anchor: france says the coronavirus situation is deteriorating very fast according to health authorities. the number of cases double every three days. meanwhile, the country prepares to go on full lockdown later this week. covid-19 affects election

turnout in france, a historic low of 45%. the big question now weighs on whether the second round should be held as planned next sunday. this hour onp france 24, joe biden and bernie sanders lock horns over the coronavirus in the first one-on-one debate, the two men uniting on one issue. saying the military can n lp in the fight against the diseaease. this are top stories at hour, thank you for watching. we start here in france. ofof the country has reached ste three of the c covid-19 pandemi. authorities are preparing in order that would put inhabitants under partial lockdown. it is s not clear how long this would last. --s is a p.m. local time 8:00 p.m. local time.

have been 5423 confirmed cases. the head of the national health agency was speaking earlier. thehat we are seeing on ground is extremely worrying. hundreds of people are gravely ill this morning and in intensive care. these are facts, not predictions. there is concern that effectively the pandemic is accelerating and reaching saturation point which we absolutely want to avoid. so itt to slow it down has the lowest impact possible. a banre has already been on public gatheringsgs of momore than 100 people. this includes restaurants, bars, cinemas, and shops until further notice. people were soaking up the sun with friends and family.

they say the coronavirus will not get in the way of their lilives. france's 15 million students can stay-at-home. schools and universities have been shut down to stop the spread of the coronavirus. that many did not get the message. although all businesses are shut except for food and drug stores, tens of thousands of people were out on sunday, meeting with friends. we have three extra weeks of vacation. how do we use it? >> when asked why they haveve ce to public areas when a dedeadly epidememic is spreadading acrose countrtry, many said they belied they were cautious enough. >> we votedd while following the

recommended prprecautionarary measures, so why can''t we go to the park? we are disappointeted and shockd that the parks arere c closed. >> with some peoplple still unawaware of t the thrhreat, f's government has called on them to change their attitude, fast. andhe v virus is invisible putting lives at risk. i am begging people to respect the rules and remain isolated from their friends. rules,eople ignore the the government will likely beef up measures further. >> also on sunday, france held nationwide elections to c cose leaderers. this despite a crackdown on a public gathering. catherine looks ahead at whether the second round will go ahead next sunday.

a low turnout at the polls well voters wonder why the french government chose to go ahead with the first round o of local elections afterr announcig strict measures to fight the coronavirus epidemic. owner in myaurant opinion, these decisions are irresponsible. preferred thehave authorities postpone the elections. they could postpone the elections for three months and it would not have changed anything. many voters chose to stay away and politicians are questioning ththe wisdomom of gg ahead with the second round of voting. the government says it will make a decision in the next few days.

>> at thee beginning of the wee, i will reconvene. withhen we will consult members of political parties. >> t they can take that into account and hopefully there will be other measures. reporter: officials have not ruled out implementing even more restrictive measures in the coming days. >> as italy faces new outbreak, sing inatred to solidarity. there are three reasons you are allowed to leave your house. for essesential work, to buy fo, or if you need physical activity. flickering a

constellation of candles and as italians try to keep each other's spirits up. earlier in the day, music filled the empty streets. this doorman in rome even conducted a new concert. in the hardest hit province, one church c celebrated mass via video. with loved onepassing awaywewe don't see them. italy's number of infections continues to rise. than aperience more total global death toll. >> this catastrophe is l like an

atomic bomb. >> in such an emergency, it is hard not to work. was a able tos leave the vatican unannounced and walk along one of rome's main streets unimpeded to pray at two shrines for an end to the pandemic. >> there has been a reported drop in overall infections but others continue to wrestle with cases involving infected travelers. that's according to the chinese health commission. it stands at 18,860. i would like t to cross that correspondent in beijing. thank you for being with us. a global deaths and infections from the coronavirus have

surpassed those inside china since the beginning of the outbreak. i think it is fair to say that china is not letting its guard down for the time being. >> chinese authorities say that ththeir main preoccupatioion ist of important cases. they say imported d cases where ththe main risk. alone,nday in beijing there are already six cases of covid-19 that were confirmedd coming into o beijing from abro. there are no stricter controls at airports of entry, and any person coming from abroad has to do a quarantine. at a hotel, but

a designated location. all of this is at the traveler's own cost. the ideaea is to discourage peoe from nonessential travel. apart from this particular risk, this appears to be under control or g getting under control. only four new infections in wuhan this monday. the epicenter of the outbreak and the main restrictions s are still u up. arere essenential industries allowed to resumume production. other reststrictions are slowly being l lifted.d. others have been allowed to reopen this monday. anchor: something that is still

being assessed as we speak is the impact of the pandemic on the economy. we do have new data which was released earlier on monday, showing this historic collapse in industrial production. reporter: twowo key indicators here. first off, the indicator on industrial production. shut, thisies b being means that there is a huge drop in this industrial output. this indicator is down 13.5%. it i ivery much h quite an alalarming numbeber.

obviously,y, this will consume less. they have to contend with a new risk, both europe and the united states could go in a form of lockdown because of the coronavirus outbreak. a drop in a risk in demand for chihinese goods and services. anchor: sunday marksks the first head-to-o-head debate for joe biden and bernie sanders. it serves as a reminder of the global public health emergency.

closing remarks, focusing on the plans to deal with the pandemic. of donald trump's response to the fast-moving , we have a take on the democratic debate. was meantthis debate to be a showdown between bernie sanders and joe biden. face-off was at the coronavirus. the debate was initially said to arizona,e in phoenix, and right here in washington, -- any avoid done unnecessary travel. muchutbreak was very centerstage and very much the focus of the conversation, taking up about one third of the debate. it underlines the differences between the two candidates.

biden focused on immediate and concrete solutions to the current crisis while bernie sanders used it as evidence of a broken system, falling back on his economic message, focusing on medicare for all and income inequality. didsenator from vermont attack joe biden on his past voting record. present -- joe biden said he would c commit to having a woman vice president. when pressed by moderators, bernie sanders said, in all likelihood, i will. >> a new government after winning the endorsement of a narrow majority of lawmakers on sunday, w with another

inconclusive national election this month. this is all a shockining blow to benjamin netanyahu, but it orsn't end his chances guarantee israel gets a new administration. >> in such a time of crisis, political leaders have to put their personal intnterests and calculations aside. i give you my word.. we will be doing everything we can possible. >> you are watching france 24.

♪ >> i am carly rae jepsen and you are watching france 24. we are here today to talk about my album, "dedicated." >> she is one of canada's biggest pop stars. when dozens are around over the next decade, the art of catchy, upbeat, and heart crushing hits. unless you have been hiding under a rock, you have definitely heard "call me maybe" or "i really like you." she set down with us to talk about her a album. the fourth album dedicated came out last year. what has been the highlight so

far? >> it has been pretty crazy. we have been on the road for seven months straight. riding, and when i go to a place i haven't been before, the theater is actuallyy full of people that know your song it is still trips me out. >> it describes the pitfalls of modern dating. >> there is a lot of maturity on both sides, but more often than not, it is something that we say and don't mean. song just cutting to the truth of it.

let's be friends and never's -- never speak again. it wouldbe mean, but be fun. ♪ >> you have been i in the indusy for over a decade now and you gained international fame with in 2012.l me maybe" were you ever worried about getting trapped in that song? >> i think anyone would be. it was exciting to see it taking off in that way and then a little jarring for me because i knew it wasn't the only silo of music i wanted to make. and as a writer, i was worried that if i went in any different direction, it mamay not be as expected. but then i realized that you just have to go there.

you have to be passionate about what you're making. my emotions and it connected with the right people. >> do you still enjoy singing that song? >> yeah. whatever kind of worries or stress i have have dissipated with having to other albums out since. and it is just a nostalgic sing-along. of all the songs in the world, that is the one where i sometimes forget the lyrics. i think it's because i go to routine robot mode. and then i go like this and i finish it for you. >> get other people to sing it for you. ♪

you have a fan base and the lgbtq community and you have been outspoken about your support for lgbtq rights. do you feel like stars talking about these issues has helped move things forward? >> i would like to think so. createce that i want to is one of acceptance and love. it come as you are and everything is welcome. message should be everywhere in the world. ♪

>> the democratic candidate buttigieg has one of your songs on his campaign playlist. you have worked with producers that have a lot of indie credit. was that an intentional pivot towards more of an indie sound? what i wasust attracted to. i love pop, but discovering what it was. i was more focused influenced. i love the music that my parents loved and i wanted to find what it was about the storytelling of s of theike james taylor

world. and the spice girls. what was my happy medium between those things? i kinda fell in love with what he did with solange. bartending, playing back in the day, these were natural connections of flavors i was interested in. the album just kind of came together after that. >> you were born in the 80's and grew up in the 90's. pop music was manufactured for girl bands and boy bands. it was a bit of a dirty word, but songwriters are making kind of a come back and pop music. have you noticed a shift in the industry? >> it has been changing, always. it is even less defined as one thing. i used to think that i was wrong

but you had to look a certain way and dance a certain way. all of those rules in my head have dissipated. you areunique parts of the things to shine. morton,ou work with max the swedish hit machine. >> the god of pop music, we call him. >> he has worked with stars like britney and the backstreet boys. what was that like? >> just as humble as you want him to be given the amount of achievements he's had in his career. i always hoped one day that i would meet him. he is the wizard of oz of pop music. i would go and stay with him in sweden for a couple of days. getting over you was his song with a couple of the writers.

i was so nervous to perform in front of him but i did make a promise that if i ever met him that i would sing him this one little hook for a song called, "i didn't just come here to dance." i'm going to regret it if i don't just sing this to you. he ended up staying later and working on it with me and hooking up with a guy from l.a. that i was headed back to and the song made it onto emotions. he is generous with his time and he wants creators to explore and do well. ♪

>> one of your supporters was a very young justin bieber. are you still in touch? >> i haven't spoken to him in ages. i am kind of in touch with his team. >> would you ever want to work with him? when i first landed in los angeles, one e the direcect to the was from there studio by car. do you want to be in this duet with me? sure. why not. it is how my life was going at the time. but we collaborated. are here to perform in paris. what is your relationship with france and your french fan base? >> i love it here. i love everyone over here. romantic like the most thing.

if you know anything about me, i'm a sucker for romance. yesterday, we had a bit of time off to do some shopping. i bought lots of hats. i think i'm going to be a crazy hat lady now. i had escargot. the bread, the butter, the food, the people, there's nothing not to love. ♪ >> so what is next on your wish list after this tour wraps up? >> i it will be my first time playing coachella. i'm really excited for that. if then the question of b side is coming and if i get to get back in the studio. we were talking about doing that for whatever is next. what kind of music do you want to make next? i don't know.

that process takes me a while to write in all different directions until i land on the thing that is feeling right. no, itng away -- no, won't be that long. but i do want to take some timee figuring out what i want to make. >> we can't wait to see what comes up next. thank you for being on "france 24." ♪

man: it's been described by the un as a textbook ethninic cleansing. woman: bangladesh has called on myanmar to allow the return of hundreds of thousands of rohingya muslims. they can't cope with the scale of the humanitarian crisis. rape and torture at the hands of the myanmar army. i'm alex crawford, and this is "hotspots." tonight, we're gonna take you behind the scenes of some of the world's hardest-hitting stories. we're in northern iraq, where stuart ramsay has an amazingly lucky escape. ramsay: the chance of surviving that, a flip of a coin, i suspect. crawford: our cameras are rolling when things get out of hand in spain. [gunfire]