this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm james reynolds. our top stories: president trump confirms funding for three states worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic — but the senate fails to back a $1 trillion stimulus plan for the us economy. olympics organisers say they may delay this years tokyo games — setting a four week deadline for a decision. spain bars most foreigners from entry for the next month, as restrictions tighten even further across europe. stay apart or face tougher measures — britain's warned a lockdown is looming if social distancing advice isn't taken seriously.

donald trump has described the covid—19 epidemic as a "great national trial" for the us. the president has announced additional emergency medical help for new york, washington and california but the us congress has failed so far to agree an economic stimulus package. negotiations are continuing on a deal worth at least a trillion dollar designed to help american workers and companies affected by the global pandemic. our north america correspondent peter bowes reports. the worst is yet to come. a blunt warning from the mayor of new york city which is now the epicentre of the outbreak in the us with a third of the cases. medical supplies are running out. respirators, masks and protective gowns are all badly needed in hospitals around the country. if the president doesn't act, people will die who could have lived otherwise. citizens, folks who

are members of families, and we can't get action from the president of the united states. president of the united states. president trump has responded declaring a major disaster in new york state and washington state, releasing money needed for urgent supplies. a navy ship is being sent to la to provide additional support. it will have 1000 beds and become the city's biggest hospital. with equipment in short supply, the white house has hit out at people who are profiteering from the crisis, selling some items with an inflated pricetag. if you have any large quantities of material that this country needs right now, get them to market or get them to us, we will pay you a fair price but if you don't do that, we're going to come for you and make sure that doesn't happen in this country. as americans start another uncertain week, many with no job go to, the start another uncertain week, many with nojob go to, the us congress is struggling to agree ona congress is struggling to agree on a stimulus package to help

individuals and businesses affected by the global pandemic. the sticking point between republicans and democrats in the senate appears to be the emphasis given to corporate america over the needs of the country's workers. negotiations are still going on. there is great unhappiness with how they are trying to advance the proposal that will be great for giant corporations and leave everyone else behind. we're not to create a slush fund for donald trump and his family ora fund for donald trump and his family or a slush fund for the treasury department to be able to hand out to their friends, we are here to help workers, we are here to help hospitals. luna our goal is to get relief to americans as quickly as possible so that families are —— families can get by and small businesses can keep workers on the payroll. this will help our economy and you can see our economy skyrocket. donald trump thought that victory, as he put it, would happen much sooner than originally expected.

pressure is growing on the international olympic committee to postpone this summer's games. canada has said it won't be sending a team, whilst the australian olympic committee have said the games cannot be held injuly. the decision by the two countries came as prime minister shinzo abe admitted the games may have to be postponed because of the pandemic. 0ur correspondent in tokyo rupert wingfield hayes told me canada's move is a potential game—changer. i think it's really interesting that canada has now come out and explicitly said it will not send a team to the tokyo 0lympics and paralympics this year. that, as far as i'm aware, is the first country to do that. the australians, as you said, have followed saying it can't happen. this could start a chain reaction and prime minister abe this morning in parliament said

a postponement was under consideration if the games can't be held safely and that he'd been discussing that with the ioc over the weekend. he said, no decision will be made for four weeks from now and the governor of tokyo has come out and said the same thing — four weeks unitl a decision is made. i think the action by canada and australia show that four weeks is too long and that there is possibly now going to be a chain reaction of countries following canada. and this may be forced onjapan and the ioc much more quickly than they think. it's strange, almost every other major sporting event this summer, including the euro football tournament, has been cancelled immediately without any discussion. some might criticise tokyo for even having a discussion or even criticize the ioc for notjust cancelling or postponing immediately. that's true and actually, opinion polls here injapan have shown an overwhelming majority of people in the last couple of weeks have said a postponement is the obvious thing to do.

you know, the olympics is the biggest sporting festival in the world by a long, long way — many, many thousands of athletes coming. japan has spent $30 billion building a new national stadium, roads, new event places all over tokyo and elsewhere. so it is a massive commitment by a city and a country to host the games. clearly the big payoff for any country is then, holding the games, getting the sponsorship, getting the visitors, getting the ticket sales — if that doesn't happen, they are in for a massive loss — of prestige and tourism and so on. so they are very reluctant to do so. i think what we're seeing now is a big shift in rhetoric from the ioc, from the japanese government. i don't want to make predictions, but it feels like there is a certain inevitability to this now. in the discussions you're hearing injapan or other countries, is there consensus, should it be 2021, should there be no date put on it at the moment? it looks like the most likely postponement date will be a year, sojuly 2021. that has problems. it is not going to be easy.

there are other sporting events being held next summer, that it will clash with. some of the stadiums have been booked for events next year. the big one is the olympic village has been sold, people will expect to be moving into their flats next year. but where are the athletes then going to stay if they come to the 2021 olympics? so there are lots and lots of issues but i think it would be preferred that it's a year and not two years because in 2022, there is another 0lympic games taking place in china in the winter and they don't want to be holding two olympic games in one year. the pandemic is now affecting more than 160 countries and has claimed more than 13,700 lives. italy has seen 651 new virus deaths in the last 2a hours in comparison with almost 800 on saturday. the current death toll nears 5,500. sima kotecha reports from rome. every day, it gets quieter here. now, even hotels are closing after the government ordered

all non—essential businesses to shut down, another move that turns this tourist city into something like a ghost town. hotel proprietors are anxious about what lies ahead. translation: on a financial level, let's hope the state helps us in some way. if they don't, it will definitely be very worrying. but on the other hand, she's keen to isolate. translation: we don't know who's positive with coronavirus. even we could be infecting people who come to stay with us. thousands of doctors from across italy have applied to be part of a task force working in the worst—affected areas. here in rome, a moving tribute to all those working in hospitals, trying to save lives. it says, "we stand with you". planes with extra medical supplies have arrived from russia to help hospitals here cope with the rising death toll.

in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus, in some regions, people are no longer allowed to go more than a few hundred metres from their homes. it seems as if europe has stopped and each day, with new death figures, it feels that little bit more still. sima kotecha, bbc news, rome. the spanish government has extended its state of emerency for two weeks until the 11th of april. spain's death toll from the virus has jumped to over 1,700, with more than 28,000 cases of infection. damian grammaticas reports. streets drained of life, but out of sight, spain's fight against the virus is ceaseless. here, in a hotel, the first of many that are being requisitioned to serve as an overflow for ha rd—pressed hospitals, it's how spain is trying to contain the infection.

so the prime minister has been forced to govern by teleconference. he announced the current state of emergency will last until mid april. restrictions on daily life getting even tighter. and this is what we found when we ventured beyond madrid. empty motorways. miles and miles of them. with virtually no traffic. this is one of spain's main north—south highways. the only things moving? trucks. filled with food. so apart from the bare essentials to keep this country functioning, spain really has come to a standstill. but despite these measures, there is no sign that the spread of the virus is being brought under control. the shutdown has left this entire country eerily emptied, public places abandoned. and this is the ancient city of cordoba, usually filled with tourists. not now. nothing. if the virus is a natural disaster, it is one that has left everything intact.

just the people have vanished from view. manuela's family have run their gift shop here for 100 years. translation: it is like a nightmare. my main worry is nobody in my family gets the virus. back in madrid, lorry—loads of oxygen for a new 1,000—bed treatment centre the army is building in the city's convention centre, as all of spain's efforts are now directed at trying to save lives. damian grammaticas, bbc news, madrid. in germany, chancellor angela merkel has announced a ban on gatherings of more than two people in public outside work.

announcing the new restrictions, she made an emotional appeal to citizens to stick to the rules. translation: i'm very moved by how many people are adhering to these social distancing rules. it is how we show care for the older people and people with underlying health issues for whom this virus is most dangerous. in short, this is how we save lives. please all go along with this. do the right thing for our country, show reason and empathy. the indian capital, delhi, has gone into into official lockdown as authorities try to contain the spread of the virus.the move, which will also impact the city's neighbouring states, will last until at least the end of march. offices and schools have closed their doors. public transport has also shut. more than 300 people have so far tested positive for covid—19 across india, seven people have died. hundreds of millions of indians took part in a voluntary curfew as part of a nationwide exercise at the weekend. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: and new ways of worship and religious gathering, including

the livestreamed barmitzvah. very good. applause i'm so proud of both of you. let there be no more war or bloodshed between arabs and israelis. with great regret, the committee have decided that south africa should be excluded from the 1970 competition. chants

streaking across the sky, the white— hot wreckage from mir drew gasps from onlookers on fiji. onlooker: wow! this is bbc world news. our top story this hour: president trump announces funding for thousands more hospital beds for three states worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic. here in the uk, the prime minister urged the public again to follow the rules for social distancing and help slow the spread of coronavirus. borisjohnson said if this didn't happen, further measures would be brought in. the number of people who have died from the virus in the uk has risen to 281, with 5,683 confirmed cases. our health editor hugh pym has more. outside a fish and chip shop in scarborough today, people enjoying the sun, the local streets busy. it's fair to say social

distancing has been variable. this was richmond park in south—west london and in recent days there may well have been confusion over the government's messages on what was and wasn't acceptable in the new world of limiting social contact. at his daily press conference, the prime ministerfirst had thanks for nhs staff and those who had followed official advice to restrict their leisure plans, cancelling mother's day visits for example, or sacrificing business by closing pubs, restaurants and gyms. but he hinted there could yet be more measures to come. we will keep the implementation of these measures under constant review and, yes, of course, we will bring forward further measures if we think that is necessary. so, always remember in following this advice, and i know how difficult it is, but always remember that each and every one of us, you, you are doing your bit in following this advice.

with early morning trains like this full as some heading into work and aisles at supermarkets packed with shoppers and trolleys, the message isn't always getting through, so doctors and public health experts were out on the streets of bradford today, stressing the guidance to people on measures to limit the spread of the virus. for almost all of us there are no new rules which say we should stay at home. it's ok to go for a walk or have a run, especially on a day like this, but there are clear, new guidelines on what we should and shouldn't be doing if we do go out. the advice to the general public is to stay at least two metres apart, to avoid all gatherings, for example groups of friends, and to avoid all non—essential travel. the over 70s and those with an underlying condition should be extra careful, for example people with asthma

and diabetes, or women who are pregnant. they are advised to significantly limit face—to—face interaction, including friends and family. there is different guidance for up to 1.5 million people with serious health conditions, including cystic fibrosis, specific cancers and those needing dialysis. they have been told not to go out for 12 weeks. we will be setting out to them how we are going to help them, so they might be staying at home for a long time, but they shouldn't feel alone. we are going to do this in a number of ways. medicines are going to be delivered through community pharmacists and food and supplies are going to be delivered through local councils, with the support of supermarkets and the armed forces. as for the front line of the nhs, ministers say specialist protective equipment has been dispatched to doctors and nurses who could be treating patients with coronavirus. but some say it hasn't yet arrived. we have been hearing over the last few days and weeks from doctors across the country who are really particularly worried about the lack of personal protective equipment that they have been seeing on the front—line.

we have had doctors tell us that they feel like lambs to the slaughter, that they feel like cannon fodder. today doctors and other members of the respiratory team in belfast put out their own message on social media. we are facing our greatest challenge and we are frightened. help us. please stay at home. doctors and nurses have died. we need to stay healthy so we can help you. hugh pym, bbc news. let's get more now on the situation in the united states — where there are growing concerns about the rapid spread of the outbreak. cases in new york city now acount for 5% of all cases around the world. i asked professor paeter hotez from the baylor college of medicine's national school of tropical medicine in houston, texas, just how concerning the situation is in the big apple. it looks like you knock city,

who would have dreamt of in a month or two ago, would become one of the epicentres globally for this epidemic. we are hearing stories of 500 or more patients in the major hospitals like colombia and cornell, at least 2000 hospitalised so far and around 500 in intensive ca re and around 500 in intensive care units. and that is just the beginning, so it is going to continue to go up and this is the big question, will all of the new york hospitals be able to handle all of this surge and at the same time, we are seeing healthcare workers get sick and infected and sick and either out of the workforce or in some cases being hospitalised themselves. the tragedy of course is we knew this was coming and yet there was not enough time to stop it. we've seen governor andrew cuomo in recent days speaking

often, is new york taking the right steps? they are doing the best they can. we have all heard the term now, social distancing, where we are asking individuals to stay indoors, not everyone is heeding the advice, unfortunately. so, the numbers will continue to climb and then the question is if the hospitals can't handle it, what's next? so there's lots of discussions about bringing in the united states military and building makeshift hospitals in convention centres. we don't know where this is going to top off. as healthcare workers continue to get sick, and the demoralisation of colleagues in icus, this is what we hoped to avoid. it looks a lot like italy in many respects right here in new york city. what might america learn from other countries, in particular korea,

japan and singapore, which seemed have success with contact tracing and keeping the death rate low? we knew what we had to do but as a nation we can get organised enough to do it. we couldn't organise ourselves to do all of the diagnostic testing are needed to be done, we did not ramp up as quickly as we needed. we didn't do the social distancing early enough, so we are missing opportunities. and now we're trying to rely building new technologies such as convalescent serum antibodies or prophylactic drugs. our lab has developed a vaccine and we have done clinical trials, but vaccine clinical testing is a slow process, it is at least a year or 18 months away at best. so we're to do the hardest thing you can do, which is to accelerate new technologies in parallel with fighting the epidemic. we don't have a lot of precedent for that, we did a

bit with ebola, but i think this going to be the stronger both our two nations phase, the united states and england, can we accelerate new and meaningful technologies fast enough to make a difference, or are we talking about if this virus comes back the next time around? professor paeter hotez and his car behind him. for many of us, aspects of daily life have changed in ways we might not have anticipated even a couple of weeks ago. mother's day get—togethers didn't happen and church services didn't take place. but faith communities and many others are finding ways to come together, as phillip norton reports. on this mothering sunday, when many are far from family, friends or loved ones... church services like never before, on facebook, youtube, and this, broadcast on local radio stations. the temptation is to pull up the drawbridge and just look after ourselves. that's the kind of thing that leads to panic buying, to growing fear and to

spiritual and emotional, as well as physical, isolation. all faiths finding new ways to celebrate and support. 13—year—old yuval‘s bar mitzvah, broadcast to his family. glory be to you, o allah, none equals you in knowledge... here in east london, this was friday prayers. welcome to st albans cathedral. a scene repeated all across the country. we are keeping our social distancing. just weeks ago in flooded yorkshire, the church was a focal point. but there were no services for vicar eleanor robertshaw in snaith today. it almost feels like, what else can you throw at us? everybody‘s already really fatigued from dealing with the flooding and now, to move straight into this is just exhausting. but we have the advantage that community spirit was so built up then that itjust continues and that's brilliant.

there are unsold mother's day flowers, the nation told to keep away from mum. for many, this is how mother's day greetings have had to be made. happy mother's day, mum. sorry i can't be there this year. oh, that's ok, phillip. i quite understand. it's the same for everybody. and for these mothers in lockdown in a care home in prestwich, a message to theirfamilies. the point is to take each day as it comes, carry on regardless, be happy. it's a weekend when we have distanced ourselves from the ones we love, but it's seen people come together in new ways. philip norton, bbc news. just to update you on some of the latest data about the pandemic, we're getting the word cambodia has two new cases, we just want to stay in asia because thailand has 122 new cases in south korea, which

has done massive testing, massive contact tracing in particular, has a 64 new cases, but significantly that is the 12th day in a row when new infections have been fewer than 100, indicating that so far that policy of contact tracing has been working. now, just to remind you where we stand in the united states, at present, donald trump has described the covid—19 pandemic as a great national trail and he has put together funds for the three greatest hotspots, washington, california and new york, but the senate is debating whether to pass a rescue package was that the other main story we're covering is the tokyo olympic games. by minister shinzo abe suggested the country may be willing to postpone the games. the decision may be taken out of his hands because australia has said the games should not be held in july has said the games should not be held injuly and now canada has said it will not be sending a team to the games if they are held as scheduled injuly. so thatis held as scheduled injuly. so that is a fast moving story and we will get more on that from

tokyo. you can reach me on twitter, i'm @jamesbbcnews. please do stay with us. hello there. for this upcoming week, it looks like much of the country will be fine and settled with some sunshine thanks to high pressure over the baltic states. but we will have this weather front affecting the north—west corner of the country, that will bring strong winds and some persistent, at times heavy rain to the north—west of scotland. eventually weakening and sinking southwards across the country on thursday and then introducing colder, northerly winds to all areas by the end of the week. but for much of this week it will be dry thanks to that area of high pressure, certainly across england and wales where we will have that rain in the north—west. the night will continue to be chilly as well. now, as we start monday it is going to be a cold one thanks to clear skies and light winds. a widespread frost away

from the north—west where we will see more of a breeze and some cloud. but that frost could be quite hard in a few places and we could even see a little bit of mist and fog, too, as the winds will be lighter. but it does mean it's a chilly start to this morning, but there should be plenty of sunshine, certainly for england and wales. for the north—west of scotland, this weather front bringing outbreaks of rain to the northern western isles and thicker clouds tending to push into scotland and northern ireland through the day. it will be windy here as well with local gales, a breezier day further south although you have all that sunshine, which will tend to be a little bit hazy at times — it shouldn't feel too bad. with temperatures reaching 12 or 13 degrees, but always cooler around some southern and eastern coasts. as we had the monday night, it stays cloudy, windy, outbreaks of rain across this north—west corner, really piling up across the outer hebrides and the north—west highlands. but here it won't be a cold night like it will be for south england and wales. it's a bit of a repeat performance of tuesday, england and wales largely dry, with some sunshine, albiet a little bit hazy at times. more cloud generally for scotland and northern ireland and it stays windy with rain

really starting to pile up across the northern western isles in particular. we'll also import some slightly milder air up from the south and could see temperatures reaching 14—16 degrees in england and wales. the pressure pattern then for wednesday, little change, high pressure keeps things largely fine and settled for england and wales, our weather front bringing generally bringing more cloud to scotland and northern ireland, will start to weaken as it sinks south—east words, so there will be some spots of rain on it. further south, again, quite mild, those temperatures 11—14 degrees. but the milder air doesn't last. it gets squeezed out as we see a new area of high pressure build over the atlantic, that bring northerly winds right across our shores down from the arctic, so it will be settling down towards the end of the week but turning colder for all. there will be some sunshine and also wintry showers across the north of the uk on that northerly wind.

this is bbc news, the headlines: the us government is to fund thousands of hospital beds for coronavirus patients in the hot spot states of new york, california and washington. meanwhile partisan disputes in the senate have been holding up the approval of a huge stimulus bill to help an economy hit hard by the pandemic. britons have been warned to take advice on social distancing seriously or stricter measures could be imposed. prime minister borisjohnson said a lockdown like those seen in other european countries was being considered and said people ignoring advice were putting lives at risk. for the first time there's been an acknowledgement from the japanese prime minister that the tokyo olympic games may have to be postponed because of coronavirus. shinzo abe told parliament a delay might have to be considered if safety could not be guaranteed. world athletics, as well as the canadian and australian olympic committees, have said the games cannot go ahead in july.