this is bbc news. warm welcome if you're watching here, in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories of the israeli and palestinian authorities declared a state of emergency and placed bethlehem under quarantine because there are seven cases of coronavirus in the city. shares fall on world markets as concerns about the virus of enterprises on international took —— stock exchanges. there is inventions and death mount, the world health organization fears some countries are not taking the threat seriously enough. a ceasefire in syria's idlib province midland millions are still counting the cost of after months of brutal conflict. this is from the

bomb? yes, civilians, civilians, we are civilians. elizabeth warren ends her run to the white house but hold back from endorsing joe biden oi’ back from endorsing joe biden or bernie sanders as the democratic party was menominee. —— democratic pa rty‘s democratic party was menominee. —— democratic party's nominee. and meghan and harry perform one of the last duties before they step back from senior royal duties. israel and the palestinian authority have declared a state of emergency and decided to put the city of bethlehem under quarantine. because seven people had been diagnosed with the coronavirus. the israeli defence minister ordered the army to enforce the closure and co—ordination with the palestinian authority. emergency measures were announced by the palestinian pro— minister.

translation: all education stu d e nts translation: all education students are closed. secondly, employees of ministries and government institutions remain at work until other instructions are issued. movement between the palestinian governance are permitted only in the event of extreme necessity, especially in bethlehem. we're looking at the of bridges and closet crossing between palestine and the rest of the world if need be. in effect, nobody will be able to leave the city until further notice. angry protests on the streets ofjericho. this is where the palestinian authority planned to treat its coronavirus patients, but they aren't wanted here.

in bethlehem, there's real concern. the main checkpoint into israel was closed and people have been told they can only leave in an emergency. the infected workers are all from this hotel. they've been in contact with a group of greek tourists, who tested positive once they returned home. this place is now closed, as are all hotels in bethlehem. they've been told they cannot accept any new tourists for the next 14 days. that is what we're trying to do. antoine has been quarantined inside, along with the seven people who tested positive. they are on a separate floor but without medical treatment, he says. official information is scarce. we've done tests and have not received information back and that's why we are struggling, we are not getting any information from the authorities. even the world's oldest church has been forced to close its doors. thousands have passed through the church

of the nativity every day to touch the spot where christians believe jesus was born and, now, that is a problem. we have these icons and they have a place where they have to touch the columns and even the star whenjesus was born, so that's why if someone has this virus, they will easily transmit to others. all public places like this have been shut down to try and contain the spread the virus. sad for closing, not even the church, bethlehem, they are closing all bethlehem, know what i mean? nothing to do now. and, as you know, bethlehem depends 100% on pilgrims and tourists. this city relies heavily on visitors from around the world. as a state of emergency is declared, it is bracing for a double hit — to the health of its people and to its fragile economy.

governments around the world are raising to contain the coronavirus and break it —— bracing for the economic impact. in the past few hours, the us as president co—ordinating the american response has been speaking about the outbreak from seattle in washington state. i'm here with a very simple message. to all of you who are standing with the people this day dealing with coronavirus and the people of washington state, is, we're with you. i am here to ensure that the full resources of the federal government are being brought to bear in support of the state of washington's efforts. al correspondent peter bowes is in los angeles with the latest on the cruise ship that has not been allowed to dock in san francisco.

over the last few hours, the coast guard has been using helicopters to drop testing kits on board that vessel. there's a medical team that will be testing. we're told fewer than 100 people who have been identified as being at risk, suffering from flu—like symptoms, a total of 3,500 people, they are passengers and crew, but it seems the possibility for the spread of this infection is limited to a small number of people after, as wejust heard, one person died who had been on the cruise ship on a previous cruise, a round trip to mexico, that the ship had since gone on on a cruise to hawaii and it was that leg of the cruise that had to be cut short as people started to fall sick on the vessel. and peter, this outbreak generally worldwide brings all kind of economic trouble of course, all kinds of personal difficulties and tragedies, but it is, in the united states, a real political hot potato, isn't it? especially with the presidential election on the horizon. it is. the way that the president and his team deals with this is certainly being scrutinised. donald trump was on tv

about 2k hours ago talking about the fact that he believed it was ok for people, even if they had mild symptoms, still to go to work. he has been roundly criticised for that, health experts saying that is absolutely the wrong advice to people. that if you are feeling sick, you should stay at home and medical attention. the other focus of attention has been on the supply of the testing kits with mike pence a little while ago acknowledging there weren't enough kits looking forward with the potential of any more people being infected. mariko, what about the economic impact in asia? as we have been reporting, it has been a brutal week for many around the world. a rollercoaster ride. the world is -- rollercoaster ride. the world

is —— wild swings. japan's nikkei initially opened 1.5 send lower, now nearly 3%. the hang seng is now down by 2%. every market in asia is in the red and they are all taking their cue from wall street. all three major indices fell. shares in airlines in particular have been hit hard because as we know a lot of passengers have been cancelling theirflight so passengers have been cancelling their flight so airline shares have been hit but across the board we are seeing investors growing increasingly concerned that the global economy may even fall into a recession because of this outbreak. how bad do people think it is going to get economically. initially it was just a china problem. china being the wild boars factory. how this would affect

the global supply chain. that was the main concern. but now we know it is a much more global issue and with all the travel restrictions, there is less economic activity around the world people are just generally human not to go out, to stay home so according to the latest data, chinese cinemas in the first two months of this year alone, they lost nearly $2 billion because all the cinemas were shot, while many cities were under lockdown and when people don't go out to spend money, go out to eat, dinner, go out to watch a movie, all of that event was the economic growth —— all of that affects economic growth. we are seeing a slowdown at the rate of the local economic crisis was not schools and many around the world ushered in many sporting events have been postponed. singapore had some of the first cases of

those outside china. what is happening there will become a reality for a lot of countries. business as usual. i am at singapore's largest businesses are now a common fixture across buildings in singapore. if your temperature is above 37.5 or 38 celsius, they are not going to let you in. turns out i'm ok. but what companies are really worried about is business continuity. to keep operations running while keeping staff safe. some companies have of their employees to work from home but that can be challenging, especially if you have young kids running around. others have adopted the split shift strategy which means two groups of employees never see

each other. with most people never travelling for work or conducting a business meetings online, the airlines and travel industry as a too. frankly, we just don't know how much coronavirus is going to cost the world. but one thing is for sure. it is causing all was to ta ke sure. it is causing all was to take a deeper look at how we work ina take a deeper look at how we work in a globally connected world. a ceasefire in syria's idlib province is just come a ceasefire in syria's idlib province isjust come into effect after months of heavy bombardment by syrian government forces and their russian allies. the truth was agreed by the president of turkey and russia. idlib is a large region of syria still controlled by the rebels, some of them jihad is, who have been trying to, with turkey, overthrow president aside. it has bought a million people from their home since december.

russia begs the assad regime and russian drugs killed 16 civilians in the early hours of the morning. orla guerin was there and her report contains upsetting images. working by flashlight, to reclaim the living from the rubble. the target here inexplicably a poultry farm which became a refuge for some of idlib's displaced. by day, a refuge no more. just hours before ceasefire talks began in moscow, this devastation was russia's handiwork. last night while i slept, i slept here, here. this is my home. here. when the russian aircraft bombed... this is from the bomb?

yes. civilians, civilians, we are civilians. and they were killed as they slept, though the syrian regime and its russian backers say they are targeting terrorists. when you take a look around here amongst the scattered belongings you can see that this was a home, a place where parents were trying to keep their children safe. some of the toys are still here and the dishes are smashed at my feet. what possible justification could there be for bombing a place like this full of civilians? but in idlib this has been happening day in and day out, and as the sound now of more explosions, we have been hearing bombings in the distance since we arrived. ahmed tells me it's fine if he dies but he's worried for his children who by chance were not here last night. where do you think you and the children will sleep tonight?

"i don't know", he says, wondering if any where in his broken homeland is safe. not the local hospital — it's a target, like all medical facilities. here, we found victims of the air strikes, like this boy, who is nine, as old as syria's war. "i want to be a doctor", he says, "to treat patients so they get better and no—one dies in syria or the rest of the world". willa ceasefire bring an end to the agony here? or will this merciless multilayered war keep doing its very worst? orla guerin, bbc news, idlib.

stay with us. the final round of duties. harry and meghan carry out one of the final duties before they step back as a senior senior senior roles at the end of the month. 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. very glad to have you with us on bbc news. one headline still dominating: bethlehem has been placed under quarantine because there are seven cases of coronavirus in the city, as concerns about the outbreaks lead to falls on international stock markets. the fighting in syria has put more pressure on turkey which is already sheltering almost 4 million refugees. accusing the european union of a lack of action on the refugee crisis, eight turkey opened its border

to greece last week. since then, thousands have been trying to cross into the eu. our middle east editorjeremy bowen reports. syrian refugees have learnt to be sceptical about ceasefires. in western turkey, thousands who escaped the battles before idlib and other middle eastern wars, followed a fence up to the greek border. they went because turkey's president erdogan finally came through with his threat to pressurise the eu by creating a new refugee crisis. greece kept its gates closed. for a generation that grew up with death, with war, stealing their chances of education, it was yet another blow. translation: my future has gone, that is why i think more about the future of my children. i want to have a house for them, give them a good life, where they don't need to rely on me or anybody else

to support them. this family with six children had made it to greece where they said the police stole all their money and burnt their id papers before they were sent back. trying to salvage some dignity. translation: there are women here and we don't have toilets, what should they do? we have girls ten and 11 years old, they can't go in the open in front of people. if you look at the leaders in the countries who have interfered and been involved with the war in syria, can you look at somebody and think, they are to blame? it's theirfault? translation: the main person responsible for us is basher al—assad, as president it's a pity that you kill a child or harm a human being just to stay in power. —— bashar. these people are pawns in a much bigger game.

its roots lie in the catastrophic international failure to stop the war in syria and the players in the game are the big military powers who have intervened in the syrian war in their own interests with little or no regard for the safety of millions of people. a local turkish man gave out food, "let europe see this", he said, "i hope you're ashamed". it was cold, he made a fire of plastic rubbish to heat his baby son's milk. most of them slept out in the open. three sisters were under these blankets. no tents, no tarpaulins, no hope. jeremy bowen, bbc news, turkey. elizabeth warren became the latest political casualty of super tuesday's vote. the massachusetts senator is leaving the race. a day earlier, former new york city

mount michael bloomberg through and the tail. her departure means there are no prominent female candidates left in the race to be the democratic nominee. that is the trap question. if you say, yeah, there was sexism in this race, everyone says whiner. and it if you say there was no sexism, people say what planet do you live on. i'll have a lot more to say on that subject.|j live on. i'll have a lot more to say on that subject. i spoke just now to doctorjeffrey cornfield, and associate professor of political management at george washington university. the democrats started out with a diverse list of candidates, including six women. it was and there were persons of colour on there as well.

but in the end those two old, white guys are the most familiar candidates. bernie sanders has been running for president almost non—stop since 2015, and of course joe biden was the vice president of the united states. so the fact they are one year different in age and in their70s is coincidental. we got a sense from quite a lot of the democratic voters our correspondents spoke to, that they liked and respected elizabeth warren but they felt if hillary clinton couldn't beat donald trump, she probably couldn't either? well, that may be true. elizabeth warren was a very strong campaigner. she had a very appealing and pertinent autobiography that she told whenever she spoke, she established human touches in her campaign. she would make random phone calls to donors and surprise them and that would be videotaped and would circulate around the country. she did pinkie promises with little girls, all of these brought her a lot of affection and a lot of support. she was famous for her policy

plans, i think there were close to 100 when she finally stopped. she had one majorflaw, she couldn't stick to one message. and that brought her down from her heights in october to the point where she had to pull out today could there be a comeback? do you think she still has a future in politics? surely there is some lasting impact, surely the running mate now has to be a woman? i agree with that, and i think she deserves some credit for that. she put another big crack in the proverbial glass ceiling that hillary clinton spoke about, that ceiling that keeps women from ascending to the highest office in the land. but, no, i think she will resume her career as a front—line senator or take a position if the democrats win the presidency, but i don't see her making another run for the presidency.

very briefly, i ask you please to look into your crystal ball of political management for us. who is going to face donald trump, who is going to win? joseph biden, is going to be the nominee. and who will be president? yep, well, i'm just about to answer that. and i think that really depends on the spread of the covid—19 virus and how president trump is seen handling it. i really think this is a big issue. americans look to presidents for confidence, for guidance and if president trump is perceived as falling short on that, he will lose. on the other hand, if the virus turns out to be contained, he will get credit for that and he will win. so i'm really thinking that that of all things — this pandemic — will be decisive was a very interesting.

dr michael cornfield, thank you so much. meghan and harry have attended some of the last official gauge meant before they step back is senior royals. this report from our real correspondence nicholas witchell does contain flashing images from the start. lights, a lot of them, cameras lots of them. but when it comes to action of the formal royal variety, there won't be much more of it from these two. this was the first public appearance by meghan in this country for two months, since she harry and announced their new direction, and one of the last by the couple before they begin their new life in north america. they were at the mansion house in london for the endeavour awards for service personnel. and looking — by all accounts — very relaxed. it's the kind of royal duty —

recognising achievement over adversity — that is expected of the royal family. the kind of thing harry, with his own military background has a natural affinity. both appeared on stage, meghan, to present one award. good evening, everybody. it's very nice to be back. and harry, to speak about the experience of serving. for some, the military community represents a brotherhood or sisterhood that no other organisation can provide. and for others, it is a way of life which you never want to leave. for a lot of us, it's both. being able to serve queen and country is something that we all are rightly proud of and it never leaves us. it was a powerful speech, harry sounded motivated and fulfilled. puzzling, that in a few days he and meghan will step away to return to canada. nicholas witchell, bbc news. there is more for you any time on the bbc website. that is it for now, though. thank you for

watching. hello, then. there were winners and losers with the weather on thursday, parts of northern england had close to nine hours of sunshine. look at this beautiful weather watcher picture sent in through the lake district. it was a different story south and east, in fact, the only brightness possibly down through east sussex were the beach huts because there was over 1.5 inches of rain. the rain pretty persistent, it's now moving into the new continent. not many isobars on the charts so light winds and clear skies and that is allowing those temperatures to fall away. it is going to be a chilly start to our friday morning and certainly it is worth bearing in mind as temperatures fall just below freezing in a few spots. the exception, perhaps

the south—east, clinging on to cloud and northern ireland. there will also be mist and fog first thing as well. a few showers from the word go out to the west and some of these showers will merge together for long spells of rain as we go through the day. but for many, it is a case of once that mist and fog has lifted away, dry with some sunny spells coming through and certainly a quieter story for many. temperatures ranging from 7—11 degrees. now, as we move out of friday into the weekend, we start to see another area of low pressure starting to move in from the atlantic. but i really want to emphasise as we move through the weekend, it's not going to be a write off by any means. yes, it's going to turn increasingly windy and there will be some rain at times, but for many of us the rain actually arrives saturday night into sunday morning. so you can see for the bulk of the country on saturday, clouding over from the west, but it will stay largely dry. we will have some rain, some of it heavy and persistent into north—west england, western scotland and northern

ireland and by the end of the afternoon, the winds will strengthen as well. temperatures ranging as well between 7—11 degrees. now, because the winds are strengthening, gusts in excess of 50—60 miles an hour without rain, it will push that rain throughout quite a pace overnight saturday into sunday. so, for many of us we will actually see a good deal of dry weather around for the second half of the weekend. the early morning rain clearing in the south—east, a blustery day on sunday with plenty of frequent showers putting in from the west but as with the nature of showers, some of you may escape them altogether and keep some drier, sunnier moments. again, highs between 7—11 celsius. and it looks as though this theme is set to continue for the early half the new working week. it stays blustery, yes, with plenty of sunny spells and scattered, sharp showers. whatever you're doing this weekend, take care.

of the latest headlines. israel and palestinian authorities have declared a state of emergency and placed bethlehem under quarantine because there are seven cases of coronavirus. governments around the world a re coronavirus. governments around the world are racing to contain the virus. concerns about the spread and increasing cases has sent international markets falling. a ceasefire agreed between the russian and turkish presidents has come into effect in the syrian province of idlib. measures they have agreed include joint patrols and a safety corridor. escalating fighting in recent weeks has raised fears of a direct confrontation between russia and turkey. elizabeth warren has dropped out of the race to be the nominee of the democratic party to fight donald trump for the presidency after a poor showing in this week's super tuesday primaries. so far she has declined to endorse even “— so far she has declined to endorse even —— eitherjoe biden or bernie sanders as the party's nominee.