a very warm welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. our top stories: california's governor declares a state of emergency over the coronavirus outbreak. the state has confirmed at least 50 cases and its first death. with at least 100 virus deaths recorded so far, the highest outside china, italy closes schools, universities, cinemas and theatres. as super tuesday brings a dramatic political comeback forjoe biden, his billionaire rival, michael bloomberg, pulls out, giving his backing to the former vice—president. i have always believed that it starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it, and after yesterday puzzling vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend

and a great friend, joe biden. candidate is my friend and a great american, joe biden. on the greek island of lesbos more violence as locals clash with hundreds of refugees and migrants coming from turkey. and how our online streaming habit could be harming the environment. and the past hour or so this just in. the governor of california, gavin newsom, has declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus outbreak. the move will allow the state to deploy additional resources to fight the virus. mr newsom's announcement came after the virus spread to twelve counties across the state, killing one person and infecting more than 50. we've had a number of incidences throughout the state of california — no longer north, now in southern california.

we have accordingly, with this new icu patient that passed away, entered into this next phase that has required me under the circumstances to advance a proclamation of a state of emergency in the state of california. covid—19 cases around the world are still rising. in mainland china — where the outbreak started — the number of deaths has now passed three thousand. france has confirmed that 285 people there have the virus — an increase of 25% on the previous day. italy has the biggest outbreak in europe, and is shutting all schools, universities, cinemas and theatres for at least 10 days. all professional sport in italy will be played behind closed doors for a month. at least 107 people have died there, and about 3,000 are infected. from rome, the bbc‘s mark lowen. 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 9—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. back now to the spread of the virus in the united states and california's declaration

of a state of emergency. 0ur washington correspondent chris buckler has more. it is really about getting access to resources and doing the best to tackle the problem and stop the spread and that is and stop the spread and that is a particular concern for california at the moment because they have had their first have now connected to the coronavirus. to the coronavirus, a 71—year—old man who was on board a cruise ship stop that cruise ship return to san francisco two weeks ago and he got off, but the cruise ship continued on on its journey to hawaii and is now off the coast of california where 21 people are apparently showing symptoms of potentially having the coronavirus. and that again is causing concern in california. they will try and get them tested. when you look at the figures, it is very clear that california is worried. they say so far they have had something like 53 people who have tested positive, but there are 9000 people being monitored and that is really the worry that potentially this could get

worse, and as a result, they want access to money now to try to ensure they stop the spread before things get any worse. clearly this outbreak brings economic problems, it brings personal difficulties and tragedies. but politically, it is a problem for anyone seeking to be president potential voters are looking for a steady hand. absolutely. i think there is a lot of focus now on exactly what the white house is going to do to respond to this. congress is now agreed on something like $8 billion to try and have money to make sure they can address any problems that emerge. you may remember that last week president trump was accused of being somewhat dismissive of the dangers. that has changed entirely. the vice president mike pence is going to visit a factory where facemasks are being made and he is travelling to washington state and of course washington state

has got in some ways the biggest problems of anywhere in the us because they have had ten people die as a result of the coronavirus. in the greater seattle area, there is a great deal of concern. so this is really a white house trying to show it is getting on top of this problem before it becomes any worse but of course the health authorities are saying that there is a realfear things will get worse because of community spread. the billionaire michael bloomberg has ended his campaign for the us presidency and endorsed former vice—presidentjoe biden. the round of super tuesday primaries in 14 states have left mr biden the frontrunner to stand for the democratic party against donald trump in november's election. michael bloomberg's only victory was in the tiny territory of american samoa. he explained why he was leaving the race. 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. let's get more on what happened on super tuesday from our north america editorjon sopel. tonight, cbs news projects biden has won in virginia. he'll get the biggest share of the 99 delegates there. well, no one predicted that. joe biden‘s campaign, which a week ago was seen as holed below the waterline and sinking without trace, was suddenly skipping along the waves. he notched up win after win in the most dramatic turnaround of political fortunes. we are very much alive! cheering. and make no mistake about it, this campaign will send donald trump packing. this campaign is taking off! join us. at bernie sanders‘ rally in vermont, they were hoping for and had been predicted a much better night. it saw the 78—year—old senator

turning his fire onjoe biden. we are not only taking on the corporate establishment, we're taking on the political establishment. cheering. his supporters watched with anxiety and some paranoia. is bernie sanders going to be the democratic party nominee? yes, he is, definitely. i'm not so sure. i think the democrats are conspiring to make sure he gets locked out. bernie or nobody, 100%. bernie or nobody? yeah. even if that lets donald trump in for another four years? ooh. that's a tough one, but yes. the billionaire mike bloomberg last night discovered that money can't buy love and can't buy votes. he's out. but he's throwing his weight, and more significantly his fortune, behind joe biden. and elizabeth warren, who has consistently underperformed, must decide what she's going to do. this now becomes a toe to toe slugfest between two old,

very old, heavyweights, joe biden and bernie sanders. bernie sanders has the grassroots organisation, butjoe biden has momentum, orjoe—mentum, as they're calling it, and that counts for a lot. jon sopel, bbc news, burlington, vermont. the greek island of lesbos is the latest flashpoint in the migrant crisis. aid agencies have complained their staff have been assaulted and intimidated as they try to cope with people coming by boat from turkey. the governor of lesbos has apologised for the violent actions of some local residents. hundreds of migrants and refugees have arrived on the island since friday when turkey opened its borders. jean mackenzie reports from lesbos. where are you from? congo. how old are you? ten. ten? these are lesbos‘s newest arrivals, trapped on the island, now behind bars. i've been here for three days. three days? yeah. what's it like in here? not enough food, no sleeping. we want to go to a better

place, not here. hundreds of migrants from afghanistan, syria and the congo have made it across the sea since turkey opened its borders last week. most have been kept in this holding pen. can they leave or are they detained? they can leave? no, so they are detained? for years, this island has been overcrowded. more than 20,000 refugees now live in a camp that more than 20,000 refugees now live in a camp that was meant forfar, farfewer, stuck here while europe struggles to agree on what to do with them. thousands make their way from the camp to the port, desperate to leave. these flare—ups have angered locals and that anger has turned to violence. migrants and journalists have been attacked. and an aid centre has been set on fire. some aid workers

are now leaving the island. the medical clinics, which treat hundreds every day, have been closed. why are you locking up? because we have a lot of problems on the island with ngos. we're having a lot of riots with the ngos. it looks like we are dealing in a war zone and this unpredictable security situation is something that we never experienced before. recent videos show the greek coastguard firing at people trying to cross the sea. we show these to the island's governor. they have received such orders to shoot, but in the air, not on the people. look, look. that's the migrants being hit on the head by the coastguard. yes. what do you think about that? i reject. i don't like it. i don't like this behaviour. it doesn't represent me. as greece scrambles to secure its borders, european leaders have offered hundreds of millions of pounds to help. we don't want money, we want not to have a problem.

the point is not to get money. the point is not to have a problem. let's spare their money. let's send the money back. a navy ship arrives to take the new arrivals to the mainland, but thousands are left behind, on this island that no longer wants them. jean mckenzie, bbc news. one of europe's biggest regional airlines — the british carrier, flybe — is on the verge of collapse, threatening thousands of jobs. the airline looks likely to go into administration, a form of protection for creditors. flybe was saved earlier this year when it was taken over by a consortium including virgin atlantic, but it's in trouble again because the coronavirus outbreak has sent bookings into a slump. jon kay reports from flybe headquarters. touching down in exeter, one of flybe's last flights of the day. but what will be taking off tomorrow? these are not passengers

with luggage, but mechanics taking their tools home from the compa ny‘s headquarters at the end of the runway. they'd come in especially to collect their kit, even before any official announcement. we are not allowed to tell you anything. nothing. have you been told what's happening? no. it has been an anxious few weeks for the 400 staff here, and tonight, they've been arriving, desperate for news. i don't know anything either way, so... have you been given any indication what's going on? none. sorry, guys. we literally don't know. we know as much as everybody else on the news. where does that leave you? who knows? questions also for flybe passengers arriving into exeter tonight. they told us the company provides vital roots and is an important part of this region's economy and beyond. tonight, speculation is unsettling. i mean, it's not great. it is handy having it here. i work in greenwich and it cuts 2—2.5 hours of the travelling time by being able to fly.

it will be detrimental to the whole of the south—west if we can't get from plymouth and have to drive to exeter. the next stop is bristol. there was due to be a flight arriving here in exeter from manchesterjust before ten o'clock this evening, but we have been told that plane did not take off, the flight has been cancelled, no explanation has been given here. meanwhile, as more staff turn up to find out what is happening, a delivery of pizzas. a long night ahead after a difficultjourney for flybe. john kay, bbc news, exeter. this hasjust come up on the airline's website, the company hasjoined airline's website, the company has joined administration. the business has ceased trading with immediate effect. more here for customers. if you are due to fly with flybe, do not travel to the airport that do not travel with the apple dash u nless not travel with the apple dash unless you have arrange another flood with another airline. there are no alternative flights for passengers. if you

are on a flight with another airline that will also travel by flybe please contact that airline. more on that to come if we can get it. stay with us if we can get it. stay with us if you can. still to come: why experts believe climate change had a major bearing on the scale of australia's bushfires this year. first, the plates slid gently off the restaurant tables. then suddenly, the tables, the chairs and people crashed sideways and downwards, and it was just a matter of seconds as the ferry lurched onto her side. the hydrogen bomb. on a remote pacific atoll, the americans had successfully tested a weapon whose explosive force dwarfed that of the bomb dropped on hiroshima. i had heard the news earlier, and so my heart went bang, bang, bang!

the constitutional rights of these marchers are their rights as citizens of the united states, and they should be protected even in the right to test them out, so that 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 does it worry you that it's going to boil up when you get to the states? well, it worries me, yes, but i hope everything will be all right in the end, as they say. welcome back. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: california's governor declares a state of emergency over the coronavirus after reporting the state's first death and confirming at least 50 cases. super tuesday has marked a dramatic political comeback forjoe biden as the billionaire mike bloomberg offers to support the former vice—president. the president of venezuela has

urged women to have as many as six children for — what he calls — the good of the country. nicolas maduro was speaking at an event promoting women's health. venezuela is in the grip of a long—running political and economic crisis. shortages are widespread. between 2013 and 2018, according to the un children's agency unicef, 13% of venezuelan children were malnourished. i've been getting reaction to this from selene soto, a venezuelan lawyer at the non—profit organisation women's link worldwide. it is clearly an attempt to deny the right women have to exercise their choices. we are not reproductive machines. but what are seeing with the crisis in venezuela does not address the severe impact the humanitarian crisis is having on rights affecting women and girls.

for example, in an emblematic public hospital in caracas, the conepcion palacios maternity hospital, there is no water service. women face imminent risk when they go into labour or when they go in, because if they suffer from an emergency, there is no blood in the hospital. the health system has collapsed but it's particularly affecting women because they don't have access to these specialised services that they need. so as you are making clear, this is a country that can barely cope with its existing population. thousands have fled the country, of course. what is the response as far as you can tell within the country to this responsibility, pressure being put on women? unfortunately, there hasn't been any response. for example, this hospital i was talking about was granted precautionary measures from the commission of human rights last year because of the extreme

risk that women are facing, and up until now, the state hasn't given response to these decisions on the commission. the national organisations are saying that women are being forced into motherhood because they don't have any options. even other organisations like the human rights commission or the un high commissioner have identified that the impact is so severe, this is making women leave the country or they decide to migrate to other countries to seek treatment or healthcare that they need. what does it say to you about the maduro government that he has made this call? i can say that at a time when these rights are at the centre of many public debates, in order to move forward in protecting these rights, unfortunately in venezuela there is only historical setbacks that have put women in situations compared to the last century.

climate change caused by humans did contribute to the conditions behind the recent bushfires in south—eastern australia. that is according to a team of leading climate scientists at the world weather attribution group. it's the first time a definitive link has been made and it could help motivate political change. freya cole reports. the flames arrived earlier, lasted longer and were worse than predicted. thousands of firefighters were deployed every day, putting their lives on the line to battle fires which were volatile and vicious. it was dry from a prolonged drought and temperatures were scorching hot. for the first time, a team of scientists can prove that human—made climate change intensified these conditions, which, in turn, intensified the severity of the bushfires. the warning is very stark and i think that we've really got to understand,

i don't like the phrase "new normal", what we are doing is we are entering into a rapid transition associated with rapid warming and we're going to start seeing the earth's system responding with catastrophic responses. the most recent bushfire season in australia has been dubbed the "black summer". 33 lives were lost, millions of animals were killed and the flames destroyed 11 million hectares of bush and forest. prime minister scott morrison was heavily criticised for his response and his government's lack of climate policy. some senior ministers still dispute there is a link between the bushfire crisis and a warming planet. the pressure is on australia's leadership to do more. tens of thousands of people are engaged in climate protests and have vowed to fight on. looking to the future, this study predicts that if global temperatures climb by 2 degrees,

which is on the cards, the likelihood of a similar bushfire season would be at least four times more likely. an alarming prediction, given the scale of destruction. freya cole, bbc news. streaming music, movies and tv is hugely popular, of course, but there's concern about what it does to the environment. all that data requires data centres — hundreds of thousands of them around the world — many using electricity generated by burning fossilfuels. claire marshall reports. 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. there are now hundreds of thousands of these energy hungry data centres. the problem is that many are powered by fossilfuels. this is that 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. 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. 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 consuminglarge amounts —— 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. but there is a whole new challenge — 5g. 5g will generate much more traffic and demand much more power. 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 and standard definition rather than hd saves four times the emissions, and using wi—fi rather than3 or4g uses a third of the energy. just a reminder of that breaking news again. the colla pse breaking news again. the collapse in bookings because of the coronavirus outbreak has brought down one of europe's regional airlines. the british carrier flybe has collapsed. they have released a statement that they have entered administration. all flights have been grounded in the uk business has ceased trading with immediate effect. the advice to customers if they are true to fly with flybe, please do not travel to the airport u nless do not travel to the airport unless you have arranged an alternative flight with another airline, and flybe is not able to arrange alternative flights for passengers. if you have a booking for another airline that includes travel on a flybe flight, that includes travel on a flybe flight, please contact your travel agent to confirm any

impact to your plans. customers can also monitor the civil aviation authority website. employers and suppliers should contact the administrators. that is it for now. thank you for watching. hello. 0verall, thursday, ithink, 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, though, with some patchy frost and fog. the one major exception is the far south of the uk. we have an area of low pressure that's ploughing into the continent, bringing very heavy rain into france and it willjust glance southern counties of england for the first half of the day. so, looking pretty wet as that low works its way to the south, certainly i think from the latter part of the rush hour into the lunchtime period, across the south—eastern

quadrant of the uk, the rain could get as far north as essex, it should gradually clear come the afternoon. in contrast, look how quiet it is elsewhere. behind the area of rainfall, showers pulling into east anglia, the west of scotla nd and northern ireland. temperatures still struggling a little for many of us, highs ofjust 7 or 8 degrees. come thursday evening, the low pulls away. we will see a more organised band of showers coming in from the west. with light winds ahead of it, though, temperatures likely to fall. a fairly extensive frost. where there are showers, ice could be a significant risk across western britain first thing on friday. this front, though, is kind of a patchy affair for the rain through friday daytime, more showery than coming in in a solid and persistent block, and it may manifest as some thickening cloud for a time as it drifts in from the west on friday. most likely to see some showers, scotland, northern ireland,

western wales and the far south—west of england. far south, showers around. the weekend, another big area of low pressure heading our way, shouldn't be anywhere near as severe as the feature we saw last weekend, and the worst of the rainfall should sweep through overnight saturday into sunday. so for saturday, well, yes, a lot of cloud around a lot dry weather, rain through the afternoon in northern ireland and scotland. temperatures on saturday around average for the time of year. we are talking around 9 or 10 degrees. as this system rolls through overnight, though, temperatures in some spots may come up as a plume of warm air ahead of the front, but for sunday, we are plunged into cooler conditions behind it and some quite sharp showers running around. some sunny intervals at times as well. temperatures look similar on the face of it for sunday, but it will deal feel chillier on sunday as we pick up a north—westerly wind.

this is bbc news, the headlines: one of europe's biggest regional airlines — the british carrier, flybe — is on the verge of collapse, threatening thousands of jobs. the airline looks likely to go into administration — a form of protection for creditors. california has declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus, after reporting the state's first death and confirming at least 50 cases. more than eighty countries have reported cases so far. italy has the biggest outbreak in europe — more than a hundred people have died. the greek island of lesbos has become the latest flashpoint in the new migrant crisis affecting parts of europe. the governor of lesbos apologised for the actions of some residents. aid agencies say they have been assaulted as they try to cope with refugees coming by boat from turkey.