>> hello and welcome back to the france 24 newsroom. story dominatining headlines acroross the globe and here and france, where the government has begun rolling out further measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic. monday, all schools, ununiversities, and day care centers will be closed indefinitely, describing it as the worst public health crisis seen in a century. president in my mock urging -- emmanuel macron urging those in poor health to stay at home. we are only at the beginning

of this epidemic, and everywhere in europe, it is accelerating and intensifying. it hits the most vulnerable people first of all. most of them will need suitable in hospital, often assisted breathing. that is why we are taking extremely strong measures to boost the availability of hospital beds and we are asking ineveryone over the age of 70, everyone who suffers from chronic condiditions or breathig disabilities, asking anyone handicapped, to stay at home as much as possible. >> president macron addressing the nation less accurate in the meantime, european countries boosting precautionary measures against the spread of coronavirus, but experts say that they are not being coordinated. temperature checks, for instance, are being taken on

some borders, but not inin othe. mention that the eu states do not have a common strategy. for more, let's go to our correspondent in brussels. the president of the european commission is about to hold a press conference. what are we expect ring her to say -- expecting her to say? that press conference is about to come in an hour of the commission headquarters. she will announce the details of the financial mechanism that she all 27 euwith leaders. we're being told not to call this a fund because this is money that the eu member states already have. they would have had to return it, but now they can keep it and spend it on whatever they want. the dedetails are unclear. she is also expected to outline

new state aid for companies on thinkrge of bankruptcy -- airlines. she will also announce new budget procedures after the thik airlines. she will also 2009 financial crisis. she is hoping that this will calm the european markets, which have been in a freefall since the european central bank announced yesterday it will not follow the u.s. and the u.k. and lowering interest rates as they were expected to do. they are expected to have some big announcement. we will see if they can accomplish calming the jitters today. has been very strongly criticized for not presenting an overall strategy to deal with the pandemic. lastter: yeah, over the few days we have seen all kinds of measusures, oftften contradictory. night, presesident macron,

after a house h hwas measureres, the belgian minister annouounced measureses here. ey arere going fururther than friends. they are closing restaurants, clubs, gyms. everything is closed from midnight tonight until april 3. in the u.k., prime minister boris johnson announced they are closing thihings. they are not stopping gatherings. they are not even telling people to stay homeme. it has been a real mishmash. even in the neighboring czech republic, they are focusing on borders, closing the borders to zech citizenship or residency, but not paying as much attention to social dense and sing. the difficulty the eu is in is these types of policies are not competencies.s. they are up to the individual governments. the eu has no power to tell the

eu governments what to do. the criticism though is if the president had gotten more involved, more authoritatively, that we would hahave better coordrdinated measusures. but righght now, you see eu countries retreating international responses. that was on evidence. it is on evidence today. there was an interior minister meeting. most of the countries have theirded not to send inteterior ministers. they are sending their junior members. the eu states seem to have g gin up on viving a c coordinated strategy eyey also to bee goioing on ther own. we will see if the commission can get control of those actions, but at this point, it

really does seem like the horse is out of the barn. france 24 will be holding -- will be providing anerage of that meeting in hour. so far, the region has three deaths and more than 250 cases. we have more in what is being done across the continent. reporter: the first south american country to announce a death from coronavirus. the government has quickly flung not issuing thesese is to people traveling from the hardest hit countries, including china. we are declaring a health emergency and following the

guidelines of the world health organization. reporter: the u.k. has banned gatherings of more than 500 people. not recordedet has cases of the coronavirus, but nicolas maduro says that he is considering closing the border mbia and brazil. bolivia and has clclosed its schohools until the end of thehe month and titightened its grip n those moving into the region. neighboring peru has also announced the suspension of european flights and in brazil, these sao paulo stock market plunged by more than 15%

thursday. atlantic, the the prime minister and -- to canadian prime minister and his wife are in quarantine. is beingian leader isolated as a precautionary measure. his wife is feeling well. he is not displaying any symptoms. he is now working from home. the vision and european stock markets continue to follow hard trading following wall street's worst trading day in 30 years. market inr financial asia is in firmly bear markets are for. this means stocks of fallen 15% from their eyes.s. continues toavirus impact all areas of life. the world of sport has been able to carry off, the european

governing body announcing the european league matches will be postponed. in the meantime, the english premier league is in doubt. players testedhe positive. we have more. season suspended for the national basketball season, the national hockey, and major league soccer, all a result of the spread of the coronavirus, the outbreak hitting home for the nba afterer two players from the utah jazz tested positive for covid-19. the ncaa has called off its annual march madness college basketball championships. the pgpga has cancnceled all evidence up until the masters, .iting concerns about thee viru, talking about a major

global outbreak. in the end, sport means nothing. it means nothing in the lens of making the world safe again. reporter: the arsenal manager and a chelsea player have tested positive for the coronavirus. several players are in self-quarantine and the team' us match on saturday has been postponed. with the 2020 summer games set in tokyo, u.s. president donald trump's adjusted they should be like. president trump: maybe -- and this is just my thought -- maybe they postpone it for a year. japaner: but officials in pushed back, saying for now, games will go forward as planned. major league baseball delayed the start of its season and japan also delayed the start of its baseball season until april.

we will be talking to a leading immunologist about early indicating more women than men will die from the coronavirus. on then have a greater response to a variety of viruses -- inl as infections texas agents. in addition to other illnesses, lifestyle choices, is our biology. there can be biological differences in the immune system between men and women, which impacts our ability to fight an infection, and there are going to be data coming out of china suggesting that our blood chemistry and immune cell counts do, in fact, differ between men and women and may be contributing to the differences we are witnessing in the severity of the disease.

anchor: you can catch that 40 gmt,ew in full at15: and also posted on france24.com. isother news, the u.s. launched a series of her tele-jory rocket strike -- retaliatory rocket strikes following an attack attributed to the hezbollah. american troops have been the target frequently of attacks. this since washington assassinated a top iranian general in january. we have this report. reporter: a show of force from washington, aimed squarely at this militia. it is an iranian backed group, seen here marching in the streets of baghdad. according to iraqi city forces,

the targeted facilities belonging to militants. they struck in retaliation for an attack on wednesday that killed two americans and a british soldier. hours after the attack, iraqi security f forces found d this k with rockets not far from the base, but to belong to the militants. in a statement, the pentagon warned iranian backed militant groups from carrying out further attacks. and at the white house, president trump was keen to talk to remove against the group. prpresident trump: it was not iran. it was a rebel group. but it could be backed by iran. reporter: tit-for-tat attacks between u.s. forces and militia groups have become commonplace sense early january, when the

general assassinated solemani at the airport. he had been the architect of foreign policy across the middde east, but iran struck back. this was t the closest both sids of to outright declaration war before tensions eased slightly. the english soccer league has suspended games until .prill 3 that is it for this edition. do stay with us. ♪

>> it was one of those mysteries of the universe. the vast majority of people were able to convince someone else to singularly adore them. the successful bindings with prominent nose or, severe looking seven day adventist with a penchant for felt tip pens, wide,no housemates with bland faces and one leg shorter than the other. schreiberat was lana ofding from her collection short stories. the extract you just read from comes from a novella. and property does feature -- houses, buildings and a collection of stories, but this

one made me think of the ownership of people or relationship. can you tell us about the process that went into creating that novella? it's about a triangle. that is literature's favorite shape. the most problematic geometry in real life. two best friends. they used to be involved with each other. the man falls in love with someone else, but it turns out his fiancee detests the best and says, there's something funny going on with you to andnd it's her or me. and it puts them in a terrible position. anchor: and there's the question of ownership? >> there is no greater fight than over a mate, as you know. [laughter] m many people w would agree.

there's a noticeable contrast in the stories, two characters at different generations. i thought what might be a a be boomers and millennials, or -- baby boomers millennials, people who could die in houses versus those who will not. have you think there is a cultural divide between the seat of age groups? -- how do you think there is a cultural divide between these two age groups? >> i think we are more antagonistic. some of this is economic. some of this has to do with property. young people are rightfully resentful. it is much harder for them to buy a house than it was for the parents. domesticre look at terrorism. this is the story. i love to look at what it is like when a man in his 30's refuses to leave home. and i am kind of hard on him. as i would be, because i think

it's generational. at the same time, he's pretty worthless. the story does take care to address some of the with millennials who have not left home because they are paying off student loan debt and the cost of renting is way too high, so i am sympathetic, actually, but there's this other case someone who just doesn't want to grow up. do want to bring up the story "domestic terrorism," because it does just oppose the two generations to great comic effect. there's also this migrant crisis that dominated european news and the southern border. >> i am looking at the power of helplessness, the power of has irony.hich

when someone throws themselves on your mercy, then if you want to have regard for yourself is a decent person, then infect, your the one who is helpless. you have to help them. i am also contrasting what is going on with the boys you won't inve home, he is obviously much more privileged ,ircumstances than the refugees but he really resents them because they have got it harder than he does, and he wants to be the refugee. immigration has been the center of a row. in "american dirt" the author

has been accused of misrepresenting her mexican characters. urgedhan 130 writers have oprah winfrey to resent her endorsement of the book. there are concerns about cultural appropriation, something publishers are increasingly wary of, and as a result, booksellers are concerned about these claims, too well. >> he acactually had a mainn character who isis african-americanan and he thougt he had created this chararactero be outspoken, to be the leleer of the community, but t in reality, that character was full ofof stereotypes and could have been verery insensnsitive to pp. not -->>ublishers do pupublishers do not generally pl books b before they y come out. there'a a lot of conontroversy.. i i think we're trying g to fige

ouout what the newew guidelines should be, walking that very fine line bebetween depictgg characters who make bad choices and have reprehensible believes and associating with the author. anchor: you have spoken about this idea of offended mr. kaine used as a weapon. where do you think hypersensitivity is coming from? what is the response to it? >> it is always the coming from this larger identity politics momovement, with which i have al kinds of problems. in a perfect world, i would simply ignore it, but the clamor has grown loud enough that i think it is now important for ers to stick up for themselves and defend the rights of the imagination. that interview was a case in

point of, oh, this character is full of stereotypes, but by contrast, if you write character who is veryrynnovative e and doesn't act like a typical black american character, then it's inauthentic. so you can't win. anchor: in the publishing industry they, what might seem --be ornate decisions ordinary physicians are increasingly being scrutinized through the lens of diversity and inclusion. they said that they were just trying to please everyone. what you think? promotingadvocate of good books and i think that has to be the primary purpose of any publishing company. while i am all for an inclusive for bernadineorry

who hahad to share the prize, partly because -- you know, she is black. i have not read it, but i gather it's a really good book. and i think her achievement is diminished because of these suspicions on the part of the book buying audience that, -- why was she given a half booker prize? was it really just to make the jury look good questioion mark because they pickedd someone who wadiveverse? it damages very talented people because it casts doubt on their talent. i think that's heartbreaking. anchor: i particularly enjoyed the mix of british and american characters, all of which are from your deep experience with cultures. one observation -- modern as divided into

serfs and landed gentry as it had been in the united states. eliot was still a serf. the u.k. and has been through full searching, one of the results being racist. how did you see that as an outsider? admit.pported brexit, i now that we have reached at point, i would call it over. i had the revelation, i have never had a wonderful time. it has been the most fascinating political period i have ever followed. as serious as it is, it's not as dire as what is going on in the united states, and therefore it's a little easier to be regarded as a form of entertainment. i think the way it is resolved so far is fortunate because at more whether

british democracy is legitimate. leave ande voted to that is much more important than whether the u.k. is in or out of the eu. anchor: we asked what was on your cultural radar p review picked a tv series. tell us why we should check it out. >> is very innovative. at the same time very affect thing. innovative.y the innovation does not get in the way. it does not fall onto a cheap amick. it's beautifully acted. it's interesting because i did not know there was a japanese mafia. apparently there is. it's quite violent. beautiful touches. a precis of what happens

last week, which is often tedious, because he watched it last week -- they do it all in graphic novels, so that -- anchor: manga. >> it's beautiful. at the very end they do something that shouldn't work, and does. i love that kind of thing. characters break out into dancing with each other in the completely violates every rule you've ever read, but it was so moving that i cried. thatr: one have to check out. thank you so much for joining me. >> we have to do one good deed today. reporter: thanks for the tip. check out our website for arts and culture and you can keep up with us on social media, tua. there's more news coming up on france 24 just after this. >> is my responsibility to make adjustmentnts. -- it is my response ability to

make adjustments. i will keep you safe. >> [indiscernible] ♪

[indistinct radio chatter] newswscaster: ththis is where it began. thihis is where the fusee was lighteted, the dususty cornr in an old neighborhood of modest homes and new low-priced apartments. man: after 6 days of rioting in s south los angeles in august of 1965, you've got 34 people who lose their life, 1,032 people are wounded and injured, and almost $30 milillion in mid-196960s of capital and building destruction. newscaster: up the street a block or so in that direction,

a church where negro leaders