welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. our top stories: 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 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 pushes global stock markets into spectacular falls. asian markets are all heading down, the nikkei's already lost 10%. the australian grand prix is cancelled just hours before the first practice session — the latest sporting fixture to fall prey to the pandemic. a judge orders the immediate release from prison of the former us 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. dr anthony fauci was answering questions at a congressional hearing. he had a very different view from mr trump on how easily people in the us can get tested. the way people in other countries are doing it, the system is not geared to what we need right now. what you are asking for. it is a failing. that's admitted. the fa ct failing. that's admitted. the fact is, the way the system was set up is that the public

health component that doctor redfield was talking about was a system where you put it out there in the public and a physician asks for it and we get it. the idea of anybody 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. however president trump 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. the key is you need separation. speaking about the crisis 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 do we have to do today? what do we have to do tomorrow? plan this emergency health management system. more testing, reduce the density, have the hospitals ready, that's what we have to do. let's focus on what we have to do and let's keep the anxiety to a realistic level. 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 looking like yet another brutal day here in asian markets. japan's nikkei is on a lunch break that they are down 8% they were down by as much as 10% earlier in the day but across the region from australia, new zealand, south korea, hong kong, they are well

and truly in the red. in fact it is interesting to point out that the chinese market, the mainland chinese market, there falls a slightly less compared to the rest of the region, partly because the situation there seems to be stabilising. but for the rest of the asian markets they are sharply in the red wallowing that sell—off we saw on wall street with the dell losing more than 2000 points and they are having the worst day since that market crash of 1987. we have been comparing a lot with the global financial crisis of 2009 but i was just talking earlier to a gas about how back then we did not have a virus out ignore any of the travellers restrictions in place and that has been hitting airline shares a lot and that is why we are seeing yet another panic sell—off across the world. let's get some of the day's other news. the brazilian president, jair bolsonaro, has said that he's been tested for

coronavirus and is waiting for the results. mr bolsonaro wore a surgical mask as he appeared in an online broadcast alongside his doctor. he also urged his supporters to cancel mass demonstrations against congress, planned for sunday, because of the pandemic. sophie gregoire trudeau — the wife of canada's prime ministerjustin trudeau — has tested positive for the virus. a spokesman said the prime minister is in good health with no symptoms. the two will stay in self—isolation for 1h days. tom hanks has published a picture of himself and his wife who are suffering from covid—19. he said they were taking one day at a time. they are in self isolation in australia where tom had been shooting a movie. sporting events a re shooting a movie. sporting events are being badly hit by the pandemic. the nba has suspended the season since further notice. after a utahjazz player, rudy gobert, tested positive

for the virus. earlier during a post practice interview, the 7'1 frenchman had touched all the tape recorders placed before him, unaware that he was carrying the virus. joining me now here's nick komiser. he's a basketball reporter at the athletic in denver who covers the nba. how significant is this? someone was saying the people did not understand it in the us until they saw that tom hanks had the virus and the nba did this. i think when you start talking about sports in america this is a huge time of the year. the ncaa, march madness isa year. the ncaa, march madness is a billion—dollar event and when that was cancelled along with the nba season i think it started to register for many americans that this is a real issue and it is not going away. something to take seriously and these organisations with so much money to lose but they have realised it is heading home for them with their players testing positive for coronavirus that helped it hit home in america. it looks amazing now to see that player touching the mics and the recorders in front of him. what

are the plan —— players and fa ns are the plan —— players and fans making of this? today rudy apologised for that behaviour. apologised that he was putting himself in a position where he could have threatened other people. he said he did not realise he was infected at the time but i think that speaks to how un— seriously people were taking the coronavirus in this country and he hopes now to be an example to people. to say listen, we need to take this seriously. if this can happen to me, and nba player, it could happen to anyone. i think he is 110w happen to anyone. i think he is now trying to use himself as an example to say i made a mistake, take this more seriously than i did. what does it mean to lose the rest of the season it mean to lose the rest of the season like this? it means a lot of money now. the commissioner of the nba came on television —— television tonight and wrote a letter saying the suspension will last

at least 30 days. whether the nba resumes its season where it left off or whether it goes straight to play—offs or whether it cancels the season altogether, all those things are up in the air. the nba hopes he can return to work in a month or six weeks but that much is very still unclear and he knows that. the priority now is for the players, that they wa nt to is for the players, that they want to get more testing for players in the nba and in america there are many people who do not have adequate testing in many states and counties and so that is no different for nba players right 110w different for nba players right now who would like to be tested and know if they came into contact with the virus while playing basketball as well. thank you so much for your time. here in the uk, the arsenal football clu b here in the uk, the arsenal football club says there had coaches tested positive. their game against brighton on saturday has been postponed in the english premier league will hold an emergency meeting on friday to discuss future

fixtures. the french football federation has matches until further notice. ajudge in the us has ordered the former intelligence analyst, chelsea manning, be released immediately from prison. she's been detained since last may, after she refused to appear at an inquiry into the wikileaks website. according to her lawyers she's recovering in hospital from an attempt to take her own life. we can speak now to naomi lachance, a journalist who's followed the chelsea manning story closely from portland, maine. can you bring us up—to—date? what does it mean that she has been released and is it a surprise? in november the un special rapporteur on torture said that her detention amounted to torture and i think that she was incarcerated for seven that she was incarcerated for seve n years that she was incarcerated for

seven years under the 0bama administration and then she was let out and now she has been in prison again. i think it is a positive development that she has been released and we have seen s0 has been released and we have seen so much relentless positivity and optimism from her. she still owes a quarter ofa her. she still owes a quarter of a million of dollars in fines to the state so i think she was absolutely an american hero. what were conditions like for her in detention? under the 0bama administration she was in solitary confinement and u nfortu nately solitary confinement and unfortunately she ended up in hospital yesterday so i think that the toll it has taken on her mental health is a tragedy andi her mental health is a tragedy and ijust her mental health is a tragedy and i just wish the her mental health is a tragedy and ijust wish the best her mental health is a tragedy and i just wish the best to her mental health is a tragedy and ijust wish the best to her and ijust wish the best to her andi and ijust wish the best to her and i think something that is important to emphasise is that

her 2010 disclosures, which we re her 2010 disclosures, which were s0 her 2010 disclosures, which were so brave, showed unarmed civilians in iraq and afghanistan being killed so it is important to remember what she stood for for so long and continue to pay attention to that. what do you think this business says to other potential whistleblowers? definitely seeing a suppression of we shall blowers under both the 0bama and trump administrations but they also have a huge amount of people standing in solidarity with them who are grateful for people who will stand up and say what is wrong and fight for a better world. thank you for talking to us. thanks to you for being with us. stay with us if you can, much more to come including this. one year on, new zealand remembers the

victims of the country's 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 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 global stock markets into spectacular falls. injapan the nikkei has already lost 10%. 0rganisers have cancelled the grand prix in australia this weekend. the decision was made hours before the purr that make first practice session was due to start. 0n first practice session was due to start. on thursday, lewis hamilton said he was stunned that the race was still supposed to go ahead. a raft of sporting events around the world have been counselled or

postponed. the latest, the grand prix. let's speak to jenna live from melbourne. the organisers have not covered themselves in glory on this one, have they? it has been difficult for the organisers. they have not covered themselves in glory, that is fairto themselves in glory, that is fair to say. they had a positive result for coronavirus and that put the writing on the wall. there was no response from formula 1, we stayed up all night waiting for it and then finally the teams and drivers said enough is enough and they forced the hand of f1 to make a statement and cancel the race. it has been a strange night and as you can tell, i am ina taxi night and as you can tell, i am in a taxi at the moment in melbourne just plotting an extended route. it does look like you are driving but i assume you are not. no. i have assume you are not. no. i have a nice man driving me. we will stop for a second. what does it say to you about the way the

sport has dealt with this?” think we are in unprecedented territory. no—one has gone through this before and the world as a whole is struggling to cope and i think sport had to cope and i think sport had to make a decision on what they we re to make a decision on what they were going to do and you are talking about a lot of rights holders, commercialagreements, there is all sorts of financial and political things come into play so that is why it was such a difficult decision to be made. it is notjust melbourne you would think. absolutely. we are due in bahrain next weekend and then a few weeks after that it is hard to see where the seasonis it is hard to see where the season is going to head. thank you so much for your time, jenny. hundreds of people in new zealand have attended a prayer meeting ahead of the first anniversary of the christchurch mosque shootings. 51 people were killed when a gunman opened fire

at the al noor and linwood mosques, during friday prayers. 0ur correspondent danny vincent has been speaking to some of the survivors of the attack. many survivors of the pain will never go away. on his ninth operation, he fears he will never recover. this is the bowler and trickier. waim was with his daughter when gunmen stormed the mosque during friday prayers. he left 51 dead and injured dozens more in the country was my first major terror attack. wasim was left ina coma terror attack. wasim was left in a coma and it was feared his daughter would suffer permanent brain damage. he made my daughter suffer a lot. and she is still suffering. she can't walk properly, she can't see. i'm not going to play the heroism and telling my forgive him, no, i'm not. despite wasseim's anger, the emphasis

here since the shooting has been a nation coming together, led by the prime minister. this place of worship came to symbolise a nation in mourning stop the tragedy that rained down on this mostly immigrant community gave rise to a new sense of unity but many months on, the people here say that unity has now become very fragile. the bbc has been told the mosque has been victim to a number of islamic phobic incidents since the attack. xenophobic hate mail and trust passes. this footage was ca ptu red passes. this footage was captured by the mosque's security cameras after friday prayers. they come and they have either the sign of the white power or other stuff that they do something suspicious. they sent messages, letters,

without, they put this in the mailbox maybe. but he insists the community is keen to move on. we feel the pain altogether, muslim and non— muslim, in this country but we are working closely with each other, sending the message to their enemies of peace, that we will never give up. wasseim and his family are beginning to rebuild their lives. i'm walking my daughter out. but he says it will take more than this rhetoric of good will for survivors like him to believe this could never happen again. and thanks for all the prayers. danny vincent, bbc news, christchurch. a little earlier new zealands's prime minister, jacinda ardern, told reporters that she thought that 12 months on the country had changed. a year on, i believe new zealand and its people

have fundamentally changed. i can't see how you could have an event like these and not but the challenge for us will be in ensuring that in our everyday actions and every opportunity where we see bullying, harassment, racism, discrimination, calling it out as a nation, that is when we will show that we each individually have a role to play in making sure new zealand has fundamentally changed for the better. and that is what we must do. 0ur correspondent shaimaa khalil has the latest from christchurch. 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 now 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 have lost loved ones to be here today and remember what happened that day. more now on coronavirus — one of the most important as we've been hearing the coronavirus has prompted new york authorities to ban all gatherings of more than five hundred people. the announcement has forced the closure of broadway shows —— the backbone of us theatre. thirty one plays and musicals including hamilton and the lion king have been cancelled. tourists expressed their disappointment: i think it is a little bit extreme. and i hope all the staff and cast and crew are all paid during this time where they are forced to be off.

i think it's not as bad as they say but i think that you need to stop it somehow. i think a little bit too fast to cut off. announced in the morning and now we stop shows! give us a couple of days or a week to implement these policies. it is too abrupt. one of the most important things we can all do to protect ourselves 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 like this guide to what symptoms to look out for and what you can do to protect yourself. stocks are plunging, the neco was down 10%. falls and other asian markets. the united states and europe saw some of the biggest ever single day losses. portugal and belgium have become the latest european countries to close schools. france announced similar m essa 9 es france announced similar messages earlier. 60 have died. the brazilian president says he has been tested and is awaiting the results and in canada, it's been confirmed the wife of prime ministerjustin trudeau has tested positive. justin trudeau is not positive but both the couple are self isolating for 1h days. sports events a re isolating for 1h days. sports events are disrupted. the english premier league will

hold an emergency meeting on friday as arsenal's head coach has tested positive. inks are watching. hello there. however continues in a rather u nsettled however continues in a rather unsettled mood. we had big towers yesterday with cumulonimbus clouds spotted in the skyline over the wolverhampton area and a few more showers coming our way over the next few hours as well, thanks to an area of low pressure working across scotla nd pressure working across scotland and out into the north sea and that's not the last of the lows, no, we've got another one coming in late on friday and another one working just in time for the weekend. it stays pretty unsettled. if you are out and about the next few hours, you may well encounter showers, particularly some across northern areas. showers are falling snow across hills. it's also quite cold and their

icy stretches we start friday morning. 0therwise icy stretches we start friday morning. otherwise the breeze keeping the frosted bay for many of us. honoured to friday, cold northerly winds will drag showers down the north sea. they can be quite frequent in late in the day, we will see rain moving to wales in south—west england is the next low pressure approaches however in between these areas light wins, sunny spells but the winds moving across wales, will kind of bash through the north sea and it will shovel a line of moisture to create these showers which will line up more or less from merseyside in the midlands to the greater london area and along that zone, quite cloudy for a time. quite a range highs between five and 11 degrees. rain coming to overnight and more rain working in in time the weekend with a slow—moving weather front pushing eastwards across the country. this weekend best sums up country. this weekend best sums up the forecast and it's going to be quite windy as well. saturday's forecast, cloud and

few spots of rain across england and wales, a damn start to the day and scott. rain here eases off retirement it's because the weather system will swamp itand because the weather system will swamp it and bring more wet weather across northern ireland into western scotland by the end of the day and turning damp across the hills of northern england and wales and across the hills of northern england and wales, rain could be quite heavy and slow—moving for saturday night, still around on sunday. perhaps 50 millimetres or slow, bringing localised flooding. the rain moves into east anglia and south—east england. at some further showers being driven in on a brisk north—westerly wind. that's your weather.

this is bbc news. the headlines: as cases increase around the world, the system of testing for coronavirus in the unites states has been described as inadequate by the leading american public health official, dr fauci. that's in sharp contrast with president trump's assertions that the country has a tremendous testing set up, and that anyone who wants a test gets a test. the outbreak has pushed global stock markets into spectacular falls. it was the worst day on wall street since 1987, and japan's nikkei plunged more than 10%. the hang seng in hong kong opened 7% down. ajudge has ordered the immediate release from prison of the former intelligence analyst chelsea manning. she has been detained since last may after she refused to appear

at an inquiry into the wikileaks. according to her lawyers, she is recovering in hospital from a suicide attempt. now on bbc news, panorama. tonight on panorama: disability discrimination at the heart of the department for work and pensions. the dwp managers who have done this to me have ruined my health, ruined my career, i won't be able to work again. the department meant to help disabled people into work. he was really nasty to me, and i went back to my desk and cried for about half—an—hour. has lost more disability discrimination tribunal is than any other employer in britain. there is a fear amongst disabled people and the dwp — there's no two ways bout it. and it's had to pay out almost £1 million of public money to its own disabled employees.