Transcripts For ALJAZ NEWSHOUR 20240713

A some restrictions to keep the economy moving. And resistance to lebanons Financial Rescue plan as the government turns to the International Monetary fund for help. Hello thanks for joining us an experimental antiviral drug has been authorized by the u. S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use in treating coronavirus patients 1500000 vials of the drug death of a year will be distributed to hospitals from monday the f. D. A. Gave its approval after a government sponsored study showed the drug shortened patients Recovery Time by about 31 percent. When the president brought the pharmaceutical companies here to the white house you were among them he said we wanted you to move quickly on developing a vaccine but he said develop therapeutics as quickly as you can we were told d that it was possible that by the spring we would have therapeutics and standing here on may the 1st the very 1st therapeutic with the emergency use authorization the good work of f. D. A. Is now available and but donating 1500000 doses our task force will be working very closely with billy had to make sure that those medicines starting on monday are distributed to hospitals where patients are struggling in serious conditions with the coronavirus today lets bring in our White House Correspondent Kelly Hockett and the president kimberly has been a vocal supporter from death of fear as a possible way to bring the coronavirus pandemic under some sort of control. Yeah even when initially it had not yet been proven to have any sort of effectiveness and this is where the president got into a little bit of trouble and was the subject of quite a bit of controversy given the fact that he has no Public Health background but was giving essentially medical advice now all this has caught up to the president s recommendations in essence what were saying here and what the Coronavirus Task force has been saying is that there has been sort of an emergency authorization that has been granted by the food and Drug Administration in order to allow this to be used death of a year in the most severe of cases in other words when the benefits outweigh the risk for the most sick patients with cove it 19 that if it hospitalized potentially using oxygen or even on a ventilator rino that often people do not recover so its important to note that this is not f. D. A. Approval or food and Drug Administration approval that requires a very detailed review this is instead an emergency authorization one that the president was eager to put forward and we should point out that what this does this is not a cure what this does a shorten the Recovery Time what it does is it essentially blocks something that the virus needs in cells in order to thrive and survive so this is essentially an advancement in treatment but in no way is this any way closer to a vaccine that is still by some projections in the early projections it could be at least a year or longer before that is developed so this is sort of a breakthrough when it comes to treatment but again the cautionary message is that this is certainly not a cure ok it can really thank you very much for that update from the White House Well the World Health Organization says its confident the coronavirus is natural in origin so that comes after speculation including from the u. S. President that it was created in a law. We listened again and again and scientists who looked at the sequences looked at this one of us and we were assured this virus is natural in origin what is important is that we establish what that natural host for this why this is. And and the primary purpose of doing that is to ensure that we understand the virus more we understand the animal human. Interface and we understand and of the human species barrier was breached the purpose of understanding that is that we can put in place the necessary prevention and Public Health measures to prevent that happening again anywhere of self korea and india have stopped using chinese made rapid coronavirus test kits after they were found to be faulty scientists in south korea say hundreds of people who had recovered were found to be positive for the disease when they were retested they blame shortcomings in the test itself and said the patients were not reinfected india had bought half a 1000000 kids from china before also discovering in accuracies china has defended the products lets bring in chris smith hes joining us from cambridge hes a consultant virologist hes also the editor of the naked scientists podcast thanks very much for your time well get on to the issue of the chinese faulty test kits according to india in a moment but 1st let me ask you about the developing story ram deaths of we are now being approved for emergency use in treating corona various patients over in the u. S. What do you know about this drug and how it will actually work. This is an antiviral drug it was developed during the a boner period about 5 or 6 years ago and unfortunately for gilliatt who invented it it didnt work very well against a boa but what does look more promising is its action against this new coronavirus the way it works is that the drug molecule looks like one of the Building Blocks of the Genetic Information of the virus so when you take the drug it goes into the cells and gets activated in the cell and then when the virus is trying to grow in one of your cells it mistakes this drug molecule for one of the normal genetic letters that it would be inserting into its genome that its copying to make new baby viruses and when the drug molecule goes into the d. N. A. Or r. N. A. Of a growing virus it distorts it and disrupts it and stops it growing so as a result you end up with a virus with a broken genome and so its a bit like a computer with the operating system corrupted it wont boot up so the viruses you make are completely defunct and when given 2 cells in a dish which are infected with the virus it slows down the growth of the virus when given to patients with the virus it makes them recover a bit quicker and it also slightly improves the mortality rate when you give it to people who are severely on whether by slightly i mean in people who were not given the drug the mortality rates about 11 percent and in people who werent given the drug it was about 8 percent heres the thing chris smith i mean there was some concern by some people over in the u. S. That this was a drug that was totaled by the president himself and now in the absence of other treatments when it comes to the coronavirus and the promising data or that weve seen from this study with deaths of year this drug may be fast tracked in a way do you share that concern. Well all drugs have side effects and all drugs need to be tested carefully before the used on people and used on people at scale but its impossible to flush out all of the side effects without trying these things 1st and were in a situation here where extreme measures are needed because were in an extreme circumstance and sometimes its actually more effective and safer in the long run to try these things and try them where youve got little to lose and make the important measurements you need to make to find out whether or not you can save more lives or not so in this instance i think given that this already has a track record of having been tested well be it for a different virus or not i think actually a lot of the bad side effects are already defined or the safety profile is pretty well understood so i dont think that this is in any way incautious is its an experiment worth doing all right and while i have you with us let me ask you about the report we were mentioning a moment ago about china south korea and india accusing china having faulty rapid test kits what do you know about this i mean china is defending itself but is it clear to you have these rapid test kits are actually faulty or is it down to some sort of human error. The problem is that this is a brand new kid on the biological block weve not known about this virus for anything more than about 5 or 6 months and as a result we havent had time to do what would normally take years the viruses that are common human pathogens that we have to develop good quality tests for those tests have been optimized developed tested road tested retested improved over many many years here were trying to do this in a real hurry and as a result we have got all the wrinkles out yet one other wrinkle with coronaviruses is that this new coronavirus is one of a family and the other 4 commonly circulating coronaviruses affect humans but if youve already been infected with some of them its possible that when you take this test it may confuse the new one with some of the ones youve seen before so its not straightforward to just knock out a test that would discriminate accurately in favor of this new coronavirus thats the ideal thats what we want but it takes time to get there and people are in a rush to do this and sometimes when you rush you make mistakes all right chris smith we thank you very much for speaking to us from cambridge and. Coming up here from the aljazeera news hour 5 weeks after coronavirus restrictions were imposed the South African slowly began to emerge from lock down. And the u. S. Democratic president ial hopeful joe biden denies allegations of Sexual Assaults made by a former senator. But 1st canada is banning assault style weapons after the countrys deadliest mass shooting 2 weeks ago the ban comes into immediate effect but there will be a 2 year amnesty for people to dispose of weapons they already own while the government also plans to introduce a Buyback Program last month 22 people were killed in nova scotia when a man dressed as a policeman went on a shooting spree. These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time there is no use and no place for such weapons in canada lets bring in daniel like joining us from toronto what more did the Prime Minister have to say and what more are we learning about this legislation daniel. Well this obviously as you said comes in the wake of the shootings in nova scotia 2 weeks ago but frankly this government Justin Trudeau government has been promising action on gun control now for 5 years since it was 1st elected 5 years ago its now in its 2nd term so theres been pressure on them to come up with Something Like this and clearly the horror of the worst mass shooting in the countrys history really sort of motivated them to get moving on this its an extremely detailed piece of legislation doesnt have to be passed by parliament its got some legal virtue that allows it to be passed just by the cabinet for now but its Something Like 69 pages long this single law and most of that thats a list of various types of assault weapons that are going to be banned some 1500 of them and i have to say that most of those seem to be variations on the a ar 15 thats very familiar to people whove seen Mass Shootings in the United States but also here in canada such a weapon was used in 2017 by the quebec city mosque a gunman who killed 6 people using such a weapon there immediately illegal theyre now completely illegal these weapons but the 10s of thousands of people who do own them and there may be in excess of 100000 who have them legally here in canada they have 2 years to get rid of them to dispose of them safely and legally they cant sell them in the country if they can make legal export arrangements they can sell them or the government saying they may bring in a buyback plan so thats all taking effect immediately now what gun control advocates are saying is that this is a welcome step but they want to see action on handguns those are largely restricted in canada but most gun crime here is committed by people using illegal handguns that are smuggled across the border the very long border from the United States there are no measures that are taking effect here that are going to affect that there will be probably some talk of a handgun ban in individual cities well see if that takes effect as for gun control or gun rights people and we have some not quite as vocal as in the United States they say this is a politically expedient move that really doesnt address the underlying issue that there are too many illegal handguns in the country so moving forward canada now has no assault rifles legal within its borders thank you. Lebanon has officially signed a request for assistance from the International Monetary fund to help fix the countrys crippling financial problems the government says its one measure to save the country from bankruptcy but that hasnt stopped taking to the streets again it was with the crowds in beirut. Keeping the hope for change alive lebanese return to the central beirut square where calls for a new leadership rang out 6 months ago theyre back in the streets after a lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus was weeks of closures heard an already collapsing economy there is uncertainty about the future as unemployment rises. Im 33 years old i have been graduated from University Like 10 years ago. A person like me should be in a senior position like away so its because of the overall economy situation which was caused by the subsequent governments cabinet has already defaulted on its debt for the 1st time in history we. Called for the world bank and you must give us loans to put us even larger public privatizing the whole. State and i dont think that can help 6 prices of basic goods have increased by more than 50 percent while the local currency the leader has depreciated by at least 60 percent peoples incomes and savings have lost value. But the situation. I guess the burden on the business because when the inflation im buying their own restaurant now its a bit difficult. The price. And the people are still paid the same in the lebanese lira 30 percent of registered companies have closed and the Labor Ministry says 20 percent have reduced employee salaries by half the fatness but what about the dismissal of workers and the closure of organizations. Have been the biggest concerns the ministry has put forward a plan to solve huge unemployment and to protect the rights of workers but that will need money and the government has been unable to provide for the most basic needs as the state nears bankruptcy the some people fear the country is sliding into chaos the middle class is becoming a work government figures show up to 75 percent of a nation of 5000000 people need help while 45 percent live below the poverty line. Human rights watch is warning more than half of lebanons people are at the risk of going hungry the government may be promising better days ahead but admits the road will not be easy so who their beirut. Is extending whats been the Worlds Largest coronavirus lock down by 2 more weeks but restrictions in some low risk areas will be eased from monday with piron im has the latest from new delhi. In the last nearly 6 weeks of the lockdown in india the government has divided the country into green orange and red zones depending on the number of cases and the stage of transmission and its announced that while the National Lockdown will continue for another 2 weeks that they will be a considerable easing of restrictions mostly in green and orange zones so watch as of may the 4th all goods are allowed to be transported there will be buses in green zones but with 50 percent seizing capacity taxis are allowed to green and orange zones but with only one passenger things like all construction and industrial activity is allowed even in red zones in rural areas now over the last 10 days we have seen easing of restrictions in a number of sectors most notably agriculture indias biggest employer and all the businesses which supported and all standalone shops even those selling non essential items have been open for about the last week so one of the restrictions that remain in place while there is still no air rail travel hospitality Restaurants Hotels remain shot into state movements no movement between states and things like cinema halls you know malls sports complexes for main shot and they will be no political social or cultural gatherings. The number of deaths in the u. K. From coronavirus has risen to just over 27 and a half 1000 but elsewhere spain appears to be showing signs of recovery and soon baba has a latest on the virus and youre. Throwing things are going in the right direction in spain Health Workers celebrating the closure of a huge Field Hospital installed at the end of march in madrid largest Conference Center but although covered 19 infections are holding these facilities will remain in place in case theres a new outbreak in the 110th of them all and i feel happy because we have won the 1st battle of this great virus lets hope it was the war but if not we will return here with more strength than before to continue fighting spains had one of the toughest lock downs but from this weekend people will be allowed to leave home for exercise on their own of course the crisis is having a huge financial effect here to the government now says it expects the economy to shrink by 9. 2 percent this year the only places in europe with higher official death tolls than spain or italy and here in britain following fierce criticism over the relatively low covered 19 testing levels the British Government has been increasing its capacity it wants to put in place a network to test track and trace people with the virus as it looks to ease lock down restrictions and its announced its a past its target of 100000 tests a day for the end of april testing is crucial to suppress the virus i know from personal experience to just how much people with symptoms want to know if theyve got the disease i know that i did it helps remove the worry it helps keep people safe and it will help us to unlock the lock down. Meanwhile worrying statistics of emerge suggesting coronavirus disparities a new study in england says the death rate among British Black africans and british pakistanis is more than 2 and a half times that of the white population and people in the poorest parts of britain are dying from covered 19 a double the rate of people in the richest areas on friday the french president explained the traditional may day events including protests the worst possible because of coronavirus restrictions but he said the spirits of workers solidarity was stronger than ever. Gus will cover its thanks to the work is being celebrated today that our nation is Still Standing its thanks to the work and dedication of our Health Workers our Security Forces and our military that were saving so many lives every day there were demonstrations elsewhere like this one outside the Greek Parliament in athens keeping their distance but determined to keep up the pressure of the government. Yeah now today the countrys working class despite the protective measures to minimize the spread of the fire is here has a voice demands not to be burdened by the crisis which is excel or rating because of the pandemic friday also mark the Catholic Churchs feast of st joseph the worker pope francis used a morning mass in the vatican to say too many people globally are either denied a fair wage or treated like slaves in forced labor his audience just a few nuns and priests is message universal the aljazeera. So is there to mention the u. K. Has ramped up its Testing Program passing its goal of 100000. 00 tests per day a parker is in london with a look at what comes next. Only late on thursday it looked as if the government might be significantly missing out on reaching its target of 800000 tests a day was 18000 tests short yesterday evening but it seems to have broken not quite comfortably with all the 122000 test of course this is just the start these are the kind of tests that weve seen being used in a widespread way in many countries across europe and the British Governments been under growing scrutiny as to why it didnt introduce this kind of testing sooner nevertheless what its hoping to do next is. Hire 800000 officials to take part in tracing and tracking down the spread of the virus so identifying potential clusters advising people whether or not they should quarantine for a period of time to avoid infecting others so by mid may thats quite a significant recruitment drive that theyre hoping to have fulfilled what youre seeing behind me is a large Testing Center in east london weve seen a steady stream of vehicles arriving here people register theyve given swarms they dont stay in their car do the test themselves then hand the swabs over to officials and get the test back in a couple of days these are largely key workers the hope is that sooner or later the bulk of the population of the United Kingdom will know whether or not theyve been infected or indeed are at risk but for the time being less the government can see. A steady decline in infection rates and particularly at decline in the deaths there will be no attempt to east restrictions any time soon. South africa has started easing some coronavirus restrictions after 5 weeks under lockdown some businesses are being allowed to reopen from friday and people can leave their homes to exercise the government says it will impose an overnight curfew and deploy more soldiers to ensure social distancing rules are followed i mean the mother is in johannesburg with more on how the 1st day of ease restrictions are going. This is the main highway between johannesburg and i and police have set up one of the largest roadblocks in this area there are also soldiers here to ensure that people arent hearing to the lock down restrictions now south africa has eased the regulations slightly in that some businesses are able to open and a 3rd of the workforce are able to go to work but for millions of South Africans these are the kind of regulations that theyre facing police are making sure they adhere to regulations and theyre also on the lookout for cigarettes and alcohol because in south africa the sale and transportation of those items is still bad and. Police will likely see thousands of vehicles come through this road up during the course of the day they are about 7000 soldiers that have been deployed across the country but the government has also said its made provision for up to 70000 soldiers to monitor the streets in south africa while the stiction are being eased even just slightly the government has deployed more soldiers and police to ensure the people id hearing to the lockdown regulations and even those of africa has now moved to a level full one level lower than previously were actually seeing more officials and more Security Officials monitoring the lockdown still to come this news hour it survived the pandemic but italys survived the recovery there are fears for the economy is the end of the lockdown because its an internet giant amazon is accused of putting profits about workers during this years may day demonstrations. But. How we got some shot in showers across much of europe at the moment mind you into the southeast looking largely fine and dry warm sunshine pushing across a good part of spain as we go through the next couple days we look a little further north as loss of cloud lots of rain piling in from the atlantic blustery showers rattling across the northwest pushing into northern parts of germany and pushing their way right across into the Baltic States easing over towards that western side of russia russia showers into central parts down into the balkans pushing over to. Pushing cross rumania and up into ukraine. Sunshine into spain madrid at 26 celsius and rising we could hit 32 degrees by the. Whole next week about 29 there as we go on through sunday still some showers there into france but fewer and further between george c. The shot was a little further east with some of the on the shop side from time to time to be staying in the mix with some shabby rain from time to time across Northern Africa settled you can see the seasonal rains across the heart of africa some big down poles bring up just around and African Republic easing of it was cameroon into west africa some of them in the shop side from time to time and the shasta very nice the pushing right across. From. Maine on aljazeera has covered 19 infects millions and triggers a Global Economic crisis well bring you the latest developments from around the world. Out as her world selection of the best Network Documentaries includes the story of unsung egyptian composer and musician ali its mind despite the coronavirus pandemic that presses ahead with the president ial elections by still the Emmy Award Winning phone lines is back investigating the United States and its role in the world and in the u. S. Election primaries Presumptive Democratic nominee joe biden strives to reach the official delegate threshold may on al jazeera. On counting the costs famines of biblical proportions the coronaviruses advent of the Global Economy so what does that mean for Food Supplies plus grants or loans as italy and spain are lockdowns can even greater tolerance on a trillion dollar a rescue. Cutting the cost on aljazeera. Hello again the top stories on the aljazeera news hour an experimental antiviral drug has been authorized by the u. S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use in treating coronavirus patients 1500000 vials of the drug from dessa fear will be distributed to hospitals from monday. The World Health Organization says it doesnt believe the corona virus was manmade thats after u. S. President trump claimed he had seen evidence it came from a lab in the chinese city of. Assault rifles are being immediately banned in canada more than 5800. 00 models of gun will be outlawed and it comes out of the countrys worst ever mass shooting just under 2 weeks ago. May the 1st is normally marked by rallies around the globe to highlight the plight of workers and this may day millions find themselves unemployed because of the coronavirus pandemic and for those still working the virus has brought new threats to the workplace from delivery drivers to shelf stackers and cleaners essential workers have been asked to keep food and goods flowing while the majority of the population is told to stay at home but workers from some of the Biggest Companies in the u. S. Say theyre concerned by a lack of personal protective equipment and social distancing while amazon is accused of a lack of transparency over the number of covert 1000. Men essential workers say companies are putting profits ahead of their health and safety theyre calling for better workplace protections and hazard pay she had written see takes a look at how workers in the u. S. Are taking a stance. Since the pandemic began wildcat strikes across the u. S. As. Essentially come to terms with the lack of protections that are being given and interactive map has been created to keep track of over 150 actions from. The. Beginning of much from port workers in california on the west coast through to meet packages truckers postal workers and sanitation workers all the way to canteen workers at Harvard University in the east and now workers have been organizing over a Video Conference to transition from disparate wildcat strikes to coordinated collective action from a day youre a phenomenon who are employees of amazon insta called home foods target on fed ex pledge to walk off the job together at lunchtime to form both an impersonal and virtual picket line that urging consumers not to cross we put our logo is aside. From minus right now as to family that bebo. We all have one common goal so this is the beginning of something and s. Never been seen before but when it comes time to. Dont be concerned about the health and safety of your communities and your family and these companies and. Taken a serious its time for us to take the power back it was smalls who drew global attention to conditions at amazon warehouses after he was fired and leaked memos sure amazon executives attempted personally to discredit him to tamp down protests he was organizing amazon also you know naturally declared him a potential coronavirus kariya they quarantine me only me not even the person that i ride to work with every single day what does that tell everybody that sounds everybody that they want to silence. How is all insists simply taking all precautions to protect its workers the companys also temporarily raised some pay for jeff aser but across Industries Workers are asking for hands of pain protective equipment cleaning supplies transparency about infections and the pleasing and cleaning of workplaces where there are infections paid sick leave is key currently many have no option but to go to work even if there is a will but the longer goal is to address these structural basis of the inequality that so apparent amid covered 1950 states in less than 2 months. Since the 1930 s. When f. D. R. Was 1932 in as the more moderate candidate. And people suggest that the strikes forced f. B. I. To adopt the new deal all kind of Worker Protection measures. Workers feel that unless there is direct action the pandemic will simply be to get more polarized nation between the so isolating rich and essential workers she ever term see aljazeera well for more on this we can speak to sylvia on the grotto she is an economist and cochair of the center on wage and employment dynamics at the university of california berkeley shes joining us via skype from a clear oakland thanks for your time with us on the news hour how significant are these strikes well this is really significant in the United States today being a day as your story pointed out we have a lot of actions and this is a good thing look the private sector in the United States is only about 6 percent unionized so even during good times workers have very little voice in their workplace and given today were talking about life and death decisions were talking about the spread of the coronavirus to workers their families to their communities we can put workers back to work without having worker voice especially because they know how the jobs are done and so we need to have weve already had a lack of the federal government coming in and trying to help with malls and regulations and how to proceed to this but as corporations are taking over that assignment they have to do it in relation and in coordination with their workers right but how likely is that i mean practically is by going to happen because we heard from amazon which is one of the companies that is targeted in these strikes and and a spokesperson has said that while we respect peoples right to express themselves we object to the irresponsible actions of labor groups and spreading misinformation or making false claims about amazon. Well 1st of all amazon has been fighting for decades for their union for their workers to have a right to join and form unions and they have often spread false information so im not sure about the likes of that but all i can say is we need to have her voice and thats all there is to it and so its always been the case in the United States and around the world and certainly is the case today and so the workers walking out are basically saying look were being you know taught as essential workers that were treated as not being very essential or not treated very seriously and again these are life and death situations there has to be more Public Policy from the federal government what happens if you get sick what happens if you have to go home and isolate what about sick pay what about interest pay like you talked about hazard pay and what are we going to do when there are great at its in theres theres the not many breakouts and many of these. Warehouses and meat packing for instance your United States we need to have testing tracing and isolation the government has failed the u. S. Its in the hands of corporations now and it must be done and must be done fairly because in the end these workers lives actually are on the line and its not an easy problem to solve but certainly just saying you have to go to work youre an essential worker thats not how it should be done ok and was it what is it that needs to be done to sort of shift the conversation for the long term to address these structural imbalances and inequalities that you speak of. I think every every worker every every place of Business Needs to have at least a group of workers because we for the most part are not unionized such as an amazon they have to be part of the conversation what can we do how will you feel safe what do you need to know what kind of policies do we have to put in and so you you can be secure that you can come to work you can be secure in the fact that youll be taken care of if you get sick or somebody in your family gets sick and you have to go home and cannot work are you going to be continued to be paid will you be able to get Unemployment Benefits right there so much are known and again its a fast moving situation but to just say were going to keep working for instance all the businesses close down to regionally all the brick and Mortar Stores closed down everybody went on amazon they were looking to hire 100000 new workers at a time when maybe they should have been saying we should try to send out only essential goods to the public and to try to work with less workers writers that would make the workplace safer but that wasnt done instead theyre making billions and billions of more money taking over all of the commerce in the country at least a good part of it and design walmart target ok doing online orders and so there just wasnt enough you know of course it was a fast moving situation but you cant just say you are coming to work where everybody has to leave it there also via we thank you on that note thank you very much for joining us all the other grettir speaking to us from the u. S. Now italys Prime Minister has apologized for the economic hardships italians have faced as a result of the pandemic the government will begin to ease its lockdown on monday after suffering the worlds 2nd highest number of coronavirus deaths but there are concerns the road to economic recovery may be much harder. Has more. Food on the table and some hope this store run by the clergy in northern italy is helping some of these men and women whove been out of work for weeks theyve been living through the worlds longest and some of the toughest go down measures to see i mean i come here because i dont know how to cope i have no savings i dont earn anything the situation gets worse and worse i cant do anything but come here. Things are even worse for some of the 600000 undocumented mostly african migrants who barely found enough work to survive before the outbreak no food not to not have to do. Not have documents. That almost no good and they have. Italy has endured the worst of the corona Virus Outbreak in europe with the highest number of deaths in the region and now with a fall in the daily number of infections and deaths the government is allowing factories Construction Projects and parks to reopen starting on monday putting 4000000 people back to work but with the limited easing of restrictions has come a surge of anger from people barely coping under the strain of a pandemic and its Economic Cost we dont pay much weve been responsible and staying at home for the last 2 months for 2 months to tell the Prime Minister decepticon to has been the only one speaking and make our decisions social problems are growing also because many of the promises the government made have not materialized on friday Prime Minister just epic contrie apologized in social media for the hardships italians have endured and promised new measures for aid and economic recovery but even before the pandemic italy had one of the highest unemployment rates in the European Union and a large Government Debt and now the euro zones 3rd biggest economy is facing a deep recession i think its going to be extremely difficult for italy to recover from the pandemic in part because it is my performance has been so poor over the past 2 decades have not yet recovered from the 20089 financial crisis and the eurozone crisis of 2012 and indeed italians are scarcely richer than they were 20 years ago when our country joined the euro and that means that the underlying performance of the economy even in good times is weak. During the difficult weeks of the pandemic italians have relied on each other to support the many who have been struggling there are fears that those hardships may continue if its lease fragile economy doesnt recover soon Priyanka Gupta on 0. The former u. S. Vice president and democratic president ial hopeful joe biden has publicly denied an allegation of Sexual Assault the accusation made by former senate aide terror reid threaten to derail his president ial campaign alan fischer reports. It still many to talk about the biting president ial campaign for weeks and it wasnt going away the former senate aide tara reid claimed she was sexually assaulted when she what with then senator joe biden and allegations she only made public in the last few weeks and the allegation biden could no longer ignore no it is not true im saying on a quickly it never never happened who didnt never happened i dont remember any type of complaint she may have made it was 27 years ago and i dont remember nor does anyone else that im aware of democrats have been pushed to address the allegation in the last few days Speaker Nancy Pelosi who endorsed by this week insisted she has no doubts about the former Vice President i have great Comfort Level with the situation as i see it with all the respect in the world for any woman who comes forward. Republicans accuse democrats of double standard saying they were ignoring the allegation against their president ial hopeful while they piled on when Supreme Court Justice Brett kavanaugh was accused of Sexual Assault the for his eventual confirmation more than 20 women have accused President Donald Trump of Sexual Assault he was also caught on tape bragging of assaulting women he denies all the allegations and offered to put support to joe biden at the white house on thursday you know. It could be false accusations like know all about false accusations have been falsely charged numerous times and there is such a thing one political analyst says republicans will use the one allegation against joe biden to continue to attack him one of the things that the trump people do in their strategic. Verse is they dont try to claim to be superior they trying to create moral equivalence so they say youre just as bad as i am which makes you a hypocrite which makes you worse you know and you know its very if that what did your job id knew he could no longer ignore the allegation against him hes ahead in the polls particularly with women hell be hoping by addressing you know will continue to be an issue in the vendors election alan fischer aljazeera Washington Well lets speak about this with Jennifer Victor she is an associate professor of Political Science at George Mason University is is joining us by skype from washington thanks for your time with us on the news hours or how does biden square up what hes saying now which is denial that the Sexual Assaults ever happened with what he said in the past which has an effect that all women who come forward with these allegations should be believed. In a way this is the classic dilemma that democrats are now facing the Democratic Party has been one that has been at the leader of the me too movement in asking members of their party who bend credibly accused of Sexual Assault Sexual Harassment to step down from their positions and many of them have. Now that joe biden the presumptive nominee of the party is put in this position it puts a number of democrats in the very wary position of trying to decide if they continue to back this nominee or if they disrupt the entire process at a very late stage and go with somebody else given that the allegations have been denied and some people are continuing to show skepticism towards them many high ranking democrats and particularly female democrats like the speaker of the house are continuing to back the Vice President and what about reports that seem to suggest that some other Democratic Women senior Democratic Women could be on the biden 20 twentieths ticket so what does this mean for that. Yeah thats an interesting part of this puzzle its been some weeks now since joe biden very publicly in a debate essentially promised to choose a woman as his Vice President ial candidate so if that hadnt happened i would have said that this episode would increase the chances of him choosing a woman but that was essentially already put into place the fact that hes a expected to choose a woman in a way puts even more pressure on him to show his support for women in the party and in the country it could be that some of the women like steve abrams or harris. The governor of michigan and others who whose names have been floated as as possible running mates for him it could be that part of their reasoning for continuing to back him is their interest in essentially publicly campaigning for that spot as that his running mate and for the republicans can they benefit politically from all of this you seem to suggest in the betting that there could be a fallout for the Democratic Party and for joe biden himself. Yeah i mean i think its possible democrats are much more likely to come under sort of hypocritical criticism that if some democrats or excuse theyre asked to step down but if the likes of joe biden are excused or are so forth then the rules of some tout changed but hypocrisy is not new in politics its a natural part of politics and i dont say that in a way to be glib what i mean is that everyones making their decisions about which priorities and to take in which sort of rules to follow at any given time given what they think the alternatives are and in this case the reversion point for democrats is it is a huge disruption to their nomination process and potentially aiding the incumbent president to get elected and democrats are absolutely unified in their needs to defeat President Trump in the fall and i think they are concerned that giving up on biden could significantly detract from that goal right Jennifer Victor we thank you very much for speaking to us thank you of a north Korean Leader kim jong un has made his 1st public appearance in almost 3 weeks according to state media he cut the ribbon at the opening of a Fertilizer Factory rumors have been circulating about kims health and satellite images reveal the train likely belonging to him parked at a resort town in the country several days ago it had been reported that china sent a team of doctors to treat him after a heart procedure. Still to come on the aljazeera news hour theres just too much afoot to go around look at how the worlds excess of oil is trouble for those who make it and sell it the u. N. Urges libyas tripoli based government to agree to a truce but it says its a ploy by warlords have to to regroup details in a moment. Hello again an agreement among the worlds Top Oil Producers to cut out prices now in effect it follows a collapse in global prices spurred by a slump in demand because of the pandemic. Ok but the deal to cut output came with a lot of infighting between the major Oil Producers they met in vienna in early march to work out how to keep prices stable but failed to reach an agreement opec recommended taking one and a half 1000000 Barrels Per Day off the market if russia agreed to cut production as well as russia refused and so opecs top producer saudi arabia retaliated by announcing a production increase instead the price war lasted nearly a month and prices dropped below 20. 00 a barrel moscow and riyadh resolved their differences and agreed to gradually cut production by 10000000. 00 Barrels Per Day american producers may have been hurt most by the price war prices for u. S. Crude collapsed on april 20th and briefly went negative for the 1st time so the arabia and kuwait say theyve slashed their output ahead of the may 1st production deadline so with too much oil now produced and not enough being hughes the questions being asked of where to store it as john hendren reports tanks in the us are failing and refineries need to find a way to shut down. Cushing oklahoma is a small town with a big job in the oil industry it is the oil pipeline crossroads of america and that made it the logical place to become the nations Oil Storage Hub right now were just shutting in wells and doing whatever we can to just reduce production work to the minimal mccree we can now one tank after another stands on a landscape lined with Storage Farms brimming with crude waiting for delivery but with oil at historically low prices the crude keeps flowing in is sellers wait for higher prices and cushing is filling up fast its the Worlds Largest storage and. It has. 6 now you barrels. Of storage our right now there and out so. Everyone scrambled to find space and thats are saying use of ocean going tankers just a little oil tankers with no destination full of oil waiting for better days and bigger prices nearby gas sells for under a dollar a gallon. Its hard to believe that the oil industry could face worse than when sellers had to pay buyers to take this stuff off their hands but thats what happened on april 20th when prices went below 0 but with prices going nowhere and storage filling up fast the worst could be yet to come. With a benchmark west Texas Intermediate Oil below 20. 00 a barrel now and with oil futures not selling for more than 40. 00 until 2022 bankruptcies in shutdowns have already begun is storage rises production is shutting down refineries on average are operating in the u. S. Below 70 percent some could soon refuse to fulfill their contracts to buy oil invoking a clause that makes it known void in case of an act of god virus. Situation. We dont like theory its a major imbalance. A dramatic imbalance with no sign of ending any time soon john hendren aljazeera chicago nigeria is africas largest off producer it relies heavily on oil revenue to support its economy but the huge surplus singable supply is causing further damage obvious there is a high degree strip orts from a. Its been a particularly difficult year for nigerians who are all dependent economy is struggling low prices and cuts in production resulted in huge loss of revenue but more warning for africas biggest producer is the damage the current clucked was do with fuel Storage Facilities the options for nigeria like many small and medium sized produces is to give always oil or shut down some wells. What were 52 days and on president a lot nobody has ever been taken to the beyond but is into storage within 2 weeks thats never happened what it means when countries come back to work ill be so much supply that the demand cannot compensate for that revenue shortfall some all have already forced the Nigerian Government to consider an almost 40 percent cut in this is spending estimate 1000000000 it doubles identity for companies that youve had to shut down can i bring back the wealth if i can bring back do with what happens next so youre better off paying off somebody that you could all but thats not a permanent that judging the current cost of producing a barrel of oil in nigeria is about the same as the market price something produces and experts say isnt sustainable for a long period nigerias oil company then m. P. C. Says its engaging its joint Venture Partners all companies to see how do a father cut production the countrys current output is 1400000. 00 barrels of oil a day and as producers desperately look to shop prices its awful possible that nigeria will be forced to make cuts experts warn that the current instability in the oil market is said to father damage the economy nigeria imports the significant amount of consumer goods including Refined Petroleum products i believe from the party next and mike to me and that much and its. True. That a lot. Internationally. And thats whats much. More important and thats. A little even for an average nigerian a big forecast they could even get worse if the kind of market charge continues for a long time. 10 civilians have reportedly been injured after explosions at an ammunitions that posed central syria in a Statement Released on state media the syrian army said the blast near homs were caused by human error but the u. K. Based monitor says israeli strikes are to blame israel has previously targeted military Storage Facilities inside syria the u. N. Mission in libya has urged the countrys tripoli based government to agree to a truce which was called by warlords qatif a half that the un recognized government initially rejected have to a proposal for a ceasefire during the month of ramadan the mission calls it when both parties to seize this opportunity to media equal military operations resume the 5. 5 joint military Commission Jobs on virtual bases needed it with the goal to reach a permanent cease fire based upon the draft agreements proposed by the mission on february 3rd the u. N. Mission welcomes the initiatives that will allow the libyan people would have or the ranch or the consulate observe the holy month of ramadan peace to michigan urges all parties to refrain from any provocative acts were statements that are the prospect of a genuine truce and its just ended. A chinese journalist has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for vilifying the countrys governing communist party chant iran was arrested and 2018 after posting articles accusing local officials of corruption has been fired from a number of state newspapers before publishing his work online the sentence comes as critics accuse the Chinese Government of using the pandemic to tighten its grip on the media thanks for watching the news hour on aljazeera back in just a moment with much more of the days news coming up your way see that. Well fine for time to turn up the volume on the untold story smelled way you dont know 6 examine the u. S. And its role in the well were going to bomb the taliban in submission and bomb them to the peace table during gunfire coming from that direction were going to go i mean holding the powerful to account doing this room has cancer the nose of someone that lives here this has cancer. Folks lines coming soon on al jazeera i easily test treats and trace frank assessments why is it its only struggling to cope with the number coronavirus patients failure to take really aggressive action really get them behind her informed opinions its going to be much more challenging in a place like haiti where theres one ventilator very relieved people in depth analysis of the days global headlines india done enough to nip the spread of the one of ours in the inside story on aljazeera understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the bomb so no matter how you take it well bring you the news and Current Affairs that matter to you my god. Ramadan a time of spirituality reflection and gratitude raise the flags all the flags every color. The real world well how leo how he reveals the stories behind some of the arab world songs and chants for the holy month this song touched the hearts of all arrows for ramadan songs on aljazeera. In the us the viral drug running death of fear is approved for emergency use as a treatment for patients with covert 19. 0 live from london im dead navigator also a heads thousands of military style weapons banned in canada following the countrys deadliest mass shooting. The Worlds Largest lockdown extended by 2 more weeks but indias government uses some restrictions to keep the economy moving