this is al jazeera. hello i'm still raman you're watching the al-jazeera news our live from our headquarters here in doha coming up in the next 60 minutes yemeni separatists declared self rule in the south but the internationally recognized government calls it a catastrophic move. a clean bill of health china says no coronavirus patients left in hospital in the original epi center also children are allowed to play out in spain for the 1st time in 6 weeks as restrictions are east. and brazil's president is facing new security scrutiny after his sons are implicated in

a criminal scheme. actually. the show must go on the ramadan home entertainment for iraqis in isolation. into the news are good t.v. company separatists in southern yemen have declared self rule breaking a deal signed in november with the internationally recognized government the agent based southern transitional council declared a state of emergency saying it would govern the port city and other southern provinces the yemeni government is calling it a coup against the government itself the s.t.c. is supported by the united arab emirates the saudi backed yemeni government government warned of dangerous and catastrophic consequences. well the crisis in yemen has many dimensions it's fraught with both domestic and regional power

struggles the war is rooted in the arab spring uprising of 9 years ago longtime president ali abdullah saleh handed power to his deputy but the rebel man sort had the that failed to bring much hope for stability the hooty movement took advantage of being $1000.00 divisions and separatist ambitions and tensions rose on a regional level between sunni ruled saudi arabia and shia ruled iran which is accused of backing the who tease a saudi u.a.e. coalition began its military offensive against the who had these in march 2015 and that was only supposed to last a matter of weeks and western countries fear the threat of attacks from al qaeda and i still affiliates based in yemen simon maven is a senior lecturer in international studies at lancaster university in the u.k. he explains how a number of different groups of trying to increase their influence in the country. i think it's an interesting if all together and surprising so developments i mean

those people who've been watching yemen for some time will have known that the s.t.c. have got these these broader us peroration to close a section they want to break away from the states and stop wish their own state but with regard to what actually is happening on the ground i think that the situation is far more complex in terms of both the opinions of yemenis in the south than the extent to which the s.t.c. of this of the transitional council can exert influence over these different groups but also with regards to the broader geo political dimensions of the conflict with regard to 'd to the be a morality support for the s.t.c. which pits it against. the back because of the hoodie government saudi arabia and that's it that's a pretty fractious rivalry there starting to brew that the yemen has been struggling for the past 9 years or so now yemen has really suffered from the uprisings in the un rights that were brought about by the arab uprisings and it's

really struggled in the in the 6 years since the war started and has really opened up a vacuum so it's essentially it's a vacuum within a vacuum right now because you have all these different competing groups not only the political groups but then also tribal groups religious organizations including their affiliates and all of these different actors are trying to vie for him florence. or the top story of course is that the corona virus toll is still rapidly climbing in many countries but china is marking a new sign of improvement it says that all patients have now been discharged from hospitals and the original epicenter well health officials also now god an 11th straight day with no deaths anywhere in china heard reported more than half of the country's total cases and nearly 85 percent of the national death toll residents there are still being tested regularly despite a relaxation of lockdown rules also

a clock has more from hong kong this is the epicenter of the initial corona virus outbreak and of course engendering we saw this particular city sealed off was and generally 23 when live 11000000 people went into lockdown for about 3 or so months it was only when the numbers started to drop that they lift that particular lockdown so in january february at the pick of this particular virus outbreak in we hand we have the likes of thousands of cases being reported on a daily basis of course we had accounts for half the national total of coronavirus cases in china and 3 quarters of china's deaths but instead of we had the medical efforts are now being deployed elsewhere we've got the cases on sunday the national health commission's reported 11 cases and 5 of those have come from a particular region in the north of the country that's an area called helen jiang province and this particular province borders russia it's about 4000 kilometer a border there and as a result this is now the new battleground because of the cases of the surge in infections in that particular region we've got

a number of cities that been put in lockdown we've got public transport it's been postponed or held for a period of time and this type quarantine restrictions in a number of those cities and we also have mandatory testing for all arrivals coming from russia into china certainly china is now looking to deploy medical teams to this particular region as it sees a surge in the number of cases. is a professor in the school of politics and international relations at the university of nottingham also in the u.k. he says the chinese communist party is doing everything it can to shield itself from any blame for what's happening. the chinese communist party hauls. a quote unquote monopoly off fools and that means. the communist party basically by default whatever they say must be true and whatever is reported that kind of counters that official narrative by default must be fought and saw based on this understanding i think it's quite clear that we must not trust the

carpet 19 statistics coming out of mainland china we need to be quite careful when we draw like comparisons to other countries it's all good to hold for example the british and u.s. government to account for their let's say a belated response and i think that criticism is being articulated day by day but when it comes to mainland china. as this is the origin of the corona virus outbreak and this is of course something that secretary sitting is. perhaps ashamed ops and so the highest it has been going into all the drives to kind of deflect criticism of this fact and they're now increasing reports that. conspired is actually orchestrating a global this information campaign courageous chinese citizens are attempting to kind of break through censorship but unfortunately just yesterday we learned that.

some volunteers in china tried to document what really happened in and that they've been harassed by the authorities and so let's bear in mind health professionals who just wanted to share information with other professionals like dr levy when young they they couldn't speak their mind and on his deathbed he said china should no longer have censorship and citizen journalists would try to report from the front lines like to ensure sure needs of us they were immediately caught and and gagged. or britain's prime minister is due back at work on monday 2 weeks after he was in intensive care boris johnson facing criticism of his stand his government's handling of the crisis including critical shortages of personal protective equipment for health care staff and the lack of testing public calls to ease the long also increasing hole is in london with more on what boris johnson can expect as he gets back to work he returns to the helm of

a country. currently in its 2nd 3 week period of severe restrictive lockdown measures that has reached the peak of its epidemic but not yet seen a steep decline still posting perilously high numbers of new infections and fatalities passing the 20000 person mark hospital deaths that is on saturday there is still persists and shortages of personal protective equipment for frontline health care workers a government target to hit 100000 tests a day by the end of this month looks a long long way away still and there are louder and louder calls on the prime minister on the government to give greater transparency about its plans for a timetable for an exit strategy the opposition is saying the public must be kept in the loop about how and when the lockdown will end business community leaders and even senior figures in the prime minister's own party is saying it's got to end very very quickly if we're to avoid destroying the economy altogether so he's got

a lot of things that he's got to work out presumably the most important priority will be to try and figure out how to communicate to the british public quite what is going to happen next and in order to do that he's got to resolve that central sort of predicament whether and to what extent on the one hand to follow the calls of business and those in his party to end the lock down to save the economy and on the other hand whether and to what extent to heed the rather more cautious calls of the scientific and medical community who say now is not the time the numbers are still too high. well over the past few weeks i've been speaking to a range of voices from across the u.k. who have different experiences of the lockdown so let's speak to peter downey he lives in the city of chester in the northwest of england peter good to have you with us on al-jazeera your you work in construction and your company and your management team acted very quickly when they saw there was a problem with corona virus when they were on holiday and maybe in directly saved

your life to. yes so. no 22 directors were always in. france you know you switched florida. in the draft it was in under order and there were this is about 11th 12th of march and they were quite concerned that we're finally in those countries and i couldn't believe the then things hadn't happened with ourselves. so they were sending e-mails back to the business to say we had to take certain measures and by the time you arrived back in the country we kind of they should've i think it was 4058 and they come on the planet would set everybody their business and that. you know we don't would isolate basically work from home sort of this is a week ahead of the of the law. and you know yes possibly it could save my life on the basis that i was

a vulnerable person you know how to quadruple bypass 10 years ago and i was listed as possibly one of the people who would have to i select the 12 weeks because it turned out that that wasn't the case but i was fortunate because one of the directors that did come back that isolated himself as well he in fact had a mild. version of the virus in his subject with it actually was this so if we've all been mixing together your office before the destruction of lockdown and social distancing that could have been. difficult for me indeed and of course you work in a construction industry that's had its own ups and downs over the past 2030 years you have much experience of that how difficult has it been for you to actually organize furloughing the company and saying goodbye to colleagues for an indefinite period of time. you know that's really strange i mean i think when we 1st show not

a word further we all rushed to google to see what really meant. and it was possibly surprising that chance to come up with a plan that athlete better than most countries plans and for that i think we should be grateful it allowed patients to. check stock of how they could survive and basically last call themselves so we could come out of it and the other side who know where not will be. but we're certainly a better position to do that with a 3rd of the machine. we have a lot of it's a labor intensive company you know we had 5060 people in the business and it was becoming impossible to guarantee their safety so the business had to. should itself down and then suddenly a 3rd came along and the caves i think are why fine indeed let's talk about chester the city that you live in it's famous for being

a roman golf that tudor victorian georgian rich history it's a tourist trap all of those people visiting the united kingdom tell me what it's like to live in your road right now and what your city looks like. well it's exchange dramatically i mean hard to say i haven't had probably 3 in isolation but . the streets full of cars and. people you know you see people walking but it's so quiet there's no traffic hardly any deliveries. chester he's our city pictures and. it's quite surprising just you know you could call to check on a saturday and. you shoulder to shoulder with everybody it's not betty who come into a very busy time of the year when a lot of tourists and well tourists from all around the world visit chester and interests it's just. you know sad to say. you know the way the city is

at the moment indeed i mean you've as you say had to isolate along with your wife elizabeth but it's been difficult perhaps to see your extended family things that clearly in the flash. yes i mean the hardest only i have 2 granddaughters. to florence and they're. they're sort of 4 year olds so they're just starting to really recognize what's going on around them and no one lives quite close by heidi and she just slow to ride a bike so they take the time out you know sort of their one hour exercise and they're not far from a slickly chamish by a private way so their visit and the sound of the complications while we wait until the window moer granddaughter florence she's on the loose or chest so while she said you're on a bike as well it's not as easy to get across so we've shied. whose face time and

it's 6 it's been wonderful to be able to still see the same time heartbreakingly not not to be able to hold them and that's probably one of the hardest things we found because as grandparents. i mean you just enjoy your grandchildren so much and we did see you know a lot. and not to see them in person is difficult i'm sure and of course it's difficult at this moment in time in your story reflects that of many millions across the united kingdom peter downey thanks very much for joining us from the city of chester anyway i think you thank you well spain has recorded its lowest death toll in 5 weeks 288 people died in the past day as the number of new infections also dropped it's raising hopes that spain's strict lockdown restrictions are beginning to pay dividends. but some parts of that lockdown are

being eased millions of children are being allowed outside to play for the 1st time in 6 weeks but it's only for an hour and they must be accompanied by an adult and stay within a kilometer of home and public parks remain closed spain has the world's 2nd highest total number of infections after the us and europe 2nd highest number of fatalities behind italy marta heroes more from the spanish capital this is a big relief after $43.00 days of street lockdown children under 14 are able to go out for a walk only for one hour one kilometer away from their home and back and with one adult each adult can take at least 3 up to 3 kids of the same family so what we've seen today the big picture in spain have been all these parents with the kids with their bicycles with the scooters we've seen plenty of police patrolling drones warning all the parents and the kids to keep to keep the safe safe safety distancing and. plenty of kids and all the parks are closed in spain on the

playgrounds of course so the access is impossible so these kids have to to exercise or to walk with their own by their own means and with the parents so there are scientists spanish prime minister yesterday said that if this continues this slow down trend continues according to 2 ministers sources in the past 34 hours we were just at the lowest death toll. in a month 288 new fatalities in the past 24 hours and 1700 new infections if this trend continues next week and we can see don't point out to sect to exercise individually so we might have another picture as well. aaron valentine is a clinical psychologist at syndrome medicine she says a gradual transition can help children adjust back to normal life. well there's a number of different ways that children can be impacted in a lot of it will depend on the child's temperament and personality and how their

family is handling the lockdown but certainly time away from friends all in their routines can be quite disruptive stressful and then with the news about corona virus not understanding everything can also be a bit anxiety provoking so i'm sure they're looking forward to some opportunities to be getting out now in spain it's probably not enough but they still start out slowly anyway you know the changes can be overwhelming so starting with this 111 see helps children kind of ease back into different routines and different schedules and i think you know different children might be really excited others might be a bit anxious so it gives that little bit of flexibility there for children come out slowly and starts to see what's going on as well see maybe see friends while they're walking on the streets it won't be enough but it's a nice start well i think it's

a really nice opportunity now for parents to be having some mindful conversations with their children about what they want to do in the coming months making some plans together about how to return back to routines that they liked and maybe incorporating changes that worked out really well for them in the in lockdown or important he inhabits that they develop so it's an opportunity to really plan because the doors are actually being opened in one day. italy has reported 260 deaths from coronavirus its lowest increase in 6 weeks it comes as the government prepares to ease restrictions put in place to stop the spread of covert 19 italy has more than 197000 cases and $26000.00 deaths confirmed a nationwide lockdown was imposed on italy's population of $16000000.00 at the end of february and the current virus response coordinator for the us has warned that

social distancing measures will be necessary through the summer months brooks said the approach is a result of tracking local cases carefully if you look at houston if you look at detroit and you look at how they reach their peak and come down and what those cases look like as they come down it gives us a great hope when you project out boston and chicago and certainly the new york metro which we're all very still focused and then looking at seattle that never really reached a peak and has never really had a large outbreak and trying to understand what we can do as a people to ensure our social distancing will be with us through this summer to really ensure that we protect one another keep us government has sent 200 medical workers to south africa to help treat virus patients 86 south africans have died and around 4000 cases are reported now cuba has at least 1300 cases of its own the

government leaders in havana say the situation is under control the communist cuban government sends medical teams to many countries and import into matter for its impoverished economy and hundreds of venezuelans trying to get home from colombia are stranded on the border it's closed because of the virus threat many say they're having to sleep there and haven't eaten for days maybe $5000000.00 wayland's have fled in the past 5 years because of collapsing economy. yeah i got 8 days ago my girl and i had been almost the whole time without food we haven't be the same heart it doesn't matter if we sardines or tuna that doesn't matter to us we venezuelans i want ears we want them to let us pass together sade and give us the hope that we can return home now i said only a group of about 200 venezuelans passed by 1st but they left us here without an answer and as well as foreign ministry has given up on says we've traveled for 2 weeks walking riding on mules we did the impossible to get here. the argentine is

partially relaxing the nationwide law but it's also extending restrictions in large cities by 2 weeks schools at universities and restaurants and most government offices will continue to be closed but going for a walk is allowed all restrictions have been lifted in communities with fewer than half a 1000000 people. and businesses around mexico are rallying to help make masks that frontline workers want laser cutting for is focused almost entirely on lost doctors and nurses in mexico city many hospitals are facing shortages of vital protective equipment as cases continue to rise mexico is around $14000.00 confirmed infections and health workers and i could all have apologized for telling a woman her sister had died of the virus then she found out she was alive and recovering in hospital 74 year old. was admitted to intensive care last month relatives were handed what they thought were russian is the city's health system

has been overwhelmed by the number of deaths from the virus let's get more on this war latin america to tell you see anyone who's in santiago in chile let's just begin with ecuador lucier that those numbers are increasing in the country abnormal number of deaths in comparison to previous years and it seems a lot of medical mistakes along the way. there is a lot of chaos and confusion like the case of the 76 year old woman who awoke from a coma does and her family discovered that she was actually still alive this is not the 1st by the way of these cases a lot of people have been given back have been given bodies and realize that they were the wrong people that they were mislabeled there are are really horror stories now of bodies accumulating in bathrooms in some hospitals because the morgue can no longer take them and then top of that now we've just heard from the official of from the health ministry that there are at least 20000 infections this is twice the

amount that it originally been estimated and the reason isn't so much that it's doubled overnight it's just because they're beginning to get some of the results back from the testing and the testing has been extremely low in ecuador so it's believed that the number of infections and of fatalities is up to 15 times higher than what was originally believed or at least announced and the president has in fact admitted as much so it is an ongoing crisis that many people as i say are describing as a horror film and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere even though the government says that the peak has started to subside but there's really no indication that that is true since they haven't been doing sufficient testing and of course in brazil mixed messages really for the public on one side they've got the president done playing everything and yet physically the hearing musgrave's being dog. absolutely the president is on a collision course with the governors it's

a federal system as in the united states and the governors are calling for a complete lockdown in many many states while the president is asking everyone to go back to work one of the places that where we've seen the worst cases is in mine now that is the gateway to the amazon in brazil it's very hard it's very tropical just like why you're killin ecuador where we've seen the highest rate of fatalities and infections and in man hours the hospitals are practically overwhelmed at this point they can't take any more cases the peak hasn't reached yet and they are digging and digging graves many of the drink grave diggers we are being told now are also dying from the infection so it is another chaotic and horrific scene in that country as well. which we see in human a lot in america editor in santiago. still ahead here on the news our fears are food crisis will get even worse in zimbabwe as it extends a nationwide lockdown and

a test of faith during the pandemic churches reopen in south korea for the 1st time in weeks so stories on the other side of the break illegal. yet another front which you can't really see what is this cloud here has been drawing warts and dusty around the empty quarter to qatar to the central part of saudi arabia and then it will be replaced by a breeze that comes in after so 40 on sunday down to $35.00 on monday occasional showers maybe a little bit there's not much on the frontal system a few showers left in the top of it all and that's really just in the in part of iran so the whole of the review that you're back to the levant it's relatively warm the wind being the dominant feature here sometimes it's dusty and strong and now it's cooling down again or dying down i should say it drifts or up to 24 rocker up

to 27 and even in turkey with the showers it's warming up now the far north of africa this cloud shows the luckier shastra area and tunisia sorites this hour of course is generally dry these hot winds are bringing dusty conditions into egypt the showers further south and after a make it up a long way nando's and tiger and betty for example the temperatures in the saddle are into the middle forty's now that is the average but even here in mena for example we're degrees so above the average where she would necessarily expect expect showers further west to reach the artery coast hardly surprising in fact the forecast next 3 days damage on the westward. in a war torn city in iraq a medic documents the stories of the survivors recording best hopes and dreams for a peaceful future after american troops withdrawal. but the conflict is far from

over. he turns the camera on himself when i so take control and his family off forced to flee no where to hide a witness documentary on al-jazeera. in countries like mine people have been killed to be really united states have privatized the ultimate public function war this was a deal with saudi arabia things were done differently saudis other arabs when they came to britain to be told to help to pass bombs do all you will rumsfeld was meeting saddam isn't that interesting the shadow on al-jazeera.

talk about you want to know is there a new czar with means the whole rom the reminder of our top stories yemen's government is warning of a catastrophe after southern separatists declared self rule and said they were in control of the port city of aden the southern transitional council is accusing the government of mismanagement and has announced a state of emergency. trying to says all coronavirus patients have now been discharged from hospitals and we found the original epicenter of the pandemic beijing is also reporting no new coronavirus deaths for the 11th straight day and spain has recorded its lowest daily death toll in 5 weeks 288 people died in the past day as the number of new infections also dropped. police in brazil are investigating president diables nora's sons for their roles in a criminal scheme that spreads fake news it's part of an ongoing probe about false

stories targeting judges well last friday justice minister sergio mora resigned over what he calls political interference from the president and that followed paulson r.-o. sacking the federal police chief well geraldo zohan is a brazilian affairs political analyst and author and joins me now via skype from sao paolo good to have you with us on the program how much of a head on collision course is the president on with other members of his own party and how much support does he have. well this situation is so unique that the president the president resign his own party his is now that he is party less. but he's certainly in a collision course with members of congress there's a lot of talk about impeachment and this past friday pick up a fight with his most famous and most well known minister the minister of justice such a model which was of course famous for the carwash corruption scandals for sending

to prison famous politicians most famously former president lula losing that suit so he's on a collision course with a lot of people and he's made no secret for example of his skepticism cave at 19 but do the sort of rising infection rates and the science see the public turning against him in addition to the health minister being fired and the justice minister resigning. well the struggle with the health minister. let the health minister being fired 2 weeks ago it's a drama in itself that the health minister had that mean following. show recommendations and policies and those were not had been downplaying dependent mc much like to sort of a. sick version of what trump is doing in the us the also not who came to t.v. saying the disease was not feigned that the virus was not saying that we should

only care about the elderly other people should go back to work. in the struggle with the governments around brazil we are in a federalist system so governors have a lot of say in public health policies governments have been taking more strict measures. and those are not as main downplaying that hoping to not to have such a large economic impact that's going to look bad on him in the next couple of months if it is it hard for an analyst. or puppet kind of jump in is it hard for an analyst like yourself while everybody is in lockdown in brazil to analyze that the public mood to analyze what the public feel or saying what all of those that you are in contact with saying about how they feel at the moment about the way the president is acting. well we we do have. some research institutions doing research on the internet on twitter and things

like that so not a has hit bottom specially after what happened this friday they probably have support of like 20 percent of the population but we're in a new post true fake news environment you still have people spreading means and spreading news there's a lot of debate there's a lot of signification of cases and deaths. so there's a lot of people still actually did the hospitals are fine or disease is not there that really. it's a strange situation but the most important thing is that he lost support of order politicians he lost support even the people that were vouching for him in congress now with the with the firing of social model they're going to turn on him and ever he stays in power. that's going to if the finish but what happens then when

the emergency is over and you see politicians are turning against him what would be the next set of scenarios that we should be looking out for is it the public going out on the street against the president which was that indicate to other politicians and to the judiciary that they can act against the the president and start with impeachment proceedings or is it going to be the politicians that come forward and say you have to step down. well he's not going to resign and as for sure what we're going to see is one of 2 scenarios i don't he stays in power but he's unable to govern because he doesn't have a coalition anymore he doesn't have supporting congress you know his. political capital always completely diminished so even if he stays in power he won't be able to government he will be sort of a lame duck for the next 2 years the odd or the other scenario is if there is

a will for impeachment and that's a big question mark because one people are not industry there's not a lot of people are not of course for dip and then it but it's not sure it's not for sure that we will have popular movements to to to take the present bell and the 2nd part of this whole once sit on that chair right now you know with the pandemic with an economic crisis that was building up before the pandemic it's not up it's not a pleasant job to take on so there's still a very big question mark before we'll have an impeachment or not but for sure it will be unable to govern. in south pollack thanks very much for insight. now a police officer in somalia has been arrested after shooting dead a person while enforcing coronavirus restrictions the incident on friday spot 2 days of protests in the capital mogadishu. house the story.

hundreds of protesters shouted no police no curfew as they marched through the capital mogadishu on saturday. they say the shooting of a civilian by a police officer and forcing a curfew on friday night is another example of violence and abuse by the security forces which they say happens too often with. this demonstration will continue until the government senior officials listen to the outcry of the population who want the government to reverse the curfew decisions that is imposed on the residents during this holy month. the shooting happened near the headquarters of the somali national intelligence and security agency somalia's police chief fired the commissioner in charge of the area on saturday and the mare of mogadishu apologize for the shooting there was shot 1st sara speight at the youth of mogadishu need to express their anger for the killing of a civilian i have the right to do so secondly i am very sorry for us and i share the same sorry you are feeling somalia has poor health care facilities and

a limited capacity to trace and test those infected with the coronavirus the government introduced a look down more than 2 weeks ago is the number of people infected with hiv 19 increased. but there has to be trust between the public and the police for it to work effectively and that is in short supply it tory gate and be al jazeera. has reported its 1st deaths in corona virus so far there have been 53 confirmed cases in the small west african nation president obama. has extended a state of emergency for another 2 weeks he said the country shouldn't delude itself into thinking it's in control of the situation despite the low number of infections. well the pandemic is not only a major public health concern but also a threat to global food security more than 820000000 people worldwide already don't house enough food to eat with maternal and child under-nutrition contributing to 45

percent of deaths in children under the age of reason 10 g.a.o. report has found that 183000000 people in 55 countries are on the cusp of acute hunger at high risk of slipping into a food crisis and the u.n. says africa has the highest levels of undernourishment at nearly 20 percent. is a country director for zimbabwe he says the country has several problems which are making matters more difficult. is not only just about quoted 19 before 19 itself there are reports that did indicate that it least $7700000.00 zimbabweans we would think cure these $4300000.00 in rural areas where action is. in fact if you look at the. 19 remember last year more for the communities in zimbabwe. in also this year some of the communities for

example also impacted by by floods but the underlining issue here also is that the economy is not performing really a delicate balancing act that the government has to play between hell with ensuring that the economy continues to which the economy again he's about 80 percent or people employed and is about 90 percent fitting in the informal economy literally spending for the families from here into tomorrow when a daily basis. watching t.v. is a popular pastime during the muslim holy month of ramadan iraq is no exception it is perhaps the only custom that has remained unaffected by the curfew imposed in responding to the covert 1900 pandemic and that has raised the stakes for those producing t.v. shows so when

a full team has the story of one of them from baghdad. even as public life in baghdad has largely come to a halt the cameras for this t.v. show never stopped rolling. actually. it was scheduled to air during the fasting month of ramadan a prime time for television across the arab world and so the director has found ways to overcome the covert 19 locked down. around 90 percent of iraqi productions that response to air during ramadan were cancelled so there were no options the audiences would be bored with foreign arabic content that they were watching in the past we impose a sort of semi quarantine for the programming team we only film inside this house we don't mix with other people and we took preventative measures. the name of the satirical comedy is. which translates as state of melons a local expression used to describe a chaotic situation it alludes to the lack of stability in post 2003 iraq the

sketches everyday issues such as corruption and the impact of conservative norms on society you know. stop sending messages you call me sister but then you seem to me to just past midnight recorded in iraqi dialect it has gained popularity over long established turkish and the depiction series. we manage to use a language that appeals to all classes of iraqi society so the audience will see us as one of the family they'll say yes this old lady is like my mother or that character like my brother. t.v. series has always been an integral part of ramadan but the crew hopes that this year their efforts will help lighten up evenings for people stuck at home the curtain has been lifted during the day but it remains in place in the evening which is when people usually gather to break their fast that means that many cherished ramadan traditions cannot be observed this year. we join $130.00 at their home as

they prepare for the 1st if a meal to break their daily fast delightful aroma swath through the kitchen and there's no shortage of mouth watering dishes spread on the table but mother of 3 and soon to give birth to a 4th son misses her extended family you know you don't want done it's rahm a dancer normally we should be at my grandfather's house but we can't go. later in the evening the men in the family would usually head out with their friends and relatives until late at night. ramadan is known for coffee shops and playing games in public it's all about the gatherings and would usually go to a coffee shop to have shisha but this year i cannot do that as all the coffee shops are prohibited and closed and so watching t.v. is one of the few entertainment options left after their meal the family toons into lyotard but it's a rare occasion to smile and one of the few traditions that have not been appended but a coronavirus pandemic seem awful to al-jazeera but that. u.s.

secretary of state mike pompei was praise qatar airways for repatriating nearly 1000000 people worldwide including tens of thousands of americans cancer increased both flights and capacity to help stranded travelers to return home the carrier helped a number of countries to repatriate their citizens after most airlines canceled international flights he said we've heard from numerous u.s. citizens abroad or about the tremendous efforts extended by qatar airways staff to get them home. helps repatriate nearly 1000000 people worldwide including tens of thousands of americans should be seen as a point of national pride for all qataris. well in the parent to u.-turn the world health organization says anyone who's already been infected by the corona virus will develop some form of protection earlier the u.n. health agency said there was no evidence they'd be betteroff that threatened to damage plans by several countries to issue so-called immunity passports allowing

recovered patients to return to a normal life. in south korea another sign that life is starting to return to normal catholics are attending mass for the 1st time since social distancing measures were introduced at the start of the pandemic rob a bride has the story from seoul. it's nearly 2 months since the catholic church and other churches here in south korea decided it was simply too risky to hold normal services instead they're holding masses on the line and it's only now all of these weeks on that the catholic church has decided it is safe to reopen its churches but only under the strictest of precautions we're at the main cathedral in seoul they can normally have a congregation of up to a 1000 but only a quarter of that number are being allowed in for 'd each mass and you know order to do so you have to turn up here early go to this building where you get a number and your contact details your identity is recorded all this so that if

there is a case of infection then every member of that congregation can be traced it's all part of this contact tracing but the south koreans are now so expert at then you have to line up a 2nd time outside the cathedral itself obviously keeping a distance from the people in front of you and behind you and as you go into the cathedral taking the usual precautions like hand sanitizer making sure you have a mask and then there are special precautions in place for example during the taking of communion all intended to reduce the risk of infection being passed on to an absolute minimum people we have been talking to say yes it is a slightly troublesome to go through these measures which are in place at churches this sunday throughout south korea but they are nonetheless thankful that they can once more return to their churches. and i'm a bit concerned but it feels really getting back to normal to such an extent that

almost. sort of i feel grateful and moved at be back in church it made me realise that the took it for. anted. this is being seen as a further sign of life returning to something like normal once more and indeed the figures seem to bear out the fact that the worst seems to be behind south korea with only a few new cases being detected every day and most of those coming from outside the concern for the authorities now though is that a sense of complacency or fatigue sets in allowing a resurgence which nobody here wants to see. after announcing it would lift restrictions easter lankan government has instead extended them by another week the order came from pardon me. the order came after a spike in cases on a naval base near the capital colombo around a 5th of the country's 477 confirmed infections are at the base 7 people have died

in the virus of the virus in the country in bangladesh hundreds of garment factory have reopened despite a nationwide lockdown it raises fears that the industry is largely female workforce will be exposed to covert 19 factories shut their doors late last month due to the pandemic but many say they are being pushed by retailers to fulfill outstanding export orders buying other shows so far recorded more than 5400 cases a group of dutch high school students have completed a transatlantic sailing trip forced on them by coronavirus restrictions they were on an educational cruise of the caribbean when they had to change plans for returning home so instead of flying back from cuba originally planned the crew and students set sail for the northern dutch port of harlingen the trip of nearly 7000 kilometers took 5 weeks. well this is difficult it's a bogus very sorry space and you're with a lot of people so it's sometimes very difficult that you can get annoyed fairly

easily or just you're very close to each other so you can love a little friction sometimes a fight or something but it's very quickly so because you are in such small space you have to quickly. well still ahead here all the news conspicuous by his absence mystery surrounds the health the whereabouts of north korea's leader. as the world battles the coronavirus and millions of infections staff had tested positive for the corona virus with countries in lockdown and the threat of a major economic crisis to kill a lot to global g.d.p. could be around 9 trillion dollars we'll bring you the latest developments from around the globe prosecutors say they're also seeing price gouging on vital medical supply coronaviruses. special coverage on al-jazeera.

when covert 19 1st struck china and began to spread the cost asia. some in the west criticized countermeasures as to harsh or too weak. but have the different experiences before asian nations in fact not shown the world to root out of this group pandemic. coronavirus lessons from asia on a just you know. i've. an attack on an ethnic group in the democratic republic of congo has killed 23

people it happened in the to the province 700 people have been killed there since 2017 the allure community has been attacked before by an armed group called the co-operative for the development of congo well that's the latest in a series of recent attacks 2 days ago 17 people were killed in virunga national park is a unesco world heritage site in the east 2 separate attacks killed 28 people 2 weeks ago further increasing phase of growing ethnic conflict and the un peacekeepers recently helped free 38 civilians including children abducted by an armed group also in the east david autor is a counter terrorism expert at global risk international he says the government in the d.l.c. has problems on multiple fronts. ryssdal she's a kid the house you know he was the one that brought these so you have to 1st profit back into politics but the guy house you know continuously you know clocked at the political agendas within the government and he's now seen as somebody who

you know constantly leave you know leaks you know which i've. connected to violence within the state i mean congolese face in the corporate 90 like every other country but some of the supporters we're seeing you know got green in places where the government are already by and you know well you got me from so much contrarian before to security the president is a good he came to power there has been so many and reached there are so many areas where you know he needs to look into an address you know but i don't think this is something which he can do just within a couple of years that he's been in power i think he needs to look at that and i'm sure that president you security will be looking at all these angles and all these of that coming in from various angles as you said and you know he would be concerned that the promises he made you know needs to be fulfilled don't you know even if you to do that at the moment well that's going uncertainty about the health

of the whereabouts of north korea's leader who hasn't been seen in public for 2 weeks a train possibly belonging to kim jong un was spotted at a resort town in the country according to satellite images the reuters news agency says china has sent a team of doctors to treat him after heart procedure kim's health has ink. has increased since he failed to appear at an event marking his late grandfather's birthday on april 15th jim walsh is a senior research associate in the security studies department at massachusetts institute of technology he says the speculation is part of a familiar pattern. we played this game before with him and with previous leaders where we've said oh he's disappeared for 2 weeks he's disappeared through the wakes you know it does that mean he might die similarly with the supreme leader in iran durbin numerous rumors about imminent demise that never came true you know it's

a pandemic right in north korea where does north korea live right next to the country where the coronavirus originated now north korea as you know it has any cases i find it hard to believe i'm not saying he would. have contracted it obviously boris johnson did so you know do we have a smoking gun here that something is a right no because of the focus on cover 1000 which is totally appropriate and all the things that means we haven't been thinking about north korea but if north korea if the leader doris in a context in which there is a global pandemic it's under sanctions and entering a recession is joining economy declines that's a big deal and we might want to think about it before it happens rather than after it happens as being sensible things are because one of as anticipated sporting

events in america has taken place virtually the n.f.l. successfully completed its trafton over video conferencing on saturday now the draw things teams recruit the best young talent on offer and usually it's a massive spectacle with thousands of fans attending it should have been held in las vegas 255 players are draft as expected with joe barrow selected as the number one overall pick by the cincinnati bengals i think culson is a sports podcast in the us he believes the virtual draft was a success in particular the 2 of the league's teams. was very smooth a lot of people liked it because it concentrated more on the bases and the draft and they got to see a few of the people involved in that business in the process of doing the draft a lot of the kind of hollywood glitz and red carpet stuff with all tried to do in the last few years was a missed by a lot of people of course because there is no broadcast sport to speak of in america or most of the world right now this was the biggest sporting event weekend

and the television begins were i think more than double the preakness is hypothetical the baltimore ravens just killed this draft and they did it pretty much by sitting there and letting the draft come to them and then making great picks with each pick they had so many teams trade up trade down try to get in the right place for a guy they've just got to have and the ravens just look at the board figure out who was the best player for them at that time the other team i think that was really outstanding will the minnesota vikings who addressed their biggest needs wide receiver quarterback in the 1st round were solid on the often sublime after that and then posted with the pens that the worst teams were pretty easy to pick too both in the n.f.c. north and chicago bears didn't have bush while their their 1st pick in the 2nd round they took a title and kokomo which would be fine if they already had

a title and what their roster but the pandemic has come full sports events around the world but tennis star rafael the doubt will be back in action this week from home he's taking part in a virtual version of the madrid open $32.00 players will be involved in the charity event 5 time champion the doll will face off with britain's andy murray. fairly low . investment today and said you've been practicing for like 3 or 4 hours a day. yeah now i am not doing anything else. yet i am obviously i just play it my voice my day. oh really yes 1st much the day i. will have more news from all of the new center in a few minutes but for me the news thanks very much for your time and your company.

every generation. our 1st date. talk to al jazeera. what you will force will when you saw that document for the 1st story we listen to after the war saying europeans go build united states of you but we will not be with you we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on the 00 on counting the cost billions now to save trillions of lost

economic output the backplane hunt is gone and of all produce a covert $19.00 test kit for $1.00 plus us oil all maligned as proof sinks into negative territory. counting the costs on al-jazeera. may come out juicy will president rhodri go to say succeed in shutting down t.v. giant abs c.b.s. and by may the full will have special coverage al-jazeera world selection of the best network documentaries includes the story of on sunday gyptian composer and musician i leave my despite the coronavirus pandemic conant crisis ahead with the presidential elections by postal ballots the emmy award winning full clyde's is back investigating the united states and its role in the world and in the u.s. election primaries presumptive democratic nominee joe biden strives to reach the

official delicate threshold made on al jazeera. in control in aided southern separatists the clare self ruling yemen strategic port city the government calls it a coup. hello i'm barbara sarah you're watching out as the red light from london also coming up outside for the 1st time in 6 weeks spanish children emerge from one of europe's strictest lockdowns but only for an hour the u.k. prime minister heads back to work on monday.