welcome to newsday. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. the headlines: italy is in lockdown. public gatherings are forbidden, tourist sites are virtually deserted, and doctors give stark advice to the public. stay—at—home and be prepared for a kind of war, because we are facing a war now here. in the us, a "containment zone" is in place around the town of new rochelle near new york, following a large cluster of cases. i'm kasia madera in london. also in the programme,

as china's cases of coronavirus appear to stabilise, is it business as usual for those returning to work? bernie sanders and joe biden are the last men standing as six us states vote in the latest round of the democratic primaries. good morning. it's 8:00am in singapore, midnight in london and 1:00am in italy, where tough measures are now in place to limit the spread of coronavirus. across the country, italians are being told to stay at home, public gatherings have been banned and schools closed. and italy faces growing isolation with thousands of flights cancelled.

but the number of deaths has increased by a third to 631. our correspondent mark lowen has the latest from the city of orvieto. "all residents stay at home", orders the police. from naples in the south to the supermarkets of rome, to the financial capital up in milan, news of the restrictions spread as fast as the virus. in bologna today, they began to adjust to the toughest limitations since the war. public gatherings banned, bars and restaurants closed from 6pm, tables a metre apart, schools, museums and nightclubs shut. everyone is affected. italians, tourists, and expats living here, staying put as several airlines stop flights. well, obviously we won't be able to travel in the immediate future. we've been told we can only take trains between cities in italy for reasons of work or health orfor some extraordinary emergency and apart from that we must stay put, but that seems sensible.

another thing is they have put this limelight, or spotlight, on age groups and it makes me feel really, really old. but i'm optimistic about it. moving around requires a form which we also had to complete, allowing travel for work or health emergencies or to return home. we would have to produce it if asked. it says here that falsifying this document could lead to prosecution. never could people in italy have conceived of the idea that they would need this to be able to move within their own country. as we drove out, traffic seemed quieter. roads are open, though slovenia says it will close its border and austria has banned italians entering unless with medical certificates. we have come out of bologna and we're on the motorway to rome and we haven't seen any police checks

for the documents, so it's still not clear how these restrictions are going to be enforced. we pulled over and got through to a doctor in one of the worst virus—hit areas. hospitals are near breaking point. we need more beds, more doctors, more nurses, because i think that in one to two weeks we will reach the top so if we will not have more facilities we will not know how to take care of the patients. we are facing a war now here. in rome, deserted tourist sites show the huge economic impact. the government now discussing suspending tax and bill payments to ease pressure. from inside the vatican, the pope led mass, urging priests to have the courage to visit the sick — a risky call. and often it's too late. even funerals are now banned, replaced with a restricted blessing. the virus is killing and taking italy's dignity with it.

let's ta ke let's take a look at the global picture when it comes to coronavirus. there are now more than 32,000 cases worldwide outside of china. over 4,000 of which are new cases. in the united states, schools have been closed and public gatherings suspended in the new york city suburb of new rochelle. authorities there are trying to contain one of the biggest coronavirus outbreaks in the country. republicans are hoping the trump administration can strike a deal with democrats on measures to help ease the economic effects of the outbreak. and president trump has urged americans to remain calm in the face of fear over its spread. we are prepared and we are doing a greatjob with it. it will go away. just stay calm, it will go away. we want to protect our shipping industry, oui’ protect our shipping industry, our cruise industry, the cruise ships. speaking of cruise ships, passengers have been disembarking from the ground

princess, which has docked at the port of oakland. chris buckler is there. it has been a very, very long process. by lunchtime today, just a couple of hours ago, they were already something like 500 or 600 people who had managed to disembark, of some 3000 passengers. they are speeding it up. some americans have already been taken to military bases where they will spend two weeks in quarantine. as i speak you might be able to see in the distance there are a couple of buses lined up. we think those are for the british passengers who are being taken off the ship next. they are going to make their way to the airport in oakland where they will fly to birmingham in the midlands in the united kingdom, where they are expected to arrive tomorrow afternoon uk time. now asi tomorrow afternoon uk time. now as i mentioned, the american passengers have been put into two weeks of quarantine. actually, the british passengers who are going back have simply been told to stay in their home and stay away from people for a similar length of time. as you mentioned, the most serious let

taken off the ship first, certainly those who had been confirmed to have coronavirus, or was showing symptoms. they have been taken of the ship and treated at hospitals in the area. in the meantime this process of getting all the passages of the ship will take yet more time. as for the crew themselves, they will stay aboard the ground princess. by the looks of things it is going to go out to see for two weeks while they are essentially look after their quarantine period out on the ocean. so that is the situation in oakland. 0f course, we also have another situation being described as probably the largest cluster of cases in the united states, new rochelle, just outside of new york city? -- new rochelle. yes, and that is being taken extremely seriously. they are essentially describing it as a containment zone, and at the moment but basically means they are trying to stop people from gathering in groups, they are closing schools, they have even brought in the national guard in order to clean schools. it

gives you an idea of how seriously america is having to ta ke seriously america is having to take this. despite indications at the start that president was somewhat dismissive of it. you talk about areas that are of real concern. further up the west coast you're in the us, in seattle and washington, the greater seattle area, there is a lot of concern there. the majority of deaths that have been linked to covid—i9 and actually occurred in the washington state area. as a result, there is particular concern there. even here in california, where they have been to deaths, now in the wider san francisco area, they are saying that no groups of more than 1000 people should gather. we are already seeing at sporting events and concerts being cancelled. you get a real sense that america is taking this seriously. even political rallies are being cancelled. bernie sanders and joe biden both plans to have rallies and they are not going to go ahead. that was chris buckler. well, on wall street, stocks finished a roller—coaster session as oil prices bounced back, while the trump administration continued

to promise relief measures to offset the economic hit from the virus. a day after suffering its worst session in more than 11 years, the dow jones piled on more than 1,000 points. that's nearly 5%. but analysts are warning of more uncertainty ahead. in other news. the afghan president has signed a decree to release one and a half thousand taliban prisoners. the move is part of efforts to launch direct talks with the hardline insurgent group to end the 18—year—long war in afghanistan.the us has started withdrawing its troops from afghanistan following a deal it agreed with the taliban last month. a health minister has become the first mp in the uk to be diagnosed with coronavirus. sdine dorries recently attended a downing street reception with the prime minister, borisjohnson. she confirmed she started showing symptoms last week, before receiving an official diagnosis this evening. and finally here's the dutch prime minister, mark rutte showing just how hard it is to break the habit

of a lifetime! he'd just gone on live tv to tell the country's 17 million residents to stop shaking hands to help combat coronavirus. and minutes later he broke the new rule. let's get more on the coronavirus outbreak. as the number of infections rapidly decreases in china, there are signs that life is slowly returning to normal there. on a visit to the city of wuhan on tuesday, president xijinping declared the outbreak "basically curbed" in hubei province. 0verall, china has seen over 80,000 cases of covid—19 and more than 3,000 deaths, by far the most globally. so how has the government cosmic handling of the crisis been perceived over in china, and where does this leave xi jinping's leadership in the

long run. a programme associate at the wilson centre in washington explained to us why the president has taken so long to visit the region. xi visited with times a day —— visited wuhan today and he visited one of the temporary hospitals and used a videoconferencing tool to talk to some the patients there. he essentially hedged early on in the coronavirus crisis and sent his premier, li keqiang into wuhan. this is information that is considered sensitive in china because as the viral epidemic slows down in china, the official message is going to be that the handling of the crisis is going to be attributed to xi and the party. right. and so far how has he been seen to be handling the crisis? he and his party?

because we know there were some big mistakes at the start, the fa ct big mistakes at the start, the fact that people were angry that information was suppressed, obviously there was the death of the doctor who alerted authorities early on. how have you been gauging the general reaction to how the government has been handling this? well, one thing that i found was interesting that happened actually today was that one of the doctors who was a whistleblower early on, she was a colleague of the more famous whistleblower, she was profiled in a magazine and was essentially detailing some of theissues essentially detailing some of the issues that she had in relaying the information that covid—19 was transmissible from human to human. this article eventually got shut down. people actually tried to bypass the censorship tools to try to pass on this information. so people are aware that there we re people are aware that there were issues in getting

resources into wu han's were issues in getting resources into wuhan's various hospitals. australia's high court will hear cardinal george pell‘s final appeal against his conviction for abusing two choir boys in 1996 while he was archbishop of melbourne. he is currently serving a six—yearjail term. pell‘s lawyers are hoping to convince the high court thejury made a mistake, and his conviction should be quashed. this is george pell‘s last chance to overturn his conviction for child sexual abuse offences. he failed to challenge the verdict back in august in victoria's court of appeal, and now sevenjudges here in australia's high court will decide his fate. put simply, if the conviction is upheld, it means he will stay in prison and serve the rest of his sentence. but if the judges decide that they will overturn the conviction, it means that he is going to walk free. that essentially, he is going to be acquitted. thejudges could also send the case back to victoria's court of appeal for

review. george pell is currently serving a six year prison sentence after a jury unanimously found him guilty of sexually abusing two choirboys on saint patrick's cathedral when he was archbishop of melbourne back in 1996. the case should australia but it also rattled the catholic church, mainly because of how prominent george pell is. not only was he the vatican's treasurer, he was one of the pope's closest advisers, though he has since been demoted from the pontiff's in a circle. for survivors of sexual abuse, the conviction was celebrated because one of the catholic churches most senior officials was held to account. but it did spark a big backlash from the supporters of george pell, not just conservative groups but also high—profile personalities, for example, former prime ministerjohn howard and tony abbott, have both publicly supported him. tell‘s defence team will argue thejudges were wrong tell‘s defence team will argue the judges were wrong to uphold his conviction, but the jury's

verdict was unreasonable, relying heavily on the testimony of one victim and ignoring the evidence of what could not have happened in the cathedral 15 years ago. —— pell‘s defence team. the prosecution rejects this argument. they say the victim is truthful and that the jury made the right decision and it should be respected. the vatican has been fairly quiet on the case, saying simply that cardinal pell had the right to all avenues of appeal in a case that has shocked and divided australia and has deeply embarrassed the catholic church. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme, joe biden hopes to land another blow on bernie sanders in the latest round of democratic primaries. the numbers of dead and wounded defied belief. this the worst terrorist atrocity on european soil in modern times. in less than 2a hours then the soviet union lost an elderly sick leader

and replaced him with a dynamic figure 20 years his junior. we heard these gunshots in the gym. then he came out through a fire exit and started firing at our huts. god, we were all petrified. james earl ray, aged 41, sentenced to 99 years and due for parole when he's 90, travelled from memphis jail to nashville state prison in an eight—car convoy. paul, what's it feel like to be married at last? it feels fine, thank you. what are you going to do now? is it going to change your life much do you think? i don't know really. i've never been married before. this is newsday on the bbc.

welcome back and thanks for staying with us. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. i'm kasia madera in london. our top stories: the number of cases of coronavirus in italy continues to rise as the countries put in lockdown. and in the us, new york's governor announces a containment zone around the town of their shelf following a large cluster of cases. it's time now to take a look at some of the front pages from around the world. unsurprisingly, the japan times leads on the coronavirus as the country tries to slow down its spread. the japanese government has approved a bill that would enable shinzo abe to declare a state of emergency in the country if needed. similarly, in singapore the straits times also focuses on the coronavirus. singapore has ramped up measures to protect older citizens from the virus. government—run social acitivities will be stopped for 1h days.

nearly 300,000 people will be affected from that. the front page of the international edition of the financial times has a story about how vladimir putin has backed a proposal to reset his term limits. if this change to the constitution goes ahead, it could allow the russian president to stay in office until at least 2036. that brings you up—to—date with some of the papers. let's turn to us politics, becausejoe biden and bernie sanders, the leading candidates for the democratic party's race to find a candidate have had cancellations because of the coronavirus. let's crossover to speak to our north america correspondent, peter bowes who joins us now. we got them early projections from mississippi, peter, what do we know about

who is potentially the winner there? yes, it looks like it is going joe biden's way. joe biden is projected by cbs news, the bbc‘s partner here in the united states to have one and also in missouri. calls have closed in those two states as they have in north dakota, it is too early to decide who is in the lead in north dakota, but as i was mississippi is concerned, one of those key states, joe biden had been expected to do well. there is a majority african—american population and that is a demographicjoe biden traditionally does well in. so it looks like at this early stage, there are three more states to go, the big one of course is missed again, which will be announced in the next hour or will be announced in the next hourorso, or will be announced in the next hour or so, or the polls will close, and we will get some projections. 125 delegates in michigan and that is the one on a knife edge. four years ago, when bernie sanders was competing against hillary

clinton, he managed to cleanse that state only for donald trump two, as they say, flip the state, a win for the republicans, against the democratics when it came to the general election. and joe biden had a bit of a run earlier on? he had a run in with a man in a car factory. he had a run in with a man in a carfactory. he he had a run in with a man in a car factory. he was campaigning in michigan and he was asked about his views on the second amendment, the right to bear arms. this particular man seem to suggest to joe arms. this particular man seem to suggest tojoe biden that he was going to curtail american's rights to own a gun. joe biden didn't like what he heard. in fa ct, didn't like what he heard. in fact, he's worried this man and they got into quite heated debate about it. the republicans have picked up on this and are using it as an example of joe this and are using it as an example ofjoe biden not being able to keep his cool in a difficult situation. and we

have had big rallies cancelled because of the fear of coronavirus. it just because of the fear of coronavirus. itjust goes to show how concerned people are. yeah. everyone around this country, there is a lot of concern and bothjoe biden and bernie sanders cancelling rallies in cleveland, ohio, and the ohio primary is in exactly seven days' time. they have decided to heed the warnings that they should avoid large gatherings. it's interesting, we haven't heard similar pledges yet from the trump — pens campaign that they would pull back on the extremely large rallies that donald trump was known for —— pence. large rallies that donald trump was known for -- pence. yes, he was known for -- pence. yes, he was telling americans to stay calm. when it comes to super tuesday, when can we expect some more projections. well, we may get a projection on michigan in the next hour. the polls will be closing in that state and that is the one that

the most focus is on tonight. it could take a little time, of course, if it is to be a close result. that is the one a lot of political pundits are looking closely. if joe of political pundits are looking closely. ifjoe biden manages to win it, as he has a couple of other states, it will project in pretty fast towards finish line. we will be back with you, i am sure, peter bowes, our north america correspondent. now, as we've been reporting earlier, official figures been reporting earlier, officialfigures in china appeared to show the coronavirus crisis has perhaps stabilised for the time being there. there are signs more people are heading back to their workplaces. however, questions remain aboutjust how far asia's economic giant really is from resuming anything like normal business activity. 0ur china correspondence stephen mcdonell reports from beijing.

they are giving us these huts to put on, which ijust go like that and these gloves. and hand sanitiser and the like, this is after all, a food processing place. —— giving us these hats.

well, just as he was starting to tell us about the potential of it coming in from another country, going to current income officials told us to stop talking. well, thanks to stephen mcdonell there. i am well, thanks to stephen mcdonell there. iam kasia madera in london. and i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. the coronavirus has hit social markets does not financial markets, it could be a —— financial markets, we speak to jim rogers, perhaps it could be a good time to invest? don't

forget the next edition of newsday is coming up, thanks for watching. goodbye for now, though. hello. 0n hello. on tuesday we had a temperature of 16.5 degrees at kew gardens and cambridge are making it the warmest day of the year so far. for some southern parts of the uk, the air originated all the way from the azores, hence that bit of warmth. further north, it is cooler and the cool air will wind out in the next few days. these shower clusters are heading into the north—west of the uk. this band of cloud, all that's left of the earlier rain bringing some patchy rain and drizzle southwards into the english channel but keeping temperatures across southern england and wales. lots of showers backing into scotland and northern ireland and here we will have showers along the cells of rain on wednesday. some heavy bursts of rain and snow of the hills of scotland. some of those hours will be

blown into northern england and wales. towards the south—east of the uk, they get away with a dry day. it will be quite blustery out there, mind you, especially in those heavy showers and across the north—west of scotland, gusts of 50, maybe 60 miles an hour. here the air is cooler but there is still warmth to be found across eastern parts of england, temperatures not far of what we saw on tuesday, 14— 15 degrees. but it will get colder, i think, 15 degrees. but it will get colder, ithink, later 15 degrees. but it will get colder, i think, later in the week. this weather front is taking winter weather into england and wales. it's behind that the area gets quite a bit colder and we see the snow level lowering. some icy conditions here as there could be in northern ireland as well. but the snow levels will rise, i think, on thursday. we'll just keep winter weather piling into scotland and northern ireland, the wind strengthening as well and will blow some rain into the north—west of england. if you passing showers across southern parts of england and

wales they get away with a dry day in the midlands. temperatures back to near where they should be for this time of year as they cooler air arrives. that area of low pressure gives winter weather going across the northern half of the uk during thursday evening, that pushes away and we get a ridge of high pressure in time for friday morning. it's a chilly start, yes, the winds will have is than most places will start dry and sunny. it won't be too long before the cloud bubbles up and spread throughout the day. and those temperatures are still quite healthy for this time of year, 8— 12 degrees. that rain will push its way eastwards on friday night, we will see more rain arriving in the north—west of the uk on saturday. that then this way into england and wales and with our followers into the north—west on sunday with some sunshine and blustery showers.

hello, and welcome to new —— to bbc news. i'm kasia madera. italy is under lockdown in a battle to contain the biggest outbreak of coronavirus in europe. across the country, people have been ordered not to travel, other than for work and emergencies. employees are being urged to work from home or take annual leave, all sporting events have been suspended, and schools and universities are shut until the third of april. meanwhile, in the united states, a suburb near new york, new rachelle, has seen one of the worst outbreaks of the virus in the worst outbreaks of the virus in the us. a containment zone has been set up. and doing well online is news that billy eyelash‘s song bad guy has been named as the bestselling digital single of 2019. —— billie eilish's. bestselling digital single of 2019. —— billie eilish‘s. this on top the charts in more than 15 countries. congratulations to billie. that's all from me.

well, now,