the immediate face of culture as climate change activists challenge communities reliant on the industry for jobs people in power who will win the cold war on al-jazeera. delivering more dead to a makeshift news spain's coronavirus told surges again infections top 56000. of our on the clock this is our life from doha also coming up a record jump in u.s. unemployment with more than 3000000 people filing for benefits as the economy takes a hit from the coronavirus. one different drugs trafficking the u.s. charges venezuela's president with narco terrorism and offers

a reward for his arrest. israel's opposition leader benny gantz is elected parliament speaker and calls for an emergency unity government. so the number of corona virus infections around the world is approaching half a 1000000 cases in italy and the united states are expected to surpass china where the pandemic started as a virus continues to ravage europe spain is struggling to cope another 650 people have died in the past 24 hours bringing the toll there to more than 4000 the european commission head is calling for a unified response against the outbreak say it's just too much for any one country to handle across the united states nearly $70000.00 people have been infected the senate has approved a 2 trillion dollars package to support the economy as a number of unemployment and a number of unemployment claims as so. was to record 3200000 and india has unveiled

a 23000000000 dollar stimulus package to provide relief for low income families and insurance for medical workers a country of 1300000000 has been placed on the lockdown with 649 cases and 13 deaths reported on my area marta hereto is following the latest developments from madrid. despite the grim figures reported by the health minister officials in spain more than 1500 more cases of corona virus infections and told increase by 600 people in just 24 hours but though these figures keep increasing there is a small window of hope as for the 1st time in spain the number of contagious and best and there is have the creased have to work a strip center here now a 10 percent of this the total of population that are infected by corona virus is not only the health care workers but also police officers and senior garc that are

the ones that are in the front line of the fight of corner virus which are controlling this love down nationwide in spain every people can find at home no one allowed to go to the street lest it's completely necessary going to the pharmacy going to buy groceries going to shop supermarkets and that's all that we can do so all these people that are fighting in hospitals and in the streets trying to control the no one breaks the slow down all these people what are claiming or what have calling for. immediate they're there they're very they're demanding the immediate supplies of protecting gears of of the correct equipment the gloves mask googles in order to battle to develop their duties in the front line of these grown up virus without getting infected or even spreading the coronavirus well in italy the prime minister is warning the coronavirus will cause what he calls a hard severe recession in europe if you so if we come to address

a policy tomorrow and 3rd europe would only be able to face the shock with exceptional measures with italy in lockdown for the last 2 weeks has promised around $27000000000.00 worth of emergency measures italy has the highest number of virus deaths and more than 7500. the european commission president has warned that the coronavirus is too big for any one country to handle alone as to when the man is calling for unity say saving lives has to remain the top priority spain and france are struggling to contain the virus the group has reported more than $600.00 deaths in 24 hours. more than 3000000 americans applied for unemployment benefits last week that's 5 times more than the previous record which was set back in 1902 and it is the latest sign of just what effect the coronavirus is having on the economy businesses all across the united states have been forced to close as cities impose lock downs to stem the spread of the outbreak let's get more now from

kimberly how tos in washington d.c. and kimberly as we've been discussing these are pretty huge unemployment numbers that we're looking at do we expect this to continue. we do expect this to continue yes they're being described as economic carnage and you have to keep in mind this is just one week's worth of jobless claims these are the people that manage to make it out of their house despite the fact that transportation isn't readily available anymore things are mostly shut down in order to file those claims so as more and more americans do make their way out of their homes at this time most don't feel safer in order to shelter in place those numbers are only going to get higher we've heard that the numbers could be in the 10s of millions of americans that lost their job over night that are facing the prospect of not being able to pay their rent their utilities even buy food so that's why you have an effort in the u.s. congress passed in the senate but it still has to go to the house of

representatives we expect that to take place on friday this major package an economic stimulus as it's called meant to flood the economy with cash but also provide direct relief for ordinary americans at least those ones who are making $70000.00 a year or less they're going to get a check we understand is what this is passed into law for $1200.00 a mediately children could get a $500.00 payment but here's the catch in all of this is that we're already hearing this may not be enough to address the problems that the united states is facing as part of virus continues to spread around the united states in fact in the words of one of the top democratic senators chuck schumer he said that he expects that the odds are high that congress is going to need to pass even more measures than what we've seen passed in the senate so far and you can really only unemployment numbers you will be hearing from the treasury searcher and he seems quite dismissive of worms. yeah his exact words were that

these numbers are not relevant tell that to the people sitting at home who don't even have the opportunity to go and look for another job and that's why they're filing these claims that's why this current virus relieve package is expected to pay 100 percent of a person's former salary because in the old days they would be able to go out look for work and get 60 percent of their salary while we sleep right now everything shut down you can't go and look for another job so most americans are not reacting well to the words of the treasury secretary that it seems a little tone deaf given the fact that they really are in a difficult position still the u.s. president is also trying to put a kind of a positive picture on this dire economic news not only does he continue to say that he believes that things could open back up again by the middle of april easter which health officials say seems to be pretty sort of rosy in terms of the picture because we still have reached the peak of proto virus yet but he's also talking about this whole of government response talking about how he's ordinated with the

nation's governors in fact he's already touting his press conference on twitter that he'll be having a 5 pm where he's going to update us on how he's been working with the nation's governors but we should point out he has this press conference every day it's not particularly special but he certainly is trying to make it as such on twitter but again this is something that he does to update the nation on the latest developments in terms of coronavirus again where we see this real difference of opinion between the president's message and the public health officials in terms of optimism moving forward indeed or a community group of men can be how it could be in washington d.c. . now the u.s. justice department has charged the venezuelan president nicolas maduro and several senior officials with drug trafficking tony general william barr announced the indictments against and his top lieutenants are accused of running a so-called narco state and using the proceeds of the cocaine trade to make up for lost oil revenues that speak to a lot of america and it's

a. study by for instance santiago what do you make of all this one of those. it's very hard to see what practical implications this is going to have at least in the short term calling president nicolas maduro a narco terrorist as is 7 is pretty heavy duty pretty hard stuff but short of a ordering the u.s. marines or armed forces to go into venezuela to get him it will be very difficult to put him behind bars as the u.s. administration says it wants to do its offering $15000000.00 as a reward perhaps that's meant to entice someone within the armed forces of it israel which is helping to keep him in power to hand him in. on the streets of venezuela people say that it's just going to be business as usual they're more worried right now about getting food and water and also dealing with the coronavirus and speaking of the coronavirus the timing of the announcement is

rather suspect however because it coincides with the decision by the united nations to give emergency humanitarian funds to all of them a dura administrator should or government state i'm not sure how it's being worded but ultimately it will be to president nicolas maduro to help the country deal with this and this handing me out in israel as we all know has very very very difficult . has and it has rather very short supplies of anything to deal with the health system there there or it was already collapsing even before this happened so that maybe is a way of saying to the world that president maduro is not the right person to give money to considering that he is a quote narco terrorist and any kind of response from the opposition on this. the opposition has been fairly quiet about this because it's trying to come up with some kind of a united front about what to do with the coronavirus whether or not to accept. the

you know how broad and they are and i understand from my sources of venezuela that they are negotiating right now some kind of a deal in which perhaps 3rd parties. perhaps the the people embassy the vatican embassy or a round table that would include members of the opposition and the government could all get together to decide how to distribute the money that the delivery will be coming very very soon to the country all right lisa thanks very much indeed lucy and human reporting there from santiago thank you again let's bring you some breaking news the latest numbers from italy the number of cases and the number of deaths from it and we get these around this time every day and i can tell you that the death toll from kirkby corona virus outbreak in italy has risen by 662 to 8165 by 662 to 8165 and put that into context

context yesterday and wednesday it was it rose by 693 the day before is 743 the day before that it 600 in one day before that 651 and on saturday it was 793 so right now it's 662 so a small drop from yesterday in the total number of cases has risen in italy from 743-962-8053 extension 9 will be dissecting those figures. to go on. all right still ahead here own 00 a surprise admission in new zealand from the gunman accused of not smoking into law school. it has been a very mixed by the picture across the middle east for the last week or so the last

couple of days it's been about the rains impacting southern sections of the arabian peninsula the cloud is all pulling away that mean the rain is also pulling away however not we saw we've seen scenes like this this is 8 in any yemen just look at the force of this water the power of this water at least 2 people have died in these floods and dozens of homes have been damaged but it is an improving picture there is a fair amount of chatter around quite a massive cloud across much of the north all the middle east pushing down in central areas of saudi will shout as well but they're very well scattered through turkey through syria on into iraq nolan western areas of iran we have the very heavy rains but really working away northwards into northern sections of pakistan they'll continue to move northwards on saturday i will say a few more showers as you can see throughout for the most part is a cloudy picture very windy throughout much of a peninsula so not feeling quite as warm as out 27 in doha and then into southern africa we've got one or 2 more showers becoming a little bit more prevalent across northern sections of south africa madagascar

widely unsubtle across northern and central areas also zambia and i'm going to this is going to see the heavy rains for the next 2 days and also some showers fairly widespread throughout much of mozambique. frank assessments the one good thing about these bushfires usage really well going to the politics of climate change informed opinions economy i think is actually what's keeping damo truck afloat right now critical debate sequel of those do schoolchildren know what the law is all about this argument is astonishingly patronize a in-depth analysis of the day's headlines this is the beginning of a new iraq of a new conscious and aware youth about struggle against an ethnic sectarian kota inside story on al-jazeera. woohoo.

alligator watching nigeria remind of our top stories this hour and spain has reported $655.00 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours the total number of fatalities has gone past $4000.00 that the world 2nd highest number after it in the . newly released figures show more than 3000000 americans applied for unemployment benefits last week is covert 900 battles the economy that's 5 times more than the previous record back in 1982. the justice department is charged venezuelan president nicolas maduro and several senior officials with crimes related to what they call narco terrorism and drug trafficking they are accused of running a so-called narco state and using the proceeds of the cocaine trade to make up for lost oil revenue. now israel's opposition leader benny gantz has been elected the

new parliament speaker that's the day after usually it was time to step down after a showdown with a top court it's hopes this will lead to a political alliance between him and caretaker prime minister benjamin netanyahu electron gleans more now from harry for so he joins us live from west jerusalem and hair is interesting isn't it because dan's nominated himself so well you reckons behind this move. we has been pretty hard in the gleaning certainly hard in the predicting benjamin netanyahu has been prime minister throughout this incredible phase of israeli politics over the last year where he's been trying to cling on to power despite 3 now inconclusive elections the fact that he's facing a court trial in may on 3 separate corruption cases and now he's been given this huge advantage by the man who's been trying for so long to replace him saying that he's poison to israeli democracy that the country cannot be led by an indicted

prime minister that has been the brand of benny gantz throughout his short political career and now he's decided to step aside from all of that he says it's because he wants to save israeli democracy that he's acting as a statesman that it's not time for splits because of the national emergency over coronavirus but just yesterday he and his opposition were arguing with benjamin netanyahu as likud over the fact that the speaker had refused to step down had refused to allow for a vote to be replaced by an opposition speaker who could then. engineer a situation in the parliament the knesset for legislation to go through which could have really put the pressure on merging netanyahu and his hold on power that has now been evaporated by benny gantz decision to split with his opposition colleagues in the blue and white alliance take his own party israeli resilience out of that and with the support of netanyahu is right wing bloc be put in place as the interim

speaker the head of a unity government deal the reports are that he's going to get the foreign minister position that benjamin netanyahu reportedly will stay in office for a promised 18 months and then dance himself will take over but there are many people who doubt whether that will happen given the fact that benjamin netanyahu has survived knows every trick in the book many people are criticizing grants for having caved they have voted thanks very much an entire force there in western. now leaders of the world's major economies at the g 20 been holding a virtual summit to discuss a coordinated response to the coronavirus pandemic and a diplomatic editor james bays explains what was discussed these were the summit conclusions released in the last hour they say they're going to work to protect lives safeguard people's jobs and incomes restore confidence in the markets minimize disruption to trade provide help to all countries in need of assistance and coordinate on public health and financial measures i read through this very

quickly of only had it for a short period of time we're telling you there are no figures in here at all apart from with regard to the financial markets where as you know a combination of the measures from the various g 20 countries they've already said they'll inject 5 trillion dollars but what about the things that one person who was addressing them the u.n. secretary general spoke about he spoke about a global ceasefire that's not been a doorstop by the g. 20 he also said this line in his speech to the g 20 leaders all countries must be able to combine systematic testing tracing quarantine and treatment with restrictions on movement and contact and to suppress the transmission of the virus will there's no indorsement of that test of that test testing everywhere and also quarantine and containment where of the possible that has not been in endorsed in the city 20 communique or do they do say that they'll provide all the necessary resources for diagnostics and support to the world health

organization all right let's move on the u.k. government has launched a new scheme to support millions of stricken self employed workers unable to work because of coronavirus those eligible you can apply for a monthly grant up to $3000.00 johns with jackie says the policy is one of the most generous in the world. many self-employed people are deeply anxious about the support available for them musicians and sound engineers plumbers and electricians taxi drivers and driving instructors hairdressers and childminders and many others through no fault of their own risk losing their livelihoods to you i say this you have not been forgotten we will not let you behind we all stand together let's get more from paul brennan who's in sorry in

england and paul self employed in the u.k. have been very worried about this thinking that they might have been forgotten will dissatisfied. i think it will it's certainly the equivalence of want the salaried staff got last week from the chancellor last week you'll recall he promised that salaried staff p a y as it's known here in the u.k. would be guaranteed 80 percent of all their salaries so long as their employers didn't make them redundant didn't sack them as a result of the economic crisis that's run arisen out of this current of virus medical pandemic and the concern was that self-employed people were not getting the same benefits as salaried staff and that is what rishi soon ak who has impressed many observers since rising to the job of chancellor after the resignation of the previous incumbent in that role impressed with his tone impressed with his grasp of the details and so he today as we've just heard in the last hour has come out and essentially given self-employed people equivalent protection he's called it and i

quote the self-employed income tax of all grant and it's 80 percent of the average monthly profits over the past 3 years up to a maximum of the equivalent of around $3000.00 and the importance of it for the u.k. economy is because the self-employed element of the economy is so large 20 years ago it was around 3200000 now it's more than 5000000 people who are self-employed in this country here in the u.k. and their contribution to the treasury is in excess of $360000000000.00 the equivalent of so you can see the importance of those skills that income that those those employees that those workers not simply sitting around on able to to do to work the protection of their skills the ability to keep their businesses going through this very tough time important to the chancellor ron paul what about the general picture in the u.k. in terms of pay for them faith. cases are going up steadily not

in a kind of stratospheric curve that we've seen and it's late but the epidemiologists believe we're not that far behind london is a particular concern and talk of a lockdown persists here although it hasn't been implemented yet as in a proper full on lockdown specific to london because of the large population here and because i think as well many people in london i'm like other areas are less observant of the restrictions that the government has put into place anecdotal evidence local supermarkets myself this morning going absolutely supermarket near where i live people were having to queue up for over an hour to get in supermarkets imposing a kind of one and one hour process and people having to queue 2 metres of parts to prevent tried to restrict transmission of the virus so patchy. picture

some people are observing other people not for paul thanks very much indeed even if it meant pull britain reporting from the u.k. . turning to asia now and while china has started easing restrictions in the region where the pandemic started other countries are struggling to contain the spread of 19 restrictions are now in place in several countries. imports from. china's leaders are continuing their push to get people back to work and life back to normal airports and railway stations have reopened in who bay province where the most drastic locked on restrictions were enforced until this week tens of millions were confined to their homes for weeks in the province which still accounts for the majority of china's 81000 cases nearly all new infections in china in recent days have been imported from overseas with the 20 number china appears to have passed the worst government ministers are reaching out to other countries to lend expertise or. teach all solution to what we fully understand the difficulties of

others and that provide assistance to the best of our ability the chinese government has announced that it would provide 83 countries and the international and regional organizations such as the world's health organisation we emerge and see assistance. southeast asia was on the periphery at the height of the outbreak in china but many countries there are now struggling malaysia has the highest number of cases in the region prompting the government to extend restrictions on people's movements until april the 14th. malaysia suffered its biggest daily increase new cases on thursday raising the infections total pos 2000 new cases are also rising in indonesia but government leaders in the world's 3rd most populous country are stepping up this infection and sanitizing measures rather than keeping people at home this infection and hand washing stations are open in the capital

after confirmation of nearly 800 cases in jakarta coming to the fore side to me at the moment many people in public still remain active there are no restrictions or lockdown mode so we hope this will become one of the alternatives to prevent the spread of covered. you zealand has had its 1st day at its highest level of alert requiring people to stay home health ministry reports of the largest daily increase in new infections bringing it to 73 thailand's state of emergency has tarted up to criticism of the government's slow response leaders have additional powers to implement curfews censor the media disperse gatherings and deploy the military for enforcement more than a 1000 people are reported infected but as most of the world closes its doors china is reopening many tourist sites are welcoming visitors for the 1st time in 2 months if you. think the epidemic is under control this should be

a problem for people to go outside a glimmer of hope from the country which still has the world's most cases but is clearly sending a message that they won't be beaten by the virus to be gopalan argues their own home kong. now the world health organization dr michael ryan is helping lead the organizations response to the growth of ours he told al-jazeera vaccines are coming but it will take some time. and it's going to take at least a year to bring vaccines into the fight against this white house there are at least 30 can that it actually is currently being developed are already under under under trials in fact trials are started last week in the united states and further trials will be starting in china and other countries in the coming weeks that's a massive effort it's going to require a coordinated public private partnership to do that we will get vaccines but it's going to take time dr ryan there's a lot of conspiracy theories out there right now especially due to the rivalry between the u.s. and china has the w.h.o.

been asked to investigate claims that covered 19 was manmade we tend to look for these explanations in situations when we've such a. horrific event but the reality is and this has always been the reality is that we human beings have behaved in a way over the last number of years we've globalized the planet and with that globalization have become some benefits in terms of freedom of movement in terms of economy but we have stressed the environment we have invaded the animal human interface we have allowed diseases to cross into humans and when those diseases do cross from animals to humans those diseases can amplify and poorly equipped health facilities they can amplify in peri urban slums that can amplify amongst stressed refugee populations and then they can spread because we are connected globally so the problem we have right now is manmade the problem we have right now is that we

have left ourselves vulnerable to emerging diseases who the diseases themselves are entirely natural but the situation in which these diseases are spreading because we human beings have created the conditions in which these diseases can spread and cause as you see tremendous damage to our health systems to our economies to our social systems or more importantly deaths amongst those we love that is dr michael ron of the world health organization and you can watch his full interview on talk to our desire which as for the 1st time at $1630.00 g.m.t. per day. in other news the gunman accused of shooting dozens of muslim worshipers at mosques in new zealand has reversed his not guilty plea went and turnt now admits 51 murder charges as well as 40 attempted murders and terrorism the 29 year old australian has up to now denied responsibility for the attacks in christchurch a year ago will be sentenced later use elance prime minister says his guilty pleas

are a smaller preview for victims' families i know that they will still be i'm sure a certain sense of relief. that the whole nation but particularly our muslim community have being speared after almost a trial that could have otherwise acted as a platform. nothing will bring their loved ones back but this is a small reprieve. writers out there these are the top stories in spain has reported $655.00 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours the total number of fatalities has gone past $4000.00 that's the world's 2nd highest number after intimate. well italy's prime minister is warning the coronavirus will cause what he calls a hard severe recession in europe. addressed parliament in rome he said europe

would only be able to face the shock with exceptional measures more than $8000.00 people have died so far in italy from the virus the e.u. chief has criticised european nations for the lack of a coordinated response to the pandemic live on their own says the commission has now created a stockpile of medical supplies to help all nations fight the virus when you're of really needed to be there for each other to have many initially looked out for themselves. when europe really needed and all for one spirit too many initially gave and only for me response and when europe really needed to prove that this is not only a share whether union too many initially refused to share their umbrella but it was not long before some felt the consequences of their own uncoordinated

action newly released figures show more than 3000000 americans applying for unemployment benefits last week discovered 19 batters the economy that's 5 times more than the previous record back in 1982. the u.s. justice department has charged venezuelan president nicolas maduro with crimes related to what they call narco terrorism and drug trafficking used to running a so-called narco state using the proceeds of the cocaine trade to make up for lost oil revenues israel's opposition leader benny gantz has just been elected as parliament speaker it comes a day after uni edelstein stepped down after a showdown with the top court this could lead to a political alliance between him and benjamin netanyahu you're up to date with headlines here on al-jazeera got more news coming up for news hour right after inside story.

the coronavirus pandemic provide an opportunity for relief in yemen on the 5th anniversary of the start of the war the u.n. to use a truce on the return to peace talks what are the prospects of ending a conflict that has destroyed the lives of millions of yemenis this is inside story . hello and welcome to the program. much of the world's focus is on the growing coronavirus pandemic and as the war on.