similarities of cultures across the world. so no matter what you see al-jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you. al-jazeera. italy suffers the biggest one day increase in deaths since the coronavirus outbreak began. watching us is there a life from london i'm dating obligato also ahead iran's he's a rising to run a virus cases as it struggles to cope under the strain if international sanctions chaos at some u.s. airports is additional virus screening measures come into effect and passengers from europe scramble to beat the travel ban. and another news benny gantz is

invited to form israel's next government. hello governments around the world have stepped up restrictions on the movement of their citizens to reduce the spread of the coronavirus the number of coronavirus deaths recorded in italy has now risen 25 percent just in the past day to over 800 as europe's worst outbreak of the deadly virus continues to expand italy has 25000 cases of the highest number recorded outside china and spain became the 2nd european country to impose a nationwide lockdown it's confirmed 2000 new cases and the number of reported deaths has doubled iran has announced more than 100 people have died in the past 24 hours and confirmed cases there are nearing 14000 to hans says its fight is being

severely hampered by u.s. sanctions and then 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 european countries including the u.k. and ireland or brennan is joining us here in the studio and it's a worrying spike in the number of cases in italy it is it's been a week since it's really imposed that national lockdown this increase of 368 deaths in just the past 24 hours is key. cern inc because statistically significant it is the highest single day increase across the world i mean even wu han in china at its worst didn't get anywhere close to this a daily increase in the number of deaths so you can see how it's concerning possible the reasons for it well it has a an elderly population and the elderly seem to be a particularly susceptible demographic for this virus and the majority of the new deaths that happened up in long body of in the northern province where it has been

the epicenter so you know you can see there are reasons for it but the italian experience given that that's the potential for an eye for what's happening in the rest of europe is going to be really concerning for governments all across the rest of europe and here in the u.k. controversy continues over the government's handling of the corona virus outbreak yeah pressure in fact we just had it announced in the last hour that boris johnson and or a senior minister will start giving daily news conferences from tomorrow from monday that clearly that's been announced by number 10 downing street that's clearly pressure by the government to come up with answers and be open and transparent there's been criticism about the transparency as far as the strategic direction of the government goes yes there are still big differences between the u.k.'s approach they haven't shut schools they aren't closing universities they're not advising people to stay at home yet. which contrasts sharply with what is happening elsewhere in europe and it remains to be seen which of the 2 strategies the u.k.

or the rest of europe is going to be most effective against this virus all right paul thank you very much for that. well iran's death toll has now risen to at least 724 and almost 14000 people in the country are infected many iranians have ignored official advice this they home and a host of senior officials politicians doctors and clerics have all contracted the disease there renia president hassan rouhani says u.s. sanctions are severely impacting the country's ability to stop coronavirus to get an update from joining us from tehran and how much pressure is the government under over its own handling of the virus and with this these increased numbers that we're seeing. well certainly it seems that with every single day there is an uptick in the number of dead there's an uptick in the number of overall cases and today tragically there is another record setting day for the death toll from coronavirus here in iran the government has faced a number of challenges in trying to combat the spread of this virus it's had

a lack of public trust so the population in iran has not been following the government guidance to limit their movement to be able to stop the spread of the virus sanctions by the united states have got a compound in effect limiting the kind of resources iran could have to throw at the problem when its health care infrastructure is currently under the strain of so many patients needing so much help but the virus itself is creating its own pressure system now that is straining not just the health services but it seems iran's ability to manage the problem what we saw today was another spike in the number of overall cases but also we saw the to who run the figures show that they're continues to be the main epicenter for the virus here in the country despite that president hassan rouhani government says that it cannot and will not lock down the capital that there will be no quarantine in any reports of that are simply rumors and they are not true it's really a struggle to balance the economic health of the country with trying to manage this

public health crisis but they did say that the next phase of their reaction to trying to combat the virus will be to start having temperature screening at the city limits of the capital to try to control the passengers that are coming in and out to try to make sure nobody has symptoms and isn't carrying the disease but can the virus continues to spread the numbers continue to go up and the government seems unable to really get a grip on trying to control these figures but we also heard from the counter coronavirus task force set up by president hassan rouhani here in the capitol earlier today was a little bit of new and perhaps disturbing information if this is not an anomaly it could be a source of real concern for a wider. group of the population here in iran it seems 15 percent of those that have died of corona virus are categorized as younger people normally use in the virus affect to the very elderly or the sick but 15 percent of those that have died in iran were around the age of 40 the median age here is $31.00 the majority of the

population is considered to be a useful population so certainly if there is a strain of the virus as many officials would say that is more virulent in iran that is quote deadlier or wilder that could be a problem that they haven't even thought about contending yet. thank you. well soldiers have been clearing the streets of the philippine capital manila where a mandatory quarantine is 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 the spike tough measures across the region to stop the virus from spreading so has more. the philippine capital manila has begun a month's lockdown thousands of police ceding off the city by blocking major roads the current team means domestic travel in and out of manila this is spend it with a few exceptions what makes them there's so much traffic to containment measures

are disruptive but it's ok it's for the good of our own health. from monday minute his 12000000 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 . 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 is called for

an urgent meeting of the g 20. promised to my to use crane to organize i link up between all the g 20 leaders i think that's i think that's a commendable initiative the struggle obviously supports that and even more urgent maybe that would be needed would be the meaning 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 a person traveled 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 stand for isolate there are quarantine powers available to us and all new zealand's east coast passengers on

a cruise ship docked in akko town are not allowed to disembark 3 people on board are quarantined with one showing symptoms people's movement is being restricted if you choose hope it will prevent a bigger spread the virus. now the 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 united kingdom 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 let's get an update from mike hanna joining us from washington so the virus is having a major impact on the travel industry mike. certainly year so these travel arrangements were announced on wednesday but came into implementation late friday night and now they really beginning to bite

a number of his airports completely overwhelmed by the volume of traffic is but specifically by the screening tests that are now suddenly being carried out at 13 designated airports passengers are reporting waits of up to 10 hours coming into these u.s. airports and certainly creating as many have pointed out a massive health hazard in terms of crowding huge amounts of people together for long periods of time standing side to side this at a time when the idea of keeping social distance is being urged as a massive way of stemming the flow of the virus by the administration itself but critics once again pointing out that this an ill conceived and ill implemented a kneejerk reaction this ban on travel likely to get even worse given that on monday night at midnight travel bans start applying to the united kingdom an island

as well which may even swell intensify the log jams at these airports and alongside the coronavirus the republicans and democrats trying to navigate their way through the presidential campaign and to the polls indicate who's who's coping best. well at this particular stage everybody is just dealing with it day by day to be honest the whole election process under threat from the virus at this particular point remembering as you mention this is election year now primaries are going to go ahead in 4 u.s. states in this coming week but they are special precautions are being put in place the polling stations were cited at nursing centers they will obviously be moved organizers encouraging voters to vote an abstention or to send in mail ballots but certainly this is going to be a crisis in the months ahead and states holding primaries next month that is march have now announced the suspension of these primaries 2 states that is georgia and

louisiana have now postponed the primaries so this is going to have a major impact in the weeks and months ahead as candidates go to the polls remembering the election takes place in november so massive challenges to the electoral system will be posed yeah sounds like it ok mike hanna thank you. still to come on al-jazeera french president defends his decision to go ahead with local elections despite the coronavirus pandemic. special prayers are how the new zealand to remember those killed in the christ church mosque attack despite coronavirus restrictions. yet more cloud of rain pushing into western parts of the shadows to data to the southeast this area of low pressure swelling away across turkey central parts to

generate settle but you see the better weather up towards the northwest pushing across seaports shells into scandinavia high pressure over spite at the moment it's not too bad at present but if you go on through monday quite a bit of cloud of gray will spill in a much colder day on monday 12 cells as a top temperature in madrid next is some snow over the spanish plain pushing up towards boston rather peyronie's right sleep the snow coming in here central parts of france also seeing some of that wintry mix when she weather to just around both parts of scotland pushing across northern areas of olland as well as a central parts of europe not bad because that snow down into the southeast and coldest weather to around the baltic states pushing into western parts of russia as it should do at this time of the years ago and it's achieved i think squatting down across the the northwest's not too bad into western half of spy into political some showers there into the east side of spain for time. still rather live in the weather on the other side of the mediterranean for northern parts of africa what is

generate dry cool for some of the next couple of days just 21 in tripoli. the biggest land grab in history. as powerful nations lay claim to territories under the ocean $21.00 geologists are secretly bored. as the struggle for resources intensifies some of the world's most powerful scientists speak out. on a 0. hello

again the top stories on al-jazeera italy has recorded 368 new coronavirus deaths in the past day taking the number of fatalities to just over 825 percent increase in 24 hours italy has the highest number of total cases outside of china at 25000 and the number of people with the virus in iran is nearing 14113 people have died there in the past 24 hours to hong says u.s. sanctions are severely hampering the fights in the u.s. increased screening measures for people returning from europe of course they also at airports the u.s. has expanded its extended its ban on non americans traveling from europe to include the u.k. and ireland. well the french president of money when my call 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 austin 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 that talk about lawyers 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 there may as well for the people who did choose to come to vote they said that they felt that the risks were minimal lettuce or 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 at risk in the midst of a health crisis the french government those says that the risks of been minimized that 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 weeks time we'll have to wait and see if that goes ahead. and they don't try and downward trend in the number of

cases in china is being celebrated by the government as a major victory beijing had initially can still be open before putting millions of people in quarantine and the sarah clarke reports those locked down 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 as 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. 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 we because we don't know anything about. what's happening how people are going. into. the government in her bipolar. is now introducing a monitoring system with residents given a rating based on the health considered low risk would be allowed to resume travel officials in other countries including italy of following china's lead putting the country in lockdown hoping the spread of the virus could 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 sara clock al-jazeera hong kong. or kenya has banned all travel from countries with confirmed cases of the virus presidential who are kenyan citizens will still be allowed in on the condition they isolate themselves for 14 days a home or in

a government facility and there are now 3 confirmed cases in the country all 3 patients are in a stable condition lebanon's prime minister has declared a state of emergency in an effort to contain the spread of the corona virus in the country they've confirmed 99 can confirm cases so far including 3 deaths bring in joining us from beirut so what more has been announced by the government. well an extraordinary cabinet meeting was held both the president and the prime minister addressed the nation in many ways praising the measures that the government has been taking to the fight the spread of coronavirus in the country and announcing new more stringent measures but its base really stopped short of declaring a state of emergency what they declared was a state of medical emergency and they called for a general mobilization which means all the resources in the country is now is now

under the states this pozole they have called for the shutting down of private as well as public institutions already schools educational institutions have been closed for the past 2 weeks as ask going to be extended and they're talking about closing the airports temporarily as well as the ports and the border as of wednesday for a number of days now this will seem like a new stringent measures but many people in lebanon will say they're using big words really but not taking the right action because for example today people were supposed to be at home it is a weekend and they've been trying to raise awareness on the need for people not to gather in public places when you saw hundreds of people a stroll along beirut's cornice and that the municipality police had to disperse the crowd and force people to return home what people would want to see is more

action by the security agencies to enforce people and to force people to stay home because just as a country yes the number of corona virus cases by. less than other countries but this is a country and equipped to handle an outbreak and a country and a government which is cash strapped and near bankruptcy or right has another thank you for that update from beirut. well the other news in the israeli prime as president rather riven rivlin will ask the opposition leader benny gantz if he can form a new government ahead of the current prime minister benjamin netanyahu it's the latest attempt to break the nation's political deadlock after 3 inconclusive election results in the space of less than a year but as harry fossett reports from west to receive the latest political calculations are taking place in the shadow of the coronavirus book. benjamin netanyahu began the day adopting some of the coronavirus measures he denounced the night before the fewer than 10 ministers at the cabinet meeting the prime minister

joining by video he received confirmation of his corruption trial due to start on tuesday had been pushed back by the health crisis for more than 2 months but the decisive moves were brewing at the home of the president even rivlin as he received recommendations for prime minister from newly elected factions in israel's parliament netanyahu likud is proposing a 6 month emergency unity government with netanyahu in charge or a 4 year rotational deal in which he serves for the 1st 2 blue and white opposition leader benny gantz hasn't ruled out some kind of a deal which several members of his alliance are reported to favor but he's also been working on legislation to stop an indicted politician. from forming an administration and dances own hopes of leading a minority government who boosted by the recommendations of all 15 members of the mainly palestinian israeli joint list grouping the middle of the gun if dance or netanyahu decide to form a national unity government or an emergency one we will be the main objective as

afghans wants to form a center left government then we will recommend gantz with the support to have netanyahu as former ally and now bitter rival and we do lieberman has 61 recommendations to netanyahu 58 that doesn't mean the benny gantz will now automatically be able to form a government there are some in his own party that don't favor a minority administration. relying on the outside support of palestinian israeli members of parliament and there is considerable pressure from many quarters for a national unity government at a time when the country is facing a health and economic crisis in occupied east jerusalem muslim leaders at the al aqsa mosque compound closed the mosque and the dome of the rock allowing worshipers to pray in the courtyard across israel sunday was day one of a sweeping new set of restrictions and detainment venues shut down workers told to stay home if they can new digital tracking authorized to trace and slow contagion

now we are worried about red worried about the. israelis have had to get used over the last year to the derailing of the national politics now they're having to adapt to a much more invasive interruption of daily life on the politics remain unresolved are a force that al-jazeera west jerusalem russia and turkey are holding joint military patrols in syria to monitor a cease fire in the last rebel held stronghold of edler province troops from both countries are patrolling this strategic m. 4 highway linking syria's east and west that's this by backing opposing sides in syria's war which started in 2011 the deal was finalized on friday after 40 days of talks in ankara 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 near a pipeline in lay goes that had previously been targeted by oil thieves oil company has now switched off the flow it's an area that's seen several fires in the past

when oil fields cut holes in pipelines. it's been a year since a gunman opened fire on 2 lost in new zealand killing $51.00 worshippers special prayers were held on friday but the coronavirus pandemic has forced the cancellation of the main memorial services that had been planned victoria the reports. students in christ church were united in spirit and pulling. together they came to the al no mosque where the 1st attack happened to remember the victims it's more important to come speak to. us today than being scared of. the al know 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 i can't explain what i feel this morning as. i was thinking and

look at the top i said ok is 8 o'clock now. and. 5 hours later. going to be injured with 9 bullets this wasn't the new zealanders wanted to remember the victims but the corona virus outbreak forced the cancellation of the main memorial services for you . know you since the attack the government has tightened down those parliament quickly voted to ban military style semiautomatic weapons during that 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. 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 gee to stand trial in. victoria gate and be out there. well you can head to our web site al jazeera dot com for more information as well as all the day's top stories and to keep right across the coronavirus story it's all that al jazeera dot com. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera italy has recorded 368 new coronavirus deaths in the past day taking the number of fatalities to just over 800 that's a 25 percent increase in 24 hours and italy has the highest number of total cases outside of china a 25000 the number of people with the virus in iran is nearing 14113

people have died there in the past 24 hours and to han says u.s. sanctions are severely hampering the fight. 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 of cause chaos at airports the u.s. has extended its ban on non americans traveling from europe to al include the u.k. and ireland. in other news the israeli president ruben rivlin will ask the opposition leader benny gantz if he can form a new government ahead of the current prime minister benjamin netanyahu rivlin has been meeting representatives of various smaller parties in an attempt to assess who

they would support in any coalition 3 elections in the space of less than a year have failed to break the deadlock in israeli politics. russia and turkey are holding joint military patrols in syria to monitor a cease fire in the last rebel held stronghold of in libya province troops from both countries are patrolling the strategic m. for highway linking syria's east and west 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. was found guilty in 2012 recruiting child soldiers to fight in the 2nd congo war 20022003. those are the headlines on al-jazeera up next is talk to al-jazeera thanks for watching.

it's all who do you see. but your phone to me it's been over a year since the former cricketer turned politician imran khan became pakistan's prime minister. during his campaign mr cohn promised to turn around the country's economy but the fight to ease inflation has not been an easy one the pakistani rupees he lost 35 percent of its value drink comes 1st year in office and despite some encouraging news from the international monetary fund many are still struggling as a result of the weak economy pakistan's location brings a lot of opportunity as well as challenges a lot of hope has been put on its agreement with china to set up an economic

corridor but it's not clear if the ambitious project will be beneficial to both sides.