>> measures to tackle the coronavirus, governments activate emergency plans to deal withth the outbreak. an inspectction surge in countrs including sosouth korea. several europeaean countries hae also announced new cases. suppoported by and its capture a a town, ratchets back offensive. former prime minister and wife appear in court on charges of embezzlement, and we will be crossing live to our correspondent standing by at the court for us.

business, european stock markets take another dive over coronavirus for years with over $2 trillion euros that wiped off global shares this week a and we will have the latt for you in our business update. ♪ anchor: our top story today, the governments worldwide are bolstering measures to tackle ththe coronavirus. this, as a number of infections outside of china surpasses those appearing inside the country for the first time. concerns are growing including south korea, iran, and italy were more than 400 cases have now been confirmed. globally, more than 80,000 people in over 40 countries have been infected. australia is one of the latest

nations to initiate emergency procedures. president trump saying that vice president mike pence is in charge of the u.s. response to the virus. >> thank you, i may leave you behind. africa, europe, >> north and south america, the coronavirus has spread to every continent except antarctica. in a rare white house press conference, trump quoted research from john hopkins university, ranking the countries best compared to deal with an epidemic. president macron: the uniteted states -- president trump: the united states is rated number one, thailand, sweden, denmark, finland. >> president trump announced that vice president mike pence is in charge of the nation's preps. the statement came shortly after the first case and south america wass reported d and a 61-year-od man was hospitalized in brazil after returning from italy.

greece also reported its first case which is confirmed over 300 infections. the growing outbreak in europe's most affected country has caused major concern, but they have decided for now not to close their borders. >> this is a frustration of concern, but we must not give in to panic. >> borders are being restricted in the middle east, however, several gulf states -- saudi arabia has suspended visas for pilgrims visiting mecca. another hotspot t south korea with anothther 1500 cases, the most infections outside of china. annual joint military drills with the u.s. have been canceled due to virus concerns. heartile, the city at the of the outbrbreak has become a ghost town. >> it is complete the isolated. this is a war. we do not know when it will end.

to keep thetruggle virus contaiained, concecern is spreading. the world health organization announced since the first time that the outbreak began, the number of new cases outside of china has overtaken those reported by beijing. meanwhile, french president macron says that they have been visiting the hospital in paris where the first french v victimf the coronavirus s died the day before. two people have died from the coronavirus so far in france. an elderly chinese tourist and a 16-year-olold french national. macron was a company by ththe country's health minister, and the announcement that coronavirus was inevitable in france. let's bring you some more on the coronavirus, gavin, a professor of global health of public policy at the univeversity in durham, north carolina.

thank you for speaking to "france 24." when it comes to other viruses, how does the coronavirus compare, should we be more worried? avin: thank you for having m me on the show, and condolences to the family of the patients in france who died. virus, a transmissible highly transmissible, and it would appear to be probablbly ls fatal than previous outbreaks, previous epidemics and pandemics. from w what we knknow, and there still many questions unanswered, it dss seem m at those that arae most at risk of dying are those who already have somome background, vulnerabilities. elderly people, those e who have hearart or lungg conditions. those are people who arare mostt risk of dying. what thedo not know

case fatality rate is, and what is likely is that if you get access to very high quality and a well-stocked, well-equipped setting with highly trainined professionals, the mortality rate, the death rate is likely to be very low indeed. ini get coronavirus here durham, north carolina, i am sitting at duke university and it has one of the finest hospitals in the country, the chances of me dying are practically 0% and maybe a tiny bit ovover. that is becacause i will get superb treatment. if i do become sick and i need to go to get intensive therapy, i know that can be provided. one very big worry i have is infections where there is poor health care, low income countries in particular, i worry

that people who do get the virus are not going to have access to high-quality care, and in many parts, health systems are very weak. we could have a catastrophe on our hands with a lot of deaths in places where there are large numbers of poor people. the poororre hit firirst and thy arare hit the worst.t. community, need to think about, what we can do to protect the poorest. backr: let's come on because you talk about there being a weaker global pandemic preparedness sysystem thahat had to the rising of people being infected. what more should we be doing to stem the spread ultimately? gavin: the first thing is, the ho has asked for ememergency funding. it has not asked herer very muc, less than $100 million, and so far, the response e has been vey weak.

we are going to have to mobilize very large sums ofof money, in e orders of billions of dollars. sum might seem like a large , like sticker shock, but we know that this virus alone is likely to knock hundreds of billions of dollars off of the economy, so we need to invest areto ensure that countries prepared, to o strengthen natiol preparedness systems, to strengthen their capabilities to detect the virus. to do what it's called contact tracing where you trace people who could have come in to contact with the virus. we need a very significant amount of funding to improve regional and global surveillance and to develop urgentt medical countermeasures. medical countermeasures are therapies, treatments, rapid diagnostic test, and of course, a vaccine.

prevent the virus, we can treat people who have already been infected with the virus. we neeeed these crcritical medil cocountermeasures. sorry to cut you, time for a final question because we are running out of time. you touched on a vaccine. some people have put it at one year, two years before scientists are able to put a vaccine together. what are your thoughts? gavin: yes, i think there a are several vaccccine efforts and se are funded here in the united states by the united states government, and some funded in norway, the coalition, and you are right, it is likely to be a year away y at the fasastest. the most important thing about this vaccine, in my opinioion, s that it must be made freely available to all as s a globabal public good.

i am deeply concerned that what we might see happening is rich countries monopolizing the vaccine and only rich peoeoe beining able to access it. that would be a moral catastrophe and moral disgrace. this vaccine is being developed with public money, and therefore, it needs to be made publicly available as a global public good, and not monopolized by the rich world. professor of public health and policy at duke university, but for now, thank you. gavin: thank you. anchor: the other world news buy ayrian rebels back to backed bylitary, -- the turkish military y has taken dozens of villllages. has condemned further civilians cacasualtieses includg women anand children. charlie james has details.

blood and the backpacks lefeft behind andnd children wounded, it's carried away by rescuers. this, the aftermath of strikes this week on schools, , hospita, and other civilian targets. human rights groups report that kids and teachers were killed. escalating a furious military campaign to drive rebels out of the area, and civilians continue to bear the consequencess and now,w, nowhere is safe. refuge in the school during the airstrike. i do not know what happens to most of the children. many were wounded and some neighbors even died. we leave our case to god. >> hundreds have been killed since the beginning of f decembr when governmentt t troops launcd at t the latest b bombing campan

toto recapapture the province.e. according to the u.n., nearly a million people have been ofplaced, an exodus civilians looking for safety near the border with turkey. for those who rememain, life is momore and more disrupted. school has beenn suspended through the week and as regime and rebel forces continue to fight for a after town, save the children is calling for schools to be spared. amnesty international says this -- this tarargetin week's targeting of civilians amounts to a war crime. one of ourr correspondence telling us abouot the situation on the ground. >> the situation is going from bad to worse. you consider that 900,000 people have been displaced as a result of the fighting and this is ib is right at the

northwestern corner of syria, and they are moving towards the border with turkey which is in the north of syria, but that has been sealed off by the turkish authorities. why is idlib important? it is the last rebel stronghold in syria which was controlled by vast numbers of rebel forces and they have been pushed further and further back by the syrian forces and are now confined to italy province. the situation is so bad that many women and children have nowhere to go and they are sleeping outside in freezing conditions in the snow, and they are victim to bombardment by russian forces and to attacks by the syrian forces as they try to take shelter inchools. shelters, hospitals are all being targeted. this is appalling for the bad situation in northwestern syria and does not show any sign of basing. one of the reasons is that this is not just a syrian situation.

international situation, and there are many alliances which are playing in the syrian conflict. here is a look at some of them. turkey that backs the syrian rebels. russia, they back of the syrian regime, they believe it is the stronghold of the spread of uncertainty in the country. syrian as iran, it sees regime being the safest bet and also a passageway into norththen lebabanon. there is antagonism between different countries fighting over syria outside of syria, plus the syrian regime which has decided d that it is not going o negotiatate anything until h hes all of its tererritory b back tt it lost as a result of the civil war in syria which started in 2011. the whole situation for all of those people is catastrophic. anchor: now, hundreds of demonstrators to the streets in

a protest against plans to build a new migrants. businesses on the islands closing shop as violent clashes between protesters and police, and those on mainland greece saying to share their sensibility of migrants. >> closed bubusinesses. an empty streets on the island of lesbos. this show of defiance as general strikes were staged across the island on wednesday and the protesting against the construction of new migrants camps all the while intensifying. for a second day, demonstrators faced off against the riot police here in the village, close to the site of upland camp for 7000 asylum-seekers. islanderers have longg complaind that the campsps threaten safety anand public health. >> they live like animals here and in the other camps.. they want to leave and find a better place. this is s what we e want as wel.

we are fighting both for them and for us. migrarants ar 38,000 crowded into camps on the islands off the coast of turkey, despite an official capacity of just over 6000. the conservative government announced that the camps will shut down this year, replacing the squalor conditions with new and improved facilities it set to be operational by mid-2020. after fruitless talks, the government on monday secretly shipped machinery and hundreds of riot police did islands, causing outrage. >> the government should go drown themselves. this is not except will situation. situations.able parties say the move is undemocratic while regional officials have called it a barbaric attempt to forcefully turn the islands into prisons.

foreign p prime minister and his wife penelope are in court this thursday today i hear on charges of embezzlement. in a courtappeared on wednesday when judges decided if the trial was constitutional. if found guilty, the couple and a former admin stretching colleague risked 10 years behind bars as well as hefty fines. let's get to the very latest on catherine noris standing by at the court. i understand we are still waiting to hear whether the trial is going to go ahead or not. catherine: that is right. the judges are due to rule shortly on whether this landmark trial will actually proceed this week. penelope's lawyers have been trying to get it thrown out on the grounds that it is unconstitutional, and that is for some of the dates in this

trial. another one, that the articles of the french law used in embezzlement cases cannot apply, they argued, to a former prime minister. we have to see what the judges decided whether they indeed referred that to a higher constitutional court, or whether we get down to the nuts and bolts of this case. namely, whether the prime minister and his wife were involved in a massive fake job scandal, embezzling more than one million euros of public money. prosecutored by the to the former prime minister employed his wife and his two adult children as parliamentary aides, but they did not do any work but they were just siphoning money into the couple's account. the couple but denies those charges. see the woman at the center of all of this, illon, what more can you tell us at this stage?

fillon whopenelope is notoriously shy and quiet is eyely at the middle of the of a political storm. so much so, it has been known as penelope-gate. it is centering on her activities, did she do any work, or was this a fake jobs scandal. she is a 64-year-old british national. she was born and raised in the u.k., and she has since become a citizen, and she had no role in the public eye during her husband's time as the prime minister under nicolas sarkozy. she really came to attention because of the scandal. a couple of years ago, she gave an interview to the british newspaper "the daily telegraph," that was filmed, and in that, she percenent of herself a as a

housewife, a mother r of 5, and that she might one day get back into professional life. she said that she was not her husband's assistant or anything like that. the onus is on her and her husband's legal time to try to prove that she was just being modest and that she did undertake work worth more than a million euros. if she does not manage to prove that and if she is found guilty, alongside her husband, she faces up to 10 years in prison. anchor: with the preceding reconvene, thank you. time nowow for a look at the business news and i am joined in the studio by stephen carol. another bad day on the stock market. >> thatt day and badad weekend fact. almost 3 trillion eueuros worth has been wiped off of g global shares as investors fear the consequences of the coronavirus. european markets slumping again today, and c cases of the virus discovered and more countrieses.

every sector in the rereds toda, but travelel has been terribly t this week and air france just today down 9% and down 20% since monday. another company down 30% sincece monday. mining companies, oil gas companies takining a seririous , and investstors saying the wowot is yet to come on the stock market. a survey of american companinies opererating in china sayays t t3 of them cutting costs as a result of the virus. they say that t they are experiencing l lower revenenue s year and less thanan 1/3 of them saying that things be back to normal in march, but they are expecting the chinese gogovernmt to s ste in and almosost half of them expxpecting t t breaks from beijing to compensate some losssses. europe,irus spreads in enench businesesses havi to adopt their practiceses in afaffeed arere. ththe governmnment has extendedk papay contingencies. small transport

business operating between france and italy, all deliveries to covid-19 affected areas are suspended, a caution to avoid putting employees at risk. >> we are e in contact with the client to understand the situation and asked me to keep his merchandise aside. >> deliveries are less affected zones and italy continue, however. the 20 drivers who are able to work are equipped with two indispensable accessories. >> they have a mask and hand sanitizer. they must protect themselves and to be vigilant, avoid being in large groups and a necessary meetings. are advisedployers to call a company doctor over doubt of their employee's health. >> the company health service confirm that everything was fine, and our temperatures were taken, and we had no symptoms. >> french authorities have said that employees who have e receny traveled to at risk zones should

stay home from work. those affected could either work from home or take sickl -- home or take sick leave. the system also applies the parent too stay at home to caree for sisick childn. more of the day's business headlines, saffronon hs warned t that its revenueues wil fall b by up to 5% thisis year e to continued grounding of the boeing 737 max. net profits of the french company jumped last year by mome of a1/3, but as a result cost-cutting plan to save 300 million euros. shares of aston martin has tainted by more than 10% after losses nearly doubled last year. the company sales were down by 9% in 2019, and it is worried that the coronavirus outbreak eould hurt sales in its k

-- key market in china. california says that companies like facebook and instagram are free to censor content as it sees fit. case was taken by a conservative organization against youtube that flagged its videos as an appropriate.. ♪ a bright spot inin the rececentw of corporate resulul with thee frch c carmaker psa whihich maks brown's. it r recorded d record profifitr last yr anand is sharing this success with staff, offering the lower paid workers a bonus of over 4000 euros. for the automaker, psa brings good news for its employees. the group will pay a bonus of up to 4800 euros for workers who earn less than 2800 euros a month, which corresponds to twice the minimum wage. the bone is a significantly

higher than the automobile intor which was 3331 euros 2018. >> save par of it and enjoy the rest. >> it is a good gesture and we are satisfied with it. >> 2019 saut record-breaking profits for psa with the group's net income reaching three-pointer -- 3.3 billion euros. says the employee should be the first to benefit from results. >> we are sharing the wealth with our workers over the past six years, and w we have incread the sum of performance related to bonuses fivefold. >> for some union members,, however, the gesture is not sufficient. >> we are going to take the bonus, it belongs to us, but now we want salary increases. >> the good news comes after an otherwise tough time for psa employees. a 2012, the company obtbtained government to bail out amid a

sales slump,p, and in 2018, it laid off some 2000 workersrs to cut costs. psa has recentltly focused effos on its more expensive models like at suv's. the group benefited f from a successful restructuring from a german subsidiary opal. the automobile giants can now direct attention to its next challenge, merging witith fiat chrysler which would make ththe carmaker thehe indndustry's fofourth-largegest. 2/5 ofof apple shareholders supported a m mease that would ask them to be more transparent about censorship demands from beijing. it i is the third time that shareholders have voted on this type of motion but support jumped from her -- from 10% to 40% in two years. the vote sends a clear message to apple that they must do better on human rights. continuesprahinfrey to be a big draw for ww, known

as w weight watctchers, but hehr power comes at a cost. she has been on a tour under the ww banner and has helped

- - hey, i'm valerie j junu. comingng up on reel south . - [randall] some lss are mplyly unjusus - - [valie] ] a rth cacalina church offerers sanctuar to a grandmother fangng deptatition. [r[randa] ththerare times when people ofai haveo o make chohoice. - alaleriebut t acon oveve silence does come at se co. - theyeyall it harbining a gititive, d i think that those semtitics are verympororta in ththis 's's notarbobori a fugugive. it's offering sanctuary. - [lesvi] what wwant is for peopltoto know thathihis isappepeni, becacae we're not the onlyne - [valerie] witns s "sanarioio," up nexexon reel south. - [narrator] major funding for reel south was provided by the national endowment for the arts, etv endowment, and south arts.