save humanity i really really not getting anywhere near it. several u.s. states take steps towards reopening on the same day that claims for unemployment support soared past $30000000.00. as the bad numbers stack up the u.s. president donald trump for the shop and his rhetoric about china's role in the pandemic. one of 2 things happened a they either didn't do it and you know they couldn't do it from his competence in point or they let it spread.

hello and welcome i'm peter w. watching al jazeera live from doha with our continuing coverage of the pandemic and its impact also ahead this hour the economic news isn't any better in the eurozone its economy has shrunk by almost 4 percent and. we're past the peak and we're on the downward slope. the u.k. prime minister back at work after recovering from covert 19 promises to set out a lockdown exit plan next week. we begin with the impacts of the coronavirus on the world's biggest economy almost another 4000000 people in the u.s. apply for unemployment support last week meaning more than 30000000 have made a claim since march the unemployment rate hovered around 3 and a half percent between december and february but in march it jumped to 4 point. 4

percent some economists believe it could be as high as 20 percent when the figure for april is released as of next week hoping to begin clawing back some financial ground more than 2 dozen states moving ahead with plans to relax restrictions on business and social life as a white house correspondent kimberly how could the reality is that overnight it's projected as many as 40 to 46000000 americans lost their jobs and these are just the ones that have managed to file their claims online or even to get into an unemployment office that has been overwhelmed by the sheer number of americans that suddenly found themselves out of work this is just another bleak indicator we seem to be reporting on them every day that reminds us just how bad things have gotten in the united states as a result of the stay at home orders that were probably put in place to you know keep americans safe and well it has certainly resulted in

a lower number of deaths than was initially projected there are certainly some very dire impacts economically and this is the latest measure of that now for his part of the u.s. president has been speaking at the white house today he was meeting with yet another governor this time new jersey of course a very hard hit state about reopening the economy this is something that is going to be done very gradually and as a result this means that the sort of jobs returning is not going to be a very quick snap back even as the u.s. president continues to project optimism why is he continuing to sort of cheerily the economy of this economic recovery well because it's an election year and he's trying to win reelection in november but it's going to be difficult because most business experts projects that while the jobs were lost overnight could be 2 to 3 years before they come back. well the u.s. president says he's seen evidence the virus originated in

a lab in the chinese city of new hampshire and he's speculated the covert 19 could have been unleashed jew 2 quotes a horrible mistake donald trump went on to say it's possible china chose not to stop the virus from spreading beyond its borders one of 2 things happened a day they didn't do it and you know they couldn't do it from missed competence in point or they let it spread and. you know i would say probably it was a get out of control but you know there's another case that how come they stopped all the planes and all of the traffic from going into china but they didn't stop the planes in the traffic from coming into the united states and from coming into all over europe. ok let's talk to robert scott he works at the economic policy institute he joins us from potomac maryland just outside washington robert great to talk to you again what's your reading of these comments from donald trump yes i have quote yes i have twice when he was asked in that news conference whether he

has confidence that he's seen information or he is aware of the factual accuracy surrounding the information viz of where the virus originated. unfortunately the president is looking for a scapegoat mistakes you want somebody else to blame for the now $60000.00 plus deaths that we've experienced in the united states is certainly true there's plenty of blame to go around the chinese dithered the covered up they didn't they don't want to acknowledge what was going on at 1st but take us serious after a few weeks very similar in many ways to the united states where the president denied and promised that he was going to suppress the virus and didn't respond for 6 or 8 weeks until it was too late now we've had the pandemic spread all over the united states the hardest hit country in the world he was speaking of course as u.s. unemployment claims rose by 3800000 his own electoral prospects are taking

a distinct dip into negative territory despite what he says about his popularity figures because of the facebook contained within g.o.p. membership has his comments got anything to do with that. i think it's got everything to do with the election in the fall and the president is pulling out all the stops to try and get the economy going again and he knows that to his his best calling card for the election was the strong state of the economy early in the year before the pen demick yet when we have very low unemployment rates very strong stock market and he was gearing up to sell himself on that basis to the voters but now we are probably entering the worst recession in the history of the united states and women could easily exceed 20 or even 25 percent of the time it peaks later this summer and it looks like output in the economy is going to fall one more

than a house sense the great depression in 1933 explain one thing to me about this trump white house because he was actually responding wasn't he to a statement from his own director of national intelligence who was knocking down the conspiracy theories and yet mr trump is asked questions about it and he doesn't agree with the idea of a conspiracy theory but he does pivot towards raising other questions questions that leads to a situation where there are more questions than answers. well unfortunately president tends to traffic in rumor he picks up things on twitter and the internet and he tweets them out and he doesn't take responsibility for them but then he builds on the ideas and and it's all to can create a tissue of sabich of lies if you will to distract people from. frankly his own mistakes in fighting the pandemic his refusal for example

to to invoke the defense production act to take over the production of personal project protective equipment for doctors and nurses and we've lost hundreds and thousands of as as a result and so those are things he could and should have done instead he's talking to us about conspiracy there's where does this leave it at the relationship overall say in a year or 2 from now between washington and china because might pump a 0 reheating the kind of terminology that he's used before again just in the past 24 hours and i see as well you know this idea that it's getting highly personal because the chinese reaction some of the language coming out of beijing has been quite personal to. well china this chinese have a very strong self image and they don't like to be challenged or blamed and frankly they're a little bit thin skinned as well and so they're going to respond to this kind of pressure from the white house i think joe on the other hand the chinese also take

the long view the presidency knows he's going to be in power for least the next 3 or 4 more years and think they have an election new of the inputs of the. floor loop for the president to least is over 22 or 23 so he'll be here long after trump's 1st term and he can presumably deal with his successor and i think this with the chinese are planned to do robert scott thank you so much for coming on we do appreciate time. thank you well the eurozone economy has sustained its biggest hit since they started collecting such records in 1905 in the 19 countries that make up the eurozone shrank by 3.8 percent between january and march europe strongest economy germany announced a steep fall in jobs in april the number of unemployed rising by more than 300000 germany's government has already predicted its g.d.p.

is on track to shrink by more than 6 percent this year. the u.k. meanwhile is past its coronavirus peak according to the prime minister boris johnson fronting his 1st government briefing since recovering from covert 19 he promised to lay out plans to ease lock down rules next week the u.k. death toll is heading towards $27000.00 new barca reports now from london. back leading britain's coronavirus response after his personal battle with the virus and only a day after his fiance gave birth the prime minister faces mounting criticism of his government's response to the outbreak and questions over how to ease current restrictions and meet a backdrop of rising deaths but now a glimmer of optimism in britain's battle with covert 19 i can confirm today that for the 1st time we are past the peak of this disease we're past the

peak and we are on the downward slope britain may be over the worst but it's still at risk for now the lock down will not be loosened we've come through the peak or rather we've come under what could have been a vast peak as though we've been going through some huge outpoint turn and we can now see the sunlight own the the pasture ahead of us and so it is vital that we do not lose control and run slap into a 2nd and even bigger mounted in the past 24 hours compass and flowers have been arriving here to 10 downing street to welcome boys down since new baby closely followed by scientific advisors of ministers clutching folders it is a confusing juxtaposition echoing a wider national confusion over how and when this crisis will end the government's

also under mounting pressure to reach its mass testing target by friday at the start of april the health secretary matt hancock said he was determined to deliver $100000.00 tests per day so determined he reportedly made $100.00 pound charity betty to achieve it. in recent days mobile testing units staffed by the army have been traveling around the country as the government races to meet its target smashing his goal with an air force fly past his captain tom moore he initially wanted to raise just over a $1000.00 for completing the laps of his garden before his 100th birthday he marked the milestone having raised more than $37000000.00 for the national health service the prime minister described captain tom as a point of light for the nation the government is now under pressure to be a point of trust in uncertain times barkha al jazeera london still ahead

here on al-jazeera with the economy in free fall and on rest growing lebanon's leader says he'll seek a rescue deal from the i.m.f. . and put his birthday but the party's been postponed south koreans will have to wait till next month to celebrate. hello the conditions have definitely improved over the last few days across areas of japan as he wanted to show that to the north in through but that sunshine has certainly brought a rise in the temperatures and people out and about in chiba park enjoying those kiss on the skies aside the timer's actually set to rise a little bit further by friday 25 to saka and i'm pretty warm as well back across the korean peninsula 27 in seoul and still very warm in beijing these temperatures a good 10 degrees above the average the rain back in for crossfire to cross

seasonal southern eastern sections of china all the way toward shanghai so 24 the high there on friday by saturday it's a little bit warmer the rain for the most part actually working its way eastwards away from shanghai becoming quite a bit heavier across the southern areas but warm to the south 30 celsius in hong kong widespread rains of course across much of indonesia and we've seen some heavy rain through areas a somalia this system here were his way down the west coast so this could bring some localized flooding some very heavy rain at times and also very widespread across much of the man a peninsula meanwhile some scottish central philippines and some heavy rain across borneo well that is really the north and east of india seeing the heaviest rain and the next couple days showers into carola. 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 after he turns the camera on himself when i so take control and his family are forced to flee nowhere to hide a witness documentary on al-jazeera. welcome back you're watching al-jazeera live from doha your top stories so far this half hour as the coronavirus pandemic continues to batter economies around the world almost another 4000000 people applied for unemployment support in the u.s.

just last week a sort of 30000000 americans have made claims since late march. well with the back numbers mounting donald trump is again focused on china's role in the pandemic he suggested without evidence that covert 19 might have been created in a chinese lab and the government may have chosen not to stop it spreading. the british prime minister says the u.k. has passed the peak of its coronavirus outbreak boris johnson plans to outline next week that he will reduce locked measures in britain. ok let's look at how u.s. states are beginning to reopen parts of their economies and a gallaher is in one of them the state of florida. well as things stand there are more than 30 states that are slowly beginning those baby steps of reopening their economies but they're taking very different approaches if you look at somewhere like new york in new jersey they're forming a coalition and maybe weeks away from loosening restrictions the same thing with california and the state of washington places like georgia or taking

a more aggressive stance opening things like nail salons and even gymnasiums so what is this patchwork of different approaches to getting the economy going again and that's especially important with the number of unemployed we're seeing in this country at the moment record levels but let's take a look at what's happening here in florida one of the largest and most populous states. miami's ocean drive with its iconic on deco buildings never really sees an off season for weeks now it's been deserted along with the normally packed beaches and pedestrian ice shopping areas of a city in lockdown. the cautious reopening of parks golf courses and marinas is now under way though the state officials point to corona virus cases showing a slight downturn florida's governor on dissenters a close ally of president trump says a careful reopening isn't complicated although on tuesday the state recorded its highest total of new deaths on

a single day on wednesday dissenters announced what he called a safe smart step by step plan to reopen this new phase will start on monday may 4th and will for the time being exclude miami dade broward and palm beach counties these counties have seen the lion's share of the state's epidemic but they are trending in a positive direction. even as beaches and parks reopen in some parts of the state places like miami dade county continue to take precautions despite the governor's optimism reopening isn't a one size fits all policy over a 1000 people have died of covert 9000 in florida a 3rd of them here in miami dade like many other states what this one's facing then is a patchwork of reopening and a continuation of restrictions here in miami beach the boardwalks open but the beach and playgrounds remain off limits it's a similar picture in other hard hit cities as local authorities weigh the risks against getting the economy going again social distancing rules remain in place

when restaurants are allowed to reopen they will operate at reduced capacity miami's messes if people don't follow guidelines washer restrictions will come back if we start to see every aggression if we're not respecting the rules. then obviously not hesitate. to start restricting and that's one of the things that we want to avoid it any version of a new normal will also be a challenge logistically miami is a hub for the distribution of goods throughout the americas and restarting trade will be difficult it's very complicated it's. the critical it's essential for us to understand what steps in jail and how people interact with others while some can now carefully enjoy the state's parks restaurants and beaches others remain under tight restrictions the reopening of some parts of the economy in continued closure of others is mostly in the hands of local leaders and the decisions are more crucial than ever and a gala crowd is there a miami florida

a funeral home is being investigated in new york after the discovery of dozens of bodies in an refrigerated trucks the owners say a freezer failed so they had to rent the trucks to store the bodies as gable is on the. the lives lost already victims of new york's coronavirus crisis now part of a funeral home for dozens of bodies were found decomposing in trucks at this funeral home in brooklyn there maybe were as many as 50 bodies inside the police moved in and discovered it after residents complained about a foul smell emanating from the building by thursday morning caskets were arriving to take away corpses to unknown locations and family members with loved ones inside who are showing up in a desperate search for information ronald 60 year old brother francoise died of

covert 19 he tells me his brother's corpse has been inside the funeral home for more than a week now. about it because they were. so it's not true not only exactly what they say because it's really so very very sad to me shit covington said she thinks her mom's body is also inside so right here this is too much for me i'm sorry but i'm so cloudy right now because this hurts her words hurt. people who live in the neighborhood were shocked this is a residential neighborhood it's unbelievable unbelievable there were people. and that. you know. the funeral home said it's freezers failed so it had to bring in the rental trucks to store bodies and explanation that did not satisfied new york's mayor they have an obligation to the people they serve to treat them with dignity i have no idea in the world how any funeral home could let this happen for

a city that is supposedly coming out of this crisis the nightmare that happened at this funeral home is a grim reminder of how far there is still to go and the incredible toll this is having on a city. out is here brooklyn new york. russia's prime minister says he's pushing himself into isolation after testing positive for me her mission as the highest ranking politician there to be diagnosed his deputy will step up in his place for the time being russia has so far recorded more than 100000 cases and in excess of a 1000 deaths yemen has recorded its 1st 2 cases deaths rather from corona virus sparking fears of a major break in a country ravaged by civil war 5 new cases were reported in the southern port city of aden takes the total number of infections to 6 nationwide yemen is already dealing with a cholera outbreak and all the half of its hospitals are fully functional the u.n.

says it's likely the virus is spreading undetected in a country where millions of facing starvation moving to some other top stories donald trump reportedly pressurize arabia into ending its oil price war with russia by suggesting the kingdom risks losing u.s. military support as according to the reuters news agency it says the us president told crown prince mohammed bin selma on that if oil production wasn't a cut he'd be powerless to stop congress from approving the withdrawal of u.s. troops from saudi arabia but veiled threat was said to be made to join the phone call in early april 10 days later the world's biggest oil producing nations agreed to cut production by nearly 10000000 barrels per day cigarette nuba is a middle east analyst in washington he says u.s. condemnation of saudi arabia has been growing. we have seen that over the past 2 years or so or you and i have really sent a show. murder that the saudi consulate in istanbul we have seen that day u.s.

political establishment have on a regular basis criticized saudi arabia record on the matter but also criticized its war in yemen and the latest incident over over to oil crisis has really been. a cumulative effect of. lingering anger with saudi arabia the united states as permanent strategic interests which includes preserving its own energy industry and india event that saudi arabia is trying to undercut america energy industry while shoring up its own which is only possible through u.s. security guarantees that is a red line. no american president can accept and president and prince mohamed of saudi arabia miscalculated believing that he has a personal relationship what trump would be able to smooth over this crisis but at

the end we saw that did not work now the government in lebanon has to ask the international monetary fund for a financial lifeline the economy is spiraling having been in deep trouble before the coronavirus pandemic so in all the reports from beirut. since taking office in january prime minister has sandy abse government has been working on a plan to save lebanon's economy that plan is now ready the state is close to bankruptcy and lebanon defaulted on its debt for the 1st time after much reluctance the government intends to seek financial assistance from the international monetary fund for number. with this plan as a stepping stone we can build our future we will continue with our request to the i.m.f. and willing gauge seriously with our creditors as a result we will reduce the burden of debt on the shoulders of all citizens the

economic hardship has been mounting anger spilled onto the streets and it turned violent the national currency the pound lost more than 60 percent of its value in recent weeks international donors have demanded economic reforms and then end to corruption to unlock billions of dollars in aid while the government's plan mentions the need for reforms its focus seems to be on the banking sector and taking back what the prime minister calls unrealistic interests on bank deposits over the past 5 years while the government wants the banking sector. because of the crisis. if you asking for a special of the story structure of the banking sector this will result in a total lack of confidence in the lebanese economy and the banking sector by the generation of deposits lebanese politicians most of whom are accused of involvement in corruption have traded blame over who is responsible but the opposition says the

governing alliance is using its power to target them in an anti-corruption drive for. the current government chosen by those in power in their political allies unfortunately has been turned into a tool to settle political schools and revenge practices. the power. the struggle is worsening tensions the government needs to restore the trust of its citizens deb says his cabinet is made up of independent experts but it was brought to power by some other parties implicated in corruption scandals that is why protesters have been trying to topple the political class say they have little faith in promises to recover stolen public money the prime minister may think the plan will put the country back on track but the concerns of many lebanese who have lost the value of their money have not been eased senekal their beirut. for the 1st time in 2 months south korea on thursday reported no new domestic infections because of the

coronavirus april 30th marks his birthday but this year celebrations in seoul look very different worshipers gathered to pray for people who've fallen ill in bright. daughter's birthday celebrated with prayers for this pandemic to be over but held as though it is still a threat from the start of the outbreak south korea's buddhists have closely it here to the government's request to scale back on all forms of worship which is to take another buddhist especially have been actively following the government social distancing guidelines as we do not want to cause any harm to others. in this reflects the philosophy of buddhism that we care about people it is very different to how borders birthday is normally celebrated in the evening. this was last year an impressive parade of floats with thousands of spectators and people taking part

. this year a far more subdued affair the centerpiece a to go down representing the bringing together of peoples minds to overcome the crisis. some say the virus emerged to see our failure to co-exist with view and they could be more events like this in the future but the buddhist practice is to train our minds to be and peaceful this year buddha's birthday coincides with other public holidays with many south koreans taking the chance to go out or go on a short holiday after weeks of staying put airports and domestic flights are all busy as people travel to local resorts it's raise concerns about a possible resurgence of the virus especially after reaching the milestone of 0 new cases of local transmission but similar fears were. days 2 weeks ago when millions of south koreans came out to vote in national elections special precautions were

put in place to allow the vote to happen safely and now at the end of what would be the incubation period for new cases that resurgence hasn't happened buddhist prayers here may have been answered robert wright al-jazeera so. you can get lots more on all our top stories via the web site there the latest on donald from washington al-jazeera dot com. recapping our top stories here on al-jazeera as the coronavirus pandemic continues to batter economies worldwide almost 4000000 people have applied for unemployment benefit in the u.s. in this past week that means an unprecedented 30000000 americans have now filed claims in just 6 weeks but the bad numbers mounting donald trump has again focused on china's role in the pandemic he suggested without evidence that covert 19 might

have been created in the chinese lab and the government may have chosen not to stop it spreading one of 2 things happened a day they didn't do it and you know they couldn't do it from missed competence in point or they let it spread. you know i would say probably it was going to get out of control but you know there's another case of how come they stopped all the planes and all of the traffic from going into china but they didn't stop the planes in the traffic from coming into the united states and from coming into all over europe several u.s. states are beginning to reopen after white house guidelines on social distancing expired more than 30 are expected to relax their stay at home orders allowing some businesses including restaurants to reopen. the british prime minister says the u.k. is past the peak of its coronavirus break boris johnson has stressed the country shouldn't risk a 2nd spike of the virus the u.k. now has the 2nd highest number of deaths in europe after italy russia's prime

minister says he's putting himself into isolation after testing positive. and is the highest ranking politician there to be diagnosed his deputy will step up in his place for the time being russia has so far recorded more than 100000 cases. yemen has recorded its 1st 2 corrode on virus death sparking fears of a major outbreak in a country ravaged by civil war 5 new cases were reported in the southern port city of aden takes the total number of infections to 6 nationwide yemen is already dealing with an outbreak of cholera and on the home office hospitals off fully functional the u.n. says is likely the virus is spreading undetected in a country where millions of facing starvation up next it's inside story after i'll have a quick summary for you of world news here on al-jazeera i will see you very soon.

as corona virus spreads in the u.s. its economy is likely to face its worst crisis since the great depression and the spillover is expected to inflict long term damage there and around the world so what can be done to reverse the crash and can the global economy fully recover this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. it's the world's largest economy and has enjoyed record growth but it's collapsing.