welcome to bbc news — i'm mike embley. our top stories: as cases increase around the world, america's sytem —— system of testing for coronavirus is described as "inadequate" by one of the country's leading health officials. the way people in other countries are doing it, we are not set up for that. do i think we should be, yes. but we are not. the outbreak leads to spectacular falls on global stock markets — the worst day on wall street since 1987. the on wall street since 1987. australian grand prix is cancelled the australian grand prix is cancelled hours before the first practice section —— session. the latest sporting fixture to fall prey to the pandemic. an american judge orders the immediate release of the former army intelligence analyst, chelsea manning.

the leading official dealing with infectious diseases in the united states, anthony fauci, has described the american system for coronavirus testing as inadequate. president trump has been insisting that the set—up is "tremendous". about 11,000 tests for the disease have been carried out in the us, compared with more than 200,000 in south korea. the doctor was answering questions at a congressional hearing but had a very different view about how easily people could be tested. the system is not really geared to what we need right now — what you are asking for. that is failing. it is a failing, and let's admit it. the fact is the way the system was set up is that the public health component that dr redfield was talking

about was a system where we put it out there in the public, and a physician asks for it, and you get it. the idea of anyone getting it easily, the way people in other countries are doing it, we are not set up for that. do i think we should be? yes, but we are not. president trump has described the american testing system for returning travellers as excellent. people coming in must be tested. if they're positive and able to get through — because frankly, if they're not, we are not putting them on planes, if they show positive. but if they do come here, they have to have quarantine. it will be a strong enforcement of quarantine. new york's governor andrew cuomo announced only schools, hospitals, nursing homes and mass transit facilities would be allowed gatherings of more than 500, from friday. he also stressed the need for urgent action. what we have to

do today, what we have to do tomorrow? plan the emergency health management system. reduce the density, have hospitals ready. that is what we have to do. let's focus on what we have to do and keep the anxiety to a realistic level. in a moment we'll be speaking to a professor of biology at the university of washington, but first let's turn our attention to the markets: there've been huge falls around the world and in the past couple of hours the markets have opened again in asia. mariko 0i is in singapore — what's the latest? it is not looking good at all. it is not looking good at all. it is not looking good at all. it is yet another brutal day. asian markets are well and truly in the red. the japanese market is down by nearly 10% and that is the worst fall since the tsunami of 2011. but markets all over the region are

all in the red that follows wall street ‘s shop fall where the dowjones wall street ‘s shop fall where the dow jones lost wall street ‘s shop fall where the dowjones lost more than 2000 points, the worst single day loss since the market crash of 1987. we have been comparing a lot to what happened during the global financial crisis but i was just talking to an a nalyst i was just talking to an analyst who said the back then we did not have a virus outbreak with any of these travel restrictions or travel bands. that is starting to affect a lot of airline shares as well as the tourism sector and that is why we are seeing a series of sharp falls across the world in the share markets. let's go live now to seattle, and speak to professor carl bergstrom — professor of biology at the university of washington. thank you very much for your time. you will have heard, no doubt, two days ago the vice president said roughly 1.5 million to would be available and the president has been telling people that anyone who wa nts a telling people that anyone who wants a test gets mine. do you

recognise that picture? it is not accurate in terms of what things look like on the ground here in seattle or other places in the united states. what has gone wrong if something has gone wrong if something has gone wrong if something has gone wrong here? there were a series of problems in terms of rolling out the tests and scaling up testing here in the united states and there were problems with the original cdc test kits set out, they did not function properly. and there has been a lot of red tape. the fda granted an emergency use authorisation only to the cdc initially to produce these diagnostic tests and as of february 29 it extended not a full authorisation but a statement that they encouraged other testing companies and outlets to try to develop their own. there seems to have been a feeling about the speech from

the president 2a hours ago and then in administration's effo rts then in administration's efforts is geared toward stopping people with a virus from coming into the country and avoiding a financial question rather than dealing with community spread, that is spread amongst americans infecting each other and beefing up hospitals to deal with more cases. that is definitely what is going on. it feels like president trump is closing the door to the chicken coop after the horses left the barn. it is an ill guided effort to be focusing on external transmission of the virus of people coming in and not focusing on the community transmission that is ongoing around the country. so what do you think is to come? how bad can it get an will it be fixed? conceivably you can get very bad. it could reach a situation where we have tremendous numbers of people in the community infected with the disease and our healthcare capacity is overrun. we already

see this things like that in places and it could be like that always here the united states. we can overcome it with aggressive public health authorities and we have strong state and local authorities taking steps. schools in washington have been closed, large gatherings have been banned in seattle, the sports leagues are shutting down and people are working from home, universities are switching to online classes. people are taking many important steps towards social distancing which is what it will take to shut down transmission and prevent ourselves from getting in a situation where it runs rampant across the country. thank you so across the country. thank you so much. so useful to talk to you. let's get some of the day's other news. the us military is saying it has carried out airstrikes in iraq against a militia, backed by iran. the pentagon says the strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack near baghdad

on wednesday that killed two americans and a british soldier. the award—winning french chef and restaurateur, michel roux senior, who brought parisian—style fine dining to london in the 1960s, has died. he was 78 and had been suffering from a lung condition. he and his brother, albert, transformed the british restaurant scene — presenting exotic new dishes to diners weary of prawn cocktail, mixed grill and black forest gateau. a civil servant has alleged that the former first minister of scotland, alex salmond, started a sexual assault by telling her to get on the bed. she was giving evidence on the fourth day of his trial. he's charged with 1a sexual assaults against ten women, all of which he denies. a major report says there's been a sharp rise in the online abuse of children in the uk — with up to a50 people being arrested every month. the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse says

law enforcement agencies are struggling to keep up, and it's calling on technology companies to pre—screen material before it's uploaded. ajudge in the us has ordered the former intelligence analyst, chelsea manning, should be immediately released from prison. she's been detained since last may, after refusing to appear at an inquiry into the wikileaks website. according to her lawyers she's currently recovering in hospital after trying to take her own life. freya cole reports. friend orfoe, friend or foe, chelsea friend orfoe, chelsea manning isa friend orfoe, chelsea manning is a divisive household name in america. these pictures show her in may last year for she was sent to prison for a second time for rejecting a court subpoena. ms manning refuses to testify before a grand jury about wikilea ks, saying testify before a grand jury about wikileaks, saying the investigation is riddled in secrecy investigation is riddled in secrecy and abuse. ultimately this is an attempt to place me

backin this is an attempt to place me back in confinement. i think that the questions are the same questions that i was asked before the court martial in my seven 01’ before the court martial in my seven or eight years ago. there is nothing new. they are not asking anything new. the former us army analyst was convicted in 2013 of providing more than 700,000 classified in 2013 of providing more than 700 , 000 classified covenant files to wikileaks. she licked his now infamous video to the website founder, julian assange, exposing the us military killing civilians in a rock. president 0bama pardoned the case but since then us prosecutors have not dropped the investigation. by refusing to co—operate, her legal team say she now faces fines of almost half a million us dollars. in a statement they say she will not train her principles, even at risk of grave harm to herself. after attempting to take her own life, she is now recovering in

hospital. she was scheduled to appear in court on friday but thejudge ruled that appear in court on friday but the judge ruled that it was no longer necessary for her to testify stop the judge also said she should be released from prison, saying her detention no longer serves any purpose. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: 0ne one year 0ne yearon, new one year on, new zealand remembers the victims of the countries deadliest mass shooting. 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 bbc news, the latest headlines: as cases as cases increase as cases increase around the world, the american system of testing for coronavirus is described as inadequate by the country's leading public health official. the outbreak has pushed verbal stock markets into spectacular falls in the worst day on wall street since

1987. the coronavirus has prompted authorities in new york to ban gatherings of over 500 people, forcing the closure of broadway shows, the backbone of american theatre. 31 plays and musicals including the lion king and hamilton have been cancelled. including the lion king and hamilton have been cancelledlj think hamilton have been cancelled.” think it is a little extreme. and i hope that these staff and cast and crew are paid during this time where they are forced to be off. it is not as bad as they say i think that i think you need to stop it somehow.” think a little bit too fast to cut off. announced in the morning and now we stop shows! give usa morning and now we stop shows! give us a couple of days or a week to give us a couple of days or a weekto implement give us a couple of days or a week to implement these policies. it is too abrupt. the french president addressed the nation a few hours ago, announcing that all nurseries, schools and universities will close from monday — calling the outbreak the nation's worst public health crisis in a century.

elsewhere, the czech republic has declared a state of emergency for 30 days — it's closing its borders to travellers crossing from germany and austria. in germany, the elderly and theirfamilies have been advised to avoid public transport, to stop hugging people, and to avoid large public events. it's norway is also shutting schools and nurseries — tonight, belgium and portugal have said they're doing the same. sent me four towns in the north—east of spain have been put under quarantine in the last few hours — a first in spain where the number of cases has soared to more than 3,000. around a third of them are in the capital madrid. 84 people have now died. inside this madrid hospital are 100 covid—19 patients. spain may be just a week or so behind italy. infections accelerating by almost 1000 on yesterday. the medics on the front line,

starting to struggle. my feeling is we should be one step ahead of this crisis instead of two steps behind. people working here in this moment don't have enough protective equipment, so more health workers are facing a risk of falling ill. and falling ill too, the lady in black, kissing spain's queen last week. she's a government minister but it's now known she's infected. so the queen and spain's king, who met emmanuel macron yesterday, have also had to be tested. spain's prime minister is keeping his distance. journalists today forced to ask questions by video link from his car park. he's called for social discipline, but not shutdowns. this is one of the worst affected areas around madrid. what strikes you when you are here is how many people are out on the streets. spain's government is issuing warnings, but unlike italy it's not yet shutting down areas like this. this is an infection hotspot, but tour groups of pensioners at high risk have still been coming.

the bars and restaurants open. the people here doesn't care, in the bars, taking the beers, in the cinema. 0ne region closed, another region, open. it's not normal, so everybody, two weeks in house and we can cut the problem. some are scared, the local pharmacist is out of thermometers. as you can see, they are empty right now. and down to his last box of sanitiser. this is all you have? yeah. 0ne delivery, and the next one is coming? we don't know. we don't know when. 0utside we found these british language students who have alljust booked flights home. us two are going tomorrow. saturday. monday. because of the virus? yeah, and because they cancelled all our classes. so is spain doing too little, too late? the fear this place could, like parts of italy, could be overburdened in just a few days' time. damian grammaticas,

bbc news, madrid. 6:00pm, and this was dublin at rush hour, from the streets to quiet city parks and empty restaurants, as ireland's partial shutdown began. i'm a bit scared, because i can't go home in case i pass it onto, like, my grandmother, my grandfather, so... what does this mean for you? well, it's better to be safe. we're going to stay at home, and wait untilallthe... you've made that decision, stay at home with the children? yeah. so far, there's only one urgentjob. how manyjobs should there be? there should be at least 60 or 70 jobs on that. 70 jobs? at this time of the evening, yep. the advice here now is to work from home if you can. but, for a taxi driver like colin, that's a problem.

finance — who's going to pay the bills? because i'm self—employed. so you're losing the school run. i have a school run, which — the schools are now going to be closed for two weeks. so if this carries on, what are you going to do? can you cope with this? no, definitely not. 0utside dublin, after the schools and colleges shutdown was announced, this was the picture in one supermarket. we filmed this in another store. the queue for essentials stretched along every aisle, as a nation asks family and friends to stay apart and hunker down. a bit frightening that people were coming here to stock up on food, given the fact that it's a crisis. the newspaper's saying it's going to close soon, so ijust made some stock, to make sure that everybody was ready. businesses are going to stay open, though. well, we're not sure yet. there was concern, but also calm. the irish prime minister has

acted and moved quickly. this partial shutdown, does it give you confidence? i think it certainly gives confidence to people who have families, it gives confidence to people who are in the workforce, because it's sort of a pre—emptive strike, as opposed to waiting until it escalates. and that is the bigger worry — what comes next. ed thomas, bbc news, dublin. here in the uk, anyone with a persistent cough or high temperature is being advised to self—isolate for seven days as efforts continue to try to tackle coronavirus. the government has announced it's moving from the contain to the delay phase of its response. i got to be clear, we've got to be clear, this is the greatest public health crisis for a generation. some people compare to seasonal flu. alas, this is

not right. 0wing to seasonal flu. alas, this is not right. owing to the lack of immunity, this is easily more dangerous and is going to spread further and i must level with you, level with the british public, more families, many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time stop 0rganisers have cancelled this weekend's australian grand prix because of coronavirus. the decision was made just hours before the first practice session was due to get underway in melbourne. on thursday world champion lewis hamilton said he was stunned the race was still going ahead. as new zealand approaches the first anniversary of the country's deadliest mass shooting, prayers are being held in christchurch. 51 people were killed when a gunman opened fire at the al noor and linwood mosques, during friday prayers.

this attack of course devastated the muslim community and devastated this peaceful city of christchurch but really shocked new zealand. we've been seeing a steady stream of worshippers from the al—noor and linwood mosque to this arena behind me, we are expecting large numbers to attend friday prayers today, not just from here in christchurch. we understand from the muslim community across the country coming together, and remembering this difficult day but of course in solidarity with the rest of the people here. we've seen families, mothers, young children but again, it was on a friday during friday prayers a year ago that a gunman killed 51 people and injured dozens more. this has had a devastating effect. i've been speaking to some young people who say the remembering of it is almost as difficult as living through it because you go through these emotions. the prime minister herself has spoken about the kind of support that the government has been affording and offering the community, mainly of course on mental health

and trying to support the muslim community. she spoke a lot about standing up against racism, standing up to bullying and making sure that all of new zealand is united against, and she spoke about the steps the government has taken since that event, mainly on gun reform and the fact that after the banning of semiautomatic weapons, military grade style weapons, more than 60,000 weapons have been taken off circulation. she says there are more phases on that to come but of course, it is a very difficult time. it is going to be difficult for families who lost loved loved ones to be here today and remember what happened that day. one of the most important things we can all do to protect ourselves from the virus is to make sure we are getting accurate information and act on it. with that in mind, we have been asking our viewers here in britain what questions they have about coronavirus. we've received nearly 15 thousand on them. our health correspondent, sophie hutchinson, has been taking a look at some of the most common concerns.

my dad's got a chronic lung disease, copd, and i would like to know, how dangerous is coronavirus this for people like him? for anyone with a lung condition such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma, there is a raised risk from the coronavirus. charities are advising that people take any medication they might need with them at all time and really manage their conditions. the virus is dangerous because it attacks the tissues and airways deep inside the lungs. i'm wondering if, once i've had the illness and if i thankfully get over it, i will then be safe because i'll be immune? is that the case? well, the truth is we don't know, but it seems highly unlikely that you could get the coronavirus more than once. there have been a small number of reports from china of people

who say they've had it twice, but usually with a virus, once you've recovered, you have antibodies — and they protect you in case you come into contact with another infected person. ijust wanted to know how long the coronavirus lasted on various surfaces? if somebody infected with the virus coughs in their hand and then touches, say, this cash machine, it's possible that it could become contaminated. and that's the same for this bank card and this money. it's estimated that it takes up to 72 hours for the virus to die on a hard surface, but it's slightly quicker on something like fabric. a huge amount is still not known. the first cases of the virus emerged just three months ago. but perhaps the best advice is the simplest — wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds, cough or sneeze into a tissue. if you don't have a tissue, use your sleeve.

throw tissues in the bin, try not to touch your face and avoid close contact with people who are unwell. for most people, this coronavirus infection will be mild. but for a small proportion, it is much more serious. these are uncertain times and we don't yet have all the answers. sophie hutchinson, bbc news. lots more information available for you on our website, including this guide to what symptoms to look out for and what you can do to protect yourself. log onto bbc.com.au/news. let's tell you about a rescue with a difference a 10—year—old boy was dangled into an oil well in the southeast province of diyarbakir to rescue a puppy that was stuck there. after pulling it to safety and washing it in a nearby pond, the puppy was left looking good as new. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — i'm @bbc mike embley.

hello there. well, the weather's been quite unsettled really, often quite windy with a number of showers around. we certainly have plenty of these on thursday and this was one of those shower clouds spotted in the skies around the wolverhampton area. now, the satellite picture shows showers swirling around an area of low pressure that's just moving out to the north sea at the moment but that's not the last of the lows. we have another couple of swirls of cloud, one coming in late on friday and another one working in just in time for the weekend. now, if you're out and about for the next few hours, across northern areas, there will be further showers and at times, those will be falling as snow over the hills of scotland. elsewhere, it's going to stay quite windy. temperatures of the most part keeping above freezing but with a nip of frost

in scotland, perhaps northern england, where we could see if few icy stretches where we see those showers fall. the rest of friday morning, showers get driven down the north sea by these cold northerly winds and we could see cloud thicken and outbreaks of rain you across wales and south—west england. in these two areas, we'll see areas of sunshine that is when moves across wales combined with winds coming across the north sea, we will get this line of moisture which will generate showers, more from merseyside down through the midlands to the greater london area. it could be quite slow—moving and could turn cloudy for a time as well. we got rains on the day across wales and south—west england. the aim becomes more extensive overnight and for the weekend, slow—moving weather front pushes its way eastwards across the uk so we will see rain at times across this weekend. the rain will be followed by showers. so it is an unsettled looking weekend and often it's going to be pretty windy as well. we'll take a look at more detailed forecasts

and on saturday, a strip of cloud, the rain quite heavy in scotland, easing off later in the day but that's only because the next weather system will be racing its way in, bringing more rain across northern ireland and the return of wet weather for western scotland, north—west england and wales across the day. the rain could turn quite heavy across the hills across northern england overnight. and on into sunday as well. with some fairly large rainfall totals. given how what it's been recently, this could provide a risk of some further localised flooding. as it moves into east anglia and south—east england, it will then be followed by showers and eventually, we will start to drag in some cool air across north—west areas as well. looking beyond that, we could see some high pressure develop towards the south, so it could become drier in london but it will become rather unsettled further north.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: as cases increase around the world, the american system of testing for coronavirus has been described as "inadequate" by the country's leading public health official. dr anthony fauci's comments contrast with president trump's earlier assertion that the us had what he called "a tremendous testing set up". the outbreak has pushed global stock markets into spectacular falls — it was the worst day on wall street since 1987, and in the last couple of hours japan's nikkei index fell more than 10%, while the hang seng in hong kong opened 7% down. a in hong kong opened 7% down. judge in the us har immediate ajudge in the us has ordered the immediate release from prison of the former intelligence analyst chelsea manning who has been detained since last may. according to her lawyer she is recovering in hospitalfrom an attempt to commit suicide. now on bbc news,