you know how he reveals the stories behind some of the arab world songs and chants for the holy month this song touched the hearts of all arabs for ramadan songs on al-jazeera. in the u.s. the drug run death of fear is approved for emergency use as a treatment for patients with over 1000. 3000 live from london i'm dating navigator also ahead thousands of military style weapons banned in canada following the country's deadliest mass shooting. the world's largest lockdown extended by 2 more weeks but india's government insists some restrictions to keep the economy moving. and resistance to lebanon's

financial rescue plan is the government turns to the international monetary fund for it. hello president trumps appeared to worsen his prognosis for the toll the coronavirus will now have in the us leaving the white house a short while ago he said he hoped for less than 100000 deaths that's more than his limit of 627-0000 from monday also 2nd intervention from the white house today after u.s. authorities approved that experimental antiviral drugs for emergency use in treating coronavirus patients 1500000 vials of the drug run desa fear will be distributed to hospitals from monday the f.d.a. gave f.d.a. gave its approval after a government sponsored study showed the drug shortened patients recovery time by about 31 percent. when the president brought the pharmaceutical companies here to

the white house you were among them he said we wanted you to move quickly on developing a vaccine but he said develop the therapeutics as quickly as you can we were told 'd that it was possible that by the spring we would have therapeutics and standing here on may the 1st the very 1st therapeutic with the emergency use authorization the good work of f.d.a. is now available and but donating 1500000 doses our task force will be working very closely with billy had to make sure that those medicines starting on monday are distributed to hospitals where patients are struggling in serious conditions with the coronavirus today our white house correspondent kimberly halkett says the still isn't a magic bullets. what the coronavirus task force has been saying is that there has been sort of an emergency authorization that has been granted by the food and drug administration in order to allow this to be used for and death of

a year in the most severe of cases in other words when the benefits outweigh the risk for the most sick patients with cope with 19 that have been hospitalized potentially using oxygen or even on a ventilator reno that often people do not recover so it's important to note that this is not f.d.a. approval or food and drug administration approval that requires a very detailed review this is instead an emergency authorization one that the president was eager to put forward and we should point out that what this does this is not a cure what this does a shorten the recovery time what it does is it essentially blocks something that the virus needs in cells in order to thrive and survive so this is essentially an advancement in treatment but in no way is this any way closer to a vaccine that is still by some projections in the early projections it could be at least a year or longer before that is developed so this is sort of

a breakthrough when it comes to treatment but again the cautionary message is that this is certainly not a cure all the world health organization says it's confident the coronavirus is natural in origin than comes after speculation including from the u.s. president that it was created in a lab. we listened again and again scientists who looked at the sequences looked at this wireless and we were assured this was natural in origin what is important is that we establish what that natural host for this why this is . and the primary purpose of doing that is to ensure that we understand the virus more we understand the animal human. interface and we understand and of the human species barrier was breached the purpose of understanding that is that we can put in place the necessary prevention

and public health measures to prevent that happening again any south korea and india have stopped using chinese made rapid coronavirus test kits after they were found to be faulty scientists in south korea say hundreds of people who had recovered were found to be positive for the disease when retested they blamed shortcomings in the test itself and said the patients were not reinfected india about half a 1000000 kids from china before also discovering in accuracies china has defended the products. canada is banning assault style weapons after the country's deadliest mass shooting 2 weeks ago the ban comes into immediate effect but there will be a 2 year amnesty for people to dispose of weapons they already own while the government also plans to introduce a buyback program last month 22 people were killed in nova scotia when

a man dressed as a policeman went on a shooting spree these weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time there is no use and no place for such weapons in canada let's bring in danny like he's joining us from toronto to talk about the significance of all of this and any reaction daniel from the kid eons. well this is a move that was expected after the horrible events in nova scotia 2 weeks ago the killing of 22 people and we're not actually sure that are a band of sold weapon a now banned assault weapon was used but it certainly motivated a lot of public to get in touch with members of parliament to join forums calling for gun control and by all means that looks like the government was listening now to justin trudeau his government did come to power just over 5 years ago promising sweeping gun control they delivered on some of that but not as much as gun control

advocates wanted now we have probably the most sweeping gun control measures the country has ever seen a ban on some 1500 kinds of assault rifle and other types of military grade weapons there is a 69 page law being issued and it is mostly a list of brand names of weapons most of them variations on the well known a are 14 or 15 i should say assault rifle that's widely used in the united states in mass shootings and it has been used in canada in recent years in the quebec city mosque shootings in 2017 in which a lone gunman killed 6 men in the mosque so one thing that has to be said though is that most gun crime in canada doesn't involve weapons like these that are being banned they involve handguns which which are largely illegal coming over the border illegally from the united states canada had taped restrictions on these assault weapons and handguns before these new laws were brought in but these tightened at

least the assault rifle component of that considerably now there's pressure growing here to allow individual cities to ban handguns central a lot of handgun crime involves the illegal drugs trade which tends to take place in cities just into those government is saying they're taking a good look at that as for the 100000 or more assault weapons that are legally owned in canada owners have 2 years to dispose of them legally to export them legally if they can but they can't be sold or given. way and there will be a buyback program at some point much like the one they did in new zealand gun control advocates say this is a good day those who advocate for guns right say it's a politically expedient move that isn't going to help because of the illegal handgun component but it's safe to say most canadians support what's happening now dan the lack thank you for that update from toronto. lebannon has officially signed a request for assistance in the international monetary fund to help fix the country's crippling financial problems the government says it's one measure to save

the country from bankruptcy but that hasn't stopped the testers taking to the streets again so it was with the crowds and they were. keeping the hope for change alive lebanese return to the central beirut square where calls for a new leadership rang out 6 months ago they're back in the streets after a lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus was weeks of closures heard an already collapsing economy there is uncertainty about the future as unemployment rises. i'm 33 years old i have been graduated from university like 10 years ago. a person like me should be in a senior position like the way so. it's because of the overall economy situation which was caused by the subsequent government's cabinet has already defaulted on its debt for the 1st time in history we. called for the world bank and to give

us loans again to put us even larger public privatizing the whole. state and i don't think that can help 6 prices of basic goods have increased by more than 50 percent while the local currency the leader has depreciated by at least 60 percent people's incomes and savings have lost value. but the situation. i got started on the business because when the inflation i'm buying their own restaurant now it's a bit different. the price. and the people are still paid the same a little bit misleading. 30 percent of registered companies have closed and the labor ministry says 20 percent have reduced employee salaries by half the fatness about the dismissal of workers and the closure of organizations have. the biggest concerns the ministry has put forward a plan to solve huge unemployment and to protect the rights of workers but that

will need money and the government has been unable to provide for the most basic needs as the state nears bankruptcy the some people fear the country is sliding into chaos the middle class is becoming work government figures show up to 75 percent of a nation of 5000000 people need help while 45 percent live below the poverty line. human rights watch is warning more than half of lebanon's people are at the risk of going hungry the government may be promising better days ahead but admits the road will not be easy settle for their own beirut. india's extending what's been the world's largest coronavirus locked on by 2 more weeks but restrictions in some low risk areas will be eased from monday but purana has the latest from there. in the last nearly 6 weeks of the lockdown in india the government has divided the country into green orange and red zones depending on the number of cases and the stage of

transmission and it's announced that while the national lockdown will continue for another 2 weeks that they will be a considerable easing of the structures mostly in green and r. and so on and so as of may the. all goods are allowed to be transported they will be buses in green zones but with 50 percent seizing capacity taxis are allowed to green and orange zones but with only one passenger things like all construction and industrial activity is allowed even in red zones in rural areas now over the last 10 days we have seen easing of restrictions in a number of sectors most notably agriculture india's biggest employer and all the businesses which supported and all standalone shops even those selling non essential items have been open for about the last week so one of the restrictions that remain in place while there is still no air rail travel hospitality

restaurants hotels remain shot into state movements no movement between states and things like cinema halls you know malls sports complex is the main shot and they will be no political social or cultural gatherings still to come on al-jazeera survive the pandemic but can survive the recovery. of the economy is the end of the law begins. us democratic presidential hopeful joe biden denies allegations of sexual assaults made by a former senate colleague. we still got some. bits and pieces of smoke living away from the. southeast of australia parts of victoria have seen their wettest start to the year since 1924 so some very wet weather some very blustery conditions still rattling through

the by quite a brisk wind showing up a bit as we go on through the weekend it will slowly but surely improve so we'll see the winds falling a little lights on the west the weather easing into the tasman sea running over towards new zealand turning rather wet and windy here by the end of the weekend for most behind it can be fine and dry of a few showers just around the fall north of australia northern parts of queensland just around the top and i would say as a west will start to see a little bit more cloud apps and ryan just pushing its way into western parts of w.a. and we got some cloud and rain just sliding out of central china at them i'm at will make its way towards the korean peninsula to the north of that still very much on the hot side basing still around $34.00 celsius for the time being the weather will east room of the china sea the yellow sea pushing over towards south korea through q southern parts of honshu had that ok fine and dry 26 celsius still see some wet weather into central and southern parts of china all the way through to something.

on counting in hosp and ends of biblical proportions the coronavirus is at the end of the global economy so what does that mean for supplies plus grants or loans as italy and spain easter lockdowns come even greater tolerance the trillion euro rescue. counting the cost on al-jazeera. every generation has a higher purpose. hours straight. the .

fellow again the top stories on al-jazeera an experimental antiviral drug has been authorized by the u.s. food and drug administration for emergency use in treating coronavirus patients 1500000 viles of the drug ramdass of year will be distributed to hospitals from monday the world health organization says it doesn't believe the corona virus was manmade after the u.s. president claimed he'd seen evidence it came from a lab in the chinese city of. assault rifles are being immediately bans in canada more than $1500.00 models of gun will be outlawed if it comes out to the country's worst ever mass shooting just under 2 weeks ago. now the north korean leader kim jong un has made his 1st public appearance in almost 3 weeks rumors have been circulating about kim's health and satellite images reveal the train likely belonging to him parked at a resort town in the country several days ago let's bring in rob mcbride he's

joining us on the phone from south korea's capital so what more are you learning about the north korean leader. well it is something of a shock this parents was made at a fertilizer factory apparently within the last day or so he appeared before the workers that were asked andras applause he apparently according to casey and a that's north korea's news agency made a speech where he said that his father and grandfather would be extremely proud and pleased at the opening of this facility but it has surprised everybody because of course there were all sorts of speculation because of his disappearance for the last 3 weeks just about his medical condition with some people some aid agencies and websites predicting the worst that maybe he was gravely ill but here he is making it appear it's improving everybody ronald it does the was that there has been the thought. that

a couple medical procedure that he has gone through because he has disappeared for 3 weeks he also missed a very important event in both koreas calendar this is called the day of sun this is the 15th of april it is the day marking the kill sung the founder of north korea with. father he would not miss that 8th that there was not something happening there that really led to all of the speculation about his condition and as we know he does seem to be alive and well all right robin wright thank you for that update from seoul. the number of deaths in the u.k. from corona virus has risen to just over 27 and a half 1000 but elsewhere spain appears to be showing signs of recovery and has a latest on the virus any or. so and things are going in the right direction in spain health workers celebrating the closure of a huge field hospital installed at the end of march in madrid largest conference

center but although covered 19 infections are holding these facilities will remain in place in case there's a new outbreak in the 110th of them all and i feel happy because we have won the 1st battle of this great virus let's hope it was the war but if not we will return here with more strength than before to continue fighting spain's had one of the toughest lock downs but from this weekend people will be allowed to leave home for exercise on their own of course the crisis is having a huge financial effect here too the government now says it expects the economy to shrink by 9.2 percent this year the only places in europe with higher official death tolls than spain or italy and here in britain following fierce criticism over the relatively low copied 19 testing levels the british government has been increasing its capacity it wants to put in place a network to test track and trace people with the virus as it looks to ease lock down restrictions and it's announced it's a past its target of 100000 tests a day for the end of april testing is crucial to suppress the virus i know from

personal experience to just how much people with symptoms want to know if they've got the disease i know that i did it helps remove the worry it helps keep people safe and it will help us to unlock the lock down. meanwhile worrying statistics of emerge suggesting coronavirus disparities a new study in england says the death rate among british black africans and british pakistanis is more than 2 and a half times that of the white population and people in the poorest parts of britain are dying from covered 19 a double the rate of people in the richest areas on friday the french president explained the traditional may day events including protests the worst possible because of coronavirus restrictions but he said the spirit of workers solidarity was stronger than ever. it's thanks to the work is being celebrated today that our nation is still standing it's thanks to the work and dedication of our health

workers our security forces and our military that were saving so many lives every day there were demonstrations elsewhere like this one outside the greek parliament in athens keeping their distance but determined to keep up the pressure on the government. in yeah now today the country's working class despite protective measures to minimize the spread of the fire is here has a voice demands not to be burdened by the crisis which is excel orating because of the pandemic friday also marked the catholic church's feast of st joseph the worker pope francis used a morning mass in the vatican to say to many people globally are either denied a fair wage or treated like slaves in forced labor his audience just a few nuns and priests his message universal the barber al jazeera. south africa has started is ing some coronavirus restrictions after 5 weeks under lockdown some businesses are being allowed to reopen from friday and 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 me to mothers in johannesburg with more on how the 1st day of his restrictions is going. this is the main highway between johannesburg and. i and police have set up one of the largest roadblocks 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

bad and police will likely see thousands of vehicles come through this roadblock during the course of the day they are about 7000 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 the stiction are being eased even just slightly the government has deployed more soldiers and police to ensure the people i'd hearing to the lockdown 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. ilias prime minister has apologized for the economic hardships italians have faced as a result of the pandemic the government's will begin to ease its lockdown on monday

after suffering the world's 2nd highest number of coronavirus deaths but there are concerns the road to economic recovery may be much harder reaction gupta has more food on the table and some hope this store run by the clergy in northern italy is helping some of these men and women who've been out of work for weeks they've been living through the world's longest and some of the toughest go down measures. here me i come here because i don't know how to cope i have no savings i don't earn anything the situation gets worse and worse i can't do anything but come here. things are even worse for some of the 600000 undocumented mostly african migrants who barely found enough work to survive before the outbreak no food not to not have to. not have documents. that almost no good and they have. italy has endured the worst of the corona virus

outbreak in europe with the highest number of deaths in the region and now with the fall in the daily number of infections and deaths the government is allowing factories construction projects and parks to reopen starting on monday putting 4000000 people back to work. but with the limited easing the fistric sions has come a surge of anger from people barely coping under the strain of a pandemic and its economic cost we don't pay much we've been responsible and staying at home for the last 2 months for 2 months to tell their prime minister decepticon to has been the only one speaking and make a decision social problems are growing also because many of the promises the government made have not materialized on friday prime minister decepticon terry apologized in social media for the hardships italians have endured and promised new measures for aid and economic recovery but even before the pandemic italy had one

of the highest unemployment rates in the european union and a large government debt and now the euro zone's 3rd biggest economy is facing a deep recession i think it's going to be extremely difficult for italy to recover from the pandemic in part because it is my performance has been so poor over the past 2 decades it hadn't yet recovered from the 20089 financial crisis and the eurozone crisis of 2012 and indeed italians are scarcely richer than they were 20 years ago when the country joined the euro and that means that the underlying performance of the economy even in good times is weak. during the difficult weeks of the pandemic italians have relied on each other to support the many who have been struggling there are fears that those hardships

may continue if it's lease fragile economy doesn't recover soon priyanka gupta on 0 . the u.n. mission in libya has urged the country's tripoli based government to agree to a truce which was called for by warlords 24 have to the un recognized government initially rejected have to his proposal for a cease fire during the month of ramadan the mission calls upon both parties to seize this opportunity to immediately halt all military operations resume the $5.00 joint military commission jobs on a virtual basis if needed it with the goal to reach a permanent cease fire based upon the draft agreements proposed by the mission on february 23rd the u.n. mission welcomes the initiatives that will allow the libyan people who have borne the brunt of the conflict observe the holy month of ramadan peace the mission urges all parties to refrain from any provocative acts or statements that are in the prospect of a genuine truce and its sustainability. former u.s.

vice president and democratic presidential hopeful joe biden has publicly denied an allegation of sexual assault the accusation made by former senate a terror raid threatened to derail his presidential campaign alan fischer reports. it still many to talk about the biting presidential campaign for weeks and it wasn't going away former senate aide tara reid claims she was sexually assaulted when she what with then senator joe biden and allegations she only made public in the last few weeks an allegation biden could no longer ignore no it is not true i'm saying on a quickly it never never happened and it didn't never happened i don't remember any type of complaint she may have made it was 27 years ago and i don't remember nor does anyone else that i'm aware of democrats have been pushed to address the allegation in the last few days speaker nancy pelosi who endorsed by this week

insisted she has no doubts about the former vice president i have great comfort level with the situation as i see it with all the respect in the world for any woman who comes forward. republicans accuse democrats of double standard saying they would ignoring the allegation against their presidential hopeful while they piled on one supreme court justice brett kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault the for his eventual confirmation more than 20 women have accused president donald trump of sexual assault he was also caught on tape bragging of assaulting women he denies all the allegations and offered to put support to joe biden at the white house on thursday you know. it could be false accusations i know about false accusations have been falsely charged numerous times and there is such a thing one political analyst says republicans will use the one allegation against joe biden to continue to attack him one of the things that the trump people do in

their strategic. movers is they don't try to claim to be superior they trying to create moral equivalence so they say you're just as bad as i am which makes you a hypocrite which makes you worse you know. you know it's very of that what did your job i'd knew he could no longer ignore the allegation against him he's ahead in the polls particularly with women he'll be hoping by addressing you know will continue to be an issue in november election alan fischer al jazeera washington. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera and experimental antiviral drug has been authorized by the u.s. authorities for emergency use in treating coronavirus patients 1500000 files of the

drug run deaths of there will be distributed to hospitals from monday. when the president brought the pharmaceutical companies here to the white house you were among them he said we wanted you to move quickly on developing a vaccine but he said develop therapeutics as quickly as you can we were told 'd that it was possible that by the spring we would have therapeutics and standing here on may the 1st the very 1st therapeutic with the emergency use authorization the good work of f.d.a. is now available and but donating 1500000 doses our task force will be working very closely with gilly added to make sure that those medicines starting on monday are distributed to hospitals where patients are struggling in serious conditions with the coronavirus today the world health organization says it doesn't believe the corona virus was manmade the agency's emergencies chief michael ryan said scientists aren't sure the disease occurred naturally he was responding to a question about u.s.

president trump's claims he'd seen evidence it came from a lab scientists in south korea say it appears having to run a virus stops you getting it again they now say that tests showing people had caught the virus twice were faulty the chinese made rapid test kits have also been withdrawn in india after in accuracies were spotted it's assault style rifles are being immediately banned same canada the announcement from prime minister justin trudeau comes after the country's worst ever mass shooting just under 2 weeks ago then a man shot 13 people dead and killed another 9 in an attack that took place in nova scotia the north korean leader kim jong un has made his 1st public appearance in almost 3 weeks according to state media he cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony at the opening of a fertilizer factory and those are the headlines counting the cost is up next thanks for watching. 1000 pounds who called it 19 and a drop in the oil from his top of the rings to the point. of these historic sent

banks until the job only what it takes to beat. special come out just. carry this is counting the cost on al-jazeera or look at the world of business economics this week famines of biblical proportions the coronavirus is up and at the global economy and supply chains with nations under lockdown so what does that mean for food supplies. from the richest nation where low paid farm workers fear they could be victims of the pandemic to one of the poorest nations in bob way and its need for food aid.