the stream on 00. play an important role ringback. this is al-jazeera. hello i'm sam is a dan this is the news hour live from coming up in the next 60 minutes a major oil production comes into force what will it be enough to shore up world markets. u.s. democratic presidential front runner joe biden speaks out for the 1st time about allegations of sexual assault leveled by a former senate staffer for south africa eases some coronavirus restrictions to

revive its. compound this bird is closed during ramadan cause of coronavirus restrictions. and in sports the english premier league is stepping up plans for a return to action the league is meeting to discuss what needs to be done for games to take on. now an agreement among the world's top oil producers to cut out for that has come into effect it follows a collapse in global prices spurred by a slump in demand because of the pandemic but the deal to cut out for it came with a lot of in-fighting between major or producers you might remember they met in vienna early march to work out how to keep prices. stable but failed to reach an

agreement in that meeting opec recommended taking $1500000.00 barrels per day off the market if russia agreed to cut production too well russia refused. top producer saudi arabia retaliated by announcing a production increase instead a price war lasted nearly a month and prices dropped below $20.00 a barrel and moscow and riyadh resolved their differences and agreed eventually to gradually cut production by $10000000.00 barrels per day american producers may have been hurt most by the price war though prices for u.s. crude collapse on april the 20th they briefly went negative for the 1st time saudi arabia and kuwait say they've slashed their output ahead of the may the 1st production deadline and it seems the deal to cut out port may of only happen because president dog reportedly pressured saudi arabia implying the u.s.

may withdraw its military support for iraq and sam and dave has this report. oil and water do not mix but politics in oil bond very well there is no official transcript of the conversation between the u.s. president and the saudi crown prince which resulted in saudi arabia's latest oil production cut reports suggest president of trump told muhammad bin soul man that u.s. forces stationed in the kingdom could be withdrawn if saudi arabia did not stop flooding the market with cheap crude within days riyadh announced production cuts and ended its oil price war with russia opec in g 20 members including quit in norway have already announced cuts in output but questions still remain over compliance the us president has taken credit for the nearly 10000000 barrel cut by oil producers which comes into effect on friday i think i get them to occur. maybe when you say. well they say 10 they say 10000000 but i think it's for

15000000 barrels i even heard 20. saudi arabia and russia's failure to agree on price stabilisation lead to a $31.00 day price war which has resulted in a massive oversupply of crude that combined with the coronavirus shutdown of the world's major economies provided a perfect storm for the 1st time in history traders were paying to get rid of world stocks after storage ran out and u.s. crude futures dipped to a record minus $40.00 a barrel the international energy agency estimates global storage capacity could be full by mid june. with a powerful lobby and nearly a 1000000 u.s. hydrocarbon sector jobs at stake it's now an issue of national security for the united states we're also exploring potentially having the ability to store the other several $100000000.00 barrels so we're looking at lots of different options were in touch with lots of people around the world and the president is determined that we protect the national security interest and the job with flights grounded no

one driving and factories closed analysts estimate the demand gap is in excess of $30000000.00 barrels even though some restrictions are slowly being lifted the energy market is gloomy and positive projections international oil prices estimated to average around 35 dollars a barrel while the us prices expected below $20.00 a drop of 60 percent compared to last year major firms such as royal dutch shell out of readjusting shell cut its dividend for the 1st time since world war 2 norway western europe's biggest oil and natural gas producer wants to ease tax rules for oil firms to prevent a drop in investment there is the short term benefit for all consumers the european central bank says inflation has declined due to the sharp fall in oil prices but slowing growth globally job losses and declining industry coupled with falling oil production doesn't bode well for the global economy some of. their.

the lower demand for oil has resulted in an oversupply dozens of saudi tankers for example having west towards the u.s. some politicians are trying to stop them according to the website tanker truck has more than 50000000 barrels of saudi crude oil is on its way to american ports marine traffic shows at least 26 tankers near southern africa are apparently bound for terminals in the gulf of mexico for delivery to refine reason storage sites in texas and louisiana. one has already completed a delivery to saudi aramco owned refinery in texas but all prices have sunk to record lows in the threatening us for juice there's some politicians in washington on the vessel's turned back jim crane is an energy fellow at rice university's baker institute he joins us by skype from houston in texas good to have you with us so will the cuts kicking in today help us crude oil producers

or surely it cuts in production globally since we are global or are are going to help producers everywhere so you know it all helps start to balance demand you know we've got this giant drop off in demand something like 20 to 30000000 barrels a day locally cut kit today by 10000000 barrels a day for if they all pan out maybe a little bit more for producers here in the u.s. which are of course part of opec but which you've already cut back or one or 2000000 barrels so yes should start to reduce the flow of crude oil that's been going into storage how critical is the situation for us produces if as has been reported the u.s. president had to put american military support for sad arabia on the line.

well it's you know i think the u.s. is we're really kind of trying to figure it figure out what we are right now you know we've always been a big oil consumer with the number one oil consumer globally but well production over the past 5 years has risen so quickly and by so much that we're actually the number one will producer now at the same time so you know traditionally the u.s. president has always wanted lower oil prices to help the u.s. economy help us consumers right now are on that we you know that the president is trying to get well prices higher service range place and he's using our you know so that you know policies that we're not used to threatening saudi arabia or you know talking about withdrawing our troops from the middle east now i mean you know we'll see saudi arabia. as is a competitor now so it's sort of interesting situation if you will how high

do prices need to go i mean has america figured that one out yeah you know in order to protect us crude oil produces you shill producers here in texas and around the us. they can they can operate profitably. writ large somewhere around $40.00 a barrel we 30 or $48.00 you know some of the smaller producers need a bit more some of the bigger ones to do it for quite a bit less but you know they could be they could be rough the fairly comfortable and greener return around with crude price not $40.00 so obviously with crude at $20.00 or you know recently much lower than that they are not comparable the good thing about schill production is that the well production rate declined pretty rapidly. requires a constant state of drilling of new wells to keep production it just to just to keep production flat so if new wells aren't being drilled us production will start

to drop off for the few months interesting good to get your thoughts on that jim crane thanks africa's largest oil producer nigeria relies heavily on the oil revenue for its economy but the huge surplus in global supply is causing further damage. and injuries from points from the capital abuja it's been a particularly difficult year for nigerians whose all dependent economy is struggling low prices and cuts in production resulted in huge loss of revenue but more warning for africa's biggest producer is the damage the current clucked was do with fuel storage facilities the options for nigeria like many small and medium sized produces is to give away its oil or shut down some wells. what were 52 days and on president a lot nobody has ever been taken to the beyond borders into storage which includes

that's never happened what it means when countries come back to work i'll be so much supply that the demand cannot compensate for that revenue shortfall some all have already forced the nigerian government to consider an almost 40 percent cut in this is spending estimate. $1000000000.00 identity for companies that you've had to shut down can i bring back the wealth if i can bring back do with what happens next for you're better off paying off somebody that you could all but that's not a prominent judge in the current cost of producing a barrel of oil in nigeria is about the same as the market price something produces an expert say isn't sustainable for a long period nigeria's oil company then m.p.c. says it's engaging its joint venture partners all companies to see how do a father cut production the country's current output is $1400000.00 barrels of oil a day and as producers desperately look to shop prices it's awful possible that nigeria will be forced to make products experts warn that the current instability

in the oil market is said to father damage the economy nigeria imports a significant amount of consumer goods including refined petroleum products i believe from the audience and michael. and that's. true. internationally. and that's what's much. more important and that's. a lot of medium average in nigeria a big forecast they could even get worse if the kind of market charge continues for a long time. plenty more still ahead on the news hour including. fighting flares in libya after the u.n. recognized government snobs wall of free for half the seas far off or.

health workers across mexico demand medical supplies is the peak of infection is near. and explore how the pandemic is affecting grassroots schools in inner city schools across the united states details coming up later in the show. u.s. presidential hopeful joe biden is speaking out for the 1st time about allegations of sexual assault involving a former employee former vice president biden told b.c. he did not assault then staff tara reid when he when she worked for him in 1993 when he was the senator he said he couldn't remember her making a complaint. biden touched her inappropriately and sexually assaulted her and joined now by white house correspondent kimberly kimberly how crucial will be

what turns up in the national archives to how this goes. yeah after weeks of silence and pressure by his own party members to respond the democratic preserve presumptive democratic presidential nominee former vice president joe biden is now speaking out denying that this sexual assault ever take took place as terror reid is claiming and he's now calling on the national archives to release her complaints if it even exists now these allegations stem back to 993 when the former vice president was a senator on capitol hill tara reid was an aide in his office she alleges that he pushed her against the wall and sexually assaulted her her friends are corroborating her story but now the question becomes whether or not that complaint was filed and exists so the former vice president joe biden has responded in

a statement he says well the details of these allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault are complicated 2 things are not complicated one is that women deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and when they step forward they should be heard not silenced the 2nd is that their story should be subject to appropriate inquiry and scrutiny and that is what the spotlight is on now whether or not this complaint exists and what the follow shall be if it is discovered all right now stay with us kimberly because we have sought him we should listening into want joe biden was saying. no it is not true i'm sorry not a critically never never happened did never happen. do you remember her do you remember any any types of complaints that she might have made. i don't remember any time to complain she may have made it was 27 years

ago and i don't remember nor is anyone else that i'm aware of and the fact is that i don't remember and i don't remember any complaint ever having made committee how problematic visits the blanket could be to the whole biden campaign well there are a couple of things at play here number one times have changed in the era of the me too movement what was acceptable 27 years ago is not acceptable now so that's the 1st problem for the former vice president but the other issue in all of this is something that works in his favor is that he's not the only high profile politician to have very serious allegations against him you remember the allegations against president trump on the campaign trail in 2016 in fact he's had more than 20 women accuse him of some form of sexual advance and he has denied these repeatedly in

fact the u.s. president talked about this late thursday when he almost offended the former vice president joe biden saying that he should respond but they could be false accusations that he's facing and trump said he knows of this well because again he has been accused repeatedly he also brought up the case of the supreme court justice judge kavanaugh brett kavanaugh his confirmation hearings where he was also the president says falsely accused but this is certainly a difficult issue that the former vice president joe biden is going to have to confront and it won't go away quickly but already there are many on his side including the house speaker nancy pelosi on capitol hill she has not responded since this tape has come out but she said previously that she was satisfied with joe biden's denials and considered him a person of integrity all right thanks so much kimberly how the bat. the u.s. president says he's seen evidence the coronavirus originated in

a low bar 3 in the chinese city of war but he failed to give any further details donald trump said the release of covert 19 could have been a horrible mistake this particular highly explains the president didn't say where he got the information from. a conspiracy theory has been floating on the fringes of conservative media for weeks and now it's made its way to the white house you seen anything at this point that gives you a high degree of confidence that there would have instituted a raji was the origin of this virus yes yes i have that was the president of the united states indicating he's seen something that says the coronavirus was made in a chinese lab he didn't say if it was from a us agency or from cable television where he gets a lot of his information after reports that the cid ministration has been trying to get the intelligence community to find a connection to the lab the director of national intelligence issued this statement

saying the intelligence community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the covert 1000 virus was not manmade or genetically modified and 2 weeks ago the u.s. military seemed to make the same conclusion on the on the lab piece of that that's there's a lot of. rumor and speculation in a wide variety of media the blog sites etc should be no surprise to you that we've taken a keen interest in that and we've had a lot of intelligence take a hard look at that and i would just say at this point it's inconclusive although the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural some republicans have been trying to point the blame and public anger at china some even saying they should simply refused to pay china back for the u.s. bonds it holds the president though said he wouldn't go that far indicating more tariffs could be his response further straining the relationship between the $2.00 countries and the whole ready stretched bank accounts of consumers in the u.s.

who ultimately pay the price for those tariffs pedicle hain al-jazeera. well james warren is the executive editor of news guard and former managing editor in charge of the washington bureau for the chicago tribune joins us now by skype from chicago good to have you with us so they can we say that you know how serious they were this way how serious should one take a statement by the u.s. president when it it seems to conflict with the statement put out by the director of national intelligence right who said he couldn't assess if the virus came from a lab or whether it came from animals. well i think of all of today's washington post they have the best story out seemed so far on on everything that we know and don't know about the virus and the bottom line is that the origins were remain murky now as they were months ago. and it remains technically possible

that it came from the lab but the consensus is it probably didn't at the same time when clearly as fair minded scientists and experts in the field raise at least the possibility of a leak or in some way that having come out of that lab but politically at this point it certainly suits the president's self-interest to suggest that this was all the fault of the chinese and to that extent one cannot underscore enough the role of one particular white house aide a former journalist in china for the wall street journal matthew pocket. who ended up in the u.s. military after a very good career in journalism who left china do you believe distrustful of the regime and was the one who really convince many folks in the white house including

the president that the virus was not only spreading beyond the borders of china 3 months ago but that there was a clear clear misinformation campaign from the regime in beijing and the white house and to be very mindful of if we look at other pandemics of a global health crises in the pasta which will link to china has there been this much attention paid to trying to investigate china in this way. no i don't i don't think so i mean in certain levels of u.s. intelligence and certainly in some of the health community many of whose members experts like dr fox he has certainly had involvement in china there was certainly a fairly sophisticated sense not just the perils of dealing with the chinese but also of their expertise i mean you know amid this some other camp in july is that that is all down to the one individual that you mentioned who you know kind of puts

push thinking in the white house in a particular direction well it's one individual who's in some ways catering to the natural inclinations of his boss who is not particularly inclined to admit much of any accountability for the way this country has a reactive so in his mind for someone who is a loath to admit mistakes of any sort pointing the finger at the chinese and blaming them for all certainly suits his natural political instance. when you it isn't just one individual because when you look at the of course some of the media in the u.s. you've got to wonder whether the pursuit of china has become almost an idea or taken on law most ideological dimension right now right path. right but but it always has for 3040 years since the cold war of the chinese and then the

russians as easy for certain american constituencies. and you know whether history will tell me whether this simply was a manifestation of the good reasons some people had to be someone suspicious if we find out that the chinese government engaged in some sort of clear cover up of what was happening during critical months that will leave a lot of folks even more convinced that we should be a little dubious of their motives but of course one of the great conflicts here is a president who also takes great pride in having some very good relationship with the regime and typically in the area of trade and patting himself on the back for being a masterful negotiator and allegedly getting back billions and billions of dollars for this country and trying to. create

a greater balance and fairness when it comes to trade with them so he's been trying to sort of play 2 sides of this now and it will be very very interesting to see how it particularly if the white house now reacts as some people think with even more distinct economic sanctions against the chinese how that will impact the long term relationship between 2 of the great powers of the modern. ok thanks so much for your analysis on that james warren. south africa has started easing some coronavirus restrictions after 5 weeks of lockdown some businesses are being allowed to reopen from friday people can leave their homes to exercise the government says it will impose an overnight curfew and deploy more soldiers to ensure social distancing rules are followed for me the melos in johannesburg with more on how the 1st day of restrictions is going. this is the main highway between

johannesburg and. and police have set up one of the largest road blocks in this area there are also soldiers here to ensure that people aren't hearing to the lock down restrictions now south africa has eased the regulations slightly in that some businesses are able to open and a 3rd of the workforce are able to go to work but for millions of south africans these are the kind of regulations that they're facing police are making sure they're here to regulations and they're also on the lookout for cigarettes and alcohol because in south africa the sale and transportation of those items is still banned. police will likely see thousands of vehicles come through this roadblock during the course of the day they are about $7000.00 soldiers that have been deployed across the country but the government has also said it's made provision

for up to 70000 soldiers to monitor the streets in south africa while restrictions are being eased even just slightly the government has deployed more soldiers and police to ensure that people i'd hearing to the lock down regulations and even those of africa has now moved to a level full one level lower than previously we're actually seeing more officials and more security officials monitoring the lockdown crowds have gathered in beirut's martyrs square as anger grows over lebanon's financial problems on thursday the government approved a range of financial reforms but that hasn't stopped the calls for mass demonstrations against the government's handling of the economy saying the holder is in beirut where protesters say the government's economic plan has done little to address their demands. people are angry their economic situation is only worsening

living conditions are worsening you talk to people here and there is really fear about the future a lot of uncertainty of the labor minister on the labor day she announced that 30 percent of registered companies have been shut down and that 20 percent of those companies have reduced the salaries of employees by half and i can give you other government figures in the social affairs minister is saying that 70 to 75 percent of the population of some 5000000 people need help 45 percent of the people live below the poverty line and 22 percent live in extreme poverty so it just shows how dire the situation is the economy the financial crisis is the worst in decades the government presented a rescue plan but that plan involves a sinking hit to national suspects from the monetary fund people here say that this is not the answer borrowing more money is the answer but the government really

doesn't have much of a choice of bad management of corruption is being blamed for the situation lebanon is in today but going to the i.m.f. is just the 1st step lebanon will have to meet a lot of conditions tough conditions in order to get the money urgently needs the prime minister saying there's better that's what he told the lebanese people the same time he said those days are going to be difficult. or colin mr rainbow very own evidence. just hits some sunshine impulsive news and rainbows right absolutely i mean i will bring you some sunshine but for me showers as well sunshine i'm sure i was will to juice the lovely right but will put up with the shells if it will be fewer and further between this course through the weekend so i soak it. a lot so cloud showing up. at the moment saturday vs to the. evening ahead of the clock the care is in the u.k.

we have these beautiful rainbows a double rainbow appeared in the southwest of london as indicative of the pandemic that we're going through the moment a positive note so as to start us off here then we're looking at a fair amount of cloud across the good parts of central and northern europe at least low pressure in charge these raft of weather fronts moving in from the atlantic another system you notice that is going to push its way in from the bay of biscay and eventually that will roll across france and heavy rain for a time here but further south with that in spain it's looking good it's looking fine dry and sunny and getting sunny as we go on through the next couple of days there locked down has been east of course as from tomorrow so they'll be able to get out and get some warm sunshine temperatures running around in degrees above the average across that eastern side of spain as we go on through the next couple of days it will be fine and dry for the most part across southern parts of europe are further north as i said a fair amount of rain pushing into france across those northern areas that will continue to drive its way further east which is we go on through sunday lots of

warm sunshine coming through the skies opened up nicely for monday but red touch is 32 degrees and lots of sunshine skies opening up i love it. still ahead on al-jazeera the tests were flawed south korea and india stopped using chinese made rapid coronavirus test kits. challenges faced by india's farmers his face struggled to sell their crops on the long value added sport top level football in portugal gets the green light to return of us here with that story. i usually. treat and trace frank assessments why is it so he's struggling to cope with the number of coronavirus failure to take really aggressive action really get them behind her informed opinions it's going to be much more challenging in

a place like haiti where there's one answer later 3000000 people in depth analysis of the day's global headlines india are dumb enough to miss the spread of the one of ours in the inside story on al-jazeera. when the news breaks over the night of the dumping of garbage in the river by the government has wrecked our lives when people need to be heard and the story needs to be told to many coming to this place of the only chance they have to eat at least once a day with exclusive interviews and in-depth reports for obvious reasons of the world battled them from pandemic we'll bring you the latest developments from around the globe al-jazeera has teams underground to remove brutally documentaries and live news. rude. world.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera time to recap our headlines an agreement among the world's major oil producers to cut output comes into effect on friday it follows a collapse in global all prices driven by falling demand due to the pandemic us democratic presidential hopeful joe biden breaks his silence on sexual assault allegations here on u.s. television and publicly denied attacking a former employee tara reid claims by you touched her inappropriately and sexually assaulted her a 9 to 93 some 27 years ago the former vice president says it never happened and he doesn't remember her making a complaint crowds have gathered in beirut martha square is anger grows over lebanon's financial problems 1st day the government approved a range of financial reforms but that hasn't stopped the calls for mass

demonstrations against the government's handling of the economy. south korea and india have decided to stop using chinese made rapid coronavirus test kits after they were found to be faulty scientists in south korea say when retested hundreds of recovered patients returned positive results a 2nd time they blame shortcomings in the test itself rather than reinfection india bought half a 1000000 kids from china they also discovered in accuracies china has defended the products. dr patrick tang is division chief of pathology sciences at sidra medicine he joins us by skype from doha so good to have you with us we got the situation where you know some countries are blaming the test kits china is defending them is it clear if the kids sell faulty or is there some human error involved or what is the situation i think we have to distinguish all the different types of tests out

there and how we differ. i think one of the problems right now is we're mixing all of these different and and grouping them all together and you know casting blame on all tasks when that isn't true there are tests that look for antibodies in the blood and there are tests that look for the virus of the genetic material up at bars so those are 2 very different types of tests and they give very different and so which one is the one called off in the control of a c. that i take it's not the one that's looking into what's actually in in the blood of a patient right well both tests have issues throughout you know we heard about some of the sorority house which are looking for antibodies having a ball. and false negative results and right now there's hundreds of these on the market and the reliability of any of them. is unknown right now there's

a lot of different labs trying to evaluate many many of these different which ones don't want it is jumping that that's a very watering thing to hear from a doctor saying that even if it's unclear if the kits or which kits are reliable. well but we're talking about antibody testing i think this is the 1st generation of sas and as we have had more experience with manufacturing these tests and the performance of them the manufacturers will be able to refine and use test and make them better in the 2nd and 3rd generations that these tests the other type of test that we're talking about is looking for. you know more of the genetic signature of the virus and there's been controversy about as well because you know we've heard about that hundreds of people testing false positive in south korea recently and now we're coming to the bottom of why it's happening or talking of them what is

the bottom line from all this in terms of the very important issue of whether a person who had corona virus and then recovered do we have a definitive answer to whether that person can get sick with the same disease again or whether they actually do build up an immunity because this has been a new virus and we don't understand everything about it we've been very cautious about interpreting these results and you know one of the possibilities was that people were coming to me in fact it or that they were really lapsing. after not fully recovered from the action and finally there was that possibility that is the false positive. test all of those things were looked at and i think now they've concluded that the viruses that they detected in bees that a few 100 people in south korea were not viable so these viruses are not. their dad

viral particles they're picked up by the tests and these people will not be able to transmit infections at the people. let's hope there is then i mean it's him let's hope it's proved soon for everyone dr patrick tang thank you so much. al jazeera is investigative unit has obtained exclusive video revealing a backlog of goods at china's biggest export hub well that's causing a delay in the supply of medical equipment for health care workers around the world long queues of trucks loaded with cargo at shanghai airport away think one load at customs and hundreds of boxes a piling up in warehouses china produces nearly half the world's supply of protective medical equipment notably to the u.s. and europe but concerns are growing that its quality control rules on exporting cargo is hampering efforts to meet p.p. the the months before and is executive producer of under serious investigative unit

explains why medical supplies are stuck in china china as you rightly said produces just about half of the world's protective medical equipment they exported very large quantities of it to europe back in march when the pandemics don't seem to take grip unfortunately there were significant contraries which had some standard or counterfeit goods which caused huge amounts of critical focus to come in china very embarrassing for china as the world's manufacturer as a response to that they tightened up their export and quality rules now it appears from having talked to various shipping agencies in in china those rules have been applied in a very rigid bureaucratic manner and in a slightly haphazard way which is resulted in this enormous gridlock of masks surgical gowns ventilators all of the material the so desperately needed currently

by front line workers in the battle against coded 90. and it's on the record it's been widely reported italy spain holland i think the u.k. also returned significant batches of equipment which we seem to be not made of the materials they require for what's highly sensitive and difficult work which which requires good quality material is a barrier against a virus so it's possible of course patches got through that when it returns but that the key thing is china actually did react to this did tighten up the rules but the consequences of that of causing perhaps may be far greater issues. solve my soko city's hospitals reach capacity health care workers have begun protesting over a shortage of supplies and qualified medical stuff they say the health system could soon be overwhelmed by the apollo reports from mexico city. the medical

staff of this hospital in the mexican capital are the latest health sector workers to protest a lack of personal protective equipment they say they're afraid of contracting coded 19 but he thought it meant that we're protesting because we are not a covert designated hospital yet where except in covert patients and so far 45 of my colleagues have been infected. protests like these with doctors and nurses demanding medical supplies have been taking place in mexico since early march in some cases medical staff have had to find and purchase their own protective equipment i will check whether. the country has a lot of protective equipment like boots caps and goggles but no piece of equipment is asked important as a high fissions the mask known as the n 95 these are in short supply all over the world but in mexico in particular many places have never even had this mass in the wind. as coronavirus contagion in mexico nears its predicted peak so does the expected capacity of the nation's

health center to. this emergency room staff and can kuhn say donations have helped alleviate their demand for protective equipment but they fear the facility will soon be overwhelmed seeing by the government. who would definitely reach a moment where we suppose capacity this clinic is now dedicated specifically to treat coronavirus the flow of patients is constant we will suppose capacity in mexico city more than a dozen hospitals have announced they have already hit capacity the mexican government however says that 70 percent of hospital beds set aside for covert 1000 cases remain unused. many public spaces have also been. repurposed to accommodate for unexpected older flow patients at hospitals all across mexico medical personnel are warning over the possibility of a health system collapse adding that now more than ever is the time for people to stay in their homes and continue to abide by social distancing guidelines. mexico's

president said in a recent address the country has prepared very well to meet the demand for medical equipment many of those on the front lines of the fight against the pandemic don't seem to agree. mexico city now for the 2nd friday of ramadan jerusalem's locks a mosque compound remains closed in the streets of the old city unusually quiet palestinians living in occupied east jerusalem having to adjust to a new way of observing the month of ramadan while dealing with the economic uncertainty of lockdown are a force that explains the holy month of islam's 3rd holiest site in the courtyards around the locks a mosque in the dome of the rock or empty mass prayer band to help stop the spread of the coronavirus usually tens of thousands of worshippers many from new york the pied west bank who come here each day to pray the effects being felt beyond this sacred site by the people who live and work in the alleyways of the old city.

lockdown has already brought serious hardship for us but he says business is holding to nothing as customers save their money and there's no familia ramadan boost to make up for it. we wait for ramadan the whole year ramadan is different with its beautiful atmosphere there is a lot of work in ramadan but this year there is no work and there is no ramadan. foot traffic is down in thoughts of religious observance of competing with anxiety of a job and finances and is very even younger so i am 60 i have never seen anything like this my son has 6 kids he has rent to pay he's not working how are they going to wait and drink. as of this week the israeli government that controls jerusalem's occupied east has allowed more types of businesses to open but as well as unlocked doors recovery requires customers some restrictions begin to be lifted shopkeepers

here talk about a gradual return of some economic activity but very gradual especially given how few people comparatively are on the streets of the old city and all of this thrown into really by the fact that ramadan is usually one of the busiest times of the year last year this was the scene at damascus gate as thousands headed into the old city to pray at. this ramadan the walk or islamic trust in charge of the mosque is telling the faithful to stay away. and we're in great pain right now this month as a month usually we have tens of thousands of people coming to the mosque and it reaches hundreds of thousands but for the sake of people's health the works decided to spin the prius. and so the prayers are instead being brought to the people online and on television in the hope that it will feel all the better to be here for real with those tens of thousands of others for ramadan in 2021 harry for

sit out his era occupied east jerusalem. russia's prime minister says he'll isolate himself after testing positive for corona virus the high teens says or is rather the highest ranking russian politician to be diagnosed is deputy will take up his duties more than 100000 cases have been confirmed of more than a 1000 deaths. than half of the indian workforce is employed in the agriculture sector along down a stopped many of them from travelling to work leaving farmers struggling and the latest in our series on how the pandemic is affecting farming and food supplies to syria's elizabeth for all and reports from india's most populous state of auto pradesh. a hive of activity during a nationwide lockdown farmers been there week to a government procurement center in the state of the pradesh. it's a small victory for british who struggled to harvest his crops the season without

the help of seasonal workers. the father of 3 says his family helped him cut the crop and register to sell it to the government for everyone feels to a lot of problems with the registration everything is shut so how and where are we supposed to do it we had no idea the children have some education so they were able to do it on their mobile phones the government to sending alec tronic coupons to farmers with a date and time to bring their projects to the centers passion rural areas many don't have smartphones and internet connections to receive them and is locked down couldn't have come at a worse time for farmers they're at their busiest between april and june when went across like way to harvested and the fields are prepared for some across to be. without the technology needed to register his cross public transport to take it to a government center or private market but pain that parties worried about how he and his family will survive i mean if we can't so the next crop as we need money

from this harvest to buy seeds and fertilizers. many farmers have seen their fruit and vegetables go to waste despite farming being exempt from the lock down the restrictions on people's movement and transport has led to supply chains breaking down. india has large reserves of grains but economists say extra stocks of rice and wheat to nuff it's also about pulses and fruits and vegetables and indian diets are already very poor of the managers and it's a very high so we need to ensure that that ideal for people split so bought from our point of your food security as well as keeping the economy going it's very important that we support agriculture and gold plated collapse completely for governments as agriculture is functioning smoothly and there are no shortages of food but many reject that and with more than half of india's workforce employed in agriculture experts say it must do more to help farmers and secure the harvest for

the next season elizabeth al-jazeera blanchett author they. all are some more stories now hey rocket attack by forces loyal to libyan warlord. killed at least 2 civilians in tripoli earlier the un recognized government carried out as strikes on the military convoy south of the capital the government of national accord rejected a ceasefire called by the warlords for the month of ramadan at least 2010 people rather have been injured in an attack on an ammunition warehouse east of homs in western syria state media says a number of explosions were heard at the facility located near military camp some civilians were hit by falling shells it's not clear who was behind the attack. a chinese journalists has been sentenced to 15 years in jail for vilifying the governing communist party chen was arrested in 2018 after posting articles

accusing local officials of corruption he was convicted by a court in hunan on thursday chen had been fired from a number of state newspapers before eventually publishing his work online the sentence comes as critics accuse the chinese government of using the pandemic to tighten its grip on the media israel's largest bank has been fined nearly $900000000.00 after admitting it helped u.s. taxpayers hide their assets abroad american prosecutors say bank. concealed $7600000000.00 and thousands of secret swiss an israeli bank accounts the fine is the 2nd largest since 2008 in the wake of that year's financial crisis washington launched a crackdown on foreign banks assisting american citizens involved in tax evasion still ahead of al jazeera in spall hand shakes out but the ball is banking the

board for some professional tennis players. business leaders does vote to buy no bra spot. from.

business leaders as well to buy no bras palm. the for the the over. all right sports fans for us it's a put the ball back in the cold for us right that's right thanks so much that me and wish him really clubs are made to discuss if their season can resume on june the 8th for that to happen players need to be back in training by mid may liverpool are 2 wins away from winning their 1st title in 30 years a car has hit back at comments made by the city's own mayor he believes the

resumption is a nonstarter due to concerns fans will still meet up in large numbers even if games are played behind closed doors and a statement the club said we have engaged with supporters groups who have informed us of their determination to respect social distancing measures and in the event of a resumption of football being announced we will continue to work with them in keeping our collective desire autum is just one premier league club to have opened up its facilities to u.k.'s health service manager jos amory i was now helping to organize food deliveries to local families we had all the and is it is fight against the c.v. 19 and i'm so proud about the club so what i do is nothing. in. in the club that is doing is doing so much but i feel happy to do it i feel happy to go to the 20 rounds of the garden and to be would be the boys that are working there and. they collect and to teach me how to

participate a little. italian football clubs are in agreement that they want to finish the season if they can comply with government guidelines the teams have been meeting by video conference big statement follows comments by the italian sports minister who said it might be wise to write this campaign off clubs are ready today to discuss their options the f.a. president says he will never sign off on ending the syria season. template portuguese football is set to restart at the end of the moms the country's prime minister is given the go ahead for games to kick off on may 30th benfica are the reigning champions and 2nd in the table behind porto matches will be played behind closed doors. but a grassroots sports coaches in the united states fear the consequences of the pandemic are hitting disadvantaged young athletes harlem lacrosse is

a sporting charity that helps at risk youth at inner city schools around the u.s. and since the pandemic the outdoor program has been halted and replaced with online sessions but many of the players involved don't have access to why fire safe open spaces at home coaches are struggling to stay in contact with them earlier we spoke to devon o'brien he's executive director of harlem lacrosse in new york he told us how their program is one of many to highlight social and economic inequality in the city. kogut has highlighted and exacerbated a lot of the inequity that really exists we've got us. and that existing inequity in her city has also catalyze the spread of the virus just very objective leave minority in low income communities are being impacted disproportionately relative to white more affluent communities in new york city. and deficits in resources that deficits are not communities that already exist for kids who are in

a certain zip codes in new york ever really highlighted so you know it very personal level the experience of trying to log in to a digital classroom on a cell phone in a shelter in the rocks spotting wife is very different than. locked into your digital classroom in a home office but a lot so a lot of the inequalities and gaps and resources that really highlighted and there's a lot of barriers right now it's kids go home to their you know to be or you can vironment to engage in online learning there's a lot of barriers there are people just to highlight another you know that's sort of the inequity here there's a lot of kids that back you are they have reached 8 years of an average outers they're able to go out practice and you know keep playing across and if you're living in public housing in new york city just not as easy so you know we're organizing work outs we're organizing chalk talk sessions are trying to keep its engage in this war but it's much tougher in new york city specifically if you have

to center the virus and or old this is the prophecies this is what a lot of our kids have been working for us they were you know a 6th grader they wanted to be a senior this spring they wanted to go to the city championships which we've been to 3 out of the past 3 years so a lot of kids don't work their whole middle or high school career or skepticism but this time and they're not able to get out there which is which is devastating. and finally tennis is taking its 1st steps towards a return to action 8 professionals are taking part in an unofficial event in germany the tennis point exhibition series is for players based in the country as stake a strict a social distancing protocols are in place handshakes are out no fans are in attendance players are only allowed to remove their face masks when they're on courts. ok and that is all your sport for now sorry back. off but that's it for this news hour but i would back in a moment with another form of show the top reality of course there is always our

website al-jazeera dot com stay with us. the time had come for the p.l.o. to seek a new and peaceful solution. pursuing a path of diplomacy but what was to turn their agreed withdraw from lebanon into one of the most horrific civilian massacres of modern times women children queue we couldn't believe this chronicling the turbulent story of the struggle for a palestinian homeland p.l.o. history of the revolution on al-jazeera. a lot again of television control bill novelli that is tremendous for the country so i think any of us determined to conclude use of them at the point of a sword to avenge its people slaughtered 8080 is the year he smashes the frankish

army captures the king of jerusalem he sees is the true cross and this is the great military victory the crusades an arab perspective episode 3 unification on a jersey and. throughout history humankind has prevailed in our darkest ringback all coming together to face the very thing that would extinguish our light. this is not one of those moments. at all this is a moment for pretty much the opposite for hiding for laying low. is also. saving humankind by really really not getting near it. we're playing games staring at screens staring at any. all of the stuff of yours. every generation has its will where individual sacrifice

makes way for the good of those who will come after a higher purpose. this one is ours. a major cut in oil production comes into force but will it be enough to shore up world markets. i'm sad to say than just there are live from doha also coming up u.s. democratic presidential front runner joe biden speaks out for the 1st time about allegations he sexually assaulted a staffer. india extends the world's biggest lockdown by 2 weeks but some restrictions.