as to how many people have died how many people have been infected and how many tests they've been doing and the statistics show an upward trajectory it's continuing to rise here another 14 deaths which takes the new total to 35 deaths here in the u.k. some 40200 people have been tested and the confirmed cases have risen from 114213721 the death side that's a 66 percent increase it's not good news particularly at a time when the government is as you say under intense pressure because it's

essentially an outlier compared to the other countries in europe in relation to its policy towards trying to control the coronavirus they haven't introduced lock down they haven't shut down schools they haven't closed universities they haven't insisted shops close preferring to wait and see on those measures with a bill that's going to go before parliament on thursday which could force quarantine on vulnerable groups for up to 4 months but the holding off on that at the moment and there's a lot of debate a lot of discussion a lot of disagreement as to whether the advice that the government is getting from its scientific advisors is correct or not but we see these strict measures imposed over in spain for example as well as a national lockdown so how are authorities there explaining the jump in the number of cases that well you can compare and contrast the 2 different approaches as far as the figures in spain go we were looking at pictures a little earlier of the may or where police officers are periodical cruising through that massive square in the center of madrid talking to the hunt for the

people who are there asking essentially why they're there as far as the increase institute in fractions goes there are multiple different possibilities as to exactly why that is still happening but what the spanish authorities. have chosen to do is reduce social contact as if it's all possible imposes states of emergency so 47000000 people that they need to just stay at home unless they're going to a pharmacy or to the food grocery store it remains to be seen whether or not that will be effective in curbing the numbers the trajectory of numbers of increases for the infections that we've seen all right thank you very much for that update now iran's death toll has risen to at least 724 and almost 14000 people in the country are infected many iranians have ignored official advice to stay at home in an effort to contain the outbreak hosts the senior officials politicians doctors and clerics have all contracted the disease and the iranian president hassan rouhani

says u.s. sanctions are severely impacting the country's ability to stop coronavirus we'll get an update from same bus ravi he's joining us from the iranian capital tehran and the same question surrounding the government's transparency in reporting the extent of the epidemic and its actual ability to contain the virus what are you hearing. well iran's government has said over and over again that part of the reason it is struggling to stop the spread of the virus throughout the country is because it doesn't have enough money to throw at the problem and that they say is because of u.s. sanctions unilateral and illegal u.s. sanctions that they say are hampering efforts now and are having a compound in effect at this time when the country is going through a public health crisis 2 days ago if the foreign minister of the country sent a letter to the united nations imploring them to step in and press the united states to remove sanctions yesterday president hassan rouhani in an open letter published on his website to world leaders made that point as well saying that if

you don't help iran now it may become a problem that continues to perform in the country in the region and throughout the globe and earlier today the foreign minister once again sent letters to ambassadors of countries represented here in tehran imploring them to step in and understand that it is time to push the united states to drop these sanctions so that iran can go on about the business of trying to deal with covert 19 in the country here in tehran earlier today the task force set up to combat the coronavirus announced that the death tolls had spiked a number of cases that spiked tragically another record setting day in this country to iran remains the worst affected part of the country yet the government here trying to find a balancing act between the economy and public health crisis says that they still will not quarantine this city we've also heard that a number of cases of those who died were actually younger people 15 percent of the deaths so far have been of people around the age of 40 so in

a virus that was thought to affect largely older people now a worry for a country where the median age is 31 and the majority of the population is considered young all right says amos robin thank you. while soldiers have been clearing the streets of the philippine capital manila were mandatory quarantine is now in place several asian countries have seen a jump in new cases including malaysia which reported almost $200.00 new infections on sunday and that's despite tough measures across the region to stop the virus from spreading sara has more. the philippine capital manila has begun a month lockdown thousands of police sealing off the city by blocking major roads the quarantine means domestic travel in and out of manila this is suspended with a few exceptions one might do but i mean that there's so much traffic the containment measures are disruptive but it's ok it's for the good of our own health from monday minute his $12000000.00 residents will be under

a nightly curfew and are encouraged to stay it's time during the day schools are closed most government jobs will be suspended and large gatherings are to be banned in. the philippines has taken some of the toughest measures yet in the region there's also been a jump in the number of coronavirus cases in malaysia most of them a link to a 4 day event that was held in february at a mosque near kuala lumpur among the 16000 attendees there were nearly 1500 foreigners who went back to their countries majority of cases found in neighboring brunei and now linked to that gathering in australia has strict travel measures are being implemented anyone arriving from abroad must self quarantine for 2 weeks cruise ships entering australian waters will soon be banned from docking 30 days prime minister scott morrison says the restrictions are necessary and has called for an urgent meeting of the g 20. promised to my views kerry to organize i

link up between all the g 20 leaders i think that's i think that's a commendable initiative a struggle obviously supports that and even more urgent maybe that would be needed would be the making of the g 20 finance ministers and central bank governors this is a whole crisis but it has very serious economic impact. in new zealand the number of people infected has gone up after person travelled from australia despite having tested positive for corona virus itself isolation period of 2 weeks to travelers entering new zealand has come into force but those coming from small south pacific island countries with no reported cases are exempt we're going to step out there in force and things like spot checks to ensure people self isolating and if you don't there are quarantine powers available to us and all new zealand's east coast passengers on a cruise ship docks and i could a town on what's allowed to disembark 3 people on board a quarantine with one showing symptoms people's movement is being restricted if you

choose hope it will prevent a bigger spread the virus. a. little largest airline in the united states american airlines is slashing its international flights by 75 percent until may the cuts were announced hours after the us government restricted travel for more countries including the u.k. and ireland as a precaution against the coronavirus international airports across the u.s. were already in chaos with incoming travelers forced to wait hours for medical screening before being allowed through customs mike hanna joining us from washington for an update from there what more can you tell us about the effects that travel ban is having on airports. well certainly reports from a number of airports remember there are 13 airports that have been designated as except the entrance points with screening reports are that there's scenes of complete chaos at a number of these airports some passages report waiting for up to 10 hours to clear

customs and collect their baggage after arriving on flights from europe clearly the situation the screening staff overwhelmed by this many commentators pointing out the similarity to president trump's ill conceived ban on muslim travel shortly after he took office similar scenes of chaos in airports being seen now now the governor of illinois tweeted out in the middle of the night as he was getting reports of the crowding of chicago's o'hare airport that it's time for the government to get its act together though he didn't use the word act to used a much stronger word he says he was response was an angry call from a white house official who yelled at him for having tweeted this out in the middle of the night the governor insists that federal aid is needed at these airports that the situation cannot continue through the day remembering too that a nother travel ban an extended travel ban comes into effect at midnight on monday

and that is a ban imposed on the united kingdom and ireland which were left out of the original ban on the $26.00 members of the schengen union so certainly the situation could will get worse before it gets better and pointed out to the fact that where the administration is recommending social distance that people keep apart from each other it's accept led to tens of thousands of people standing shoulder to shoulder for hours at a time attempting to clear screening procedures at the airports writer mike hanna thank you. the french president has defended his decision to go ahead with local elections across the country despite the coronavirus pandemic the government has issued guidelines to polling stations are asking people to stand at least a meter apart from each other a partial lockdown is in place in france which has at least 4 and a half 1000 cases natasha butler is at a polling station in the capital paris. well here at this paris polling station as

in polling stations across the country people coming to photo have been told by the french government to take very particular precautions they have to stand a meter apart they have to use hand sanitizer when they go in and out to clean their hands where mosque where possible bring their own pen to sign the register now of course the french government has put these regulations in place because all of the coronavirus epidemic in the country but really this policy is taking place in extraordinary context you have a country in virtual lockdown with nearly everything shut except for essential services but the french government has insisted that these elections must go ahead now while french people are voting for about half a 1000000 local councillors and those local councils will then elect their men as well for the people who did choose to come to vote they say that they felt that the risks were minimal largess of initial count i wasn't worried about coming here because we have to keep our distances we have to take precautions. it was normal to

do it and i think if we take precautions it's not a problem well a number of french political leaders and health experts had called over the past few days on the government to perspire in these elections saying it wasn't necessary at this particular time and to really put so many people would risk in the midst of a health crisis the french government those says that the risks of been minimized care is being taken and they also say that it is important to continue with the democratic process while there is supposed to be a 2nd round in these municipal elections in one week's time we'll have to wait and see if that goes ahead. still to come on al-jazeera the says fire merely holding in syria's last rebel held stronghold turkey and russia hold their 1st joint patrols this. special prayers are held in new zealand to remember those killed in the christ church mosque attack despite coronavirus restrictions.

hello again there's another big area of low pressure dominating the weather across northeastern parts of asia so it's a fairly wet one in parts of japan with the threat of some snow elevation of the western side of honshu in particular but by the end of the day that system should be swinging out into the northern pacific tokyo looking at highs of 13 degrees following conditions across the korean peninsula and generally fine across much of central and southern china although this area of rain you can see behind me that is going to develop during the course of choose to see for southern areas it does become quite wet and that rain just begins to slide into northern parts of vietnam certainly for the hills and only those should stay largely dry with highs of 28 degrees moving down into southeastern parts of asia we've got conditions for kuala lumpur and singapore there temperatures into the low thirty's but plenty of showers

expected for java and also for more western parts of borneo some very wet weather is likely here into south asia pretty fine at the moment we've got to weather for delhi their highs of 28 degrees across more southern areas the chance of the old shower for sri lanka and i think as we head on through into a tuesday we will eventually see wanted to showers developing across central parts of india but it should stay dry night for high sierra or 33. with a plummeting bath rate and families moving to the cities south korea's rule schools are shutting down one on one east meets the grandmas who is saving these schools finally getting an education on al-jazeera.

every. hello again the top stories on al-jazeera spain is in its 1st full day of national walked out on the 2nd country to impose such strict measures it's reported more than 2000 new coronavirus cases and 152 deaths all the number of people with the virus in iran is nearing 14113 people have died there in the past 24 hours to hans has us sanctions or a severely hampering the fight and in the u.s. increased screening measures for people returning from europe and cause chaos at

airports the u.s. has extended its ban on non americans traveling from europe to include the u.k. and ireland. all the delmar trends in the number of cases in china is being celebrated by the government as a major victory beijing had initially concealed the outbreak before putting millions of people in quarantine and a sarah clarke reports those lockdown restrictions came at a cost. on his 1st trip to the epicenter of the krajina virus outbreak chinese president xi jinping went on what commentators called a victory lap visiting members of the communist party and health workers on the front line he congratulated the people of one hand for defeating what's now a global pandemic the places he went to or was a very choreographed for everything was stepped in a way so they were and it was on message so that it maps to also the signaling in the newspapers t.v. all over try these media is partly winning the battle but partly it's also signaling to people we've been through with the we know it's

a mass lockdown across here by province came into effect at the end of january as well strict contain and travel restrictions across china 60000000 people were forced to stay at home including 11000000 from the city of the world health organization has raised by asians response but not everyone appreciated the robust can time it measures with in fiction numbers for the hashtag when will he be on blocked was read more than 100000000 times on china's social media platform weibo the shutdown may have worked but some say that success could also come at a cost i didn't feel like i was like oh maybe. i sensed safeways the place i was because well nobody can tell me what. i think people. when you. look has been separated from her father since january he's in the city

we've had for work she's chosen to hide her identity in fear of a safety being associated with a resident at the center of the upright i could conjure up a feeling worried for his health and because we don't know anything about. what's happening how people are going. into. the government in her bipolar. wants is now introducing a mobile monitoring system with residents given a rating based on the health those considered low risk would be allowed to resume travel officials in other countries including italy are following china's lead putting the country in lockdown hoping the spread of the virus can be slowed or even reversed as a result the outbreak now threatens global growth all eyes will be on china as it attempts to return to business as usual sarah clarke al-jazeera hong kong. well the corona virus pandemic has led to school closures in many countries it's estimated

more than $420000000.00 children in around 60 countries are affected so many teachers are conducting lessons online but there are several challenges as priyanka gupta reports. at a time when the elderly seem to be most at risk of the coronavirus pandemic. the young are being told to stay at home to stop the infection from spreading but. we're worried about this chronic virus but we're also a bit relieved because there's not much chance of a diaper or more scared of transmitting it will feel. and we're more scared for the elderly grandma and grandpa many. dozens of countries around the world have ordered schools to shut down its impact being felt on the daily lives of more than 400000000 children what they know. in a matter of days educators and institutions are being forced to adapt innovate on

a scale never seen before draw a shoe that looks the way you teachers and students are trying to use online learning to with usher in the new era of digital learning this current of our situation gives us a great object to us americans say well how are we going to design for survival under these pretty new circumstances and online teaching is an exact. response to. the problem and we get to innovate with our teaching how to respond to a crisis but in a world where nearly 40 percent of the population don't have access to internet the new coronavirus has also exposed the deep digital divide that exists between countries. and communities where low income families depend on schools to provide the children with safety after tradition closures of schools mean inciting and

hunger for some in many countries including the united states a school play a vital function providing or who were children we have over 50 percent of the children public school. states welcome to receive free lunch and free records school every day and if they're not in school means some of them will not get it there are many parts of the world including united states where people do not have access to the internet and so to rely on virtual learning we both learned during this period is going to exacerbate those inequities as most cities and towns go under lockdown and government leaders scramble for response it seems like it's taken a pandemic to view the existing inequality made much worse priyanka cook the dizzier .

in other news russia and turkey are holding joint military patrols in syria to monitor a cease fire in the last rebel held stronghold us. troops from both countries are patrolling this strategic aim for highway linking syria's east and west that's despite backing off as opposing sides in syria's war which started in 2011 they pay still was finalized on friday after 4 days of talks in ankara said of course you are glue has more from istanbul. today it was for a child because of this blockade on the highway by the civilians the route was cut short their brought the because they didn't want to come face to face with the civilians that's why a much longer route was completed about in 3 kilometers turkish defense ministry really delivered a statement saying that the 1st joint battle has been handled by the russians with the participation of the land and air forces but the russian defense ministry has a statement saying that they are expecting the turks eliminate the what they call

radical elements inside at them so this is again a very fragile process both for turkey and russia because the civilians seem to be not happy about the cease fire deal that was signed but of course when it comes to the syrian opposition groups inside it there it turkey has a critical position because it has observation posts inside of the both down below them for highway and a border and for highway this is going to be a tough process for to keep and so to wants to keep its minister presence but if the syrian opposition groups be a mainly the is the group called. it continues to be against the ceasefire signed between turkey and russia turkey might need to be. might need to make a choice between the opposition group and the russian side. the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is corruption trial which was due to begin on tuesday has been

postponed for at least 2 months due to concerns over the coronavirus that's a yahoo has started holding cabinet meetings via video conference with gatherings of more than 10 people bands president or even riverland has also invited both netanyahu and his political rival benny gantz for more talks over forming a government after 3 inconclusive elections in the space of less than one year. the 1st man ever to be convicted by the international criminal court has been released from prison thomas lubanga was greeted by supporters as he was driven out of the jail in the democratic republic of congo's capital kinshasa the bongo was found guilty in 2012 of for committing child soldiers to fight in the 2nd congo war in 2002 in 2003 the international criminal court was set up in the netherlands to tackle war crimes and crimes against humanity. an explosion near an oil pipeline in

nigeria has killed at least 15 people and destroyed dozens of buildings emergency workers say it happened because a truck caught fire nader near a pipeline in lagos that had previously been targeted by oil thieves the oil company has now switched off the flow. isn't a boucher and says the area has seen several fires in the past. this is not the 1st time that area has witnessed pipeline explosions were recorded several before and even this year in generally generally 1000 an explosion in the same area killed at least 5 people and a procession launched by security forces and i did include the military way back in 2017 has so far field 2 and pipeline vandalism where people were thieves break into pipelines to you either a crude oil and petroleum products that have been transported to lagos and other parts of nigeria from the oil producing region of niger delta. it's been

a year since a gunman opened fire on 2 mosques in new zealand's killing $51.00 worshippers special prayers were held on friday but the coronavirus pandemic has forced the cancellation of the main memorial services that were planned victoria reports. students in christ church were united in spirit and. together they came to the square the 1st attack happened to remember the victims. to. the al-noor and linwood mosques were targeted by a white extremist gunman one year ago 51 people were killed for those who survived this is a difficult day explain what. thinking and look at the top ok is a to. be

injured with 9 bullets this wasn't how new zealanders wanted to remember the victims but the corona virus outbreak forced the cancellation of the main memorial services. since the attack the government has tightened its gun laws parliament quickly voted to ban military style semiautomatic weapons. but muslim leaders say much more work needs to be done to tackle prejudice what happened last year happened in large part because of the other ring of a community and how a particular individual saw muslims us talk sic in the subway. and i think that whoever the author is in any community in any way as long as authoring continues unless that changes then the healing called take place and australia man is charged

with terrorism murder and attempted murder is jew to stand trial in. victoria gate and be al-jazeera for much more information as well as the day's top stories you can head to our website al-jazeera dot com. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera spain is in its 1st full day of national lockdown the 2nd country to impose such strict measures it's reported more than 2000 new coronavirus cases and a 152 deaths meanwhile the number of people with the virus in iran is nearing 14113 people have died there in the past 24 hours to han says u.s. sanctions are severely hampering the fights same bus ravi has more from to run. well iran's government has said over and over again that part of the reason it is

struggling to stop the spread of the virus throughout the country is because it doesn't have enough money to throw at the problem and that the sea is because of u.s. sanctions unilateral and illegal u.s. sanctions that they say are hampering efforts now and are having a compound in effect at this time when the country is going through a public health crisis and in the u.s. increased screening measures for people returning from europe have caused chaos at airports the u.s. has now extended its ban on americans traveling from europe to include the u.k. and ireland in other news russia and turkey are holding joint military patrols in syria to monitor a cease fire in the last rebel held stronghold of their province troops from both countries are patrolling the strategic m. 4 highway linking syria's east and west that's despite backing opposing sides in syria's war which started in 2011 a peace deal was finalized on friday after 4 days of talks in ankara. the 1st man to be convicted by the international criminal court has been released from prison

thomas lubanga was greeted by supporters as he was driven out of the jail in the democratic republic of congo's capital kinshasa the buying i was found guilty in 2012 of for creating child soldiers to fight in the 2nd congo war in 20022003 the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is corruption trial which is due to begin on tuesday has been postponed for at least 2 months because of concerns over coronavirus that's now who has started holding cabinet meetings via video conferencing with gatherings of more than 10 people and you have to date with the headlines on al-jazeera we'll have more news for you coming up after one ace thanks for watching but i.

across south korea the birth rate is plummeting. as families move to the cities rural towns are losing their residence and their schools. all it takes a holiday out in. changing it in those in the do and she means how doesn't it. but some communities are trying new ways to keep their classrooms open so you want it all got out alive but i hope it all gets paid me 101 east meets the grandmothers finally fulfilling their dreams for an education while helping save korea schools.