every generation has a higher purpose. ours is to stay out of. the u.s. coronavirus death toll now exceeds the number of american lives lost during the vietnam war. all across the u.k. people have fallen silent in tribute to health workers who died. ellen malcolm i'm peter toby you're watching out to syria live from doha also coming up. violence flares again in lebanon where covert 19 is

pushing the economy closer to the brink of collapse. an explosion kills almost 50 people in a northern syrian town controlled by turkish bank rebels. more lives have now been lost to the coronavirus pandemic on u.s. soil than all of the americans killed during the war in vietnam a tally by johns hopkins university shows the death toll now is beyond 58300 and more than 1000000 people have been infected you can see there how the numbers are unpacking the total confirmed well over a 1000000 total deaths 58351 if you go to this website left hand side you can see there a running tally the united states spain italy france the u.k. number 4 germany turkey russia all the way down to and including belgium as well

let's go live now to washington and our correspondent there mike hanna mike more than a 1000000 infections it's an astonishing figure to get to grips with. indeed peter and to put that reference to the vietnam war and to come to. so there were 'd $58000.00 people killed in the vietnam war that was over a 10 year period the death rate we've seen in the u.s. has basically in the last few months more than a 1000000 infected that means roughly one in every $330.00 americans has tested positive for the corona virus and now the fear among many health workers is that this figure could be as much as 10 percent higher because it does not account for those who have not been tested or who got the virus without being tested for it so certainly these are exceedingly grim figures indeed in the midst of this president trump continues to insist that the testing protocols are more than sufficient

saying that it is the best in the world to twice as many people being tested in the u.s. as in any other country had a meeting with corporate leaders in the course of the day but still mixed messages emerging from the white house by president mike pence the mayo clinic in rochester and there he did not wear a surgical mask a mask to cover his face many observers commented on this the video footage from the pool accompanying the vice president show that he was the only person without a face mask at that particular clinic now the vice president's spokesperson subsequently said that the vice president gets tested for the virus once a week and therefore there is no need for him to wear a mask as he is not could not be asymptomatic world health experts point out that that is not the case he could contract the virus at any particular stage a spokesperson for mr pence also said that he wanted to look at the health workers

directly in the eye to thank them for their service but the fact remains that the president he has refused to wear a face mask the vice president is not wearing a face mask now this despite the guidance from the white house that all in public should be wearing face masks the president and vice president. not following the orders that they themselves are set up are we seeing as well mark across the country i guess mixed messages i mean you've got what 43000000 americans in the states that in theory want to relax things to relax the lockdown a little bit but 2 thirds of american voters think no this might be too soon so we've got to offset against the congress has decided not to go back into session inside the chamber and yet the meatpacking industry is being literally compelled to go back to work and to put itself into a potentially dangerous situation. well this is once

again because there is no clear federal direction in terms of how each of the stage should operate they are guidelines that have been issued by the federal government but there's no clear over rocking strategy to deal with the pandemic state that's being a left by themselves to deal with it now what is happening is that some states are opening up earlier than others there are particular areas in the country where there's been a massive spike in the epidemic in recent weeks in indiana for example there's one county where there was no cases of of the virus 2 weeks ago and now there are some 600 so in these isolated areas in rural america there are now cases occurring that were not occurring before this is of course of massive concern as big states begin to open up or relax their restrictions big states such as florida that the president insists that the states can do what they will they can decide what they

want to do and this is very difficult indeed because remembering that the pandemic continues to leap you mention of course the issue of producing plants now these have been a prime breeding area for the virus according to most observers the number of meat workers who have contracted the virus is. certainly out of proportion to the amount to work there now a number of meat plants have been closed down for production struck by some 25 percent meat production is down by some 10 percent some predicting that could rise sharply president trump is now musing about invoking the defense production act in terms of which he can order the meat processing plants to open he spoke during the day about minimizing the company's liability obviously the companies could be liable if workers fall sick after they've reopened plants so this is a very delicate issue the president wanting to maintain the food production chain but at the same time workers in these packing plants having to decide between

keeping their drugs or having their health endangered by working in exceedingly close proximity so this is a massive dialer now which could have an impact on the food production line for the country as a whole but of course could have a massive impact on the lives of individual workers who are forced to go back to work despite the fact that they fear contracting the virus mike thanks very much for motor company has posted a 2 point $2000000000.00 loss in the 1st quarter of this year and expects to lose more than double that next quarter comical shut down u.s. production in march bosses say it's not clear when workers can return to work in the u.s. but there will be a gradual restart in europe that should begin next week. the u.k. pilots union says british airways staff are devastated after the carriers announced plans for up to $12000.00 redundancies that's nearly one 3rd of the workforce the company says it will likely take several years for passenger numbers to return to

where they were in early january has suspended 96 percent of its flights from april and may. well people across the u.k. have been paying tribute to health workers who've lost their lives to prove it 19 a sonia reports from london. a moment to remember them by the key workers all those who worked in frontline services and died in the service of others the prime minister boris johnson recovered from covert 19 also paid his respects came forward. but that has not dampened criticism of the government's failure to provide health care workers with adequate personal protective equipment and the death rates in england and wales reaching a new high way above previous government daily figures which count just deaths in hospitals the office for national statistics said on tuesday that 22351

people died in england and wales in the week ending april 17 and a growing number of deaths the elderly in care homes where doctors warn the pandemic has not yet peaked from tomorrow we'll be publishing not just the number of deaths in hospital each day but the number of deaths in care homes and in the community to this is something that wasn't previously possible with the guidance from british scientific advisors there is little appetite from the government to relax lock down measures yet but in france with a similar sized population to the u.k. and the 4th highest recorded death toll from covert 19 in the world preparations were announced to ease the restrictions on daily life. never in the history of our country have we seen this situation not even during the war nor

cheering the occupation nor cheering previous epidemics never never has the country be confined as it is today and evidently it cannot be so for long term. in spain a drop in the daily death and infection rates has also prompted the prospect of an ease and it's locked down deaths from coronavirus fell once again on choose day now the government has set out a framework for regions to start phasing out one of europe's toughest lockdowns. the most important thing is to protect public health and whatever they leave to save the lives of our citizens it's a simple i stopped them from their own words we want to kick start spraying every territory and every city. but amid the easing of these restrictions the shadow of corona virus still persists while there is no vaccine it will be up to the public to continue social distancing measures a far cry from the familiar in its place

a new detached. al jazeera. violence has escalated for a 2nd night in lebanon's northern city of tripoli demonstrators a back up on the streets as the crisis hit economy there crumbles further because of the pandemic protesters held roxas security forces who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets on monday one protester was killed during the riots from tripoli . hunger and hopelessness are driving lebanese to the streets the economy is close to collapsing protesters vent their anger at banks for preventing people from accessing their savings and a long serving political elite is being blamed for mismanagement and corruption in recent days the local currency has sharply devalued against the dollar there were casualties among protesters in soldiers during confrontations that began monday night on this news that follows marble went to the streets because there are no jobs children are asking their parents for food and they don't have money to buy

them any of the young man who has mounted it was a father he had nothing to lose if his daughter asked for food what will he give out he had nothing to lose calls for a change in leadership are not new a protest movement began in october but the ruling elite has clung on to power. apart from a few we have $128.00 criminals in parliament they stole public funds and transferred billions of dollars outside lebanon even the army soldiers oppressed like this salary is now worth $300.00. officials acknowledge inflation has increased by 50 percent and 45 percent of the nation of 6000000 people live below the poverty line but they haven't presented. any plan to restore trust in the economy and fight corruption. we are hungry the revolution is against corruption all official say there is corruption but what have they done we don't see any thief in prison instead they are shooting at the people. rival politicians who have been in power

for decades deny allegations of corruption and are blaming each other for the state's near bankruptcy government leaders are. trying to topple by tampering with. fuel the anger of anti-government protesters the leadership say those in power are trying to hold them accountable for years of corruption. the state's finances are under immense pressure lebanon has a huge debt to pay and not enough foreign currency the government also doesn't have many friends abroad the scenes could be a warning of what's to come. at least 46 people have been killed in northern syria after a bomb placed on a fuel truck exploded in a busy market it happened in the city about 350 others were injured when under the control of turkish blank faces for 2 years now turkey is blaming the kurdish y.p. group for the attack still to come here on al-jazeera missing notes on vaccination

unicef says millions of children are getting critical care also ahead. the musicians of new orleans banding together to stop the party city from. hello largely we are now free of rain in east asia there is this cloud coming out of the final piece to china bear little bit of rain towards northern japan but in turkey you go find $21.00 degree days is much the same in seoul it's much warmer you could call it hot in beijing and in shanghai temps are rising here as they have been in hong kong she will pick up i think in hong kong as

a cloud in southern china is building in there is rain coming in it starts further west but it's certainly creeping eastwards the temperatures are on the high side beijing at 31 to 32 is well above average much even reach a record hard i think probably not going to change the month and therefore the record also because of a little bit but is sunshine alice much woman you might expect this time of year or . such that because we should see the spread of rain it has been to thailand recently mostly it's over the water in the forecast it's a dryish spell for vietnam cambodia thailand and laos main models are meanwhile the rain is falling fairly steadily and it's also true in france the malays are calle singapore. the 3 cities lucky to get daily sandstorms at the moment equally some pretty big thunderstorms on this eastern side of india and in bangladesh and they will keep growing. for. the oppression of an ethnic minority in myanmar goes back many.

they intend to make sure that rangers will no longer entitled to their basic rights or citizenship rights in a new documentary al-jazeera explores the history and motives behind the systematic persecution of the ranger and me and my. exile on al-jazeera. welcome if you're just joining us welcome back these are your top stories more lives are now being lost to the coronavirus pandemic on u.s.

soil than all of the americans killed during the war in vietnam a tally by johns hopkins university shows the death toll is beyond 58300 and more than a 1000000 have been infected. british airways is planning to lay off $12000.00 employees that's about one 3rd of its workforce the carrier has suspended 96 percent of its flights for april and may. violence escalated during the 2nd night of protests in lebanon's morgan city tripoli demonstrators are back out on the streets as the crisis hit economy crumbles further due to the coronavirus. now the u.s. secretary of state mike pompei o says he's concerned about the situation in the yemeni port city of aden after a separatist group declared self rule over the areas it controls in the south on sunday the southern transitional council announced its imposing emergency rule the internationally recognized government warned of catastrophic consequences from the move and its allies in the saudi led military coalition urged the s.t.c.

to cancel the declaration mr pompei o says the development will threaten peace efforts meanwhile al-jazeera has learned that the u.n. and international committee of the red cross have advanced plans for a mass prisoner exchange in yemen which could happen within days as part of a ceasefire proposed by the un special envoy martin griffiths it's thought the 1st batch of prisoners to be released would number about a 1000 our diplomatic editor james bays has this exclusive report. a mass prisoner exchange was 1st proposed in the stockholm agreement in december 28th all sides agreed to the idea but it never actually happened now it's being revived as part of a peace plan proposed by the un special envoy martin griffiths he said he believed that plan was close to fruition when he spoke to the un security council last week he didn't reveal that arrangements that now advanced for a prisoner exchange to be organized by the un and by the international committee of

the red cross we were asked to organize a release during this endemic of it and we had to balance the interest that you made earlier in the trust of the people to tame the fact that they could go back home see their family after years of the tension and the risk we were taking as you may turn operate there is to be in fact to do so the risk of the dangers to be in fact so balancing those interests we decided that we would go for it you seem to have everything in place what needs to happen for this exchange to take place. i would see that all everything is in place. to me oh it's a final alignment of the tree parties involved in their release. the government or so it would be arabia. and the government of yemen.

we are there we still need a couple of days to be ready but we need is this this button to be pushed and for this we need an alignment and just to be clear on the timeline you mentioned a couple of days this could happen within days potentially but then yes u.n. sources tell me the actual prisoners for the 1st stage of a transfer have been identified there are about 1000 of them. the number of virus deaths in brazil has now passed 5000 and with nearly 72000 and factions of the worst country in south america the health ministry says the recent spike in numbers could be the result of more testing the president also nardo who recently fired his health minister says he is eager to reopen the economy despite tough restrictions imposed by state governors. venezuela's president nicolas maduro has appointed an

alleged drug trafficker as his new oil minister l i sami was indicted in the u.s. last month meanwhile the drop in oil prices and additional sanctions from the white house and washington is making life harder for venezuelans as a lesson america editor and see in human reports. these cows are having a field day between vegetables that many ordinary venezuelans can't realize that farmers in leg are having to throw away their produce because there's no petrol to take it to market and this is my bread and butter the only thing i have to support my family this is the president nicolas maduro blames u.s. economic sanctions for an. cute petrol shortage that's causing havoc now he's removed the president of the state oil company pay the vista and replaced him with a key confidant that it is sammy who's been indicted by the u.s. justice department for alleged drug trafficking. this comes just days after the trumpet ministration gave chevron corp the last major u.s.

oil company operating in mn is whale or its a marching orders the treasurer is announced a new nearly limited license for 7 months or to allow companies that are operating there to begin their wind down process the white house is hoping that more of the same sanctions but under worsening circumstances will finally convince the army to oust model. for. double only happen when the military feels confident that they'll maintain their corporate power their physical integrity and their economic interests are a long way from that because for example the head of the military is on washington's blacklist it's an inconsistent strategy meanwhile an ngo the tracks political prisoners reports that at least 70 people have been detained in the last 5 weeks since the nationwide cold in 1000 lockdown was declared that includes 11 active and retired members of the national guard involved in an alleged fort

uprising last week. opposition deputy whiny bass says mother little is using the quarantine for their social control. absolutely everything to give the impression that everything is under control when the worst is still to come for now there are no signs of a political solution that could easy economic sanctions and hardships but with a crisis of such magnitude even the unthinkable is possible to see in human al-jazeera. the russian president vladimir putin has extended his country's lockdown until the 11th of may saying the coronavirus has not yet reached its peak measures were due to be lifted at the end of this month but the country saw a record rise in the number of new infections on tuesday with more than 6400 cases now confirmed mr putin has given the government one week to come up with ways of supporting the economy he's also asked for recommendations on how to ease restrictions once it's safe. the human is warning of

a potential health crisis among children as vaccination programs are put on hold in many parts of the world immunization clinics are closed because of coronavirus lockdowns the parents are reluctant to visit the ones that are open his print. with just a job or a job. vaccines protect millions of children while twilight from diseases such as cholera did carea measles and polio preventable infections that can cripple or kill but with airline is grounded and coronavirus lockdowns and many countries shipments of lifesaving vaccines are disrupted vaccine alliance has estimated that at least $21.00 low and middle income countries are already reporting vaccine shortages as a result of border closures and disruptions to travel. in many countries massimino isolation campaigns for measles and pull you for instance are

either postponed or canceled to prevent large gatherings and stop the spread of covert 19 destruction of supplies and a whole to campaigns tritons millions of children even prior to. we estimate that as many as 20000000 children were not receiving their full complement of vaccine all this during the 1000000 approximately 13000000 were not received any any wrecks in at all. was another 7000000 who are receiving some but not all right so that's our starting point. now related destruction in services is going to exacerbate this problem polio has largely been eradicated but remains widespread in afghanistan and pakistan but prevention campaigns there are on hold leiserowitz is another prevented. disease rife in many countries the world's worst

outbreak is in the democratic republic of congo where more than 6000 people have died since last year. congress health workers are continuing immunization campaigns despite calls of 19 infections to delete issues of right and will meet the queen so. we have more issues to assess so our year to investigate is asked the world grapples with a pandemic and scrambles to find a vaccine could need to stop other outbreaks entirely preventable seems ever more urgent. dizzier. the u.s. city of new orleans is turning to music to keep it so alive during the pandemic this is a time when the streets of the city should be packed with visitors to the jazz festival there but events being called off his heidegger castro.

new orleans is famous for its jazz funerals. sendoff for the dead with mourners dancing in the streets. so at a time when so many are being buried the city's silence only amplifies the pain until you listen closer. then. there's this this was this that you feel even though everybody's heart. the. new orleans musicians margy perec is still making music for her online fans today's venue is her neighbors living room the only live clapping from the thunder outside. it's so soothing for the soul because we get. to make music with people and. so i gave it

a great names she called it not touching yet touching it. they live in a place called musicians village an enclave that emerged from the devastation of hurricane katrina to give displaced musicians new homes. we're fairly we're going to help each other and happens and we're going to fight through this together . covered 19 came at a bad time it's music festival season in south louisiana many local artists have been booked to perform at one of the largest the new orleans jazz festival now canceled gone too are the 300 $1000000.00 the festival normally generates for the economy. all of my income and of my revenue stream is gone now the last all were.

you know all all of our local gigs. are stable future. to the west of new orleans in the heart of cajun country festival internationality louisiana is also canceled. miles meikle says after 10 years as an attendee he had finally been invited to perform it's going to be ok i know it's going to be ok it was just kind of like kind of what john is or. even 80 year old al johnson a legendary musician and a mardi gras icon the. has downsized to his porch. but in a city that normally loses with music these notes still find their appreciation.

all we have noted is. these louisiana music. when the epidemic finally passes the 1st thing they'll do is play to a live audience that needs healing how do you know castro al-jazeera. this is our jazeera these are your top stories more lives have now been lost to the coronavirus pandemic on u.s. soil than all of the americans killed during the vietnam war a tally by johns hopkins university shows the death toll beyond 58300 and more than a 1000000 have been infected mike hanna has more from washington president trump once again weighing the issues up at feeding the nation against the individual lives at risk within these meat packing plants so that is something that is going to roll out in coming hours or indeed the coming days but certainly health

officials are looking very closely at where the virus hits most fiercely and so far it is in these contests that areas such as me packing plants such as homes for the elderly and these are obviously potential victors for a new round of the virus this of course of great concern to all president signed an emergency order compelling meatpacking plants to stay open despite a string of deaths in them there are concerns for the u.s. food supply chain with supermarkets perhaps running out of meat products ford has posted a 2 point $2000000000.00 loss in the 1st quarter of this year and expects to lose more than double that in the next quarter the carmaker shut down u.s. production in march bosses say it's not clear when workers can return to work in the u.s. but there will be a gradual restart in europe beginning next week. b.a. is planning to layoff $12000.00 employees that's about one 3rd of its workforce the

airline has suspended 96 percent of its flights for the months of april and may. the russian president vladimir putin has extended his country's lockdown on till may the 11th saying the coronavirus has not yet reached its peak measures were due to be lifted at the end of this month however the country has seen a record rise in the number of new infections as of tuesday with more than 6400 cases now confirmed mr putin has given his government one week to come up with ways to support the economy. violence is escalating during a 2nd line to protest in lebanon's northern city of tripoli demonstrators are back out on the streets as the crisis hit economy crumbles further because of the coronavirus pandemic at least 46 people have been killed in northern syria off pro-ball min a fuel truck exploded it happened which is on the control of turkish backed fighters those are your headlines up next it's inside story of a quick summary in all 30 minutes here then.

how can having rights be respected in a time of prone to violence and countries are accused of using the fight against the pandemic as an excuse to crack down on people's freedoms that al difficult is it to balance that fight and basic rights this is inside story. come to the program carry the coronavirus restrictions are meant to save lives but for authoritarian leaders they can be an excuse to adopt repressive measures and

the code in 1000 emergency is fast becoming a human rights crisis that's the.