artes of cultures across the world no matter what you. use in current affairs that matter to you. the u.s. federal reserve moves to shore up a coronavirus hate economy by slashing interest rates. were very happy i have to say the ship very. low i maryam namazie and on the new watching al-jazeera also coming up on the program 80 records its largest number of coronavirus deaths in a single day iran also sees a rise in infections as it struggles to cope under the strain of international sanctions. and in other news israel's opposition leader benny gantz is invited to form israel's next guy.

welcome to the program our top story the u.s. federal reserve us cut interest rates back to near 0 in an effort to boost the american and global economy during the course of this and demick president donald trump congratulated the central bank during an announcement at the white house it lowered the fed rate. from what it was which was 121425 and it's been lowered down to 020.24 or point 24 so it's 02.2 for. a big difference it's a. quite a bit of a point. let's go live to mike hanna now he's in washington and this is really the most drastic step taken by the u.s. federal reserve since the financial crisis of 2008 i guess it gives you a sense of the shock the coronavirus pandemic is about to cause or is already

causing in d.d.'s senate also follows weeks if not months of urging by president trump for the fed to drop its rates virtually on a daily basis the president has been insisting that the fed is airing by not dropping its rates so certainly this now is a major step in terms of creating some kind of economic stimulus hopefully in addition to dropping the rate to virtually 0 the fed is also buying up billions of dollars worth of treasury funds in a bid to shore up the economy and also increase the liquidity of the nation's debt there are problems involved this is why the fed has been so reluctant to reduce rates to this level and that is that it removes any maneuvering room from the fred in terms of dealing with what the economic happenings can be currying in the days ahead so certainly it could provide an immediate stimulus so that it is

a way of attempting to shore up the economy in the wake of the shock of this thread of the virus but at the same time it comes with a risk it is many would argue a bit of a gamble. and of course us is been criticized particularly this government about the lack of testing capacity because of course that's that's the thing that allows you to identify people with the virus but also to figure out the scale of the outbreak so you can devise an adequate response what did vice president pence have to say about this was you say the collection of data is absolutely essential and the u.s. has lagged far behind many other countries in the world in terms of doing the very basic move and that is to provide enough test kits to see exactly what is the trajectory of the virus within its population not just in the last hour president pence has been addressing this issue he says that through private enterprise a number of commercial abara trees

a massive number of tests are going to be unleashed on the public this is been happening in recent days and certainly he's talking about moving from testing $30.00 to $40.00 people a day which was being done with the protocol in existence to testing in the 10s of thousands per day but what this is done while it is being welcomed by health workers throughout the country has just highlighted exactly how slow the trumpet ministration was in the most basic dealing with the spread of the virus and that is rolling out test kits it is only now that the test kits are being rolled out in the days ahead and this after weeks of both the president and the vice president insisting that anybody who needed to be tested would be tested the fact that the vice president is now making a massive display of the partnership as he puts it between private industry and government to get to skeets us into the field just highlights exactly how slowly

the trumpet ministration has reacted to the spread of this virus thank you mike mike hanna in washington. governments around the world of stepped up restrictions on the movement of their citizens to reduce the spread of the corona virus the number of deaths recorded in italy has risen 25 percent in the past day to just over 1800 while the number of reported deaths in spain has doubled again bob reports now on the situation in europe the latest to limit points against coronavirus police drones in madrid flying over public spaces urging people to stay home whenever possible 5 of the country's now under a 2 week state of emergency and as the death toll more than doubled even people out exercising were ordered. in front schools bars and restaurants are closed gatherings of more than 100 people are banned and people are being urged to work from home public transport is still running but more measures are on their way as them at this stage in urban areas we will maintain public transport to allow french

people to commute for strictly necessary purposes and regarding long distance travel by train between major cities by bus or by plane this will be gradually reduced. in the u.k. the government's been accused of not acting quickly enough to contain the spread as people stocked up over the weekend almost emptying supermarkets in some areas hundreds of scientists queried the government's strategy the health minister now says wartime style measures are coming he's asking british manufacturers to make more ventilators soon everyone over the age of 70 will be asked to self isolate for up to 4 months and this week should see new measures including a ban on large gatherings we will change the law so that we take the power to be able to close match last gatherings if we need to and and take other action that you just normally wouldn't but we might have to in order to respond to this to this virus italy's recorded another dramatic rise in the death toll there

have been more than 20000 coronavirus cases there in the vatican with some peter's square empty pope francis delivered his weekly sunday present a live stream you know let me reach you know i want to renew my proximity to all the 2nd those who are nursing them and for the many volunteers helping people unable to leave their homes but everyone meeting the needs of the poorest and the homeless as of sunday night the czech republic's borders with poland are closed a move designed to slow the spread of the virus and in poland they've shut the border with germany temporarily. this is a historic moment we have just restored an internal european union border between poland and germany for the coming 10 days germany has confirmed its borders with austria switzerland and france will be closed for monday although commuters and goods vehicles are to be allowed through another sign of how europe's turning inwards as the number of corona virus infections continues to grow the dean barber

al jazeera. iran's death toll has risen to at least 724 and almost 14000 people in the country are infected now many iranian so of ignored official advice to stay at home hostess. senior officials politicians doctors and clerics have contracted the disease the iranian president hassan rouhani says u.s. sanctions a severely impact on the country's ability to stop the crying virus same to strive he joins us live now from iran said capital tehran and it's interesting that many of the patients and many of those suffering from chronic virus have been younger people there and so in that's even though a significant portion of iran's population is under the age of 30 it's interesting because it it's supposed to be something that mainly affects the elderly and the vulnerable that's exactly right the statements in the briefings that come from the health ministry from the coronavirus task force set up by president hassan rouhani have become fairly routine weeks into this outbreak here in iran but there was

a highlight today that certainly will have many younger people sitting up and taking notice the health official with the task force said that 15 percent of those that have died so far in iran are categorized as younger patients and he said that they exhibited no signs of previous respiratory conditions or any other illnesses so certainly this could be an anomaly we don't have any verification for whether or not this is the case but this official suggested that he's not the 1st one to do so that the virus in iran is quote deadlier and wilder than cases that have been observed in other parts of the world so certainly a worrying trend the virus as you said was already a concern for iran's aging population but this is a country with a very large youth population the majority of the country is considered to be in the category of younger people the median age is 31 and for them this will certainly add to the woes that iran has been experiencing as the government tries

to combat the spread of this virus thank you very much sameness ravi with all the latest from to han. i'm speaking about border restrictions and countries and governments taking measures to limit travel and we're seeing that in colombia as well they are strengthening border protection from monday on woods and the citizens and residents will be allowed to enter the country and they'll have to spend 2 weeks in isolation live now to money rapidly in mexico city tell us more about what these new measures involve in colombia specifically and we should mention that every country is taking different measures every government is different in the region here in the case of colombia on sunday the country's president even duke it announced that any nonresidents and non-citizens of colombia would no longer be able to enter the country for a period of time and those who are coming back returning citizens from abroad will have to participate in a mandatory quarantine of 14 days when the enter that when they enter the country

but again it's very different across the region you're seeing the country of venezuela with president motherhood announcing a nationwide quarantine in countries like you'll solve it or they've outright closed down borders and one of the concerns is that black in america compared to other countries in the world spends far less when it comes to health care so in cases very few exceptions such as chile or coast rica it's largely believed that latin america being a region of the world that's been largely spared until now from the spread of the virus could be the worst prepared for a mass contagion but here in mexico that's certainly one of the concerns as most people are just going about their day sunday just like any other day people out on the streets people out in the parks maybe not necessarily not taking it too seriously but i'll tell you panic certainly is not spreading in mexico. of course boarded closures will have an impact on the people that as you say it's absolutely crucial for the people of venezuela who need desperately need needed food and other

supplies and they were not i on on trade with colombia and just you know just natural movement to get that how crippling could it be venezuela not just an outbreak of coronavirus but if people were effectively blockaded it certainly would add insult to injury in the case of venezuela we know that up until now $4900000.00 venezuelans have fled the country since the start of the political and economic crisis there so to add to add something such as corona to the mix here would be devastating for the people of venezuela specifically with that border with colombia we know that thousands of people are crossing that border every week in search of food in search of medicine so this could be this could be massive for for the people of it as well and it could be massive all across the region as this is as the phenomenon of immigration control it continues to unfold

that certainly hasn't stopped in the case of central american migrants for example the perception that people have of migrants has changed over the course of the last few years it's becoming even worse now talking about contagion happening in countries like 100 s. where panic is starting to set out schools are starting to close the government is beginning to take containment measures but a contagion in honduras leading to to more people fleeing the country leads to spread beyond borders and it's a very difficult situation that migrants are in especially in some of these conflicted countries such as hundreds and such and specifically in the case of venezuela given that almost 5000000 people have left that country since the crisis began maria thank you from mexico city money wrap and i were posting to us on the situation in the region. you know al jazeera live from london to bring you all the stories as well a deadly pipeline explosion in the nigerian capital lagos is blamed on vandalism and then 3 years after historic peace deal in colombia former rebels face and new threat as they settle into civilian life.

the weather's lost the fight to drive now across much of australia by weather action is out of the car will say pushing up it was new caledonia that says tropical cycle and gretel which will continue to drive its way further south are sweetening as it does some very wet sand windy weather grassy pushing towards no quite reaching but towards the north island of new zealand back over into australia we do have a few showers just going on around the east coast you might catch share would say just around sydney to the north of pushing up towards the sunshine coast much of queensland will be dry and $526.00 in melbourne look bad on the temperatures here and we'll see a similar value there for perth as we go on through monday what it was a possibility just around the millibars we go on into cheese day but for much of us

is going to be fine and dry to what some of those showers i would tools easy to see that what's the weather very close to north of new zealand then some very wet weather maybe a few blustery shower was rolling through and we had some showers of a wintry nature making their way across japan recently things in the process of quietening down now we got some cherry rains there still in place as we go on through monday but it will quieten down for choose day warming up as well tucker with a top temperature of 15 telling rather wet for southern parts of china. reception is validation we believe want to receive but in one life time we cannot see everything that we would lie if he experiences of others and the legacies that a previous generation. ofan testimony we know very little.

with this documentaries that open your eyes on 10000. welcome back to headlines now u.s. president donald trump has congratulated the federal reserve for cutting interest rates back near to back to near 0 movies aimed at boosting the american and global economy during this pandemic the us now has about 2900 confirmed cases italy has recorded 368 you coronavirus deaths in the past day taking the number of fatalities to just over 1800 that's a 25 percent increase in 24 hours is

a has the highest number of total cases outside of china at almost $25000.00 the number of people with the virus in iran is nearing $14113.00 people have died there in the past 24 hours to iran says u.s. sanctions are severely hampering their ability to respond. or we go to lebanon now the prime minister has declared a medical state of emergency to try to contain the virus government says it will close at ports and ports from wednesday michel aoun is also called on people to work from home to prevent its spread the country has $99.00 confirmed cases so far including 3 deaths saying the harder has more on the latest measures. what they declared was a state of medical emergency and they called for general mobilization which means all the resources in the country is now is now under the state's this pozole they've 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 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 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 this is a country yes the number of coronavirus cases. 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. capsize and else drastic new measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus country will ban all inbound flights from wednesday for 14 days except for cargo and transit flights or public transport will stop operating from sunday night and workers over the age of 55 pregnant women and people suffering from existing health conditions of being asked to work from home stopped issuing visas on arrival to several european nationalities as well and then south africa's presidents who will run the post as confirmed $61.00 cases and warned that numbers expected to rise he also announce new restrictions to curb the spread of the virus travelers from high risk countries including iran south korea and italy will be banned from entry airports implementing new screening measures and schools have been closed for at least 2 weeks.

now the israeli president with an revelent will ask opposition leader benny gantz if he can form a new government rather than the current prime minister benjamin netanyahu this is the latest attempt to brighten nation's political deadlock after 3 inconclusive election results in the space of less than a year as high forces reports from west jerusalem these latest political machinations a 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 that knows 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 but he can't 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 would boosted by the recommendations of all 15 members of the mainly palestinian israeli joint list grouping be made of the guns if dance or netanyahu decide to form a national unity government or an emergency one we will be the main objective as if gans 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 i would do lieberman has 61 recommendations to netanyahu 58 that doesn't mean the benny gantz will now

automatic. to 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 of the al aqsa mosque compound close the mosque and the dome of the rock allowing worshippers to pray early in the courtyard across israel sunday was day one of a sweeping new set of restrictions entertainment venues shut down workers told to stay home if they can new digital tracking authorized to trace and slow contagion low income worried about really worried about both the north american late on sunday president rivlin trying to persuade guns and you know to unite in the face of the coronavirus and prevent israel from going into a 4th election the president's prescription is clear but so far the 2 would be prime ministers remain divided her

a force at al-jazeera west jerusalem now in other news we're following russia and turkey been holding joint military patrols in syria to monitor that cease fire that was struck province this despite the 2 countries opposing backing opposing sides in syria's war so far well the agreement was finalized on friday after 4 days of talks in ankara seneca cellular ports from istanbul. the syrian protesters and the town of mayor rob and adler don't want turkish or russian troops in their area the 2 military powers are patrolling a section of the m 4 highway that's a ration was stopped after dozens of activists who oppose the russian presence and lip blocked the highway. we're here to send a clear message to the russians and the turks we will not open the road unless assad forces and russian militias withdraw isn't even enough they kill to displace us. the joint patrols are part of an agreement struck between russian president

vladimir putin and the turkish later redshifts a far john during their meeting in moscow earlier this month. the deal is also expected to set up a security corps or the 16 kilometers north and south those dam for highway that connects to surat. but since sunday is the 9th anniversary of the syrian war there is heightened tension. so it's the 2nd day of our protest on its highway it's the anniversary of our revolution for 9 years we've suffered the regime's massacres we don't care about agreement we will not allow russians here they should get out of our country the fighting going to live has been catastrophically for the people . nearly 1000000 syrians have fled their homes since the government backed by russia began its latest offensive last december it's happened despite

a deal back in 2018 that turned into what their school ations own supposedly clear from acts of aggression most of the people who have a scaped have now crowded at the turkish border turkey older the whole smaller than 3600000 syrian refugees the crisis nearly led to a direct conflict between turkey and russia especially after the syrian government carried out on their strike in there that late last month that killed the dozens of turkish soldiers on corresponded with drone strikes in order to learn a fire that killed hundreds of prosumer in government forces and destroyed over a 100 armored vehicles many ceasefires have common gone and of that some even lasted less than 24 hours turkey and russia insists they still want to preserve the latest cease fire let's fight supporting opposing sides in the conflict it is unclear how they will achieve this but the rebels are worried about losing their

last stronghold in syria and flush us is turkey is not using its influence to control the opposition fighters most of whom most school accuses of being terrorists see now because so little al-jazeera a stumble. news from nigeria an explosion near an oil pipeline has killed at least 15 people and destroyed dozens of buildings emergency workers say it happened because a truck or finding a pipeline in lagos that a previously been targeted by oil thieves the oil company has now switched off the flow it's an area that seen several fires in the past when oil fields caught holes in pipelines 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 jail in the democratic republic of congo capital kinshasa or was found guilty in 2012 of recruiting child soldiers to fight the 2nd congo war in 20022003 international criminal court was set up in the netherlands in 2002 to

tackle war crimes and crimes against humanity. all 3 years after signing an historic peace deal in colombia former fart rebels feel they've been betrayed by the government many of joined a reintegration village in the north since giving up their weapons but have come under attack by dissidents how does their. visit at the reintegration of an edge in the town of. m buses in armored cars $100.00 police union rights defenders in in geos arrive at the center lucy a fire cream to gratian village in oregon colombia for months former combatants have been denouncing threats and attacks from paramilitary groups and this has been factions of the fire fighting to control the territory which remains a key corridor for the trafficking of cocaine and illegal gold mining. at the colombian government doesn't have that little will nor the capacity to truly offer

security and this is an area with many interests and it bothers these groups to have people trying to do things differently. well former combatants have been killed and 30 families are fled their homes left abandoned. village president says a month ago a majority voted to leave the main thing to be relocated or your mention of if you want or you feel betrayed normally we don't regret our decisions because we are not our ward we handed in our work. convinced it would and this conflict but. after the signing of the peace deal 3 years ago $26.00 demobilization areas were built offering a fresh start for the former rebels but soon after handing in their weapons things started going downhill $180.00 x. rebels have been killed since and few of the promise production projects have materialized. something with syria was supposed to become

a permanent village for former combatants to life as peaceful farmers he said the violence and threats are forcing a majority to leave yet some say they'll do anything they can to remain. after 20 years of fighting sprinkling gutierrez was thrilled at the prospect of peace with jane complains he receives funding through its sheep and cows and they started the chicken farm he says they came to throw it all away but then there must be an issue we don't want to lose what we've built of course any of these armed groups can come and tell us to leave and if that happens then we will have to go but in the meantime we want to fight to stay we'll give a word to the right which it. don't do little guy horrible and. the government agrees on the need of relocating those who want to leave but it's unclear where and how. these exploiters say their commitment to peace deserves

a safe and dignified solution. i listen to them i'll just go. and look at the headlines this hour now u.s. president donald trump has congratulated the federal reserve for cutting interest rates back to near 0 the move is aimed at boosting the american economy and the global pandemic the us has now 2900 confirmed cases meanwhile italy recorded 368 you coronavirus deaths in the past day taking the number of fatalities there to just over 800 that's a 25 percent increase in 24 hours italy has the highest number of total cases outside of china at $25000.00. the number of people with the virus in iran is nearing 14113 people have died there in the past 24 hours to iran says u.s.

sanctions are severely hampering their ability to respond same with ravi brings us more on this now from toronto 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 doubt this is because of u.s. searches unilateral and illegal u.s. sanctions that they say are hampering efforts now that are having a compound in effect up this time when the country is going through a public health crisis in all the news israeli president we've been revealing we'll ask opposition leader benny gantz if he can form a new government ahead of current prime minister benjamin netanyahu has been meeting representatives of various smaller parties in an attempt to assess who they support in any coalition 3 elections in the space of less than a year a failed to break the deadlock in israeli politics and then russia and turkey are holding joint military patrols in syria to monitor a cease fire in the province of troops from both countries are patrolling these for

teaching and for highway linking syria's east and west despite the fact that they have backed opposing sides in the war the agreement was finalized on friday after 4 days of talks in ankara and 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 capital kinshasa a banker was found guilty in 2012 of recruiting child soldiers to fight in the 2nd congo war. well that's it from london for now witnesses coming up next looking at 2 sudanese inventors so something a bit different for you but they will be more news after that from doha in half an hour's time. with a plummeting birthrate and families moving to the cities south korea's rural schools are shutting down one on one east meets the grandmas who is saving these schools finally getting an education on al-jazeera.

'd or how i'm scared of the horror. and i and i would to my editor has it i mean 'd a sort of a good that. it's very hard. to lose a part of your country a part of civilization or culture. them today. saf not an issue from. one of the.