played important role. of. an experimental antiviral drug is authorized as an emergency treatment for covered 1000 patients in the u.s. . program i'm the stars here today and this is al jazeera live from also coming up north korea's leader makes his 1st public appearance in almost 3 weeks after room as he was seriously ill. malaysian authorities detained hundreds of migrant workers during a strict coronavirus to opt out. and with technology evolving to help us track and

contain the spread of private 19 we look at concerns about surveillance. now an experimental antiviral drug has been approved for emergency use in treating coronavirus patients in the united states 1500000 vials of the drug to severe will be distributed to hospitals from monday after a study showed improvements and recovery time has he called again has the latest. this is a president that throughout has tried to project a feeling of hope as the coronavirus rips through the world and his country now bringing the c.e.o. of a pharmaceutical company to the white house to herald the results of a possible treatment for him to severe really people that are not doing well 'd people that are sick people that have his horrible plague that set in to our

country and that we're getting rid of and we're going to be we're going to be having some really incredible results we have. very promising studies coming out on the vaccines we have promising studies coming out on therapeutics. in the 1st widespread trial the drug it did shorten the length of the hospitalizations days for the virus and it's slightly decreased the mortality rate but scientists say it's the 1st real hope that a drug can work against the virus we have to remember this is the very 1st one it's a new drug being used for this and yet showed i would call it a bright spot in the search just what 90 days after being notified of this of a drug it looks like it's got very promising results and the company that makes it says it will donate its stockpile which the food and drug administration cleared

for use on friday will be working with the government to determine how best to distribute that within the united states will be working very closely to get that to patients working with female working with other parts of the government to make sure that we get that to the patients in need as quickly as possible because there are patients out there that can benefit from this medicine today that are hospitalized and we don't want any time to waste for that the white house trying to project a sense of hope of a near return to normal for the country but as some states begin to reopen like georgia for bodie numbers in additional 1000 cases diagnosed in a single day and experts say it'll take as many as 2 weeks to determine the true cost as cities and towns begin to reopen pedicle hanging al-jazeera well chris smith as a consultant for all adjust and also editor of the naked scientists podcast he explains how the struck blacks. this is an antiviral drug it was developed during

the a boehner period about 5 or 6 years ago and unfortunately for gilliatt who invented it it didn't work very well against a boa but what does look more promising is its action against this new coronavirus the way it works is that the drug molecule looks like one of the building blocks of the genetic information of the virus so when you take the drug it goes into the cells and gets activated in the cell and then when the virus is trying to grow in one of your cells it mistakes this drug molecule for one of the normal genetic letters that it would be inserting into its genome that it's copying to make new baby viruses and when the drug molecule goes into the d.n.a. or r.n.a. of a growing virus it distorts it and disrupts it and stops it growing so as a result you end up with a virus with a broken genome and so it's a bit like a computer with the operating system corrupted it won't boot up so the virus is you make a completely defunct and when given 2 cells in

a dish which are infected with the virus it slows down the growth of the virus when given to patients with the virus it makes them recover a bit quicker and it also slightly improves the mortality rate when you give it to people who are severely on whether by slightly i mean in people who were not given the drug the mortality rates about 11 percent and in people who weren't given the drug it was about 8 percent. well we'll be coming back to the coronavirus in a moment but for now another developing story north korean state media says kim jong un has made his 1st public appearance in almost 3 weeks now take a look at these images they reportedly show you the leader opening a festival as a factory rumors have been swirling about kim's health and even possible death it's also been speculated that china sent a team of doctors to treat him after a heart procedure went wrong well let's speak to our correspondent robert pride who joins us live from seoul south korea's capital despite all of these rumors over the last few weeks we're looking at these pictures kim jong un seems to be pretty

healthy and very smiley. kim jong un looking remarkably well especially for someone soon some reports had barely clinging to life just a couple of days ago this event we are told was happened yesterday friday the opening of a fertilizer plants north of pyongyang he was a ribbon cutting ceremony he was accompanied by his sister kim you john the there were given a rapturous reception as you would expect from the workforce at this fertilizer plant we only have the one report from casey anyway this is north korea's state run news agency but the unification ministry here in south korea has now confirmed that this event did indeed take place you remember that south korean officials have been urging caution about all of the reports regarding kim's health over the past couple of weeks saying that they have not spotted anything untoward any unusual movements

of military units etc the kinds of things that you might expect if there had been some massive upheaval in the north korean hierarchy and also using the opportunity to give something of a rebuke for all of the speculation talking about the groundless content when it comes to comments on matters north korean saying that it is caused unnecessary confusion and costs to both society and the economy of course all of this really the speculation started when kim missed this all important anniversary of the birth date of kim il sung the founder of north korea and kim's grandfather various speculation had him having some sort of cardiovascular procedure possibly going wrong possibly being gravely ill with even one japanese magazine reporting that he was in some sort of vegetative state and some high placed defectors here in south korea actually quoting their own sources to say that he had passed away it seems all of that was extremely premature. and all of this conjecture and you mentioned

that his youngest sister kim john in this has raised questions about who would succeed then potentially. it is a timely reminder of just the unique nature of this kim dynasty the power that rests with the leader of north korea the cult that surrounds that person and if that person suddenly wasn't there what or who would suddenly fill the void or the vacuum accumulate john his younger sister we know is probably his closest allies she has possibly being groomed to take over should something happened to him as she has recently been promoted to the politburo but is by no means sure that she would take over so it has raised concerns just about the succession process in north korea a nuclear armed state but also it has raised concerns just about the general health condition of kim we do know that the reports about a medical team coming from china are credible we know from satellite photographs about his personal train possibly being got one sun this resort on the east coast

that he could well have been convalescing after some sort of procedure it just seems that it's whatever happened to him he seems to have recovered from it and it certainly wasn't as bad as the rumor mill would have had us believe that for us in cell thank you. now at least 10 soldiers from the iraqi paramilitary group the popular mobilization forces have been killed in an attack by eisel fighters they launched an assault on the northern town of maccie in the early hours of saturday this is the largest attack by eisel since the group was defeated in the region and later 2017 now canada is banning assault style weapons after the country's deadliest mass shooting 2 weeks after the ban comes into effect immediately but there will be a 2 year amnesty for people to dispose of weapons that they already own daniel black has more from toronto. after the worst mass shooting in canadian history the

most sweeping gun controls the country has ever introduced shocking and horrific images of the aftermath of a rampage by a lone gunman in nova scotia prompted the federal government to ban about $1500.00 types of semiautomatic military grade rifles the prime minister said it was time to get rid of guns that mostly harm human beings 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. the list of prohibited weapons includes hundreds of versions of the a ar 15 assault rifle last used in a mass shooting in canada in 2017 when a gunman killed 6 men in a quebec city mosque such attacks are much rarer here than in the united states canadians are far more accustomed to hearing of mass killings across the border such as the los vegas mass shooting that left 58 people dead in 2017 an assault

weapons ban like this is widely supported in canada and polls indicate that's only increased since the events in nova scotia gun rights advocates say it's a politically expedient move that ignores the fact that most gun killings in canada come from illegal handguns smuggled across the u.s. border and not from assault weapons some measures in the new legislation are similar to those in new zealand which banned assault rifles and conducted a highly successful buyback program in response to the christ church mosque massacre last year canada to offer a 2 year amnesty to existing legal owners of banned weapons and will offer compensation there may also be new laws coming to allow cities to ban handguns which are already tightly regulated gun control advocates of welcome the new measures and say they look forward to further action to make canada a much safer country and your lack of his era toronto. a fuel tank explosion in

nigeria has killed at least one passenger and injured over a dozen others including a 5 the feel on the tank ignited after the vehicle rolled over and still that's caught and this happened right next to a petrol station in the city of lagos firefighters were able to control the blaze before it reached the station and the 2nd incident of its kind in that city and less than a week. fighting on the yemeni island of sumatra has stopped often agreement was reached between government forces and u.a.e. backed separatists. troops pushed back the separatists from the islands provincial capital on friday under the agreement saudi forces will secure the city and post signs or a move checkpoints and military. still ahead on al-jazeera coronavirus disparity. showing some ethnic groups much more vulnerable to private 19.

and we'll tell you why south korea and india stopped using chinese made a coronavirus test gives. dry weather across the arabian peninsula further north we have got some showers longer spells of rain to just spilling out of turkey well in parts of syria pushing into northern parts of iraq as well and easing over towards the caspian sea we'll see some showers since to afghanistan as we go on through saturday south of that it is generally dry some heat around dubai could touch 43 celsius so the numbers around here in doha a high of around $34.00 degrees a low potential little colder as we go on into sunday mostly want to show is just pushing into that eastern side of amman just around the straits of moose eastern areas of the u.a.e. could see a shower routes

a chance of the old show once again into that western side of yemen joining up with the showers that we have across the therapy and highlands of showers just joining up with the seasonal rains we have right into the heart of africa and we may well see some rather wet weather once again pushing up into northern parts of tanzania pushing into kenya a good part of kenya seeing some very heavy rain if you're on this next system on shore showers gradually pushing up into somalia that's likely to cause some localized flooding there as that system makes its way through on the other side of the region some very heavy rain also into the gulf of guinea spreading across much west africa. in a war torn city in iraq a medic documents the stories of the survivors recording bare hopes and dreams for a peaceful future after american troops withdrawal. but the conflict is far from

over. he turns the camera on himself when i still take control and his family are off forced to flee no where to hide a witness documentary on al-jazeera. and again i'm just. a reminder of our top stories this hour an experimental antiviral drug has been authorized by the u.s. food and drug administration but imagine to use in treating coronavirus patients 1500000 vials of the drug war and disappear will be distributed to hospitals from monday. north korean state media says kim jong un has made his 1st public

appearance in almost 3 weeks these images reportedly show the leader opening a fashion lies a factory remains have been swirling about kim's health and even possible death. i felt style rifles are being immediately banned in canada it's in response to the country's worst mass shooting a little less than 2 weeks ago. now joe biden who is all but certain to take on donald trump in this year's u.s. election has spoken publicly to deny an allegation of sexual assault the accusation has been made by a woman who worked for biden when he was a senator from washington 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 worked with then senator joe biden and allegations she only meet public in the last few weeks an allegation biden could no longer ignore no it is not true i'm saying on equivocally it never

never happened and it didn't they 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 a 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 were ignoring the allegation against their presidential hopeful well they piled on when 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 like know all 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. verse 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 and you know it's very of what did you joe biden 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 the vendors election alan fischer al jazeera washington

now the u.s. women's soccer team has lost today equal pay case a federal court ruled the world cup winners had insufficient evidence to prove their claim against the u.s. soccer federation the judge said the allegations of discrimination and travel accommodation as well as medical and training support can go to trial and that will happen next month. well returning to corona virus coverage now and human rights watch says more than 700 refugees and migrant workers have been detained in malaysia the group says they were rounded up during raids in kuala lumpur they live in areas where it covered $1000.00 cases spiked last month triggering claims that foreigners are spreading the virus and being a burden on government resources now malaysia does not formally recognize refugees regarding them as illegal immigrants our correspondent florence really has more from the capital. a couple of days ago malaysia's senior minister said the government would detain undocumented migrants it had identified in areas under

lockdown and these include several apartments in kuala lumpur where the raids were carried out on friday the police chief who was at the operation was quoted by local media as saying they would have the detaining undocumented migrants because they are difficult to trace and so it made more sense to hold them in detention centers to prevent the spread of the coronavirus but the timing and the manner in which these rates have been carried out have been criticised the u.n.h.c.r. said several asylum seekers and refugees have also been picked up and it had been informed by authorities that they were being held for the purpose of very fine their identity and we are also we've also seen videos of people being held at close quarters with no opportunity for physical distancing not everyone was wearing a mosque girls were getting reports that children were also detained so the raids have apostle being criticized as inhumane and they've also been described as foolish human rights watch said malaysia is making the mistake of singapore which has a high number of cases among its migrant workers and malaysia could be following singapore

down that path now others point out that the rates seem to be at odds with the ministry of health initiated or aim which is to have as many migrant workers undocumented foreigners and refugees tested as far as possible but in recent weeks we've seen more anger among malaysians directed at refugees and foreigners with some accusing them for spreading the coronavirus and others saying that the resources that the country has should be used to help malaysians 1st over foreign it and whites have it so they have accused the government of playing to the sentiment in carrying out these raids. now ireland's prime minister varadkar has announced an extension of the country's strict coronavirus restrictions there until may 18th he says if cases continue to reduce the government will ease measures in 5 stages with the goal of having island returned to normal by or best on the 18th of

may arlen begins to reopen and begins that journey to a new normal from that day outdoor work by construction and landscaping will resume some retail outlets like garden centers hardware stores repair shops will reopen and some outdoor sporting and fitness activities and small groups will be allowed now statistics are emerging in the u.k. are showing the covert $1000.00 death rate is higher among ethnic minorities there have been similar disparities in the united states now the total number of u.k. deaths has risen beyond $27.00 and a half 1000 but other parts of europe continue to see more promising signs of recovery here's an idea. thanks wrong things are going in the right direction ensberg health workers deliberatively closure of a huge field hospital installed at the end of launching largest conference center we do work with 19 infractions of these facilities will remain in place in case

there is a new outbreak i mentioned on. a few 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 strains one of the toughest lock downs but from this we can people will be allowed to leave home for exercise on their own of course the crisis is having a huge why not to a point to 2 the government now says it expects the economy to shrink by no 1.2 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 covered 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 we're 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. 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 or rating because of the pandemic. friday also marked the couple of churches east of st joseph the work of pope francis used the morning mass in the vatican to say too many people globally are either denied a wage or treated like slaves in forced labor his audience just a few nuns and priests his message universal. al-jazeera. now south korea and india have decided to stop using chinese made rapid coben $1000.00 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 india bought half

a 1000000 kits and found some of the problems china has defended its products well dr patrick tang is the division chief of pathology sciences at sidran medicine he says scientists are still trying to develop better testing methods because the viruses sonia. we have to distinguish all the different types of tests out there and how they perform i think one of the problems right now is we're mixing all of these different tests out and and grouping them all together and then you know casting blame on all tests 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 of the fathers so those are 2 very different types of tests and they give very different answers 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 becoming infected or that they were really lapsing. after not fully

recovered from the infection and finally there was that possibility that this is a false positive lib oratory all of those things were looked at and i think now they've concluded that the viruses that they detected in bees a few 100 people in south korea were not viable so these viruses are not factious they're dead birol particles they were picked up by the task and these people will not be able to transmit the infection to other people. digital technologies have prevented popular told the governments across asia to monitor and contain the spread of the corona virus but critics say it's also highlighted the power of governments to exploit people's past all day sat sarah kopp reports from hong kong . when tricia cowen and her family returned to hong kong in april they were put in mandatory quarantine for 14 days they were also required to wear this electronic

respond the loaded authorities if they breached a quarantine regulations and left their apartment it's didn't think about it i just think that this had to be done i mean it's people need to be tracked and now one wants it spread further we all want to be over as quickly as possible so that that just involvement. you know the tracking technology developed in hong kong is a y. find there put to detect if the user changes location but the company says the only data shared with the government is movement not personal information technology we have a lot of options like phased work in the. speech what condition they're using this way that alone will be alert when they use the net their home but at the same time it polled had their way our. mobile apps and digital surveillance are being used by many governments in asia to track the spread of the corona virus china uses a color based q.r.

code to monitor people's movements and health in south korea overseas travelers who don't download a government app are refused entry i think is so it's a key part of the term infection control in asia especially using this technology to track down these people who are putting them into quarantine so it is probably one of the most of the reasons why we are doing better. all the possible world but critics say some government mandated apps can also access a user's personal data and be used as a surveillance tool is it real fear that this data will end up in the hands of governments so the apps look for people to. access. their call records even their contacts and in some cases they cannot and all that information together can you know. people's lives. 2 of the world's biggest tech giants google and apple plan to embed new features in their devices using context tracing technology but so the tool will be removed once the pandemic ends the

critics say it could lead to ongoing surveillance with governments using the data for other purposes. technology may be playing a critical role in containing the pen dimmick but human rights groups ward it might also normalize surveillance in the future once this outbreak is under control. sarah clarke al-jazeera hong kong. hello again i'm a star with the headlines on al-jazeera and experimental antiviral drug has been authorized by the u.s. food and drug administration for emergency use in treating coronavirus patients 1500000 vials of the drug rum disappear will be distributed to hospitals from monday north korean state media says kim jong un has made his 1st public appearance in almost 3 weeks these images reportedly show the leader opening a festival is

a factory rumors have been swirling about kim's health and even possible death row mcbride has more from the south korean capital seoul. it has been a reminder of just about the peculiar nature of this kim dynasty and the fact that there is so much power in the hands of one person the cult that surrounds the leader what happens if that leader suddenly isn't there what fills the vacuum or who indeed fills the void can you join his sister potentially has been groomed as the heir apparent but it's by no means certain that she would have or could have taken over so it has raised concerns about this hermetic state north of the d.m.z. of course which has all these nuclear weapons at least 10 soldiers from the iraqi paramilitary group the popular mobilization forces have been killed in an attack by eisel feiss they launched an assault on the northern town of mcleish in the early hours of saturday and it's the largest attack by eisel since the group was defeated

in the region in late 2017 assault style rifles are being immediately banned in canada and response to the country's worst mass shooting 2 weeks ago more than 1500 models of guns will be outlawed. fighting on the yemeni island of has stopped after an agreement was reached between government forces and u.a.e. backed separatists troops pushed back the separatists from the island's provincial capital on friday human rights watch says more than 700 refugees and migrant workers have been detained in malaysia the group says they were rounded up during raids in kuala lumpur they live in areas where cave in $1000.00 cases spiked last month triggering claims that foreigners are spreading the virus and being a burden on government resources well those are the headlines and next up it's p.l.o. history of a revolution. what impact will call that 19 on the drop in the oil price

have on the race to the white house can go all trump survive these historic setbacks and does joe biden have what it takes to beat a. special coverage on al-jazeera. in 1948 the state of israel was proclaimed. palestine was lost. 16 years later in 1964 the palestine liberation organization or the p.l.o. was founded. made up of different factions the p.l.o. has been at the heart of the struggle to regain palestine ever since.