not cool as can ward sire through china but they'll still be how the shows will suck the storms. that. were illegal or the old. or new or. this is al jazeera. hello i'm barbara sara this is the al-jazeera news hour live from london thank you for joining us coming up in the next 60 minutes u.s. oil prices turn negative for the 1st time in history as the man to dries up and storage runs short. what does the record drop mean for consumers shops and schools reopen in germany one of many countries starting to ease their

coronavirus lockdowns but the head of the w.h.o. urges caution. without national unity and global solidarity. class does. the worst use it to focus. for the 1st time ever u.s. oil prices have crashed into negative territory after the markets benchmark fell more than 100 percent in a day producers are now paying stockpile is to take barrels off their hands as the man dries up due to the coronavirus pandemic and storage runs low this says many european countries are actually starting to ease lockdown restrictions with some shock shutters lifting across germany that mark and the czech republic there's also positive news coming out of it for the 1st time the number of people currently

reported to be infected with corona virus has fallen from yesterday by 20 however the world health organization has cautioned that easing lockdowns does not mean the pandemic is over it's warned that without countries working together the worst is yet to come but let's start with those historical losses on the oil mark market in a massive one day drop west texas intermediate fellah from about 70. a half dollars a barrel to minus $37.00 it was trading at about $60.00 a barrel at the start of the year global demand has plummeted because of the coronavirus really related lock downs and travel restrictions leading to fears over a lack of storage space and this despite continuous attempts to counter the chaos in the global energy markets earlier this month russia and saudi arabia agreed to an unprecedented cut in output of almost 10000000 barrels a day to try to boost the virus markets. let's get more on all of this now

from our economics editor. bit a historic day obviously historically low how did we get here. well but growth we've got to go back to the beginning of the year when the whole crowd of virus and make are basically kicked off in china demand was for him then but so that a few weeks later discussions between russia and saudi arabia fell apart over the next round of conduction cuts which were absolutely necessary at the time just c o 2 bands that bans the marquis's now that particular route is still going on despite we could go both sides coming together and agreeing to production cuts there was also a production cut for the united states canada and norway to participate in which would have taken another $10000000.00 barrels of production out of production now

though the world is oversupplied we are all oil by the tune of about a 3rd or 35000000 barrels a day and that's all because airlines are stopped line people have stopped moving moving around and we've got about 3000000000 people are under lockdown so that has led to this particular crisis but in particular with the u.s. market it's a it's a crises so where do they have caught all that oil that they produce now you remember that the united states was their worlds biggest exporter before this actual crisis actually started and now we're seeing a situation where rigs and doug schoen are being lost in texas which employs a roughly about 10000000 people in the production of oil or oil and gas and used a lot of job losses will be reflected in this week's job numbers when they come out

on thursday remember over the last month 22000000 people have applied for unemployment benefits but this is not just about the united states. price which is . which is the benchmark for many of the global oil suppliers is at $25.00 a barrel and we're in a situation where countries like nigeria have had to turn to turn around to the i.m.f. and the world bank for 4 emergency loans of $7000000000.00 they need to balance their budgets and their balance there but you say about $80.00 a barrel now we're nowhere close to that right now but what is it what are the immediate steps steps here are because of course some oil producing nations the open plus group as it's known had come to some kind of agreement at to reduce their production so that that come to late too late has it not come into place was it not enough and how what action do they take now. well this poll this is probably going

to be pretty startling to many people but reuters news agency was reporting today that that saudi arabia and russia are still pumping oil at record levels and they're doing that to still market share away from each other. saudi arabia has been trying to supplant russian supplies to europe and now they're turning their attention to asia as well so this battle is really still going on it's a hasn't gone away despite at that agreement between the 2 nations and the opec close nations to reduce production by 9700000 barrels a day what happens next well the united states are there right now there's got to be phone calls going on between washington riyadh and and to moscow to say guys we need some how we're taking some of this production off the united states and can

you store it away in your reserves for that for the time being so that we can get a resemblance of our markets back in the united states tomorrow morning everyone will be hoping that the june contract which starts trading tomorrow will stay above 20 dollars a barrel a bit early for the moment thank you for that let's cross the crest and 70 has been monitoring the markets in new york so christine how did the stock market respond to this news. well the stocks fell sharply on monday retreating from 2 weeks of gains in fact on this news energy stocks in particular lead the declines on wall street exxon mobil chevron all down more than 4 percent and of course this crude price this unprecedented negative territory negative $37.00

a barrel you might ask how is that even possible. analysts say that very weak demand coming at the time when the monthly contract was due for prices is what shook things up basically producers are going to have to pay to get the oil taken off their hands because it's abouta is just saying the capacity to store the oil here is not there anymore they're estimating it could be 3 weeks time before there's no room to store anymore or oil so this took a toll on the markets today but they're still up some 29 percent almost from their low point and march the last 2 weeks have seen the markets. on some positive news the thought that the spread of the coronavirus risk reading here in the united states and that there was a promising treatment that might. make things better going forward but still a lot of concern obviously about the economy in the country given the horrible

economic data that is out there. there was concern today that. congress was not able to come up with a new loan program for small businesses that money has been depleted investors were hoping for some news on that it didn't happen and of course we've got 22000000 people now who have lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus so all of this is adding to very volatile market down in particular today with the help of these plummeting oil prices chris salumi with the latest from the stock market in new york kristen thank you. well now john hendren in chicago will look at the economic impact that the oil price slump was having even before monday's fall. across american oil country the pumps are shutting down since the coronavirus locked much of the western world in their homes the floor has dropped out of the oil market is a gas station selling gasoline for 99 cents a gallon now you would think wow that's great and they're pretty well run and there

was a line of people there to fill the course the question is where are you going to go the price of the benchmark american crude west texas intermediate has collapsed from $60.00 a barrel in january to below 20 in the past week across the u.s. the price at the pump is lower than it's been in years big even at rush hour if you are buying the international energy agency says the world's appetite for oil hasn't been this low since 1995 especially hit hard the fracking industry that turned the u.s. oil industry into a net exporter since 2011 fracking companies which break rocks to find fuel meet oil above $30.00 a barrel to make a profit but it's not it's not that just that it will come you know it's the oil service companies it's the little towns in the oil that you know the motels the diners restaurants you know those types of things that the ripple effect is tremendous when you go move out from the all gas company and all the ancillary

companies that provide them service isn't arts and so on i'm afraid it's going to be ugly the 1st casualty came on april 1st denver based whiting petroleum declare bankruptcy if prices don't increase soon whiting will likely become only the 1st of hundreds of oil and related companies to do so right now do you think they're like well if. we're not. going to he may whatever's. day by day situation so the oil industry waits and worries until all the pumps return to service john hendren al-jazeera chicago jeff colgan is a professor of political science at brown university he's also the author of petro aggression when oil causes war he joins us now from providence in rhode island via skype sir thank you for joining us here on al-jazeera were you surprised by these

latest developments or do you think you and perhaps a lot of other people should have seen it coming well i said on al-jazeera about 10 days ago that the price of oil was going down and lo and behold this is what we have but this is partly because of the fundamentals of the oil physical deliveries but mostly because of the financial markets and how investors were holding or oil contracts that come due tomorrow and they suddenly don't want the oil there's nowhere to put it so you say that these contracts are due tomorrow so are we seeing a blip right now the price actually being negative and it will stabilize a little bit after those contracts or how do you see this playing out over the next few days well right now the price for june deliveries of oil is about $20.00 a barrel so it's still positive over that medium term and we are seeing that sharp downturn as financial markets figure out that in fact we are maxing out the storage

capabilities and oil companies will adjust from that so i mean the storage capabilities i guess a lot of countries are trying to get round that because we are expecting a lot of the lockdowns to lift in the u.s. and across the world does that mean that effectively the oil producers could kind of weather this storm because it really is just a matter of you know the world effectively opening up again hopefully in a month or so. well this sharp lower oil prices is temporary but the. prices that are you know positive but still very low that's going to persist and that could be months of that and that's going to do real economic damage particularly in north america where you have this concentrated storage problem and there's almost well there are 2 issues more than 2 but let's divide into what is the coronavirus locked down that of course is blocked car travel air travel and a lot of the reasons why people would use petrol at all and i suppose the other one

is a lot of battles between all producing countries and then over production so if the lockdown eases do we still have the issue of the overproduction right you're exactly right that there are those 2 issues and more it was only 10 days ago that president trump ois trumpeting his masterclass a negotiation between saudi arabia and russia but this is this is what's happened right so this is not the result that he was looking for and yes i think we are going to have continued battles between oil producers where russia and saudi arabia and the united states in particular are competing for market share but saudi arabia has the lowest costs of production and the other 2 are going to be forced i think to cut more than they had hoped to do and there will be bankruptcies in the united states it do you think that those 2 countries i mean russia saudi arabia specifically are perhaps surprised by the fact that now going to you know that now storing the all in such an issue and do you think that that will shape their future

actions when it comes to potential of a production. well we're seeing a big difference between oil producers who have access to the ports and can store their oil on ocean going ships or they can become floating storage versus the landlocked oil producers which includes the united states and russia and canada those of those 3 are going to be particularly affected by the storage problems in the short term jeff colgan professor of political science at brown university and author of petro aggression when oil causes war sir thank you so much for having joined us thank you right well let's cross to our white house correspondent kimberly how kimberly we are of course waiting for the news briefing by the president that he holds every day pretty much about the corner virus outbreak this is and out of legal ng to come up how do you think it's going down in the white

house that oil has reached a negative value in the u.s. . well not well i can only echo what our previous guest said that the u.s. president had earned praise from even some of his critics for what looked like a deal to try and cut the production and get rid reaching to go she was saudi arabia as well as russia but the problem with that is the the sort of cuts in production were set to take place next month and so that did not alleviate the concerns of these producers who saw that they were nearing capacity know that next month they will hit capacity now the other thing that had been reported here in the united states is the fact that there had been reports the troubled ministration was going to pale oil companies not to pump oil and others to keep it in the ground as part of the nation's strategic reserves but again that doesn't seem to have alleviated the nervous markets either now i should tell you that you know the united states has experience shocks are all shocks in the past the 1970 s.

in particular 2 significant ok sions as some members on capitol hill thought they had put in place policies to try and alleviate these kinds of situations from happening again but there really weren't the tools put in place to deal with the oversupply issues that we're seeing right now so washington not just the white house but also on capitol hill is watching this very carefully trying to figure out what to do it this is really compounded for a president who's not only concerned about the impacts in the oil markets but how this will reverberate in the u.s. economy an economy he's trying very hard to get back on track when next month when some of these social distancing guidelines for krone viruses are supposed to subside at least in the beginning phase one stage so this is a real conundrum for this u.s. president he has been repeatedly trying to be the cheerleader beery very sunny about the projections moving forward of the u.s. economy his reelection chances he believes seem to hinge on this so the president

is really in a bit of a pickle if you will that's really in. understatement given the fact that not only has he got this following historic lows in prices in terms of oil but he's also got the surge in unemployment and he's also got the collapse of countless small businesses in the united states it just seems to keep having a domino effect and people keep looking to him for solutions and really he doesn't have the answers so these are the tough questions he's going to have to face this briefing was set to begin at 21 g.m.t. it's now been pushed to 2130 and we're watching to see if this will get pushed back again as the bad news seems to continue for the trumpet ministration as the president said to face reporters and try and provide answers but will be taking it live whenever it does happen and i'm sure we'll be talking again about it kimberly for the moment kimberly halkett at the white house thank you. and coming up on this news hour from london a 2nd night of riots in a paris suburb or

a script lockdown the rules threaten the child's social peace. and brazil's president defends his controversial appearance with protestors on sunday and says he wants social distancing measures lifted this week. some shops have reopened in germany as europe's largest economy slowly restarts public life after a 4 week shutdown to stop the spread of coronavirus only small businesses have been given the all clear to open their doors as part of a deal between federal and state government dominic cain has more from berlin. for many weeks germany has been in lockdown the possibility of inadvertent infection too high to allow most every day life to go on but now in some states many shops are open once more as here in cologne on monday the 1st step by the government to

test how safe it is for economic life to resume that's really fair does she yeah of course it is difficult but if we now ease restrictions then we don't know exactly what the repercussions will be and that's why we have to take it slowly and a step at a time it would be tragic if we knowingly relapsed and if we knowingly endangered these 1st successes. and perhaps because of that fear not everywhere in germany has reopened for business some states want more stringent protective measures in place before opening stores so far at least federally the government is only encouraging recommending people to wear these masks in public but certainly some parts of this country that is changing in the eastern state of saxony masks are now mandatory for people in public and the conservative heartland of the varia is about to follow suit you know when i'm asking for just as of next week we'll introduce

a noise mask obligation this will be in place for all public transport for all shops including those that have been opened all this time we have the 1st station with germany to do this and then there's the dilemma of how to reopen schools safely most will remain closed until early may but some have now gone back to allow teenagers to sit important end of year exams and who lives in the get us. of course i'm somewhat worried the more students there are in the building the more complicated it gets to stick to the framework conditions ultimately we're talking about youths here who might not always been a position to evaluate the dangers 100 percent which sounds very much like the dilemma ministers are facing right now easing restrictions should help the economy but it could cause a 2nd wave of infections dominic came out just 0 berlin. and there's been some positive news out of italy for the 1st time the number of people currently

reported to have corona virus has fallen by 20 but the world health organization has cautioned that easing lockdowns is not mean the pandemic is over it's warned that without countries working together the worst could be yet to come barker has more. morning one of their own medical staff at a hospital in madrid the chief of surgery contract to the virus whilst treating patients. after the silence of. these medics is spain's best hope in the battle to save lives a fight the country believes it's slowly starting to win. arriving in the capital 2000000 protective masks purchased from china by the spanish government they'll be shared across the country helping parts of spain's economy to reopen. builders are back to work some heavy industries operating again. these are carefully

controlled steps spain's infection rate is now stable but the number of people diagnosed with the virus passed 200000 monday 2nd only to the u.s. . the world health organization urged countries to act fast to limiting the spread of the virus without national unity and global solidarity classed as the worst is yet ahead of us let's prevent this tragedy it's a virus that many people still don't understand. the slowdown in deaths in spain and italy has returned some optimism to europe's financial markets share prices edged higher on monday from their lowest since the 2008 crash but businesses are bracing for a lengthy global downturn. in russia the crisis is deepening with

a lockdown entering its 4th week chairing a video meeting with regional officials president putin has warned the worst is still to come. if. the peak incidents is still ahead and now we need to do everything to flatten this pete. the french government says it's making progress restrictions remain in place until at least may the 11th. but there were social consequences to france's strict lockdown rules over the weekend police in youths clashed in paris is poorer suburbs mediators have been sent in to soothe tensions. the u.k.'s lockdown remains in place with the government saying it's waiting for the right data before easing restrictions the country hopes to start clinical trials for a vaccine next week. as countries consider their options here in portugal a reminder of how virulent coronavirus is

a total of $138.00 refugees out of $175.00 house at a hostel in lisbon tested positive there are concerns about infection spreading quickly in other hostels where social distancing is difficult. europe's shouted societies own very different ponds relaxing things too soon too fast could risk a 2nd spike in cases governments are struggling to balance the health of their economies with the health of the people need parka al-jazeera. well india has a population of 1300000000 and the world's biggest lock down but this is now starting to ease workers in health and financial services manufacturing agriculture and public utilities are now exempt from the nationwide lockdown but stay at home orders are to remain in the worst affected areas new zealand meanwhile is extending its months long lockdown by

a week but it then plans to ease restrictions the measures include a curfew and the closure of schools restaurants and bars just 9 new cases were reported on monday the prime minister says the restrictions have prevented what she calls an uncontrolled explosion in infections. let's talk more about the easing of restrictions with mark parrish regional medical director in northern europe for international s.o.s. sir thank you so much for joining us here on al-jazeera so we're seeing countries as different as india new zealand germany denmark all very tentatively talking about easing restrictions and some having started to do so what do you think of this approach where some countries do it some countries don't then even neighboring countries perhaps have different approaches i think i think the approach is very similar to the approach we have seen on how countries have managed the infection and in sic a tit as rioting of restrictions on lockdowns let's look at europe for example

we've seen countries like norway and germany doing a lot of testing and probably getting fairly accurate numbers for the infection they have we've seen countries like spain and italy having particularly restrictive lockdowns of maybe not doing quite so much testing and we've seen countries like sweden being somewhat more relaxed on that what we don't really know is which is going to be the most effective of those and therefore as a crawler e. which is the most effective way to come out of lockdown and your previous 2 reports give some very good examples of that we know how the virus spreads mainly spreads by droplet transmission from a few meters we know what we're telling people to try to do a social distancing the world health organization has put in place some recommendations for things that should be in countries before they look at lock down the reason you're locked down is having the disease well controlled it's having testing in place it's been able to educate the public about it is having health systems that are able to cope with ups and downs as the disease may come

back then it's just how different governments are approaching it denmark opened its kindergartens nurseries a week ago so now we're in week 2 of this other countries will do it in different ways to be honest barbara. we don't really know what the answer is no i suppose it was interesting hearing from w.h.o. cautioning that unless countries work together and cooperate on this then we could actually see the situation get worse and as suppose even if we just look only at europe does it really make sense to open up a country and then potentially increase cases there it do you think that that could then have a domino effect on other countries if or do you think the borders will still remain closed how do you view the sort of more bit by bit approach when that where as we've heard both from the european union and now the w.h.o. say there should be

a more coordinated approach yes and the challenge on all this is how much you can control border movements if you look at a country let's say like new zealand as a good example of that is fairly well able to control flows in and out of the country other countries are particularly european countries which have you know large borders with other countries right next door much harder to control those border flows so you have to take that into account when you're looking at how you are opening things up at the same time as you're trying to balance the impact on your economy against the impact on your health system and can your health system still cope if you have what we call a 2nd wave when it comes i suspect we probably might see some of these little 2nd waves coming back as we sort of learn about what we can open up and then what we need to maybe shut down a bit if infections start going up because although we know a lot about this virus we still don't know everything about it. dr mark parrish regional medical director in northern europe for international s.o.s.

sir thank you for sharing your views with us thank you for barbara good either. well so more still to come here in this news hour including paying a heavy price experts fear greater problems when the carnival overweight population like mexico's and we've seen kangaroos hopping through empty streets of australia penguins out on the town in south africa and now thailand's empty beaches see record numbers of baby sea turtles. that you probably don't want to be in the mediterranean the west the mediterranean the next couple days and that might be the clue why the general pattern is still the cold down the east and south of europe that's a cold front of sensei but the sun's out so on the whole it's not that bad this is

developing into rotating rain spreading all the way from the spanish coast through italy towards the adriatic more or less so rain is the blue it is orange that's heavy red circulation here in the coast of spain is not going to be good but further west inspect imports it's cloudy here and it's only in the teens but it's not quite as well i have to say if you are in london you won't like that when it's been a chilly easterly for days but still the sun is compensating this depicts for wednesday more of a hint of of this rain heading towards its chilly course consol dimia and leaving for example pass the adriatic and spain into the sunny weather at least where the focus around to far as that is raining or wednesday quieten for go on thursday the sun's out on friday the temperatures slowly rising now what's happening in eastern spain usually happens in morocco algeria not still the case the wind is quite strong the coasts are for eastwards to tunis in fact it could well rain all off for

the next 2 days. an extrajudicial killing in a north african capital. i heard someone breaking into our house think of. that i heard people shouting i saw 4 masked men are not only their eyes and hair was showing. a world his red eye witness accounts of the dramatic story of the assassination of major p.l.o. figo was here in a secret israeli operation assassination in tunis on al-jazeera. the latest news as it breaks with. virus volunteers continue to provide the services they go to fight the disease with details coverage. any planning for india . and fearless journalism from around the world for

many coming to this place if the only chance they have to leave at least once a day. the. welcome back is a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera for the 1st time benchmark us oil prices of crashed into negative territory the cost of a barrel dropped from $17.00 and a half dollars to minus 37 during the day it means producers are now actually paying by yours to take it off their hands after demand the dried up fueling fears of storage space running at. many european countries are starting to ease lockdown

restrictions with shop shutters lifting across germany denmark and the czech republic but the world health organization has cautioned that easing lockdowns does not mean the pandemic is over it's warned that without countries working together the worst is yet to come. so let's look at the impact the fall in u.s. oil prices is likely to have in the middle east let's go to al-jazeera some of binge a fight who joins us from doha so someone how is the region likely to be impacted. on a tuesday the middle east is going to wake up to this unprecedented situation for oil producing nations especially in the g.c.c. and they are going to see how the u.s. deputy i'm marketeers crushed one night unprecedented levels 114 percent drop in oil prices in just one night it is going to have a major impact because analysts who we've been speaking to say that this is going

to have a knock on effect on not just make prices but july prices of spent there are some suggestions in media that saudi arabia which was planning to cut production by nearly $10000000.00 barrels a day saudi arabia and along with russia and opec plus is probably going to speed that up and not wait until me deliveries to cut that production so it is going to have an impact on these companies which are blind to what is going to have an impact on immediate impact i mean for tuition in on prices are you see in economies such as oman and behaving which do not have the deep pockets so to speak with their sovereign wealth funds and countries like saudi arabia will feel the pinch because any change in oil prices puts a spanner in the books for the original 2030 where they have planned to diversify their economy and move away from a single commodity economy it is also going to have an impact in countries like

iraq which have been on the front line in the war on terror you will want to be seen iraq appealing to the international community and international donors to provide it provide it but some sort of funds so it can fight the crew in a pandemic we've seen many places in europe which are going without paying salaries for their employees especially state employees and these are not just state employees as we know it in other countries which pier which are bad roads and make sure that the taps are on these are essential employees which are on different lines in the fight against isis so it is going to have deep repetitions for all economies which are. are we. in the middle east. with the latest there on the impact of the lowering prices in the gulf thank you. now an aid worker in the northern nigeria state of borno has died from corona virus the medic from doctors without borders was the 1st confirmed case in the troubled region officials have been fumigating camps in the region because of fears the

virus could spread through them quickly with devastating consequences or no has been at the center of a decade long conflict by boko haram fighters which has forced more than a 1000000 people from their homes. prisoners in south africa are threatening to go on hunger strike after some inmates contracted kovac 19 there calling for the release of those infected so far more than 1000 inmates and jail staff have tested positive for the virus for me to miller has more now from johannesburg. this is one of more than $240.00 prisons across south africa and combined there house around 160000 prisoners cording to organizations that represent prisoners they say there's overcrowding of at least 35 percent there are sometimes between 60 and 100 prisoners in one cell living in conditions that these organizations say are an i.g. make and unsanitary they're concerned about the spread of the coronavirus so far

about 99 people some of them warders others prisoners who've been confirmed to have grown up virus prisoners they say they should be more testing of not just borders but prison as themselves rather than just screening now the south african organization for prisoners or human rights says it wants prisoners released based on certain criteria. for can prisoners organization for human rights demand that 1st time nonviolent offenders must be released immediately and then they often they must look into the release of political prisoners without discriminating about their political affiliation the government has in no way indicated that it's considering the release of certain prisoners but it has said

that it's doing whatever necessary to keep people safe but prisoners say this isn't enough and they want more done and until that happens they say they're willing to go on a hunger strike to get the attention of the government. china has rejected quest questions about its on the stadium hundley the pandemic australian foreign minister marie's pain wants an international investigation into the origins of the fire is and how it spread china's foreign ministry says it has grave concerns over those remarks chinese authorities have been on the pressure over the way that they dealt with the outbreak but beijing insists it's always been open from beijing catrina you has more on reaction from the chinese government. at the end of january there were some voices from one some doctors who tried to raise the alarm about this let's take you to the white house for that coronaviruses task force briefing let's listen to the president as the country are looking forward to phase one in

announcing plans for an economic research it's we're going to have a resurgence at a time when millions of american workers and families are struggling with the financial consequences of the virus it's critical to continue the medical war while reopening the economy in a safe and responsible fashion. during this time americans must maintain strict vigilance and continue to practice careful hygiene social distancing and the other protective measures that we have outlined and that everybody has become very familiar with we continue to be encouraged that many of the areas hardest hit by the virus appear to have turned the corner for example 'd recent deaths are down very very substantially you can compare that with their peak not so long ago and you have numbers of 30 percent 25 percent in detroit as an example it's down by over 50 percent congratulations and in new orleans where they've done

a terrific job the down 65 percent 30 states have just one case or less per $1000.00 people far fewer cases per capita as an example than germany the united kingdom france italy ireland switzerland singapore belgium spain norway the netherlands austria sweden. my administration continues to press congress to replenish the enormously successful paycheck protection program which has impacted 30000000 american jobs we hope to have an agreement very soon and hopefully tomorrow the senate's going to be able to vote a lot of progress has been made on that tremendous progress it's a great plan to great plans helped a lot of people so we hope to have a vote maybe tomorrow in the senate and based on the record low price of oil that you've been seeing at a level that's very interesting to a lot of people we're filling up our national petroleum reserves through t.j.

you know the strategic reserves and we're looking to put as much as $75000000.00 barrels into the reserves themselves that would top it out that would be the 1st time in a long time it's been topped out with get it for the right price. we're also pushing for the deal to include an additional $75000000000.00 our deal they were talking about $75000000000.00 for hospitals and other health care providers many providers and their employees have taken a huge financial hit in recent weeks and visits elective procedures surgeries that cetera et cetera were canceled we think that they can all get back on line get it done the hospitals have really been fantastic the hospitals they've they've stepped up to the plate really denigrates we appreciate it so much for areas less affected

by the virus we've issued new recommendations about how to safely resume elective treatments h.h.s. has also distributed the 1st $30000000000.00 in direct payments to a 1000000 health care providers across the country we've also invested $1400000000.00 in community health centers to ensure our most vulnerable communities including many african-american and hispanic american communities have access to the services and testing that they need. earlier today vice president pence spoke with governors from all 50 states about our unified effort to defeat the virus he had a great call it was a great call very positive and i say every way prior to the call we provided each governor with a list of the names addresses and phone numbers of the labs where they can find additional testing capacity within their states many many labs were providing you with a list we'll show it to you now if you need it will give you the details but hundreds

and hundreds of labs are ready willing and able and some of the governors like as an example the governor from. maryland didn't really understand the list he didn't understand too much about what was going on so now i think you'll be able to do that it's pretty simple but they have tremendous capacity and we hope to be able to help him out work with them and work with all of the governors similar to the situation with ventilators states need to assess their complete inventory of available capacity some states have far more capacity than they actually understand and it is a complex subject but some of the governors didn't understand it the governor is an example pritzker from illinois did not understand his capacity not simply ask the federal government to provide unlimited support i mean you have to. take the support where you have it but we are there to stand with the governors and to

help the governors and that's what we're doing and they have a tremendous capacity that we've already built up and you'll be seeing that we're going to be introducing a couple of the folks a little while to talk about it i want to draw your attention to governor cuomo as remarks during his press conference today said the president is right the states testing is up to the states to do. which will implement the tests and logistically coordinate the tests we have about 300 labs in new york and they do their great laughs actually it's my job to coordinate those 300 labs i think the president's right when he says that the states should lead and the governors really they're really getting they're getting it together in new york a lot of good things are happening in new york and i think the governor is going to come in to see us tomorrow he's coming to the oval office tomorrow afternoon andrew is going to be coming in with some of his people so we look forward to that. the.

some of the articles are just recently came about if you remember they put out a statement today for a month it was all ventilator ventilator ventilator it's all people could talk about was ventilators and. we did a great job with that we built a lot of ventilators to put it mildly we have so many now that at some point soon we're going to be helping mexico and italy and other countries will be sending them ventilators which they desperately need they were in a position they were not in a position to build them themselves but we have thousands of being built every state has had they have the ventilators if they don't we have almost 10000 in our federal reserve our stockpile as they call it and we did a great job with the ventilators unfortunately the press doesn't cover it other than the fair press but so then you say they need ventilators we don't even platers

and that's an immense underpressure we did that nobody that dated a ventilator this country didn't get one and story that just came out how the media completely blew the trump ventilator story i'm sure you love to say that that's by rich lowry respected journalist and person how the media completely blew the trump fent latest or which unfortunately it did and here's another one that just came out . kyle smith the ventilator shortage that wasn't the ventilator shortage that wasn't because we got it fixed and we're also going to help the states by the way stockpile ventilator so if a thing like this should happen again they've got him. the series on testing are all over the place and we're actually in good shape on that have the vice president others speak to you about that but we're in very good shape or testing and we're getting better all the time you can see some interesting things i thought

before i went any further though i'd like to have general seminary it was still an incredible job. tell you where we are you know we're still building beds in hospitals for people that didn't i guess the hospital business generally is getting pretty much closed now but we're creating a lot of a space for people just in case and in some cases they probably will be using them but i thought the general has been so impressive and done such a great job i thought would be half of the. services and on behalf of the federal government if you are it's about what we're doing right down thank you very much. well thank you mr that was president from speaking at the daily coronavirus task force news briefing we will be dipping back into it when questions start in a few minutes will be interesting of course to see what else the president says

about the plummeting oil prices that we have seen in the united states in the past few hours he had sort of put a slightly positive spin on it in his speech just now we will of course cross back to and get analysis from our white house correspondent when questions begin in a few minutes in the meantime let's take a look at some of the day's other news and brazil's president says that he wants coronavirus restrictions lifted by the end of the week the spike the country being the worst hit in latin america on sunday shade of all said that it was seen repeatedly coughing as he addressed protesters who had gathered outside the army headquarters to oppose the lockdown measures governors and mayors ultimately decide when to lift the restrictions nearly 2900 people have died. so far in brazil. and despite mexicans being told to stay at home to stop coronavirus spreading sunday was the country's most violent day of the year so far $105.00 murders were reported

while april has seen an average of 84 homicides a day analysts fear that the slowing economy will lead to more extortion and kidnapping by mexico's cartels and criminal gangs or mexico's government says covered 19 will soon hit the country with full force with the peak expected in may health officials worry that xico high rate of diabetes and obesity will lead to an even greater health crisis john holliman reports. mexico's government says that in may it expects to go into its own red zone with the call that pandemic with an explosion in infections and the health system stretched to breaking point. and it knows it's heading there with the weights around its neck. that's because 70 percent of mexico's population is a big one of the highest proportions in the world and one in 7 adults have diabetes scientists say both high in the risk of complications or death from co that 19. in

mexico city gabrielle says he fears for his son even as they both tuck into tack rows that by you have a body as a kiwi that it i try to get him to do exercise but unfortunately right now he can't go but it's very very very wearing for those who are overweight as we're going through this outbreak. is a little some of the country consumes more a trip processed food than any other in latin america and a massive $300000.00 people die every year from illnesses associated with diet. to put that into perspective it's 9 times the amount killed during last year's record levels of gang fueled violence. now the krona virus not slow burning obesity epidemic coming together there's one. good for that says health expert simone bucket or a sin damage and one that makes crews prepared for. our particular problem is that we have less resources i mean

a country which is very highly populated one of the highest in the world without the resources of other countries and with this journey of obesity and other chronic illnesses to get it we coded stuff or to resolder. far less intensive care beds per capita than almost every other major nation in latin america if the millions with diabetes and obesity here get the virus that spells trouble this isn't something that just become an issue now of components have been trying for years to get the government to impose tougher regulations on junk food and they've had some success attacks on fizzy drinks for example and just now a new labeling scheme for alter processed food but powerful trans national companies have fought them every step of the way. and with the current virus already here the country is running out of time to take the tougher measures which could have helped blunt its impact. john heilemann al-jazeera mexico city.

well the curve of virus lockdowns have been drawing wildlife into the abandoned streets of many cities around the world alone kangaroo was seen hopping through empty streets in the australian city of adelaide and south africa penguins were spotted going for a little stroll in here cape town and thailand this seeing a record number of baby leatherback sea turtles hatching on its quiet beaches tourist numbers have dropped nearly 50 percent in thailand which has allowed the totals to come ashore and lay their eggs safely. now israel's year long political crisis has come to an end with prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his main rival benny gantz agreeing to form an emergency coalition government the pair issued a joint statement saying they had completed a deal to steer israel through the coronavirus outbreak the agreement prevents a force election after 3 inconclusive votes the government will last 3 years with

netanyahu serving as prime minister for the 1st half and benny gantz for the 2nd opinion now is due to stand trial for corruption but the nies all charges harry for said has more now from west jerusalem he says that are now has been strategic in securing this power sharing deal especially when it comes to his corruption trial. people in this country very much sick and tired of this ongoing grinding crisis 3 inconclusive elections it was 7 weeks ago this very evening that netanyahu was celebrating what he said was a sweet the sweetest political victory of his career only to find that the numbers didn't quite tally up in his favor and we've had all these weeks where everything of course as changed as far as what he's got out of this deal though he's got the most important thing which is his continued presence in the office of prime minister the most powerful place he could imagine to be and to try to fight off

this corruption case which is due this trial due to start in may he also has veto power over the appointments the senior appointments the judicial appointments through the judicial committee that's something that could be important in that fight as well and despite the fact that this is being sold as a coronavirus exclusively coronavirus government for the 1st 6 months at least in which no other legislation is supposed to be passed he's also secured an agreement which would allow him to push through from july the 1st with agreements and coordination from the americans and accession of large swathes of the occupied west bank the secretary general of the palace in palestine liberation organization saberi catus of any government a coalition that is based on this move towards an accession is one which will only bring greater threat greater instability to the security of the middle east. afghan

officials say $29.00 soldiers have been killed during a series of taliban attacks on checkpoints across the country the taliban hasn't claimed responsibility for the attacks which come at a sensitive time for both sides the afghan government and the taliban are exchanging prisoners as part of a historic deal signed by the u.s. and the armed group 2 months ago. at least one person has been killed during the renewed shelling of libya's capital by forces loyal to the warlord holly for have tired. video shared on social media shows rockets hitting a residential area on sunday after is 4 says have been firing on homes for the last week it's in retaliation for losing strongholds in western libya as forces from the u.n. recognize government continue to make advances. the number of people killed in canada's worst mass shooting is increased to at least 18 people including

a police woman the rampage began late on saturday in the province of nova scotia when a 51 year old man disguised as a police officer started shooting people in their homes and setting houses ablaze he was eventually killed the motive for the killings is not yet known. such a tragedy should've never occurred by a lens of any kind has no place in can. we stand with you and we grieve with you and you can count on our government fulfilled court during the use incredibly painful time. at least 12 people including police officers have been killed after flash floods left a trail of destruction in western kenya at least another $22.00 people are missing and thousands displaced homes schools marketplaces and a police station have been the steroid kenny is already dealing with a coronavirus pandemic and a locust plague that's it for this news hour stay with us i'm going to be back in

just a few minutes was one of the best things that's for watching. every generation has a higher purpose. ours is. in the far reaches of the new siberian islands gold rush fever is in the hands of the hunters searching for priceless woolly mammoth tasks of on earth the holy grail. an

incredible journey into the realms of science fiction where cloning and synthetic biology have scientists playing god. witness genesis 2.0 the hunt for the woolly mammoths on al-jazeera. dissolute mother waits on the border between ukraine and russian occupied crimea. for news of her missing son. numerous young country men have disappeared following the arrest these disappeared other victims of a crackdown on the top population of crimea by russia since its occupation in 2014 . before the invasion of 2014 crimea was a part of another country ukraine we formed when the soviet union broke up into separate states but many russians including the president vladimir putin were unhappy with this. russia is determined to keep its alleged abuse of human rights

away from public scrutiny. as the only indigenous group still can lead opposing occupation russia sees this muslim minority as a threat. the bottom of the barrel u.s. oil prices turned negative for the 1st time as the man dries up and storage runs short so what does the record drop a name for consumers. barbara starr you're watching al-jazeera live from london also coming out shops and schools reopen in germany one of many countries is starting to ease their coronavirus thought that it's. violence or.