welcome to newsday on the bbc. i'm mariko oi in singapore. the headlines... with over 100 deaths recorded so far — the highest outside china — italy closes schools, cinemas and theatres as it struggles to contain the spread of the coronavirus britain's biggest regional airline, flybe, is on the verge of collapse, putting 2,000 jobs at risk. i'm kasia madera in london. also in the programme. the billionaire michael bloomberg drops out of the race for the white house and backs joe biden. and why enjoying content by using online streaming services could be harming the

environment. live from our studios in singapore... ..and london. this is bbc world news. it's newsday. good morning. it's 8am in singapore, midnight in london, and 1am in rome — where the italian authorities have announced the highest death toll from the coronavirus anywhere in the world after china. and elsewhere, the figures are creeping up, and up. in the united states, 148 people have tested positive for the virus — and there's been a first fatality in california. in the uk, 36 new cases have been reported — that's the biggest dailyjump so far — and takes the total to 87. and in italy, 107 have died, and over 3,000 people

have been diagnosed. the government have decided to take more drastic measures to try to control the outbreak. 0ur rome correspondent mark lowen has more. an early easter break for pupils across italy. every school and university will now close from tonight in a bid to halt the virus. europe's worst—hit country stepping up its response. it's a problem because we have to stop the exams, we have to stop almost all the activities in the classroom. maybe we can do something from home. but it's not the same, of course. parents and children are taking in the news. for some, the disruption is a price worth paying. it's not a question of panicking, but taking necessary measures to avoid the virus spreading out. her nine—year—old, ernesto,

says he's happy because it means no studying and no homework. italy was the first in europe to ban all flights to china, the first to cordon off whole towns, now the first to close all schools. a dramatic response to a deepening crisis. and perhaps an example of how other countries too may respond if their outbreaks continue to worsen. as cases and deaths rise, more towns in the north may be quarantined. cinemas and theatres could close. and the government is even set to advise tactile italians not to greet by kissing. so how many rooms here are occupied? no one. none of them? empty. coronavirus fear is battering italy's economy, with hotels empty. 0wner giuseppe roscioli says he's had 90% cancellations and it's the biggest crisis in his 35 years. and if this situation gets worse, what will happen? we have the key, we can close the door.

italy is now facing an unprecedented challenge and a desperate search for a remedy for the virus and for this country's suffering. mark lowen, bbc news, rome. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. the taliban and the us both claim they‘ re committed to peace, in spite of attacks by both sides in afghanistan since the two sides signed a deal to end violence on saturday. on wednesday, the us carried out an airstrike against taliban fighters they say were attacking a checkpoint. taliban militants have killed at least 20 afghan soldiers and policemen since tuesday. 0ver over the past few days, the violence in afghanistan has been increasing with a number of... today, in response to one of... today, in response to one of those attacks in the southern province of helmet, the us today say they launch

their first the us today say they launch theirfirstair the us today say they launch theirfirst air strike the us today say they launch their first air strike against taliban fighters in ii their first air strike against taliban fighters in 11 days, targeting them as they were attacking a checkpoint. this is all in contrast to the events last week when a seven day long partial saw a reduction in violence in place, leading up toa violence in place, leading up to a signing of the us taliban agreement on saturday. us and afg ha n agreement on saturday. us and afghan officials say they expected that partial truths to be continued after the signing agreement, but crucially there was no specific mention of that in the text that was signed. earlier this week, the taliban said they would resume attacks against the afghan government, though not against international forces. it was only last night that donald trump called one of the deputy leaders of the tile a the phone and had what he said was a good conversation with him about the issue of violence dashed taliban. all this comes against the backdrop of another stumbling block in the peace process , stumbling block in the peace process, about the fate of up

to 5000 taliban prisoners. the insurgents want them to be freed from afghan jails before they begin into afghanistan talks between the taliban and other afghan political leaders, including those from the government. the government does not want to let them go, or at least not without getting some kind of concessions in return. also making news today: scientists have published their first asessment of the part climate change played in australia's most recent wildfires. researchers say global warming boosted the risk of hot, dry weather that's likely to cause bushfires by at least 30%. they also warn if temperatures rise by two degrees celcius, those conditions would happen at least four times more often. swedish climate activist greta thunberg has told the european parliament its planned climate law amounts to surrender. the european commission wants to make the eu carbon—free by 2050. thunberg was invited to attend the commission's climate meeting. she said its plans are

too little too late. satellite images of syria show how parts of idlib have become uninhabitable. this is the original image of a residential area. less than a year later, the homes are reduced to rubble, while the surrounding fields have been turned into scorched earth. and this image taken in 2017 shows a field being used to grow crops. by the end of 2019 the lands been transformed into a makeshift refugee camp. almost a million civilians have been displaced there in the last four months. turkey's military action in syria has its critics outside and inside the country. look at these images from tu rkey‘s look at these images from turkey's parliament in ankara. a brawl that broke out during a speech by an oppositon lawmaker, who criticised president erdogan. as you can see the situation quickly deterioated with dozens

getting involved in the scrap while others tried to stop it. the speaker of parliament condemned his comments and prosecutors are now investigating him for insulting the president. we've been hearing about schools about to be shut in italy, but they've also been closed in many countries across asia in an attempt to contain the spread of coronavirus. but it's no holiday, despite the shutdown, the learning continues, with lessons held online. logging on at home is not new for students in hong kong. but this time, schools have been closed for several weeks and won't re—open for a while to come. so how are students, parents and teachers coping with this new way of learning? earlier i spoke to doctor harry brown, the principle of one of the schools in hong kong. they're doing a marvellous job.

we left on 23 january for chinese new year and we've not been back since. we have 2100 stu d e nts been back since. we have 2100 students in primary and secondary, all of them having participated in our online learning platforms, directly engaging with teachers place to make a face—to—face all between year 1—13. make a face—to—face all between year 1-13. but make a face—to—face all between year1-13. but all the make a face—to—face all between year 1-13. but all the students will face exams, how is this affecting the quality of education? fortunately our exams are in may, so a good portion of the content had already been covered or is close to revision time. but our stu d e nts close to revision time. but our students are very adept and managing online environment, and we are doing lessons in our diploma classes, though stu d e nts diploma classes, though students in the last two years of school, those getting ready for examination were following a timetable where the students are online with their classes. so in some ways, it teaches them a laser—like focus of what they must accomplish between 110w they must accomplish between now and exam time at the end of april, beginning of may. how about younger children, aged

4—5? they can't possibly comprehend the idea of logging online and learning, and some pa rents a re online and learning, and some parents are having some issues with childcare. this is the first week actually since the school closure where parents have been back at work. the government instituted a work from home protocol the first month, so student teachers, pa rents were month, so student teachers, parents were at home with the children helping them. as a matter of fact, this last month stu d e nts matter of fact, this last month students have been more involved with their teachers and parents have been and will —— more involved with the learning more than ever. now the parents are back, it will be more difficult. again, additional help at home trying to schedule time for students, we have pe classes being filmed online and sent back to teachers, which have been graded. the only concern we have are with some of the younger students who have not been outdoors. families are keeping their children inside for their perceived safety, so some kids have been outdoors for six weeks. that's a bit of

a concern on the well—being side. doctor harry brown there. flybe — britain's biggest regional airline is on the verge of collapse after going into administration, putting thousands of jobs at risk the company had asked the government for a loan of £100 million — to stay in business. but concerns over coronavirus have also affected bookings in recent weeks. flybe is a leading carrier at airports including belfast, glasgow, southampton, manchester and birmingham. the loss of flybe for the uk region's airports is disastrous. it is small in the scale of the uk market as a whole, but if you are flying out of exeter, uk or specifically southampton, it really is one of the only choices. for southampton accou nts choices. for southampton a ccou nts of choices. for southampton accounts of about 95% of the activity of our airports. a number of regional routes will risk being served. michael

bloomberg has thrown his weight behind former vice president joe biden. he felt to win much more than 15% dashed failed to win... if you remember, i entered the race for president to defeat donald trump. and today, i am leaving the race for the same reason — to defeat donald trump, because staying in would make it more difficult to achieve that goal. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme... there are more clashes on the greek turkey border, as migrants try to reach europe. also on the programme... it's a 100 and ten years since the first woman gained a pilot's licence — we'll be speaking to an aviation expert about her legacy.

first, the plate slid gently off of the restaurant table. then suddenly, the tables, the chairs and people crashed sideways and downward. it was just a matter of seconds as the ferry lurched onto her side. the hydrogen bomb, on a remote pacific air tunnel, the americans had successfully tested a weapon whose explosive force dwarfed that of the bomb dropped on hiroshima. i heard the news earlier. and so, my hat went back and back. the constitutional rights of these marchers, are their rights of citizens of the united states, and they should be protected even in the right to test them out, so they don't get their heads broken and are sent to hospital. this religious controversy, i know you don't want to say too much about it, but do you worry about it that it will boil over in the states? it worries me, yeah. but i hope everything will be all right in the end of the day.

this is newsday on the bbc. i'm mariko 0i in singapore. i'm kasia madera in london. our top stories... 107 people have now been killed by the coronavirus in italy. the government there is closing all schools and universities for ten days. britain's biggest regional airline, flybe, is on the verge of collapse, putting 2,000 jobs at risk. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the japan times reports that the international olympic committee remains confident that the games in tokyo will go ahead. the newspaper says that 0lympic chiefs are not focusing on moving the location or date of the games — that's contrary to reports yesterday, which said that the olympics could be moved to a later date in the year.

the south china morning post says that a pet dog belonging to a coronavirus patient has contracted the disease. it's believed to be the first case of human to animal transmission, but experts stress there is no evidence pets can be a source of infection or that they can fall sick. and finally, the international edition of the new york times has this striking image of inmates at a women's prison in afghanistan, as they break their fast together during the islamic holy month of ramadan. the president of the european council has met turkish president erdogan to discuss the increasing tensions on the border between turkey and greece. the greek government has denid reports that its soldiers shot dead a migrant who was trying to cross from turkey. —— has denied reports. thousands of people have been

gathering at the border, after turkey lifted restrictions on migrants trying to reach the european union last week. jonah fisher reports from the border. so this river is the border between greece and turkey — turkey on this side, the european union just over there. and we've been speaking this morning to migrants who have tried to make that crossing by boat overnight. and though it doesn't look particularly fortified at the moment, we are told that when the migrants reach greece, they're being very quickly confronted by the greek authorities and sent back. men like mustafa from senegal. we came across him walking with two afghans. they are unlikely allies with no common language, but a common goal — europe. mustafa tells us they were part of a group who landed in greece last night, and were violently returned. "i was injured, but i saw two

people shot in front of me. two syrians." "are you sure they were dead," i say? "they are dead, it was in front of me." and he shows me where they were hit. further north, there were more chaotic scenes at a border crossing. the turkish authorities released this footage and say a migrant was killed by the greek security forces. greece has denied killing anyone and says it is all turkish propaganda. but there is no doubt that the turkish authorities are cynically bringing desperate people up to the border to ramp up the pressure on europe. we chanced upon this bus full of migrants. where are you guys from? you're from afghanistan? from syria?

and you just brought these people up from istanbul to go to the border? this clearly has official approval, and the police were not too keen for it to be filmed. and so, the migrants keep coming. some of them, like these pakistanis, already tooled up for the river crossing. there is nothing spontaneous about this — it's being very deliberately orchestrated by turkey. but greece's response is showing little compassion. jonah fisher, bbc news, on the turkish border with greece. at a time when many women didn't even have the right to vote, raymonde de la roche was soaring in the skies as the world's first female pilot. 0n 8 march, 1910, she became the first woman in the world to gain a pilot's licence. lets talk to mireille goyer, founder and president of the institute for women

of aviation worldwide. she is promoting raymonde de la roche's legacy. it is important because we a lwa ys it is important because we always say we don't have enough female role models in aviation. but in fact, we do have many throughout history. and she was a first, so we need to recognise, if we are to even have a chance to recognise any more women throughout the history of aviation. you yourself are quite the role model, as well. you've been flying for 30 years. how has a history changed in your experience, in your time within it? well, it is becoming more and more intimidating on the technical side of things. so oui’ technical side of things. so our roles as pilots has very much changed from people who manipulate controls to people who completely control the

aircraft through their mind and know what they are doing. and it is no longer such a physical job, it is more of a brainjob, really. how has it changed for women? is easier to get into it, are you seeing more women breaking through? it is easier in the sense that since the 19705, it is not legal to discriminate against women. so they are able to basically do anything that a man can — in theory. the reality is that little was being done after the door really opened in the 19705 to promote aviation to women. so they thought it was still the same, so they didn't come. and that has been a big issue. since 1910 when we started our programme, we started to first reach out to women, then we presented them in our

industry's media, first of all, then obviously hopefully other media. it has been very changing in the sense that now women do see that the doors are really open to them and that the industry is interested in them. there are still issues, though now we have more of a visual picture that we do belong — the other picture that we are concerned about is the word. there are a lot of words being used in our industry that are still gender exclusive, so what that means is when you call a woman an air man, she doesn't really feel this is for her. so we are trying right now —we her. so we are trying right now — we have a petition right now to change that. mireille goyer talking about women in the aviation industry. listening to music and watching films and television programmes by using streaming services is hugely popular, but there are warnings that this way of enjoying content is harming environment. to store all the data, there are hundreds of thousands of data centres around

the world — many of them using electricity generated by burning fossilfuels. figures suggest that the needs of it now create the same volume of carbon emissions as flying. 0ur environment correspondent claire marshall has the story. when we post a video or a photo or save something to the cloud, it leaves our device and travels through different networks. maybe through cables under the ocean to a building called a data centre, where it's stored. when we want to see it, this data is exploded into thousands of pieces, each one travelling a different route. when they get to a device, they put themselves back in the right order. so the internet, or the cloud, isn'tjust in the air. it exists in buildings like this one. i'm in london's docklands, where fruit and veg used to be traded on these streets. in this building are thousands of servers, and they're capturing and storing, and sending all our data. there are now hundreds

of thousands of these energy hungry data centres. the problem is that many are powered by fossilfuels. this is the us state of northern virginia, known as the internet capital of the world. this is one of the coal—fired power stations supplying it with electricity, belching carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas. it belongs to dominion energy, the largest provider, which generates much of its power by burning fossilfuels. microsoft and google are here. amazon has built 55 data centres. we think of amazon as a giant online supermarket, but actually the company makes far more money building and renting data centres. most of the residents are pretty clueless as to what is right here. alex rough is campaigning for the tech companies to use green energy. we are processing large amounts of data on a daily basis. these data centres are consuming large amounts of energy to process that data to stay operational in a 24—7 environment. dominion energy told us

they were committed to net zero carbon and methane emissions by 2050. amazon said they were working towards 80% renewable energy by 2024, and 100% by 2030. technology is adapting quickly. data centres are more efficient than ever but there is a whole new challenge — 5g. 5g will generate much more traffic and demand much more power, which is not good for climate change. we've all got to change. i think the internet‘s got the power to help us control and reduce climate change, but we need to change some of our more frivolous behaviour before we get there. streaming videos in standard definition rather than hd saves four times the emissions, and using wi—fi rather than s—iig uses a third of the energy. claire marshall, bbc news. you have been watching newsday. i'm kasia madera in london. and i'm mariko 0i in singapore. stay with us.

i'll be back with the business news, and as countries continue to grapple with the economic impact over the coronavirus operate, the iron or becomes the latest to pledge $50 billion. the coronavirus is also having a huge impact on the film industry. in china alone, the box office take in the last two months, compared to this time of last year, dropped by nearly 2 billion us dollars, a huge amount. and the coronavirus is being blamed for that. indeed, but interestingly some new movies have been launched online on streaming services instead of the theatres. so that is very interesting though, after watching that report about environmental concern, it is a bit worrying. it certainly is, and when we talk about the media and the coronavirus — bad news forjames bond fans, because the release date for the new film no time to die has been pushed back seven months

to november, and again that is down to concerns about the coronavirus. so even james down to concerns about the coronavirus. so evenjames bond fa ns coronavirus. so evenjames bond fans are affected by this virus. hello. 0verall thursday won't be too bad a day across the majority of the uk. there should be some decent sunshine, just a few showers here or there. quite a chilly start with some patchy frost and fog. the one major exception is the far south of the uk. an area of low pressure is ploughing into the continent, bringing very heavy rain into france, and that will just glance southern counties of england through the first half of the day. so looking pretty wet as that low works its way to the south. certainly from the latter part into the lunch time period across the southeastern quadrant of the uk, the rain could get as far north as essex. it should gradually

clearer come the afternoon. in contrast, look how quiet it is elsewhere. a chilly wind following behind that rainfall, showers pouring into east anglia, a few sharper ones for western scotland and northern ireland. temperatures, while still struggling a bit for many of us, highs of 7—8dc. come thursday evening, the low pulls away and we see a more organised band of showers coming in from the west. with light winds ahead of it, temperatures are likely to fall. a fairly extensive frost, and when we see showers, ice could be a significant risk across western britain first thing on friday. but this front isa thing on friday. but this front is a kind of patchy affair, so the rain through friday daytime is more salary than solid and persistent. in some areas it may manifest as cloud is addressed in from the west. most likely see showers in western wales and the far south of england. should be a fair

amount of sunshine around. here comes the weekend, another area of low pressure heading our way. should not be anywhere near as severe as the future we saw last weekend, and the worst of the rainfall should sweep through overnight saturday into sunday. so for saturday, while yes a lot of clout around, but actually a lot of dry weather. bring to the afternoon for northern ireland and scotland. amateurs on saturday around average for the time of year. we are talking about 9—10dc. as

a system rolls through overnight, some spots remain warm... but sunday... and showers, there will be sunny intervals at minus two celsius, a similarface for intervals at minus two celsius, a similar face for sunday but it will feel when you're on wednesday as we picked up a westerly. hello and welcome. i'm cash them bbc

world news. ——iam —— i am kasia madera. our top story. the number of people killed from the coronavirus in italy has jumped to one hundred and seven — the highest number of deaths outside of china, where the virus started. in response to the outbreak — the italian government plans to shut all its schools and universities for the next ten days. the italian prime minister says health services risk being overwhelmed. billionaire michael bloomberg has suspended his campaign to gain the democratic nomination for president — despite significantly outspending his rivals. mr bloomberg says he will now supportjoe biden. and this video is getting a lot of attention on our website — a brawl broke out in turkey's parliament during a speech by an oppositon lawmaker who accused the president of disrespecting soldiers who died in syria. the speaker of parliament later condemned the comments. that's all. thank you for watching bbc news.