>> dozens are killed in india anand bangladesh, and millions e left without power. china prepareses for its biggest annual political -- amid the coronavirus pandemic. the national people's congress is discussing economic policy. largest daily rise in coronavirus cases comes with a stark warning for the world health organization saying we still have a long way to go in the pandemic.

those are the top stories this hour, a very warm welcome back. we are starting with one of the fiercest cyclones to hit parts of bangladesh and eastern india the century. denselythrougugh populated areas, k killing 22 people. entitire villages were left without access to water and it crippled communications. according to one indian official, the situation is more worrying than the coronavirus pandemic. our correspondent brings us up to speed. as the strongest storm in decades strikes the nearby coast, rocchi and her family hunkered down in a repurposed school. the storm is not the only worry, more than 200 people are cramped into the small shelter, despite bangladesh tripling the number of evacuation centers to help keep distance amid the pandemic.

[speaking foreign language] >> further, -- furthther north, locals were left sifting to the remains of what used to be their homes, though h did we cacan as it appppached the coast, still releasing w wind of up to 1800 kilometers per hour. [speaking foreign language] the bororder, resesidents of calcutta, home to 15 million people, woke up to widespread flooding and dowowned treeees ad power lines. a government official said coastal villages in the state of west bengal are completely destroyed. super cycloneirst to form m over thehe bayay of bl

since 1999. that report briefly alluded to the situation in calcutta, the seventh most popular city in india, which has b been devastad by the cyclone. some local residents say they have never seen anything like this. let's listen to our correspondent to describe some of the alarming scenes across the city. kolkatata, which h is a major city in west bengal l ad wawas densely populated was majorly affected. i have familily and friends who are there now, i i have been hehearing horror stories, everybody is saying how it's the worst storm they have ever lived through. rootshave been uprooted, were flying away, walls collapsed,, cononcrete walls hae collapsed, glass windodows it was quite

impressive as your audience can see now. people have also talked about how they felt the buildings shaking. bibig portions of the city were left without power, and people with families outside of the city have been u unable to reaeh them. and d the d devastation is justs bad, iff not worse, with houses that have been damaged and many mud homes, so people did not have a lot of protections against the storm. >> turning our attention to a number of daily cases dropping to two, the countries preparing for thousands of delegates who are streaming into the capital ahead of a nanationl people's congreress. an affair which has been dubbed an important piece of political trump badge and tray. weeks,nt is usually two -- political pageantry. on congress is kicking off

friday. topoke to our correspondent ask what we can expect from the event, which is very much a showcase for the president. it t it willys what be decidided during these two sessions will put a a seal of approval on any popolicies thatt have beeeen decided to deal with what happened in t the wake of e covid-19 outbreak. one thing g that everyononwill e waiting foror is thehe growth tt for 2020. and for the first time in a long time, no particular growth target will be announced, puttining the emphasis insnsad n guaranteeieing the livelihoods f people, because 2020 i is suppod to be the e year that china eradicates extreme p poverty. that couldld be the change in orientation, the economy will be front and center with othther guidelineses suggestining that e will be new lalaws that will

liberalize the ecoconomic sphere and there could be other decisions and policies to bolster china's technology a senseo come up with of self-rereliance and technoloy bebecause of the worsesening relationons with the united states. the other big topic will be hong kong, the semiautonomous territory that was s locked for most of 2019. hong kong media reporting that soon this thursday night, a law could be announcnced t to enfoe e a nationalal security l, and this could spur further protests in 2020. story of thetop day, the world health organization has reported the largest single day increase in coronavirus cases, a discovery that comes with a stern warning, the pandemic is a long way from being over. 106,000otal of

infections in 24 hours. according to the international bodies director general, it's spreading in poor countries as wealthier nations emerge from lockdown. japan is planning to lift a state of emergency for seveveral districts as the number of covid-19 cases false. previously they had done this for 39 out of 47 prefectures. this raises hopes that the world's third-largest economy may soon start recovering from recession. like many other countries, japan suffered a drastic surge in infections. bringing in now our correspondent, michael. can you tell us what this means for the country? the lifting of the state of emergency? districts thatl

had the state of emergency designation lifted today are toka, he'll go, and killed -- the emergency designations largeeen lifted from the major urban districts, the outern part of japan is now ofof the ste o of ergegency signation.n. halff of thet cocountry is moving back to s se kind of modified normality. where the dedesignation remainss in t the tokyo capitalal regiond ththe northern islanand of hokk. this is expected to be e liftedy the end ofof the month but it depends on the daily figures of new infections and other measures. has a rathery frail economy, even before the pandemic was dealing with high levels of public debt and a

super aging society. how is that set to recover in the aftermath of lifting the state of emerging see? -- of emergency? expecting the are japanese economic recovery will come slowly, in addition to the factors you have mentioned, there was also the raising of the consumption tax from eight percent to 10% which began the plummet in the japanese economy. the consumption tax remains in place. toan has many challenges overcome to get its economy going again. the lifting of the statete of emergencncy designation helps, allowing companies to get back to some kind of modified normality. but japan has a long way to go, economically. >> i would like to thank you for bringing us that update from tokyo. moving on, peru has become thee

secondnd south american country after brazil to reach 100,000 covid-19 cases area the question on the lips of health experts is given that the authorities respononded very quickly to the coronavirus, why wasn't that effective? the country has been in lockdown for nine weeks. >> peru has been in lockdown for nine weeks but covid-19 is persisting. the country is the second hardest hit in south america after brazil. police in lima shut down sevevel aarmacies aftfter outrage over hike in prices. the president condemning profiteers. [speaking spanish]

>> krewes health system is on the brink of collapse with hospitals facing equipment shortages. among those on the front line are migrants from venezuela working as body cocollectors. e says he e has handled more than 400 deaths since march. [speaking foreign language] >> peru has more than 100,000 cases, more than 3000 people have died. the numbers have tripled since -- 30th of april,, the higher the numbers could be higher as many have not been tested. news, aer world presidential election passes thereully on wednesday,

have been several conflict since 1993 and 2005 and they campaign to choose a successor was marred by violence. in some major say government decisions, and the opposition has accused the --, were chased away from the polling stations. a father and son in the united states have been arrested, detained on charges of enabling toeone to sleep from japan escape a long-running legal saga. another twist in the saga with two men, michael taylor, and his son, peter, where arrested in harvard, massachusetts.

this is their home, they are wanted in a japanese arrest warrant seeking their extradition along with a lebanese man suspected of helping him flee. u.s. prosecutors say they smuggled him out of their tokyo residence where he was under tight surveillance by hiding him inside of a chest used to transport audio equipment for concerts. he flew in a private jet japan .o turkey to lebanon japanese prosecutors describe it as one of ththe most brazezen ad well orchestrated escape acts in recent history. the two suspects as he expects to challenge any extradition request, adding that michael taylor is a veteran and patriot and he andnd his son deserve a fear -- a faiair hearing. before the courts and the executive branch. was filedy, a lawsuit to reclaim $19 million from the man from what they called years

of misconduct. the former nissan chairman fled to escape what he sees as a rigged justice system in japan. it from me and the team at this hour. stay tuned for an interesting ,nterview with barbara hendrix a singer and aclu ambassador. ♪ hello and welcome t to the interview on france 24. my guest is among the rare lyrical artists to have graced the stages of the paris opera, in milan.nd la scala as well as headlining the jazz festival and lending her talents to musical theater. but barbara hendrix has not only used her voice in the service of a musical career, she has been a

staunch defender of human rights in her role as an ambassador to the un's high commissioner for refugees. ae joins us now to talk about concert she's giving for that cause. barbara hehendrix, thahank you r joining us. >> hello, how are you? >> you are prereparing for an online concert in stockholm, called the road to freedom. yourfee and that of musicians will go to the organization. given the circumstances that show will be live-streamed. it's been a huge part of your life to defend refugees from more than three decades, why is the cause so important now? now, refugees find thememselves reaeally among thet marginalized in vulnerable parts of our society, they a are mosty in very crowowded sites where ty have little access to water, soap, and social distancing is almomost impossible.

but t since being in confinemen, with all of the uncertainty that they aren our lives, wondering where will our kids go to school -- when will our kids go to schooool again? whatat will our lives be like? forced to fleee conflictct, but they had the sae canerns a and many people feel a little bibit what it migt feelel like to be a refugee, and to realize h how they are really menaced by covid-19. >> the title of this performance, the road to freedom, brings to mind martin luther king's only road to freedom. the civil rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's in america is something of an influence. >> absolututely.

the program plays an important , and it was led b by martin luther king but would not have happened withoho the manyy unknownn women whoho facilitated the movementnt. because she parks was a great inspiration, but there were other women, diane and others, this is a movement with lotsts of influens of womenen. the memeage that m martin luther king gave his one of love a and solidarityty. seeing so m many examples of people being generous and helping others with kindness during the pandemic in these uncertain times.s. thatves me great faith when t things calm down and we e able to o get back to norormal,t we can think of life a little differently.

more, reachingg out tonene anotherer, those close to us, and our neighbors. will dois concerert, i quite a few quotes from martin luther king and one of them that always touches me is that hate cannot reduce hate. or get rid of hate. ononly love can do that.t. rightsking of the civil movement, , you were born in arkansas when the jim crow segregation laws s were in place and you said it was like being born a refugee in your own country as you did not have the same rights as white people. did you believe is a black woman you would go want to be one of the most famous opera s singers, thatat she would see a black man elected president of your country? up i was mostly focused on studying science, mathematics and physics.. and i was singing inquire.

pastor a and i knew music wawas going to b be a parf mymy life e for all of my life because i i loved it andnd i lod singnging. idea of being on the stage of la scala was not evevea papart of my dream. about because i had a a talent and i knowledged that talent and i followed it. to gigiveat has led me up science and change to music when i finishehed my studies. a blackd not know that man would become president. it's one of the great milestones for american history. bubut there e have been so many setbacks to what was named by the movemenent of martin luther king with h the guttining of vog rights done by the supreme court

several years ago, which now has many cases of f voter suppressi. tryingere many who died to help those e in mississippipi register to vote. forward,en many stepeps and some steps back. but we must keep up the fight. martin l luther king said that f you cannot fly, run, you cannot run, walk, if you cannot walk, crawl. but whatever you do, keep moving forward. that's how life is, w we move forward, sometimes we move back. but you must never give up. democracy and freedom isis not given, i it earned. that and i enjoy all of the positive things that happened. and when i i see the inequalitis of the pandemic which has

modeled in society, we see that we have a lot of work to do. and w we will keep doing that work.. i see examples of generosity all around, and love always wins in the end. regularagencies have work with high-profile figures from the arts as goodwill ambassadors with the ideas that these well-known people will bring visibility to their work. when you started doing at the platforms were more limited. you campaigned against apartheid in the 1980's, but now, with social media, everyone seems to have a platform and a following. is there a danger that the key messages are getting losost? >> my platforms are pretty limimited. i i came to social media quiuite .alate i cannnnot judge other p peopl's

work. i think the most impmportant thg get theas to be able to important message across, which means that i had to keep the noise about my own lifee quiet, because there's so little time given. it's very y important anand sometimes very complicating. refugee situations are different the world over. usually caused by abuse of human rights and the solution is always political. that makes it t complicated to t the message across. >> looooking back at your musicl career, you've moved between an operatic classical repertoire which we associate with the european tradition to blues and jazz which is perhaps closer to american musical traditions, can you tell us about the eclectcticism and how you reckon i'll those worlds?

-- reconcile those musical worlds? >> to me music is music. growining up i w would sing in r and school. we had one o of the best jazzzz musicians in the state of arkansas as one of our choir directors. --o we sang jazz but also bock bach and mozart. in the f first opera i ever r dd was by my nazi -- within -- was an opera where i played a boy. we alwlways kept that feeling aboutt musicicthat opennnness. but there are two different ways

and directions, which really represent -- i grew up in , rooted deeply in the dirt of arkansas. i've lived mosost of my lilife n european. i i feeeel very i have a a european citizenship. to carry thosesed cultltures and me. bubut in the end, we are all africans. we have access to so much cuculture, there is so mucuch richness. the value of art in our lives cacan access, because it gives s information about the human condition. and humanity. i feel rich ththat i have the to languages i can speak, classical

and jazazz, whihich has its roon africa. , and alsossing to me the possibility to be able to share music with others. >> your concert is being streamed with no live audience but an international virtual crowd. the performing arts are coming to terms with the new normal. in germany they have already staged a classical concert with social distancing stating -- seating. but theater directors and opera directors, some of them, are refusing to go ahead with performancesanced where actors cannot touch or kiss. do you think the performing arts will have to adapt or will they sit this out? >> we are adapting. many musicians are doing concert perforormances from their homes and d own studioios. i i ink we wilill have to listsn to the scientists and not take

the risks to start too soon. we've gone througugh periods of war where w we have adjusted. i think the arts may come out more appreciated and better on the endnd then when we were able to hugging each other. , but useo wait it o out the means that we have to stay in touch. thank you sondrix, much for s speaking to us. thingng.nted to say one shoululd think of those who are grievingng for t their loved oneses lost during this and thoe whwho are sick and fighting this to thec, and always caregivers in this world.

>> indeed, our thoughts are with those people. thank you so much today. that's all for this program. stayay with us on france 24 with more news coming up in just a moment yet -- moment.

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