The pandemic Oil Producing countries reach a deal to cut production in an effort to offset the global drop in demand and prices. The u. S. Unemployment rate has soared to 17000000 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic the countrys economy has been crippled as businesses are forced to shut down in an effort to stop the spread figures released on thursday so 6. 6 millions of americans filed Unemployment Benefits last week alone thats on top of that 10000000 in the 2 weeks before and more than 15000 people have died new york state is the hardest hit accounting for nearly half the total number of deaths and the British Government says Prime MinisterAbbas Johnson is out of intensive care very was being treated for the virus and were going to have more on joe. Ensigns condition in just a moment 1st lets go to john hendren whos joining us from chicago john just a few moments ago the press conference by the corona tasca force in the us at the white house was concluded president something theyre being as usual very positive and trying to be very upbeat about the situation but against this backdrop of these enormous numbers of joblessness coming out of the u. S. Thats right it was quite a contrast rob the president came out saying that the u. S. Was at the top of the hill when it comes to the coronavirus and in some cases going downward but thats not the case when it comes to the economy of and of course thats a lagging indicator here 6600000 new jobless claims 17000000 over the past 4 weeks out of work and filing new jobless claims and an Unemployment Rate of 1213 percent thats a level not seen since the Great Depression forecasters are saying they expect that to go up to at least 15 percent and 1. 00 to 1. 00 said that this is really essentially the Great Depression 2 here in the United States one sign of that is the trouble of the u. S. Airline industries the president did address that in that briefing today he said details will come out over the weekend over the u. S. Aid package for those airlines he said the Airline Industry has hit very hard as everyone knows and we are going to be in a position to do a lot to help them but of course no details on that until the weekend so were looking forward to see what the president has to say on that front john for now thanks very much indeed thats john hendren live for us in chicago Laurence Kotlikoff is a professor of economics at Boston University hes joining us from boston massachusetts via skype we appreciate your time so thank you very much indeed donald trump has been saying that the u. S. Economy is going to come back strong is it. Well i dont think i dont think he has a game plan for ending the crisis because if you just wait for the curb to flatten and then you let people out. There might be better behavior but in terms of social distancing but you know frankly i wouldnt boston when you go to the supermarket people are not that isnt apart from each other they are more often Wearing Masks and gloves but i dont think thats going to be sufficiently protective against this virus and i think if it were the case we would not be not have seen a usual option in china so until we have a game plan theres only 2 ways out of this. Because if you just open things up and the virus spikes again then everybody locked up inside again and this will just continue so i dont. Get it well ah well. This all ends and now we have the greatest depression theres a way i caught the theres 2 ways out one is a vaccine as americans will discover but so what are the other option is your chance to basically everybody every day or are we everybody few years whats called a Group Testing method where you test large numbers of people at the same time you put the swabs together in one testing container and you testing tired batch if you test 500. 00 b. But once with one test and it comes out negative you can release everybody with a green bracelet that is green and are we now in terms collars turns into red and then those people can be operating in the economy were going grandchild being going to restaurants for entire week and then they get we just a so thats a way to contain the virus because the people who dont test on it negative are back in under quarantine for that week and thats how you can really walk up the buyers and ended and also you which has the book come across the border in the same way so there is a mechanism but it requires were seeing everybody to be tested well if they are to be tested the abstain so i so it requires a National Policy in our government doesnt our president doesnt want to is not want to adopt a National Policy he wants to have. Because the states to going him whatever abends you want hes the years so call it what back up thats really the most ridiculous thing ive ever heard as an american arms an economist in a federal crisis like this National Crisis is not a government is be is the back up its not the case that bob is going to stop right on his desk and i think its going to find out in november what people think about excuse let me ask you about that because they dont trump has made it very clear from the start of this that the state of the u. S. Economy has been out. Salut key that appears to have been his focus certainly to those of us on the outside and this state of the American Economy is intrinsically locked into how he sees the performance of his presidency how do you think speculating i know this is going to impact on those elections are going to happen in november if indeed they do happen then well i think. I do think given where we are that if he opens up the economy were going to be back right back where we are now in a couple of months and well go from. Maybe perhaps 80000 people having died by the end of may 2160000 people and all those deaths will count much more in peoples minds then what theyre you know. Fraction that were it were employed when things were going well so. You know peoples attention is going to turn to how and how hes actually handled this crisis and i have to say i think hes handled it miserably in every respect he. He booboo the entire problem hes acted too little too late and hes oh i do too little too late and he has no game plan when there is a very obvious way to deal with this which is your ramp up the testing you do this efficient justing in his really really test of the idea of testing one of the method of testing about 350 people in one batch and they turned out it you know figure out its very successful this is been done with p. C. R. Testing we now have comfortable swapping methods now we can just swap the inside of your nose. So this is where we have to go where every country has to go so i know your broadcast is going out to many many countries so what im suggesting and if people go to college dot net they can see a column theres a couple columns that written that kotlikoff dot net which just drive how this can be fixed and how we can get all the economies of the world back to work right away with testing and of course countries in that dont have great testing out. Potentiality need like in africa need to be helped by. Economies that do countries that do so we have to get into that understand that this is a worldwide problem we have to pool Resources Worldwide lawrence go ahead of the we appreciate it forgive me for jumping and unfortunately time is against us but Laurence Kotlikoff we appreciate your experience on this and giving us the benefit of your analysis thank you very much indeed. Mike boettcher thank you after 3 days in the intensive care unit the british Prime Minister a minister has been moved out hes now back on a hospital ward and is in extremely good spirits according to downing Street Charlie andrea as the latest hes been moved this evening from intensive care back on to the main ward at St Thomas Hospital which is one of the countrys leading hospitals and he said to be an extremely good spirits now this would have been for instance 4th day in intensive care hes 55 years old and he was admitted sunday evening with a persistent temperature and a pacific persistent High Temperature and a persistent cough and he received standard option treatment for 3 nights but he did not need mechanical ventilation and earlier it was reported that dominick rob who is the foreign secretary and was designated Boris Johnsons deputy during his time in hospital had not spoken to the Prime Minister since saturday and that was obviously a very large cause for concern so theres no doubt going to be a huge collective sigh of relief throughout the cabinet and throughout the government this evening and no doubt the Prime Minister will be keen to get back to work as soon as possible soon if hes fully recovered before he was admitted to hospital he left behind some very clear instructions for what was going to happen in this country for the rollout of mass testing for covert 19 for the provision of personal protective equipment for n. H. S. Staff and i have to say neither of those things have really reached that targets yet earlier at the governments chief Scientific Officer said that the u. K. Death toll from corona virus has reached 881 thats the number of deaths recorded in british hospitals today and that brings the total number of deaths to 7978 and the Scientific Office said that it is expected to continue to rise for at least 2 weeks. Its being called the e. U. Is most important economic plan the blocks finance ministers have agreed on a trillion dollar rescue package the fund is designed to help Member States recover economically from the effects of the virus and reports. The rise in new infections seems to be slowing in spain the countrys hospitals though are still overwhelmed and after weeks of loss and more deaths predicted trying to keep coronavirus at bay in public spaces is power amount and residents are reminded they should stay at home that. Spain will remain in lockdown until april the 25th but the Prime Minister says the risk now room for hope that this is not someone i was going to go on after weeks of this fight which has been from the moments agonizing we see how the fire the pandemic released is starting to come under control the figures are encouraging we have reached the peak of coke at 19 and we are close to the beginning of the descent in germany the lock down appears to be working with landmarks empty deserted even you know as. The latest coronavirus numbers in germany are reason for some hope the increase is flattening and the current number of infections is lowering a bit if we count the people who are recovered and those who lost their lives. More than 18000 people have died in italy its squares remain empty the impact of weeks of prescriptions is clear to see for those families hardest hit the government says loan and mortgage repayments will be suspended and there are questions about who will help pay for the pandemic. The thing. Italy is an integral part of the e. U. The e. U. Must show a strong swift and unified response to the repercussions of this pandemic we have to provide answers about politics finance and the economy because this is in all of our interests that does not only concern italy but also spain and all countries that face economic and social problems and those questions are being asked across europe it is grappling with this crisis from the north to the south nowhere is untouched by. The happening deep divisions that are inside the e. U. About how it should be financed days of talks have now resulted in an agreement held by the french finance minister as the most important economic plan in the e. U. History it will allow credit from the blocks bailout fund to go to the worst affected countries until the crisis is over this emergency plan and well shield our economic and social fabric as we dive into a recession. Where house prices abates we need we will need to spur the economic recovery he needs it is imperative that we brought together the many families in Europe Easter weekend which usually market time of togetherness coronavirus will mean many will now spend it apart remembering those who theyve lost and then he would out as there are. Still ahead on aljazeera brazils president grows increasingly isolated as this country tries to stem the spread of coronavirus. Plus the african region thats being awarded will suffer its 1st recession in 25 years as a result of the virus. And of those seen a few severe storms across southern areas of the United States weve got a bit of a breather from that meanwhile more showers and activity across areas tools the midwest and pushing off towards the northeast but it has made for some pretty good evenings this is Lower Manhattan actually towards midtown as well the sun there reflecting off the buildings and then meanwhile across into colorado look at this in a very nice sunny skies in this particular palm things all set to change there and ill show you why not so much on friday its a warm day 21 celsius in denver want to see more showers maybe since honest i was about looking into southern areas of texas and all the while we got some pretty stiff weighing the winds across the northeast pushing particularly towards these coastal areas so maybe some showers in the 4 calls for new york a high of just 13 even cooler in d. C. At just 11 degrees and still the rain on friday quite heavy into these southern areas of california finally by the start of the weekend it really does begin its a clear thing bit cooler in San Francisco with a high of just 18 but that is nothing compared to the temperatures up towards the canada and ushering down into the Central Plains weve got this system sinking south is bringing the very cold air we will see some rain some sleet even some snow and this is what it does the temperature in them so look at this friday saturday 20 degrees and then by sunday down to long with snow. Survival for haitis poorest depends on illegal charcoal production. But for park rangers sworn to protect the dominican forests it can have deadly consequences. Witness discovers the head in world where the stakes for the environment and those who make their living from it couldnt be higher. Death by a 1000 cuts on aljazeera. Youre watching out is it a reminder of our top stories this hour 6600000 americans lost their jobs in the past week due to measures to stop the coronavirus pandemic that brings the total number of people who filed for jobless benefits to 17000000 since mid march. British Prime Minister bars johnson is out of intensive care after an improvement in his condition but he will remain in hospital 2 weeks after testing positive for corona virus. The e. U. Has agreed to make more than one trillion dollars available to Member States under lockdown and fighting the coronavirus the french finance minister has described the economic plan as the most important in the blocks history. Opec and its allies have agreed to a historic cut in production to counter the slump in demand caused by coronavirus the group will cut 10000000. 00 Barrels Per Day until early june that will be followed by a daily 8000000. 00 barrel cuts from july through to the end of the year all prices have plummeted by around 30 percent off the lockdowns around the world cut demand will both cabinet has been a specialist in the oil and gas industry for over 30 years hes joining us now from houston in texas we appreciate your time sir thank you very much for those of us on the sidelines of these negotiations that have been going on plus the implications for the oil industry as a whole why is it so important that we should be focusing on the state of the oil industry in the middle of a pandemic. Well the whole and gas industry globally is a heres a major industry and our economies are horror are based on hydrocarbon. Burning and so the oil and gas business is important to all economies even as we grow in alternative fuels basic transportation is about 70 percent of total oil and gas burn per day per day so youve got to have a strong industry but with the demand then about 30000000 barrels a day now even with the 10000000 barrel a day cut from opec we are still a bit of a drop in the ocean when it comes to the problem of lower demand. How easy is it to understand the skepticism of those of us again standing on the sidelines for it looks as though they own the industry is actually very fighting for its own survival when in fact people are dying around the world and the focus should perhaps be on the medical side rather than protecting an industry which to all intents and purposes is already extremely wealthy. Theres no question that everyone should be focused on controlling the pandemic of cain that is that should be the priority for all societies around the globe but we also have to prepare for what happens after there will be a vaccine there will be control of the pandemic at some point the issue here is that it says specially in places like here in houston were laying off thousands and thousands of employees who are are going on employment and its causing huge upheaval in the economy in the United States and it is globally in other countries is the same same issue so were having to balance those issues. Economics for keeping people employed and keeping people with food on their table versus fighting the pandemic and it is a difficult situation theres no question about it clearly the pandemic has to take priority over Everything Else one of the things thats been key to these new current negotiations is of cours